What do all salespeople have in common? Seriously, what is the one thing you can say about all salespeople 100% of the time at Scorecard Sales? I’m not just talking about salespeople who are effective; I mean your best performers and your worst performers. Understanding salespeople is a tough challenge, and if you are struggling to find the answer, you needn’t be embarrassed. The certain rule is this: All salespeople always want to feel successful. Tall or short, fancy or ordinary, upside down and inside out, what is completely true about salespeople? It’s a tough question and if you are struggling to find the answer you needn’t be embarrassed because most everyone else struggles too. It’s the reason why we have such a hard time connecting with and understanding salespeople. Give up? The 100%, bonfire, no exceptions, steadfast, certain rule about all salespeople is this: All salespeople always want to feel successful. Doesn’t that just blow your mind?!? Well, probably not because, well, duh. And yet, do you really understand what this means?
This elemental rule is extremely important because the whole reason why your sales team is even at your company is that they either believe they are or will be soon, successful. It is this belief that drives almost everything that they do. Think about it, would you take on any job yourself if you didn’t believe you could be successful at it? So much is true also in life, but let’s stay focused on our sales team. This is important because if we all understood and agreed on what success is, managing and working with our sales teams would be a lot easier. You would realize that every day the salesperson arrives at work is a day that they want to feel successful and they are always looking for ways to achieve that. If we all agreed on what success is, managing teams would be a lot easier. This alignment is a core part of our integrative sales improvement process. If you really want to be understanding salespeople.
Here are the 5 most important questions you can ask them about success:
- How do you define success? – Don’t settle for any answer that resembles achieving a sales goal. That’s a means to an end. What you really want to know is what that gets them and how does it make them feel.
- How close are you to the success that you want to achieve? Rarely, if ever, will a salesperson tell you that they have peaked. It’s good to get a sense of their expectations because, depending how close or far they feel from their sense of success, you will have a better sense of what they might be struggling with.
- What do you believe you are capable of achieving? Get them to consider their potential and visualize their dreams. This vision-casting is a key element of professional sales coaching.
- What is your most immediate critical goal? Success is a series of steps. This focus is a major component of our B2B sales training programs.
- What are you critical actions? Again, they may try to placate you by telling you what they think you want to hear, but the point is to get them to critically think about their recipe for success and hear themselves say it in their own words. This will often dial in their compass so they stay pointed towards success.
By asking these questions, you dial in their compass. If your organization needs help with sales methodology training or broader sales consulting services, our team can help bridge the gap between individual and company goals. Ready to align your team for maximum impact? Request a quote for a management strategy session today.
