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Written by Hamish Knox; President of Sandler in Calgary, Canada
Creating accountable, sales focused organizations in Calgary
Humans seek certainty, but selling is contextual. There are no “magic phrases” that “always close the sale” because words that are highly attractive to one person may be highly repulsive to the next. Unfortunately, too many salespeople tend to grab onto their favorite hammer in their sales tool kit and start bashing it against every person they meet hoping that one of them will be a nail.
Professional salespeople use their sales tool kit like a set of interlocking plastic blocks. They use the right block for the right context to build a tower from “hello” to “look forward to working with you.”
“But that sounds haaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrdddddd!” your salespeople will say. Right. So is being a professional in other contexts like sports, arts and medicine.
A sales tool kit made up of interlocking plastic blocks instead of hammers has the following features:
- It is client focused instead of salesperson focused – hammer-based salespeople use the words “I” and “my” as in “my company/product” more often than “you” as in “how does PROBLEM affect your company? How does that affect you, personally?”
- It has a structure, but is flexible – hammer-based salespeople attempt to bend the context to their tool instead of leveraging their tool to the context. Flexibility doesn’t mean “spineless.” If a prospect wants to put your salesperson’s blocks together upside down your salesperson has the right to say, “that won’t work, are you open to an alternative?”
- It is continually growing – hammer-based salespeople seek a bigger head or stronger handle. Block-based salespeople are regularly strengthening their current blocks and adding new ones that fit. Sometimes a block might not appear to fit at first, but these salespeople see the value in that block and work with their support network to make it fit.
When you’re looking at the development of your sales team as yourself if you’ve got a bunch of hammer throwers, successful or not, or if you’re building a team with a treasure chest full of blocks for most of the contexts they will experience that will grow as they experience new situations.
With a treasure chest full of interlocking plastic blocks for your team to use you’ll create success by design and reduce the time your new salespeople take from day one to superstar.
Until next time… go lead.
Upcoming Sandler Free Webast
Communication with Skill for Positive Outcomes
When: Tuesday August 14, 2018
Time: 12.00PM MT
Sandler Training is pleased to present its Communicating with Skill for Positive Outcomes webcast on August 14th at 12 PM MT. The host, Mike Montague, and featured Sandler trainer David Hiatt will reveal the powerful communication tactics business leaders around the world need to deploy.
From the Board Room to the Living Room, relating to people is an important skill.
Designed for Salespeople & Leaders
In this educational webinar you’ll learn:
- How to improve relationships, deepen conversations, move past drama and games and achieve more positive outcomes in the workplace – and at home.
- How to master the art of mutual agreement as you ask better questions and become a better listener
Mastering effective communication is a lifelong process but, at any point in time, there is room for improvement for even the most accomplished communicators.
Free online event. Limited Seating.
BONUS: Registrants will be sent a complimentary digital sample chapter of From the Board Room to the Living Room via email.
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