I'm pretty sure I've said in a few earlier emails how much I admire people with courage.

And my experience has been that courage can be incredibly helpful in sales.

Now I don't mean the macho, full of bravado type “courage” you see lots of people in sales demonstrate. The kind of folks who don't take rejection to heart and can make 1,000 cold calls without inwardly dying like most people would.

I'm talking about a different sort of courage. But to my mind, more important.

The courage to admit to a client or prospect that you don't know the answer to their question right now.

The courage to tell a client when you think there's a better option for them than hiring you.

The courage to (respectfully) tell a potential client when you think they're wrong, or when you don't think they're being straight with you.

The courage to ask tricky questions that might have uncomfortable answers.

The courage to keep quiet and let the client do the talking.

The courage to pass control of the meeting over to the client or prospect and ask them what they'd like to do next.

This isn't macho courage. It's real courage. The kind of things most of us avoid doing. But the kind of things that lead to wonderful results.

I wish I'd had more of this when I started out :)