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Stjepan Werft is a management coach and
sales trainer living in Croatia. He is one of the "first generation" of systemic
coaches that we trained in Europe, and one of the most diligent in applying systemic
coaching to his career in management and sales coaching. Martyn Carruthers
The Origin of Sales Success
I live in a small country where almost 90% of our
economy relies on wholesale and retail sales. From this statement one could
say that all of the people in this country are born salesmen. But that is very
far from the truth. Most of them are in a sales business because such work was
easier to get (most job positions on the market are in sales) or because they
had no other chances.
Typical sales people are neither motivated
nor competent. Many of them learn through "trial and error" or they
model co-workers on the job. If they are lucky, their company pays
for some kind of sales training. But most learning opportunities go to waste
because of shaky or absent sales foundations.
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People buy what they want, not what they need.
Martyn Carruthers
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Are you Really a Sales-Person?
What is the foundation for successful sales? What
is the core structure in every good salesman that enables long-term and
sustainable success in sales? As with other areas of life, the answer lies
behind the ancient question, "Who am I?"
That is the origin of our beliefs and values, our
creativity and intrinsic motivation. Our emotions are derived from that source
and they are drivers of our behaviors. The last part of us is our rational mind
? a place where all our decisions and choices come from and where we solve
problems of everyday life. We are often very aware of the thoughts and rational
decisions, but our emotions and where they come from stay hidden from us.
A very simple example is when a young salesman
gets in action. Is he aware of his fears? No! He can do everything...until he
has to make a "cold" call to a potential client. All sorts of emotions and
blocks surface at that moment. Most of them hinder him in making a successful
sales call. Many of inexperienced salesman never jump over that hurdle, but they
manage to find a good excuse or rationale for their failure. Sounds familiar?
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The creation of a thousand forests is in one
acorn.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Five Factors of Sales Success
There are many factors that influence sales
success, from the early-childhood development to the environmental influences,
beliefs handed down from parents, education, birth order, among others. The
following factors are likely to strongly influence your sales success:
- Your view of Selling
- Your view of your Abilities
- Your Values
- Your commitment to Activities
- Your belief in Product
All five of these dimensions must be congruent
for you to sell to your highest potential. If you try to sell a product or
service that conflicts with your inner values, or that you don't believe it
creates value for customer, you'll experience inner conflicts. Likewise, if you
don't believe you have the abilities to do it, the same result will happen to
you.
- View of Selling is your internal belief about
what the process of selling really is. Is it something you do to people, or
something you do for them? Is it process of persuading and convincing? Or
one of identifying wants or needs to be filled? Your internal definition of
selling plays a major role in your work as a salesman.
- View of Abilities is your internal belief
about who you are, how capable you are, and what levels of success you
deserve to enjoy. We all have our internal set of beliefs about what's
possible for us to achieve. Our unconscious beliefs are so powerful that
they blind us to opportunities, results and goals that are outside our
current mental paradigms.
- Values are the rules or internal
guidelines by which we live our lives. They determine the boundaries of our behavior
- they define what you will do and what you won't do. Often,
salespeople are asked to do selling activities that conflict with their
values and that creates internal stress. But when they perform consistent
with their values, they perform with energy and confidence.
- Commitment to Activities means performing the
necessary activities that must be done in order to successfully sell. If we
are goal-driven salespeople, who have healthy view of selling, who believe
they have the abilities to sell successfully, and whose beliefs are
consistent with their values, want to do the necessary activities.
- Belief in Product occurs when salespeople
believe that what they are selling gives customer value that exceeds the
cost. As this belief is internalized, it becomes a conviction that then
motivates them to create as much value for customer as they can. A sense of
integrity, or authenticity, is then subliminally communicated to customer.
Trust develops. Salespeople sell more. Customers are happier and more loyal.
So, the next time you experience a drop in sales,
look inside yourself first. Examine and assess these five dimensions. See what
can be done to improve sales from within. And then you won't need to rationalize
your failure and blame difficult customers, poor products or unfavorable market
conditions.
Why not let your sales flourish in a
systemic way? I coach motivated people to develop these five dimensions and then
to find or build their inner salesperson.
(This Sales Congruence Model is based on Ron
Willingham's book "Integrity Selling for the 21st Century")
Do you want
to benefit from my experience?
Corporate
Coaching
As technology improves, customers have less incentive
to repeat business, unless they prefer quality and value to convenience. Computerized
automation is replacing customer loyalty with ease of access. Supportive human
communication will likely retain a competitive edge over automation, at least until
computers can mimic realistic human personalities and emotional communication.
We help people develop effective human communication!
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Stjepan Werft 2009-2012
All rights reserved.
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