Why the best salespeople share everything

Back in the day, the lone wolf seller was able to succeed, likely because of an environment of lower competition. Let’s be honest, being in high dollar B2B sales hasn’t always required the level of intelligence, curiosity and effort that it does today. These attributes have totally replaced having a good golf game, a willingness to drink to get a deal done (Mad Men) and generally being one of the ‘cool kids’. People still buy from people they like, however, what makes one likable has evolved dramatically. We buy from people that add value to our business, arm us with helpful information, are generally quality people (honest, moral, caring…) and provide an experience we would recommend to others. The best way to improve in these areas is to constantly share everything you learn with peers and teammates.

So how do you succeed in this day and age? Let’s assume you’re experienced, smart, driven, hardworking, coachable, professional and curious enough to land your dream sales role. If you really want to excel, you’ve also got to be selfless. You need to be an excellent teammate. You are motivated to collectively raise the game of your team. Embrace the idea that you can go further together. The most important role of a good sales leader (whether manager or motivated salesperson) is to foster collaboration for the collective good. I’ve seen firsthand as a salesperson and manager that exceptional collaboration, openness and selflessness lead to exceptional results. Seeing your teammates and manager at President’s Club is extremely gratifying.

People often ask what sales or leadership books I recommend. I have a nice little library but in all honesty, most business books have 1-2 good ideas and the rest is either filler or gets outdated pretty quickly. I find some of the best lessons come from being a sports fan and looking below the surface into the psychology of what’s really happening. One of the greatest sports teams of all time is inarguably the 1996 Chicago Bulls. Yes, they had Michael Jordan but what made this team different aside from their obvious natural talent was their willingness to commit to a ‘Tribal Leadership’ (written by Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright) philosophy. If you’re new to Tribal Leadership, it’s basically where each member and the tribe as a whole supported each other to move from one stage to another to an entire stage five “life’s great” tribe. As Phil remembered in his biography: “this dance was ours, and the team could only compete against ourselves”.

Still skeptical? Sound easy for Jordan to give up a few shots to get Kerr going? Easier for inside sales where your cubes are next to one another? How does this come into play with a field / remote sales team? In my experience, there is an added incentive to collaborate regularly and the technology available actually makes remote collaboration more convenient than in person. If 25 year old me were reading this now, the skeptic in me would still be asking “how as a quota carrying salesperson am I going to achieve more by taking an hour or two out of my week to give up my best plays to my peers? I want to be number one and this is time spent not selling and time actually helping the people I need to compete with?” I’ll admit, the idea is rather counter-intuitive but I can tell you from firsthand, large scale testing that it works. A few months back we ran a sales team where our top people completely bought in to the concept, shared openly in a group setting every week and in smaller settings almost daily. These top salespeople went from producing 100-110% of target to 120-160%. The results were undeniable and those who participated significantly improved their job satisfaction. Instead of small talk at the watercooler, they were building their skills and improving their results month after month by having substantive conversation with their colleagues.

If this still sounds a little abstract, let me break down what’s actually happening. First, by sharing you are actually progressing to a new level of mastery of the skill or information you possess. Second, sharing is a two way street where you will eventually get as much or more than what you give. Third, no matter how brilliant you are, two minds are always better than one, three always better than two and so on. Have a bullet proof email template or pitch deck? Your teammates can always help you make it better. Finally (but not exhaustively), collaboration increases engagement, which increases morale and accountability. People will work harder because there is an expectation they need to contribute, they have fun contributing and actually want to contribute. In my experience, the best team meetings are ones where the salespeople bring almost all of the content and the manager acts as facilitator. They feel comfortable enough to open up and are excited to learn from their teammates.

Share more = sell more, have more fun at work, build meaningful relationships, constantly improve your skill