Understanding the Sales Force

I finished my training at Golf School and found that a lot of it was transferrable to sales.

One Swing – the same swing – for all your shots.  This equates to one process – the same process – for all of your opportunities.  It doesn’t change, you don’t manipulate it, and it is much easier to remember with less to change.

I’ve been golfing for three years and I’m just like a lot of your salespeople because, according to my statistics, 74% of them suck too.

Yesterday I spoke to the executive team for a Fortune 100 company whose issues are exactly the same as those faced by small and medium sized businesses – except for one difference.  Their dynamic leader wants to attack the market as the economy sputters whereas many who lead smaller companies choose to wait it out. 

So how much of this is economic leverage because they have the money to attack? And what can you do?

Salespeople are far more effective when they are relaxed.  They listen better, ask better questions and have more fun.  Have your salespeople go through the ‘worst that could’ happen exercise.

This is a longer post than usual but I urge you to read through to the end for the useful lesson.

I conducted a webinar for a client this afternoon and at the conclusion my client thanked me for taking the time to prepare. He said he was grateful. Perhaps he’s simply an individual of high integrity. Perhaps he appreciated the extra time I took to read the materials he sent so I could guide his team in the context of his materials. Perhaps he thanks everyone he works with. Perhaps his compliment stood out because most clients don’t express their thanks when they pay a lot of money for my expertise. Perhaps my client doesn’t often receive this kind of service.

As more and more is expected of salespeople today, I see less and less commitment to do what it takes.

We spent the past two weeks with our five-year old son and during that time, as usual, he said and did some things that have a much greater meaning:

I dropped off our son at school this morning and one of the girls was spelling the names of her parents.  A parent remarked that she didn’t think her own kid could spell the names of her parents.  Just then, a boy said, “I can’t spell my mom’s name but I know all the letters – K-I-M”.

Salespeople are like that too. 

Who has been a momentary mentor to you?  How many lasting impressions can you pass on to your salespeople?  What are some of them?