There are thousands, maybe millions of blog voices out there. There are hundreds if not thousands of sales coaches, sales authors, sales bloggers–all talking about sales. Thousands and thousands of people, millions and millions of words.
Why read me? Because I think my take on things is different–foundational, essential and efficient. My hope is that I’ll strike a nerve with you to try something different, to look at how you do things in a new way and maybe even make some changes to how you do things.
More than anything, I think this is my catharsis–my way of saying, “Look how screwed up this is!” and give some remedies for avoiding the problem in the first place. I’m not saying, “Look how screwed up you are.” That is for you to decide.
Within the physical world, we can learn from our mistakes and make physical correction. If you play a sport, you practice a better way, if you work a trade, you “measure twice, cut once”, and if you’re in manufacturing, you apply six sigma to remove waste.
In Sales and Selling, it is a soft science with a lot of opinions and anecdotes. It is a yarn about the big fish which got away, the crappy manager, the maniacal boss, the insane quota or the killer deal. There isn’t great data around what it takes to be a truly great sales person, there is opinion and story. But it is my observation that by removing the outer husk of impediments like bad quoting, clumsy back office process or laborious sales exercises with no real purpose, then the closer we can get to enabling people to become that great sales person.
I’m a great observer and I have a background in science, which has led me to always be thinking, “How could we do that more efficiently?” When I was maybe 10 or so, I remember watching a program which introduced an Euler’s circuit. The example was a garbage truck making the fewest turns possible to save fuel and time. I don’t know why, but that really stuck with me, and it made me begin to think of EVERYTHING in terms of efficiencies. And, it drives my wife and kids crazy.
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One more story from when I was younger: I don’t remember how old I was, but I lost something. I also don’t remember what it was, but I remember what the teacher whom I approached to help me said, “Don’t worry. It isn’t lost. You just haven’t found it yet.” It was like she stitched together every Encyclopedia Brown story I had ever read. It made sense–the solution was there, you just aren’t looking for it in the right place or going about it the right way.
What you are looking for isn’t lost. What you are looking for is where ever it was left. Your solution is probably in front of you but you are going about finding it the wrong way.
If you eliminate all the things which could not have happened, all the places where it could not have been left, then you are left with a lot more direction than running around telling everyone something is lost. Remove the excess. Streamline the process. Do what needs to be done. You will find what you are looking for, or it reveals itself to you.
The same goes for Sales Operations. Streamline the process. Do what needs to be done. Remove the excess. You will find better selling.
Thinks, Inc. is a consulting firm which specializes in Smart Sales Operations. If you’d like for us to come and assess your chaos, drop us a line at contact@thinks-inc.com.