đ„ Hot Take
Too many sellers have a âme versusâ mentality
âMe versus the competitorâ
âMe versus the prospectâ
âMe versus my goalâ
This can be motivating, but think about it from the prospectâs perspective. All else being equal, theyâre going to work with whoever did the best job of helping them out. That mentality can get in the way, costing more than it motivates.
đ Link
Collaborative Leadership Works Best
This article from HBR offers a really cool way to think about leadership styles. We loved the anecdote at the beginning about the time Marc Benioff invited every salesforce employee to virtually join the off-site, closed-door management meeting.
đĄ Big Idea
If you arenât collaborating, are you really selling where you want to be?
Put another way: If we get brought into the sale really late â after all the decisions have been made and the prospect is just shopping â we donât get much time or space to collaborate. But when weâre in earlier, helping the prospect realize their needs and planning with them, we do.
Maybe one way to evaluate where your team is entering most of its sales is to look at how much collaboration is happening with prospects throughout the cycle.
đŹ Stories We Hear
Sales and Marketing Need More Collaboration
Years ago, the classic rift between marketing and sales came to a head in a B2B sales organization. A frustrated seller, trying to work with the defensive marketer to improve lead quality, finally told him âYou just donât know what itâs like out there.â
The marketer surprised her by replying, âAlright, show me.â
The two spent two weeks together, working in tandem on nearly every sales and marketing function together. The marketer got to understand the prospect on a deeper level and was able to improve some of his messaging. The seller came to better understand how to engage her leads based on how they differed from other prospects she worked with.
Your customer is on a journey. They donât care whether theyâre engaging your marketing or your sales. Yet companies continue to insist on keeping them separate. The more collaboration between the two, the better.