Eye on Entrepreneur > Reinvent the Sale

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People are always looking for faster, better, cheaper with less effort; they don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Well as the definition of insanity goes, you can’t expect different results by always doing the same thing. In fact, my philosophy is that if it hasn’t broken in 6 months…reinvent it! Selling challenges you to reinvent the wheel and give prospective customers a unique reason to buy and existing customers a fresh reason to buy. Your sale has to be different than the other five account execs that will call on that same person. To be different you must be an entrepreneur; you must reinvent. There are three basic methods to reinvent. All are equally potent but the real magic comes from connecting the dots between the three:

Reinvent the Business. I once worked with a high-growth 8,000 person sales national organization. In a meeting with twenty-five senior executives I asked, “How do you define success at your company?” Each leader slowly answered with a function-specific response with the Sales VP naming sales goals and the Marketing VP citing marketing goals. Reinvention for this group meant redefining success in terms of products, profits, service and employees. Now all employees are taught to measures success in these four buckets. Selling means teaching people to see what they produce in a new light.

Reinvent Others. Think about the best teacher you ever had as a kid. Mine was in eighth grade when Mr. Yura used to make us deliver a speech in front of the class on a different topic every Friday. There we were…sixty 12-year olds doing what most people rate as the most fearful thing in life – presenting to a group. It was brutal. Jack Yura didn’t become a teacher for the money or the fame; he was in it for the reward of growing others. Think about how you pitch your product or service and add an element of surprise with the primary intent. Let the lead sale be service to others and the profits will follow.

Reinvent Self. Edwin Louis Cole once said, “You don’t drown from falling into the water, you drown from staying in the water.” To reinvent self you must have significant self-awareness of your personal brand. There is no silver bullet or prescription to make this happen but it must be aligned with your vision for you. Personal or professional visions must drive you to newness. Entrepreneurs have the versatility to influence their results by modifying their behaviors.

Traditional selling is too often focused exclusively on the product or price point when the reality is that the person signs the contract. Reinvent the relationships you have with your clients, the way they approach their business and how they see your role in their growth strategy. Just like no two sales calls are the same, reinvent can’t be boxed; it can’t be labeled; but it can be learned. Are you ready to sign on the dotted line? -- Daniel Gallagher is the Sr. Director, Leadership & Development at Comcast