Success at Sales
Any kind of sales is a highly repetitive job. You do the same thing over and over. It's easy to get burnt out. Preventing burn out is a major concern and focus of mine. I have sales people who have been with me for eight to ten years. That's a long time in this business.
A lot has changed in ten years. Since I am an avid information junkie and am able to support my habit with RSS feeds and lots of other neat tools, I devote much of my time looking for tips and tricks which will rekindle the sales person who is off his game. I love doing this and delight to see the 'I get it!' look in their eyes when they understand what I am saying. Repetitive stuff is engrained in the warp and woof of my fabric because I used to practise the piano 2-3 hours daily as a kid. I have known nothing else.
Successful sales people have larger than life personalities. They have huge, easily bruised egos! Coaching these thoroughbreds is a lot like playing a Steinway grand piano. When you play anything on a Steinway, it sounds magnificent. But if you are true artist, then the sounds become magical and memorable. So you end up gently tweaking a sales close, or suggesting a slightly different approach to finding the person you need to talk to and so on. A hundred shades of grey all finely nuanced. That's what coaching a successful sales person is all about.
Training a new sales person takes oodles of patience. I'll admit to often lacking a full quotient of the patience thing. I don't suffer fools gladly and that is my Achilles' Heel. Fortunately the three other sales coaches in my office are less patient than I am! Having taught in classrooms most of my life, I have organized the training of new sales people in the same way I used to organize my English or Latin lesson plans. You teach a lesson then assess, reassess and move on to the next lesson. Once again I am drawing on all the hard-won experience gained in the past. It all comes into play in my current job.
Sales is a results oriented kind of job. You produce the numbers or you are asked to leave. That's a scary prospect for many people which is why working somewhere where you get paid just for showing up is so attractive. My sales people have 75% of their compensation riding on what they do, or don't do. I have 75% of my pay check riding on what my sales people do! You see how this all fits together? Why doesn't this freak me out? Heck! I have done this sort of tight rope walking thing my whole life. Performing live in public is a tight rope act. That's why audiences love live performances. It's the excitement of what might happen which enthralls them.
Same thing with sales. That customer who just asked you to quote him one LCD monitor may actually need 10,000 of them. You called that customer because you knew about his business. You didn't know him from Adam. But you knew his business was well-qualified and were convinced that we could be his technology solutions provider. A few well-framed calls built some trust. And so it goes. It's the excitement of the chase which drives sales people. It's the excitement of seeing sales people 'get it' which drives me. The money is cool. But making my folks successful gives me more pleasure than the money does.
I am a musician who morphed into a sales coach. I never would have thought it possible. But it happened. And I have the coolest job as a result.
