Role of Sales — To ‘Convince’ or to ‘Serve’?
A Mindset That Can Change Everything When it Comes to Sales Performance
It starts at the top.
When I ask a CEO/owner, “What is the role of your sales team?” The reply I get most often is this, “To convince customers to buy my product or service.”
Now mind you, I’ve been called in as a consultant because he/she is disappointed with the sales team’s current performance.
There are many things that can contribute to poor sales performance — lack of a company strategy, sales methodology, etc. … I’ve written about many of these. I will also argue that a great part also has to do with this faulty sales mindset, that the role of sales is to ‘convince’.
This is a huge misunderstanding about sales. It is what I believe creates the uncomfortable friction between sales and the customers they are supposed to serve. It is why you get the unsolicited sales text, and emails. It is why sales people tend to talk more than listen. It is why sales people measure things like how many calls they made or emails they sent in a day. They are busy trying to ‘convince’.
I strongly advocate for an alternative selling mindset. That the role of sales is to help qualified customers make a good buying decision. To serve them through THEIR decision making process.
This mindset changes everything. First and foremost it provides the rationale for investing and prioritizing time spent learning about your customer. Not just about the pain they are experiencing then and there, but the hierarchy of other needs that will impact decision making. After all, you can’t serve someone unless you first know them.
My bosses knew that winning in sales was directly correlated to our knowledge of the customer. They chose a sales methodology that emphasized this. And that was where we spent the most time in sales review meetings. It wasn’t the number of sales calls made or emails sent. They didn’t care about ‘activity’. It was all about the knowledge gained, and the quality of that knowledge.
If you want to change your team’s sales performance, consider changing your personal mindset about the role of sales to one of ‘serving’ rather than ‘convincing’. The resultant outcome will amaze you.
About the author: Mike is the founder of Allegro Consulting, a growth strategy and sales specialty firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. He advises private business owners and startup founders how to build and lead a growth oriented business, first through strategy creation (where are we going) then execution (sales process). Prior to Allegro, he sold jet fighters to foreign governments for Boeing and Lockheed, served in the U.S. Air Force, and was an aerospace engineer for the U.S. Navy. Twitter: @growthguy
