Have you ever considered firing your star salesperson??
I thought not.
Yet that's just what the CEO of Anthropologie did. It's one of the great stories in "Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win" by William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre. Great companies are original and different, say the authors. They have a strong purpose and cause that they live and breathe every day.
CEO Glen Senk has helped grow Anthropologie (a women's apparel and accessories retailer) from one location and $2 MM in annual revenue in 1994 to 77 stores and $500 MM in 2005. He's achieved this success in part by focusing on their passion and sticking to their cause.
Here's how Senk describes their brand:
"Our customers are our friends, and what we do is never, ever, ever about selling to them. It's about helping people put together a wardrobe or create an eclectic home. It's about helping someone look great and feel good about themselves. It's never about the quick sale."
Back to the star salesperson. She consistently sold $6,000-$7,000 of merchandise daily. Her store had an incredible day whenever she was on the floor. But Senk watched her in action and made a discovery: she didn't really care what she was selling. She just wanted to make the sale.
"She let people walk out of the dressing room with things that simply didn't look good," Senk explained.
He fired her immediately. She wasn't treating customers as her friends. Anthropologie has a clear brand personality and believes their employees must radiate that brand. No exceptions. And it's hard to argue with their success.
In many B2B companies, people are the brand and the ONLY differentiator. Sales reps, account managers, customer service and support teams all shape the customer experience. And that makes it even MORE important to hire team members that live & breathe your brand promise!
Your Brand Lives in your Sales Team - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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John Brennan
(Visit John's Website)
John Brennan Ed.D.
Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal
Development, LLC, a training and
development firm. Interpersonal
Development has provided sales training
and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps
from over 100 companies.
A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan
received his doctorate from the University
of Rochester. His dissertation researched
the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling
Technology in training people in
interpersonal skills. While he has spent
most of his career designing or delivering
training, he was also a Vice-President of
Sales of a training and development
franchise with operations in 25 markets.
Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered
sales training in North America, Asia,
Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He
has been a guest speaker at numerous
national and regional professional
conferences.
When Microsoft wanted Best Practices
articles on sales for their web site, they
called Dr. Brennan. The results are at office.microsoft.com/e
n-us/FX011387391033.aspx
His firm’s clients have included Volvo,
The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman
Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the
Economist Group and countless small
businesses.
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