Merit Kahn: Open the Minds – Close the Deals

About Merit Kahn: Merit Kahn, CEO of SELLect Sales Development, author of Myth Shift: Challenging the Truths That Sabotage Success, co-host of The Smarter Sales Show podcast. Merit is a certified emotional intelligence coach and certified speaking professional with over 25 years of experience. Throughout her career, Merit has worked with a variety of individuals, including salespeople, entrepreneurs, and professionals, as well as sales teams. She helps them shift their approach from selling to being chosen by their ideal clients. In her spare time, she is a stand-up comedian counting down the days until she trades in her title “single parent” for “empty nester." Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Merit.

 

In this episode, Nancy and Merit discuss the following:

• Sandler Training in Merit’s life.
• You need to be selective about the clients that you bring in.
• Have you ever felt like you were pushing against the tide when what you really want is to be open to receiving more business success?
• Nobody believes they're close-minded, right?
• What prompted Merit to writing Myth Shift?
• Is the strategy of having an open mind to absorb new information and then pivot when necessary correct?
• Why do so many of us sabotage success?
• Interesting story about Emotional Intelligence. 
• Fun fact about Merit.
• How can my people reach you?
  
   

Key Takeaways: 

 

• Our core philosophy really is that selling is not about being pushy or aggressive, it's about being selected.
• The truth is we must dramatically open the client’s hand to illustrate the point that we have to open someone's mind so that they can receive our value.
• My first role is to open their mind to new possibilities because, and one of the best questions for that is, have you already decided it can't get any better or are you open to a new possibility?
• Really the total intention of my keynotes, my programs, my coaching, my consulting work, the whole essence is around open minds and closed deals.
• As I got more and more experience in the world, I realized that at face value, those lessons didn't really serve me the way that they were written.
• Instead of just changing my mind willy-nilly or flip-flopping, which also has a negative connotation in the marketplace, I would consider that new information and then I made a new decision.
• I think when people sabotage their own success, they're certainly not doing it consciously.
• And what I learned was that there was this foundation of emotions, how well we understand our emotions and the impact we have on other people that was very different with these two.
• You and I know that the most important thing you could do with a question that a prospect asks you is fine out why they asked you that.
• The most scientifically validated assessment tool on the market, I use a system through assessment through MHS, which is multi-health systems, and they're fantastic.
• I can open your mind to new possibilities in ways that I'm not even able to do with you know, expertise and credibility and training and coaching, but I can do it with laughter.

"Our core philosophy really is that selling is not about being pushy or aggressive, it's about being selected. So we really teach people to stop selling and start getting selected. And how you do that is really by Asking good questions, having good conversations, as you well know, it's not about what you say, it's about the questions that you ask. And those questions help your prospects understand that you are credible and confident, and you can solve their problems. And that's when they select you. And the second piece of it really is you want to be selected by them, but you also want to make sure that you're selecting every single one of your ideal clients because you're going to put a lot of effort and energy. " – Merit

"And the way that I distinguish marketing and sales is marketing is everything that happens before you're in a conversation. Once you're in a conversation, you're in the sales part of the process. And what you don't wanna do is send somebody " – Merit

“What I took from that when I read that study was, we all want to be perceived as open-minded. So how can we use that to our advantage? Not in a manipulative sale, you know, pushy way, but to recognize that I need to appeal to your bill, your desire to appear open-minded and once I remind you of that desire then you are inclined to agree with that. And now you're more likely to hear my value. And whether we select to work with each other or not, from there is a different story, but I promise you, you will not sell or close a deal to a closed mind.” – Merit

Connect with Merit Kahn, CSP:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
• SELLect Sales Development: https://www.sellectsales.com/
   

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