All too often, growing an excellent business and an excellent sales team is about the individuals sales growth and the company as a whole taking an inward look. These three aspects will change the life of salespeople as well as the company’s bottom line.
Customer First
Taking a customer first approach is the first on the list. There are some companies that do this very well and then I have seen other companies that do not do this well. As times change, the customer is more empowered. It is easy for the customer to shop around and compare what they are getting against what others say they should be getting. A disgruntled customer can now take his rants to social media and wreck havoc on the company’s reputation.
Due to this cultural revolution of transparency, companies that do not become customer focused and satisfy the customer’s needs, will fail. There is no veil of ambiguity to hide the truths. If you are in business, you will eventually get a reputation. That reputation is going to be on social media, whether you are there or not. People will know you by how you have conducted business up to this point and that data is now easy to research.
In short, take a customer first approach to how you conduct your sales, marketing, and business in general.
“A sale is not something you pursue, it’s what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.” -Unknown
Commit to Excellence
Committing to excellence is important in the sales process, because it is how we narrow the gaps that prospects are able to fall through. Whether the sales person messes up or the business processes are not designed well, not committing to excellence has been the root cause for many lost accounts and disgruntled former customers than anything else. Excellence is the currency by which you build a reputation and retain customer commitment and it must not be overlooked when objectively approaching sales growth within your company.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle
I have heard it said that self discipline is doing what you are supposed to do, whether you feel like it or not. This is true. Whether you advance as an individual and a company or you don’t, the world turns anyways. People still need the same excellence. So, if excellence is the tool that creates success, self discipline is putting the tool in your hand and committing to it.
“I wake up every morning and think to myself, ‘how far can I push the company forward in the next 24 hours?’” -Leah Busque
As company leaders, we often look at refining our processes and how we run the company. Many companies have failed because they hired wrong or failed to improve their employee’s skills and motivation. Sales growth of a company is much about refining the culture of the company. Only with the right mentalities and expectations for growth (by the employees), can the company truly achieve sustainable success.
