BSP 076: SalesCred by C. Lee Smith

C. Lee Smith, author of SalesCred: How Buyers Qualify Sellers,
has been in sales for 35 years and has a passion for helping
customers solve their pain points. He strongly believes that
salespeople can create a positive outcome on prospects’ lives by
helping them solve a problem and achieve their goals. Smith
wrote the book for people with short attention spans as he
understands that salespeople and managers are busy people. Their
company time should be spent closing deals, so the book sums up 140
points – something anyone can tweet, and then ask introspective
questions. His goal was to get readers to get through it quickly so
it can create an immediate impact, improve their behavior and
credibility in order to improve their sales. Only 1 in 4 people in
North America view salespeople as credible. While
Smith laments that sales professionals are often judged by
their worst practitioners, he insists salespeople should have a
high degree of credibility to potentially attract higher-level
clients, gain access to key decision-makers, and sell from a
position of strength. He adds, “Credibility is a pre-requisite of
trust. You cannot be a trusted advisor, and achieve trust unless
you have credibility.” However, having credibility doesn’t mean
people trust you. These are two separate things that people often
put together as one when they should be separate. Smith also
discussed the most common mistakes salespeople make, such as
failing to update their LinkedIn profiles, and offers one key best
practice for those looking to increase their credibility, “Act like
you’ve been there before.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
megaphone.fm/adchoices