Executive Vice President & CSO
Carew International, Inc.
At Carew International we know that one tenant of adult learning theory is that adults learn more effectively when they are having fun. The question is why should the fun cease after the sales training course has been completed? The answer, of course, is that it shouldn’t. Selling should be fun, and sales professionals will be more effective when it is.
During my years in sales management I learned something interesting that I believe has a lot to do with the principle of having fun when you sell. What I learned was that when I put a “rookie” sales professional into an established territory they would invariably make a sale to a prospect that wouldn’t give our company the time of day with the previous representative. While I believe that other factors such as likeability and a lack of preconceived notions play into that phenomenon, I have come to understand that the primary driver is the infusion of enthusiasm that comes from having fun at what you are doing. I have talked with enough of these types of “new” customers to have a pretty strong foundation for that belief.
I am not advocating getting rid of all your veteran sellers and replacing them with sales pups. Nothing could be further for the truth, a veteran sales force can be a huge strategic advantage in the marketplace. What I am suggesting are some ways that everyone can put the FUN back into selling.
F: Friendship- Most veterans are pretty good at forging strong relationships with clients. The trick is, how many NEW friends are they making each week? It is really easy to become stagnant and rely on your existing relationships rather than having fun making new ones. Sellers should challenge themselves to make at least one new client “friend” a week. In addition, it is easy to stop growing your relationships with your existing client friends. Sellers would be well advised to sit down with at least one existing client with whom they have a great relationship and engage in an exploratory call as if it were a new account. Making friends and helping them to be more successful is a heck of a lot more fun than just trying to sell more “stuff!”
U: Unusual Tactics- The definition of insanity is often referred to as “doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.” How many times are we guilty of that in selling? When what you are doing to make new “friends” isn’t working it may be time to try something “unusual.” It can be as simple as handing out doughnuts and coffee in front of a client’s office or as elaborate as renting billboards to display a message to the prospect near his office. One of my personal favorites is customizing cartoons and incorporating the customized cartoon into marketing e-mails. The point is, try to think of fun ways to change what you are doing to connect with prospects and enjoy yourself in the process.
N: New Representative Approach- I mentioned the phenomenon where new sales reps enter an established territory and manage to sell something to a prospect that never bought in the past. You don’t have to hire a rookie to get that effect. Imagine how much more effective it would be if you could harness the “new representative approach” while maintaining the experience of the established, veteran rep? All it takes is the existing sales professional answering the question, “if I was the new guy in this territory what would I do differently? “ Acting as if you have a new territory can be both fun and rewarding.
There you have it, a few ways to try to put the FUN back into selling. Selling is a tremendous profession and the more FUN you have at it the more money you will make. More fun = more money, not a bad combination!
During my years in sales management I learned something interesting that I believe has a lot to do with the principle of having fun when you sell. What I learned was that when I put a “rookie” sales professional into an established territory they would invariably make a sale to a prospect that wouldn’t give our company the time of day with the previous representative. While I believe that other factors such as likeability and a lack of preconceived notions play into that phenomenon, I have come to understand that the primary driver is the infusion of enthusiasm that comes from having fun at what you are doing. I have talked with enough of these types of “new” customers to have a pretty strong foundation for that belief.
I am not advocating getting rid of all your veteran sellers and replacing them with sales pups. Nothing could be further for the truth, a veteran sales force can be a huge strategic advantage in the marketplace. What I am suggesting are some ways that everyone can put the FUN back into selling.
F: Friendship- Most veterans are pretty good at forging strong relationships with clients. The trick is, how many NEW friends are they making each week? It is really easy to become stagnant and rely on your existing relationships rather than having fun making new ones. Sellers should challenge themselves to make at least one new client “friend” a week. In addition, it is easy to stop growing your relationships with your existing client friends. Sellers would be well advised to sit down with at least one existing client with whom they have a great relationship and engage in an exploratory call as if it were a new account. Making friends and helping them to be more successful is a heck of a lot more fun than just trying to sell more “stuff!”
U: Unusual Tactics- The definition of insanity is often referred to as “doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.” How many times are we guilty of that in selling? When what you are doing to make new “friends” isn’t working it may be time to try something “unusual.” It can be as simple as handing out doughnuts and coffee in front of a client’s office or as elaborate as renting billboards to display a message to the prospect near his office. One of my personal favorites is customizing cartoons and incorporating the customized cartoon into marketing e-mails. The point is, try to think of fun ways to change what you are doing to connect with prospects and enjoy yourself in the process.
N: New Representative Approach- I mentioned the phenomenon where new sales reps enter an established territory and manage to sell something to a prospect that never bought in the past. You don’t have to hire a rookie to get that effect. Imagine how much more effective it would be if you could harness the “new representative approach” while maintaining the experience of the established, veteran rep? All it takes is the existing sales professional answering the question, “if I was the new guy in this territory what would I do differently? “ Acting as if you have a new territory can be both fun and rewarding.
There you have it, a few ways to try to put the FUN back into selling. Selling is a tremendous profession and the more FUN you have at it the more money you will make. More fun = more money, not a bad combination!
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