Salespeople – It doesn’t worry me that your sales process is not perfect so long as you help me think differently, help me be better at what I do. Do that and you will be adding value to my role – anything else and you are like everyone else – boring, vanilla and beige.
Salespeople– Be generous! Go where your competition fear to tread and give me the extras. The extras, the overs, the information, the ideas, the shortcuts, help me help my clients, because it won’t be long and your competition will be! We now expect the extras.
Salespeople– Be A Leader! You don’t have to be THE leader but show up with a guiding light for me, interest in what I do, a desire to help me help my buyers, the same care factor for my challenges as you have for your own. Hone you personal leadership, thought leadership and sales leadership qualities and lead me through the conversation, but know to let me lead, too.
Salespeople – Thank you for challenging my thinking and not backing down and being a ‘yes’ person. I need to know you won’t change your stance when I cross question you. I need to know I can trust your character and your judgement no matter what!
Salespeople – I love it when you can hear what I say simply by ing to what I don’t say. Not many of you have that gift – the gift of sensory acuity, just like not many of you have the gift of acknowledging a mistake, recognising and remedying it immediately. And while we are talking gifts, the gift of taking feedback is paramount.
Salespeople – I am just like you. I don’t like being ‘sold to’, I am wary of salespeople overusing all those canned and predictable words with me like productivity, reliability and versatility. I like to hear new words that are flavoured with growth and contribution, certainty and consideration, collaborative yet prescriptive.
Salespeople – Learn the art of social online and offline, embrace the art of storytelling that surpasses your features talk, upgrade our conversations past consultative to contextual and above all put meaning over the money and you won’t need to default to discount.
Salespeople – Know WHO you are before you walk through my door. I love working with someone who is comfortable with who they are, someone not intimidated by me, someone who is keen to share their art with the world because they are proud of their value and legacy, someone who knows their WHY and what that means to me. Someone not after being liked, but respected instead.
Salespeople – We will follow you on your journey, we will treat you as trusted advisors when you converse with us, humanise a mechanical, predictable and industrial process called ‘selling’, speak WITH us not broadcast TO us. We really do need you in our lives and are willing to reciprocate by paying well those who serve us well.
Salespeople – Have you seen this ode, internalised its words, absorbed its meaning? When you realise it’s not about the sale, that it’s about you and me, that it’s about give and take, breaking rules and building respect, that it’s about commerce and business and economics based on the world we both live in, then, if so, we are looking forward to working with you!
Be Bold, Brave and Brilliant
Bernadette McClelland is CEO of 3 Red Folders – a modern day saleswoman and keynote speaker on business growth, personal leadership and sales performance.
BIO: Business environments wanting to increase their revenue and profits, and differentiate themselves in a competitive market, ask for Bernadette McClelland because of her thought leadership on sales performance, her ideas on thinking beyond resilience and her fresh perspectives surrounding personal leadership skills — all designed to master the outcomes that matter.
Bernadette has proudly coached Harvard MBA students on their sales enablement curriculum, been the Master Asia Pacific coach for Anthony Robbins across twelve countries, authored five books on leadership and sales transformation, won a coveted Telstra award for Business Excellence, and continually shares her ideas around behaviour, the brain and business growth on stages in the UK, Europe, Thailand, India, NZ, Australia and North America.
Believing that sales performance is a leadership issue, you will also find her heading Melbourne’s human potential based sales performance consultancy, 3 Red Folders, as she navigates lead generation, message to market and digs deep into sales process activities with her clients in the mid-tier sector as well as founding ‘Women Who Sell’, an initiative designed to bring more women up to speed in their sales success.
Book your Conference or Sales Kick Off Meeting today!
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Image Courtesy of Pippalou
