Understanding the Sales Force

Seth Godin’s recent column on Intangibles was great.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t disagreed in more than two years with anything he has written  about selling.  Today he provided many examples – great examples – of how your intangibles create value.  I’d like to explain how your salespeople can uncover these, and other reasons why prospects would pay more to do business with you.

Last night at dinner, my 77 year-old father showed us the obituary he had saved from when his father died.  Abe Kurlan died in 1968 at the age of 68.  Since I pick up the most subtle of patterns, the first thing that ran through my head was that I might make it to 86!  It also got me thinking about what Abe did for a living.  He was a car salesman back in the day when before he could sell you a car he had to teach you how to drive one!

Our son, who is now six, doesn’t know the the full extent of what I do for a living. Rather than tell him that I’m a sales force development expert and explain the many facets of that, he knows that I have meetings (talk with people on the phone and in my office), that I do work (stuff on the computer), that I’m the boss of my office (12 people report up to me) and that I sometimes conduct training (show salespeople how to sell). I haven’t attempted to explain evaluating, compensation, incentives, metrics, recruiting, leadership development, executive coaching, consulting, strategies, systems or processes.

I posted this article earlier in the week before Manny Complainez was traded to the LA Dodgers. Mike Carroll posted this article earlier today.  The King of Self-Centeredness was granted his wish and sent off, leaving his teammates relieved, happy, and excited about their team’s future.

One of the attendees asked how she could change the compensation for her highly paid, salaried producers, in order to provide the incentive to sell more.

If that’s all it takes, getting salespeople to sell more would be easy!