Relationships & Believing.

I'll never forget one of the biggest things I learned about my teams is the value of believing in them.

I was taught from a young age to always see the best in my people, evaluate their worst traits, and teach them how to become better in what they excel at. It was a passion of mine helping grow my teams and seeing them better themselves in what they thought were the worst things about them. Sometimes those "worst traits" ended up in the end being their best asset and gave them the most growth possible.

Why?

It was because they were afraid of leaning into what their potential was and couldn't see it. They needed a little help getting their potential off the ground.

Take for example one of my team members who was adamantly against upselling because it sounded too "sales-y" and didn't like asking and pitching for upsells. Unfortunately, that's part of "sales" - you sell more by bringing up more. He was GREAT at check marking boxes in a transaction and had a fantastic personailty and could make anyone laugh no matter what - but terrible at actually getting more sales in.

I started to watch him more frequently and began to listen in a little bit more as he was selling. He was getting more and more frustrated with his inability to make sales. I let this go on for a shift and next shift brought him to one of the tables and we chatted about what he thought his struggle was.

He told me it was cheesy and he was asking and people didn't want to be upsold.

I asked him to think back to conversations he had and if he would like to be approached the way he presented it to his customer. He laughed and said "hell no, I would walk out if someone said that to me". I said ok, well why's that? His response was "Well because I didn't need it".

Relationships. There was no relationship or understanding or uncovering needs or wants. It was just a cold cut dried out ask. It was a robotic ask and a cold one. There was no discovery, no finding out if it was something they really would be interested in or needed, nah, it was just a robotic "must ask this question to try to get more sales".

I told him to think of it like he was on a date. You want to get to know the person you're on a date with. Find out who they are, what makes them tick, what it is about them that is interesting, you want them to open up and talk to you so you ask questions about who they are. You uncover their needs in the potential relationship you are pursuing. Sales are the same way.

We talked about how I was afraid to start upselling when I first worked in coffee shops to increase our profit and how it was a two second "want a warm buttered muffin to go with your coffee?" that turned into an added $2.75 muffin. I would change up the pastry depending on what the person was ordering so it would pair well and it would sound good. Once I got to know my customers after talking to them and building a relationship I would casually ask them if they wanted to bring a latte in for their boss they rave about or a mocha and scone for their co-worker Jake (not from State Farm, sadly) or even ask if they wanted to finally schedule a time for us to do that monthly breakfast and coffee catering event for their meetings that they have been talking about but kept pushing off.

One small question can lead to a plethora of opportunities if you just take the time to build the relationship and ask.

As we were talking I asked him to really think about what made him feel uncomfortable in the interactions. He realized it was because his worst trait was asking people about themselves. Total strangers. He didn't like it. He wanted sales because he thought it would be easy money. He liked to make people laugh because it covered how uncomfortable he really was around strangers.

We strategized about the best way to talk with people and start asking ONE question about his customer to get to know them. He was a huge streamer and loved watching a ton of shows so we decided to start with: what's your favorite streaming show right now, I'm looking for something new to watch, can you recommend something?

It was awkward at first (isn't it always?) and he started slow and I was proud of him the first time he asked someone and got an answer. His face lit up! It took about a week and he was starting to get consistent answers. We started to talk more about growing that question out further.

He started asking them about why they liked the show they chose to recommend, who they watched it with, asked if they watched it on their phone or if they recorded it to watch later (when DVR was still a "thing"). Then it changed into what other shows they watched or if they liked sports or movies or if they had kids who watched tv too. Then he started to open up even more andd asking what they did for a living and if they needed to have separate phones for that, asking if they knew of anyone else who had an older phone that could upgrade to a better one.

Before I knew it, my bottom seller became my top seller. He became a "number", as the company put it, that I didn't have to push or worry about. I could start building up the next "bottom sellers" and help coach them in what they needed to believe in. I just continued to let him be amazing at what he was doing. He was crushing the sales game and was floored at how easy it was to really open up and just get to know people that allowed him to add on another line of service or be able to sell them our entertainment packages or even add on an iPad or smartwatch or a plethora of other things.

I couldn't have been more proud of how we saw his growth occur from the first time I sat down with him. He had a renewed sense of confidence in his abilities and he was really proud of how far he had come and how much he was opening up and learning to build better relationships with his customers. This led him to get referral after referral and a lot of the times he would come in for his shift he was unable to take walk in customers because he would be booked with appointments for, most the time, new sales from existing clients or their referrals.

He thought he wasn't good at talking to people. He saw it as a weakness that he had. When we really got to digging and starting with one small question that started him opening up more. He really did have a great personality he just had to use that personality to develop more relationships in the sales world.

I'll never forget the thanks I got from him for believing in him and seeing his ability to be better rather than yell at him and try to pound into him that he didn't know what he was doing. It's easier to coach and train someone than it is to berate and beat them down. When you use the right key in the lock, the other side can open a world of opportunity.

Start believing more in your people. Look at what they have going on and really get to see them for who they are. This will give you the ability to help them grow in the areas they need to grow to be better in what they do.