(In this video, enterprise sales expert John Klymshyn asks “Why do we do this for a living?” Here is the transcript):

It is a rare privilege to be able to speak to people in the channel that sell at the enterprise level, and it occurred to me this morning that it is a rare privilege to sell in the enterprise space.

It requires a thought arena where we are continually Moving Conversations Forward. If you go through the library of videos that we have produced for the folks at Channel Partners, you will find me walking you through what it means to Move Conversations Forward.

What I want you thinking about the day that you view this video, (or read this post) is that I ask you to come back two days after you first view it to get another sense of what it's about.

I call it my "Competence / Confidence Matrix." We don't get into Enterprise Sales because we hope we might be able to sell a deal.

We get into enterprise sales because we have had success, and because we are expanding our thought processes around who we sell to, who we sell with, what we sell, and here's the thing: why we sell.

Why do we do this for a living? For me, it's partly competition, partly because it requires the best of me all the time, and because it is mentally challenging. And the "Confidence/Competence Matrix." What this is about is that when we operate with confidence, people assume that we are competent. Now, I don't believe in fake it until you make it.

What I believe in is that we can operate from a center of power where we do not feel as though we have to attempt to close every deal. What we want to do is convert the people with whom we Move Conversations Forward. We want to convert them into long-term customers.

So the Confidence-Competence Matrix says that when we operate from a position of confidence, we appear to be competent. When we operate in a competent fashion, people invest confidence in us. This is the Confidence-Competence Matrix.

Now, Go Sell Something.

John Klymshyn is an author, speaker and coach who specializes in increasing larger, relationship-based sales deals. See his previous videos:

Coach K's 10 Tasks Today for Enterprise Sales

How to Move Enterprise Sales Forward