Sell! Sell! Sell!

Objective

It is all too easy to think that ‘sales’ belongs to the ‘sales department’, that anyone who does not have ‘sales’ in their job title or job description is not ‘in’ sales. This kind of compartmentalised view allows people to distance themselves from sales issues, especially if sales are not at the level the organisation is seeking.

You have a straightforward task – you think and believe in ‘Sell! Sell! Sell!’ and need your team to realise that:

• without sales the business is nothing;
• the whole team or organisation is accountable for sales;
• ‘sales’ is the name of a team that is likely to have primary contact with the customer, but not a description of accountability;
• every function has an impact on sales, whether you realise it or not;
• all teams – whatever they are called – should expect to be involved in and contribute to discussions on sales.

You may have an additional challenge depending on the nature of your organisation. Some organisations don’t talk openly about sales with all their colleagues – not because sales are viewed as ‘departmental’, but because there is a general reluctance or embarrassment to raise the issue in public. Your role is to ensure that sales are discussed, everywhere and with everyone.

You are chief sales officer – unless you are seen and heard to talk about sales, unless you advocate ‘Sell! Sell! Sell!’, the organisation will not realise that sales is the responsibility of everyone.

Context

Probably all of us have been in organisations where there is a structural fragmentation between the people who conceive, make, market, sell and support a product or service. Each of these broad functions contains specifically qualified professionals who first and foremost identify with their given specialisms. And since there is a professional area called ‘sales’, the majority of staff will see sales as belonging in that ‘box’.

Businesses have increasingly complex interactions with customers, driven especially by technology – by products which are themselves technology-based, and by sales and support systems which are based on technology. The complexity of the engagement makes it impossible for sales to be an isolated function, in the same way that no one should now advocate an ‘IT’ department that owns technology.

As leader you need to pluralise responsibilities in an environment where knowledge and specialisms are increasingly shared. Who could now operate a design studio or a web service without individuals who are both creative and technology-wise?

Thus in sales:

• the sales ‘department’ manages the customer relationship;
• the actual sales team is the whole business.

Challenge

Sell! Sell! Sell! becomes a mantra by which you evangelise the importance of sales and everyone’s participation in sales as the cause in the organisation. You will face the sternest of resistance to this endeavour in some cases:

• some colleagues in the ‘sales’ team will believe that sales is for them and will fear the intervention of outsiders;
• some non-sales colleagues will believe that ‘sales’ is nothing to do with them;
• some team members will buy into the concept, but will argue that they have little time to ‘think sales’ given the load of their existing responsibilities;
• some people will buy into the concept, but not see how they can affect sales, especially if they work in a very different area;
• some colleagues may only respond if such an approach is tied to specific monetary incentives;
• some may think Sell! Sell! Sell! is nothing but grandstanding.

Like all mantras, where the leader has faith, commitment and resolve, the doubters can be won over.

Success

You will embark on Sell! Sell! Sell! as an endeavour for your whole tenure and not as a single event. You can embed sales in the whole organisation if you:

• talk about sales in every public presentation – making it clear, very literally, that sales is on your mind;
• put sales at the top of your team meetings agenda – emphasising its centrality to the organisation’s existence;
• meet key customers – reiterating the message that sales is for everyone;
• travel with sales colleagues on the road – to understand what the experience with customers is like for colleagues at the coalface;
• listen to customer sales or service calls on the telephone – this further enables you to hear real customers describing their experiences with the organisation;
• conduct sales team workshops – you facilitate detailed discussions with the sales team to understand in detail what impediments to making sales they see in the organisation;
• insist that all your direct reports meet customers and listen to call-centre calls (if relevant) – this again reinforces the ‘sales is for everyone’ message, and exposes all senior staff to actual customers;
• publicise sales efforts in regular e-mail communications – if you talk about sales performance in all kinds of regular staff communications, you make it clear that sales is a never-ending purpose;
• ensure that sales performance is displayed – sales data should be highlighted by electronic scoreboards or wall charts posted in key locations so that all staff see actual data;
• review ‘sales impacts’ with all departments – you work with every team to assess how they contribute directly or indirectly to sales efforts;
• conduct periodic Sell! Sell! Sell! campaigns – where the business faces particular sales challenges, include all colleagues in sales campaigns so they are not seen as belonging to the ‘sales’ team;
• create organisation-wide incentives for sales campaigns – to seek to spread rewards and incentives;
• launch organisation-wide ‘sales idea’ programmes – periodically invite all staff – whatever their function – to contribute ideas about generating sales.

You have many rich seams you can tap to generate enthusiasm for sales across your whole work community. You really can make all colleagues believe they affect sales. But as the breadth of the activities noted above shows, this requires action on many fronts at once.

Pitfalls

An approach like Sell! Sell! Sell! requires a relentless and fearlessly dedicated approach. This will be undermined if:

• the leader lets go – you fail to see the approach through and allow yourself to lose focus on sales as the organisation’s life-blood;
• the leader lacks support – you fail to persuade your direct reports of the overriding significance of sales;
• the leader fails to communicate clearly to colleagues – and there is a widespread belief that, after all, sales really is for the sales team.

How do you avoid these pitfalls? Pretty much by keeping going whatever the response, whatever the difficulties. Like all the mantras described in this book, there is little room for self-doubt – where this is creeping in, you need to find mechanisms to have your belief recharged. This is where having a confidant(e) (usually a peer) works so well – they can be a sounding board to whom doubts are aired, and who serve to reinforce purpose.

A further support measure is to ensure that the HR team is involved in the strategic purpose of the Sell! Sell! Sell! endeavour. They will be able to advise on ways in which the range of activities involved can be effectively embedded in the organisation – and they can provide insight into the way the organisation is responding.

Leaders’ checklist

• Don’t be scared of talking sales – they sustain everyone!
• Constantly remind your team that everyone affects sales.
• Meet customers in the ways your team does – by phone, in person – and see your company from the customers’ perspective.
• Create or participate in a programme of activities that reinforces the importance of sales.
• Ensure that your team sales performance is regularly and publicly advertised and discussed.
• Never allow conversations that suggest or endorse the idea that sales belongs to the ‘sales department’.