To Be Interesting, Be Interested

To be interesting, you need to be interested in something other than yourself.

If you are trying to sell a product or service, here is the absolute WRONG, bubble-headed way to go about doing it: push one product and one agenda - your agenda - at the potential buyer. This does not make you interesting to that buyer; it makes you someone to avoid at all costs.

More bad news: if you can’t build a relationship, you can’t close a sale. It’s hard to get a signature from someone who won’t let you in the building.

So before anything else, you must be interesting to anyone with whom you want to build a relationship. That means having something of value to say, and knowing what will be most valuable - and interesting - to that person. (HINT: everybody doesn’t care about the same stuff!)

Social networks offer a wonderful way to understand what interests a person, because you start with a bit of information about that person. Right off the bat, you have all sorts of clues about their likes, dislikes and current priorities.

If I go to your LinkedIn profile, I can see all sorts of cool stuff about you: where you work, what you do, where you went to school, and maybe even what languages you speak. Now, I don’t stop there. Let’s say we share common connections on LinkedIn. That makes me more interested in you, and vice versa. We’re not starting from scratch.

This also works in reverse. If you look at the way I use social media, it won’t take you long to realize what interests me: authentic relationships… helping others in meaningful and lasting ways… bashing to death the “sell at all costs” mindset.

For example, I’m part of LinkedIn’s Trends of Women in Sales initiative, which seeks to highlight - and counterbalance - the traditional male dominance of the sales industry (more on this in my next article). For me, this sort of project is an ideal way to focus on issues that matter to me while also building vitally important relationships.

When you see people you respect interact with me, that makes me more interesting to you. The same is true when I describe problems that trouble you, or strategies that you have already found to be effective.

I like to keep things short and sweet, but need to toss in one last point about being interesting.

If you want to be a great salesperson, you can't always be the one talking.

It is crucial for you to listen to what others are saying on social media about your industry, your company, and yes, even your competitors. Listen first, then respond intelligently. If you do this, you will start many productive conversations and you will build important new relationships.

Look at it this way. If you want to build relationships with a future advocate of yours, try socially surrounding the experts, journalists, and bloggers whom that person trusts. In the process, you will prove yourself to be an interesting and informed professional... rather than a pushy-pushy-selly-selly Always Be Closing salesperson.

Jill Rowley delivers keynotes, strategy sessions and workshops on Social Selling. Always Be Connecting!

Image: TRF_Mr_Hyde/Flickr