The Morphing of the Sales Professional
Extravert. That is the trait that we align with people who are successful in sales. Extraverts are outgoing, the centre of every situation whether they are informed or not. The one that everyone likes to invite to the party. But is it the introvert that really has what it takes to win at sales? With their thorough, detail-oriented personality type they take a tortoise approach, which often result in winning the race more often their hare like counter part.
One of the things that stands out the most for Angela, a salesperson with her organization for just over a year, in this COVID time, is the devastation of not being able to pitch her products in person. Her feelings of frustration and isolation is not unique and in fact resonates with her colleagues across the organization in other geographic locations. The organization’s sales team is made up of many gregarious personalities who now feel they have no control in a world where they have always seen themselves as the hero providing solutions to their network.
Angela shared that before COVID-19 she would spend most of her 40- hour work week traveling and visiting clients, with an additional 8–10 hours a week entertaining and networking. Of that time 15% is spent prospecting and getting to know the make up of individuals and companies that she was meeting with. With the changes across the world brought on by the pandemic we all went through the stages of thinking, this will end soon, let’s catch up on some paperwork and get organized, to, oh no! how am I going to survive? The ones that will survive will quickly figure out that this is a wake-up call to how we as sales professionals must take control of our own destiny by changing our actions.
It is time for the extrovert to embrace the steady Eddy, listener and data-mining traits of the introvert. Angela expressed that her stress level as a sales rep is always about 8 out of 10. This is because she
feels a great deal of responsibility for those around her as they rely on her success for the overall profitability of the company. But although she has chosen to be salary based instead of commission-based, it makes me wonder if her stress is more founded around her reputation status as her motivator to succeed in the sales arena.
Listening to Angela’s review of her role as a salesperson in a company that is seeking to grow its sales revenues during a time that many think is the most challenging time in sales, I would say CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Upon reflection, after interviewing Angela here are a few recommendations I would put forward to her:
Creative solutions:
“The best salespeople are trusted advisors,” said Angela. This is an excellent point of reference for pushing the boundaries on what you are providing advice on. Move away from making the product the primary focus. By using the skills that Angela recognized as important to her: being a good listener, honesty, patience, strong communication skills, passionate, confident and resilient, to problem solve what is truly worrying the customer will help to further position herself as invaluable.
She could look at other industries to understand how they deliver solutions to their customers. Forbes list of the top 100 customer-centric companies is a potential place to start. From here, she could start to build an understanding of the mindset of what customers find valuable from companies who have been successful in building a strong customer service offering.
Employ technology to make you better:
Peter Drucker is credited with an important quote in business management, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Angela sets personal goals that she would like to achieve, but there are no business targets set. As a result, her performance is not measured, and she is not given direct feedback on how her performance is or is not moving the business forward.
Using tools to measure results will help Angela to know if she is being successful or if she is required to alter her approach because she is not meeting the targets set by the company. If she is not measuring her performance, she could be in danger of focusing her time on the wrong areas of the business.
Using technology to spot, dig-out, and analyze business data, such as sales, marketing and production can help to make significant improvements in achieving targeted results.
Business intelligence is a key factor in analyzing what is done as it acts as the road map to where improvements can be made. This is a sure fire way for Angela to quickly see, manage and improve her performance.
Professional development ALWAYS:
Angela fell into sales a few years ago when an opportunity moved her from customer services into a full-time sales role. Her ability to network and connect with people on a ‘real’ level has served her well. However, not being able to meet with her clients face to face has caused increase stress and an insecurity around how she will deliver on her sales goals. Pushing herself in understanding different sales strategies and approaches could take her stress levels down and give her a renewed sense of control. As the world changes and customers become more sophisticated so must the sales team. Angela will rise only if she invests in her knowledge base and is willing to take on new perspectives on how to approach sales in an ever-changing world.
Angela, however is not a lone wolf. She does have the resources of multiple departments across the company and an internal network of other salespeople who bring skills, camaraderie and their own in the field perspectives. As Matthew McConaughey said in his crafting a personal story to sell your product video, if you don’t know then ask. Sales can be as complicated or as simple and fun as you make it. Unlike many professions, Sales is not for the faint of heart because only those willing to morph will survive.
