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Paul Revere, The American Flag and your Sales Team
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The American flag in our back yard has seen better days.
As I’ve alluded to in the past, with stories about my sorry obsession with the Cubs, my family lives in a suburb located about 20 miles north of Chicago.
Chicago, as you know, is called the windy city, and the wind has taken its toll on our American flag. When the wind is calm the flag hangs just as you would imagine - nice and straight; however, when the wind blows, the ripped parts of the flag go in separate directions. The harder the wind blows, the more the tears in the flag show.
So while my boys and I were buying a new flag this past weekend, the vision of the flag while still (and moving) got me thinking, and I’d like to suggest a parallel to your sales team.
As you sit in your sales room, your team is just like my flag – with calm winds. Everybody is together as one. A team. When your meeting ends, and everybody hits the road, the team resembles our old, tattered flag, everyone going in a separate direction. At the end of the day, as the winds of your day die down, everyone comes back together in a figurative sense.
(Yes, there is a point in all this!)
Out in the trade, your objective is simple - to create an experience so that your customers do business with you, not because they have to but because they want to. To that end, each and every one of you has a duty to do whatever you can do to create motivated customers. To build a customer base that embraces more of your products and is determined to support you and your company through thick and thin. To cultivate customers who forgive your mistakes and resist the overtures of your competitors.
Salespeople do this well, as individuals, but not nearly enough as a team.
Great teammates help each other with ideas to move products. Great teams share success stories from within their organization. Recently, I worked with a sales group that collectively was having trouble moving a specialty beer. A few had experienced success but many had no idea how to entice customers. What troubled me was the fact that the haves (those that were having success) where not sharing their stories with the have-nots (those who hadn’t mastered the complex sale yet.) Imagine what could be possible if the “halves” had circulated emails sharing how success was achieved to inform and motivate others to get it done.
Shortly thereafter, I ran into another similar situation. A young salesperson had gone to great initiative to help a customer. It was an incredible story. When I asked the rest of the team if they had heard this story, they all shook their heads “no!” I was blown away. Imagine what could be possible if the distributor had a mechanism in place for sharing these stories.
Our American flag symbolizes many things. Bravery, persistence, honor – just to name a few. It also represents our forefather’s collective efforts to reach a worthwhile goal. Sounds a bit like your team’s goals – doesn’t it? Share information (success and otherwise) quickly and clearly. Don’t let the truth out slowly. Help each other. Your team will be better off.
Just imagine if Paul Revere hadn’t shared that the British were coming?
