Last weekend I did a walk around London with my family in memory of my Dad who had dementia and passed away earlier this year. There were over 4 thousand people walking in memory of a loved one that has been affected by this cruel disease. We have all raised money for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Not only were people walking in London…there have been thousands of people walking all over the country and together we have raised over £9m. An extraordinary achievement.
So what has this to do with sales?
Everything.
All the walkers have a common cause…to beat dementia. That’s because we have all been touched by dementia and seen the negative impact it has on our loved ones and all the family. The force is strong within us and we want to succeed.
How strong is the force within you?
What’s your purpose? What’s the reason you get up for work every day?
If it’s all about you and what you can do to raise your profile you’re not coming from a power source.
Being focused on you puts you in your ego and you’re less likely to make strong decisions from this point. You’ll be thinking more about the impact on YOU than on others.
Can you still achieve from this position? Of course… but you may not bring your team with you.
When you focus on a much bigger or greater goal that creates more for you, your team and your customers you are coming from a much stronger position. It is more heart centred and is much more likely to inspire your team to greater success.
How strong is the force within your team?
If you can’t inspire your team to buy into the bigger vision…then you just a bunch of individuals. If they have their own bigger purpose, then they will be successful despite not buying into yours.
A sales team of top performers are a team…focused on the common cause…and they want to win!
So how do you get them to buy in?
You have to create a pitch…a business case as you would to get buy in from a prospective customer.
Treat your sales people as you would a customer/client then you are more likely to get the buy in you need to create a team!
The Alzheimer’s Society did a great job. The registration process not only took my personal details, it asked my reason for doing the walk…and walked me through creating my JustGiving page.
Not only did they email me to say thank you, share fund raising tips, update me and encourage me…they also called me to check if I needed anything. They reassured me that whatever I raised (even if I didn’t reach my target) they were thrilled I was taking part and raising something. They created a personalised video for me to share, text me on the day to wish me luck and text me after the event to say thank you.
This really spurred us on to collectively raise around £1000.
They had a winning strategy and it really worked to pull everyone together.
Are you doing enough to create a team?
Only you know the answer to that!
What can you take from this blog to create a more cohesive sales team that work together to achieve the bigger vision?
Until next time,
Leigh 🙂
PS If you’ve been impacted by dementia and would like to donate to the Alzheimer’s Society you can find my JustGiving page here!
