When we're involved in a large complex sale, we have several conversations with our clients over long periods of time, and hopefully more than one person within that account.

And during each of these conversations, because we typically don't get them live, or it's through email, asynchronous communication, they have the choice to either engage or not engage.

And they do this for one of two reasons.

One, they have to.

They need information from you.

They want something.

Transactional.

The other is they want to. They enjoy talking with you. They get value out of it. You're

aligned on a purpose and a goal. You have things in common. Now, if you don't have that,

you're in the transactional sales rep category. If you have that,

you're in what I call partners of crime. Now, I wish there was a better description for it,

but partners in crime conjures up this feeling like you guys and gals have something going on together.

You're, it's not malicious, it's not unethical, it is ethical, it's noble.

You're trying to improve the client's situation, modernize it in some way, automate it. Whatever it is,

it's for the betterment of the company. But the company isn't set up for quick changes.

It's set up for slow or no change. These conversations are critical because perceptions are created and if you can't modify those

perceptions if they're wrong, then that becomes reality. We want our reality to be the one that

becomes the next reality. Now, a lot of people will listen to this episode and think it's about charm or personality,

or some people may even use the word unprofessional.

Now, I hear that all the time.

I even see comments from sales leaders on my videos on LinkedIn.

Oh, this is unprofessional.

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