Long story short.
Most salespeople cannot sell value because they lack key "sales personality" elements that drive them to understand and sell value.
If salespeople lack the capacity to understand value, they will be unable to sell it.
Long story.
My statement, "Most salespeople cannot sell value" may be viewed as bold and perhaps overly-harsh by some.
It is the truth.
The unfortunate truth is most salespeople are glorified order-takers who receive far more credit and commission than they deserve.
You would know this truth if you actually measured the origins of your sales team's performance.
The ability to sell value is not a choice. No "mental light switch" exists to turn on in the mind of a salesperson to help them understand and sell value.
A salesperson either understands value or they do not. For salespeople who understand value, the potential exists to enhance this ability to create value through experience, coaching and training.
Most human beings are not "wired" to sell value.
If you are new to my blog and mindset, allow me a brief moment to share three of my passionate beliefs regarding sales performance.
- Sales talent is measurable.
- In God we trust, everyone else bring data.
- Sales Wolves dominate.
Most human beings lack the "sales personality" to sell value.
Strategic CEOs and sales VPs objectively measure their sales talent using a validated multi-science sales personality test.
Notice the words I carefully choose to use, particularly the words, "strategic" and "objective".
Human beings are not objective. Human beings are inherently biased and human bias is the single most significant impediment to maximizing the potential of a sales team.
If you wish to win more sales with higher margins, you must stamp out human bias wherever possible.
If you are not objectively measuring sales talent through a validated multi-science sales personality test, then all you have left is gut feeling and hope.
And gut feeling and hope are not a winning strategy.
The essential sales personality predictors that facilitate selling value.
We refer to the best-of-the-best salespeople as "sales wolves".
A sales wolf has the potential to consistently-perform in the top twentieth percentile outselling the average salesperson by 10-20x or more.
What separates a true sales wolf "sales personality" from all the rest are their:
- Behaviors.
- Driving Forces.
The required Behavioral Style to be a sales wolf varies depending upon their sales role.
The required Driving Forces to be a sales wolf are quite consistent from sales role to sales role.
There are twelve Driving Forces. The Driving Forces are a combination of drivers that move a salesperson to take action. Think of a salesperson's Driving Forces as the filter from which decisions are made - the "why" or motivation behind what they do.
Some Driving Forces combinations accelerate sales while others reduce them.
With relatively little exception, the Driving Forces that drive a sales wolf to outperform the other 80 percent typically include a strong combination of the following:
- Resourceful - Driven by practical results, maximizing both efficiency and returns for their investments of time, talent, energy and resources.
- Commanding - Driven by status, recognition and control over personal freedom.
- Intentional - Driven to assist others for a specific purpose, not just of the sake of being helpful or supportive.
- Intellectual - Driven by opportunities to learn, acquire knowledge and the discovery of truth.
Salespeople who possess this particular combination are far more focused on the bottom-line, taking control and seeking the required knowledge to win than those who do not.
If you would like to measure your Driving Forces, click here to complete a sample sales personality and aptitude test.
Curiosity, winning and losing.
I love winning and hate losing. When I lose, I take a hard look in the mirror at the cause of the loss.
I am looking for patterns.
Specifically, what patterns of thought, behavior and action lead to the particular outcome.
Key questions I always have are:
- What should I continue doing?
- What should be stopped?
Where possible, I gather objective data.
You should as well.
Get curious about what accelerates and reduces sales performance on your team.
Look closely. Question your biases and assumptions. Look at the underlying conditions that are within your control.
Objectively measure your sales team's sales personality traits - particularly each team member's Behavioral Style and Driving Forces. Know that many assessment instruments are garbage.
Run simple correlations on a spreadsheet between sales margins and individual sales personality traits. Create xy plots to identify patterns that will spur you to further seek to identify underlying cause and effect relationships.
There is no inherently wrong way to begin this journey if you have not done so already.
The key is to begin.
