Sales Success Unleashed: 8 Reasons to Embrace Your Inner Pirate

In my experience, sales teams usually fall into one of two camps:

Battleships or Pirate Ships.

Battleships are usually (but not always) attached to large corporate affairs, where the marketing department produces most of the leads, presentations and sales material - and the sales team brag about their portfolio of brands and yet have very few stories relating to any genuine, recent, personal achievements or new wins.

On the other hand - Pirate Ship Teams are dripping with entrepreneurialism.

Everybody on a Pirate ship knows that you need to be constantly one step ahead of those chasing you (or one step closer to those you’re trying to catch).

Everybody aboard feels a deep sense of duty to the captain and the ship - and everyone takes ownership for their role and the part they've been asked to play.

Pirate ships aren’t necessarily all small, faceless or youthful - think Apple, Virgin, Amstrad – but you can always guarantee that all those on board know the difference between value and cost - and everyone is driven to have some kind of impact.

Sometimes Battleship people join Pirate ships (never their first choice – and usually because something’s gone slightly wrong in their last company).

They sit in the first couple of sales meetings with an air of unearned superiority - looking forward to teaching the savages the way of the corporate - eager to share their experience and wisdom regarding how "the big boys do it".

But after a couple of months the pace is usually too quick for them.

The requirement for free thinking, entrepreneurialism, accountability and genuine business growth is all a bit of a shock.

On top of that, there is almost certainly some?real selling to be done - so they never last all that long before they're found wanting.

I’ve found that most true Pirates secretly long to be seen as Battleship material - so they send out CV’s - believing that there some higher level of credibility and recognition lying in wait on some distant corporate shore.

Should they be?"lucky enough"?to be chosen by the great and the good - they arrive on their first day only to discover that life is?sooo?bureaucratic and slow.

There’s no room for change or exciting ideas, no one really cares about wasting time or money - or about creating anything meaningful.

And when – by their own steam and strength of purpose they actually make a half decent splash - it just gets lost in the massive waves and wake left by the unstoppable Leviathan they’ve joined.

No one even notices their achievements.

Some decide to stay, others eventually return to a life of adventure on the open seas – but whatever they choose to do with their careers - these business pirates will always have the skills to stay successful and happy.

So is your team Battleship or Pirate Ship?

Here’s how to recognise which one you’re working for;

• Battleship captains hire people that look and act like them - Pirate ship captains hire the best people to get the job done.
• Battleships hold inquiries and deliver reports - Pirate ships demand action, resolution and continued movement.
• Battleships have a rigid routine to which they never deviate - Pirate ships can sail to the island where the treasure’s buried whenever they like.
• If you have an opinion on a battleship you need someone’s permission to deliver it - whereas people who raise their voice on a Pirate ship have something important to say.
• Battleship personnel treat training and development like a tick box exercise - Pirate ships train to achieve or to solve a problem.
• Battleships have regular meetings because that’s what they’ve always done - Pirate ships drop anchor only when there is a requirement to do so.
• Battleship crews spend their evenings congratulating each other over dinner and expensive wine, all of which was paid for with somebody else’s money. Pirates spend their time drawing new maps, discovering uncharted waters, relishing true freedom and creating their own fortunes.
• Mediocre salespeople on Pirate ships get shown the plank - on Battle ships they usually get promoted into management. ??

To your success

Chris

PS: Always nice to get a bit of positive feedback from a happy customer. ??

Here's what Stuart Netting - Account Manager at Reach PLC had to say about a recent business development masterclass

"If anyone thinks that sales training is all the same, think again.

Chris?really makes you think about what you're doing from your customer's perspective.

Quite simply the best business development class I've ever attended."

Thanks Stuart - delighted you enjoyed it

Click the link below to read more customer reviews and check out to see when the next masterclass is taking place in a city near you ??

PPS: And here's what Jamie O’Neill - New Business Manager at Atlantic Capital Markets - had to say about attending one of my masterclasses for people who manage sales teams:

"I recently participated in the FAME Foundation workshop with Chris and I have to say I would recommend it to anyone who is a manager of a sales team.

I don't want to give too much away with regards to the content but I walked away armed to the teeth with so many new methods of managing a team in a high pressure sales environment and in all honesty a whole new outlook on how to motivate and achieve targets.

Chris knows his stuff, if you haven't booked in already, get it done."

Thanks Jamie - incredibly generous of you to say so. ??

Once again - click the link below to read more customer reviews and check out to see when the next sales leadership masterclass is taking place