Growing up around selling and in sales my entire life, I was taught that the sweetest sound is the ring of the cash register, you can almost hear it make that lovely sound of Ca’ching as I write this sentence. By it ringing It meant money was coming into the business, that money was used for the basic needs of the family but as time progressed and business got better, we moved up on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs it was used for a higher purpose. It allowed us to go to the best schools, to live in the best communities and to give back, make donations, support worthy causes and fund our giving accounts and saving accounts, as Dan teaches. You see at a certain point we need to do things that are greater than us, things that truly motivate us to leave a lasting impact and legacy. We need to fulfill our Why and to live out our missions.
Now you may ask yourself how this relates to selling, well it does, because I believe, and studies show that an organization and individual sales people that are motivated every day by their Why, their personal and organizational mission, will have higher production and closing ratios because they are coming at the sale from a place of purpose and that will resonate with their prospects. The stories they tell are that of purpose and mission, and we all know that stories sell.
Studies show that sales people that are drawn to the product and the organization as a calling out perform in sales and have a much higher job satisfaction because they believe so much in what they are selling and the benefits that they customer receives from the product and services. They truly embody my saying that “… it is their mission to sell what they have because they know all the good that it does for the purchaser…” When you walk into a company that is carrying out an aligned mission every day you can feel it, sense it, it is part of their Modi Operandum, you feel that when you walk through the Advantage Media headquarters. When you encounter a sales person that is living out their true why and believes so much in the benefits that the customer receives from their product or service it is intoxicating, you just want to do business with them. As Zig Ziglar famously said “enthusiasm is what sell.” Not the fake pump up on Red Bull enthusiasm but true enthusiasm, the enthusiasm that comes from the heart, the knowing that products and services I represent are the best solution or your problem.
Now think about yourself and your sales force, do you and they have this has a common theme. Does your team believe in the mission so much that it is their calling to tell and serve every customer in such a way that there is no other option than to do business with you? Does everyone on staff know your mission, vision and values. Do you hire for your sales team based on these charter traits? Do you hire for your values? Do you create a social contract with every applicant that states this is what we stand for, if you believe in this then we are the place for you, if not then we are not the place for you? Do you rally yourself daily to achieve your personal and organizational mission every day? Does your team know your organization mission, and can they tie their “why’s” back to the organizational mission? Do they believe that they are carrying out their lives work and providing solutions that a second to none in the marketplace? Is it part of your daily, weekly and monthly training like it is at Disney?
It is my position that it all goes back to your mission and the mission of your company, if you are driven by your organization and personal mission and communicate that to your staff, and if you hired sales people that are driven by the mission and outcome that their customers get from your product or service, well then everything will take care of itself. We all need to be part of something bigger than ourselves, we all need a personal and organizational mission that drives us to a higher calling and propels us to keep fighting during the hard and challenging times. To paraphrase Victor Frankel, a man that knows the “WHY” for his existence will be able to bear almost any “HOW”
To motivate yourself go back to your why, if you don’t have one then take some time to think about your why. Once you have that tie your team to the why of the organization. What is the bigger mission, and vision and how does everyone fit into it. People will be driven by the mission and how they fit into that mission. Your sales and marketing team need to communicate this to their customers and prospects, not your features and benefits, but the why you do what you do and the how what you do benefits the customer better than any other option including doing nothing at all.
Trust me if you hire for this, they won’t even need to be sales professional, we can teach them that skill set, hire for mission match and the drive to carry that mission out to the world, then sit back and listen to the cash register ring Ca’ching.
Happy Selling.
