Selling Power Blog

Life and Leadership Principles I Learned from Grandma

Today's blog is by Herman Dixon, president and CEO of Think BIG! Coaching and Training, Inc., a professional practice that helps CEOs, entrepreneurs, leadership teams, and sales professionals maximize their goals and opportunities.

 

I never knew my paternal grandma. She passed in the early part of World War II, a few years before my birth. However, my maternal grandma, better known as “Mamie,” was indeed one of the oracles of life. What a wonderful touch of comfort she always seemed to provide at just the right time. Food…wow, she could whip up a full meal in what seemed like a matter of moments. But it was Mamie’s abilities to listen and intuitively confront the many challenges that faced her daily that have proven to be the learning principles I followed and continue to follow today.

Here are the life and leadership principles I learned from her.

1) Love is a strong medicine.

Where love exists, it is difficult to find lasting conflict or dissatisfaction. It has a way of “softening” even the most unbearable moment to make it at least tolerable. When love is given unconditionally, well, that makes it even more effective. Grandmas quite often express how this simple trait can have such incredible impact regardless of the situation. You are not excused from wrongdoing or falling short of performing in a manner that fits your capabilities; but, through it all, love stands out and you are confirmed in your assurance that someone truly cares about your hurt, your shortfall, and your celebrations regardless of size.

2) Be thankful for what you have.

My family was very modest in its accumulation of wealth. We never knew we were poor. It really never crossed our minds and spirits. However, I learned from an early age that there was always someone who was in a more dire situation than I.

My maternal grandparents were farmers. I can still remember when they got indoor plumbing at their house. That was quite a spirited day. Grandma, though, always let it be known – in her mealtime prayers and otherwise – that the family was thankful for what it had: life, food, clothing, shelter, good health, and togetherness, to name a few. She often reminded me how important it was to always, always be appreciative for the things you have. In doing so, you set the stage for what you might receive later. Her thoughts were simple: If you can’t appreciate your immediate rewards, how can you really understand and appreciate what you might produce or obtain later in life? Thankfulness helps even the most challenged person better understand that wealth and fame are more than cash in the bank or a news headline. Thankfulness is that simple characteristic that lays the foundation for life itself. Without life, what is really possible? Therefore, be thankful for what you have. It could be worse.

3) Make a positive difference in someone’s life each day.

Now, Grandma was not a Norman Vincent Peale or even a W. Clement Stone, but she was one of the most positive people I have ever experienced. She had a smile on her face and a song in her heart every day, and she did her best to convey that theme to all who came in contact with her.

Whether you are dealing with neighbors, family, business associates, or close friends, positive insight and reinforcement can sweeten the sour parts of life. Life and people are full of problems. It is when they are helped to see there can be a different viewpoint that life changes.

4) Sometimes you have to simply tell people what they don’t want to hear.

Being polite and diplomatic in approaches with others is valid – especially when issues are somewhat controversial. However, in the larger spectrum of interaction, diplomacy and politeness have their limits. Sometimes, others must come to grips with reality. In those situations, it is important to be bold – not necessarily authoritative, but bold – and address the immediate facts of life.

Many times I heard my grandmother help others face reality. It wasn’t that she was trying to be uncooperative or insulting; she just understood that, unless something was said about a particular issue (and in a timely manner), the entire situation could move toward a catastrophic climax. While those receiving the sage insight did not always appreciate the words of wisdom, I never recall a lasting protest. Rather, the impacted parties came back to convey their thanks for helping them address the “real” truth.

5) Talk is easy. Actions make the difference.

Like many prudent people should do, Grandma often listened to bold words, but she looked very closely at what various individuals did to follow through with their words. She often would tell me, “Young man, your words are your bond. If you say you will do something, you best do it!” That is sage advice. Just as Andrew Carnegie said, “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” Action truly speaks louder than words.

Grandmas are, without doubt, one of life’s great gifts. They love you, cherish the moments, and have many volumes of knowledge they can pass along to anyone who will make the time to listen. Not that their caring or insight will ever bring you fame or fortune – but their keen understanding of family, leadership, and life will simply help you see through a very different set of eyes. Maybe it’s time to stop and take a long look through the lens of a grandma. A look that just might open up new worlds of opportunity to you.

What Value Do Customers Receive from You?

Today’s post is by Jim Cathcart, author of The Self Motivation Handbook, plus 18 other books. Cathcart.com helps organizations increase sales engagement and self-motivation. Contact him at info@cathcart.com.

 

I often ask my audiences, “What do you do for your customers? How do you help them?” Audience members say they sell customers good products or provide a valuable service, but what I want to know is, what does the customer feel is worth paying for? In other words, how do you make life better for them when they buy from you?

What Do Customers Really Pay For?

If you sell cars, customers get more enjoyable driving experiences, a safer vehicle, more reliable, larger, more efficient and environmentally friendly, cooler looking, faster, more fun, or some combination of those. But they don’t buy a “car.” They buy the effect of having your car instead of their previous one.

I drive a 2003 Ford Thunderbird because I love the look and feel of the car – and the way others react to it. It’s a cool car. In fact, my license plate even says “Cool Bird” on it. I belong to the Facebook group of T-Bird owners and I take pride in keeping my 139,000-mile car looking and running good. Notice I didn’t mention price or mileage or safety ratings. I’m paying for an experience! Others have different buying reasons.

When you and I are clear on the Why behind a customer’s Yes, then we can truly appeal to their dominant buying motives. In that way, we avoid the back-and-forth over price or other details. So, start every sales contact with questions, not descriptions. Find out why they’d be interested in even considering a new purchase. Discover their pain points and unmet wishes re: your offer. Then sell to that with testimonials, documentation, demonstrations, and examples.

Far too much emphasis is placed on sales presentations. We should focus more strongly on sales dialogue, questions, and probes that get the customer talking about what they want or don’t want. Get them to tell you stories and give examples.

Collaborating with Buyers Is Valuable for Sellers

When you collaborate with buyers, they will teach you how to sell to them. Just be sure to notice how they like to get their information and how they prefer to connect with people. If they like details and documentation, then don’t skip that step – without it, they won’t trust you. However, if they prefer to have their information summarized and described with examples, then don’t bore them with documents. People trust what they prefer.

Some people want to get to know you as a person, as their provider. Others couldn’t care less about you personally; they just want you to help them buy. Learn to read the subtle messages they send and adapt to each individual. Be the kind of seller they hope you will be and you’ll get more yeses.

I once asked an executive team, “Why should you go back to work here tomorrow?” That is, other than earning a living, what is the purpose of this job or business to you? They were momentarily stunned by the question. Then they started talking about the good they did for their customers. We had a robust discussion about how their products and services gave people more peace of mind, security, and enjoyment. They told stories and shared real examples of how customers had been affected by the value received.

At the end of that discussion, everyone in the room felt more passionate about their company and their career choice. They were focused on the one thing that justifies a business: the value it provides to others. What do you do for your buyers and why it that worth paying for…to them?

Sales Enablement Confusion: How to Cut through the Noise

Today’s post is by Michelle Vazzana, CEO and a founding partner at Vantage Point Performance, a leading global sales management training and development firm. She is co-author of Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance. Vazzana is also author of Crushing Quota: Proven Sales Coaching Tactics for Breakthrough Performance.

 

Sales enablement is growing rapidly as a discipline, and so is the number of solution providers. How is a sales enablement professional supposed to make informed choices? Where does one look to find answers? Those are important questions – and, yet, there is a question that must be answered before any meaningful improvement effort can take hold: “What is sales enablement?”

In the end, isn’t sales enablement all about equipping sales forces to make more sales? Is it really as simple and basic as that?

We think it is. Here’s our definition to help sharply focus our discussion on sales enablement.

Sales Enablement: getting the right sellers to sell the right solutions to the right customers using the right sales strategy, the right sales message, and the right tools based on the buyer situations they face.

This may seem basic, but – as any sales enablement professional will attest – it’s hard to accomplish. All elements must be aligned to get the best performance and the biggest gains. Get one wrong and the entire effort is hobbled. Let’s unpack the biggest barriers that keep your sales enablement efforts from hitting pay dirt.

Barrier #1: Wrong Sales Fit

A sales force is made up of individual salespeople with varying attributes and experiences. A manager not only has to hire the right people for the job; she also has to make sure the people already on the job are the right fit for the company and sales role. If data is not used to determine the variety of selling situations salespeople face and the sales approach that works in each situation, it is virtually impossible to assess salespeople accurately. This is true for new hires as well as seasoned sellers. To determine fit, salespeople should be assessed against their natural aptitude using different sales approaches as well as their knowledge of the tactics necessary to win in different buying situations. There is no one-size-fits-all, perfect seller.

Barrier #2: Wrong Sales Support

Companies have a plethora of sales tools. The tech stack is 10 deep. Organizations spend millions of dollars building marketing messages, buying a CRM system, and building fancy dashboards to keep everyone informed – yet salespeople are not selling the right solution, to the right customer, at the right time, using the right message. Sales managers and sales leaders regularly overengineer the “sales recipe.”

Again, the answer lies in understanding the variety of buying situations sellers face and then using data to determine which sales approaches work best in those situations. The sales enablement tools should directly link to the buying situations and the sales approach used in those situations. When this approach is taken, the tech stack becomes smaller, tighter, and a lot more useful.

Barrier #3: Wrong Sales Coaching

Sales managers wield the biggest influence over the behavior and performance of their salespeople, yet few companies have dedicated sales manager training. Sales managers are equipped in much the same way as salespeople: They are taught how to sell and how to use sales tools. Then they receive general leadership training on how to coach and are expected to figure out the rest. But they don’t. In our most recent study of sales management coaching practices, 75 percent of the sales managers had less than 49 percent of their salespeople at quota. That’s a sales enablement fail.

What managers need is a way to sort through the noise, focus their salespeople’s effort, focus their coaching effort to those activities most closely related to quota, and establish consistent coaching practices. Doing this is not rocket science, but it is science – and there are identifiable, effective sales coaching practices that accomplish this.

Barrier #4: Wrong Sales Rep Training

Of all the sales enablement efforts that could (and do) go wrong, this is the perennial miss. Organizations long for consistency in the sales force and go to great lengths to accomplish it through training on single sales methodologies. This is doomed to fail, because there is no one sales approach that works in every buying situation. In fact, studies completed by Dr. Leff Bonny of the Florida State University Sales Institute found there are roughly four sales approaches that reoccur time and time again – not one. And each works only if used in the right buying situation.

Any given sales methodology – whether consultative selling (like SPIN® or Solution Selling®) or a disruptive approach like the Challenger Sale® – works in only about 25 percent of buying situations.

When Dr. Bonny studied the behavior of low, average, and high-performing sellers, some interesting findings emerged. The lowest performers did not have a consistent approach and were random in their approach to different buying situations. Average performers were much more likely to adopt a single sales approach (the one they had been trained on) to every buying situation, and they did not vary their approach. High-performing sellers adapted their approach to the different buying situations. The one-size-fits-all sales training approach equips salespeople to be merely average.

The biggest sales enablement barrier of all is not knowing which of these problems your company has. If sales enablement professionals are honest, they often don’t know. Sales enablement leaders must use data, not educated guesses, to equip their salespeople to sell the right solutions, to the right customers, and using the right sales approach, tools, and message based on the buying situations they face. Period. Do that and you will get far more of your salespeople to quota.