Slay the Sale!

Pageants and Sales (4-minute read)

What To Expect

Competing in pageants has made me a better salesperson and being a salesperson has made me more competitive in pageants. READ THAT AGAIN! While you might doubt the connections between these two industries I promise you they exist. 

Studying Don Baker’s take on succeeding in the Miss America and Miss USA competitions has not only changed the way I look at competing but the way I look at myself as a salesperson. My # 1 takeaway from studying Don’s methods is this, “your focus is more on the job (being Miss America or Miss USA) rather than the pageant itself”. Let’s translate this into sales terms, what Don is trying to say here is your focus, as a salesperson, needs to be on the prospect and their needs rather than closing the deal. Let that sink in.

So, without further ado, here’s my hot take on the connections between pageants and sales! 

My Hot Take

Don stresses that you will not, under any circumstances, become Miss America or Miss USA without exceptional communication skills and leadership qualities. Okay great, well how do we achieve this? According to Don you must first “understand the human mind and how it works”. Don let’s us in on a little secret – the mind is divided into two parts: 

  1. The conscious mind – the analytical part of the brain.
    • “He thinks, he analyzes, he rationalizes, he memorizes. That’s his job”.
  2. The subconscious mind – this is where all of your emotions and feelings lie and emanate. Subsequently, your emotions and feelings come from inner qualities like:
    • Empathy 
    • Sympathy 
    • Compassion 
    • Passion 
    • Sense of humor
    • Assertiveness 

Hmmm… wait a minute, some of these things sound familiar: ” passion”, ”a sense of humor”, “assertiveness”… (read my article on Jeffrey Gitomer’s 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling to see what I mean). Are starting to see some connections now? Let’s keep diving deeper!

According to Don there are three parts to your ability to be effective as a communicator: 

  1. The words coming out of your mouth. 
  2. Your voice pattern (pitch, inflection, rapidity, enunciation). 
  3. Your eyes which are simultaneously driving your facial expressions, body language, and your hands. 

Something that completely shocked me was this statement, “the judges” – let’s call them prospects for our purposes – “the prospect will remember, at best, 5% to 7% of what you said”. As unbelievable as this might seem, Don stresses that this “study has been done routinely and the results are the same every time: 5%t, 6%, 7%”. While the prospect will only retain about 7% of what you  say they’ll actually retain 100% of how you handle yourself. Internalize that statement and starting living by this quote, “content is one thing; delivery is everything”. 

If words themselves are merely 7% of a prospect’s impression of you then, by definition, 93% of what people are really paying attention to is your nonverbal communication skills. 

Three Action Items You Can Start Using TODAY!

When you get in front of the judges (in our case prospect) for your interview (in our case meeting) the most important aspect is your non-verbal communication skills. This all starts with a relaxed presence! 

So how do we achieve this? Well, according to Don, there are 6 beliefs you must conquer in order to achieve a relaxed presence:

  1. You must like yourself externally.
  2. You need great posture, stature, walk and carriage.
  3. Your focus is on the job more than the pageant itself (big picture).
    • Your focus is on the prospect rather than closing the deal.
  4. Your goals are defined; specific and clear.
  5. You possess leadership qualities.
  6. You have great communication skills. 

This brings us to our 3 action items, I’m actually going to call them homework assignments. Below, you will find 3 homework assignments that I want you to complete and think about every day to achieve a relaxed presence.

Homework assignment #1 – Stretch every morning! This will improve your posture throughout the day. 

Homework assignment #2 – Write your goals on a sticky note and put them on your bathroom mirror, look at them every day! This piece of advice is actually courtesy of our pal and fellow sales author Jeffrey Gitomer. 

Homework assignment #3 – Dress to impress. This doesn’t mean go out and buy the most expensive suit or dress but please iron your shirt, brush your hair, and clean your shoes. 

My final thought, for all my sales queens and kings, be conscious of your nonverbal skills every moment of every day even when you’re not selling.