“The Australian is one of the few free men left on this earth. He fears no one, crawls to no one, bludges on no one, and acknowledges no master. Learn his way. Learn his language…you will enter a world that you never dreamed existed. And once you have entered it, you will never leave it.” John O’Grady
For a hard-working, resilient, fun-loving nation, we Aussies have not exactly led the world in innovation. Yes…we have pockets of groundbreaking success such as the Cochlear Implant, Penicillin, the Pacemaker and even the Wi-Fi you’re using right now. But we don’t have a Silicon Valley or an Israeli Technology Culture. So, we import stuff like Ikea furniture, European cars and…sales methodologies.
We deploy these methodologies despite a glaring mismatch between the natural, conversational Aussie style of communication and the prescriptive methods these techniques and templates recommend. We do not have the formality of France, Germany or even the UK. We do not inherently have the “control the sale” mentality of Donald Trump’s America. We also do not have the hierarchies and reverence of China, Singapore, Japan or Korea. So, why would we change our language, style, and approach simply because we’re engaged in selling?
In fact, we should be exporting our conversational style to the world because in B2B sales today, clients are sicker than the Donald’s hair at being pushed, challenged and sausage machined to buy. How much more liberating, exciting, natural and engaging would it be for clients if you spoke like a real human being rather than sounding like the late Stephen Hawking reading a sales playbook?
Clients don’t want your canned, qualifying questions – they know what you’re trying to do. They don’t want your hubris when you tell them you know better when they have 25 years’ experience in their own industry. They want someone they can trust to listen (and I don’t mean for buying signals). They want someone who can pitch an idea only when it’s in full context of the client’s overall success. They want someone who says “Mate, you haven’t got enough budget to do what you really need to do” as opposed to “I’ll see what I can do on the price to get it over the line.”
They want someone who is authentic, not doing a really good job of pretending to be authentic. I’m calling it AUSthenticity. Now, that’s not only going to help you win business wherever you are in the world; it’s worth bottling and exporting.
Elliot Epstein, CEO, Salient Communication
