May 6th Prioritise Honesty And Transparency

“Do you respect those who are fair or unfair? The fair. Those who stay calm or those who lose control? The calm. The disciplined or the reckless? The disciplined. If you cultivate these qualities, you’ll become truly beautiful. But if you ignore them, no amount of effort or appearance will make up for it.” - Epictetus

Flashy presentations and charisma might grab attention, but long-term success comes from integrity, composure, and real value.

Customers see through the noise, they trust those who do the right thing consistently.

So, if you’re chasing commission just to impress others, you’re playing the wrong game.

True beauty isn’t about how we look, it’s about how we act. Fairness, self-control, and discipline are what make a person truly admirable.
Sales is no different.

Focus on mastering your craft, building real relationships, and creating something meaningful.
Excellence speaks louder than ego.

Actionable tips:

Prioritise honesty and transparency with your clients. It builds trust and leads to long-term relationships. If you can’t answer a question, or don’t know the answer, be honest about that and create an opportunity for yourself to be credible by going away and checking the facts before delivering an answer.
Don’t let the pressure to close a deal make you over-promise or exaggerate. Stay grounded. When you feel expectation is heavy on your shoulders, practise breath exercises and allow yourself space to step away from that pressure.
When faced with objections or rejections, maintain your composure. Clients respect those who can stay calm under pressure. Remember, it’s not personal. Instead, don your detective cap and see if you can get to the bottom of the hesitation.
Each time you choose integrity over a quick sale, acknowledge it. It’s these decisions that build your reputation.

Remember you will die.

—

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Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b/
Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b/

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/we-have-a-meeting/
Website: https://www.wehaveameeting.com/

Disclaimer:

The Sales Stoic draws inspiration from the profound wisdom of Stoicism as presented in Ryan Holiday's "The Daily Stoic." As avid readers & fans, we deeply respect the work of Ryan Holiday, and acknowledge the significant impact of Stoic philosophy on our own approach to sales and life.

While The Sales Stoic applies the core principles of Stoicism to the unique challenges and opportunities faced by salespeople, it is an original work with its own distinct voice and focus. We aim to build upon the timeless wisdom of Stoicism to empower sales professionals with practical guidance and actionable insights for success in their careers and personal lives.

Jack Frimston
Co-Founder at We Have a Meeting
Zac Thompson
Co-Founder at We Have a Meeting

Ooh, this is an interesting one because it's like a little maths equation, like a little fraction. It's excellent over ego. Wow. Could we it a different way then? If you're gonna do it like that. The one for the people that aren't seeing the video version, I pointed at myself for excellent and I pointed at that guy there for ego. It's the sixth of May. Are you ready for a long one? What about the I'm used to it. Epictetus discourses. Let's go.

Then what makes a beautiful human being? Isn't it the presence of human excellence? Young friend, if you wish to be beautiful, then work diligently at human excellence. And what is that? Observe those whom you praise without prejudice. The just or the unjust. The just, the even-tempered or the undisciplined. The even-tempered, the self-controlled or the uncontrolled. The self-controlled.

In making yourself that kind of person, you will become beautiful, but to the extent you ignore these qualities, you'll be ugly. Even if you use every trick in the book to appear beautiful. Wow. Gosh. That is right. You've got me. You got tears in your eyes. That was really something. That was really good. Even if you use every trick in the book to appear beautiful, you'll still appear ugly. The world of sales. You can get the sale. Okay.

influence and manipulate, there's a fine line and that line is the intent. So you can actually use all the sales skills that we talk about to manipulate people into giving you money. But then they're left with buyer's remorse. They're left with a sour taste. You can twist and turn their arms so that they give you their money and they come on as a client. But actually you can only force a person to do something once at gunpoint. Wow. Who told you that? You said that once.

I don't think that came from Marcus Aurelius originally. What? I was just going to say something about gunpoint. So this makes me think about doing the right thing, no matter, like, so not discounting, not trying to just squeeze it over the line, but actually just like doing the right thing and having that transparency. And this falls into our PMEs, we call it. Yes. And having those...

expectations, but realistic expectations. So why do you think realistic expectations are important? Expectations meets reality is the happiness equation. Everything's an equation. Everything's an equation. You've said that before and excuse me. And with expectations, a lot of salespeople try and sell at perfect. Okay. So I'm selling at perfect. I'm like, yeah, everything you're selling, I can do it. I can do it with my hands to have a hand on my back mister.

And then when they sign up, if it's not perfect, if it's good, disappointing. If it's great, disappointing, excellent disappointing because what you set someone up for is perfect. Expectation was it perfect and reality was not. So what we actually try and do is kind of undersell it a bit at the start. So we talk about how it might take three months to see some real consistent results. not saying there would be no results in that three months. Consistent. But consistent results.

could start coming at three months. And obviously there's different ways around how we'd get the prospect to build this idea, but managing those expectations and then let's say the first couple of weeks, a meeting lands, they sit here, it goes to opportunity. Well, my expectations were at three months and now some results at two weeks. So what's the difference there? We've completely inverted what normally happens in sales and they feel like, it's worked quicker than I expected.

And really that's what we should be trying to do. Managing those expectations upfront is everything. If you're a IT service provider or something, you're a consultant and you've got high ticket items of a hundred thousand pound going in at a hundred thousand, how much the expectation people might not necessarily take that jump. But if the initial expectation is, look, let's spend a couple of grand on just having a look at the business over a few days and seeing if it's even something we definitely can help with.

If we can, great, I'll show you some ways that we can. If we can't, at least you know you're doing everything you possibly can. Yeah. You know, and just managing all those different expectations, different rooms upfront should help you paint a much better picture towards selling that either happens for the right reasons or doesn't for the right reasons. Yeah. I think salespeople are always thinking, how do I get something over the line? How do I close a deal? But you don't want to live as...

It's hard to shift the perspective, but when you're a business, you don't want to live in this feast or famine. You want people to come on board and be a client for the next 20, 30 years. Exactly. Yeah. You were frowning then as if you didn't like something I said. No, I wasn't. So it's about how do we get people on board? How do we manage those expectations and how do we keep them with us forever? I've been Jack Frimson. I've been Zach Thompson. Remember you or die? Water the sparrow before you leave.