Why Leaders Know Sales
When I first started in sales it was on the premise that if I wanted to be a great manager, business owner, lawyer, president, I needed to know sales. That is what a successful business owner told me after I had told him that I wanted to be a manager. He was a great leader and still has people working for him that were with him since he opened his company in the mid 1980’s. I was not sure why I needed to know sales to be a good manager to be honest, but I knew I would figure it out.
At first, I was hesitant to change careers. Six months of hesitation and discussions to be exact. I did not want to be a salesperson because all life had taught me was that they were evil. All I had ever been told was bad and experiences were also proof to that same point.
When I did decide to try this sales thing out, I quickly learned that there was a key ingredient to being a successful sales professional. Once I figured out that ingredient, customers started opening up to me and sales increased. I was awarded the prize of top salesman for the United States and had taken the territory to where it had never been before.
I literally had customers asking me about what software would work best for their business and other things that had nothing to do with what I sold. They trusted me and were asking for my insight on various things that they were struggling with in their businesses. That key ingredient is Influence. In sales the more influence you have the more you sell. The same is said for leaders.
As influence increases, people trust us more and are willing to go deeper in relationships with us. This can be in business ventures, nonprofits, community support, etc. The more influence someone has the more they excel in whatever they are doing with others.
What I found is that the sales process that I keynote and perform trainings on helps people build amazing amounts of influence fast! That is right, selling correctly helps us build high levels of influence!
Keep in mind that selling is not just a product or service. It can be selling a vision, idea, or that we are going to lead those that report to us. Building influence using the sales process, leaders gain more engagement from those around them. Utilizing the sales process to sell our vision and our mission will grant us more influence and greater buy in from those around us.
As you look around your organization look at those relationships of those that go out of their way to help you and those that don’t. See how much influence you have with these relationships. Ask yourself, “Why do I have more influence with this person as opposed to another? What is different with each of these individuals?” What you’ll learn is that the level of our influence determines how much we can say and do with each individual.
The more influence you have the farther our organizations can go.
“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers. How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits? I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet
https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book
You only get one chance to...
The sales process is the key to mastering the art of first impressions, building rapport, and likeability. Once we master the first buying decision of the sales process, we can build rapport with those around us faster!
Good morning everyone!
I hope you are enjoying your summer with your kids home from school, taking trips, and enjoying some downtime in the sun!
I have been thinking about this topic for a while now and decided that it was time to step up on my soap box. I firmly believe that we all need to know how to sell in order to make great first impressions. Whether we are going for a job interview (selling ourselves), out on a date (selling ourselves), leading an organization (selling vision and ourselves), or selling a product or service which means we need to know how to sell (ourselves), etc.
No matter what we are doing, we are selling ourselves as the best option for those around us. We share stories, build friendships, engage with coworkers etc. all of the time. Some people do this really well and some unfortunately do not. This is not simply determined if you are an introvert, or an extrovert to determine if you will do this well. What I am saying is that some just don’t sell themselves well enough.
There are three questions everyone asks at every interaction and they are as follows:
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you help me?
In seven seconds, a decision is made about the other person based off these three questions. Now there are so many aspects to how one can affect those three questions, that it is key that we know how to sell and why these three questions are affected. Learning the sales process if even just for only buying decision 1, we are definitely on solid footing to move forward with other people.
How we are dressed, what the environment we are in, our posture, our speech patterns, and many more aspects affect how people form their decisions about us. Have you ever heard the phrase. “we only get one chance to make a first impression?” This is because once someone makes that impression about us, it is extremely hard to change.
The sales process is the key to mastering the art of first impressions, building rapport, and likeability. Once we master the first buying decision of the sales process, we can build rapport with those around us faster! This will enable us to make great first impressions, obtain engagement from those around us, and create stronger relationships.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to sell and build relationships to make our lives better?
If you’d like to learn the sales process and how to gain influence, I have launched my online course. It will enable you to master sales, implement the simple to use process, and become a top performer!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”