Some of you may be reading my series, “Why I’m So Interested In Selling.” I have several dozen stories so far, releasing a few each day. Everyone that’s responding is an extreme high performer. They come from varied industries ranging from motorcycles and extreme sports, professional services, software/SaaS. medical devices, semiconductors, industrial products and others. The organizations they represent are early-mid stage to giants in their sectors. Some have run multi-billion sales organizations and companies, some are managing their own territories selling millions a year. They come from all parts of the world.
But as you read through their individual stories, some common themes start to emerge.
One of them is they are viciously efficient. They are very protective of their time, impatient with wasting any time on work that doesn’t pay-off. They disqualify deals that aren’t in their sweet spot, they are driven to use their and their customers’ time well. They leverage whatever tools, techniques, methodologies, processes that make them more efficient.
At the same time, they are viciously focused on doing the work. They recognize there are no hacks, shortcuts to producing results. They recognize their effectiveness is based on their ability to connect, with impact, with their customers. They recognize they maximize their value through deep understanding of their customers’ business, working with them creating value in every interaction. They recognize they are working with human beings struggling not only with their day jobs, but making changes they have little experience in doing.
And what drives these top performers is the joy of doing the work, knowing that’s what produces results. As one person said, “Selling completes me….”
And this is what I think so many others miss about selling. We focus too much on shortcuts, hacks. We focus too much on efficiency–but too often it’s efficiency on the wrong things. Too much of the focus is oriented to avoiding doing the work. We don’t understand the customer business and what drives them. We have no interest or understanding of their problems–rather focusing on presenting our products, expecting customers to do the hard work. We fail to recognize the humanity of selling and the importance of connecting with people in meaningful ways. We are proud of the volume of activities we do, even though they fail to produce the outcomes needed. We seem to do everything possible not to do the work.
And the irony is, it’s doing the work that brings the greatest joy to these top performers.
Keep looking at their stories. I’ve published about 10, but there are dozens more to come. And while they are very different, the common themes include being viciously efficient, viciously focused on doing the work. And they do this because it produces the outcomes they seek to achieve and for the great joy they get in the process.
Not a bad mindset!
Here’s the link to the articles: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/why-im-so-interested-in-selling/
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