Sales Values
Sales Values
- Tell the Truth
- Be Fair
- Keep Your Promises
- Respect the Individual
- Encourage Intellectual Curiosity
Sadly, I know more than one company that barely follows even one of these values, let alone all or most of them. As I read them I saw how simple they were yet clearly defined. They are the values that have driven the Harley-Davidson company and its people from its founding days over 100 years ago. Then I started to realize how these same values can, and should, be applied to all sales professionals in everything they do, every day of their selling careers.
One of the reasons sales people get bad reputations is that they lie. Not always willingly or knowingly, but in the end their false or exaggerated promises turn out to be plain old lies. The first value statement, “Tell the Truth”, is as basic and simple as “Do the right thing” or “Do unto others” or “Eat a good breakfast”. Yet many sales people don’t always subscribe to this simple rule. They sometimes feel they have to tell their customer what they think the customer wants to hear, which may not be true or accurate. What the customer wants to hear though is the truth, regardless of how painful it might be.
I’ve always said that it takes courage to be in sales, for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that sometimes you have to look your customer straight in the eye and tell him the cold hard truth – “We just don’t have a discount schedule that meets your requirements, but we can try to accommodate your needs another way,” or “I’m sorry but your delivery has been delayed and we won’t be able to meet your deadline,” or “I’m very sorry but I dropped the ball and that feature wasn’t included.” The reaction to these statements by your customer may not be pleasant, but that won’t compare to the wrath you’ll witness if you lie, or dance around the issues, when he finds out later (and he WILL find out later). So telling the truth should be the number one value of all sales people.
The second value, “Be Fair”, follows the win-win style of negotiating and working with people. Why do you need to be fair in sales? For one, you should always treat others as you wish to be treated yourself (Remember “Do unto others…”?) If you want to be treated fairly, you should treat others fairly as well. That won’t guarantee you’ll be treated fairly in kind, but if you treat other people unfairly, you’re almost guaranteeing that you WON’T be treated fairly either. Second, the best style of negotiating is when all parties come out as winners. In the “I Win – You Lose” scenario, at least one party loses, which in the long run usually means the other party will eventually lose too. In sales, you might win the sale by making the customer lose. But in the long run you will lose him as a customer to your competitor, putting you on the losing end of the stick as well. By being fair to your customers you are showing respect and demonstrating that you want all parties to win, today and into the future. Hence, being fair is another important value for all sales professionals.
The next value, “Keep Your Promises”, is probably the most repeated offense by sales people. Unlike lying, where a sales person speaks an untruth, keeping a promise is frequently more “innocent.” He didn’t actually mean to do it, in fact, he had every intention of following up with that service issue the customer was having, or adding the additional refills to the order, or telling his legal department to add those special terms to the contract. But, alas, none of those things happened because the sales person got too busy or forgot or was afraid his manager wouldn’t approve it. There are few acceptable reasons for not following up. Illness, death, accidents, etc are all good ones. But when you tell a customer you will call him back next Thursday, short of the reasons just listed or similar ones, you better call him back next Thursday.
One of my pet peeves (and, yes, I have quite a few of them unfortunately) is when someone says they will do something for me and I never hear back from them and I keep calling them for an update, but they don’t call me back. The “peeve” part is when I find out that they haven’t called me back because they didn’t have an update to give me. How the heck am I supposed to know that? Instead I get more and more frustrated because I’m not hearing back from this clown when he’s thinking all along, “Well no sense calling him back with no update,” instead of realizing that I am clearly deserving of an update, even if it’s just to say he’s still working on it but there is no status. That’s all I ask for. And, that’s all your customers ask for when you make a promise. Folks, it’s the simple things that count and keeping your promise is one of the simplest ones that should also be on the list of values for all sales people.
“Respect the Individual” is a value that is important in sales because you are trying to get your customer to part with his money and you must respect him as an individual in order to do so. Even if it’s a business you’re selling to, it’s an individual that’s making the actual purchase decision. And that individual’s job might be on the line if he makes the wrong one. You need to respect him as a person and respect the situation he’s in. Like you, he may have a family to support, a job he’d like to keep, goals in his life he wants to reach, and lots more. So, like being fair, this value touches on the human aspect of selling and is another important value for sales professionals to follow.
The last value, “Encourage Intellectual Curiosity”, means you should always strive to keep on learning. Whether you learn more about your own products and company, or selling skills, or simply how and why things work the way they do, it’s important to increase your knowledge. We live in an ever-changing world as well as a very fast-paced one. Too often people get caught up in the fast-paced aspect and neglect to pay attention to the parts that are changing around us. Sure, you might work eighty-hour weeks or have a family and no time to read. But there’s always time to read and learn more. When you’re in the customer’s lobby waiting for a meeting, read an article. While waiting to board a plane or while on the plane, read a book. When you’re driving to work, listen to books-on-tapes. Download podcasts to your iPod (or similar device) to learn about new technologies or methodologies. While you’re at it, why not subscribe to sales-related magazines such as Selling Power and Sales & Marketing Management? Or signup for an on-line sales training course or get your company to bring in a sales trainer for your entire sales team . Use the Internet to learn more about your trade by doing research and subscribing to sales-related newsletters.
I’m currently reading a biography on Andrew Carnegie, which is very interesting. He was a corporate titan who rarely worked full-time. His philosophy was to balance his life with work and the pleasures of travel, learning, relaxing and other non-work related activities. Once, when someone told him that he worked sixty-hour weeks, Carnegie responded by saying that he must be very lazy since it took him that long to get a week’s work completed. Carnegie would get a day’s work done in about three hours. Efficiency was his secret. Of course, he didn’t have email to contend with, but you get my point. How often do you waste time doing irrelevant things when you could be more productive? Use those times to learn and read. On days when I am in the office all day long, I force myself to leave my office and eat lunch while reading a book. I only need to read a chapter or two a day and I end up reading a whole book in no time, and learning. The result is that I take about 45 minutes from my day to relax and learn something new. No harm, no foul. It’s all acceptable and allowed. Encouraging your own intellectual curiosity is an important value that will help satisfy your natural quest for knowledge and provide you with answers to many things in life.
You don’t have to be a motorcycle company to apply these simple values, just a professional sales person who cares about his customers and the relationships he establishes with them. Keep these values posted somewhere near your desk to remind yourself of the important things in sales, and life.
Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
Sales Values - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.
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I just finished reading an excellent book about the history of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Interestingly enough, it’s simply called “Harley-Davidson.” This is an unusual read for me since I am not a Harley owner nor do I own or even ride motorcycles. But I am interested in learning about how successful companies got their start and grew over the years, and this book was very interesting and educational, and loaded with the most beautiful pictures of motorcycles that one could imagine. At one point there was a picture of the company’s value statements. It read:
- Tell the Truth
- Be Fair
- Keep Your Promises
- Respect the Individual
- Encourage Intellectual Curiosity
Sadly, I know more than one company that barely follows even one of these values, let alone all or most of them. As I read them I saw how simple they were yet clearly defined. They are the values that have driven the Harley-Davidson company and its people from its founding days over 100 years ago. Then I started to realize how these same values can, and should, be applied to all sales professionals in everything they do, every day of their selling careers.
One of the reasons sales people get bad reputations is that they lie. Not always willingly or knowingly, but in the end their false or exaggerated promises turn out to be plain old lies. The first value statement, “Tell the Truth”, is as basic and simple as “Do the right thing” or “Do unto others” or “Eat a good breakfast”. Yet many sales people don’t always subscribe to this simple rule. They sometimes feel they have to tell their customer what they think the customer wants to hear, which may not be true or accurate. What the customer wants to hear though is the truth, regardless of how painful it might be.
I’ve always said that it takes courage to be in sales, for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that sometimes you have to look your customer straight in the eye and tell him the cold hard truth – “We just don’t have a discount schedule that meets your requirements, but we can try to accommodate your needs another way,” or “I’m sorry but your delivery has been delayed and we won’t be able to meet your deadline,” or “I’m very sorry but I dropped the ball and that feature wasn’t included.” The reaction to these statements by your customer may not be pleasant, but that won’t compare to the wrath you’ll witness if you lie, or dance around the issues, when he finds out later (and he WILL find out later). So telling the truth should be the number one value of all sales people.
The second value, “Be Fair”, follows the win-win style of negotiating and working with people. Why do you need to be fair in sales? For one, you should always treat others as you wish to be treated yourself (Remember “Do unto others…”?) If you want to be treated fairly, you should treat others fairly as well. That won’t guarantee you’ll be treated fairly in kind, but if you treat other people unfairly, you’re almost guaranteeing that you WON’T be treated fairly either. Second, the best style of negotiating is when all parties come out as winners. In the “I Win – You Lose” scenario, at least one party loses, which in the long run usually means the other party will eventually lose too. In sales, you might win the sale by making the customer lose. But in the long run you will lose him as a customer to your competitor, putting you on the losing end of the stick as well. By being fair to your customers you are showing respect and demonstrating that you want all parties to win, today and into the future. Hence, being fair is another important value for all sales professionals.
The next value, “Keep Your Promises”, is probably the most repeated offense by sales people. Unlike lying, where a sales person speaks an untruth, keeping a promise is frequently more “innocent.” He didn’t actually mean to do it, in fact, he had every intention of following up with that service issue the customer was having, or adding the additional refills to the order, or telling his legal department to add those special terms to the contract. But, alas, none of those things happened because the sales person got too busy or forgot or was afraid his manager wouldn’t approve it. There are few acceptable reasons for not following up. Illness, death, accidents, etc are all good ones. But when you tell a customer you will call him back next Thursday, short of the reasons just listed or similar ones, you better call him back next Thursday.
One of my pet peeves (and, yes, I have quite a few of them unfortunately) is when someone says they will do something for me and I never hear back from them and I keep calling them for an update, but they don’t call me back. The “peeve” part is when I find out that they haven’t called me back because they didn’t have an update to give me. How the heck am I supposed to know that? Instead I get more and more frustrated because I’m not hearing back from this clown when he’s thinking all along, “Well no sense calling him back with no update,” instead of realizing that I am clearly deserving of an update, even if it’s just to say he’s still working on it but there is no status. That’s all I ask for. And, that’s all your customers ask for when you make a promise. Folks, it’s the simple things that count and keeping your promise is one of the simplest ones that should also be on the list of values for all sales people.
“Respect the Individual” is a value that is important in sales because you are trying to get your customer to part with his money and you must respect him as an individual in order to do so. Even if it’s a business you’re selling to, it’s an individual that’s making the actual purchase decision. And that individual’s job might be on the line if he makes the wrong one. You need to respect him as a person and respect the situation he’s in. Like you, he may have a family to support, a job he’d like to keep, goals in his life he wants to reach, and lots more. So, like being fair, this value touches on the human aspect of selling and is another important value for sales professionals to follow.
The last value, “Encourage Intellectual Curiosity”, means you should always strive to keep on learning. Whether you learn more about your own products and company, or selling skills, or simply how and why things work the way they do, it’s important to increase your knowledge. We live in an ever-changing world as well as a very fast-paced one. Too often people get caught up in the fast-paced aspect and neglect to pay attention to the parts that are changing around us. Sure, you might work eighty-hour weeks or have a family and no time to read. But there’s always time to read and learn more. When you’re in the customer’s lobby waiting for a meeting, read an article. While waiting to board a plane or while on the plane, read a book. When you’re driving to work, listen to books-on-tapes. Download podcasts to your iPod (or similar device) to learn about new technologies or methodologies. While you’re at it, why not subscribe to sales-related magazines such as Selling Power and Sales & Marketing Management? Or signup for an on-line sales training course or get your company to bring in a sales trainer for your entire sales team . Use the Internet to learn more about your trade by doing research and subscribing to sales-related newsletters.
I’m currently reading a biography on Andrew Carnegie, which is very interesting. He was a corporate titan who rarely worked full-time. His philosophy was to balance his life with work and the pleasures of travel, learning, relaxing and other non-work related activities. Once, when someone told him that he worked sixty-hour weeks, Carnegie responded by saying that he must be very lazy since it took him that long to get a week’s work completed. Carnegie would get a day’s work done in about three hours. Efficiency was his secret. Of course, he didn’t have email to contend with, but you get my point. How often do you waste time doing irrelevant things when you could be more productive? Use those times to learn and read. On days when I am in the office all day long, I force myself to leave my office and eat lunch while reading a book. I only need to read a chapter or two a day and I end up reading a whole book in no time, and learning. The result is that I take about 45 minutes from my day to relax and learn something new. No harm, no foul. It’s all acceptable and allowed. Encouraging your own intellectual curiosity is an important value that will help satisfy your natural quest for knowledge and provide you with answers to many things in life.
You don’t have to be a motorcycle company to apply these simple values, just a professional sales person who cares about his customers and the relationships he establishes with them. Keep these values posted somewhere near your desk to remind yourself of the important things in sales, and life.
Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
Sales Values - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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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 |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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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 |
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John BrennanJohn 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 http://office.microsoft.com/en-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. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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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 |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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