How To Use A Powerful Leadership Tool To Step Up Sales Results
Brent Filson observes that sales people often achieve a fraction of the results they are capable of because they neglect to apply a powerful leadership tool that can be used in many sales processes. It’s a tool he has taught to thousands of leaders worldwide for the past 20 years, and when used in sales, it can substantially step up results.
By Brent Filson - 2005
Good sales people can close, but few “step up” for even more sales from that close. Yet stepping up should be one of the easiest accomplishments in sales — that is if you know how to build the staircase.
Do it by applying a leadership tool
I have taught thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years.
The tool is simply to foster a particular viewpoint, which is this:
Challenge people not simply to do a task but to take leadership of that
task.
The difference in results-producing effectiveness between doing
a task and taking leadership of a task is the difference between the
lightning bug and lightning.
This change in viewpoint may seem simple even simplistic; but
when put into action many times daily, it can work wonders.
For instance, I worked with a manufacturing leader whose
workers were constantly falling short of productivity goals. I told him
he was leading the workers in the wrong way; he was ordering them to
get productivity advancements. I told him that he should have the
workers sign on as leaders of productivity advancements. When the
workers began seeing themselves as such leaders, they started hitting
the goals consistently.
Now, let’s apply this leadership tool to the sales process.
I’ll show you how to get step-ups in results that go far beyond the
results achieved from closes. Here are three ways to do it.
(1) Don’t Just Sell Products, Get Cause Leaders: Salespeople often fail
to get step-ups because they have a short-sighted view of the
customer. They view the customer as only a customer! Whereas, if we
want to get step-ups, we must see the customer not just as a customer
but as a “cause leader,” one who can lead our cause both inside and
outside their company. Instead of aiming just to sell a product, to
get a close, aim to turn your customer into your cause leader.
For instance, I consulted with a materials supplier that wanted
to acquire new customers in the computer industry. The salespeople of
the materials company not only worked diligently on closing with the
engineer-customers but also on creating step-ups by persuading those
engineers to be the cause leaders for their materials within the
company.
Here is the way that they enlisted that leadership. They
discovered that the engineers needed increased productivity and faster
cycle-times -- and to do it with fewer resources.
In response, the sales people developed a materials performance
package for the engineers that increased their productivity and
cycle-times. In addition, they brought in productivity experts from
their own company to help the engineers streamline their design
processes. They’re not only selling their materials. They’re selling
productivity as well. Seeing that the sales people were helping them
meet their vital needs, the engineers became the sales people’s cause
leaders within their company — unleashing a torrent of step-ups.
(2) Start Early: George Burns said, “I had to work hard for 20
years in vaudeville before I became an overnight success in radio.”
That’s a lesson in stepping up. Stepping up sales results with my
leadership tool doesn’t just happen overnight. You must prepare to get
those step-ups starting in the early stages of the sales process: when
prospecting for new clients, identifying decision makers, and making
initial calls.
In this early stage, ask yourself: “What is the close in this
sale? And how can that close lead to the customer not simply buying my
product but also becoming the product’s cause leader, both inside and
outside his/her organization?”
For instance, the sales people of the materials company I
mentioned aimed to replace their competitors’ materials with their
materials in computer housing applications. With that focus, they
would have gotten closes — but not step-ups. The differences between
their competitors materials and their materials were negligible in cost
and performance.
The sales people continued to develop the traditional channels
to their customers’ purchasing departments. But they also began
building step-ups early by including design engineers in their
first-stage sales activities. They focused on being their customers’
“design partners” — not simply showing them where they could save costs
and achieve performance advantages but also showing them how they could
get market share through the innovative uses of those materials.
Getting in early as their customers’ design partners, they not
only got closes but step-ups from those closes by integrating their
materials into new generations of housings.
(3) Link to “Must-Have” Results: Step-ups happen only when you
answer the vital needs of your customers — not the nice-to-have needs.
Discover those needs by asking and answering: “What are your customers
absolute must-have results?”
Those “must-haves” are your great step-up opportunities,
because when you are delivering on the must-haves, your customers are
more likely to become your cause leaders.
In the above example, the sales people were able to get
step-ups because they focused on their customer’s “must-haves”,
productivity and cycle-time.
Here’s another example dealing with another busines sector: I
consulted with an insurance company whose growth had flattened out. We
found out a key reason why. Their products were not meeting the
must-have results of their customers. The must-have results of their
customers were that they absolutely had to grow their businesses. Yet
the company’s products did not materially address the growth needs of
their customers.
Only when the sales people convinced their own company to
develop and sell products that met the growth needs of their customers
were they able to turn those customers into cause leaders. Once those
new products were offered to the customers, they far outsold the old
products.
Don’t sell yourself short by focusing exclusively on the close.
Liberate the step-up opportunities that are embedded in most closes by
using this powerful leadership tool of challenging people to lead not
simply do. By getting customer cause leaders, starting early, and
linking to must-have results, you can multiply sales far beyond what
closes achieve.
2005© The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – Celebrating 25 years of helping leaders of top companies worldwide achieve outstanding results every day. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get his FREE report "7 Steps To Leadership Mastery"