You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks. Or can you?
Last week Linked-In reminded me I’ve been in business for 15 years. Here are some reflections on working with salespeople and their managers over that time.
What I’ve learned
- The more you tell people what to do the less they do it. The trick is to lead them to their own ‘Aha’ moments
- The sales manager has the biggest influence over how salespeople perform, not me
- A sales team is a group of individuals who all have their own strengths, motivations and quirks
What’s changed
- 15 years ago I was training and coaching salespeople. Now I facilitate and coach sales managers to coach their teams
- Decisions have become collaborative so there are more people to influence and bring on board
- Projects only happen if they fit with business strategy and have a clear reason to go ahead
What hasn’t changed
- Focus on forecast and quarter-end pressure
- If a deal goes belly up, 9 times out of 10 a salesperson hasn’t established the value to the customer
- The best salespeople explore and qualify the opportunity to do business – they’re as comfortable challenging and saying No as they are saying Yes
What’s amazing
- The most common comment from senior people is “…that was a really useful workshop Jim. I’ve learned to listen again!”
- Last year I worked in 15 different countries
- I’m 55 years old and it feels like I have the best job in the world
A big thanks to you all. Bring on the next 15 years.
Love Selling : Love Coaching