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======================================== Summary: Brent Filson observes that sales people often achieve a fraction of results they are capable of because they neglect to apply a powerful leadership tool that can be used in many sales processes. It's a tool he has taught to thousands of leaders worldwide for past 20 years, and when used in sales, it can substantially step up results. ======================================== How To Use A Powerful Leadership Tool To Step Up Sales Results by Brent Filson
Good sales people can close, but few "step up" for even more sales from that close. Yet stepping up should be one of easiest accomplishments in sales — that is if you know how to build staircase.
Do it by applying a leadership tool I have taught thousands of leaders worldwide during past 20 years. The tool is simply to foster a particular viewpoint, which is this: Challenge people not simply to do a task but to take leadership of that task.
The difference in results-producing effectiveness between doing a task and taking leadership of a task is difference between lightning bug and lightning.
This change in viewpoint may seem simple even simplistic; but when put into action many times daily, it can work wonders.
For instance, I worked with a manufacturing leader whose workers were constantly falling short of productivity goals. I told him he was leading workers in wrong way; he was ordering them to get productivity advancements. I told him that he should have workers sign on as leaders of productivity advancements. When workers began seeing themselves as such leaders, they started hitting goals consistently.
Now, let's apply this leadership tool to sales process. I'll show you how to get step-ups in results that go far beyond results achieved from closes. Here are three ways to do it.
(1) Don't Just Sell Products, Get Cause Leaders: Salespeople often fail to get step-ups because they have a short-sighted view of customer. They view customer as only a customer! Whereas, if we want to get step-ups, we must see customer not just as a customer but as a "cause leader," one who can lead our cause both inside and outside their company. Instead of aiming just to sell a product, to get a close, aim to turn your customer into your cause leader. For instance, I consulted with a materials supplier that wanted to acquire new customers in computer industry. The salespeople of materials company not only worked diligently on closing with engineer-customers but also on creating step-ups by persuading those engineers to be cause leaders for their materials within company.
Here is way that they enlisted that leadership. They discovered that engineers needed increased productivity and faster cycle-times -- and to do it with fewer resources. In response, sales people developed a materials performance package for engineers that increased their productivity and cycle-times. In addition, they brought in productivity experts from their own company to help engineers streamline their design processes. They're not only selling their materials. They're selling productivity as well. Seeing that sales people were helping them meet their vital needs, engineers became sales people's cause leaders within their company — unleashing a torrent of step-ups.
