As president of The Wilbert Group, a huge part of my job is selling. Rationally, I know this, but I don’t ever feel like a salesperson. First of all, I don't do any cold-calling. I don’t even do much networking, although luckily we have some rockstar networkers on our team (shout out to Sarah Weston) who do generate leads. 

The truth is we get almost all of our business from referrals. So I pretty much just answer my phone, ask people a bunch of questions about their companies/ what they are trying to accomplish/ what keeps them up at night, and then I think about how what we do at Wilbert can help them. I enjoy the process of learning and then developing a strategy that will be useful and impactful. If they bite, I have closed a sale, but more importantly, we are about to launch a new program for a new client, which is really fun.

Why has this approach worked and fueled so much growth? A few reasons:

• People appreciate honesty. I will not sell you something you don’t need or can’t afford. I am just not wired that way.
• If we do a good job and add value, clients will hire us again.
• If we do a good job and add value, clients will refer their friends.
• Our proposals are strategic. They ladder up to what the client is trying to accomplish at a high level.
• Our proposals are customized. Unlike a lot of our competitors, we aren’t pushing Wilbert-branded products; we are creating programs to serve each client’s needs.

So selling, if done right, is really about meeting new people and figuring out ways to help them. And that is both fun and rewarding.