REVIEW: Stacey Hall — Selling from Your Comfort Zone (BOOK)
What I like the most about Stacey Hall’s new book is how straightforward and to-the-point the corporate philosophy is. In essence, Hall makes the simple and painfully obvious point that good salesmanship is essentially just being a good people person. Much of what makes for successful navigation of one’s personal relationships can be applied within a professionalist context.
This is evidenced by the topically summarizing title, simply put as Selling from Your Comfort Zone: The Power of Alignment Marketing. The titular applying of the term ‘Alignment Marketing’ seems similar to the paraphrased ‘Alignment Dynamics’, essentially the solidification of communication techniques representing the best possible version of the speaker’s thoughts. And like many things Hall highlights within the pages of Selling from Your Comfort Zone, the points she makes are painfully obvious in and of themselves.
Leadership advice books of the caliber Hall preaches from thrive on this. Much of what makes a good leader, or a good salesperson in this particular case, isn’t complex, profound, or beyond pretty much anyone’s individual reach. “Sales consultants often give the responsibility for fixing the problem to the companies. They suggest a variety of personality tests and other means to clear the confusion during the hiring process and help a sales manager select the person with the right set of skills for the position. I take a different view. I believe the responsibility lies with the salesperson…The only way the confusion will clear is when salespeople ensure that they are in alignment with what and how they are selling — and vice versa.”
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Your-Comfort-Zone-Alignment/dp/1523001623
Hall continues, “Alignment leads to belief. Belief turns into action — which is good news because that means this problem has an easy solution…Being aligned makes it easy to believe in what you are selling. I am inspired by what Jackie Sharpe, founder of Empowering Entrepreneurs Institute, shared when I asked if she agreed with my perspective: ‘First you have to believe in what you are selling. If you are not using the product or service you are selling, it is hard to speak from your heart. And you must speak from your heart in order to transfer your belief and your alignment to your prospects, as well as existing customers, friends, and especially potential business builders. That transference of belief and excitement is what creates the know, like, and trust factor with people, and with that, you can close more sales.’”
Obvious, huh? It’s pretty interesting when you really do the everyday math. What Hall does so well is help make this obvious to the reader. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by what seems to be a qualified communicative form — something that certain people prove uniquely skilled at, and others do not. But again and again, Hall demonstrates the standards everyone strives for when it comes to relationships in their everyday lives are synonymous with the standards attainable and understandable within the salesmanship complex. “Lack of confidence and alignment produces feelings of anxiety, which diminish your motivation to move forward. Your prospect can sense your lack of confidence and belief in your product or service.
Even if you have learned the sales script perfectly, the difference in energy between someone who is confident and enthusiastic and someone who is not is obvious,” she states. “No confidence — no sales.”
Colin Jordan
