Welcome to SEI Newsletter 019

I was at a conference last week, speaking with various business owners and leaders, hearing presentations, and sitting in break-out sessions.

One thing I noticed was the confirmation of where skills and experience is not enough.

And not even the primary thing to attribute in successful members of a team/organization.

In a conversation I had with a small business owner, we spoke about hiring, firing, turn over, and the general difficulty of finding the ‘right’ person to be a part of his small team.

He was going about it in the classic way – of looking for someone with sales experience in a similar type of industry.

But that ignores what matters most/first – mindset.

I decided to take a concept I wrote about in my book on the Sales Success Traits, and expand it in detail. Not just a high level of the five mindset traits that matter most, and the order of importance – but how they apply to salespeople, leaders, and the sales op side as well (which is all about how to hire for these traits that aren’t listed on a resume).

Each week I will dissect one of them in detail.

This week is all about Openness

Selling Effectiveness

When I was developing and mapping out the content for Selling With Authentic Persuasion: Transform From Order Taker To Quota Breaker, I spent months doing a deep dive into what led to sales success – both in myself and countless others.

One of the benefits of being a sales leader for years is that you encounter a lot of salespeople. Depending on the industry and mode – “a lot” in my case was easily more than a thousand salespeople. That includes the ones who do well, and of course, it also means seeing the majority not make it for one reason or another.

Read more: [https://go.sellingeffectiveness.com/LI.10.28.PM]

Leadership Effectiveness

With Openness being the first and most important one, let’s talk about you. Why is this important for you as a sales leader?

For the same reason that its critical for your team to have a mindset of Openness. If you aren’t open, as a leader, then you won’t want to listen or do what your leadership is asking of you. It usually comes in the form of resistance to change.

Read more [https://go.sellingeffectiveness.com/LI.10.29.PM]

Sales Operation Effectiveness

Whenever I speak to companies and leaders, I share with them the Sales Success Traits and why they are the most important thing to focus on when hiring a new person for your team.

Most hiring managers/teams’ default to selecting for sales experience, maybe hoping someone has specific industry knowledge and skills. Thinking that if they can find the right person who can just show up and sell as quickly as possible, that it will solve their revenue woes.

Read more [https://go.sellingeffectiveness.com/LI.10.30.PM]

To your success,

Jason Cutter

CEO/Founder

Selling Effectiveness Institute

PS. What memories do you have from Halloween – growing up or even as an adult? For me, growing up in Northern California – Halloween was always about cool, colder weather. Fall kicking into gear and launching the ‘holiday season’ – which includes my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. Growing up, this was a really fun 2-month stretch each year. How about for you?