I admire salespeople! I admire them in part because
I believe that salespeople hold the power to restore American economic growth! Yep,
that’s what I said. America’s team of professional salespeople bear the
responsibility at a grass-roots level for lifting our country above the flat
GDP of recent years, and for restoring the confidence and commitment to moving the
nation forward. At the same time, as
professionals we need to reject the assignment of blame, reject the attitude of
the politicians and pundits who seem focused on seeking scapegoats for our economic
realities, rather than seeking solutions for them. Maybe there was mismanagement
at a few bad firms, and maybe the consequences of those bad decisions did temporarily
overwhelm the really great management of many, many small and mid-sized companies.
But it just doesn’t matter anymore; it is time to press on.
So, if you are reading this on the Sales Evolution blog, when I say
sales professional I’m pointing at you! America’s business developers hold the
power to restore GDP, full employment, and begin mending the budget and trade deficits.
Our capabilities in concert go far beyond the meager powers of the President or
Congress or Wall Street. And judging by the
robust market for sales training and self-help materials, our nation of sales and
business developers are well prepared and eager for the task. After all, salespeople are trained in getting
things done, managing time, creating solutions, driving decisions and
controlling priorities. And most importantly, about delivering results – that’s
“job one” for salespeople and what clearly distinguishes them from everyone
else in the organization; even beyond the C-suite!
But how do we do it? Well, it’s not going to be
easy, but it all starts with us having the kind of realty testing conversations
that strike at the heart of the fears and uncertainties that are causing our
prospects and clients to choose inaction over moving forward with new business
initiatives, including buying our stuff. This conversation is not about trying
to sell them on your stuff, and you are not trying to persuade them that they
need to change the way they are thinking. It is about having open unbiased talk
with them so that you can learn about the deep uncertainties they are having
about dealing with the issues and aspirations that are critical to the growth
and well-being of their businesses; as related to our products and services.
This talk might bleed into areas that are not directly related to your business, that’s okay. The important thing is that you create as many of these conversational opportunities, with as many prospects and clients as possible. Just remember: STOP SELLING and start having MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS concerning THEIR UNCERTAINTIES. Keep it focused, but that’s all you do; nothing else. Then stand back and watch the magic. Especially in challenging times they will respect that a salesperson is willing to carve out a “sales-free-zone” for them to talk about all of the business fears they’ve been carrying around in their heads. And they will be grateful that you created the opportunity to allow the conversation to be about them. Every trained sales professional has the capability to empower these important “Certainty Creating Conversations” with their prospects and customers and if they do we are going to dramatically change the American business landscape for the better.
This talk might bleed into areas that are not directly related to your business, that’s okay. The important thing is that you create as many of these conversational opportunities, with as many prospects and clients as possible. Just remember: STOP SELLING and start having MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS concerning THEIR UNCERTAINTIES. Keep it focused, but that’s all you do; nothing else. Then stand back and watch the magic. Especially in challenging times they will respect that a salesperson is willing to carve out a “sales-free-zone” for them to talk about all of the business fears they’ve been carrying around in their heads. And they will be grateful that you created the opportunity to allow the conversation to be about them. Every trained sales professional has the capability to empower these important “Certainty Creating Conversations” with their prospects and customers and if they do we are going to dramatically change the American business landscape for the better.
So, there’s little doubt in my mind that the “United
States Sales Force” has the intelligence, the skills, the energy and the
tenacity to tackle the duties of selling America back to vitality at the street
by street level. And I’ll even go one better - mobilizing America’s sales talent has the
potential to lift us beyond our previous levels of economic achievement; enabling
us to tackle even larger challenges that
we as a nation are eager to confront but sadly have been lacking the leadership
to meet, beat and defeat.
So now it’s up to us. Either we adopt a larger role
in our success, our customer’s success, our community’s success - and in our
nation; or we fall back and accept the role of victim that is frankly getting
to be too tedious for many American’s to tolerate. Either we envision ourselves as the engines
of change, of improvement, of the future or we don’t. But each of us had better
make up our minds because in this battle our country is counting on its sales
force to take the offensive. And if it is not we salespeople who take on
economic mediocrity who will do it? If not now, when will it happen?
