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Written by Hamish Knox; President of Sandler in Calgary, Canada
“You don’t have to like prospecting, you just have to do it”… David Sandler
Getting them to buy from your organization is a matter of the beliefs you hold, judgments you make and (in)actions you take as leader because your people take their behavioral queues from you.
These beliefs, judgments and actions, which comprise Sandler’s Belief Wheel, result from your outlook of limitation or outlook of possibility.
Leaders with outlooks of limitation are like boat captains in a storm who order everyone below decks and hope they don’t drown.
Leaders with outlooks of possibility are the boat captains who turn into the storm understanding that they may die, but are willing to risk that for the opportunity to control their destiny.
With either outlook our beliefs (e.g. the economy sucks, no one is buying) cause us to create judgments (e.g. even if I do ask my sales team to prospect they’ll just waste their time), which creates (in)actions (e.g. I’ll tell them to work on maintaining existing clients instead of pursuing new business). Those actions create results (shockingly, no new business comes in), which reinforces our outlook, our beliefs, judgments and actions. Like exercising a muscle repeatedly over time every point on our Belief Wheel becomes almost unbreakably strong.
There are plenty of reasons to have an outlook of limitation, especially in Alberta; however, lights are still on, water is still running and businesses still need to buy products and services to operate. A client, who sells to the oil & gas industry, shared recently that a competitor of theirs is offering discounts greater than 60% for their service, yet my client has closed deals in the last two months without discounting.
My clients believe that they would prefer to be the organization their prospects buy from. Their judgement is that they provide valuable products or services that are worth the price they charge and the actions that they take are to go out and continue to prospect when their competitors are hiding below decks waiting for this economic storm to pass.
Because the lead dog sets the pace, you must change your outlook before your team changes. Changing your outlook starts with rewriting your beliefs and judgments then taking new actions and getting different results (e.g. My company will be the company our prospects buy from (belief) therefore even though my salespeople will hear “no” a lot more than they hear “yes” especially in this market I will support them so they persevere in their behaviors (judgment) so I will manage what I can control, my behavior, starting with group and individual meetings with my sales people to set expectations for behavior and role play expected responses from our prospects. (action).
If you prefer to keep your outlook of limitation you can give your organization a cash boost by firing your sales team. You’ll slowly kill them anyway with your beliefs, judgments and actions.
The status quo, especially in Alberta, is going down. Choose to be the captain that turns into the storm.
We are offering two sessions open to the public solely based on Prospecting in a Down Economy.
Register to be part of this interactive sales development session and learn how to effectively move forward and face the downturn of the economy with positivity.
Register for Monday March 14th, 2016 8AM-10AM.
Register for Wednesday March 16th, 2016 8AM-10AM
Seating is limited. Remote Video Training is available.
Until next time…go lead.
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Canadians Should Decide What to do With Their Money – Not Politicians and Bureaucrats