WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.250 Selling is a game of belief and confidence. 2 00:00:02.250 --> 00:00:04.200 Confidence comes from belief. 3 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:06.150 So when salespeople lose their confidence, 4 00:00:06.150 --> 00:00:09.900 there's often a reflection on what they believe to be true. 5 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:13.170 And so as a leader of a sales organization, 6 00:00:13.170 --> 00:00:17.190 you have to inject belief and confidence. 7 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:18.450 And part of the way you do that, 8 00:00:18.450 --> 00:00:20.490 particularly through uncertainty, 9 00:00:20.490 --> 00:00:23.700 is you have to hold up a compelling vision of the future. 10 00:00:23.700 --> 00:00:24.690 This is where we're going. 11 00:00:24.690 --> 00:00:26.670 You have to have clarity and confidence in that. 12 00:00:26.670 --> 00:00:30.750 And as a leader, they're looking to you and from you 13 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:33.570 to inspire that confidence. 14 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:35.040 Part of the reason, as a sales leader, 15 00:00:35.040 --> 00:00:38.310 I've always been a producer simultaneously 16 00:00:38.310 --> 00:00:40.920 is because I can prove that it's possible. 17 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:42.720 It's like, yeah, I went and did that dealer. 18 00:00:42.720 --> 00:00:44.430 Or yeah, we can sell through this season. 19 00:00:44.430 --> 00:00:47.790 Or yeah, people are excited about our value proposition. 20 00:00:47.790 --> 00:00:50.010 And I live it with my reps 21 00:00:50.010 --> 00:00:51.813 and I think that makes me, 22 00:00:53.400 --> 00:00:56.760 makes me a more authentic or believable coach. 23 00:00:56.760 --> 00:00:58.740 And so it's the doing 24 00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:00.270 and then it's the being with the people, 25 00:01:00.270 --> 00:01:03.180 but you're instilling confidence. 26 00:01:03.180 --> 00:01:06.510 And part of that is you have to hold that out there. 27 00:01:06.510 --> 00:01:08.100 This is where we're going. 28 00:01:08.100 --> 00:01:10.200 This is how we're going to get there. 29 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.140 And then you want to infuse the team and the culture 30 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:16.740 with excitement and progress and updates 31 00:01:16.740 --> 00:01:19.563 and knowledge transfer and celebration. 32 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:22.740 Selling is a competitive sport, 33 00:01:22.740 --> 00:01:25.470 and people want to feel like they're on a winning team. 34 00:01:25.470 --> 00:01:26.820 I was talking to my brother yesterday. 35 00:01:26.820 --> 00:01:28.500 He said, "I want to win, man. 36 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:30.780 Like, we got to feel like we're winning. 37 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:32.160 This is winning time." 38 00:01:32.160 --> 00:01:36.720 It draws competitive people for that particular reason, 39 00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:39.670 but people want to feel like they're, you know, it's momentum 40 00:01:40.972 --> 00:01:43.290 and it's coaching and feedback. 41 00:01:43.290 --> 00:01:47.010 And I think to be a great leader, you have to inspire 42 00:01:47.010 --> 00:01:48.840 with a compelling vision of the future. 43 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:50.490 You have to be in it with your people, 44 00:01:50.490 --> 00:01:53.400 providing real-time credible feedback. 45 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:55.860 And you have to create progress and momentum 46 00:01:55.860 --> 00:01:59.370 that people buy into and then make it fun. 47 00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:01.830 Celebrate progress. 48 00:02:01.830 --> 00:02:03.360 Develop the hell out of people, 49 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:05.280 meetings, knowledge transfer. 50 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:07.290 Sales meetings for sure should start 51 00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:09.840 with not problem identification, 52 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:13.200 but with recognition and celebration of what's going right. 53 00:02:13.200 --> 00:02:15.480 Like, you know, ring the bell, high fives, 54 00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:17.040 give the bonuses out, 55 00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:21.600 and then talk about the behavior that led to the results. 56 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:24.270 Because while you're celebrating, you're training, 57 00:02:24.270 --> 00:02:28.593 you're instilling, you're modeling the right behavior. 58 00:02:29.850 --> 00:02:32.497 I had a client recently say this, 59 00:02:32.497 --> 00:02:34.920 "Selling is the transference of passion." 60 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:36.900 Now, I believe it's the transference of belief, 61 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:38.460 but they're correlated. 62 00:02:38.460 --> 00:02:40.470 If you want somebody to believe, 63 00:02:40.470 --> 00:02:44.520 energy, excitement, enthusiasm, passion, 64 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:47.160 you know, the belief that your product, service, or solution 65 00:02:47.160 --> 00:02:48.300 really can help a client 66 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:49.950 and it's unique and differentiated, 67 00:02:49.950 --> 00:02:51.120 where does that come from? 68 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:52.710 Well, it's led by the leader. 69 00:02:52.710 --> 00:02:54.453 It's infused by the leader. 70 00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:59.490 When you look at how Satya Nadella from Microsoft 71 00:02:59.490 --> 00:03:01.110 talks about leadership, 72 00:03:01.110 --> 00:03:04.380 one, he talks about you got to model the right behavior. 73 00:03:04.380 --> 00:03:07.020 Two, he talks about you've got to generate energy. 74 00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:09.900 It's inspiration, it's energy, it's excitement. 75 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:12.810 You want people to be part of this team 76 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:13.890 and something special. 77 00:03:13.890 --> 00:03:16.710 So I'm a big fan of knowledge transfer, 78 00:03:16.710 --> 00:03:18.630 best practices sharing, 79 00:03:18.630 --> 00:03:21.210 doing that in meetings, create collaboration. 80 00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:23.043 We're all working together. 81 00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:28.880 We talk about the essence of a good teammate in the book. 82 00:03:28.950 --> 00:03:31.710 Chad has a great story about that in the book 83 00:03:31.710 --> 00:03:33.750 about when they're doing recognition. 84 00:03:33.750 --> 00:03:35.160 You know, sales is so competitive 85 00:03:35.160 --> 00:03:36.720 if you're not at the top of the leaderboard. 86 00:03:36.720 --> 00:03:39.960 He said, "I look when we're doing team recognition, 87 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:41.310 is everybody on the team happy 88 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:42.930 for the people getting recognized. 89 00:03:42.930 --> 00:03:44.460 If we had people crossing their arms 90 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:45.487 or putting their head down," he said, 91 00:03:45.487 --> 00:03:46.680 "I'll call that out immediately. 92 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:47.880 Pull somebody in my office. 93 00:03:47.880 --> 00:03:49.650 Hey, you weren't supportive of your teammate out there. 94 00:03:49.650 --> 00:03:50.670 What's going on?" 95 00:03:50.670 --> 00:03:52.470 He's like, "We're creating a team environment, 96 00:03:52.470 --> 00:03:54.090 a culture, we're winning together. 97 00:03:54.090 --> 00:03:57.270 And yes, there's individual success and accolades 98 00:03:57.270 --> 00:03:59.070 and compensation when you're out front, 99 00:03:59.070 --> 00:04:01.590 but we create that team energy and atmosphere." 100 00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:05.400 So to me, that's what sales leaders have to be doing today. 101 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:08.970 It's a combination of multiple different things. 102 00:04:08.970 --> 00:04:10.410 And then you got to pour over people 103 00:04:10.410 --> 00:04:13.083 and continue to develop their skill and competency. 104 00:04:14.040 --> 00:04:16.320 People when they believe they have the right product 105 00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:18.510 and the solution, they believe in what they're doing, 106 00:04:18.510 --> 00:04:19.830 they believe in themselves. 107 00:04:19.830 --> 00:04:21.060 I have the skill, confidence, 108 00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:23.550 competency to go out there and sell this way. 109 00:04:23.550 --> 00:04:25.890 You can unleash talent in a way that really wins 110 00:04:25.890 --> 00:04:26.820 and moves the market. 111 00:04:26.820 --> 00:04:28.560 And this is all the stuff we're trying to do 112 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.560 at ImpactEleven now in our own sales organization. 113 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:34.020 And, you know, it's the stuff we write about 114 00:04:34.020 --> 00:04:36.436 really in the second half of the book. 115 00:04:36.436 --> 00:04:39.103 (gentle music)