Having trained tens of thousands of people in business during the past fifteen years across different nations and cultures, our goal at EffectiveCommunication.com.au (EC) is to help accelerate people's sales traction from where they are, to where they want to be!

Too many people learn sales lessons the hard way therefore, EC helps people circumnavigate the “hard way” learning curve.

The following offers some ideas that every sales professional should know, understand and apply:

1. You can learn sales

Primarily many people learn sales by observing what the best performers in their office do. Yet, typically positive sales performers constantly learn by reading books, going to training seminars and investing in their professional education.

Agreed, the best sales people have a natural pre-disposition (including the enthusiasm to learn) but any person can learn to better inform, influence and persuade others.

2. People make decisions for their reasons not yours

If you think people buy because of your sales presentation, you are on another planet

People buy because of their own selfish, personal reasons and motivations not yours. The day you work this out, you become a much better sales person immediately.

3. Talking someone into doing something that they don’t want to do is a bad idea

People that say, “I can talk anyone into buying anything” are fooling themselves and doing the world a disservice.

The main reason for this is there are some clients that you simply don’t want. Knowing when to back off and say no to clients will save your sanity and save you much frustration and grief with clients that didn't want to be there in the first place.

4. You need to natural and relaxed

You need to be cool

Having worked across dozens of industries, it's clear that those who are natural, relaxed and non-intimidating seem to sell more. When a sales person is too over the top or pushy or un-cool, clients simply will typically not buy from them.

No one talks about the "cool factor" in selling and they need to because it’s important. If you are cool and you treat people well, they will buy more from you and more often.

5. Humans have a highly tuned detector therefore, hyped up sales tactics just don't work

If you try to use hyper, cliche’d, verbatim, swag type sales tactics and language with potential clients, they will not think highly of you. And, will rarely buy from you - full stop!

In fact, If you are using a sales framework that does not sound like you because you sound and act more like the another hyper sales personality clone, people will see straight through it. You need to be congruent, genuine and sincere with what ever approach you use or you are going to struggle.  

Potential clients will always detect the fake verses genuine you!

6. Momentum begets momentum

The more correct sales skills you apply, the more you will want to do so. And, the more you sell, the more you will be more likely to sell.

The secret is to get going on the correct path and do not stop

7. How to get yourself out of a rut

Call five past clients who think the sun shines out of your butt. Don't try to sell anything, simply call to catch up and ask about their worlds.

After the 5th call you will be ready for action again

8. There is a massive dichotomy when it comes to “closing"

Businesses often think their sales teams have a problem with closing. The dichotomy with closing is that it is important, but it won’t happen if you aren’t good at 'Opening'.

'Opening' means you qualified by uncovering opportunity to begin with. This starts from the very microsecond you meet a prospective client.

9. Some people don’t make decisions

They just won’t. Don’t let it drive you insane because it’s not about you it’s about them

10. People won’t move from where they are until they are uncomfortable to do so

Doesn’t matter what you sell, unless you can create a conversational environment where you expose the commercial discomfort or pain of what they already have, they simply won’t move towards buying from you, or anyone else.

11. Never think you know it all

Sales realities are constantly changing. Yesterday’s "super script" is today’s cliche - people are learning sales both buyer and seller.

You need to stay unique to survive. Get caught using the "Benjamin Franklin” close in today’s sales world and you can kiss that sale and that customer goodbye.

12. Mindset is everything

However you get mindset nailed, you can’t ignore it. It leeks out of you in everything you say, everything you write and in every neutron of your energy. You need certainty about what you sell, your company and most importantly you!

13. Technology is great but don’t become too reliant on it

As soon as you hang your hat entirely on one lead generation source you become vulnerable to it’s possible demise. Using a diverse rage of lead generation will make you and your sales efforts way less vulnerable to the bell curve of popular media.

All the best when selling! 

Gerald is a seasoned leader who manages 16 professionals. He has two team members who are supervisors, so he has some management support.

Like so many teams, 20% of Gerald's people are performance superstars. About 70% of the team meets the expectations of their job. The remaining 10%, however, are problem-children.

Sometimes their performance is sub-standard. Other times their behavior is disruptive. The organisation that Gerald's team is a part of is vibrant and growing, and experiencing rapid change. While the organizational change that is occurring holds many positives, it is not without hiccups along the way. In other words, the workplace in which Gerald leads is fast-paced, complicated, achievement-oriented, and fraught with problems (from time-to-time).

At one point in his career, Gerald used to shrug his shoulders when faced with problems. In fact, one of the first questions he would ask was "Who messed up this time?"

While there was some levity to Gerald's comment, it also set the tone for a witch hunt. It is common for leaders to seek to identify the person or group who caused a problem in the workplace. Often times, a better course of action is to engage in a problem-solving process.

Over the years, Gerald created six rules for solving workplace problems.
 

Everyone messes up once in a while. Sometimes people need a free pass, while other times progressive discipline is required. Do not start a witch hunt when faced with a problem situation.

Remain as calm as possible and seek to find the root cause of the issue.

This really pertains to the first point, however, it deserves to be highlighted. Before Gerald was a leader he had the luxury of jumping to conclusions and engaging in finger-pointing.

Well, a funny thing happened along the way to great leadership. Gerald lost all sorts of "rights." Gerald read a great piece on leadership that Colin Powell wrote a dozen years ago. Powell stated that leaders lose the right to be one of the crowd, and to slam their door, and to choose favorites, etc.

As Gerald experienced the process of losing these rights, he actually elevated his level of self-control. Gerald believes strongly that when a problem sends a workgroup into chaos it is because the leader of the group does not possess sufficient self-control.  

When Gerald was a newer leader and a problem would occur, he would turn into a fact-finding machine and start firing questions: "What," "How," "Why?" While all of Gerald's questions were open-ended in nature, his tone of voice was often accusatory.

As a result, Gerald's questions would be answered with minimal information because people were anxious for the interrogation to end. Over time, Gerald softened his tone of voice in an effort to come across as more conversational. In addition, he began to start his open-ended questions with phrases such as: "Tell me about," "Share with me," and "Help me understand."

Gerald's conversational approach has delivered significantly better results. Not only from a problem-solving standpoint, but also from a long-term rapport standpoint.

Gerald now leaves little wreckage in his wake during the problem-solving process.  

Early in his leadership career, when problems were caused by another area of the company, Gerald would get fired up and embrace a mindset of "Us vs. Them" While this brought short-term satisfaction to Gerald and his team, he learned that this behavior fostered long-term conflict.

Invariably Gerald's team would cause a problem, and other areas of the organisation would be quick to jump on their folly. These days, Gerald seeks to collaborate with other areas of the organisation. In fact, when Gerald's team uncovers a problem caused by another area of the company, they reach out and offer to work with their colleagues to resolve the issue. There is no finger-pointing, rather, there is professional communication and collaborative action.

Years ago, Gerald read an article entitled ‘The Process of Winning’. It highlighted how Nick Saban, the football coach of Alabama is focused less on winning and more on processes.

Gerald embraced some of the concepts of the article. As a result, after his team experiences and resolves a problem, they examine their process and determine what needs to be enhanced.

Gerald has helped his team become process-focused. Not so that they are robotic in the workplace. Rather, so that they can easily self-examine and continually raise their bar of excellence.  

It has taken Gerald years to refine his problem-solving best practices. In addition, he is committed to having his entire team embrace a logical, cool-headed means to problem-solving. As such, Gerald seeks to lead by example and to share the expectation that his team will be good problem-solvers.

In other words, Gerald strives to make effective problem-solving part of the culture of his organisation. While problem-solving can be part of a strategy, Gerald has come to realise that the culture of an organisation trumps strategy every day.

Bottom Line

When problems occur in the workplace, emotions are easily stirred. The best leaders are able to maintain self-control during times of crisis. They do not go on witch hunts and they seek to be collaborative with other areas of the organisation.

Good leaders also ask great questions. In the process, they come across as conversational as opposed to interrogational.

Lastly, solid leaders nurture the culture of their organisations. They communicate the importance of level-headed problem-solving, and execute problem-solving in a practical way.


All the best with your leadership!

Based on many years of Conference Speaking, Training & Consulting with sales teams, EffectiveCommunication.com.au (EC) has concluded the following list of fifteen (15) factors which reflect what the “best of the best” do to be a successful sales leader:

1. Realize their job is not to be a sales manager, but to be a sales leader.

2. Hold constructive sales meetings salespeople find value in, rather than meetings that are nothing more than information updates.

3. Invest time with their top performers.

4. Leverage their position to generate opportunities and discussions with prospects and clients while working with their salespeople.

5. Don’t let paperwork stand in the way of investing quality time with their people.

6. Coach their people each day or at leas weekly holding them accountable on the skills they’re developing.

7. Provide an environment that allows their salespeople to be motivated every day.

8. Never talk negatively about any of their people or anyone else while in the company of anyone.

9. Help each of their salespeople achieve their professional and personal goals.

10. Be open and accountable to others.

11. Realize their objective is not only to make the numbers, but also to develop their people.

12. Impact everyone with whom they come in contact in a positive manner, regardless of who they are or the position they hold.

13. Know their role is to lead their people and allow their people to lead their prospects and clients.

14. Demonstrate 100% respect to everyone.

15. Develop a team that others want to be a part of, and be the leader who assures a majority (if not all) of the people on the team are recognized and promoted for their performance.


As you can see, these attributes are not out of reach of most sales managers – if they are willing to put effort into becoming a leader!