Great Salespeople Win When Times Are Hard

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

With all the AI and all the tools and all the things coming into the training, the LD and the coaching space, the one thing that we cannot forget are our objectives. What are we trying to accomplish? And recently, about two months ago, I was in a meeting with the sales organization and they kept telling me what I didn't understand. And fundamentally, I just sat there and I was really curious as to the reactions I was getting. Let me tell you why. Not a client, at least not yet, underperforming.

Objectives Over Shiny Tools

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Weren't hitting their numbers. The team collectively was about 15 percentage points behind goal. Not one person said, here's what I'm doing to improve. Most of the people literally yelled or barked at me. I didn't understand the industry. So finally, at the end, and I have multiple examples of this, but at the end, I finally said, you know what, everybody? I don't understand your industry, but I do know one thing. And I don't want to hear a rebuttal. I don't want to hear anyone to combat or counter this. Let me just finish. Good salespeople, great salespeople, sell successfully during tough times. No more than two seconds later, a guy goes, Well, you don't understand. That's not what we're saying. Finally, someone in the room goes, you know what, everybody? That is kind of what we're saying. We've come up with every reason not to hit our numbers. We've brought up price gouging, being undercut, the marketplace, and their marketplace is down. There's no getting around that. But this is a time to differentiate yourself.

Confronting An Underperforming Team

SPEAKER_00 1:51

And I've come in here as a guest, and all I've heard is I don't understand. You know what? You're right. I don't understand. I don't have to understand. But you understand, yet your numbers are the ones that are down. I was invited here for a reason. So you have a choice. And I'm going to share something with you that's going to really piss people off. We all need sales egos. It's a tough business. And by the way, I'm in your business of at least selling. I have to sell, but I also have to deliver. And I've never had a year of income, and I gave my income under that amount ever in the last 20 years. And I have to deliver what I sell. And this is an organization that was selling equipment. You don't have to build the equipment, you don't have to deliver the equipment per se. So you actually have more time to sell than me. And you could see the facial express expressions change. I said, look, I'm not throwing out my income to impress you. That's not my point. But do you honestly think that coaching and training is at the top of everybody's list? So you have to find a way to be successful, or you have to find, or you will find, a way to not be successful. It's that simple. My favorite book, one of my two favorite books, is Grit by Angela Duckworth. And I believe that we have to have sales grit. Grit is guts, resilience, intensity, tenacity. It is passion and perseverance over a period of

Ego, Accountability, And Grit

SPEAKER_00 3:25

time where there's ultimately, inevitably, change and challenge. If we come up with reasons why someone doesn't understand in our income is at the mercy of the almighty economy, do you give the economy credit when things turn around or do you take credit? I could see the facial expressions change even more. I said, so remember ego. And my book stands for eroding growth opportunity. When times are tough, oh, do you have a wonderful opportunity? But if you're gonna bitch and moan, that's great. That's your choice. And by the way, for those of you who say, I don't understand your industry, I contend by the reactions in this room, you don't understand what I just said. So you have a choice right now to be vulnerable, not to say I need help, but if you are doing the same thing and not getting results, that's the almighty definition of insanity. Not getting results, doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. That's insanity. So you have to ask yourself a question: what are you doing to turn things around? What are you doing differently? Now, I want to introduce you to a concept called sales aware. We have built what we believe is the first customer-driven coaching platform for salespeople. And what it does is it elevates sales awareness. And there's one element, one entity, one source that salespeople will listen to, and that's the customer. So what we've

Rethinking Blame And Ownership

SPEAKER_00 5:01

done is reverse-engineered, because salespeople go through product training, sales training, they go through negotiation skills training, they go through coaching, hopefully from their manager, all of these things. What if the customer was actually giving insight to their experience on an ongoing basis that allows salespeople to auto adjust, to change quickly, to adapt to the overall feedback of their customers? Wouldn't that lead to higher performance, better behaviors, and increased sales? If this intrigues you, reach out to me. Tim at progresscoachingleader.com just put on the subject line sales aware.