You may or may not know this, but happy salespeople produce more sales. If you are able to tap into the secret of a salesperson’s happiness, you can better drive sales growth within your organization.
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According to legend, a young John Lennon was once asked by his teacher what he wanted to be when he grew up. Recalling wisdom his mother had passed onto him, Lennon simply replied that he wanted to be happy. The teacher made the suggestion that he didn’t understand the question, to which John retorted that the teacher didn’t understand life.
The truth of that story has been challenged, but in 1960, famed cartoonist Charles Chultz echoed the sentiment in his Peanuts comic strip. “Professor” Linus is asked the same question by his friend Charlie Brown, and his response was that he wanted to be “Outrageously Happy.”
These long-ago tales reflect a time in many of our lives in which we looked ahead to our futures and our desires for life. Of course the goals and dreams vary widely, but a common denominator is happiness.
Looking at business, it’s a similar situation with salespeople. While motivated by a wide variety of goals and targets, they are also striving to achieve happiness. Having an understanding of this motivation is vital in urging your team to greater performance.
As parents, our overarching ambition is for our children to be happy as they grow up – Lennon’s mother had a point! So we support, guide and teach our children in a number of ways so they grow more confident in doing the activities that make them happy.
As a Sales Leader it’s important to invest time in learning what makes your salespeople happy. Even though what makes your salespeople happy will vary from person to person, gathering this vital bit of information will underpin your sales success for the next year.
Everyone ultimately prefers to do things that make him or her happy. Better yet, people excel in activities that they are happy to perform. As Sales Leaders, when developing your sales strategy it is important to research the conditions for happiness as much as your market conditions in order to improve your chances of success.
Happy salespeople produce more sales
Many Sales Leaders wrongly assume that the primary driver of their salepeople’s happiness is greater sales commission and income. Sure, financial rewards enable us to afford a better quality of life that contributes to our happiness. But income, like greater sales results, is simply an output from being happy.
For salespeople to grow within an organization and to grow results (i.e. grow up) what they are seeking to make them truly happy is support, guidance and teachings through the sales process.
Happy salespeople are confident salespeople
Happiness and confidence are simply feelings driven by past experiences, expectations and, more specifically, beliefs. As Sales Leaders it’s important to determine what beliefs your salespeople have that underpin their understanding of your sales strategy and their performance.
Improve your salespeople’s confidence by collaboratively creating defined and focused sales plans and by consistently developing their behaviors, skills and beliefs.
Help them positively overcome any concerns and anxiety so that they can confidently – and more happily – pursue sales opportunities and convert deals.
Of course as they happily achieve more sales by confidently executing the right activities with greater skills and confidence, you will soon discover the other outputs that contribute to their happiness – promotion, autonomy, customer satisfaction, ease of job, goal achievement and yes …. financial rewards.
So as Sales Leaders it is important to discover what your salespeople want to be in order to grow the company up and grow up in their career? Don’t make the same assumption that John Lennon’s teacher made. Take the time to better understand what makes your team “Outrageously Happy”.
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