Leadership and Sales
Phil Whitebloom
Sales Coach - Leveraging over 40 years of experiences to help you grow your business
Salespeople – Are you leaders?
Let’s just talk about you. You are a salesperson. As a salesperson, have you thought of yourself as a leader? Let’s review some of the qualities that make up a good leader. Leaders must be good listeners, communicate clearly and regularly, be empathetic, be relationship builders, be problem solvers, be resilient, be adaptable, be strategic thinkers, have integrity, and make decisions. This certainly sounds like many of the same qualities that a successful salesperson must have to be successful. At BeenThere Consulting Services, all these attributes are components of everything we cover as coaches. It does not matter where you live and work. Whether you are selling in the Baltimore area or anywhere in the world, these are skills you must master. If you would like to learn more about this topic, contact us at https://[email protected] or visit our website, https://BeenThereCS.com.
Why are leadership and selling skills an important topic?
Here is an example. In business to business (B2B) selling, there are situations where the business you are selling to wants to become more efficient. In some cases, it has been perceived that the proposed solutions will put jobs at risk. This has been the reality for many. As the salesperson working to help the business achieve the efficiency goal, you may find that you are not the most popular person walking in the door. The people that consider themselves at risk may be the very people you have to work with. While going through the sales process, you will need to invoke the skills of a leader to achieve the business objectives, while getting the nervous employees to feel comfortable and even embrace the solution.
Throughout my career I have been in this position on several occasions. One of the most dramatic was while I was working for NCR in the 1980’s. I was in their office products division selling desktop workstations for word-processing and financial applications. Yes, there was a time when there were dedicated machines that did what apps do today. The most widely used technology of the time was a typewriter. Specifically, the IBM Selectric typewriter. Secretaries were the people that used this tool. The advent of a machine that could replace a typewriter and other office machines also had the ability to replace the secretary. And that was the fear. You may think that in those situations the boss was the ultimate decision maker. That was not always the case. The secretary carried a lot of weight with the boss, as she (the position was held primarily by women at that time) was the primary person the boss depended on. If she was not happy or onboard, it was going to be miserable for the boss. ?I became very skilled at showing the secretaries how this new technology was going to make their lives better by speeding up how fast they can get documents typed. How easy it was to edit, distribute, and store documents. The formatting capabilities make the end products more professional in appearance and made the boss look better. By mastering the skills of the new technology, they became even more of an asset to the boss and the company. This is why I was over 120% of quota and won the company trip to the Bahama’s. I would love to hear your sales stories on how you used your leadership skills to make a sale. Send me an email at [email protected].
Sales and leadership looking inwards (Communication)
As a sales coach, I not only have a responsibility to help my clients to grow their sales by focusing on challenging scenarios and the techniques and skills to move them forward to become new orders, I also at times must tell the executives of the company who hired me, that their offerings in their current state are no longer what the marketplace is looking for. If they don’t update and surpass their competition, there are not enough selling skills to overcome that objection.
As the salesperson, you are the eyes and ears of your company. You are closer to the customers than anyone else. You have the responsibility to deliver bad news in addition to the good news. When delivering bad news, what will make you stand out in a positive way is that you proposed a solution designed to turn around the negative situation. Many leadership and selling skills are needed to effectively deliver this type of news and to create change that will keep your customers as customers. Communication skills are at the top of the list. It is one of the topic areas that we discuss quite often during the BeenThere Sales Coaching Hour which takes place every Wednesday at Noon Eastern Time. Learn more at ?https://beentherecs.com/sales-coaching-signup/.
It’s a responsibility – Leadership and Selling
Mastering the skills of selling is similar to mastering the skills of being a good leader. As a salesperson, you must ask questions, and questions about the answers to ensure that you understand accurately the information that is being shared with you or not yet to be shared with you. The same is true of a leader. You must be empathetic to the reasons you are in the conversation, and you must present solutions that directly address not simply the issue, but the reasons behind the issue and ultimate benefit gained by your proposed resolution. Responsibility comes because you are being counted on to help and to provide a lasting solution to situations posed. You have the responsibility to follow-up to find out how it is working. If not, determine the steps to make it right. When you practice the skills that make a good leader, you grow your business and retain your employees. When you practice the same skills as a salesperson, you grow your business and retain customers and clients.
About Phil Whitebloom
Phil has been in sales and sales leadership for over 40 years. He is a multiple award winner and has helped customers such Fortune 500 companies, U.S. and local governments, institutions of higher education, houses of worship, television/radio companies, and more. Along with his sales teams they have solved thousands of problems, and generated billions of dollars in revenue. He is also known as a strong leader, boasting diversity and employee retention. His company, BeenThere Consulting offers Mastermind group, one-on-one sales coaching, etc… Sales Coaching
Send Phil an email [email protected]? let him know your thoughts on this topic and share your stories.
To learn more about BeenThere Consulting Services and how we can help you and your business go to BeenThereCS.com. To discuss specific needs or programs with me go to at Contact Us or schedule a meeting with me Calendly BeenThereCS.
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BeenThere Consulting Services is a sales coaching company. Coaching is more than training. We work with your specific sales needs in real-time. We address what is impacting your business now, while creating enhanced processes and developing skills for future success. Our promise is that you will have actionable take-a-ways after each meeting, which will increase your sales and benefit your business overall.
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