"Does your job impact the customer and support the growth of the company?"
Steve Knapp
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Storm Dennis didn't stop us joining the Howden Group at their national conference this week.
We didn't take undue risk, and I managed to sneak in-between storms Dennis and Ellen to share my talk on "The Journey to Sales and Customer Excellence".
The "journey" to get to the conference saw us use trains, planes and automobiles - oh wait where have I heard something like that before?
The chance to work with a company who wanted to explore how they connect even better to their customer and connect all employees to their growth ambition was an opportunity not to missed.
Opportunities like this excite me as I'm able to draw on my significant experience in building and implementing a global "sales" change programme during my time in Shell International.
This puts me in a unique place to help companies by providing real life examples that highlight the insights I share.
So, I refreshed my slides and updated my talk and made my way to Hamilton Racecourse for my appointed time in the conferences running order.
My heartbeat increased when I saw that the conference App had my talk scheduled to last 12 and 1/2 hours! Although this was short lived and 40 minutes was confirmed.
I was good to go!
"How does your job impact the customer experience and support the growth ambition of the company?"
These are two questions that I pose to businesses as they progress their journey to "Sales and Customer Excellence".
Can you just imagine how empowering understanding this, articulating it and providing that clarity would be for every department and every person in your business!
Knowing that the job I do helps my company to grow and helps my company to be a success, I mean everybody wants to contribute to that success don't they?
Let me put it out there, have you taken the time to explain this to your team members? or, have you taken the time to find out how your job contributes?
So, can you answer those questions - have a go!
How does your job impact the customer experience?
How does your job support the growth ambition of the company?
Howden are further developing their capability to answer these questions and this week during their national conference I was delighted to be able to join them for a couple of hours to share my story and experiences.
Inclusivity and Collaboration
The room was full of leaders, with only thirteen being from the sales team.
The remaining 55 leaders, and the majority, were from operational teams passionately joining in discussions about how they get even closer to their customers and support the growth ambition.
This inclusive and collaborative approach is a real positive statement that underlines the strong company culture that I witnessed whilst working with the team in the breakout sessions.
We worked under the Philip Kotler quote “The sales department isn’t the whole company, but the whole company better be the sales department.”
In my opinion this quote should sign post the path to sustainable growth. The reality is that the sales team can not do it alone (nor do they want to) and the need for a business to understand and be able to answer these two questions is critical.
Howden are certainly fronting up to these big questions and I am hopeful that I might continue being part of their quest to find the answers.
About the author
Steve Knapp is the Owner of Steve Knapp Sales, the Founder of the The Sales Mindset Coach and Co-Founder of the modern selling training approach Plan.Grow.Do.
Steve brings 30+ years of B2B sales, sales management and sales leadership experience.
Steve is also the author of Funnel Vision - Selling Made Easy
To download my book for kindle, https://amzn.to/31MrHA9
To order a paperback version: https://amzn.to/2MSSiYd
Product Director at Howden Compressors
4 年Your session was one of the major highlights of this years HCO Management Conference. It was great to hear about the journey you and your previous organisation had been on. Funnel Vision is due to arrive tomorrow, provided Amazon isn’t effected by the storms, I’m optimistic it’ll support me with my own sales coaching.