The essence of building a remarkable sales team can be encapsulated in the classic “stonecutter short-story.”

There are several versions of the story, and several ways to interpret its timeless lessons. It powerfully illustrates the importance of perception in your approach to your business, relationships with your team and clients.  Do you see yourself as busting rocks, earning a living, or leaving a legacy? And what difference does your view of things make?, this story demonstrates that there is great value in seeing the bigger picture.

One day a traveler, walking along a lane, came across three stonecutters working in a quarry. Each was busy cutting a block of stone. Interested to find out what they were working on, the traveler asked the first stonecutter what he was doing. “I am cutting a stone!” Still no wiser the traveler turned to the second stonecutter and asked him what he was doing. “I am cutting this block of stone to make sure that it’s square, so I can make a living.” Still unclear, the traveler turned to the third stonecutter. He seemed to be the happiest of the three and when asked what he was doing, he replied: “I am building a temple.”

So what’s the point here?

That your experience depends on how you hold things in your mind – and it’s one of the keys for going from good to great.

The current economy is tough; there’s just no question about that.

But the question is this:  Are you struggling in a lousy economy (chipping away at a large block of stone) or are you searching for ways to be as nimble and flexible as possible to adapt to new realities? Are you resentful of customers and clients who now seem to have the upper hand because they hold the cards, or are you upping your game to a whole new level of authentic relationships (building a temple)?

Even in the toughest of economic times, people don’t stop spending money, which means businesses don’t have to stop making money.  They may, however, have to do some things differently and be willing to make some fundamental shifts in the way they view what’s going on.

Willingness to Adapt

The traditional vendor-customer relationship is a thing of the past. Buyers have unprecedented access to Information, and the next vendor is just a click away.

Things are also being automated at an unprecedented rate.  According to Dan Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind – Abundance, Automation and Asia (outsourcing) are turning the business landscape on its head.

Many companies have failed to make the necessary adaptations to successfully compete in the new world order and the new economy.

As it turns out, Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory is not confined to biology. Some of the most valuable lessons can be learned from the companies that made the endangered species list during past times of economic strife in America. .

Great companies  adapt to the current climate,  They evolve, and they continue to grow for generations. They prepared properly by making wise but difficult decisions – where to focus, what to sacrifice, who to empower, how to leverage what they have, and how to maintain a winning mindset during a period increasingly characterized by failure.

So which is it for you?

Joe

For young companies looking to grow their business, the most important thing they should know is that there is a process for winning sales and building sales teams, and it starts with mindset.

Putting mindset before process is what we call the Achievement Model. The Achievement Model establishes that, with the right mindset, almost any set of processes aimed at developing new business will work.

Create Long-term Relationships by Enrolling Clients

So how do you develop the right mindset that will help you win sales? Think in terms of enrolling clients, as opposed to closing deals. When you have the enrolling mindset, you are acting as their partner instead of their vendor. You are providing value because you understand their larger outcomes (their ultimate or ends needs), rather than just their immediate problem (the means to the end). By contrast, if you close the deal, you close the door on future opportunities.

The enrolling mindset allows you to differentiate your company in a very meaningful and personal way. Once you’ve discovered the prospect’s ends needs, you will be able to demonstrate that you have a solution that matches – or that you don’t. People will always respect you for seeing the issue from their side of the table, even if it means you won’t get the sale this time. If the opportunity isn’t there this time, you will have built trust for next time. And when you do have a solution that helps them toward their ends needs, your enrolling mindset will turn the potential one-off prospect into a long-term client.

Build Winning Teams by Enrolling Salespeople

The Achievement Model works for building sales teams, as well. That’s because hiring salespeople works exactly the same way as selling prospects. Only, when you are trying to attract talent, they are selling you as much as you are selling them. Why is it important that you sell them on you? Given the high cost of turnover, you want to hire people who have bought in to your company’s vision, who are not simply temporary. Likewise, you want to understand what they really need, so that you determine whether you can give them the opportunities to be successful over the long term.

The Process of Peeling the Onion

Let’s say you have the enrolling mindset. How do you go about discovering the ends need?

We refer to the process of discovering the ends need as “peeling the onion.” Peeling the onion is the ability to ask probing business questions that peel back the layers of what others first say they need, down to what they actually need, and why.

For example, let’s say you work for a computer hardware company. Your prospect tells you that he needs a new server because his old one is off-lease and at the end of its shelf life. While you might be tempted to pull out a quote for a new server, instead you take the time to ask a series of questions about the business and the ultimate goals of the business owner. You discover that several aspects of his core business functions run on an ASP model (he manages customer data, inventory and bookkeeping online), and he has been thinking about taking his company virtual, so that he can be home when his kids come home from school. Having peeled the onion, you can make a recommendation that he should not buy a new server from you. Instead, he should consider a hosted solution for all of his applications, eliminating the need for a server. If your company offers the hosted solution, so much the better for you. But if not, he will certainly welcome your call next time you have hardware recommendations.

Peeling the onion works in team-building as well. In our company, a major factor in hiring salespeople is how well candidates try to discover our ends needs. More than anything else, we want to see their ability to question. Do they go into rote presentation mode, or do they use the Socratic method to discover the deeper forces driving us, of which possibly we were not even aware? Do they accept what we say we want, or do they keep probing?

Life is Sales

In life, we trust those who can demonstrate that they understand what we need, and why. If they can make a good case for why they can help us reach it, we know we have a fit. Your prospects and your potential sales hires are no different. Develop an enrolling mindset, and back it with a process for discovering ends needs, and you will position your company for long-term, sustainable growth.

Be Your BEST,

Joe

The 28 variables of Sales Growth:

1)     Sales Strategy

2)     Customer Gradation

3)     Account Planning

4)     Client Experience Defined

5)     Strategic Account Planning

6)     Lead Generation Program

7)     Sales Talent

8)     Sales Productivity

9)     Hiring

10)   Sales Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

11)   Sales Management

12)   Training

13)   Self-Directed

14)   Sales Structure

15)   Sales Process

16)   CRM

17)   Accountability

18)   Business Metrics

19)   Compensation Plan

20)   Communication Schedule

21)   Reporting

22)   Environment

23)   Culture

24)   Career Path

25)   Communication

26)   Morale

27)   Teaming

28)   Trust Quotient (TQ)

More later on what to do with them… but one question: are you YOUR best with them all yet?

Joe

Are you missing your goals?

Are you having trouble managing your sales team?

Do you need more sales leads?

Then I have a few more questions for you:

• How many times have you heard your clients say they can’t live without you?

• How many times have you gotten a referral without even asking?

If these aren’t common occurrences, then maybe it’s not a sales issue. Maybe you need to define a clear and consistent client experience…

Check out page 7 of the fall addition of  The Partner Channel Magazine.

Give your clients YOUR best!

Recently one of our newest clients’ CEO told his team to have no F.U.D.?

Now I am slow on the uptake and perhaps everyone in the world has heard this term used before… but for the uninformed like me – here we go:

F is for FEAR

U is for UNCERTAINTY

D is for DOUBT

To show you how late to the game I am, FUD has it’s own wikipedia page already – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

So why bring this back up?

Because its a great way to frame out what we all have from time to time…

Unless…

You are committed, clear, and confident in your own direction.

And if you can build this clarity and certainty in a direction to ultimately build community.

We are ALL only as strong as the team of people around, above us, below us…

Moreover we are ALL only as strong as our network of past clients, current clients and soon to be clients.

If you truly believe you are adding value to your clients in a MASSIVE way – then your resolve can easily be built.

But if you are uncertain if your clients couldn’t live without you… then your sales people aren’t missing goal because of them… (hard truth coming) it’s you!

Stop blaming your sales people only… you wouldn’t even need more leads if your clients were so happy that they were your sales people and telling the world about you (more on this later).

In any event, have no F.U.D. and stick with the C’s – CLARITY, CONFIDENCE, COMMUNITY, CERTAINTY, CONSISTENCY, & COMMITMENT.

Be YOUR best!