If you read our previous two articles, The Fundamental Error of Approach in Today’s Sales and Theory and Practice of Pipeliner, you’ll clearly see that Pipeliner CRM is not simply a mechanical application—it has a clear theory and purpose behind it.
We created Pipeliner because we are in the midst of a great societal transformation that some cannot keep up with. Technological innovations such as smartphones and various computing devices seem to pass right on by, for example, older people who aren’t willing to follow.
We obviously have a demographic challenge, then. But we also have an educational challenge to bring everyone up to speed. Overcoming these challenges was the original vision for Pipeliner.
Bringing Culture to the Present
How do we expect Pipeliner CRM to assist in overcoming such challenges? As we’ll demonstrate within this article, these challenges are only overcome with changes in the culture. The vast majority of the population spends most of their waking hours working within a company, and therefore the corporate structure is where culture is actually created.
Austrian Economist Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” That means culture will always dominate, no matter the strategy. It’s the culture that must change if we are to overcome the barriers and challenges to this technological transformation.
Culture being created within companies carries an unfortunate fact: many enterprises are still working within a pre-digital transformation approach. I would even go so far as to say that some company cultures are deeply rooted in the last century. They have not really noticed that the world has changed, operating with a very hierarchical approach, not empowering those lower down in the structure.
Empowerment of Salespeople…and Society
Having observed all of these factors, we designed Pipeliner CRM to empower salespeople in creating the new culture. The idea is to raise them to be self-motivated, instead of being “driven” from above.
We believe salespeople lead the way to create a better society through this new transformation and beyond. Therefore I created the definition, “Salespeople are wealth creators and peace producers.”
How do salespeople create wealth? They create value for the buyer. They also create value for themselves, as they get paid for what they provide. Wealth creation is vital to society, as it strengthens the middle class. They become happy and content. The economy is strengthened as people purchase goods and travel.
How do salespeople create peace? When two or more parties are engaged in commerce, they can never be in conflict or at war. In that salespeople are the main instruments of commerce, they are truly the peace producers. Without peace, we are in distress, constantly worried, and constantly fighting. Peace gives us time to build our homes, families, and relationships.
The Internal Creation Engine
Most sales systems and CRM platforms are designed to “motivate” a salesperson from the outside. It’s like having an outboard engine on a boat—the engine is external to the salesperson. They keep having to gas it up with “motivation” and drive. What happens a few weeks down the road? They have to gas up again.
Pipeliner gets that “engine” running from the inside. A salesperson already has the power to motivate themselves—they just have to take responsibility to do so.
We further assist this motivation with our SalesPOP! multi-media online site, embedded within Pipeliner, and also available to anyone online. It contains advice and knowledge from thousands of experts to help salespeople and leaders attain their goals.
Everyone Can Create
While some are perhaps more creators than others, each human being is capable of being a creator and a decision-maker.
How do I know that? Hundreds of years back, a person would go to a tailor or dressmaker to have their clothes made to precisely suit them. Then came the Industrial Revolution, and clothing was mass-produced, no longer customized for the wearer. But despite that, with billions of people purchasing ready-made clothing, you’ll never see two people wearing the exact same thing. They customize with different shoes, T-shirts, chains, hats or other accessories. There’s always at least a slight difference from the next person.
Here is another demonstration of everyday creation. For 30 years, Swedish furniture seller IKEA has had stores in the U.S. The same items are available to everyone seeking to cost-effectively furnish their homes. Yet you will not find two home interiors, even if they both utilize IKEA furniture, that are the same.
Therefore creativity exists in how we dress and how we engage in interior decoration of our homes. But that creativity seems to be left behind when people enter their workplaces. There are many books on how to activate creativity in workers. The question, though, isn’t how to motivate someone to be creative—people are all creative. So why aren’t people creative in their working roles?
Interestingly, there are many people who engage in non-profit organizations and are highly creative within them, when they’re not even being paid. But when these people come to work, that creativity seems to shut off.
There are some who have theorized that this lack of creativity in the workplace stems from a lack of purpose for working within a company. Outside the company, they have purposes for their home, their dress and other pursuits, but not within the organization. Many seem to think that working is a “necessary evil” to earn money—they’re not practicing any creativity that can bring more value. That is why motivation must come from within, not be constantly “created” from the outside, as we covered above.
Pipeliner CRM isn’t trying to inspire creativity in everyone. But how many can we reach and motivate? Almost a third of the population works in sales—so Pipeliner is reaching out to them particularly. That’s a healthy number, and Pipeliner can have a considerable impact by empowering salespeople to fully take their own action, assume responsibility for their freedom and become wealth creators and peace producers. And society starts changing, bit by bit, for the better.
Of course, if salespeople are really going to take this course, they must create win-win deals that benefit both the buyer and themselves. If they betray someone they are supposed to be servicing, they end up torpedoing the very system that they’re supposed to be bringing to life, and that supports them, too. I have created a saying that the “perfect deal” should hurt each party—the buyer and the seller—just a little bit. That means it’s fair. That’s also how you know you will always be at peace, because the salesperson is creating a condition where they lose a little and the buyer loses a little. No one is taking unfair advantage.
That’s Why We’re Here
The above-stated purposes and goals are what we are aiming for. It’s why we spent so many years creating Pipeliner CRM. The underlying theory was not created by me alone—the ideas are deeply rooted in hundreds of years of the powerful tradition of the Austrian School of Economics, of psychology (particularly that of Viktor Frankl) and the principles of Cybernetics evolved at MIT.
And this is why we’re taking the direction we’re taking!
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