What's the difference between a Sales person and a Sales professional?

When I started my first proper sales job, I worked for two brothers who I thought were natural born sales people. They looked like what I thought sales people looked like, they dressed like sales people and drove top of the range cars. As a young 19 year old, they were everything I thought sales was. How wrong was I.

They inducted us into the company with a 6 week sales programme they co-wrote. This covered all the basics and some advanced areas of the sales process. We had theory, role plays, practice calls, we shadowed on real appointments and we had written tests at the end of every week. Looking back on this, it was impressive stuff but I had little to compare it against at the time. I built an impressive folder of sales material during that time.

I soon began to realise that the reason they seemed like natural sales people was because they were so well versed in their craft it came naturally to them. The best professionals in any field make their skill set look natural because they practice and develop their skills. They always had a book they were reading or listening to. They had tapes of courses on selling and were often meeting other sales professionals to swop ideas and learn more. They kept journals and notes on what worked. Crucially, they also loved sales. They loved the thrill of a good sale and couldn’t abide a dodgy sale.

Sales was an honest profession and done right it was a wonderful thing. Selling was a long term approach. I soon began to see and meet plenty of what I term ‘a sales person’. This is someone who is only interested in making a sale to gain commission. They’ll sell anyone anything, as long as it makes them a pound or two. They are in the churn and burn game. Sell quick and move on to the next mark. They learn the skill or script that makes them convert a high pressure sale and have no real care or concern about the customer.

The difference between a sales person and a sales professional is the attitude, training, values, and a love of serving customers over the long term.

The difference between a sales person and a sales professional is the attitude, training, values, and a love of serving customers over the long term. A sales person is the reason why sales has a negative image in many people’s eyes, as they know someone who has been ripped off and left high and dry by unscrupulous sales tactics. So when it comes to sales - aim to be a sales professional in order to serve your customers in the best way possible.

Start with an assessment of your sales skills, sales knowledge and how you can develop these to ensure that you are recognised for your skills. Sales is made easier and more natural as you develop the right skills. There are so many great books, podcasts, courses and webinars nowadays on sales. There’s still some awful ones as well, but thankfully customer reviews and common sense will normally steer you in the right direction.

Your sales skills will help in all areas of life so get practicing. The best sales skills don’t stand for much if you don’t believe in the product or service you’re involved with . Find a product or service you love and aim to be a sales professional and you’ll have a great time working.

Know+Do run several sales courses to help people fall in love with sales done right. If you’d like to have a chat get in touch via andrew@knowanddo.com or fill in the form below. In the meantime, happy selling.

Planning For Success

I had the immense privilege this week of spending a day with 50 excited, keen and passionate new business owners; all of them were about to start on the adventure of starting-up a new company. My task for the day was to help them create an effective business plan as they begin a year long programme of tailored support (if you are in the West Midlands of England check the BSEEN programme out).

Throughout the day I was fascinated by the range of business ideas in the room, the types of organisational models being developed and the depth of knowledge from these start-up leaders. From this diversity, two common questions did emerge:

1. Do I really need a business plan?

2. Where do I start with my plans?

Good questions; any start-up entrepreneur knows how they use their time is vital so defining why something should be done and then how best to start makes sense. So, for those that may be asking similar questions I’ve shared my answers below as food for thought:

Question: Do I really need a business plan?

The answer is ‘No’… and it is also ‘Yes’. No-one has to write a plan, it is not compulsory for starting a business. It all depends on context. A couple of people in my LinkedIn network shared their views on this recently:

“Didn’t have a business plan - grew organically for the first couple of years but then realised I was being pulled in too many directions so at that point did do a plan. The key thing for me is that’s it’s a live document that needs to flex and adapt to changing circumstances.”

“Forget them at the start! Find something you are truly passionate about. And START. The BP will develop naturally. Usually from about Month 3 or 4 (after tonnes of focus on sales and meeting people from the industry etc).”

I appreciated their honesty but the interesting point was that both business owners moved quite quickly to writing a plan. I understand why we do not like them. Plans sound very formal, they can feel staid and unexciting. Plus the business idea is dynamic, evolving in our minds all the time at the start and not easy to put into a words let alone a linear, page by page structure.

This constantly evolving and changing situation is precisely the reason for a plan being of value. The first one you write should be different to the one you have after 6 months. The first one you write will most likely not be the only one. By moving thoughts and ideas from your mind you begin to create a structure for your ideas to be tested and refined. Often what we think something should be can be deceptive; our minds can easily twist reality or tweak expectation; it is easy to build something with a blindspot that later on costs us money.

When you write ideas out you can test them, review them and refine them. You as the business owner need to spot the flaws in advance and seize the opportunities around your ideas to best effect. As you lay out your plans you can pivot the business to a better option or stop a line of thought as you realise it does not stand up to financial scrutiny.

Another big factor in why you might write a business plan is connected to what you need to invest and / or risk to start a business. For instance, if you need to borrow £100k from the bank a sound, detailed and costed plan is necessary. If you need just £5 from your pocket and 2 hours of your time to start, you might not write down too much. So, if you have external agents to bring into the business in some way (such as a partner, investor, funder, key supplier, etc.) a plan helps you show credibility and gives you substance for negotiations.

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Finally, the style of plan is also flexible. If you like pictures, trying using symbols and imagery as you compile your plan. Not all plans have to be 50 page text documents with complex spreadsheets. They need to suit you and the audience they are written for, so they become interactive as you update them and improve your thoughts.

Now, lets look at the second question.

Question: Where do I start with my plans?

One reason business plans do not get written is start-up owners can feel daunted by the prospect. Well, a measure of a person’s readiness to run a business can be seen in their response to such a challenge.

Why? Well, running a business is daunting; so if writing a plan is too hard right now, an honest question to ask yourself is are you reallt ready to build, sustain and grow a business? It is a crucial question. Business ownership brings lots of choice, options and decisions (plus paperwork!). If the challenge of describing your idea is too great, it may be an indicator that this is not the right time (or right business idea) for you.

The way to approach this question is to recognise that the contents of a business plan are interconnected. Decisions on product affect marketing, decisions on marketing affect finance, decisions on finance affect the timing of actions, and so. By writing and refining one aspect of your plan you may be required to review all others.

Therefore, my advice is start somewhere. Anywhere actually. If starting at the beginning suits you, start there. Put down your thoughts and build on them. If making a spreadsheet is the easiest place for you to start, do that first. If you are most comfortable describing potential customers begin there and move on. Start somewhere, as every part will need to be edited, reviewed, improved and connected as you progress.

As a practical way to start a plan, we recommend using the Business Model Canvas as it is a visual ‘map’ that can help you collect your initial thoughts and then construct a document thereafter. It can be constructed from bullet points, post-it notes and lots of paper; then you can begin to write out the detail. This is just one of many types of planning tools now available online so try some searching so you choose a format that best suits you and your business.

Therefore, in summary as there is much more I could write, the essence of my answers are:

• Yes you will do well to write a plan; and,

• Start with the part you know best and build from there.

If you want further advice we (the Know+Do team) have a 1 page business plan template that we can share. Call me on 0161 2804567 or email bernard@knowanddo.com and I can forward you a copy.

Does 'Why' Really Matter?

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I came across the above diagram in Simon Sinek’s book, Leaders East Last. It is a very simple picture but one that helps me explain to leaders the importance of having a ‘Why’ in their business. When my colleagues and I at Know+Do are asked to work on a problem a client has in their business - whether that is about the performance of people or their processes or strategies - we often get puzzled looks when we ask a question like:

• Tell me about the vision of the business, what is it aiming to achieve?

• What is the purpose of the company and why does it exist?

• How do your values help you achieve your mission?

The normal response is along the lines of, ‘that is not important right now, so can we get back to looking at the problem?’ However, our interest in the ‘why’ is because it is usually the best starting point to solving the problem.

In his book, Simon Sinek is referencing the challenge of bringing others with you and expanding the capacity of a business. If too few people have the authority to make the right decisions at the right time, performance will suffer; customer satisfaction will drop; employee motivation and confidence cannot rise, and so on. But if the leader sets out a vision and articulates why the company exists, they can share authority with those who are closest to the daily information in its context; they can expand their influence and empower their people within the framework of a vision.

That is why if a company has a senior management team that is not functioning as well as it should, we ask about the mission, vision and values of the business. These terms set the tone for how the business operates and provide the guide to what makes a decision appropriate or not. Knowing these gives an objective perspective to reference, which is needed to re-set a team’s goals and behaviour.

When a business is struggling to organise its key processes effectively, we ask about the core purpose of the company to ascertain what should be the common thread of motivation for all systems and procedures. Then when we look at the detail of a process, the blocks present or missing steps, we can focus everyone upon the task of achieving the bigger purpose. This puts the everyday challenges into the right perspective and gives a common language everyone can use to work together.

If a leader feels they need to micromanage their team because things are never done right or to their standards, we’d check how the leader is using the company’s goals and values to develop their team. Are they sharing and promoting a mission that enables others to deliver on the company’s goals or are they just trying to make subordinates act in their own image? The values give descriptions for behaviour and mindset that can go beyond one leader and be embraced by all if the conditions are correctly set.

Even when we run training courses and open events for leaders we start with the purpose. Get the purpose clear and a high performing business can follow. To help frame this thinking we have a tried and tested tool we use with leaders to map their company purpose and confirm how it influences their planning and performance.

This is the reason that ‘why’ does really matter. It is the foundation upon which a business can build success. Thus, to solve a problem it always starts with the question, ‘Why?’

So, my question to a business leader reading this post today is: What is your organisation’s purpose and how does it drive performance? If you know what it is that is great, well done; now try looking at how you are using it every day. Do you see the values explicitly expressed by people? If you are not sure about the purpose, then it is time to start searching for one. Either way, Know+Do enjoy sharing ideas and inspiration so contact us today to ask how we can ensure your why really does matter!