Over the last month or so I have been exploring all things "sales". Negotiations, deals - selling products, services, solutions, ideas and concepts, or indeed, ourselves. We are all selling something, much of the time.
Way back when, at the height of conspicuous consumption, being a successful salesperson or dealmaker was vaguely sexy. Then it became seriously not-sexy. Formulaic, pushy, slimy, slick, cheesy and lacking in integrity and empathy. With the rise in social and digital media, we woke up to the fact that we need to add people into the equation and started listening more, investing in relationships and delivering solutions to the problems we were solving. We started building congruent personal brands and describing ourselves in ways better suited to the purpose of having people buy us and our stuff.
Today we are leaders, visionaries and change-makers - we ignite passion and inspire action. We are influencers and connectors and we touch hearts and minds. We build and nurture our communities, we work in partnership, we co-create and collaborate, we solve problems and deliver value and we give a damn. And if we don't, we won't be around for very long.
What got me delving into this line of enquiry was a call from a someone I met at a futures mastermind and a subsequent invitation to meet with his business partner. They are in the process of building an incredible online offering for the medical sector and when they mentioned they wanted to use the same model for all things "sales", my response was, "I have something deeply insightful for that."
The Lumina Sales assessment reveals your strengths and areas to improve in the six stages of the sales cycle. Yes there are six! So many people are ignited in their passion for what they do and how it will benefit their target markets and various stakeholders, and yet, are unable to do the deals. And it's tough to pinpoint why? It’s a really common problem, which encompasses all manner of selling from gaining buy-in and budget for innovative ideas within your organisation, to complex transactions or securing investors for your start-up.
How can we know what we need to do better without having clarity on what we are not doing well? And how can we build sales teams without insight into each person’s forte and where we are collectively strong or falling down? Self-knowledge and insight are, without doubt, the foundations of growth and development.
If you and/or your team need to sell anything and you’d like to know how to help yourself do this better, send me a mail with a brief outline and I shall get back to you with info and fees for this incredibly revealing assessment.