- January 5, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I just finished a great novel called Law of Nines. A traveler from another world visits Earth in hopes of saving her own world. They have no technology where she comes from but they do have magic. Alex, the main character, just can’t wrap his hands around the magic. Jax, the alien, tries to help. She said, “that little black thing you talk to where messages appear – in our world, that would be magic but we would do it without the black thing. That box that brings you up and down in a building – to me that’s magic. Those enclosed carriages without horses to make them travel? Magic.”
Neither world could live without what they have but they simply have different names for them.
We don’t talk about it much but sales has a lot of magic to it.
We disguise the magic and call it art, but when people are unable to describe how it actually works it must be magic. Want an example?
Some salespeople have the ability to create unbelievable chemistry and powerful, long-lasting relationships. While there are tips aplenty for building rapport, the same can’t be said for chemistry – connecting. Those who do it so very well – it’s just magic!
How about the salespeople who can consistently overcome resistance? These are the sales pros that can make the disinterested suddenly become interested. Those who can do it anytime they want can’t really explain how they do it so it must be magic!
What about the salespeople who can consistently close the huge deals? Despite overwhelming odds and tremendous competition, the same small group of sales pros seem to walk away with all the big ones. They can’t really articulate what they are doing differently and why people are doing deals with them because it’s magic.
I interview thousands of salespeople a year – mostly very good ones. But even the good ones can’t articulate how they get people to buy from them. They’re even less concious of why people buy from them. For most, it’s really magic.
The question for you is, Do You Believe in Magic (The Lovin Spoonful – 1965)? How many of your salespeople have the skills and the Sales DNA to develop the ability to perform magic? What we’re talking about here is going beyond the ABC’s of selling and taking your sales force on a Magical Mystery Tour (The Beatles – 1967). It seems that the 60’s was a big decade for magic!
There are three varieties of sales forces today.
Type 1 – They all sell by the seat of their pants and the results are consistent with the approach. Inconsisent, lacking discipline and predictability.
Type 2 – They have been trained on a methodology and there are varying degrees of how many follow it and can apply it. They are surely better than Type 1 but not nearly as effective as Type 3.
Type 3 – They have been thoroughly trained on model, process and methodology, the entire sales force follows it and can apply it, sales management is able to coach to it and hold their salespeople accountable to it and their results are sky rocketing.
Which variety is your sales force and which would you like them to be?