The idea of power as a Salesperson

Do you think that you can be overpowering in a conversation? Do you think that if you increase your power in a conversation that you will get your point across? As a salesperson, we need to be able to understand the idea of we can increase our power by reducing it.

The more power you have in a relationship, the less likely you are to attune yourself to someone else’s point of view. Often times when we are so obsessed with our own point of view and having a power motive within the conversation of getting the other person to also see our side, we disconnect what they want with what we want. We are supposed to be learning about what the prospect wants and let them have the voice in order to say how they feel and communicate their intentions. Putting yourself in the position of being in a position of less power gives you the opportunity to be a better persepctive taker. Our whole job is to be able to listen and really take in what the other person is is communicating. Their needs are the most important thing on the table and so we may have to take the backseat position.

The idea that more is better in terms of power in a conversation such as a sales one could not be more un-true. When you come off as too powerful, you take up the time of talking and running over everything you think instead of everything they think. The 70/30 rule tells us to listen twice as much as we are talking. If we don’t figure out the pain in the conversation because we were being too powerful then we are not going to be able to really tackle what the main issue is and get left in the dust.