What Does it Mean to Be a Resilient Sales Person?
In my motivational talks on sales resilience, I talk about the shift that happened from the start of the pandemic to this post-pandemic, yet still wary and uncertain time. Sales teams, as never before, have learned to better coordinate and to work together.
It’s not that sales teams have become leaderless, only that it is up to everyone on the team to take on the traits of leadership.
Vision and Clarity
In an article on sales resilience by consultants at McKinsey & Company (July 1, 2021), one of the important points advanced was that leaders needed to provide leadership with vision and clarity.
The authors made the point that “The best sales leaders focus not only on communicating a clear vision of where the organization needs to go but also on demonstrating a commitment to their people.”
The communication needed to happen not only strategically but personally. We owed a sense of responsibility to one another, especially as we were isolated and locked down. How did that transform itself to 2021?
In a Forbes article (October 18, 2021) entitled: Improving Business Resilience In Challenging Times, the question was posed as to why businesses should keep working on their resilience?
It was pointed out that “We faced 200,000 closures in the U.S. alone during 2020. These numbers are devastating. Thus, we see that thriving in the face of disturbances is unlikely without a strategic approach to ensuring business resilience.”
At the center of ensuring business resilience is how sales teams will support one another in achieving common goals. In an earlier 2021 Forbes article on the future of B2B sales, it was stated that “While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on businesses…salespeople are stretching their emotional intelligence quotients to reach new customers and assuage the fears of their current ones, practicing insight selling techniques, shoring up their customer service skills, leveraging new technologies, and more to cope with this ‘new normal.’ And this shift is not temporary.”
Are You Resilient?
“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but they never quit.” – Conrad Hilton
The resilient sales person and the resilient sales team, whether selling computer software, pharmaceuticals or booking hotel rooms in a post-pandemic time, understand we are in uncharted territory.
Our greatest strength lies within one another. We may make mistakes but we can’t let them define us. We can’t quit on ourselves or our team. We must communicate. We will not fail if we are strategic and determined to be committed to meeting or exceeding customer satisfaction. We must be resilient enough to believe in our emotional intelligence, always leveraging sales technology and giving the customer what they want, not what we think they need.
This shift won’t be temporary, but with a resilient attitude and the determination to win, we will win.
To contact Scott Burrows, motivational speaker on sales resilience for a virtual or in person presentation, please reach out to him through this new website or his office at: (520) 548-1169