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What's under your sales-bonnet ( Part 1)

Written by: Trent Leyshan

Article Overview: All performance vehicles have an engine, including businesses, and the faster the vehicle the more powerful the engine. In most successful businesses I see one common denominator: the ability to proactively generate new business. Many businesses, however, lack skills and processes when it comes down to getting out into the market and stimulating interest and engaging new business. The key to a powerful business is a powerful sales-engine. When cash-flow is positive and business is profitable-innovation is encouraged, the teams' spirits are high and almost anything seems possible. Conversely when there is no engine, business becomes about cutting costs, zero innovation and delivering the bare minimum. It's hard to build long success on those fundamentals, though not impossible. But there are faster and more exciting roads to explore.

What's under your sales-bonnet ( Part 1)

All performance vehicles have an engine, including businesses, and the faster the vehicle the more powerful the engine. In most successful businesses I see one common denominator: the ability to proactively generate new business. Many businesses, however, lack skills and processes when it comes down to getting out into the market and stimulating interest and engaging new business. The key to a powerful business is a powerful sales-engine. When cash-flow is positive and business is profitable-innovation is encouraged, the teams' spirits are high and almost anything seems possible. Conversely when there is no engine, business becomes about cutting costs, zero innovation and delivering the bare minimum. It's hard to build long success on those fundamentals, though not impossible. But there are faster and more exciting roads to explore. I worked with a manufacturing client recently that asked me to come in and help with their sales-strategy and team motivation. I quickly gravitated towards the latter, because as I gained an insight into this business and the individual senior leaders, it became glaring obvious, no one in the company enjoyed selling, furthermore, no one wanted to put their hand up and drive and be accountable. This was a real problem for them and their business was going backwards, fast, and selling was getting tougher and tougher the further they slid down the sales hill.

In situations like this, I like to get to the root cause, instead of dealing with surface level symptoms, in this case: a lack of sales, no proactive-sales process, and team moral was at an all time low. In or first consulting and development session, I asked the four directors, "If I could wave a magic wand over your business and grant you one wish, what would that be?" Their response was nothing short of startling. One director, John the CFO, who wore thick goggle-glasses and a stern demeanour, retorted, "Blow this joint up, I reckon! Do an insurance job" and then chuckled in a sinister tone, proud of his contribution to the conversation. Up to this point, he'd sat to the side perched like a stuffed Dodo bird.

Paul the Managing Director, a short, but sharply dressed looking Greek man in his mid-forties with an chunky gold Rolex on his wrist, though it looked fake, raised a hand and blurted with in a strange half Aussie-half-Greek accent, "Before we get started what times is lunch? I'm bloody starving!" Just when I thought the conversation had hit the bottom and we could start focusing on the job at hand, Graham the General Manager, a tall, big boned, red-bearded man with a world class beer-gut, chimed in, "Look boys let's not waste this blokes valuable time, let's get serious, we all hate this place, and it's no secret we all hate selling even more, Trent is here to help us so let's shut-up and take this session seriously." then Big Red sat down, and nodded in gesture to me, as if to say, there all yours now mate.

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Article Tags: sales coach, sales coach, sales seminars, sales training



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