Selling with Urgency: Part 6. Entrepreneurship and the Sales Crusade - Joe Galea
Posted by Member Solutions on Tue, May 10, 2011 @ 07:00 AM
I recently interviewed Andy Gole, founder of the Urgency Based Selling® system. Below is the final excerpt from the informative interview where Andy shared a wealth of knowledge in the field of selling.
Joe: Andy, you’ve stated that the classic observation “selling isn’t rocket science” is a myth. Will you expand on this?
Andy: Selling is complex, Joe. Factor these three major components:
1) Customer Service – Responding to customers’ needs, often consuming most of a salesperson’s time, particularly in a mature market;
2) Account Management – Developing and implementing a plan to increase profitable sales with an existing customer; and
3) Business Development – Bringing in new customers.
We have been focusing our discussion primarily on business development, but we need to be sensitive to its paradox too.
Joe: The paradox of business development? Please explain.
Andy: Many owners have limited faith in the business development skills of their sales teams. So they staff the selling function to handle what comes “over the transom” – the incoming calls, the e-mail/Internet leads. Consequently, there is no time for business development, only customer service.
Joe: Isn’t that the norm?
Andy: Unfortunately yes. Business development has an entrepreneurial component. There is uncertainty, research, exploration. We need to manage the reversal curve. When owners have no confidence in sales teams, when they staff for customer service only, they make it impossible for business development to take place. This is the paradox – claiming they want business development, and then making it impossible.
Joe: We have been discussing a number of ways to instill entrepreneurship, including: the paradigm shift in values; overcoming the three fatal flaws; insights to the change process; the standard sales call; and managing the reversal curve. Is there some glue that holds everything together and provides direction?
Andy: Yes: the sales crusade.
Joe: Indiana Gole and the Sales Crusade?
Andy: (Laughter) Yes! It’s a commitment to long-term radical change and business development. Ultimately this is what I hope to achieve for my clients every day.
Joe: What else is involved in the sales crusade?
Andy: It is typically a top management/ownership responsibility to build the proper inspirational culture – especially for the sales crusade. And in today’s challenging economy, nothing less than a sales crusade is acceptable.
Joe: What goes into creating a powerful, inspiring sales culture and crusade?
Andy: Based on my experience, there are eight key elements: Vision of what is possible; Concepts; Visual Components; Maxims; Community; Humor; Challenges; Becoming efficacious and successful.
Joe: Will you elaborate on these?
Andy: Sure:
Vision – This is perhaps of greatest importance, both in personal development and for company results. This is conveyed most effectively through foundational stories – e.g., in selling, “Do or Die” stories – where the salesperson had to close the sale in a no-win scenario.
Concepts – Unique, powerful ideas explain the world and help the team become more effective. For example: measuring intermediate sales success through “payments-in-kind” – what we ask the prospect to do to make sure the prospect is engaged.
Visual Components – Iconography to match the concepts.
Maxims – Commonsense wisdom. For example, “You usually get zero percent of the requests you don’t make.”
Community – Tracking and celebrating success: teaching from within. Case histories are essential. This process also converts the “private property” perspective – my prospects, my clients – into a company perspective.
Humor – We all perform better when we are having fun. For example, the idea of “crossing the streams” from the movie Ghost Busters can be used to illustrate mixing social and business values.
Personal Challenges – These are essential to the individual’s growth. In this regard, a paradigm shift, offering a cohesive vision, provides meaning and challenge.
Becoming Efficacious – The system needs to work, needs to help team members increase sales. When success builds self-respect, it becomes contagious and self-sustaining.
It is top management’s job to ensure these elements are present. Then we need a spark to ignite and sustain the crusade. The leader needs to provide the spark.
CLICK HERE to read Parts 1-5 of the Selling with Urgency series.
FREE DOWNLOAD – Selling with Urgency: Lesson Learned from Andy Gole
Download the free MP3 to learn how to: overcome the three fatal flaws in the selling process; conduct a strong standard sales call; engage and encourage prospects to show for their intro class; and much more! CLICK HERE to download.
Joe Galea is the president of Member Solutions.
