Let’s be honest, the world of selling is changing a lot right now. For those responsible for leading, managing, and coaching sales teams, there is always a new program or tool to adopt. But, as you might have found out, it is rarely an easy transition. Getting people to adopt new behaviors is hard. There is usually a lot of resistance and change is slow. Many factors impact that friction, but there’s a big one that escapes most people’s attention. Peer pressure. Peer Pressure Stymies New Programs On a recent podcast by author Malcolm Gladwell, he shared a story about the career of Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt, while one of the best … [Read more...]
The Key to Sales Success is this Behind-the-Scenes Comedy Rule
If you have ever watched a skillful improv comedy group in action (for example on the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway?), you've probably walked away shaking your head and wondering how they were able to craft dialog, action, and plot out of thin air with just a few audience suggestions. There's a lot of talent and practice that goes into making it work, but there are also some underlying rules that everybody on stage is following. These agreements allow everyone to trust each other and move the action along. One of them is incredibly important to understand if you want to be successful as a sales professional in our modern, … [Read more...]
Where Selling Has Been Can Tell Us Where It’s Going
There's a made-for-TV movie that came out a few years back called Door to Door. William Macy portrays a salesman named Bill Porter who had a long and successful career selling door-to-door even though he had cerebral palsy. It's worth a watch for many reasons. It's also interesting because it highlights the constantly evolving nature of sales. We make a mistake when we think that how selling works now is the way it's always worked. There's a lot to learn when we look at how sales has evolved over the years. Don't Get Stuck with an Old Idea of Selling In the movie, Bill Porter eventually loses his job, not because of his cerebral … [Read more...]