PEOPLE FIRST LEADERSHIP

The customer is always right. How dumb were we to follow this mantra? I think most of us in business and sales can explain what this philosophy was intended to be and yet we've all witnessed the unintended consequences.

This attitude came from our desire for instant gratification which never generates the best results. Do whatever it takes to make sales became the strategy in the, 'Just win baby! and  Just Do It!' age. To win today the mantra needs to shift to, 'Just Do It Right' but first let's look at the unintended consequences before we talk about how to be the leader who can reverse their effects.

The unintended consequences...

If the customer is always right, then the employee is always wrong. Imagine going to work and knowing you will always be wrong...Very demoralizing.

A dysfunctional relationship between buyers and sellers occurred during, 'The Customer Is Always Right' age because buyers were entitled too much and salespeople were focused on make a sale, not doing what's best for the buyer.

The focus on making new sales, not customers, caused buyers to feel that salespeople were more concerned about the transaction than they were about them or the outcome they wanted. Mistrust grew.

Salespeople, customer service and executives became afraid to tell buyers no, walk away or look for a better relationship. Business is all about relationships and it needs a healthy one between buyers and sellers to grow a profitable business.

People were actually treated poorly. Employees were abused and buyers indulged to the point they became spoiled, non-compliant buyers who couldn't be satisfied, sold at a profit or had any loyalty.

Employees began to not trust their own companies. The belief that the company really didn't care about them or the buyer grew. They started to feel that the company only cared about making a profit. Don't get me wrong, leaders need to make sure their company is profitable or they won't be around to care about people. However, if people are their company's greatest asset then they need to act like it.

The phrase 'Do what's best for the buyer' was, and in most cases still is, interpreted as, 'Do whatever they want' to get them to buy or go away if they are complaining.

We intended to improve customer service by pleasing the buyer.  Instead, spoiled consumers soon had no loyalty. This reduced their buying decision to the lowest price which usually didn't result in what was best for the them, creating more dissatisfaction. This became a vicious cycle and war broke out between buyers, sellers and companies.

We talked about customer satisfaction, spent millions on surveys and customer retention programs while our intention and focus to make new customers (sales), offended our existing customers.

None of this is part of a good business plan which created many unrealistic expectations that could not be met.

Business historians will surely look back and write about how foolish 'The Customer Is Always Right' age of business was and the mess we made of business relationships during this period. We chased short term gains and created long term disaster!

Now it is time for the 'People First' age of business and the good news is that the results can be the largest economic boom in history.

To lead your business to the healthiest, most profitable place, you'll have to be more realistic and your people will need to be more important than your customers. That's right, 'People First Leadership' starts with your people, then you can create a 'Customer First Company'

'People First Leaders' do what's best for the people who work for them, and then ask them to always do what's best for the buyer.

A 'Customer First Company' makes customers, not just sales. Doing what's best isn't always what the buyer wants but what's in their best interest. This holds true with your employees as well. What's best for them isn't always what they want but it's a leaders responsibility to serve people, not please people. Serve your people and ask them to serve others and make customers and your sales, revenue and profits will increase. In addition, you'll create long term sustainable growth.

I knew an uneducated man, a high school drop-out, who ended up owning a car wash.  He left for lunch one day and left his son in charge.  When he returned from lunch he found his son at the booth taking new customers money.  The line of cars to wash grew longer.  They seemed busy with lots of new customers and the son was happy.  The son felt good as he talked with the new customers waiting to get their cars washed and the line continued to grow. The father took the son aside and explained that it's easy to take people's money but the most important part of the business was to keep them coming back. He further explained that it only happens because of perfectly washed cars.

He made the point to his son to stay focused getting the cars washed and keeping the line moving. I said he was uneducated, I didn’t say he wasn’t smart.  The memory of this event comes to mind even when I am working with large corporations, industry leaders and multi-million dollar companies. 

He was explaining 'People First Leadership' without knowing it. It's always more important for a leader to spend their time with the people who make customers because customers come back and send other people to your business ready to become new customers. In addition, word of mouth spreads virally in the social age and allows 'Customer First Companies' to establish their brand and grow faster.

This is 'People First Leadership' and it works for all businesses and organizations. Make the people who serve your customers more important than new sales and your business will prosper and grow. 

By Mike Moore

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SALES LEADERSHIP TOOLS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

This article is for all the salespeople, sales managers and executives who've been trying for years to improve without using the best tools available to achieve their best results. It's time to take advantage of all the tools available even if they make you uncomfortable.

SALESPEOPLE

The best tools available to improve your sales communication, attitudes, skills and actions are video and audio of live interaction between you and real consumers. I'm not talking about video shoppers...I'm talking about live selling engagements between real shoppers and salespeople in real selling situations. 

Selling is a performing art...Like athletes, actors and musicians you need to use live video and audio to review the selling engagement with consumers.    This is the best way to view how you're communicating with consumers. It's like athletes watching game video, not video of practice. Oh, and they do that too, so both are valid, but the best results come from watching and hearing real live selling engagements. 

Viewing and listening to live selling engagements with consumers allows for self coaching by salespeople so they can improve more quickly.  It’s the best way to create and reinforce the proper intentions, attitudes, actions and skills that will enable sales professionals to serve consumers, making customers and increase sales. So why don't you use it...Comfort, cost or fear...All poor reasons to not challenge yourself to be your best. 

Salespeople, like athletes think they are doing one thing until they see it for themselves. Rapid behavioral changes takes place when we watch ourselves and bold, significant results are achieved. If a picture is worth a thousand words, live video and audio is worth million...literally!

We can continue to read, talk and listen about how to sell, we can video practice or we can add viewing our live performances and make the changes necessary to improve the profession of sales.  When we are viewing and listening to live engagements, the lectures, reading, and studying we do becomes more valuable and magnifies it's impact to create the best results.

Live video and audio is greatly different than mystery shoppers or roll playing, even though both are needed exercises, they are insufficient to produce peak performance. Mystery shopping and roll playing misses the key ingredient in communication and human interaction, the intentions of the people communicating. Mystery shoppers and roll playing find out if salespeople know the right information about their products, services and company. This can be also be accomplished by written or verbal quizzes and tests.  

When you view the interaction between people with the real intentions you experience in live selling situations, you'll see, hear and know how you are truly communicating, interacting and responding with them. Then you will know what you need to do to improve.  Without the intentions of both people being real in a conversation, negotiation or a selling situation, it's just practice and it's insufficient to become your very best. Mystery shoppers and roll players have no intentions of buying and salespeople aren’t selling.

For many years, I've been teaching that salespeople practice their profession on consumers.  Unfortunately, this is an obstacle to rapid self-improvement unless it can be reviewed and used to improve.  If you don’t want to improve enough take responsibility, mature as a sales professional and use the best tools available, you are doomed to continue without ever achieving your best results.

I firmly believe we haven’t seen the best of the profession of selling but can if we are willing to add these tools to the lectures, reading and training we've used in the past.

SALES MANAGERS

The time has come to stop worrying about how good your salespeople are and start finding out.  Live video coaching will expose what you may be afraid of but you can’t change and begin to improve until you find out. It is time to acknowledge that we need to grow up and begin being the professionals we profess to be.

The idea that we have tools to improve at our disposal and haven’t utilized them, is a shame. That said, let’s not look back but begin now to use live video and audio to coach and improve the relationship between consumers and salespeople.

I know many sales managers who have resisted using these tools and can only wonder what they are afraid of.  Nothing we do out of fear will ever be a best practice.  In coming years, sales managers will use live video and audio to stay informed and coach their salespeople as a standard business practice.

Live video and audio is not intended to be a punitive tool but does create accountability.  It is a coaching and self-improvement tool.  Coaches have to be informed and pay attention to be effective. Live video with audio is the best way to pay attention.  You can’t coach what you’re unaware of.   As an accountability tool, salespeople in all selling environments, will be less likely to give less than their best effort to consumers when they know they are performing live all the time. A salesperson giving consumers their best effort is part of the maturation and growing process of the profession of sales.

EXECUTIVES

When executives accept that decades of doing business with the intention to make sales has broken the relationship between consumers and salespeople, then they need to take responsibility for this broken relationship and lead their business with a new intention.

It is time to start making customers, not sales, and live video and audio is the best tool to make sure this new intention is implemented.  

Too many years of talk and not enough action, has left the consumer believing businesses don’t care about them.

Executives have made too many decisions about how to operate their business and make profits without considering how it would affect their salespeople's communication with consumers and ultimately how this would effect their business, revenue and profits.

Most executives believe that people are the driving force to improve their business and live video, audio and new intentions will also energize  salespeople. Live video and audio can implement the intention to make customers, not just sales and result in increased sales, lower costs, increased profits and sustainable growth.

You wouldn’t run a business that depended on athletes peak performance without video for coaching and improvement. Don’t invest and risk your company’s money without using the best tools to insure peak performance from your salespeople.

PEAK PERFORMANCE

Live audio and video coaching should start with salespeople, then be available to the sales manager, and finally to executive management in a company. Teaching people how to use live video and audio during the implementation is key.

Keeping the focus on the self-improvement is the most important element in producing significant results.

Live audio and video coaching should never be punitive or feel as though big brother is watching.  Starting with salespeople allows them to quickly learn how valuable seeing and hearing themselves in real situations can be.  They even begin to use the information learned to build relationships in their follow-up with consumers.

After the salespeople become comfortable, learn to self coach and experience rapid improvements, then sales management can begin using the audio and video as a teaching and coaching tool. Seeing, hearing and knowing what is happen between their salespeople and consumers is the best information to develop the company's sales strategy and how to inspire, motivate and manage each salesperson.

Executives are the last to view and listen. This allows them to know how their salespeople are doing, see the improvements, build their confidence and understand why sales are increasing. This allows executives to have a better understanding of their customers and how best to market to them as well. Constant improvement and peak performance has many leadership benefits to the company.

Without live audio and video, a commitment by everyone to be their best by using the every tool available, we will continue to manage sales in the dark and suffer the consequences of poor sales communication and interaction with consumers.

It is time to use the best tools and begin to experience the best of the profession of sales!

By Mike Moore

More about → SALES LEADERSHIP TOOLS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

YOU WON'T WIN WATCHING THE SCOREBOARD

To win in business and life, stop watching the scoreboard and start coaching or playing the game to the best of your ability! You'll be able to deal with the final score if you always give your best effort, but you won't give your best effort while watching the scoreboard.

We're living and working in a rapidly shifting world and economy so you can't just wait for a recovery or things to go back to normal. You can't produce new success by going back to good old basics. In fact, anything with 'back' in it is the wrong strategy this time around. 

Selfish, short-term intentions have created poor behavior that has led us to a crisis in personal and business relationships alike. These selfish intentions cause people and businesses to look at what's in it for them, work to get more while providing less and damages the relationships that can make us rich both personally and professionally.

These selfish intentions have caused people to look only at today's scoreboard and not at the final score. We've been so busy winning the first quarter we're losing the game. Life and business are both best when built on a sustainable 'people first' culture.

Championship coaches don't spend their time focused on the scoreboard or asking the players what the score is during the game. If they did, they'd lose more often than they'd win. This behavior is what executives and sales managers have been doing for years and it's no wonder businesses are struggling because this behavior sabotages the score. In business, this behavior creates a focus on new sales, new subscribers and today's numbers instead of customers which generates diminishing, unsustainable results. Making customers makes a business healthy, profitable and sustainable.

Poor intentions are sneaky, they slip in unintended and damage the result we want. Take for example when the boss asks, “How are you doing?”, what do they mean?  They are most often checking up on sales and a discussion of the company’s sales statistics ensues. Typically, right after this conversation, calls are made down the chain of command to each level until a sales manager calls a salesperson or store manager with the same conversation. This, “How are you doing?”, when we mean, “How are sales?” needs to stop.  This is the coach asking the players the score during the game.  

We need new conversations that will only occur from new intentions and generate a new sales engagement with consumers. We need a 'people first focus' to build relationships and generate positive results by serving people rather than trying to please them.

Watching the score and waiting for it to get better won't get it done this time. There's no recovery coming, just opportunities to begin again. This time, our best opportunity is to play the game with new thinking and intentions that can drive the attitudes, skills and actions that will produce healthy relationships with consumers and generate success!

It's so easy to slide back into the instant gratification of making new sales rather than customers. It's the comfortable old path that sabotages the possibility for your new success.

It will take 'people first leadership' to create a 'customer first company' and solid sales management to keep salespeople on track to win and generate a healthy new economy.  

By Mike Moore

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LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM MONEYBALL

Preconceived notions stop the people in charge from seeing inefficiencies in their businesses. Old habits, traditions or just plain comfort makes them reject the ideas of those who see the inefficiencies and have solutions to improve them. In fact, if their fear of change or pride becomes strong enough they will often reject and attack the people with the solutions too.

The greatest inefficiency in business today is the dysfunctional relationship between salespeople and consumers. It's caused by the intention to make sales. The good news is it can be corrected by changing this intention, which would heal the relationship and result in increased sales and sustainable growth. It won't be easy, but it is actually simple, like most changes that produce great improvements, transformations or start new era in business.

We are in transition to the 'People First Age' of business and commerce. It's happening right now. We aren't in a recession; we're in this transition to a 'new economy'. A big lesson form Moneyball is that it's easy to look at numbers and statistics and then make poor decisions...Success in business is about people, not numbers...When analyzed correctly the numbers should inform leaders how to help their people become successful, or how to select the people who will succeed. 

Businesses have to change their intentions or face certain failure...It's this shift in intentions that allows leaders to see the information that's in the numbers. Just as Kodak, who invented the digital camera in 1975, but refused to take advantage of it for fear it would damage their traditional film business, only to have their film business cannibalized by their competition with the digital camera they already possessed. They had the numbers but their intentions where misplaced and led to their demise!

If traditional businesses don't change their intentions at the point of engagement with the buyers of their products they will be cannibalized by new businesses with the right intentions. Like Kodak, existing businesses have the power to be leaders in this new 'People First Age' but one way or the other it is happening and the winners will be those who have the right intentions. The intentions to help, serve and do what's best for the buyer...The intentions to make customers and not just sales.

"People seek to improve until they are comfortable, and when they become comfortable, they stop looking to improve."

By Mike Moore

For more information about the right intention go to http://makingcustomers.wordpress.com/.

More about → LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM MONEYBALL

WHAT WINNING LEADERS MANAGE

Raised by a father who coached for 35 years, the first lesson he taught me was to walk into a locker room and take in or feel the atmosphere and the energy.  He was teaching me what winning coaches did to be successful and I've learned how they can be applied by business leaders to create a successful business. He explained that you could "feel" this winning atmosphere if you were paying attention.   He also said coaches and leaders manage this atmosphere and it's in the air all the time. He said it was more important than any of the x's and o's of coaching.

Growing up listening to coaches’ share their views, thoughts and leadership styles was a huge advantage later in my business career. Listening to pregame, halftime and postgame speeches taught me how to manage and maintain this atmosphere and I share this as often as I can with other leaders.

I was always amazed to watch a game or practice with my father or other coaches as they constantly paid attention to how things felt. I realized later that the average ones were focused on their process and not their players. This is similar to business, as we too often get lost in our process and forget about the people involved.

Next time you walk into a sales office, store or business, see how it feels.  Leaders manage the air.  They do this by managing the attitudes, feelings and beliefs of the people in their business, organization or life.  This is why a business that wants to make customers must manage its people's attitudes, feelings and beliefs first. Consumers won’t believe your company is different if your people aren’t and your people won't act different if their attitude isn't different. 'People first leaders' manage the air or atmosphere generated by people's attitudes. 

'People first leadership', isn’t a fluffy fad or esoteric idea, but the first step in increasing sales and growth in business in the 'new economy'.  Its 'people first' focus means a leader has to have strong enough conviction to stick to a game plan or strategy when others around them are growing weary or wanting to overreact to unwanted results. 

'People first leaders' develop people in their business who are mentally tough enough to execute the strategy when others would falter or take the path of least resistance.

By managing the attitudes, feelings and beliefs of your people, you are leading from where results are born.   From the attitudes that lead to actions, the results will be seen in your increase revenue, profits and growth.  You are leading from an advanced position and not waiting to react to unwanted results that were generated from behavior that was caused by attitudes that were ignored.

Leadership at its essence, generates results by getting people to perform at their highest level of competence. When leaders do this they are also growing the level of people’s competence and insuring growth and higher performance in the future.

Use the attitudes, skills and actions of great coaches who have led their teams to championships by instilling a winning attitude, mental toughness and the ability to overcome the excuses their competitors accept to be average.  Coaches like John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, Pat Riley, Don Shula, Pat Summit, Phil Jackson, Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and many others, win and have won because they 'manage the air' or attitudes that produce winners. Ultimately, they are 'people first leaders' who challenge others to be better than they would be without their influence. They move people to do the things they don't want to do that produce the results they want.

Business in the 'new economy' requires an attitude to make customers, not just sales. Instill this in the hearts of people so that it permeates the air in your business and it will generate improved results and growth.

Stop, listen and feel the attitudes in your business. Can you sense the 'winning air'? If not, get busy and make it a priority, then manage it daily for the best results.

By Mike Moore

More about → WHAT WINNING LEADERS MANAGE

SALES ATTRACTION POTION

What if you became aware that there was a ‘sales attraction potion’ you could take to prepare yourself to meet people when you’re selling. This ‘potion’, when taken, allowed people to relax, connect and communicate.  Real dialogue happened and people could be helped and served. This connection allowed the engagement and dialogue that sales managers, salespeople and sales trainers have been trying to make happen for years. This ‘potion’ is real and the connection it allows, is necessary if consumers are to get what they want, increase sales and enable a business is to grow.

What if I told you this ‘potion’ has been around for years and really works?  You’d be first in line. “Sign me up”, and “Where do I get more?” are the most common responses. The cynical salesperson wants to know how much it costs. What if I told you it’s free and the supply is unlimited? Well, guess what, it’s real, you can take it all the time and it will not only increase your sales, it will change your life.

Most salespeople are infected with a ‘sales repellent virus’ that their companies, sales managers and sales trainers have handed out this ‘virus’ unknowingly, for free, for years. Even more importantly, when a salesperson is left alone they catch this ‘sales repellent virus’ and even help spread it.  What if I told you when economic conditions get tougher the strength of the ‘sales repellent virus’ increases and more is handed out? Most people in the profession of sales think…’Not me, I’m couldn’t be infected with this virus’…but this virus has been growing for several decades and if it isn’t treated with the ‘sales attraction potion’ it’s will eventually make salespeople extinct.

The result of the majority of salespeople having the ‘sales repellent virus’ for many years now is that selling has become more difficult and the relationship between salespeople and consumers has become damaged. In fact this relationship is so dysfunctional people don’t want to talk to salespeople and salespeople think ‘buyers are liars’. With most salespeople infected with the ‘sales repellent virus’ consumers have become conditioned to avoid salespeople whenever possible and only engage when they have to.  The most common responses to becoming aware of this ‘virus’ is, “What are you talking about?”, and “How can I make sure I don’t have it or spread it?”

We’ll get to, how to avoid the ‘sales repellent virus’ and how to get healed if you have it but it’s more important to understand that there’s an antidote,  ‘sales attraction potion’, that can be used, and when used, will increase your sales, make customers and build your business.

Remember, the supply of ‘sales attraction potion’ is unlimited and free! 

However, even when you know what it is and how to use it, you’ll have to take it every day and you’ll have to keep taking it every time you engage someone in a sales conversation. In short, the ‘sales attraction potion’ is simple to use but wear off easily because other people will be trying to give you the ‘sales repellent virus’.

This usually happens unknowingly and if you aren’t careful it’s easy to catch the ‘sales repellant virus’!

Let’s investigate the ingredients in the potion and the virus that are the same. They include skills, attitudes and actions that are necessary in the profession of sales but insufficient without taking the ‘sales attraction potion’. These three ingredients are the ones companies, sales managers and sales trainers have been teaching and salespeople have been using for years while infected with the ‘sales repellent virus’.  Next, there is the active ingredient that attracts or repels people.  The ‘repellent virus’ makes people avoid and even lie to salespeople while the ‘attraction potion’ connects and starts healing the consumer and salesperson relationship.

By now, I know you’re ready for the active ingredient…The ingredient that causes the ‘potion’ to attract and the ‘virus’ to repel, is a salespersons’ intention when engaging consumers. Before a salesperson speaks and as they try to sell someone, their intentions are felt intuitively by consumers and either attracts or repels them. The consumer then decides unknowingly, preconscious, to connect or avoid the salesperson. The salesperson’s intentions create their demeanor, presence and attitudes and cannot be faked. What the consumer feels or reads is the genuine intention from the salesperson.

The effects of the active ingredient in the ‘virus’ the salesperson has is evident when consumers avoid talking to or opening up even when salespeople ask good questions and genuinely cares about the people they are trying to sell but is infected with the ‘virus’.

‘Trying to sell’ is the active ingredient in the ‘sales repellent virus’. The ‘virus’ even sabotages skilled salespeople who believe in their product and company, care about the consumer, but unknowingly are infected! Even they will repel people more often than they attract them. You can’t hide the virus from people…it is always showing!

The best example of the effects of the ‘sales repellent virus’ or intention to sell, can be witnessed in a new home sales office when watching the interaction between consumers and salespeople. If there is a salesperson and a temp in the sales office and a consumer comes in, they will most often engage the temp and avoid speaking to the salesperson. I’ve personally witnessed this and over the years had many new home salespeople confirm this behavior by consumers.  It’s amazingly interesting that the consumer is attracted by the ‘sales attraction potion’ the temp has taken or repelled by the ‘virus’ salesperson is infected with. The consumer will engage the person that is not infected with the ‘virus’ that contains the intention ‘to sell them something’.

Most companies, sales managers and sales trainers want salespeople to say the right things to create a better conversation with consumers.  They want and teach salespeople to ask better questions and be better listeners. The problem is, when salespeople try to do this, while infected with the ‘sales repellent virus’, consumers won’t engage them and the engagement or conversation stalls.  As long as a salesperson is infected with the ‘virus’, sales will continue to be difficult and the relationship between consumers and salespeople will grow more dysfunctional. In short, people will keep avoiding salespeople until they become extinct.

The active ingredient in the ‘sales attraction potion’ is the intention to help, serve and do what’s best for the consumer. The intention to make customers, not sales, is the missing ingredient and cannot co-exist with the intention to sell. In fact, I’m convinced the intention to sell is the spoiled version of the intention to make a customer. The ‘virus’ wasn’t and never has been anyone intention to spread. It just mutated over the years from paying to much attention to the desired results companies, sales managers, salespeople and sales trainers wanted to create, instead of paying attention to what would create the results. There is too much concern over what we want and not enough concern over what customers want. It’s also obvious that in a difficult economy we spend more time worrying and obsessing over the numbers and less time concerned about the customers concerns so the effects of the ‘virus’ worsen and spread.

When the ‘sales attraction potion’ is taken, the missing link in the sales conversation happens…a connection between the salesperson and the consumer. This connection causes or allows a conversation or real dialogue to take place so a healthy relationship can begin. This is the power of the ‘sales attraction potion’; it makes the consumer/salesperson connection happen and allows the other ingredients in the ‘sales potion’ to be used to best serve the consumer.

The steps of a sale process, which have been taught for many years in various forms, only happen when this connection is made. Consumers only engage salespeople who have taken the ‘sales attraction potion’.  When the connection is made, people are served, customers are made and sales increase while business grows. 

Salespeople who regularly take the ‘sales attraction potion' are more energized because they enjoy their profession more, adding to their success! 

More about → SALES ATTRACTION POTION

Leadership Lessons for Success In The New Economy.wmv - YouTube

Leadership Lessons for Success In The New Economy.wmv - YouTube

More about → Leadership Lessons for Success In The New Economy.wmv - YouTube

SALES LEADERSHIP LESSONS

I have been participating in a discussion on LinkedIn, with sales leaders about selling, sales training and sales management. I'm very concerned and have been for years that business and sales leaders have been sabotaging the relationship between consumers and salespeople. 

If you’re in a position of sales leadership, ask yourself, "What attitudes and actions do my messages create in my salespeople? Is your sales culture sabotaging your sales?

Just a few of the phrases being used in the discussion have been a 'hunter who can find 'em, stalk 'em, kill 'em and eat 'em" or "you have to know what you're hunting so you’ll now how to kill them". 

These phrases create attitudes and actions that turn people off. It's also left the consumer and salesperson, or buyer and seller, with a dysfunctional relationship that's creating a whole ‘new economy’.

My concern is that the majority of salespeople hear 'hunter' and "find 'em, stalk 'em, kill 'em and eat 'em" and it creates attitudes and actions that chase more buyers away than it creates sales. 



The salespeople that can improve a business are not the elite salespeople, it's the majority, from low producers to average producers, and these attitudes have sabotaged their ability to improve. It's also created a sales engagement that has damaged the buyer and seller relationship to the point of sabotaging sales results. 


No one started out to create the dysfunction that exists today between buyers and sellers but the message too may sales trainers, executives and sales managers deliver is translated into the intention to sell and not serve and doesn't produce the best results. 



The intention to make a sale is what buyers and consumers 'feel' that chases them away. Knowing how to put the customer first is an act of long term selfishness. It will produce the best results, highest sales and customers that will grow your business. 



The attitude that new business is what matters most, is what's brought the economy down and it's still damaging salespeople's ability to succeed today.

Customers create sales growth. Businesses and the economy are suffering from the business focus of getting new subscribers, new sales, instead of making customers. 


Years of traditional sales engagements, demographics, multi-cultural issues, the access to information on the internet, unprecedented economic pressures and social networks have changed buying cycles along with buyers and consumers attitudes.

New sales increase fastest when people are engage with the focus on making them a customer, not a sale.

Start sending a message of service and help. Implement a culture of caring about customers more than sales. Beginning teaching and coaching salespeople to be 'servants on a mission’. When you do, sales will increase, your business will grow and everybody will win.

Look for "Traits of a Servant on a Mission" in my next blog.

By Mike Moore

More about → SALES LEADERSHIP LESSONS