OK. What the heck is BACk? A misspelling? No, it’s an acronym for “Be A Customer”. It’s great to know your product, your competition, and your industry. You may even know quite a bit about your customer and her business, but can you think like her? Can you empathize with what challenges she’s dealing with and anticipate how she may react to you or what you offer? That’s what thinking BACk is all about and when you do so, you begin to realize how silly some of our beliefs and tactics are in the sales profession.
Think BACk to a time when someone forced you to buy something. Come on now! Dig deep! No, that last succulent dessert you just had doesn’t count. The best example I can come up with is insurance. There no mortgages to be found on uninsured homes and driving without car insurance is against the law. Still, in these instances I at least had a choice of what vendor to use. Can you admit that no one forced you to buy the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the house you live in, or virtually anything else?
Technology has informed customers in ways not possible just 20 years ago. At the same time, the ancient-yet-relevant philosophy of Stoicism has made it’s way into to popular business books. These two seemingly unrelated forces are combining to change the way we, as sales people, should look at our jobs.
Can you remember a time when you needed a salesman to help you buy a computer? Heck, I might have sold you one! Retail computer buyers back in the 80’s and 90’s often didn’t know what they wanted, what they needed, or even where to start. They would slowly wander up to the electronics display, in the department store where I worked, and stare at the price tags. At the time, my goal was to entice them into a conversation about what they needed to do with a computer. Inevitably, I could then display my superior knowledge to them. This would often result in a sale because I had information they didn’t have when they walked in the door. They needed the help of someone like me in order to make a decision. Today, computers are bought online or in stores with minimal, if any intervention needed from a sales person.
Daniel Pink, in his insightful book “To Sell Is Human”, cites the availability of information as creating more of a level playing field between sales people and customers. To this day, most retail workers expect to get blown off when they ask the traditional “May I Help You?” The difference from when I was in retail in the 1990’s is that now, the customer often is not lying. They DON’T need our help.
If you think this change doesn’t apply to B-to-B, think again. Do you find yourself being brought in later and later in the decision-making process? If so, it’s because they don’t perceive a need for your “expertise”. No one wants their time wasted by someone telling them what they already know. Don’t take it personally. It’s just a fact of life! Today, I find myself selling the added-value of what I do for my customers just as much as my product itself. Sure, there are times when they think they don’t need our help and they actually do. That’s why we have jobs. Regardless of who we THINK has the leverage in any sales situation, there is (and some would argue always has been) one person in charge of the customer’s decision process – the customer.
Thinking back to your house, car, or any other major purchase you’ve made, who is ultimately responsible for making your payments? You, of course. The bank doesn’t care how friendly, how knowledgeable, or how sly your sales person was. The choice to buy the house was, and continues to be, on you. In the corporate world, I’ve seen executives lose their jobs over bad choices with vendors. Once, when I sold software, I had an exec blow up in anger over a price negotiation. Yes, I did eventually close the sale, but soon thereafter the exec was working for a new company.
Just as access to information is giving customers the ability to make better decisions, we are realizing the power to decide may have always been theirs alone. The Stoic philosophers like Seneca and Marcus Aurelius wrote about the power of choice. All any of us control is our ability to make choices. We choose not only what to do but how to feel. Your customer does the same. At our absolute best, we are merely influencing our customer’s decision. Ryan Holiday has written two excellent books: “The Obstacle is the Way” and “Ego is the Enemy” that very nicely summarize Stoicism into a modern-day context.
Of course, in sales, we take credit for as much good news as possible. The bad news is that when we do this, due to customer free will, we lie to ourselves. The customer made the buying decision – not us. Again, think like a customer, not a sales person. You likely researched the last car you bought by looking at reviews, blue book values, and CarFax reports. In doing so, you essentially sold it to yourself. Ironically, as you pulled out of the parking lot, the sales person probably bragged about how he “closed” you.
When our sales are down, things get a little more complicated. We may cite all the factors out of our control to the boss. All the while, we feel the shame of not seizing control like we were taught in sales training. The good news? Due to customer free will, we are rarely fully responsible for our bad numbers either. Can you improve your craft and therefore your results? Along with all the rest of us, yes! Just don’t expect to ever be able to quantify that improvement ahead of time. Does the perfect sales presentation ever guarantee a sale will be made? Only one person knows the answer. Your customer.
Regards,
Meaning2work
5 Reasons Why A Day In Sales Is Like A Trip to A Public Restroom
5 Reasons why a day in sales is like a trip to a public restroom:
1. You may not WANT to begin the process – you MUST. Otherwise, something imminently bad will happen.
2. When others sense what you’re doing they quickly make efforts to get away from you.
3. Sometimes you must strain and push to get what you want accomplished.
4. You never look forward to doing it, but, being done provides a definite sense of relief.
5. Afterward, it’s essential to wash your hands of the whole activity and go about the rest of your life.
The moral of the story? In this job, people will often think you are full of $h!t. Rest assured, if you’ work hard enough, you can always prove them wrong!
Calling All Sales People: Do You Feel Safe?
“Your Fired!” It’s a phrase that we go to great lengths never to hear. How safe is your job in sales? According to Simon Sinek in his bestselling book, “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t“, good managers make their employees feel safe. In other words, their teams feel free to do their jobs, speak honestly, and ask for help
when they struggle.
Accord to Sinek, managers need to create a “Circle of Safety” for their teams. In such an environment, underperformance is not met with reprimand but instead with true concern for the employee’s struggles. Imagine if, when your sales numbers are waning, your boss calls and says “It looks like you might be having a rough time. How can I help?” When delivered in earnest, this message engenders trust. Your manager is on your side wanting to help you. Instead, most of us get a variation on “Why aren’t you selling more?” or “Why are you making me look bad?” Just in case you are wondering, a “How can I help” followed by a “Why aren’t you selling more” is not a genuine offer of safety.
Here are some of my favorite safety-killing sales manager statements:
“My expectation is…”, “The company’s expectation is…”
You name the sales metric. It doesn’t matter. Sales people need to know how to complete the task, why they are doing it, and what will happen if they don’t. Their managers need the courage to elaborate. Sometimes the difference between realistic and unrealistic request is an explanation of how it will be accomplished within the framework of a sales person’s busy day. An explanation reassures the employee, “I respect you, your time, and what you want to accomplish.”
The second component is “why”. Does accomplishing this task help me sell more product and make my job more secure? Or, does it simply benefit my manager or someone higher up the chain? Fear and tension arise when salespeople are continually asked to do things that serve them no direct benefit. These tasks, however small, add up and siphon away their time to do what is ultimately asked of them-to sell. Therefore sales people appreciate knowing the consequences of not doing something, especially if it results in lower sales.
“I can’t protect you if…”
The very phrase, “I can’t protect you” implies that you, the sales person, already have no protection. Consider the reprimand, “If you continue to turn your expense report in a day late, I can’t protect you from what might happen.” Conditional protection is not protection. Would you say to your child, “If you don’t get good grades, I cannot protect you from sexual predators?”
Should making a mistake on a company report, like in the movie Office Space, result in a career-altering reprimand? The proper response would be to ask the employee why they are struggling, listen to their answer, and ask how they can help. Why should reps be asked to do anything that takes away from their selling time with no return on investment?
He or She “left the company.”
When an employee leaves your company, are you given an explanation? I didn’t think so. I know corporate HR execs and attorneys will emphasize employee privacy and corporate liability as the reason for this secrecy. Not being a legal expert, I do know that laws can be interpreted in many ways and even changed once in a while.
Regardless of how restricted companies truly are in sharing the circumstances around people leaving the company, we cannot deny the consequences. From a sales person’s perspective, having someone leave your company draws immediate concern. Did she find a better job? Am I wasting my time staying here? How bad were his sales numbers? Could this happen to me? Hiding any information from employees only serves to make it appear more important. Can you fault sales people for wondering what happened to John or teammates?
“We need to talk about your numbers.”
Safe? I’ve worked for managers that would tell you that the purpose of a sales quota is to prevent you from feeling safe at all. Whether or not sales people require aggressive sales quotas is a discussion for another day. The fact remains, they have them. Is there any way to avoid this reality? Not in sales! Again, think about what the effect is on you. Do you spend more time covering yourself vs. doing actual selling? All of us need food to survive, can you imagine someone consistently reminding you of this? The problem is not that we are being asked to do something challenging. Rather, it’s that management looks at sales people as investments and not people. The minute our revenue outlook goes south, they look to offload us for a better bet.
To be fair, our managers may also feel a distinct lack of safety in their roles. Sadly, our profession has, for years, built itself into a perform or die culture. Think back to the best leaders that you’ve worked with in the past. Chances are, they made you feel secure enough to take a risk and try something new. After all, don’t we grow by taking chances and risking failure?
Before you dismiss the idea of safety as idealistic, nonproductive nonsense, check out the examples in Sinek’s book. He cites several examples of companies who are treat their employees like they’re more important than the revenue they generate and make handsome money doing it. To dive deeper into the concept of safety and leadership, be sure to check out the book on Amazon.
Sincerely,
Meaning2work