Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud

Chapter 2

Why Noble Sales Purpose Works

Great minds have purpose, others have wishes.

—Washington Irving

Imagine you’re at a neighborhood party or standing on the sidelines of a kid’s soccer game. You engage in a conversation with the person next to you, and he asks the age-old question, “What do you do for a living?”

How do you answer? You’ve likely been asked the question a hundred times, so you probably have a standard answer. If you’re alone right now, say it out loud. If you’re reading this book on a plane or in a coffee shop, just mumble your answer under your breath.

Then pay attention to how you feel saying those words.

If you’re like most people, you probably give a fairly rote response that doesn’t require much thinking: something along the lines of, “I sell software” or “I’m regional manager for XYZ Company.” If you work for an impressive firm or you have an impressive title, you may have said, “I run a sales team for Google” or “I’m the VP of sales at Clorox.” But it’s usually still a pretty standard answer.

Again, remember how it felt to say those words out loud. This is your baseline.

Now we’re going to go a bit deeper.

I’d like you to think about a time when you made a difference at work. Perhaps you helped someone on your team, did something great for a customer, or lent an ear when a colleague needed to vent. It may have happened in your current job, or it may have been in a past job. Either one is fine.

Recall this situation and write down some notes to help you ...