Franklin Covey built a whole industry out of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” and others have followed in his steps.
For example, what about the strategies of the highly effective salesperson? What makes him different and why does he stand out from the pack? Here are the seven strategies:
• Effective salespeople look to the customer for the solution. This may seem like a ridiculous statement; yet, effective salespeople operate by it intuitively. The major “product” they bring to the table is what they know about customers, not what they are selling.
It’s the same in every industry. Too many of those in sales like to think of themselves as “solution experts.” What they fail to recognize is that the solution rests with the customer, not with the salesperson. The customer knows the issues and understands the problems. What the customer needs is a way to make the solution a reality.
• Effective salespeople are committed to presentation improvement. Most salespeople think they are much better presenters than they are.
Having said that, effective salespeople can be excellent presenters if they work at it. Carmine Gallo, a business communications coach and former TV journalist, analyzed Steve Jobs’ introduction of Apple’s iPhone. One of the comments had to do with practice. Writing in Business Week, he said, “Jobs makes presentations look effortless because he takes nothing for granted. Jobs is known to rehearse demonstrations for hours prior to launch events.”
• Effective salespeople embrace new ideas. In “We Are Smarter Than Me,” Barry Libert and Jon Spector tell of A.G. Lafley’s arrival as chairman and CEO at P&G in 2000. “He stunned his prideful researchers,” all 9,000 of them, when he said that they were not producing enough winners to meet the company’s growth goals. Then he shocked this vaunted group when he told them that “by the end of the decade, fully half of all new P&G products and technologies would have to come from outside the company.”
Lafley set into motion a system of sharing information, leveraging retired scientists and engineers, and tapping into Innocentive, the network of more than 100,000 technical people from nearly 200 countries who receive cash awards if their ideas pay off.
According to one report, fully 35 percent of P&G’s ideas were coming from outsiders by 2006. Equally important, the company’s R&D productivity zoomed up 60 percent, while 80 percent of the company’s new product launches are successful, compared with the 30-percent industry average.
The point: salespeople make themselves irrelevant by failing to see change as opportunity.
• Effective salespeople focus on helping. Customers today know when they are being hustled.
Toward the end of the year, a business owner received a call from a business-equipment company salesperson indicating that the cost of color copier supplies would be nearly tripling within a few weeks. “If you want to order at the current price, we have a supply in inventory,” he said.
Whatever the facts, how did the message sound? Candidly, like someone who was trying to make his numbers by year’s end. There were no explanations, no options, and no suggestions.
• Effective salespeople possess a customer-relationship vision. If you have ever bought a life insurance policy, chances are you didn’t hear from the salesperson again. This is an example of the “just get the fish in the boat” mentality. Their focus is on making the sale, not on creating a relationship that has a long-term potential.
• Effective salespeople see themselves as marketers. The holiday greeting card arrived in the mail with a photograph of a group of employees on the outside. Over the photo were the words, “Season’s Greetings From Our Team.”
Was the card anything other than a friendly gesture? Perhaps not. At the same time, it may reflect the underlying attitude of so many businesses and particularly a large group of salespeople. We say that it’s “all about the customer,” but what comes through is quite a different message – it’s really all about us.
• Effective salespeople pull customers ever closer. Why does Toyota sell more vehicles every year? The 2007 J.D. Power Customer Retention Study offers insight into Toyota’s success. “Toyota maintains its high retention rates by providing high-quality vehicles and service to its existing customers,” says J.D. Power’s Neal Oddes, “which in turn generates favorable word-of-mouth recommendations that attract new customers.” The report indicates that 64 percent of Toyota’s customers say they are staying with the nameplate.
When it comes to selling, the major task for the highly effective salesperson is not to meet or beat the numbers, but to hone those qualities that deliver the right results. •
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing and sales consulting firm. He can be reached at j_graham@graham.com.
