Today in class and tonight at a speaker series, we had the privilege of hearing from Blaine Hurst, President and CEO of Panera Bread. Blaine had amazing advice to share with us and I was able to take away so much. For this post I wanted to summarize what he shared for tips in the sales role.
Be Comfortable with Yourself
Blaine said that if you’re not comfortable with who you are as a person, you will never be able to sell. Often times we think people are analyzing our every word, whether in a conversation or in a sales call. However, this isn’t the case. Rather the person your talking to is evaluating you, your character and your integrity. As soon as you become uncomfortable in a situation, the other person can tell. Therefore embrace your flaws and shortcomings and just be you. Do not strive to be the perfect person (cause no one is), rather be confident.
Integrity, Integrity, Integrity
You must have integrity in sales. If you lie it will come back to bite you, and this is true for all of life. Enough said.
Courage or Comfort?
Blaine mentioned one a quote that he likes a lot. The quote is by Brene Brown and she says, “You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.” Blaine went on to talk about how courage is an essential part of life and leadership. I believe this also applies to sales. Do you have the courage to reach out to the larger but harder prospects? Or do you just want to stay comfortable and go after the easy leads.
testacr22
I like how you mention his perspective on courage versus comfort. He believes you really shouldn’t even approach sales unless you’re comfortable with yourself. I think this is part of where courage is rooted. Being confident in yourself allows you to step outside of what’s comfortable.
Today was an incredible day and Blaine presented us with great advice in class and at the speech in Sticht. I like what you said about integrity because its so true. Lying is never the way to go no matter the situation and it will only get you into more trouble.
I really enjoyed your blog post and thought you did a great job summarizing his key points. I completely agree with Hurst’s points on integrity and comfort. A prospect can easily tell when a sales person is uncomfortable or lying.