In September 2019 I wrote an article “7 things you can do immediately to improve your sales results in challenging markets” and while a lot has happened since, the core elements of this advice remain true. However, given the advent of Covid and the many lessons learned since, I’d like to include and emphasise the virtues of Trustworthiness, Cooperation and Gratitude because they underpin good business.
Many people’s perspectives and priorities have shifted in the last year beyond the mere matter of making money. They are closely examining their relationship to work, careers, each other and themselves. They are focusing on what really matters to our ongoing collective wellbeing and prosperity.
The virtues of Trustworthiness, Cooperation and Gratitude, I find, are particularly relevant to our interactions with ourselves and others:
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is being worthy of the trust other place in us. When we give our word we stand by it. Through our actions, we keep our promises and commitments. There is constancy in the we love, and loyalty in our friendships. Trustworthiness is the foundation of our business agreements and our personal promises. When we are worthy of trust, we attract abundance and create lasting success.
Cooperation
Cooperation is working together of the good of all. It is the willingness to stand side by side and use the different gifts each of us has to offer. We seek common goals in service of a unified vision. We blend our abilities to create something none of us could achieve alone. Cooperation can fuel our dreams. We can help one another share the load. We willingly do tasks others ask of us. We look for ways to be helpful and ask for help when we need it. Together we accomplish greater things.
Gratitude
Gratitude is a constant attitude of thankfulness and appreciation for life as it unfolds. Living in the moment, we are open to abundance around us and within us. We express love and appreciation freely. We contemplate the richness of our life. We feast on beauty. We notice small graces and are thankful do daily gifts. We seek to understand, to accept, and to learn. Gratitude is the essence of happiness. Gratitude is a continual celebration of life.
Taking these virtues and the experience of Covid as backdrops here are 7 things we can do immediately to improve our sales operations and sell better:
THE WHAT
- Define an easily understood and relevant compelling reason for our prospects to buy from us, rather than a rival – our value proposition
- Incorporate sales into our value chain – across the whole business – linking everyone’s roles to how we sell and service around here
- Shift away from making sales about achieving financial goals and instead toward selling solutions in order to help our customers solve problems and achieve their goals
- Reward salespeople by removing non-sales related activities from their activity mandate
- Introduce effective governance that automates critical non-revenue generating activities in sales
- Employ and develop salespeople with the right character and attitudes rather than solely sales or technical experience
- Give sales managers the freedom to be leaders and coaches rather than super-salespeople
THE HOW
- Review and develop our sales strategy and Go-to-Market plan
- Analyse our market segments and undertake targeted segmentation to find viable market segments, sub segments and even micro segments
- Audit our sales processes and protocols to make sure they support effective selling practices
- Review our Key Account Management strategies and overall sales practices
- Review our sales selection protocols for both salespeople and clients
- Assess the knowledge, skills, and mindset of our sales teams so they are able to focus on getting match fit in the right areas
- Train and coach our sales managers and salespeople regularly in small bit size chucks of learning that are relevant and applied to their world
So instead of falling into the old trap of relying on a ‘Point Solution’ (you know, that one thing that promises to fix everything – the one thing that sounds too good to be true because it is), let’s take a more holistic approach to running our sales team and operations; one that is underpinned by strategy, process, people and culture. And one that is virtues driven too.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
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