Sales Tips: Next Salesperson Up
By John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling®
If you’re not a resident of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts it’s very likely that you despise the New England Patriots. You are probably sick and tired of them winning the (albeit woeful) AFL East every year, believe they cheat (the inflate-gate fiasco) and feel they obnoxiously flaunt their 5 Super Bowl Championships.
As a life-long New York Giants fan living in Boston, I’ve watched Bill Belichick assemble his team each season. Whenever the inevitable injuries occur the team takes a “next man up” attitude. Most of his players are not superstars but my observation is that to a much greater degree than other coaches, Belichick has an overall defensive and offensive system in place.
By that I mean it seems that he breaks down each position, sets clear expectations for each position and evaluates how players execute his plan every week. Last season the Patriots traded Jamie Collins who was an incredibly physically gifted linebacker for a fourth round draft pick from the Cleveland Browns. The fact is that Collins was adlibbing and grandstanding in trying to make individual plays that disrupted the overall defensive scheme. Belichick wouldn’t tolerate that type of behavior and sent a strong message to the team by trading Collins to the Cleveland Browns. I don’t think it was a coincidence that he was traded to one of the weakest teams in the league.
Selling is one of the most difficult jobs in the business world. Many organizations have “A Players” that are “unconscious competents.” They are superior salespeople (top 10%) that sell intuitively. That leaves the other 90% to figure it out themselves. Unfortunately most believe they’re selling products and try to do so at low levels within organizations. They struggle to get to a point where they can sell business outcomes to senior executives that can be achieved through the use of their offerings.
“A Players” are in short supply. If and when they leave, most organizations can’t realistically take a “next salesperson up” approach.
In the same way Belichick has a system, so it is that organizations that have implemented a sales process can get much more production from sellers that have a road map and defined steps to execute. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention:
? Most “A Players” drive even higher revenue when they transition from adlibs to selling on purpose.
