The end of the year afforded me an opportunity to look back on my columns that have been published in 2024 and pick out a few of messages that resonated the most with other sales professionals.
Is Accountability a Bad Word? In the world of sales, the word “accountability” often conjures up negative images. People tend to bristle up when the word or the subject of accountability creeps up in business conversations, especially end of year performance reviews. But I have found that it does not have to be that way. Holding oneself accountable, or really looking carefully at why somebody is holding you accountable, can be an incredibly liberating experience.
With the proper attitude, the word accountability could be much more positive. Webster’s Dictionary defines “accountability” as an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions. In “sales terms” this could mean looking honestly at your results. Were the results truly satisfactory to you, what actions did you take to get the results, and what do you have to change to generate results that will be satisfactory to you? This includes a willingness to trust a manager making overtures regarding your job performance.
To salespeople, I suggest giving your sales leader the benefit of the doubt and look upon sales coaching as an avenue to better yourself professionally and financially. To sales leaders I suggest you lead not only with your head, but your heart as well. Do not lead a sales team only to maximize sales at all costs. You should be sincerely striving to help your team find greater success in sales and to enjoy the ride.
Consider yourself lucky if you have a sales manager that holds you accountable in your work, wants to see you succeed and provides the tools and direction to help make that happen. To those experiencing a different reality, I encourage you to hold yourself accountable. It is not easy; we sometimes start listening to our own excuses for sub-par performance and rationalize that it is not our fault. This kind of internal dialogue sabotages high level performance. Do not let yourself off the hook – challenge yourself to be better.
Can Sales Really Be That Simple?
Sales can sometimes be perceived as a complex profession, but your journey through your sales career can be simplified and more profitable if you focus on these three simple thoughts.
Be Sincere: You can’t fake your way through a successful sales career. Acting like you care about a customer’s issues, acting like you’re listening during sales conversations, acting like you want to help a customer work through their project, while your real desire the whole time is to sell products and deposit commission checks is certainly one way of doing it, but I would argue that sincerity matters. You must sincerely want to help people and sincerely want to build relationships, and sincerely want to strive to be a professional. Theodore Rosevelt once said, “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care” and that is true – you can’t fake that.
Find Problems to Solve: Current dissatisfaction and future promise motivate buyers while cost and fear inhibit buyers. Ideally you want to maximize what motivates buyers and minimize what inhibits them to act. Don’t use your time in a sales call to try and sell somebody something, instead identify problems and demonstrate how you are uniquely positioned to solve the problems. This approach intuitively will start to alleviate the negative impact of cost and the fear of change on a buyer’s mindset.
Be Confident in your Price to Solve Problems: In my experience, salespeople tend to put a higher point of emphasis on price than their customers do. Although price is important, it’s rarely the main factor in a buyer’s overall decision-making process. A salesperson’s anxiety over price can cause a lack of confidence when the time comes to deliver their price to a customer. This lack of confidence can make it less likely that you ask for the sale, makes salespeople susceptible to demands by customers for discounting, price matching, etc. It reminds me of a phrase I recently heard: When you realize what you are worth, you will quit giving people discounts.
Now that’s a To-Do-List: A friend of mine had a brother named Mike, who passed away a couple of years ago. Mike had myriad physical issues and faced a never-ending battle with his health, especially the last couple of years. To say he lived a challenging life would be a vast understatement. By all accounts, Mike was a fighter and forged on despite all his challenges and was an inspiration to those that loved him. As Mike’s family was packing his belongings from his room, they noticed a To-Do-List that he kept on his wall that he could see every day and tried to live up to it. When I saw the list of ten items, I smiled and thought, that’s a hell of a list for somebody healthy, much less for somebody in Mike’s condition. On the To-Do-List were the following items: Focus, Work Hard, Be Creative, Open Your Mind, Stay Away from Drama, Enjoy the Little Things, Put In 100% Effort, Take Chances, Smile More and Breathe.
Happy selling in the new year.
