Recently, I spoke for a particular company at their National Sales Meeting in Arizona. The request made of me for this speech was to help the sales people ‘become better people’. Management felt that if the salesforce were to become ‘better people’ then they would ultimately perform better as a team, as individual sales people and as a company. The thought was that ‘better people’ would produce a better company culture. It follows that being ‘better people’ would also spill over into their personal lives and help them to feel less stressed, more creative and more productive….all of these things seemingly would lead to higher sales for the company. ‘Better people’ should naturally equate to higher sales.
As I was preparing the content for this speech, I pondering whether or not this was true…do ‘better people’ close more sales? Do people working on improving themselves as human beings actually produce more results? Do people that are responsible for their actions and states of mind find more success in life?
For 38 plus years now, I have been in the field working with, selling with, training and coaching people, therefore I can say with authority that ‘better people’ do, in fact, close more sales!!! This is good news because it means that by improving yourself you can improve the quality of your life and you can prosper more.
Ok, so now that we know it IS true, let’s understand WHY it is true. I have worked with some companies that have employed ‘better people’ and have been committed to keeping them that way. These companies had some things in common…the employees all treated each other with respect, they were kind, courteous and supportive of one another. The good will that this produced in the company showed up in their excellent customer service records and in their growing sales. The sales teams of these companies were supportive of their inside teams and everyone made it a point to continually improve themselves. Many of the employees were involved in community activities and programs that helped them stay focused on contributing and improving. Inside the offices of these companies you heard people being grateful and acknowledging each other, never did you hear complaining or negative speak. When challenges arose (and they will) they were handled in a professional manner with a solution-oriented focus. Mistakes were handled in the same manner, people were not berated or made to ‘feel bad’, they were corrected with grace and everyone moved on. Personal responsibility was evident in all aspects of interaction in these companies.
Although this would seem an easy thing to do, to foster a company culture of improvement and growing sales…sadly, it is not always the case. My time in the field has shown me companies that are failing as well and here are some reasons why these places of business were not succeeding.
The places that were falling short of their goals were filled with people that were back-stabbing and one-upping each other, people that were secretly hoping their co-workers would fail so that they could take their clients. Employees that gossiped and looked for what was ‘wrong’ with everything and everyone – rather than looking for what was ‘right’. No respect was found for management or for co-workers within these places; rather what you found was blame, criticism and negativity. Instead of working as a team these people raced to take credit or assign fault to individuals. The sales teams lacked courtesy, professionalism, grace and class. They were not committed to being ‘better people’ because they were simply looking for the EASY BUTTON. As we all know, in life there is NO easy button, that is best left to the Staples commercials…in life you have to work to make things happen and to succeed in sales.
Also in these companies the inside teams were unprofessional as well. In one such company, after meeting with Executives, office management would bring confidential information back to certain members of the sales team to make sure that Executive goals were thwarted. Very sad and as you might imagine this company is no longer in business. Unfortunately many of the people in these companies had great sales numbers; however they also had bizarre ego quirks, poor conduct and unprofessional attitudes which eventually led to their demise. These behaviors also made the daily work of getting a sale out the door a proverbial nightmare.
What can be concluded from this is that companies that emphasize professional conduct, respect, ethics and support a culture of training people are the companies that will succeed. These companies are committed to making people ‘better people’ and it is reflected in their sales numbers as well as their public reputations. Companies that are committed to their people have lower turnover rates, are healthier places to work and support a culture of “everyone rowing in the same direction”. The Sales Teams from these companies report that, “it is a lot easier to hit a goal when everyone is on the same page and that happens most often in a culture of respect for the individual.”
Life mirrors back to us the behavior that we display to others. If your current working environment is unprofessional, hostile, negative and a struggle for your inside team to support sales, and then take a peek in the mirror. You are being reflected back to you. There’s a good chance that your own poor behavior and conduct is being shown back to you. Who can change that? YOU CAN, start today! You get what you give, so resolve to improve yourself right now.
Do ‘better people’ close more sales? YES? Do you close more sales?
*I love to hear feedback on our work, you can reach me at steve@stevelentini.com.
