#415: Facing Taxes, Closing Sales, Leading Well
4 Lessons from My 415th Post to Win with Integrity on April 15
It’s April 15, 2025, Tax Day, and my 415th blog post. I will make this short and sweet since many of you are spending the 2.75 hours the IRS says it will take to prepare your taxes today.
As a libertarian-minded individual, I hate income taxes, so coming up with some positive things to say today was not easy. How can I relate anything we do today to sales and leadership? Here are four ways to elevate your sales and leadership game, inspired by the discipline of this day and the milestone of my 415th post.
1. Preparation Wins Trust
What happens if you come to an IRS Audit without receipts? Pitching a prospect without understanding them is no different. Great salespeople prepare by mastering customer discovery, asking questions that uncover real needs, not just setting up a hard sell. You can overcome objections when you have prepared for them.
For leaders, preparation is about equipping your team to earn that trust. John Maxwell’s Law of Process tells us about continuous improvement. What can you do today to improve and prepare for the challenges ahead? To grow, we need to prepare ourselves.
As I write in PROFITS, Your Seven Letters to Success, proper planning prevents poor performance. Preparation is part of that!
2. Integrity Over Objections
Tax Day means facing the IRS honestly because fudging numbers doesn’t hold up.
This is the same lesson for both sales pros and leaders. Sales prospects and your team are just as sharp as auditors; they’ll raise objections if something feels off. Don’t dodge or debate. Acknowledge their concern with integrity. I have found that this method works best with prospects and accounts. It’s called the “feel, felt, found” method: “I understand how you feel; others felt the same; here’s what they found worked.” It’s authentic, not slick, and turns skeptics into buyers and followers. It helps them relate and shows that you have some level of empathy for their situation.
You are offering a solution to their uneasy feeling or concern. It’s not manipulation, it’s providing them the information or tools to help them get through this next level.
3. Closing with Purpose
Tax Day is about signing that return, finalizing the work, and the last day to meet your quota.
Closing a sale is the same: it’s the moment you align your solution with the customer’s goals, not just your quota. Too many salespeople rush or freeze at this point in the sales process. Be confident, clear, and keep the client’s needs front and center, like a tax return filed with conviction. You have a deadline, but accuracy and integrity are as important.
Maxwell’s Law of Influence reminds us that people follow leaders because of trust, integrity, and the other 19 laws. We don’t push, intimidate, or dictate actions; we get people to undertake challenges because they want to, not because they have to.
Although honestly, I’ll never “want” to do my taxes, but that’s not the purpose of his blog today.
4. Building a Legacy
Regardless of how we collect revenue for the government, taxes fund shared goals and objectives, and they build things that will last decades or longer.
Sales and leadership build something more personal, a legacy. Writing 415 posts has taught me that consistency compounds every week. In sales, legacy means leaving clients better off. In leadership, it’s lifting others. This week, I challenge you to add one selfless act, maybe an extra follow-up call to check in. Leaders, mentor someone new. Small moves create significant impact.
Maxwell’s Law of Legacy says our worth is what we leave behind. My long-time readers may recall my ‘Apple a day” strategy. It was blog #365 if you want to review it. In short, I came up with a call a day, keeps the competitors away strategy. I would start my morning every day by calling five accounts. Not to sell them something, but to talk to them, find out about their issues, what’s new in the organization, and if they are on target to meet their goals. These 5-minute check-ins helped me get to know them, and I became someone they could rely on. Those calls I made created my legacy.
On my 415th post, I’m reminded that legacy isn’t what you achieve; it’s who you lift up under pressure.
What’s one lesson you’re taking from Tax Day to your sales or leadership? Drop it below; I’d love to hear it.