Written By: Mike Kunkle
“Intent counts more than technique.”
~ Mahan Khalsa / Randy Illig 
This is a classic line from FranklinCovey authors in their book Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play. For clarity and accuracy, they go on to say that technique isn’t completely unimportant. Clumsy or awkward technique can get in the way of good communication. But intent matters more. Perhaps this will surprise some, because I’ve spent years in the sales training field and am an ardent advocate for implementing sales process and sales methodology, but I completely agree.
An Authentic, Servant Approach to Sales is Not News
You can see evidence of this mindset throughout the book and program (the program name itself, Helping Clients Succeed, tells you a lot). In a blog post, Khalsa once wrote that the six secrets to sales success are:
- Concentrate on others’ success and not your own.
- Let the client tell their story before you tell your story.
- When the client tells their story, forget about fixing it and just understand it.
- When the client tells their story, listen for the real pain or gain. If you don’t hear any, say so.
- Find out how the pain or gain manifests (what evidence is there?).
- Find out how big and how bad the pains is – and how big and how good the gain (what’s the impact?).
(I think you have to go further and connect the pain/gain dots with the solution/outcome dots, but maybe that’s the seventh secret. It’s not possible without the first six, though, and they do discuss this in their book, too.)
I (and others) have cited this previously as the paradox of selling. The first I heard say it was Zig Ziglar, possibly 30 years ago, when he said (probably paraphrased):
“You get want you want in life by helping enough others get what they want.”
This is a significant problem, in my opinion, with our current sales reward systems, because they primarily incent the act of selling something, whether or not it was the right thing to do. (Topic for another day.)
Back on track, my friend Tim Hurson, in his book Never Be Closing (co-penned with Tum Dunne), takes a similar view. Hurson and Dunne posit that it’s far better to “always be useful” than “always be closing.” Like Covey’s Let’s Get Real, they take an authentic client-centered, creative problem-solving approach that is more productive for both the seller and the buyer.