Elite Sales Strategies

8One-Up Guide to Offering Advice and Recommendations

In giving advice seek to help, not to please your friend.

—Solon

I was born on the very southern end of One-Down, so far from One-Up that it was a five-hour trip just to get to the wrong side of the tracks. For a long time, I thought that put me at a disadvantage, but I've come to believe that the only lasting adversity is never facing adversity at all—you only grow when you have something to push against. It's better to be born poor and end up rich than it is to be born rich and not learn the habits that prevent you from ending up poor. Flooding Facebook with shots of your big, expensive cars and your gigantic house shows that you're One-Down in a particularly pernicious way: It's proof that money can allow you to look happy when you are suffering inside.

I hate to kick someone when they're One-Down, but to be honest, most salespeople limit their advice and recommendations to “buy my solution from my company.” The limit of their help is the amount of value they create for their clients, which in this case is little or none. To be One-Up, your guidance and recommendations must span the entire sales conversation and consistently inform your client's decisions.

Imagine that you are looking for work in the craft we call sales, and you have two job offers on the table. The first offer is from an incredibly successful and well-recognized company. They have an outstanding marketing department, so their products and services are ...