Hey Zig Ziglar You are the (Sales) Man!: Leadership = Sales

We are going to start a new thread here while our Linked In Leadership series is underway called Leadership = Sales.

Here we go…

Can a road warrior be a leader?

So you are a salesman / saleswoman. You are looking at this site on leadership development and saying what the heck does this site have to offer me?

Great question!

Glad you asked!

Actually it has everything to do with you.

Zig Ziglar is famous for many quotes, lets talk about two of them

“Help enough people get what they want and you will get what you want”

“Selling is the transference of emotion”

Have you heard these before?

Well old Zig was not just a great motivational speaker and all star sales man he is also a great leader and an even better leadership development coach.

If I told you to go sell a product to a complete stranger what would you do first?

Would you

• Scream no way and walk out of the room?
• Say ya right where is the camera I know this is a trick?
• Would you go knock on the door and hard sell the person till they gave in?
• Would you say hello and try to get to know them, try to find out about a problem you could help them solve?

Well which did you choose?

I am guessing that a good 80 % of real sales professionals would choose door number 4. You know what is funny so would 80% or more leaders.

We first need to understand our customer, their needs, their frustrations. So next question would you start with a cold call or try to get a referral to get in the door? Which approach gives you the better chance to succeed? I think the answer is obvious isn’t it?

Let me end this post by challenging you. Go back and find any one post on this blog that catches your attention. Then read it with new eyes. Every time you see the word leader substitute sales man or sales woman. Every time you see leadership development read sales development. See if it doesn’t make all the world of sense.

I would love to hear your feedback on this.

In the coming weeks we will explore more about how you can be an even more effective sales person as we dig into this thing called leadership/ sales.

Sell well

Ron