Andy Paul - Sell without Selling Out

T his book is not another work of fiction about how you can morph overnight into a sales superstar. Theres none of that BS here.

This book is about making the choice to turn your back on the salesy behaviors that are so embedded in modern sales. Behaviors that make everyone cringe, including you. Thats the Selling Out part.

Its about learning how to become consistently proficient at selling simply by understanding whats most important to your buyers. And then helping them get it. Thats the Selling In part.

Perhaps most importantly, this book is about learning how to experience the energy, impact, and fulfillment that come from being the best version of yourself in any sales situation.

Youre going to like Sell Without Selling Out. Its full of road-tested ideas that you can quickly and easily put to use in your selling today. Start with just one, something that will make a difference.

I magine that youre unattached and looking for a romantic partner.

You meet someone at a party at a friends house. They have a certain something about themsmart and stylish, they have a quality that appears to make everything look easy for them. Upon first meeting, you think this person possesses a lot of the qualities youve been seeking in a partner. It turns out the attraction is mutual. You start a relationship.

However, as you begin to spend more time together, it becomes apparent that this new partner, while outwardly attractive, doesnt share your basic core values. Or your outlook on life. They arent curious about the world. They arent really interested in anyone but themself. They ask only superficial questions about you and your day. When you have a difference of opinion, they assume they know whats bothering you and dont make a sincere effort to really understand your concerns. Youre starting to wonder whether they are trustworthy or reliable.

Youre having doubts. Youre very attracted to this person. If you could just be together without having to ever talk, it might work.

What the hell are you thinking? As much fun as it is to be with this person, youre not making progress. They clearly arent able to provide you the support you need to achieve your life goals.

You have a choice to make.

Now imagine this partner is your sales process.

The methods and processes that sales bosses want you to follow are all superficially attractive. The practice of salesthe way youve been trained, the methods and techniques youve been taught, the content you consume online about how to sellmake everything look so easy.

Do this to10Xyour sales.

Say these three words at this time in a sales conversation and youre guaranteed to5Xyour conversions.

Blah.

Blah.

Blah.

Its all very attractive, but its not connected to reality. It doesnt sync with who you are as a person, and its not aligned with how you want to help your buyers achieve their goals. And its definitely not aligned with how your buyers make their decisions.

So, if these things dont feel right to you, in your gut, why are you doing them?

I call that Selling Out: choosing to sell in a way that is not aligned with who you are and what your buyers want you to be. What they need you to be. In short, being salesy.

Look, being in sales is hard enough. Its a tough job, a lonely job. Youre on an island all by yourself with your monthly number. Why make it harder by selling in a way that turns you into someone you dont recognize?

You have a choice. Sell out your future, your values, and yourself for possible short-term gain. Or stay true to yourself and create success on your own terms. I call that Selling In. Selling In aligns how you sell with who you are as a person. And it aligns with how your buyer wants to work with a seller. Selling In allows you to become the best version of yourself.

After a brief foray into Selling Out when I first started selling, I shifted into Selling In and have had an incredibly fulfilling and rewarding career in sales.

I received an excellent early sales and business education by selling computer and software systems to midsize businesses in the Bay Area. There was no better learning experience at the start of a sales career than being able to chat with successful entrepreneurs about how they built their businesses and how I could help them achieve their next level of growth and profitability.

I grew from that beginning into positions where I sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of complex communications products and services to very large enterprises around the globe. For years I lived on airplanes, winning big deals on every continent but Antarctica.

Ive grown sales teams at successful start-ups (and some that werent so successful).

Ive run my own sales consulting business for twenty years, helping companies turn around under-performing sales teams. Ive published two previous sales books, and I created and host the influential Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul, featuring more than a thousand conversations with some of the best and brightest minds in the industry. In 2020 I sold my podcast to ring DNA , a high-growth SaaS (software as a service) start-up.

Any success Ive achieved I attribute to one decision I made at the very beginning of my sales career: I was determined to act and sell in a way that aligned with who I am as a person, my values and character. I didnt see a choice. Otherwise, it was going to be a very short career.

Have I been perfect in this regard? God, no. But the times when I had to sell out, to act with a buyer in a manner that made both of us uncomfortable, thankfully were so few that they are still burned into my memory. (Jack, my apologies for calling you in the middle of Christmas Eve Mass to ask you to fax that order to me. They made me do it.)

Selling Out is surrender. Its giving in to ways of selling that are out of alignment with who you are as a person. Selling In is embracing behaviors that are in alignment with your values and with what your buyers need from you.

What we do, as sellers, isnt complicated. We listen to understand what the most important thing is to our buyers. And then we help them get it.

The legendary sales trainer Zig Ziglar once said, You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want. This book is about how you do that in a way that best aligns with how your buyers want to work with you. And, as importantly, in a way thats aligned with how you want to act as a person.

It starts by laying out how traditional sales behaviors work against you and against what youre trying to accomplish in sales. And in life. Ill teach you how to take control of how you sell in order to help your buyer achieve the thing thats most important to them, and help you achieve whats most important to you. All on your own terms.

At the heart of taking control are four core sales behaviors. These are the Sell In Pillars: Connection, Curiosity, Understanding, Generosity. Everything that Ive accomplished in my professional and personal lives has stemmed from how Ive embodied these four behaviors to help others achieve the things that are most important to them. Everything else is window dressing.

In this book, youll learn how to embrace these pillars and use them to become the very best sales version of yourself.