On Passion

by Ian · 5 comments

The importance of passion for salespeople seems to have sparked the imagination of many sales bloggers recently – myself included. Reading the posts reminded me of my all time favourite Winston Churchill quote:

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.

I can’t think of any more eloquent way of highlighting the criticality of passion and belief if you want to sell anything from a product to an idea.

My original “In Praise of Passion” article is here

Ian

Tagged as: emotion, passion, persuasion, winston churchill

by Ian on 5 June 2008 · 5 comments

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Tim Rohrer 6 June 2008 at 2:45 am: It’s easy to forget about the brilliance of guys like Churchill. Politicians are often the best sellers you’ll ever meet. Great to hear the wisdom of one of the world’s best 20th century leaders.
nesh thompson 6 June 2008 at 10:15 am: Wonderful quote and I think that Churchill is a great example of selling through passion. His spirit and determination was one of the contributing factors in inspiring the British to stand firm in adversity. The irony of course is that after winning the war, he lost the general election. One could argue that his passion in his product was therefore no longer there as a selling point? What do you think?
Ian Brodie | Professional Services Business Development 6 June 2008 at 12:10 pm: Great point Nesh – I’d agree with you. I orginally thought I wouldn’t sa Churchill was a salesperson as he didn’t have to understand customer needs for example. But thinking about it he did. He had the hardest type of customer – one that isn’t aware of his needs. Churchill didn’t have the option that we have of walking away and finding a different customer – so he had to keep on trying to educate and inform us over years about the Nazi threat and the need to prepare for war.

But you’re exactly right – when the war was over people didn’t need the product Churchill was passionate about. Could he have changed and developed a passion about something else? Perhaps. But’s it’s a big ask. You can’t just develop that degree of passion about something overnight.

Ian
Brad 7 June 2008 at 8:41 pm: Great quote Ian. I often share inspiring quotes like this on my twitter feed and just let the reader think. I really should start a thought of the day or week or something.
Churchill was brilliant, and I think what happened to him was his product was no longer needed. Maybe he could have continued on to inspire his people after the Nazis were defeated, but there is a lot more competition to lead when the times are easy and the road ahead smooth. He probably should have started a transitionary path once it was clear the war was near it’s end. Others would say he was the right guy for his time, and his time passed when the war did.
Still, it’s a great quote… and as true as ever for salespeople everywhere. If you want to effectively sell you have to believe in what you are doing.
Skip Anderson 9 June 2008 at 12:17 pm: Ian, really enjoyed the Churchill quote. It hits two key areas in relation to selling, I think: 1. It all starts with the salesperson; and 2. Passion must be genuine.