Heart in sales, it’s not a dirty word.
Within the sales culture, an image of the heart is often associated with weakness or being too mushy-gushy. However, the heart is strong and powerful, the driving force of life, one heartbeat at a time!
Your ability to succeed becomes crippled when there’s an unbalanced connection with your heart. Embracing a heart-centered approach to sales rests with your ability to stop, look inward, and reflect upon the course of action you know is the right one, rather than succumbing to external pressures and misaligned sales crapola.
Our heart is the absolute key to survival. Plain and simple, if our heart stops beating, we die. We know this, so we take good care of it. We exercise, we eat healthy and we try to avoid stress; all in the name of heart-health.
A Beating Heart
Unfortunately, many sales organizations have become bottom-line focused and results-driven. They’re looking outward as they’re being led by their brain. Their inner core values have been thrown to the wayside as money and profit have become the driving force.
For the brain to work we need a strong heart. When I look inside many sales organizations, I often find unhealthy hearts where values and beliefs are misaligned. Layer on top of this misaligned values in management and folks…this is a recipe for sales disaster.
Honesty In Times Of A Crisis
Right now, throughout the entire world, we’re faced with a crisis.
This is the time where relationships, connections, love, caring and a sense of belonging must be placed at the forefront of humanity.
You see in a world full of turmoil, turbulence and trouble, it’s time to protect, safeguard and restore the human approach to sales.
Honesty helps to detect self-deception that we use as a smokescreen to mask our problems and imperfections.
Brené Brown, in her book, “The Gifts Of Imperfection,” talks about self-love. “Practicing self-love means learning how to trust ourselves, to treat ourselves with respect and to be kind affectionate towards ourselves.”
Honesty begins with you and not the people around you. If you’re not honest with yourself, then who can you be honest with?
Remove the Roadblocks to the Heart
Sales professionals use chaotic and crisis filled times to recapture and get reacquainted with their hearts.
In a sales context, let’s refer to the Merriam Webster definition…something that blocks progress or prevents accomplishment of an objective:
Embrace Who You Are
Here’s a little secret, you’re not perfect and you never will be. Accept your scars and your flaws as something to be proud of, instead of something to hide away from. Embrace and learn to love what makes you, you.
The sales world is riddled with braggadocious, bravado filled behaviors. Armani suits, Rolex watches and fancy cars mask the insecurity. You see we all have imperfections. We all have baggage. We all have ghosts in the closet.
Embrace it. When we’re willing to say “FU” to everyone and shout, “This is who I am,” then your sales life begins.
Change Your Outlook
Recapturing your heart during a crisis means setting aside some alone time, pausing and then reflecting…what has been preventing me from becoming the best version of me?
Honoring your heart is not a sign of weakness. True power resides with listening to your ‘gut’ and finding it within your heart by making a commitment to clear all that stands in the way of a heartfelt connection.
Sharing your knowledge, it’s not a sign of weakness. Share your knowledge, your insights and what you can do for others rather than for yourself. I guarantee no one likes a know-it-all, self-centered and stereotypical sales rep. This does not build followership.
It takes strength, those who lead with their heart and not just their wallet are able to connect with the emotional needs of their clients and prospects. They understand people have the need to be valued, respected, heard and acknowledged. By acknowledging and not forgetting the human element, heart-centered professionals maintain the wisdom to positively transform their client’s business by helping them to do better business, a profitable one.
Recapture Your Career
Placing your heart at the forefront is about opening the human door to connection, to serve, and to become vulnerable. It’s about showing up in a way that lifts the spirits of the people around you. It’s about the willingness to be real, relatable and authentic.
Bringing your heart to what you do makes for a deeper, richer experience that benefits both you, your clients and your prospects. I encourage all of you to step away from the armor and the sales facade. Create opportunities for in-depth relationships that can never be experienced hiding behind a “professional” sales mask.
Change Your Perspective
Recapture and get reacquainted with your heart, I promise it will change your life and your sales career.
If your heart’s not in it, then how can your mind be in it? In times of turmoil and turbulence, gaining an understanding of who you are and how this aligns with heart is the key to your success.
What is powering your heart engine right now?
There is an old proverb: “Above all things guard your heart…”
