Moving The Rock: Recent Episodes
movingtherock
Discover new ways to succeed at sales and leadership that leverage timeless truths and align with your core values and corporate brand.
Prospecting is the lifeblood of your sales force, your sales pipeline, and the compensation plan of every commission-based salesperson. How do you build a healthy sales force?
Stop listening to people explain why prospecting does not work and start doing something about it.
Our guest, Patrick Baynes, Founder of PeopleLinx, has some advice that will help you deliver more value to and generate more value from your salespeople. Don’t miss this call to action and Patrick’s powerful solution.
In this podcast, James speaks with fractional CRO, Kyle Mealy about how to do it right, whether you’re hiring your first sales person or growing a successful team. Giving that new hire a laptop, a comp-plan, and saying "Go get 'em tiger" is a recipe for burning cash and time. It takes 12-18 months to turn a new hire into a top producer. And if you are doing it right you can be successful more than 90% of the time. Save yourself the lost salary, headaches, and setbacks. Give them deeper insights into the problems you solve, the buyers you engage, and the metrics that matter. Also, teach them higher order sales skills beyond "BANT". After you listen, let us know what you think and check out this accompanying article that exposes the global shortage of skilled salespeople.
The truth is, as leaders experience success they become less flexible, less curious, and lose their ability to anticipate and respond to change. Instead of seeking data to understand what is happening and how to respond, they prefer to rely upon gut instinct honed over years of practice. Unfortunately, this can cause leaders to look at new events through old eyes. What’s needed is an operating model that allows sales and customer-facing teams to leverage what they know (their experience) and what they don't (new data and insights) to ensure they can sustain the success their leaders, investors, and board members expect.
It's one thing to reach success. It's another to sustain it. Can you take new ground with and for your team, hold it, and then add to it by taking more ground again? Can you muster the courage to not trick yourself into the blinds or shadows that take advantage of your complacency? In this episode, we wrap up our series with a discussion about where we are investing or spending our energy as leaders. We've got a finishing piece to put in place for you. It's a piece you need, because if you are not ready when the time comes that opportunity could be lost.
Are you ever really ready to lead a startup? When you hear her story, you will recognize that Kathy Peters and her partner Rich Figallo are absolutely the right people at the right time to lead their market. Not just because of the expertise they bring to the table, but because of the readiness and resilience that allows them to effectively anticipate and respond to change. Join us for a fascinating introduction to what is absolutely a company to watch.
Is running a sales force and achieving higher annual growth targets a sprint or a marathon? When you are starting out, you recognize that in order to make it to the long term you have to survive the short term. So, you commit to the high gear. Maybe your highest gear. Of course, it doesn't take long to recognize the pace you have set is unsustainable. You want to have access to bursts of power when you need them during the race, and you want enough energy to finish strong. The enthusiasm that gets you up in the morning has to be tempered with the knowledge that not every hill is worth dying on. Join us as we discuss the topic and explore its implications for building and retaining successful leaders and teams.
As leaders, so many of us earned that title by being supremely committed to a goal and continuously elevating our own execution in pursuit of that goal. What do you do with this ‘hero's mindset’ when you can't work any harder and there are no more hours in the day to sacrifice? How do you take yourself and your team to the next level? In this episode, we’re talking about letting go. Why is this an essential leadership trait? Eventually, we all get to a point where taking our (and our team’s) performance to the next level requires a new approach. It’s about more than time management. It’s about leadership.
As a leader, knowing your next best course of action requires you to make sense of what’s going on around you as well as within you. Awareness has two sides and is one of the benefits that comes with the experience and maturity you gain over time. In this episode we discuss how leaders develop awareness and perseverance in the face of change. And we introduce you to the four seasons of change to help you navigate the process like an experienced pro (or master).
Since Jim Collins first presented his concept of Level 5 leaders in his book, Good to Great, companies have been looking for ways to predictably elevate their people to this highest standard of leadership. Can leaders be developed into “... seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results?” Can you give leaders the power to operate with a “…level of humility and modesty, while cultivating a ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great?” Check out this episode and let us know what you think?
In physics as in life, everything that's happening from the perspective of the observer. In other words, reality is subject to the perception of the person involved. One sales or leadership conversation can produce at least three versions of the truth: Your truth, their truth and the truth. As a leader of leaders, do you have the ability and presence of mind to anticipate this challenge and not allow it to cloud or delay the commitment you are looking for? Join us as we solve this important and thought-provoking leadership challenge.
As sales leaders, we are all familiar with the punishing pace of delivering monthly or quarterly numbers. Why is it that some people seem to struggle from period to period through a repetitive cycle of stress, while others achieve a steady state of flow? The answer is in the ability to master your PACE. To rise above reacting to what’s happening to you, like being the pinball, to leading change, like being the manufacturer of the pinball machine.
Monthly and quarterly revenue numbers make it easy to know how well a sales organization is performing. Because sales is a lagging indicator, when numbers grow or shrink it’s always an indicator or symptom of something else, something deeper going on.
In this episode, James is joined by Ed Porter, founder of Bluechip CRO. Together, Ed and James access 50+ years of combined experience working with sales and customer-facing team leaders, to explore the root causes of some of the most common sales challenges faced by scale-up and growth stage companies.
In this episode we extend our conversation from Part 4, where we discussed being prepared by being practiced. Here we address the practices that allow leaders to shift into a state of poise, a state of being that makes you ready for any moment? When the boat rocks as it inevitably will (all boats rock), how can you as a leader access a level of awareness within yourself that will allow you to model the behavior required to permanently elevate your entire team?
Listen in and join the conversation.
How many times have you seen a situation in sales where someone’s performance was stellar, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t? It happens all the time. Were they somehow transformed? Did they become a different person overnight? Or did they benefit from a unique situation they could not replicate? Is it possible they simply don’t know how to replicate that level of success? Why not?
It’s an interesting question. One we explore at a deeper level in this edition of our twelve-part introduction to our advanced self-guided leadership course presented by SightShift and Floriss Group.
To see if you qualify to take part, reach out to grow@florissgroup.com for more information.
Enjoy the conversation!
As a leader, how often do you evaluate whether the structure around you is supporting or blocking your goals and the goals of your team? Are you paying attention to leading or lagging indicators of success? Are you analyzing the decisions you make or measuring the actions you take? What is required to reach and then redefine your performance?
When you adopt upstream thinking it's natural to explore the leadership structure you have built for yourself … the why behind what you do.
Listen in as we tackle the third of a twelve-part introduction to an advanced self-guided leadership course presented in partnership with SightShift and Floriss Group.
To see if you qualify to take part in this advanced training, reach out to grow@florissgroup.com for more information.
As a leader, you're never going to reach a level where you move beyond solving problems. Whether you are a CEO, Sales VP or individual contributor, you are paid to identify and solve problems for those you chose to serve. That’s leadership 101. Advancing in your role and in your career, however, will require you to develop upstream thinking. To make sure you are solving the right problems.
Join us as we explore the second of a twelve-part introduction to an advanced self-guided leadership course presented in partnership with SightShift and Floriss Group.
To see if you qualify to take part in this advanced training, reach out to grow@florissgroup.com for more information.
Whether you are a new sales manager, a veteran manager in a new environment, or an experienced sales VP, you are expected to know how to build and lead a team of sales leaders. Not only does this mean earning each person’s trust and respect, it means finding new ways to elevate the team’s motivation, preparation, and execution. It means finding new ways to coach and hold team members accountable to shared best practices that ensure the team, not just key individuals, will thrive.
Each of these episodes is recorded as an introduction to one of twelve parts of an advanced self-guided leadership course presented in partnership with SightShift and Floriss Group. To see if you qualify to take part in this advanced training, reach out to grow@florissgroup.com for more information.
After 30 years of building sales teams, I agree with those who believe that promoting a top salesperson to sales manager is NOT a promotion. It is much healthier to look at the move as a career change. Yes, your success in sales will be helpful. But like any transition from player to coach, your success will be built upon a mindset, skillset, and toolset that you have yet to master. Join the conversation! And, if you are looking for the best training to support your transition, request information about our Collecting WINS - Sales Management Essentials course.
All things are impermanent. It’s interesting that ‘impermanence’ is a central tenant of so many religions and philosophies. Nothing lasts. Good times are followed by bad. Bad times are followed by good. Why then aren’t leaders better at anticipating and managing change? Join us as we welcome Beth Thomas, CEO of Change4Growth, a top 10 change management firm with offices in the US and UK. Together, we take a deeper look at the barriers leaders face and the mindset required by those of us who want change by design, not by disaster.
Bill Belichick, the winningest coach in NFL history with eight Super Bowl rings (so far), once told a reporter, “We’re not collecting talent, we’re building a team?” The best sales compensation plans are aligned with a company’s goals. Unfortunately, most comp plans reward transactional activities and outcomes that promote individual success and short-term deal-making. They miss the opportunity to reward scalable team-building and long-term growth. Sales is a team sport and your compensation plan can make or break your ability to build the championship team your goals require. Join the conversation. Let us know what you think.
How can you be the best version of yourself if you don’t really know yourself?
You could get lucky and allow life’s circumstances to passively guide you to the perfect combination of decisions that bring you to the place you were always meant to be.
Or you could do the work, learn more about who you are, and set forth a plan to reach and redefine your potential on this planet.
If you are curious about the latter path, this podcast will help you and each member of your team understand how to get started.
We begin by sharing our own personal stories and successes. Check it out!
In previous episodes, you may have heard us talk about how a leader’s identity and potential are shaped by their insecurities or fears. In fact this is true for all human beings and especially meaningful for those of us who are on a journey of continuous improvement. Join us as we dig into the history and science of the IFQ measurement tool and the impact it can have for healthy leaders, scalable teams and growth cultures.
“Guns. Lots of guns.” You may recognize this line delivered by Keanu Reeves’ character in both The Matrix (1999) and John Wick: Chapter 3 (2019). In both movies the actor plays the hero. The pressure is on and he wants to win and his only option is MORE! Not too dissimilar from the sales leader who feels the pressure and wants to win. She may feel her only option is MORE … more salespeople! Unlike Reeves’ characters, however, the sales leader has another option. When sales forces are recognized as teams and optimized as teams they can grow 3X faster than sales forces that are not. And they can do it without adding a single salesperson. Instead of focusing on MORE, there may be value in simply focusing on BETTER.
Companies that successfully deploy a reliable sales process that is shared across every member of the sales team, 3X year-over-year growth rates without adding a single salesperson. What’s the catch? You just have to eliminate the four most common costs of your existing CRM system. Eliminate these costs and not only will your sales leaders have greater control over growth, everyone in the sales organization will automatically earn their way to a nice raise. Listen in. This is not your typical CRM discussion.
It’s a story as old as our profession. You ask for and receive a commitment from your prospect to follow-through on some next step and they don’t do it. It could have been a commitment to read a proposal, set a meeting, speak with another member of the buying center, complete a questionnaire, gather important documentation, etc. The lists of possibilities and excuses are endless. Would it surprise you to learn that most of these delays, misunderstandings and lies can be prevented? After all, the easiest pain to prevent is the pain we cause ourselves.
People buy when they are ready, willing and able to change. We sell when we are ready, willing and able to lead buyers to change. This is true whether your customers are outside or inside your organization. When it’s time to lead your team in a new direction, how you choose to lead them will determine the length of the effort and height of your achievement. Listen in as we discuss how leaders take control of change to ensure their team is aligned and walking a shared path to growth.
Growth cultures emerge from the work of scalable teams. And scalable teams emerge from the work of healthy leaders. In order to ‘do the work’ with the highest potential and the least amount of friction, leaders must first ensure their own behaviors and habits are matched with, or ‘fit’, the goals and tasks at hand. The ability to develop winning habits is a function of three disciplines: Mindset x Skillset x Toolset. All three are indispensable, but they are not all created equal. Join us as we explore this foundational formula and the reasons why Mindset is so important and yet so easily overlooked.
“Work smarter not harder.” An old saying meant to affirm a commitment to seeking awareness and unblocking potential. Unchecked, more effort simply leads to more stress which ultimately creates friction that limits high-performing teams. What if your team was able to achieve the kind of balance that allowed you to do both--work harder and smarter? Join us as we take a look at how this balance can be achieved and who within your organization can help you make it happen.
There is wisdom in the saying, “What got you here won’t get you there.” But, after all, the statement is not entirely true. What got you here absolutely can play a role as you seek higher levels of growth. The statement is not meant to diminish the value of your past experiences. It is simply pointing out that your sacrifice must continue if you hope to achieve your vision. Each higher level you seek becomes harder to climb. There is less room for error, you have no time to waste, and mistakes become more costly. To get there, you will need to share your vision, develop the people around you, get smarter about who you invite to the party and what their metrics for success must be.
Do you sense a conflict between your company culture and its goals?
Many leaders do.
The secret to addressing that conflict is to recognize how closely your culture reflects the most dominant insecurities of your leaders and people.
Success, therefore, is not about what more you can do, e.g., pushing harder.
It's about seeking awareness of what’s holding you back.
Join us as we dive into eliminating the shadows that block you from seeing what you can no longer afford to miss.
Can a company or team ever exceed the potential of its leader?
When a leader is secure in their identity, their potential overflows to a clear mission, which attracts others to build a prosperous community.
Today, it seems, everyone recognizes the value of culture as the core requirement of a sustainable growth company.
Yet, many of us walk past the need for healthy leaders.
Join us as we explore the connection and practical ways to make it happen for you, your team and organization.
How does an ambitious person advance their vision without compromising the desire to be a good human? Today, as it has been for thousands of years, many of us believe this conflict can’t be avoided. In other words, if I win someone else has to lose. This world view can make the price of success very high. Thankfully, there is an alternative. Join us as we explore the shared path of the servant leader and the benefits of advancing your vision as a growth multiplier.
Winning habits required for any role are built upon three disciplines--mindset, skillset and toolset. Each of which must be cultivated in the proper order. After all, a tool is only as effective as the skill that wields it. A skill is only as effective as the mind that develops it. And a mind is only as effective as the beliefs that fill it. Join us as we explore how leaders can make the process of building Winning Habits easier for themselves and their teams. We will also share some hard-earned insights you can apply immediately to your own development and the continuous improvement of your team.
The new year is here. We have our vision set, goals in place, motivation dialed up. Inflation is up, the stock market is down, and COVID is surging. Time to pause, take a breath, and gain some perspective. You may have heard us say, “Growth is the mastery of change.” Change is inevitable, but growth is not. So what do you do? You take the lead and take control of growth. Join us as we explore three things you can do right now to get settled, get focused, and get started on a fulfilling and prosperous year!
Ambition delivers the fuel. Acceptance reduces the friction. No growth engine can be sustained over time without the operator keeping both in constant balance. But what must we accept? Meaningful success is not just about bringing energy to the fight. It’s about understanding how to eliminate the barriers we create, so you can clear a path to your goals and perform at your highest potential. In this episode we talk about addressing the ROOT of all self-inflicted barriers. Get this right and whatever your personal, professional or business goals for 2022, you’ll get there faster, with far less effort, waste and stress. I promise!
This is a time when many of us assess what we’ve accomplished over the last year, consider where we fell short and think about how we can improve as we look to the future. We may recognize goals that were relatively easy to achieve, and others that were more difficult to start. The secrets top performers use to set and achieve proper goals for themselves are the same as those used by leaders to inspire and activate others. Are you willing to explore the ‘dark corners’ of yourself? If so, we welcome you to join the conversation.
This episode represents a departure from our usual topics. Chris and I loosen up and have some fun sharing personal stories about the annual confluence of family and business stressors. Hey, we're only human. Stress affects us all. But it doesn’t have to slow us down or block our path to growth. We can learn from it. We can leverage it. And we can put it to work for us.
It's Thanksgiving and leaders are looking to upgrade their sales teams as they plan their attack on the coming sales year. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of GE famously said he never hired using first impressions and subjective opinions. We love the advice, but what can CEOs and sales leaders do to deliver on that advice? Join us as we explore the answers and share some secrets.
James opens the episode by recounting a conversation with a tech CEO about the most productive way to think about raising her sales team’s potential and performance. It starts by making sure the ‘why’ that drives each member of your team is aligned with the ‘why’ that drives your business. Too often these ‘whys’ are diametrically opposed. Then, you must bring it all home by adjusting your sales team’s process, methodology and skills to give life to this new way of thinking and improved results to their pipelines and paychecks.
Chris kicks us off with reference to the life and death of Achilles, the heroic warrior from the Iliad. In this episode we explore the process of moving yourself, your team and your company forward, from being stuck in the ‘Hero's Trap’ to being empowered by the creation of a ‘New Growth Engine’. Making the transition means you have to leave something familiar and comfortable behind, but it also means you have the ability to take your game, wins, rewards and recognition to the next level.
What does a culture that demands heroic efforts from leaders and people say about the potential of an organization? When heroic efforts are the norm and normal efforts are the exception, people and teams underperform. Short-term goals may still be hit, but long-term value will always suffer. The performance costs can be measured in higher turnover, loss of key employees, longer periods of time between growth milestones, lower operating margins and lower valuations. Healthy leaders build scalable teams and healthy cultures. The value of change is undeniable and its within every growth company’s reach.
More than ever, valued leaders and team members want more from their experiences at work. Their definition of what is meaningful to them has changed significantly as we exit the pandemic, and organizations are failing to keep up. In this episode we continue our conversation around meaningful success with a deep dive into four transactional behaviors that hijack the investments companies make in their most valued employees, and in many cases, cause more harm to the company than if they had done nothing at all.
If your goal is to build a team that has the potential to be world class, where should your focus be? Can you sustain world class outcomes by simply focusing on heroic individual achievements, or must you cultivate a deeper understanding of what the larger ‘team’ requires to succeed? In this episode we continue to explore the lie of heroic efforts and the value of seeing your ‘band of individual contributors’ as an organization of aligned and disciplined team members.
Is it about false hustle and hype? Is it about proving yourself worthy and doing whatever it takes to win? Or, is it about creating something of value, the journey you walk, and who you choose to walk with along the way. Join us as we explore the hard side of this “soft” topic, including a powerful formula healthy leaders can deploy to build scalable teams and growth cultures.
Everyone does it and almost everyone thinks they can be improved. As with any discipline, there are right and wrong ways to run a sales team meeting, especially if your goal is to advance your team’s overall effectiveness. The key objective is establishing a discipline, the key requirement is your commitment, and the key deliverable is accountability.
If your goal is to hire and retain top performers, who can sustain a high level of output, then you must be prepared to meet them where they are. You must be ready, willing and able to build a learning organization capable of helping top performers maintain their personal and professional growth trajectory. If you don’t, your organization will become mediocre and top performers will see you as a source of far more risk than return. Listen to learn how to position coaching as a pillar of your learning organization and a more predictable path to success.
The decisions we make plus the actions we take equal the outcomes we create. Execution, the combination of our decisions and actions, has as much to do with what happens between our ears as the experience, skills and talent we bring to a task. Join us as we discuss the importance of cultivating the proper awareness of a situation, i.e. collecting the right data and/or evidence, and the importance of exploring the assumptions, biases and judgements that can limit our effectiveness and potential.
As we learned in the last episode, goals can hold you back if they don’t allow you to reach beyond what you think is possible for yourself and your role. In this episode we continue the conversation by exploring the three stages of development of one’s Role Identity. Essential for leaders who want to model a way of thinking and behaving that has the power to truly help valued team members reach and redefine higher levels of performance.
Looking for an alternative to the traditional ways of thinking about goal setting and time management? How about a new acronym, one that replaces traditional and outdated (some would say) SMART goals? In this episode we redefine and elevate goal setting to a powerful tool for aligning team members and managing their time. We redefine goals as ‘opportunities that create leverage across your team’ and discuss their fit between the ‘vision that earns your commitment’ and the ‘purpose that gives you momentum’.
By definition, whether you are prospecting a list of warm or cold contacts, you will be interrupting your buyer. To ensure high connect and response rates, you will need to meet the buyer where they are by opening with a priority that is likely to be top of mind for them.
If you only had 30 seconds to introduce your business to someone, what would you say? Well, what’s your goal? Our goal is to qualify that buyer while earning their attention and interest in sitting down with us to solve a problem we are uniquely capable of solving. In this episode we introduce the idea of using your introduction to tell a memorable story that can be remembered, repeated and used over and over to fill your pipeline and your calendar with great meetings.
Do you sell to serve others or yourself? As we have discussed, servant leaders understand the rewards of serving others first far outperform the rewards of serving ourselves first. How well you can expect to perform as a servant leader is directly related to how well you know and understand your Always Buyers, especially the role or roles they play in their buying cycle. In this episode we define those roles and go deep into what it really means to know your buyer.
People love to buy as much as they hate being sold. When the energy driving a buying cycle comes from the buyer, they tend to enjoy the experience. When too much of the energy comes from you, the buyer is more likely to resist. Understanding your buyer’s triggers and hooks will allow you and your marketing team to tap into the energy reserves that already exist within your buyers, and vastly improve the success of demand gen, lead gen and prospecting efforts.
Many founders and owner-operators are still essential members of their sales and customer facing teams. This may allow them to maintain a certain level of performance. But, until they replace themselves with leaders, people and systems who can carry the baton for them, their business will almost always underperform. There is a proven path.
Top performing salespeople understand that they have the customers they attract, the customers they allow to enter their pipelines, the customers they are willing to invest time in, the customers that ultimately make or break their ability to overachieve goals. Sales leaders must know how to prepare team members to not tolerate mediocre or dysfunctional customer relationships, so they can deliver on their commitments and elevate their teams.
You have heard us say, “Asking the right people the right questions at the right time is your fastest path to cash.” Mastering this idea will make sure you always have the right mindset when leading a buyer to change. But, how do you develop the skillset to make it happen consistently, every time you’re at bat? This is the topic of today’s conversation. Take a listen as James and Chris go deep on the concepts and practical skills you can practice to make it happen.
Just like your presentation, the longer you wait to deliver your proposal the better. Give yourself time to understand and gain agreement on your buyer’s ‘real’ problem. Take the time to share your verbal recommendation. Ask for and receive a firm yes or no (test it if you have to). If the answer is not a sincere and sober yes, invest time negotiating the terms required to earn the win. Gain commitment to review your proposal with the required buying center members. Now that your gift is wrapped, get to work putting it together.
Part of a salesperson’s job is educating prospects and customers. The question is, are you educating them on your solution or their problem? If your sales process requires you to demo or offer a capabilities presentation early in a buying cycle, go for it. But you don’t have to stand and deliver a canned pitch or elaborate story. You can use the time to better understand the buyer’s Wants, Impacts and Needs so everyone involved is on the same page and you have the insights you need to make a strong recommendation.
As human beings, we understand how good it feels to be the subject of another person’s curiosity. We like talking about ourselves. Why then can it be so challenging for salespeople to conduct meaningful buyer interviews? Why is it so hard for salespeople to stop talking about themselves and make the buyer the subject of their curiosity? All you have to do is be prepared to ask the right people the right questions at the right time.
There are four buyer roles in every buying cycle. All four roles can be played by a single buyer, if you find yourself leading a simple sales process. And those same four roles can be spread across a 15-person steering committee, for those leading a more complex sales process. In this episode we discuss how the WINS Model can help you understand and guide each buyer and buying center you engage to a successful buying decision.
Stress is a normal and critical part of all life. In human beings, however, stress is a double-edged sword. It can be helpful and harmful depending upon how we respond to it and how leaders use it to manage and motivate team members. Listen in as we discuss the topic with neuroscience student and researcher, Sophia Rores.
Applying a sales process that delivers a predictable win rate is only part of the challenge. You want to win more than you lose, yes! But you also want your wins to be bigger and your losses to be smaller. Getting there requires your salespeople to ask the right buyers the right questions at the right time. Practicing the ideal sales process will ensure your people develop the discipline (i.e., muscle memory) required to reach and redefine their potential and your business goals.
Applying a sales process that delivers a predictable win rate is only part of the challenge. You want to win more than you lose, yes! But you also want your wins to be bigger and your losses to be smaller. Getting there requires your salespeople to ask the right buyers the right questions at the right time. Practicing the ideal sales process will ensure your people develop the discipline (i.e., muscle memory) required to reach and redefine their potential and your business goals.
Today we're stepping off the path of our journey to zero in on a KEY idea. Standing out and being memorable is key to being the person others turn to when they are searching for a solution to the problem they face and the pain they feel. Today we'll be talking about how you can stand out without being gimmicky, cheesy or off putting -- so you can show up every time as the best version of you. So you can be legendary.
Many salespeople and leaders point to their ability to build strong relationships as an essential key to their success. Are they talking about relationships built upon the emotional bonds of likability? Or are they talking about ‘buying relationships’ built upon the emotional and rational bonds of mutual respect? Listen as we discuss the difference and our repeatable formula for success.
When you start by focusing on your buyer’s path to success, the Universal Buying Cycle™, you prepare yourself to meet your buyer where they are. You prepare yourself to sell the way your customers buy. And you prepare yourself to discover the fastest path to a successful buying decision.
Sales is an exchange of value. Yet, 85% of managers and 74% of salespeople lack the skills and/or discipline to execute a ‘value-first’ sales methodology. The Universal Buying Cycle™ forms the foundation of such a methodology (Collecting WINS™) and the Four Agreements ensure the methodology can be executed with predictable, repeatable precision.
Reinforcing the skills required to win games of probability requires data. Over time, data turns assumptions and good guesses into predictable, repeatable outcomes. But, only if salespeople use the right data to improve their skills -- to improve the effectiveness of the decisions they make and the actions they take.
Helping your team fully deliver on the promise of a predictable sales methodology requires a leader to know how to help each team member sustain a common set of winning habits.
James and Chris interview Dan Rockwell about the connection between successful technology innovation and sales leadership -- the dangers of assuming and the power of asking enough good and tough questions. Dan is CEO and Co-Founder of Big Kitty Labs, a software development agency that helps anyone with an idea or a problem build a solution and get to market.
We can only lead buyers along a path we are willing to walk ourselves. If your job is to lead buyers to change, then you must have experience walking your own path to change. Understanding your own path will help you understand your buyer’s path.
The decision to buy follows the decision to change. People buy when they are ready, willing and able to change. We sell when we are ready, willing and able to lead buyers to change. As a leader or as a salesperson, your job is not to sell your idea or solution. Your job is to sell change.
Your ‘fastest path to cash’ is to sell the way your customers buy, but that does not mean handing over the mantle of leadership to your buyer. It means leading the client to a shared understanding of their problem and your solution.
Servant leaders are natural Growth Multipliers. Servant leadership has the ability to form the foundation of a sustainable and natural growth strategy, capable of transforming sales and customer-facing teams.
Sales is a game of probability, not a game of perfection. Many elements of the game are out of our control, but we can identify predictable patterns of success that help us to win more than we lose, and win bigger and lose smaller over time.
James, Founder of Floriss Group and Chris, Founder of SightShift share their unique experiences and the shared journey that brought them together to create Moving The Rock. Welcome!