Preface: Surprise!! Marketers sell! At least Carlos Hidalgo sells. Sometimes, “we” have mis-conceived notions about selling, thinking that only those in some sort of formal sales role sells. But selling goes far beyond the titles. And some of the very best have never had a selling title. Carlos is one of those.
Carlos nets it out, “Selling is helping.” But he also goes further, talking about selling forces us to be students–constantly learning about our customers and our own organizations. Enjoy Carlos’ story.
My friend David Brock sent me an email that started with “Carlos, yeah, yeah, I know you are a marketer, but you are also a terrific seller.” To be honest, I was honored by his statement because I have always admired Dave and his approach to selling and to receive a compliment like this from him was a bit of a feather in my proverbial cap.
Over the years Dave and I have shared multiple emails and conversations where we have discussed, among other things the state of marketing and selling, so when he asked me if I would be interested in sharing my thoughts on why I am interested in selling I could not say no.
I do believe that in many ways I am in a rare position. I have spent the majority of my 30-year career in B2B marketing roles, but along with that, I have had the opportunity for most of those years to also work in selling roles. I believe the experience of being in both roles has helped me be a better marketer and also better in sales. Many organizations speak about marketing and sales alignment and I am in a rare position to get both sides of the equation. Now onto why I am interested in selling.
Two major events happened to me about 5 years into my career that had a big impact on my approach to sales and lucky for me happened within weeks of each other. Up until that point, I believed that selling was simply connecting point A to point B. I had a product and service to sell and it was my job to convince a customer that they needed this product and service and that they should buy from me. I was not quite the stereotypical car salesman asking “What do I need to do to get you into a car today” but I was relentless and at the same time, to no surprise, not all that good at it.
The first event was proof that I either needed to change my thinking and approach or quickly find a new career. It was my first big in-person sales call. I was excited to go and connect the dots for the president of this company and I had my pitch down cold. I walked into his office with my manager and noticed a box of golf balls on the shelf behind him. Looking to make a connection, I said, “I see you like golf, perhaps we should find time to play.” With no hesitation, he said, “I hate golf, these are from a tradeshow and I figured they would be better on my shelf than my trash can.” It was a jab to be sure, but I was intent on recovering so I went onto the safest place I could . . . my pitch!
I jumped into my pitch with gusto just as I had rehearsed. I was hitting all of the value statements, speaking about customers my company had helped and just getting to the meat of it when he interrupted. He then asked, “Carlos, can you tell me about my business? Can you tell me what we do here and how we serve our customers? I was stumped, he had me dead to rites and it was clear I had spent all of my time rehearsing what I wanted to say and zero time learning about what he needed to hear. Needless to say, he went elsewhere.
A few weeks I attended a three-day sales training where I engrossed myself with learning and soaking in what selling was all about. I also forged a strong connection with the head of the training company and lucky for me he mentored me for several years thereafter. This is when I fell in love with selling and nothing has changed since then.
What I realized is that sales fed into the love I have for helping people. When I was a little kid in northern New Jersey, I was known to ride my bike up and down our country road and stop by different houses asking people if they needed help. Over time I had a group of people that I would routinely help out with menial yard tasks and it made my day.
This is very much like selling to me without the $1 and a chocolate chip cookie given to me as a thank you.
Selling to me is helping.
I approach each engagement with the idea that my job is not to get the customer to buy from me. My role is to help them make the most informed decision possible. To do this I need to learn about their business, their challenges, and what makes them tick. I need to understand what hesitations they have, who in their organization may have a different agenda, their fears, and their goals.
Making this happen puts me back in the role of student, I get to learn, and learning for me in the right environment is fun. The more I learn about a customer, the more I research, I go on the hunt for answers and am always looking to bring a solution to them to help them address their needs. Selling sparks my curiosity and allows me to help the customer find the best solution to meet their needs and at the same time advise them and lead them to that decision, even if the best decision is not me.
At the end of the day, I love selling because it is helping and I have been fortunate enough throughout my career to help some incredible people and continue to learn from many, including my friend Dave.
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