If You Sell Like Everyone Else, You Lose — Lisa McLeod Shows the New Way

Hey, I'm Kwame Christian, and you are about to step into the world of Negotiate Anything, the number one negotiation podcast in the world, where we teach you how to make difficult conversations easier while getting more of what you want in the process. Each episode is packed with practical tips and strategies from the experts. We delve into negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership skills that are crucial in both.

Business and in life.

Whether you're closing a deal, managing a team, or navigating personal relationships, Negotiate Anything provides you with the tools you need to succeed. Our conversations are real, relatable, and most importantly, rooted in practicality. So if you're ready to transform your conversations and elevate your negotiation skills, join me on Negotiate Anything. Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify.

Or wherever you love to listen.

Let's make every conversation a winning negotiation.

Lisa, thanks for joining us today.

It is such a pleasure to be with you.

Yes, it is a pleasure to have you, my friend. So how would you get us started? By telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

Well, probably the best thing I'm known for is actually the best thing I've done is have children, but that's another issue. But the thing that I'm best known for professionally is I'm the author of several books, including Selling with Noble Purpose. And the subtitle of that book is really the focus of my work that I do with companies around the world. The subtitle is how to drive revenue and do work that makes you proud. So our whole consultancy is around helping organizations, particularly big sales teams, produce the revenue that they need while at the same time doing meaningful Noble purpose work.

This is really, really great. And everybody will have a link to Lisa's book and her company in the chat in the description of this episode. And Lisa, I think what would be a good place for us to start is just chatting about that subtitle because that is a really interesting and unique approach to selling.

Well, it's interesting because the data tells us that salespeople that have a purpose bigger than money, who want to go beyond closing the deal, who truly improve life for their customers, actually outsell the salespeople just focused on targets. And we've all probably experienced that from the buyer side, where we've had someone who truly cares about us and we can feel the difference and the challenges. And so I started doing this research about 12 years ago, and the data was really clear that these sales purpose people who had this different true north, this noble purpose, they really, they didn't want to just Help the buyer. They actually wanted to improve life for the buyer. And there's a nuanced difference there. That counts for a lot, which I'll get to in a second. But what the research showed is those people sold more. And it was kind of counter to what you might think, because so often salespeople are told, hit the number, hit the number, hit the number. We got to close this deal. What's it going to take to get this deal over the line? I mean, you're the American Negotiation Institute, and it's probably born out of every leader that says we to get this.

Deal over the line, how are we.

Going to do this? And once you start doing that, focusing on your end of the deal, you lessen your power and you lessen your effectiveness.

Yes. I love this. And this is so important to get into, because when you think about the distinction between skillset and mindset, yes, they're different things, but they are intricately, like, intricately bound, because you can't separate these two things, because, again, you can have all the skills in the world, but if you have the wrong mindset, then you're not going to be as skillful or as effective. And so really, what you're talking about is the mindset side in addition to the skill set. Right?

That's right. It starts there. And it's the difference between, if I'm a teacher and I come in and I think, I want to be the best teacher in the world, that's certainly better than thinking, oh, God, just get me through the day and give me.

My paycheck and I'll go home.

But thinking, I want to be the best teacher, I'm going to get pretty good results. But if I go in and I think I want to help create the best students in the world, we're going to get an entirely different outcome, and it's going to affect the way I show up in a myriad of ways. So when I'm presenting, I'm not going to be thinking as much of, am I doing this right? Am I compelling? Am I interesting? Am I connecting? Instead, I'm going to be looking at them going, are they getting it? Oh, they're not getting it. It shifts my focus. And the same thing is true in sales. If I go in thinking I want to close the biggest deal in the world, I want to be the best salesperson in the world. If I'm pretty smart and I've got good discipline, I'll be pretty good. But if I go in and I think I want to make a difference to my customers. The customers will feel the difference. I will ask different questions, I will present differently. And the research tells us three things will happen. I will close bigger deals, I will close stickier deals, and I will close deals at a higher margin.

And those are all very important things.

And there's another bit of research that.

Tells us a fourth thing. I'll be happier.

Wow. So bigger deals, stickier deals, more margins, and happier. This is like a really great infomercial. But wait, there's more. It just keeps on.

Wait, there's more.

And this is great too, because again.

Assuming here that the person who is being sold to probably enjoys the process a lot more with this mindset.

Yes, absolutely. And so when I said I'd be happier, what's really important to note is we call them the noble purpose sellers. When we identified them in our research, these noble purpose sellers weren't just happier because they were closing bigger deals. That does make you happy. But they were actually experiencing more purpose and meaning on a day to day basis. And the reason for this is once we get beyond food and shelter, human beings have two fundamental belonging and significance. Belonging is I'm part of something bigger than myself and significance is my individual contribution matters. So if I come in to call on you and I'm just selling for myself and I want to be number one, I want to hit my target, you know, I'm a pretty motivated person. Somebody with that mindset is going to do okay. Maybe they want to provide for their family, which is really important. But at a certain point, you're going to run into obstacles, you're going to run into challenges, you're going to get tired, you're going to get burnout. And if, you know, I'm actually helping these customers, this is bigger than just me. What our researchers, some research from University of Michigan or Michigan State University. And what it found was these sellers that have this noble purpose experience more tenacity and more resilience in the face of challenge because it's bigger than you. And we're at our best when we're in the service of something bigger than ourselves.

Oh, this is really great. And speaking of something bigger than yourself, I have to remind myself as you were talking that I'm here to serve the audience. Because when you referenced another big Ten school, I was like, we will not talk about that research, Lisa. Okay, We're Buckeyes here.

Okay.

But way to go. That's right. I need to be a better podcast interviewer and I'm going to focus on a higher noble Purpose, which is helping my audience. And this is really, really great because when you think about the psychology of happiness, positive psychology, this is relatively new because us psychology in the past was always focused on maladies. So the problems that we're experiencing, the negative emotions, how we experience less, and now the psychology, the science, is catching up to the positive side, where we're figuring out what it takes to really make us happy. And like you said, belonging and significance, that's really what it comes down to once your basic needs are met. Now the thing is, when it comes to the business world, we're all stressed out, we're anxious, we have a lot on our plate. There's a lot of ambiguity and change happening, which makes it really difficult. And so a lot of times people are just focused on the basics, what it takes for me to survive day to day and get things done. Now, when you have busy professionals like that and they're in a field that is more transactional or seems more transactional, how do you create a noble purpose within somebody who was maybe just coming for the money?

Humans are complex. We have a lot of emotions and they're all mixed up. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to make a living for yourself or your family. And there's nothing wrong wanting to make a lot of money. I want to tell you how the money and the meaning are actually very connected. You mentioned that the positive psychology is just getting there. Well, if you think about psychology is finally catching up with the poets and the mystics and the filmmakers, go back and watch that old movie, It's a Wonderful Life.

Oh my gosh, I made a difference. I really do matter.

The whole through line of that story that we see every year at Christmas is your regular old life makes a difference. So what's even more lagging than the psychology? The psychology started to catch up about 10 or 20 years ago. Oh, it's more lagging is the business community.

And the business community is the last.

One because it has been very transactional. And so here's what I say for organizations, and I work with a lot of very large organizations, you're not. If people are already buying from you, you have a noble purpose. You just need to name it and claim it. So unless you're selling, you know, I don't know, crack or you're lying or whatever, you know, you, you have a noble purp. The noble purpose is the impact you're having on customers. And so a lot of people will say, like, we worked with an accounting firm and they're like, we're just accountants. We don't have a noble purpose. And then I start asking them, what impact do you have on your clients? Well, we help them sleep at night. We help handle the part of the business they don't want to handle. And I'm like, well, there you go. But when you have a through line to that, and in their case, I think their noble purpose was we help our clients reduce risk and seize opportunities. Well, that's very different than just, I'm an accountant. You know, it's like the teacher that says, I'm a teacher versus the teacher that says, I'm creating the leaders of tomorrow. You know, that's a, that's a different kind of teacher. And we all know whose class we'd rather be in. And so you're, you can find your own noble purpose by answering three questions, very specific questions. And these are in the book. I'll tell them to you now. How do you make a difference? How does what you sell make a difference? Number two, how do you do it differently than your competition? And maybe you have some feature differences or maybe you just care more. Maybe you're nicer, maybe you're more thorough. How do you do it differently? And then the third question is, on your best day, what do you love about your job? And you are creating the story about why you're working and what impact it has. And unless all the people listen to this are independently wealthy, you're going to work tomorrow. So the best thing for you to do is the research tells us if you can focus on those three things. How do I make a difference? How do I do it differently in the competition? On my best day, what do I love about my job? If you can knit together a narrative around that and that becomes a story you tell yourself yourself, you will become more successful. You have better relationships with your customers. You enjoy your job more.

Hello, my friends. Before we get back to today's episode, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever wondered how to elevate your team's negotiation game and how you can help the folks on your team have better, difficult conversations? At the American Negotiation Institute, we offer transformative keynotes and workshops tailored to empower professionals with top tier negotiation and conflict resolution skills. Whether it's a keynote for your next event or hands on training for your team, we've got you covered. Don't just negotiate. Master the art with the American Negotiation Institute. Click the link in the description to find out more. Elevate, negotiate, and succeed.

This is great, Lisa. I really appreciate this and I appreciate that you used an accounting firm as the example, especially as a lawyer here too, because it's easy, especially when you're in a technical field or a financial field or something like that, to just say, ah, purpose. No, that's not what we do. We're about the law, we're about the numbers, we're about the data. That's really it. And I love the fact that you're pushing people to dig a little bit deeper to find that purpose because it's.

There if you look, it's there if you look. And I will also tell you. So I use an accounting for more example. We also work with a concrete company and if you think that concrete is not important, you try living your life without concrete. It holds up half the world, literally. And so as you think about this, and I know your emphasis is on negotiation, so often when we get into a negotiation, it is because the client is telling us you're a commodity, you are a commodity, and there's no difference from you to anybody else. And so if you're a commodity, well, I'm just going to get the lowest price I can. Who wouldn't? And so what selling with a noble purpose does is it helps you. 1. A lot of times you don't have to negotiate because you've already been so clear on how you're affecting the customer for the positive. But if you do negotiate, you're not negotiating from that non differentiated commodity space. And that's where negotiations go south is when you're a commodity or when the buyer thinks you're a commodity.

Yes. So let's go a little bit deeper onto that because that's really important. That's something that people run into all the time. So if you believe you have a differentiated solution, if you believe you have a true noble purpose and you're talking to somebody who is viewing you as a commodity, how do you change their perspective?

So the best way you change their perspective is questions. So if I were to sit here and tell you, oh, I'm, I'm not a commodity, I'm this, I'm the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But let's go back to our accounting firm, which is a group that gets commoditized because just a bunch of accountants, what's hourly rate? So when you are in a conversation with a buyer, this needs to happen before the deal is on the table. The kinds of questions you need to ask them are. The question we're always trying to answer for ourselves and our buyer is a single question. We call it the Game changing question, how will the customer be different as a result of doing business with us? And so the way you get the answer to that question as a seller, as someone who's trying to proactively secure a contract, is you start asking them questions like, well, when your accounting is working for you, what impact does that have on the business? When there are mistakes, what impact does that have when you're, you know, when you are working with a firm that you have complete confidence, what effect does that have on your ability to do the other things in your business? If you have to call your firm every week, is that a good thing? Does it give you more confidence? Does it give you less confidence? And so what you're exploring with your buyer is what I call the ripple effect, the outer edges of the things you're doing. So we'll go back to that old movie, It's a Wonderful Life, and that was all about the outer edges of what he was doing. It was, oh, we gave you a home loan. And that was more than just a home. That acted as a centerpiece for you to have prosperity as an immigrant for your family. Just when we get into this, like, we get into the concrete business, which you might think is the most undifferentiated business in the world. But when we start to look at what happens when the crew really knows what they're doing, what happens when the crew has a higher priority on safety than most people in the business, what happens when the team works faster than other people in the business? And those things all have an impact on the buyer, and that's what people pay more for. The challenge is people don't know, and they shouldn't have to know because they buy lots of stuff. Your thing is just one thing. Your job is to have that calm, non pushy, assertive, but not aggressive. Assertive is on behalf of me wanting to help you. Aggressive is on behalf of me wanting to help myself. So we want to have that assertive conversation with the buyer where we're asking questions like, well, what impact does this have on everything else in your business? Well, what effect does it have when you do this? Well, what about when you don't do this? Well, and they might not have thought that through, and just by having that conversation with them, you're adding a lot of value.

This is really helpful because. And tell me if I'm following here with this, Lisa, because when we're talking about how to decommoditize yourself in the market, you're asking these questions in order to help the prospect Understand the difference between you and other companies based on the impact of your product.

That's right. And it's not just the different. We have a full service team. They're only available during working hours. Now, if I know that, that's one of our advantages. I ask, do you ever have problems outside of working hours? What kinds of problems do those problems cause you and I got to be ready. Because their answer may be we never have problems outside of working hours because we don't work outside working hours and no one ever calls in here and it's no problem.

Okay, well, guess what? That is not a benefit that they're going to care about.

So I'm not just promoting my benefits. And I'm also. There's a nuance here that I want to make sure people hear. I'm also not doing that old school manipulative sales thing.

Wouldn't it be helpful to you if you had someone that could help you outside of working hours? That would be awesome, wouldn't it? Like that.

Come on. People are too smart for that. I'm very sincerely, authentically saying, what kinds of problems do you encounter outside working hours and what impact did those have? Yeah, I'm truly asking from a place of curiosity. Now, my questions are often the area that I'm going in for. My questions is often determined by the things I know I can do. But they are still. I'm still open to the answer. So one of the metrics that we move in organizations is employee engagement. And so I always ask, what's your sales turnover? What's your sales leadership turnover? What's your time to profitability for a replacement? What do you want it to be? Why are people leaving? Why are managers leaving? What are they leaving for? What does that cost you? Because I know that's one of the areas I can affect. But if someone says no one ever leaves, they're all wildly profitable and we have no problem with turnover whatsoever, then.

I know, well, that's not going to be helpful.

Right? Oh, this is good. This is very, very helpful. So now let's say, Lisa, let's say we're in this conversation. We're asking great questions. Sometimes conversations go off track. How is it that you reset yourself in the middle of a negotiation or difficult conversation and right the ship.

One of the things that you have to be aware of if you're negotiating large contracts, one of the things that organizations do is they often separate out the buying from function, from the contract signing and the procurement function, because the buyer knows, the user knows what they need the procurement people, count on the buyers to vet all the people and then they know any one of these three people will be fine. My job is get the lowest price. So one of the things that you want to do when things start to go sideways and they start to. If you are with someone who's really aggressive in procurement and oh, by the way, say a bless their heart to them because that seems like a terrible job. But one of the things that you want to do is you can call a timeout if things are really going badly sideways, you can say in full authenticity and transparency. I want to pause this here because it seems like it's all becoming about the purchase price when in reality the value of this is in the usage. And we seem to kind of lost that conversation. And you got to have done your homework with your buyers, with your users to say, I want to go back to that, because as we try to whittle this thing down, the only way for me to do that is to give up some things that the users said were very valuable to them. So I want to go. I'd like us to go back to that conversation about why this is important and what impact it's going to have, because I feel like we're commoditizing something that's not really a commodity.

Oh, that's very good. And something that I think would be helpful for the listeners is a little role play, a soft role play. And so imagine if I was.

So am I the buyer or are you the buyer?

I'll be the. I'll be the buyer. And I knew you were going to.

Do it this way.

Oh, this is karma. Come back to me. We do role plays all the time.

We do Zoom training all over the world. Not training on how to use Zoom, but via Zoom. And we always put people in a breakouts and role plays. This is coming back to me.

Okay, I got.

I'm taking one.

We do it. We do it too. So this is. This is great. It's fun for me too. So we'll see how I do. Let's say I'm buying accounting services, since we were just on that and I'm vetting you against some other people and I'm trying to commoditize you. So we. Let's say we've had a couple of conversations. I've told you my needs and wants and things like that. And now I'm trying to play hardball and focus on the price. And let's make up a price. Let's say a retainer of 10k a month? Something like that. Cool. And so. All right, Lisa, I really appreciate the conversations thus far, but I have to tell you, we are in conversation with a number of other really reputable firms, and your price point is the highest. So I'd love to work with you, but with other prices so much lower, I feel obligated to go to them. So what can you do with your price?

Well, I'm not surprised that ours is higher, to be honest. It almost always is. So in our conversations with them, when you talk about the price in a second, what I'd be most interested to talk about is how do our services stack up to theirs?

It's a good question. Well, the reason we're at this point is because we believe you're one of the best in the industry. So, yeah, we have no question about the quality of services.

Good, good, good. Then it means our conversations have gone well, you know, in terms of the price point. Like I said, I'm not surprised. We're one of the most expensive. We almost always are. And it's because we're the best. And I. I guess the thing that I would ask, and you're an accounting for, you're looking at accounting services. So the last thing you want to.

Do is waste money on something that's designed to save you money. It doesn't make any sense.

And I know that budgets and dollars are real. So the thing that I would be comfortable going back and doing, and I'm looking at my notes from some of our conversations because I think you're going to have to make the case for the rest of your partners about why you made this decision and why you went with the highest firm. So when I look back over my notes, there were a couple things that really stood out to me here. And one was the time value of the executive leadership in this firm. And you've got 10 executive leaders who are now, as you, in your words, overly involved in the finances. And that's not just their time, but what would they be doing instead? And so one of the things that I would say, the reason we charge the rates that we do and we have the reputation that we do, is I want to make sure that your executive leadership is thinking about the next app, not the doggone accounting, not the finances. That's one thing I would say about this. The other thing that I would say is since you are making a switch, you and I talked about how difficult it was to make this switch in something as significant as accounting practices. And one of the things I'll tell you about our firm, we typically have clients for life because just the act of making a switch is costing you thousands and thousands of dollars. And you know that to take the time to vet firms, to hire a new firm is costing you thousands and thousands of dollars. And so when you go with us, you can have a lot of confidence they won't have to make a switch again. So those are just a couple of things that I would say. But I think what will be important for us is to have a conversation about what would make it worth it for you, because I can tell you our fees are our fees, and they're there for a reason.

Oh, this is so good. I was just sitting here scribbling all of these notes down.

Lisa, that was on the fly, so I hope I did okay.

Yeah, you did well. It's almost like you wrote the book on this or something kind of strange.

Almost. But one of the things I want to draw people's attention to in that was. That would not have worked if I had not drawn those things out earlier in the conversation. I cannot emphasize this enough. You know, it. You teach this. The negotiation doesn't go south at the negotiation phase. The negotiation goes south when you did not uncover the true value in the discovery phase.

There's so much depth here to go through. And so I like. One of the things that was really powerful, that was subtle but significant was how. I don't want to say casual, but more matter of fact, you were with the response. You're really expensive. Yeah, I know that. We get that all the time, and here's why. Yeah. You're just owning it. Right. And a lot of people shrink at that point of the conversation. Oh, well. And they start to feel like on. They get on their defensive. On the defensive. You can see it in their body language. You can hear it in the tone. And for expert negotiators, they. It's like blood in the water. It's like, oh, I sense weakness. Now I can push. Because they are not confident in their own pricing.

In their own pricing.

Yeah, that was really good.

Well, thank you. It has taken me a solid decade to get here because that does happen with me that, like, what we just played out. I. We do consulting services, and I do speaking and I do training. And, you know, we have people say, well, you were twice as much as the other person. And I have had to fake it till I make it in saying, I'm not a bit surprised. We typically are with a smile on my face because I also. And this is a fake. It maybe to Use the phrase of Amy Cuddy, a fake it till you become it, because we do cost more. And I am confident you get a 10x return. But I had to kind of get myself there. And so the phrase that really helped me was when they say you're more expensive to say, oh, I'm not a bit surprised. We usually are.

Yeah. Oh, I love that a lot. And I will be letting my sales team know because we run into the same thing thing. And it's again, like I said, the natural tendency is to shy away from it, but I like leaning into it with strength. And the other thing that you did was you again, focusing on the impact as it relates to them. You use their own words. And so, yes, you said, yes, we have a great reputation. We know we can deliver this return. But then the. You were citing your sources and your source was the person that you were talking to. Something that you said earlier was this. You mentioned that in our previous conversation. You said X. Right. And so you're demonstrating that you respect them by listening. And then you're also demonstrating essentially that there is an internal conflict that is happening within them because there is a part of them that knows that you have what they need. And then there's another part of them that feels almost obligated to attack the price, negotiate it down. Right, right.

And it's. And if you notice, if I had just gone in and on my discovery and I had the benefit of being able to make this up, but if I had just gone in on my discovery and said, how much are you paying for accounting services now? How much do you want to be paying? What kinds of services are you using? If all of my discovery questions had just been around my product offering, I would not have what I need to negotiate. But instead, what my questions are about are things like, and I know this from working with an accounting firm, how much time do senior leaders in your company spend on the financials? How good are they at it? What else would you rather than be doing? So I'm asking those types of questions, which are. The nuance here is they are not about me, but they are about you. But the areas I can impact. And that's the nuance, because people usually ask around their product area, which is, how much are you paying? What are you using now? How's it working for you? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But what I want to get to is the impact, because you might not have even thought that through. I mean, how many people think, gosh, I got all my senior leaders spending two hours a week on financials. And oh, by the way, it sucks the life out of them and they have to go chit chat with their colleagues for an hour afterwards because I hate looking at those doggone reports. That's three hours that some smart person on my team could have been out meeting with a customer. That's the opportunity cost of that.

Yeah, this is great. And like you said, that's not something that people immediately think of. They don't think so you have to do the work laying the foundation in the early stages of the conversation to learn, empathize, understand and hold on to that so you can provide a better solution and respond later on in the negotiation as well.

I just recently did a big renovation on my house and it was a six figure renovation. So it was big. And I had, I bought an older home and I knew I was going to have to do it when I bought it. And I had two contracts in here, quote me. And I told them both, just to be clear, the one who wins this is not necessarily the lowest price. I said, the money matters. But I am really picky. I want this thing to look great. And what I like to say is I'm the pickiest woman alive. Price accordingly. And I said, and I want someone who's going to be excited about this project and I want this to be fun for me. I want this to be fun and exciting for me. And they both came in with two different quotes. And the guy that was higher said, I'm going to put my best people on this. And when you said you wanted this to be fun for you, that got me excited because this is your dream kitchen, it should be amazing. And the other guy comes back and goes, well, I sharpened my pencil and all and didn't address the fun aspect at all. And he said, sometimes these projects go over and I realized, like I'm in a home office, my mindset, my joy at dealing with this is going to directly affect my business, my money. If I'm like all dealing with this. And I went with the higher price guy because I knew the time value for me, if every time I deal with this thing, I have to come back and have three glasses of wine to get over it, well, what's that going to do for me?

So true, so true. I love this. Lisa, this was really, really helpful. And before you go, can you let the listeners know again about your books, your company and how they get in touch with you?

So there's two things you can do. One, you can follow me on LinkedIn. Lisa McLeod. McLeod, follow me on LinkedIn because I do a LinkedIn Live every Friday at noon. I do LinkedIn Learning Monday motivation. So follow me on LinkedIn, you'll get all that. The second thing you can do if you are a salesperson is Google selling with noble purpose and buy the book because I'll tell you, it is the second edition of the book. And what we did in the second edition was we included all these really practical examples that people can use because how often you read these books and they're very theoretical, which is helpful. But I included lots of examples from banking reps, concrete reps, accounting reps, pharmaceutical reps, so that you can say, oh, that's how they did it and sort of insert yourself into it.

This is great, Lisa. Really, really appreciate this. Thanks so much for joining us.

Oh, it was just my pleasure. Thanks.

Hello my friends. Before we get back to today's episode, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever wondered how to elevate your team's negotiation game and how you can help the folks on your team have better, difficult conversations? At the American Negotiation Institute, we offer transformation informative keynotes and workshops tailored to empower professionals with top tier negotiation and conflict resolution skills. Whether it's a keynote for your next event or hands on training for your team, we've got you covered. Don't just negotiate. Master the art with the American Negotiation Institute.

Click the link in the description to find out more.

Elevate, negotiate and succeed.