As we discussed in our first blog in this series, for sales today a salesperson mindset is at least as important as a skillset. I refer to this mindset as social intelligence. The first of these, discussed in the first blog post, is self-responsibility.
The next quality of a salesperson’s social intelligence is individuality.
This is a very obvious quality for a salesperson. A salesperson is incredibly self-sufficient, to the point that they can be criticized for being so (the “lone wolf”). Most salespeople do very well on their own: they are the very definition of “self-starter” and, as discussed in the last post, tend to be quite responsible.
If any profession approaches a job as playing a game, it would be a salesperson. A salesperson takes on much more risk than any other normal profession, and some even live on straight commission, which is do-or-die in any given pay period. You could call it a form of gambling–except that sales aren’t a game of chance. A great salesperson knows the risk they are taking and takes it knowingly.
Flexibility
Another part of a salesperson’s individuality is flexibility. A salesperson deals with all kinds of people, from many different cultures and walks of life, even within the same city. A salesperson must be flexible enough to communicate with each and every one of them.
This flexibility also comes into play when dealing with management, and other members of the team. These are all different people, too, and the salesperson must get along well with them.
Individuality and CRM
Over the years, CRM adoption by salespeople has been a real problem. Why? Because CRM was not designed with the salesperson in mind, but with controlling the salesperson in mind. Salespeople hated it and didn’t take to it at all.
On the other hand, our product, Pipeliner CRM, taps right into a salesperson’s individuality.
To start with, we make the application fun to use–a salesperson will get right into it. It might be the only CRM solution that salespeople truly love. Not only does it fit right in with their “gamey” nature, but it also provides an enormous benefit back to the sales rep.
These are both qualities that traditional CRM applications lack. Which are not fun at all. They seemed to be designed for bookkeepers–rows and columns of numbers. Not designed to provide benefit to the salesperson; the salesperson spent huge amounts of time entering data into CRM and got nothing back in return.
Instead of controlling salespeople, Pipeliner is designed to put the salesperson in control–of their own opportunities and deals. A salesperson can create, make scenarios, and visualize everything. The salesperson actually has the same data as the manager, so the manager isn’t going to come to them with something they’ve never seen or don’t know about.
The Enjoyable Experience
As we’ll explore in more detail later in this series, one of a salesperson’s primary duties is to create an enjoyable experience for the buyer. All of the factors of individuality–self-sufficiency, gaminess, and flexibility–make it possible for a salesperson to do so.
A tool such as Pipeliner, because it’s creating an enjoyable experience for the seller, greatly assists in this.
Find out more about Pipeliner CRM–the CRM that actually empowers salespeople.
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