I was in Montana last week. So, my year started Wednesday 1/9.
Did you see this exchange on Twitter? Now the truth is that Pete is a helluva salesman and was a perennial rock star at Hubspot. He built the partner program there and suggested that hundreds of reps, partners and customers hire me to teach them how to sell better. Why now does he say that salespeople and sales process aren't necessary? Have you bought Databox? Have you looked at it? Did you not buy it because it doesn't apply to your world? Did you ask a salesperson if it could be applied to your world? Oh! That's right.
Why would a guy that made his name in sales think this way? Did he say that salespeople were expensive?
Got a call from Anthony at Merrill Lynch wanting to talk about my account. Called him back... Big fiasco. Got turned over to Jesus (not that one.) I started with, "Rumor has it that you're much smarter than Anthony and that I won't have to move my accounts to another house". Jesus replied, "Anthony's a good guy. So, I'm not gonna slam him, but I will try to make you happy enough to stay.". Somebody taught Jesus how to look at the situation from my perspective, and ask a lot of questions until I got comfortable enough to trust him and listen to his suggestions. I did not move my accounts.
No amount of marketing or artificial intelligence could have done what Jesus did and let's face it, is there really that much difference between financial management companies? Jesus doesn't have the word "sales" in his title or probably job description, but in reality, didn't he 'sell' me on the idea of staying? We need a new word for sales or we need to redefine it like this article suggests.
Did you see Dave Kurlan's article in Top Sales World? He uses "fake news" rather than BS, but I think we agree.
That's it. If you'd like to talk to me about stopping the BS in your world, do it. If not, happy new year and if you're a sales manager or sales leader who is trying to get your salespeople to get better results regardless of marketing, contact me now.