From Brian Ainsley Horn,

If you work in sales — in ANY aspect of sales — you are likely always looking for ways to better connect with your customers or clients and sell more.

While there are hundreds of books, podcasts, blogs, videos and magazine articles that promise to help you become the best salesperson you can be, the power to sell is already inside of you.

Selling is all about connecting. Connecting with those who become your customers is the only way you can get that trust you need to make the sale.

How do you connect?

This is a tip you have heard your whole life — from the time you were a child. Be yourself.

When you start researching sales techniques, “being yourself” may not be something that is highly emphasized, but it is highly effective.

Author, sales coach and millionaire David Neagle is just one of many professionals that have only reached the highest pinnacles of success by learning to stick with what works—being himself.

“People listen with their ears, but they hear with their emotions. Our job is to get people to stop listening and start hearing,” explained Neagle.

You don’t have to be the best speaker and you don’t need all the answers. However, you should stay true to your values and have your personality in your sales message.

So, why with all the tips and sales strategies out there would the simple piece of advice to “be yourself” be the magic bullet?

Consider the following reasons why staying true to yourself can be the key to making the sale.

1. You Don’t Have to Remember a Script

Sales scripts are a way of life for salespeople aren’t they? No matter how well you write your script, they are sure to sound scripted — and if you get off the script?

Often the conversation can never be recovered. When you be yourself instead of working off a script, there is nothing to remember.

You just follow your gut and you can always recover the conversation. This is true even if you wind up discussing football scores or last night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars.

2. Your Customers Can Feel When You are Genuine

Being genuine can’t be faked. Customers can tell when you are seriously interested in the product or service you are selling and they know when you stand behind them.

Along the same lines, your customers know when you’re being yourself — even if they don’t REALIZE they know this. Your customers are more likely to respond favorably and will more likely come back to you again and again when they see you as a real person or even a friend — instead of just as salesperson.

3. You Can Have Fun

When you’re following a script or using those tired sales techniques, you don’t get a chance to share anything about who you really are. It’s much more fun to be yourself.

Tell your customers about your own experiences and speak to them like they are a friend, not a prospect.

4. Conversations Make Conversions

Neagle explained, “If we understand what’s going on under the surface, we can move a sales conversation hundreds of miles down the road because we know what’s happening and we can then ask questions to redirect it in the direction that it needs to go.”

Conversions happen when you least expect it. You may convince this buyer that he or she needs to commit when you’re talking about kids soccer or sharing your experience traveling across Europe.

5. You Won’t Seem Like a Salesperson

As a general rule, people don’t particularly like salespeople. Think about the jokes about “used car salesmen.” These jokes are generally not flattering in the least.

If you are being yourself, instead of being a sales machine, you are going to seem like an interested party who wants to HELP this customer, not like a salesman who is looking for another commission.

6. You Can’t Fail

No salesman will make every sale. It’s practically impossible. However, when you’re being yourself you’re not going to fail. You are always going to succeed at being you. The more experience you have in sales, the easier it will be to get those conversions without losing yourself in the process.

No matter what sales strategies you choose to use, do not let yourself become lost behind a smokescreen of techniques.

Once you have embraced the idea of being yourself, you will quickly realize that this simple piece of advice that your kindergarten teacher emphasized will help you make connections and sales — leading you down the path of success just like Mr. Neagle and the others who never compromise who they really are.