What Sales Leaders Can Learn From Nature's Extraordinary Creatures - Africa Part 1

?I recently went on an amazing trip to Africa, one I won’t soon forget! I took many pictures, I finally narrowed it down to my top 55 from 3,000. Last week I held a poll asking ‘what African animal are you most like when it comes to sales?’?and I was inspired to create a series.

Unfortunately, for polls you can only have 4 options, these were the first animals with the results:

Elephant (18%)

Leopard (9%)

Rhino (3%)

Lion (70%)

Today I’ll be focusing on lions and elephants, the ones that most people identified with.

Lion (Born Leader, Teamwork) 70%

Lions are pride animals - Lionesses work together to hunt and take care of the young. A male lion rarely survives without its pride, which is why I thought the lion is a great representation of teamwork. Great leaders often start out as great team players. I was not surprised to see that the majority identified with lions.

In sales, like it or not you will always be part of a team. While you don’t have to be friends with everyone, it is important to build trust with those you consider your pride.

I took this image in Kenya at the Mara Naboisho Conservancy. We also saw them in Tanzania!

Elephant (impressive memory) 18%

An impressive memory is great when establishing relationships, a crucial element of sales. Elephants have great relationships and work as a team to solve challenges or protect the babies.

If you identified with the elephant, you feel comfortable protecting up-and-coming sellers, training and mentoring the next generation. As a senior sales leader, you remember what has worked and what didn’t, and how to build long-term relationships.

Elephants are matriarchal and the babies have to be taught everything: how to use their trunks, how to get water, what is a threat, and what food to eat.

In sales, we teach junior salespeople how to use sales tools, what is low-hanging fruit, and what a good lead is. We use our seasoned experience to inspire others. When we teach our young, we are teaching the future how to do the job.

In this picture, the elephants are digging in the mud to find water. This baby elephant was goofing off, playing in the mud cooling off but did learn where to find water.

Stay tuned for my next post where I’ll be covering leopards and rhinos, you might be surprised at what you learn!

Which of these two animals do you identify more with? Which African animal should I talk about next?