Selling by Systems not Sweat
Selling by Systems not Sweat
The first man was an eager and energetic fellow. He got two large buckets and started going back and forth from the village to the well below. He sold the water at a handsome price and was motivated by the rewards of the immediate cash he received. He brought his sons on board to the venture and made as many trips as possible to sell his water.
The second man was not heard from. People from the village wondered what had happened to him. There was plenty of speculation about what might have happened to him. Over time, the village wrote him off.
However, one day, there was an air of jubilation in the village square. The second man appeared. He was having a grand opening that day. He recounted how he attacked the problem of bringing water to the village. When he was enlisted, he immediately went to work. He spent his own money and started building a pipe which would transport water from the well below to his village. Now he was celebrating the completion of that pipe by turning on the spicket.
Immediately, he charged half as much as the guy carrying the buckets. The village could have all the water they wanted when they wanted.
The man carrying the buckets had to react and cut his prices and work twice as hard to compete. Meanwhile, the man who built the pipes patented his pipe design. He met with village leaders nearby and afar and had pipes built for them with handsome business rewards.
Systems or Sweat?
The question then is, “Are you carrying buckets or building pipes?” These are two vastly different mentalities. Yet, sales people can be observed approaching sales one of the two ways: Working towards only what they can see in front of them or building something that will produce a predictable result.
Companies know that most sales people are bucket carriers. Driving motivation by the proverbial carrot only feeds the bucket mentality. Invariably, the salesperson is working hard in their business without a true strategy.
What if you could build pipes? What if you had a methodical way of attracting and growing business? Which path would have the better future for you?
Having worked with sales teams and leaders towards this end, here are the vital requirements to truly have a system for growing sales, relationships and people:
1. A Growth Mindset: This is the first and most important ingredient. Otherwise, you are a bucket carrier looking for a gimmick to make the next sale. The work, discipline and repeatability will not get done.
2. Process Mapping: You must know the steps of the customer experience. You must embellish it and put every step in to create a wow experience. It is important to pay attention to how to affect the emotions and the intellect of the customer.
3. Communications Flow: When and how you communicate with the customer is critical. On step 3, do you know what the customer receives? Is it consistent, refined and relevant? Sales is a dance. The dance happens in how and what you communicate.
4. Defining Roles: We are not good at everything. Imagine a musician playing sports and vice-versa. They are gifted in their domains and not in others. In the sales process, there are likely multiple roles. You are good at some and not others. These are roles which need to be identified and addressed for how to match talent to the job. Team selling is effective because it leverages strengths and drives focus in specialized areas. Break your process down by roles.
5. Enabling Technologies: The fact is that all the technology exists to do whatever you want in your business. The question is whether you know how to put them together to create a continuous system. This takes talent. It is what technology consultants know how to do. If I gave you a CRM, would you know how to make money with it and how to tie it into other pieces of technology? Perhaps it would be just as challenging as if I gave you a $5,000 bassoon and asked you to play music and overlay tracks on top of a piano to make music which sells. It takes talent to put the pieces together.
6. Management Metrics: Agility and optimization are what is key. Setting up the first 85% of a business system is relatively easy. The last 10-15% require an immense amount of focus. It requires tracking the customer’s behaviors and responses. Having an ability to measure behavior and iterating based on those metrics separate people that have good technology and those that have a business method.
7. Talent: Who is on your team makes all the difference. You can have the perfect system, but if you partner or hire “C” players, you will fall short. Systems are powerful enablers. Talented and professional people who execute make a difference. The Air Force spends millions on jet planes which are at the peak of technology and systems. Getting the right pilots make the difference between gaining an edge in that investment or losing it altogether.
8. The Woo Factor: A well designed system and team focuses on winning the desire of a buyer rather than convincing them through hard closing. Do you make your company, brand and offering attractive where a person wants to say, “Yes”? It requires a wholehearted desire to create an experience for the buyer that makes them want to say, “Yes.” If your system was a performance, would someone pay to experience it?
The game has changed drastically across industries. Old ways of doing business and winning customers are ineffective. Think about how your buyers are behaving:
* They don’t want to be called, closed or pressured.
* They have a wealth of information at their fingertips.
* They are in front of a computer most of the time.
* Buying starts with their whims and desires.
* There are too many choices now.
* Their attention is limited.
Being a friendly person with a smile is not enough. Systems which map to the reality of our new economy favor businesses and people who can win the hearts and minds of the customer. Those who are strategic by building selling systems will be building pipes that give them leverage for a long time to come. Those that merely behave tactically and charismatically will be working hard carrying buckets. It will be ever more hard to compete with the pipe builders thinking about and creating a system which brings business to them. Decide which game you will be playing. Take action to start building pipes and get ahead of your competition.
Selling by Systems not Sweat - To learn more about this author, visit Don Dalrymple's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
There is a story of a mountain village which experienced an unforgiving drought. The condition was deteriorating to the point that a village elders’ meeting was held. They decided to hire two men to solve the problem of bringing water to the village from the valley below where a well existed.
The first man was an eager and energetic fellow. He got two large buckets and started going back and forth from the village to the well below. He sold the water at a handsome price and was motivated by the rewards of the immediate cash he received. He brought his sons on board to the venture and made as many trips as possible to sell his water.
The second man was not heard from. People from the village wondered what had happened to him. There was plenty of speculation about what might have happened to him. Over time, the village wrote him off.
However, one day, there was an air of jubilation in the village square. The second man appeared. He was having a grand opening that day. He recounted how he attacked the problem of bringing water to the village. When he was enlisted, he immediately went to work. He spent his own money and started building a pipe which would transport water from the well below to his village. Now he was celebrating the completion of that pipe by turning on the spicket.
Immediately, he charged half as much as the guy carrying the buckets. The village could have all the water they wanted when they wanted.
The man carrying the buckets had to react and cut his prices and work twice as hard to compete. Meanwhile, the man who built the pipes patented his pipe design. He met with village leaders nearby and afar and had pipes built for them with handsome business rewards.
Systems or Sweat?
The question then is, “Are you carrying buckets or building pipes?” These are two vastly different mentalities. Yet, sales people can be observed approaching sales one of the two ways: Working towards only what they can see in front of them or building something that will produce a predictable result.
Companies know that most sales people are bucket carriers. Driving motivation by the proverbial carrot only feeds the bucket mentality. Invariably, the salesperson is working hard in their business without a true strategy.
What if you could build pipes? What if you had a methodical way of attracting and growing business? Which path would have the better future for you?
Having worked with sales teams and leaders towards this end, here are the vital requirements to truly have a system for growing sales, relationships and people:
1. A Growth Mindset: This is the first and most important ingredient. Otherwise, you are a bucket carrier looking for a gimmick to make the next sale. The work, discipline and repeatability will not get done.
2. Process Mapping: You must know the steps of the customer experience. You must embellish it and put every step in to create a wow experience. It is important to pay attention to how to affect the emotions and the intellect of the customer.
3. Communications Flow: When and how you communicate with the customer is critical. On step 3, do you know what the customer receives? Is it consistent, refined and relevant? Sales is a dance. The dance happens in how and what you communicate.
4. Defining Roles: We are not good at everything. Imagine a musician playing sports and vice-versa. They are gifted in their domains and not in others. In the sales process, there are likely multiple roles. You are good at some and not others. These are roles which need to be identified and addressed for how to match talent to the job. Team selling is effective because it leverages strengths and drives focus in specialized areas. Break your process down by roles.
5. Enabling Technologies: The fact is that all the technology exists to do whatever you want in your business. The question is whether you know how to put them together to create a continuous system. This takes talent. It is what technology consultants know how to do. If I gave you a CRM, would you know how to make money with it and how to tie it into other pieces of technology? Perhaps it would be just as challenging as if I gave you a $5,000 bassoon and asked you to play music and overlay tracks on top of a piano to make music which sells. It takes talent to put the pieces together.
6. Management Metrics: Agility and optimization are what is key. Setting up the first 85% of a business system is relatively easy. The last 10-15% require an immense amount of focus. It requires tracking the customer’s behaviors and responses. Having an ability to measure behavior and iterating based on those metrics separate people that have good technology and those that have a business method.
7. Talent: Who is on your team makes all the difference. You can have the perfect system, but if you partner or hire “C” players, you will fall short. Systems are powerful enablers. Talented and professional people who execute make a difference. The Air Force spends millions on jet planes which are at the peak of technology and systems. Getting the right pilots make the difference between gaining an edge in that investment or losing it altogether.
8. The Woo Factor: A well designed system and team focuses on winning the desire of a buyer rather than convincing them through hard closing. Do you make your company, brand and offering attractive where a person wants to say, “Yes”? It requires a wholehearted desire to create an experience for the buyer that makes them want to say, “Yes.” If your system was a performance, would someone pay to experience it?
The game has changed drastically across industries. Old ways of doing business and winning customers are ineffective. Think about how your buyers are behaving:
* They don’t want to be called, closed or pressured.
* They have a wealth of information at their fingertips.
* They are in front of a computer most of the time.
* Buying starts with their whims and desires.
* There are too many choices now.
* Their attention is limited.
Being a friendly person with a smile is not enough. Systems which map to the reality of our new economy favor businesses and people who can win the hearts and minds of the customer. Those who are strategic by building selling systems will be building pipes that give them leverage for a long time to come. Those that merely behave tactically and charismatically will be working hard carrying buckets. It will be ever more hard to compete with the pipe builders thinking about and creating a system which brings business to them. Decide which game you will be playing. Take action to start building pipes and get ahead of your competition.
Selling by Systems not Sweat - To learn more about this author, visit Don Dalrymple's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Don's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
|
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Making SEO Decisions Conversations of Leadership Making It Happen Success Worksheet Find It. Use It. |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
