Source: allbusiness.com
By Keith Rosen
I’m blessed; and on many levels. One being, I am truly in love with what I do as an executive sales coach. If I could have any job in the word (other than being a rock star but I’m digressing to the dreams of a child) I would still excitedly and passionately choose being an executive sales coach and consultant. One of the things I love most about what I do is the creative aspect of my work. That is, the creativity that comes into play when working with clients.
Whether we are creating new processes, powerful questions to better qualify and enroll your prospects, new templates, new ways of doing things, collaborating on ideas, co-creating new solutions and innovations to develop and maintain their competitive edge, the creativity in the coaching process is a non-negotiable essential component that drives the value each client receives during every coaching session.
The same holds true when selling. After all, selling is the art of creating new possibilities. The creation of new possibilities; possibilities and solutions that weren’t there before or ones that your clients couldn’t see. That’s what it’s all about, especially when you are working with your clients and prospects.
It is in that same vein as to why I’m saddened by the lack of understanding in some company cultures as to how critical creativity is in their selling process and the role it plays in achieving their year end sales goals as well as the role creativity plays in fostering and developing a positive, flourishing culture; a culture that’s also enjoyable and keeps employees driven, motivated and happy over the long term.
What inspired today’s blog was a coaching call I had the other morning. I was talking with Mindy, the owner of a local business in Ohio which was part of a larger franchise organization. We were discussing her need for recruiting new, talented salespeople and the characteristics to look for when making a hiring decision. It was when we got on the subject of creativity when I heard the disparaging news.
Now, as you may be aware of, creativity place a tremendous role in your selling efforts and results. After all, it’s the discipline of creativity that is at the core of your efforts and fuels your success. Being highly creative is, ultimately, your key responsibility; that is, to create solutions for your clients. Mindy shared with me that her company, at the franchise’s corporate level, has modified their personality profile assessment for all new potential hires.
Corporate plays a role in assisting their franchisees in recruiting top sales talent. So, this assessment is one that all candidates take during the interview process to determine whether or not they would be a fit.
What caused a negative reaction in me was this. In evaluating their assessment, corporate made the decision to actually pull out the section they had in the assessment which rated someone’s creative abilities and, get this, replaced it with a section on their technical abilities. To me, technical vs. creative is the difference between being an order taker or being a highly skilled sales professional.)
“Where did they get this data that fostered the change?” I asked. “Well,” Mindy responded, “They took the data which they pull from the top new rookies in the company who recently joined the company and finished their training. They look across the country and identify the commonalities amongst the top sellers.”
What I came to understand about this process was, they did not take a sample of ALL the top reps in the company but only the new top rookies in the company that were only recently hired and who finished the new hire orientation program that each new sales person goes through.
So, they look at the top reps from the most recent graduating class and make a determination from that. And from this recent class, corporate made a determination to replace the creative section with the technical section.
Why, because it just so happened that the newer, top selling reps scored high on the technical section and happened to be selling more than the other salespeople companywide.
They replaced the section on creativity based solely on the last few classes of salespeople who were hired and who are currently performing in the top 5%.
Here’s where this process falls apart. Before Mindy started operating her own company, interestingly, she was one of the top salespeople within the franchise. And when Mindy took the profile when she first started her career with the company, ironically, she scored very high on creativity and low on the technical side! More over, the other top salespeople at the time she started also scored in the same manner.
Here’s the kicker, this group was making more sales comparatively and with higher account averages. That is, the sales they made were larger and more profitable than the ones the last class of rookies were bringing in. While this new class or ‘top producers’ may be demonstrating how they are leveraging their technical abilities to bring in more sales (which by the way, wasn’t the sole criteria to making a hire), they are still not selling more than Mindy’s group, a group of salespeople who scored high on creativity.
More companies push product knowledge and process training at a great expense. The cost is destroying the creative process needed to outsell and outwit your competition. Before you start analyzing your process, what are you doing to become a truly unique force in your industry or profession that helps you stand out from the rest of the herd who are all vying for the attention of the same prospects?
Are you killing your creativity? The lesson here? While the linear, technical part of the selling process is absolutely critical, it is what you do that sets you apart from every other salesperson which is going to make you rise to the top of your profession. In other words, the technical part can be duplicated by practically any salesperson which positions you the same as every other droid calling on the same prospects. However, it’s the creative part that separates you from every other salesperson, makes you unique and continually helps maintain your competitive edge. Companies need to start fostering creativity within their sales culture. Consequently, the lack of creativity will create fewer sales.