No B. S. Coaching Advice

Everyone sells. Everyone is in a situation where they have to sell their ideas, their competence. Sometimes it's a direct sale. Sometimes it's an indirect sale.
I'm Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I coach people and organizations. And when it comes to the organization, I'm really coaching people in some aspect, but just follow me with that idea, okay? And the idea for this video comes from a podcast I was listening to, and a story about follow up.
One of the ways that we sell is with persistence and follow up. What you're trying to do is move the needle forward in some aspect of the sale, and in re-engage or engage with the client so that you can do the deal, convince them, do something that gets the outcome that you're looking for. Follow up is sales.
Now, if you walk away from a follow up situation, they've won the sale because they persuaded you not to follow up. Once they persuade you not to follow up, you're out of their mind. You're not doing the transaction, you're not getting what you want. You're not convincing them of the merits of your ideas. The result winds up being guess who loses? You. You lose. You've given up. They've won.
Now, the obvious place this occurs is in sales. But follow up shows up professionally so often as a selling situation where you can ignore the people or you can follow up with them . . . And you need to follow up until they say "No." Once they say, "no," your choice is (1) you can argue. I don't think you can persuade people through an argument. (2) But you can persuade people through understanding the basis for the decision. Maybe there's information that you didn't convey to them that they needed to know; that's on you. That's not on them.
And I go back to the idea of selling every situation that you're in professionally as a sales situation. I don't care if you're a business owner or an employee of a firm, you are always selling. And part of what you're selling is yourself and your conviction, in your conviction in the idea. It's not a flat recitation of data. It's the passion that you show, the energy that you convey, the ideas that you have, as expressed in your voice, in your mannerisms, and a host of other things. You are the salesperson of your ideas.
I was reminded of that listening to another podcast yesterday, an interview with Justice Sotomayor, who was talking about her most recent book. In it, she tells a story from when she was a young attorney and she was going to present a summation, I think it was, and, you know, had some good facts and good data. But her mentor basically told her you don't seem convincing. It seems like you haven't fully bought into the idea.
It's not just the recitation of facts. It's the passion that you carry yourself with. It makes a difference. So if you want to be flat, you wind up getting the results of being flat--other people get chosen. Occasionally you win, but you want to get more than occasionally don't. You want to be in a situation where your ideas are the ones that are chosen.
You're the one seen as the expert. You're the one who's moving up in the organization or selling more stuff and making more commission . . .whatever it is, you want to be the one that's chosen. If you do the flat recitation, you're not going to be getting quite as much as he want.
Remember, you're always a salesperson. And the question is, are you going to be outsold?