To succeed in sales, this is the challenge: design your job well, learn your job well, sell your job well…and do your job well!
To succeed in sales, this is the challenge: design your job well, learn your job well, sell your job well…and do your job well!
Where do you stand on this issue, as a sales person or as a manager entrusted with leading sales people? If you are serious about the subject, here is how to define, learn, sell and do the best possible job in professional selling:
DEFINING THE JOB…involves starting with a goal that is unknown to most organizations. That goal concerns the ‘improving results’ that must be achieved for and with the customer…on an ongoing basis. Every organization equips staff with ‘sales budgets’ but if this is all they possess they will become predators or beggars. The customer goal must not be an exercise in rhetoric; it must be a clear promise concerning new business opportunities, supported by process and strategy to convert opportunities into ‘new results’. This goal is the most important for the sales person and without it he or she is utterly lost and vulnerable to rejection by the market.
The other two goals for sales people to strive for are the company ‘budget’ and their own aspirations to improve earnings and lifestyle…and the achievement of both these targets are dependent on reaching the customer goal!
LEARNING THE JOB…involves knowing what customers need (in business performance improvement) and accepting that they don’t know what they need…because they are not experts on how to maximise results with the products you sell. This area of preparation also entails knowing that better results have been achieved by certain customers, which enables sales people to move with confidence when finding and achieving customer progress goals. Understanding ‘need’ and ‘evidence of success’ are critical elements of the modern selling job, and without them sales people are condemned to marketing mediocrity.
SELLING THE JOB…involves motivating and educating customers and prospects to expect more from you than they would from rival suppliers…including the incumbents. Regrettably, the market has come to expect very little from sales people, beyond talking about ‘our product’ and ‘our service’…all of which is obviously aimed at achieving ‘our budget’. To sell a higher form of sales engagement it is vital to make it clear from the start that you are not about to embark on ‘our story’…and then focus your attention on ‘their story’ and your promise to assist in that area.
DOING THE JOB…involves leading customers and prospects to do what you need them to do, so that you both come face to face with opportunities, new goals and radical ideas to achieve attractive progress…together! If the customer leads, you are not doing your job, and so a simple way to take the lead is to give the customer a succinct ‘agenda’, outlining what you want to cover…and then go through each point until your job is done.
The aim for sales people is not to get a better job, it is to do a better job…and when you do a better job…you have then got a better job!
To succeed in sales this is the challenge design your job well learn your job well sell your job welland do your job well - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.
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I can’t imagine that you have ever had a doctor say to you ‘would you like me to check your blood pressure?’…and of course the reason for this is that the doctor knows what his job is and he gets on with it. If you have a job to do and that job is designed to create positive results for people, then you shouldn’t have to ask permission to do your job! Many years ago, prior to self-service petrol stations, there were three types of ‘attendants’. One would ask you what you wanted and whatever you asked for would be done. The second type would ask the same question and then ask if you wanted the oil checking too, and if you said ‘no’ then you would just get what you said you wanted. The third type would ask what you wanted and would then ask you to open the bonnet so that he could check the oil for you. Only the third type of attendant had a better defined job and he didn’t ask permission to do what he had to do for you. In my role as a conference speaker I ensure that what I’m going to speak about is going to be relevant and valuable…and then I get on with doing my job, as opposed to having people tell me what I should talk about.
Where do you stand on this issue, as a sales person or as a manager entrusted with leading sales people? If you are serious about the subject, here is how to define, learn, sell and do the best possible job in professional selling:
DEFINING THE JOB…involves starting with a goal that is unknown to most organizations. That goal concerns the ‘improving results’ that must be achieved for and with the customer…on an ongoing basis. Every organization equips staff with ‘sales budgets’ but if this is all they possess they will become predators or beggars. The customer goal must not be an exercise in rhetoric; it must be a clear promise concerning new business opportunities, supported by process and strategy to convert opportunities into ‘new results’. This goal is the most important for the sales person and without it he or she is utterly lost and vulnerable to rejection by the market.
The other two goals for sales people to strive for are the company ‘budget’ and their own aspirations to improve earnings and lifestyle…and the achievement of both these targets are dependent on reaching the customer goal!
LEARNING THE JOB…involves knowing what customers need (in business performance improvement) and accepting that they don’t know what they need…because they are not experts on how to maximise results with the products you sell. This area of preparation also entails knowing that better results have been achieved by certain customers, which enables sales people to move with confidence when finding and achieving customer progress goals. Understanding ‘need’ and ‘evidence of success’ are critical elements of the modern selling job, and without them sales people are condemned to marketing mediocrity.
SELLING THE JOB…involves motivating and educating customers and prospects to expect more from you than they would from rival suppliers…including the incumbents. Regrettably, the market has come to expect very little from sales people, beyond talking about ‘our product’ and ‘our service’…all of which is obviously aimed at achieving ‘our budget’. To sell a higher form of sales engagement it is vital to make it clear from the start that you are not about to embark on ‘our story’…and then focus your attention on ‘their story’ and your promise to assist in that area.
DOING THE JOB…involves leading customers and prospects to do what you need them to do, so that you both come face to face with opportunities, new goals and radical ideas to achieve attractive progress…together! If the customer leads, you are not doing your job, and so a simple way to take the lead is to give the customer a succinct ‘agenda’, outlining what you want to cover…and then go through each point until your job is done.
The aim for sales people is not to get a better job, it is to do a better job…and when you do a better job…you have then got a better job!
To succeed in sales this is the challenge design your job well learn your job well sell your job welland do your job well - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees'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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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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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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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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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster'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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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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