Henry Ford’s famous quote “they can have any colour they want as long as it is black” is a little outdated in an age where information is at everyone’s finger tips. His other one “Nothing happens if no one sells anything” is timeless.

I came across this recently and it made me reflect that for lots of people going through school, university, TAFE, early jobs, etc, a career in sales is much more about chance than choice, not many people start out saying “I want to go into sales”.

Most other career choices aren’t like this – you generally choose to be a builder, engineer, doctor, accountant or teacher, landscaper, IT, hairdresser, policeman (or woman)…. the list is endless.

Luck – Good or Bad

I took a job in sales during the “recession we had to have” because there was nothing else around; I’d been to university and at 22 thought I knew everything. It only took about three weeks in sales to realise I didn’t know anything. Luckily for me I had a boss who sent me to a sales training course; this was over 25 years ago and I can still remember the enormous impact this had on me, I was on my way.

Persistence – Good to Great

As so aptly put by Henry Ford in the above quote, all businesses need sales revenue to survive and thrive, meaning sales people are in the spotlight and need to be comfortable being so. When all is going well, it’s like being a rock star on stage; when it’s not, it’s like a thief caught red handed.

It is often said that someone is a natural sales person which I think this is a little unfair. My view is that it is like anything else, if you are good at it you will more than likely be successful but if you want to be great, you must work hard over a long period of time, keep developing, make mistakes, reflect, learn and keep going.

Rewards - Endless

“85% of your financial success is due to your personality & ability to communicate, negotiate & lead. Shockingly, only 15% is due to your technical knowledge.”

This quote above by the Carnegie Institute suggests that even the most brilliant ideas need to be brought to life by commercially through influence.

I have met many engineers, plumbers, hairdressers and teachers who have become great sales people – they weren’t always this way, they had started on their path, weren’t quite fulfilled, took a sales job (sometimes as an interim) and found themselves enjoying it; some are now running national sales teams or their own businesses.
 
Sales can do that, it can be chance on the way in. I like to think the best ones then make a conscious choice to become the very best sales person they can be leading to a financially rewarding and emotionally fulfilling career.

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. www.charliepidcock.com.au

The choice is yours:

1.  Build positive RELATIONSHIPS with your team.

“If we learn to trust more, we can have unprecedented human progress” -  Harvard Professor Frances Frei

Two reasons for this:

• Your staff perform better when they feel trusted and valued.
• The main reason (60 – 70%) people leave the company they work for is the relationship with their line manager, good people are hard to find, and it costs a fortune to replace them.

2.  Give them clear DIRECTION

“If you don’t know where you are going, how are you going to get there?” - Yogi Berra 

Have a purpose, business plan and sales plan, show them how it all fits together
 
3.  Get out from behind your desk and UNDERSTAND what they are facing.

“A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected” - Simon Sinek
 
Get in the field, see how they operate, find out their challenges and work with them to devise solutions to make their world easier.

4.  INVEST in your people – there are significant gains to be made by showing that you are willing to develop your team.

CFO says “What happens if we train them & they leave”
CEO says “what happens if we don’t train them & they stay”

5.  One of the best things I ever did to lift the performance of my team was to relief one of my NON-PERFORMERS.

​“A bad apple can ruin a whole bunch” – Anon
 
We know who they are, and we know what we must do. Whilst no one likes dismissing people, if you don’t everyone loses - you lose credibility, they lose self-esteem and the company loses the respect of your customers.

All the best for success in 2019.

**Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. www.charliepidcock.com.au