Take a look at your top sales performers and I bet you'll see that they all check at least 9 of these boxes! Selling a company’s products or services is not rocket science (unless you’re selling some sort of rocket propulsion technology). However, for a member of your sales team to be successful they need to have the right personality traits. Some of the habits are innate but all can be taught. Investing the time to select the right members of your team will pay high dividends.
What was your last career-planning conversation like?
Mine took place a long time ago, when I was a cog in the wheel of corporate America. My then-manager and I talked about how I saw myself advancing within the company and what I needed to do to achieve my goals there. The conversation energized me, and that evening I went home with renewed enthusiasm for my job and for my role in the organization. A week or so later, though, my enthusiasm faded as I found myself remembering that I’d had similar conversations with my manager before—and nothing had really changed. (And that’s why, the following year, I left that company and started Mamu Media.)
All of my memories of wasted time and energy caused by a manager who was merely going through the motions came flooding back to me when I recently read Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want, by Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni.
Any company is capable of providing top-notch services or selling excellent products. But if the organization isn’t adept at connecting with people, it can’t really achieve long-term or sustainable success. In a world where people are your most important asset and their availability is slim, this is more important now than ever before.
The ability to build strong, positive relationships makes it possible for hiring managers to source and retain top talent, for salespeople to close deals with clients, and for firms to negotiate mutually beneficial arrangements with vendors and suppliers. A client who has a strong relationship with one particular company, for example, will be more inclined to call on that firm first for its business needs. Similarly, employees who feel connected to (and valued by) their colleagues and managers will be less likely to want to move to other organizations.
Clearly, connections are valuable. But how are they created? And once they are created, how are they sustained? The answer to both of those questions is the same: through the personal touch.
When it comes to promoting their services and their brands, too many organizations prioritize sales over everything else. Sure closing deals is the ultimate goal of any company—after all, without sales a firm can’t continue to function, much less turn a profit. But today’s sales can’t sustain a company forever. That’s why instead of focusing on short-term gains, an organization should instead work on developing long-term plans to make tomorrow’s sales, too, to ensure that it’s successful (and still around) in the future.
10. Cost effective. When compared to live in-person events. You don’t need to worry about the minimum number of attendees, venue, catering, or parking
9. Marketing opportunities galore! Digital marketing options like pre-webinar surveys, invites, blog posts about the topic, social media engagement etc.
8. Long shelf life. Use the webinar recordings to extend the life of the content and provide resources for future contacts
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