What flying can teach us about sales

Selling is a team sport. If that sounds familiar, it should. Enterprise selling depends on large, diverse teams to deliver great results for their clients, but it's not always easy to get the players in sync. There are converging personalities, varied experiences, differences of opinion, hierarchies, and interdependencies. Suffice to say there is a delicate balance to strike. The potential for success is immense, but there are also risks associated with managing an increasing number of stakeholders in the pursuit of closing a deal.

But what if there was a way to make team selling more efficient and effective? What if, beyond selling, you could work better with your colleagues in the pursuit of a common goal?

Aviation has some valuable lessons to teach us.

In aviation, working in small, diverse, and unfamiliar teams is just part of the daily rhythm of the job. And they have pretty much perfected the art of how to be highly efficient while mitigating risk, when working closely together in small teams.

So what is there to learn from aviation when it comes to team selling, or even more broadly working in effective teams day to day? Fasten your seatbelt, you are about to find out.

Lesson 1: There is only one captain. When decisions need to be made, someone needs to take the lead.

In aviation, there is a clear chain of command. The captain has the final say on all decisions, and the co-pilots and cabin crew are responsible for carrying out those decisions. This chain of command is essential for ensuring the safety of the flight.

While some people may view this type of power as a negative thing, it is essential for making efficient decisions. Let’s consider if there was no power dynamic and everyone had an equal say. When everyone is trying to be the leader, decision-making drags and you may find yourself directionless and wasting time. It can lead to confusion and indecision, which can ultimately hurt the team's chances of success. This can lead to missed opportunities and even failure. In other words, ‘when everyone is the captain, no one is the captain.’

In the corporate world, a similar principle applies to effective decision-making and leadership. Imagine a sales team working on a complex deal with multiple stakeholders and tight timelines. Without a designated leader taking the lead, the decision-making process can become chaotic and unproductive. Ever sat in a room for 3 hours, endlessly discussing scenarios and emerge flustered and no closer to a course of action?

Let’s imagine a different scenario. Someone steps up to take the lead.

This person assumes responsibility for the outcome and has the authority to guide the team towards a successful conclusion. They provide a sense of direction, encourage collaboration, and ensure that decisions align with the overarching sales strategy. By embracing the role of a leader, sales teams can leverage the power of focused decision-making, avoid indecisiveness, and maximize their chances of closing deals effectively.

Sounds great right? However, there is one caveat…

Lesson 2: The captain can’t be too powerful. They need to be open to direct and timely input from their team.

Have you worked in a team where the leader wielded too much power? You can feel those around you withdraw and become silent. Silent agreement can be terribly damaging. A lot of this comes down to the power distance created between a leader and their team. ?

When working in a team where the risk is high, the power distance needs to be low to allow others to speak up, challenge and course correct. In flying this is by design. ?Why? Because if there is going to be an incident, it will likely be due to a human error being made. ?It is imperative that a co-pilot feels comfortable enough to challenge a captain when they notice mistakes (and vice versa) to avoid serious incidents.

In 2019, I had the pleasure of chatting with an APAC LinkedIn executive about his hiring process for direct reports. He told me that he purposefully plants an obvious, incorrect statement in his conversations with candidates to see if they will challenge him and provide their point of view. If they agree with everything, they don't make the cut. Why on earth would he do this? In short, to find people who are not afraid to challenge him directly and offer alternative viewpoints. In his words, "I make decisions that could greatly help or hinder the organization. The worst thing I could do is surround myself with yes-people who allow bad decisions to be made without challenge."

Let's bring this down to the nitty-gritty of a deal. Sales strategies have these crucial moments when you have to choose a path. These moments are time-sensitive, and you don't have all day to debate. But here's the thing: you need to foster an open discussion to make sure you're considering all angles and that everyone gets the full picture of what's at stake. It's important for the team to feel comfortable speaking up and knowing their perspective matters. The leader still makes the call, but it is now a considered, well-rounded decision.

There are three benefits to this;

1. It opens up the opportunity for a more thorough examination of different options and potential pitfalls. It ensures that decisions are not made hastily or based on limited perspectives.
2. When team members feel empowered to challenge each other, it fosters a culture of critical thinking and innovation. It encourages everyone to bring their best ideas forward, knowing that their input will be valued and considered seriously. This collaborative environment often leads to creative solutions that may not have emerged otherwise.
3. Challenging each other's thinking helps to mitigate the risks of groupthink. Groupthink occurs when a team, driven by a desire for consensus, fails to consider alternative viewpoints or fails to identify potential flaws in the chosen course of action.

This might be new to you and you may be wondering how best to communicate a challenging point of view. If you want to understand the communication framework they use in flying, check out this quick post on how to challenge authority in staged manner.

So what happens when the power dynamic isn’t quite right?

Too much power with the leader and it turns to a ‘captain is king’ scenario, they don’t look to others for input and make all the decisions, this is extremely dangerous and exposes more risk. Too little power or less power, and you get a ‘best friend’ dynamic, where no one feels comfortable challenging each other, in some instances the co-pilots and crew have more say, appeasement becomes the norm and efficiency suffers. If the power dynamic is flat, no decisions are made efficiently. Childhood fables start to make sense in the adult world when we look at the ideal power dynamic or the ‘goldilocks’ captain - not too hot (too powerful), not too cold (too appeasing), just the right amount of power difference to facilitate open discussion and timely decision making.

Think about the team you work in, what is the power gradient like? Can it explain where things have gone wrong or right previously?

Lesson 3: In a crisis, leave your ego behind.

In flying, whilst the Captain has the ultimate say, it doesn’t mean that they can’t delegate tasks and give autonomy to their co-pilots. It’s standard practice to divvy out segments and have the co-pilot be ‘the lead’ on a flying leg. On a normal day where conditions are predictable and manageable this works extremely well. However, if there is a crisis, BAU should be aborted and the person with the most relevant experience needs to take over. That means leaving your ego behind, knowing your place relative to the scenario you are facing and relying on the implied trust between you and your team to get the job done. That may mean that a first officer who has been operating the aircraft longer may be better placed to own the crisis than the Captain who has just been checked to line (newly promoted). If you take your ego out of it, the most qualified person should take over to ensure the best outcome.

An enterprise seller in my team had a large deal they were pursuing with a health SAAS (Software as a Service) client. She had 20 years of selling experience and operated at a very high standard. The client had significant concerns about whether the offering would be able to effectively improve patient care and needed to understand the implications of the product on this. They were ready to end the discussion if their concerns weren’t alleviated quickly. The enterprise rep, whilst extremely experienced, did not have the health expertise required to address the clients concerns. A quick team huddle and deal review with her team surfaced that her customer success manager was well niched in this area. They had a rich background in health technology from previous roles. Rather than continue to run the deal, the enterprise rep realised that this was a crisis scenario, stepped back and deployed the CSM to take the lead and talk the client through the solution. It resulted in a 5-year strategic partnership that may not have happened had the rep not recognised the significance of the query and put the best person forward to answer it.

Lesson 4: Be goal-oriented, not glory-oriented

In flying that goal is pretty simple, you need to transport yourself and others from point A to point B, safely and efficiently. To do that, there are a variety of tasks that need to be actioned, some that are more cognitively demanding (an approach to land), others more granular and prescriptive. But if you are goal oriented, it doesn’t matter what you do, you play your part to get the job done. Each check is important, every action contributes to the goal.

Sometimes in sales, we focus a lot on the person who closed the deal, even though we work in teams with multiple sales reps and cross functional contributors. This kind of mentality is damaging to the cohesiveness and health of the selling pod. Enterprise selling is about inches gained over a long period of time, not the grand finale. Recognising the part that your team members played to get you to the point of closing, and equally valuing that as much as any other sales motion puts the focus squarely on the goal, not the glory.

Lesson 5: A shared mental model will always trump an individual hero

Here’s a funny story. I have been on only a handful of flights that my husband has operated. In 2015 I boarded a flight to Armidale. I was pretty excited that Adrien, my husband (partner back then) was flying me there. I sent a quick text to him with my seat number (6A) and waited to take off.

To my surprise a PA came over the cabin “hello everyone, this is your captain speaking… cruising altitude is x, weather will be y, the local time is z… (nervous squeaky voice) and I’d like everyone to say hello to my amazing* partner in row 6, I’m excited to have them on board as it’s the first time they have been on my flight…”

Bill Smith**, a middle-aged local Armidale accountant, the only person in row 6, looked a little bewildered, somewhat confused, and maybe even slightly flattered.

Wait what happened here?

This is a light-hearted example of a breakdown of a shared mental model revealing some key actions taken where there was no communication between the captain, co pilot and crew.

1.??????Adrien didn’t inform his crew he was going to make a special PA.

2.??????I had no knowledge he was intending to give me a shout out.

3.??????The cabin crew didn’t inform Adrien that they had moved me to the front of the plane at the last minute.

Why is a shared mental model relevant and important? Well let’s take a more serious scenario.

Say for example, a captain decides to think fast due to changing weather patterns, they start changing an approach or a flight path, and their co-pilot is not aware of this change. It inhibits the co-pilots ability to anticipate, monitor and actively play a part to ensure that they aren’t exposed to additional risk, particularly if the captain is both flying and thinking at the same time. Sometimes, you can pull it off. Sometimes the outcome is a good one.

In flying, that doesn’t matter, you have failed.

You have failed because you have broken the shared mental model. You have unnecessarily exposed everyone to more risk.

In sales, the lone wolf comes to mind. Every now and then, they win. They do it solo, they broadcast their achievements, they may even get some recognition from leaders far removed from the team. But with complex selling, undoubtedly, two heads are better than one, three are better than two and keeping everyone on the same page when it comes to the strategy and execution ensures more consistent and predictable outcomes. Shut people out and you are more likely to make mistakes.

Selling and flying are worlds apart but when we look at core areas like communication, delegation, influence and collaboration the lessons are transferable. As an aside, the amount of operationalisation that exists in aviation is something to aspire to in the world of selling. There is a predictability in outcomes that is rarely seen in other industries or verticals.

The most valuable lesson is that often, looking outside your industry or profession allows you to uncover innovative and new ways of working.

One thing is for certain, my husband will never give me a shout out on a PA again!

*maybe I added the ‘amazing’ in.

**real name was not Bill Smith

?