In this episode of the Peak Performance Selling podcast, Jordan talks to Jeff Kirchik. Jeff is the bestselling author of Authentic Selling: How to Use the Principles of Sales in Everyday Life and the current VP of Sales at Colossus. Jeff’s book is essentially a documentation of his own approach to sales and life. He talks about being as authentically you as possible, to be honest, transparent, and vulnerable to gain your client’s trust. He also talks about how being authentic and human as a salesperson is going to be a huge differentiator, especially as artificial intelligence makes its way into sales. Sellers will need to be even smarter and establish themselves as industry experts as order-taking will definitely be automated in the future.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTES
Jeff: "When I first started selling, I thought that it was all about me and being charismatic. And I learned later on that it was all about the customer, and how to ask good questions and things like that. But the main tenet that never changed was that I was behaving in an authentic way. I wasn't putting on a different hat at work than I was at home."
Jeff: "I truly looked at the customer as someone I really wanted to help. In fact, I probably get more anxiety about an angry customer than no customer."
Jeff: "When people perceive that you are being your authentic self, that you are presenting an honest version of yourself, they trust you. It doesn't mean they like you. But it means they trust you, and trust is really important in sales."
Jeff: "There's no hard and fast scientific proof of why we're here and what our purpose is and what we need to do. In the absence of that, if you can live your life being happy — that, to the best of our knowledge, that's probably the best way that you can live your life."
You can connect with Jeff and learn more about his work in the links below:
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