Why I teach "Nothing in the Dark of Night" as a fundamental Principal

Throughout my sales leadership career there have been several consistent principles that I've taught to my teams:

• Be the Customers trusted advisor - bring value to your communications and interactions with your customers!
• Take your lumps as fast as you can - When something goes wrong, be present, be responsive, take the heat, and do everything you can to solve the problem.
• Do nothing in the dark of night - Be transparent about what you are doing and why - even if that means a difficult conversation.
• Prospect - Take the success you've had with one customer and do your best to replicate it with others with the same or similar needs.
• Be yourself and be creative - One size fits all sales processes and strategies are rarely as optimized as a team member who is delivering value and bringing creativity to the table.
• The results are the ultimate measurement - In the end, all of us in sales are measured by the revenue that we bring in - KPI's are just what the name calls them Indicators - the ultimate score is the revenue.

I've posted on Prospecting in the past and that post also speaks to being a Trusted advisor to some degree: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/prospecting-possibly-most-important-thing-salesperson-andy-balderson/?trackingId=HfdzSa%2BKRj%2BvlgixITPCpg%3D%3D and over the next few weeks I plan to add articles on some of the other principles that I believe in as an experienced sales leader.

My "Nothing in the Dark of Night" principle is a fancy way of saying - Be transparent! There are many reasons why I believe that transparency is the best policy and I'll expand on them below - but first, I want to make it clear that "Nothing in the Dark of Night" doesn't cover information that our employers ask us to keep confidential - It refers to information that will come out in the natural course of action and you being the one that your partners and customers learn this from vs. having them learn through a competitor or the marketplace in general.

Why Transparency:

• It builds trust - if your partners and customers in business come to learn that you are direct, honest, and transparent they have a good reason to trust you in future interactions.
• It generates better performance - If your partners and customers trust you - things will just move faster - The deal, the installation, the technical support challenge - pretty much everything is accelerated as the fundamental building block of trust is already taken care of.
• "Class Acts" attract one another - allowing you to work with and attract better talent to your team - If you have a reputation for doing "Nothing in the Dark of Night", quality people will just want to work with you and with the organizations you represent.
• It's just easier - Especially as I get older, my memory isn't what it used to be and I don't want to try to remember which version of the truth I told to which person - by living by the "Nothing in the Dark of Night" principle, I don't have to.
• It makes you and your team more responsive and adaptable - By being transparent and communicating even the difficult messages clearly and confidently, your team is clear on how to handle these communications even before "talking points" are published and they can adapt more quickly and efficiently without special guidance on a much wider range of issues that your business may face.
• ...and, It's just the right thing to do!