Reflection and Goals
Now that we have finished this Strategic Selling course the question is “How Was it?” There are so many ways to answer that question. When thinking about the experience a few words come to mind: enlightening, intense, informative, consuming, fast-paced, validating, and encouraging. These past three weeks were a blur but I managed to churn out a carefully thought out plan for a reopening strategy for my workplace as well as a great start to our Corporate Wellness Program sales portfolio and how to customize it to a potential new client.
Let’s talk about the experience in more depth.
Strategic Selling is the concept of purposefully planning, how to make your best sale. There are many steps to reach this optimal goal and different ways to implement the steps. Coming into this course my experience and my sales preference were heavily set in relationship selling. In my past I was not successful in a “pushy closer” type salesperson, so I was not as successful upfront as some others who managed to close the deal right away, however, I came to realize that overtime my success became more evident with larger and repeat sales due to the trust and relationship I was able to build. While both methods resulted in a sale, I realized the customer lifetime value was greater with relationship-based sales and it made the concept of being a “closer” more genuine. In this course, I felt validated in my experience and observation that “the best salespeople are considered trusted advisors” to their clients.
“So What?” you ask. These findings, as well as the knowledge, learned from the videos “The Puzzle of Motivation” by Dan Pink, and “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek, as well as the “Pitch Clinic” readings from our Resources section, I have additional tools to re-evaluate and direct my current sales department as we undergo a resurrection after a 4 month shut down. Like all industries, the Health and Fitness industry has taken a hit since the COVID-19 pandemic, and right now relationships that have been built over the years are what is keeping us open. Finding new ways to cater to our members and make them feel safe and appreciated, while providing a solution to their needs and wants, is our priority. Working at the YMCA we have been lucky enough to have the brand strength built over 100 years to use to our advantage. People have a sense of familiarity with our brand and feel comfortable returning to a place they know well. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to sell. We still need to provide new experiences and opportunities for our members, such as our virtual classes and outdoor boot camps.
Moving forward I have already made a few goals that I would like to pursue after my research and time in this class:
1) Work towards Customer Service Excellence
One of my biggest Ah-ha’s from this class was the Ted Talk by Dan Pink. I have been working on the very challenging task of improving company culture among our sales team even before our temporary closure. Now that we are back it has become even more important to get this back on track. After watching the video, I have realized that we have been going about it the wrong way, thinking that money was the incentive and why they were not motivated to go above and beyond the basic standard of customer service that was being offered. Changes have already started to be made with empowering them to make decisions on how to handle situations with members knowing the goal is to make them happy and to keep the membership. It has been amazing to see the innovative ways that have resulted. Celebrating with them in their successes has been inspiring not only to me but to others on the sales team. A change has already begun.
2) Developing a Pitch
This is a challenging one as the YMCA is heavily relationship-based and therefore it can take time to close the deal in our somewhat passive manner. Because we are not currently providing facility tours as normal, we have had to move a little faster with our sales techniques. Our leisurely data-driven questioning method is needing an upgrade to make up for the reduction in time we now have per potential member. Finding an alternative, more effective way of “pitching” the YMCA to prospects is important and needs to be developed.
3) Finding Corporate Partners to increase membership sales
The final project was a first crack at preparing a corporate sales portfolio for the company TELUS. This company was chosen for many reasons, a few of them being: They have city-wide staff; company vision is in alignment with the YMCA and they have a health spending account that allows for gym memberships. The more research I completed the more reasons I found for actively going after this organization as a partner. My goal is to present this to my Sales Management team as well as the Marketing team to be reviewed, improved, and produced.
Although there was a lot to get through over these past three weeks, I am excited about the experience and the outcomes. I only wish it was longer so I didn’t feel rushed to keep up a pace. I feel as though there is so much more to learn if only we had the time to flush it out over a few more weeks. Either way, I am so happy I was able to participate in the course!
References:
Llmaragh. [Medium]. (2020). The Morphing of the Sales Professional. Retrieved from:
https://medium.com/strategicselling/the-morphing-of-the-sales-professional-85fb07447332
Pink, Dan. [TED]. (2009). The puzzle of motivation. Retrieved from:
Sinek, Simon. [TED]. (2009). Start with why — how great leaders inspire action. Retrieved from:
