When you boil it down, selling is about transferring the passion you have for your product or service into the heart of a prospective customer. If you are not succeeding in sales, look at your passion. Passion produces followers. Are people following your advice? If not, you may be lacking passion. Find the true purpose of what you do and what you personally bring to the table.



Transferring passion is similar to a bonfire transferring heat. It`s a natural process and draws people to its warmth. Have you lost the passion you once had? When the church at Ephesus had lost their passion, Jesus said, "Repent and do the first works." If you have lost your original passion perhaps it`s time to rediscover what the original motivating factors were and rekindle the fire. When you have passion, you will speak with conviction, act with authority, and present with zeal. If it`s lacking, you may have discovered the reason for lack luster performance. Admittedly, there are many neophytes out there who are long on passion but short on tact or other useful skills and are fumbling good opportunities, but let`s face it; there is nothing more contagious than someone who is passionate about a cause, if that passion is directed towards an area of need or interest in your life.

In the world of business, nothing moves until it is first sold. It`s been said that 90 percent of the decision to buy is made in the heart, the seat of the emotions, and 10 percent of the decision is made in our mind, the seat of the intellect. In fact, it`s the intellect that provides logical justification for what the heart is yearning for. If you`re going to succeed in sales, you need to be able to speak from the heart to the heart. The fuel or energy or language for that communication is passion! Others call it enthusIASM, the last four letters of which stand for I Am Sold Myself. Jesus had great passion. It inspired confidence and faith and wonder in others, and an innumerable host has chosen to follow him, even at great personal cost.

So where do we find passion? You must understand the root of passion is revelation. Revelation always precedes passion. For example, the zeal or passion Jesus had for the temple was based upon the knowledge and understanding He had of His Father's house. Jesus knew it was not meant to be a marketplace. He quoted from the owners` manual (The Old Testament) and said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:13). He then took a whip and drove the merchants out. Clearly His passion was preceded by revelation knowledge about the true purpose of the temple.

Jesus was passionate. Being passionate about something means to be easily moved to strong emotion. What stirs passion in your heart? Does the product or service you represent, stir passion in you? Does the problem your company solves with its product or service, stir emotion in you? If you can`t get passionate and enthusiastic about what you have to offer, how can you reasonably expect others to get enthused enough to shell out their hard earned money for it? Perhaps you are passionate about intrinsic things like excellence, value, or service. How does your product or service deliver the values you care deeply about?

Perhaps you sell a commodity type product such as drill bits. It may be hard to be passionate about drill bits, but you can certainly be passionate about what you personally bring to the table, the level of service you personally provide, the insights you offer and other "value adds" the company offers. You can certainly be passionate about gaining mastery in your profession. Selling drill bits may be rather ordinary, but gaining mastery in the art of persuasion and the handling of a wide range of customer dispositions will serve you well your whole life. Be passionate about mastery and the passion you have for the process will quite naturally catch the client up in your passion and lead them gently to their best outcome.

Passion leads. Jesus didn`t just get emotional about things. He took action. He made a whip of cords and drove the moneychangers, sheep and oxen out of the temple, overturning their tables and pouring their money on the ground. Unless your passion moves you to action, you only have an intellectual belief. It must take root in your heart before it can be transplanted into someone else`s heart. In sales, passion always leads to action. That action may be making cold calls, writing proposals, sending thank you letters, following through with the customer until they`re satisfied, etc. Follow your passion through with deliberate action steps that benefit the customer and bring you both closer to the desired outcome.

Passion changes perspective. Facts inform, but passion moves. Information is static but passion changes the perspective from which something is viewed. If you need to change someone`s perspective, inject passion into the debate and it will most certainly change the dynamic and may well carry the day.

Whether you have passion or passivity, you can be sure of this, you can only pass on what you have. Make sure it`s something worth catching!

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