Listening For What’s Coming
I’ve spent the bulk of my career accountable and beholden to a revenue number. That will stretch you in ways where some people wash out and do something else, and still others thrive - not because they themselves are oh-so-brilliant, which some pompous sales people would have you believe, but rather because they can adapt to change, collaborate well with teams, look around the corners, and stay relentlessly focused on one thing - not losing.
I’ve often asked people I’ve interviewed for sales roles, “do you hate to lose, or do you love to win?” While there is no wrong answer, it does offer a quick insight into someone’s drive and focus. That feeling after a win is awesome - don’t get me wrong. But when you win, ‘nobody’, and I do mean nobody, does a retrospective on what they did wrong or could have done better. It just doesn’t happen.
Losing forces you to be honest where you screwed up. And with sales and growth leaders, like it or not, the buck stops with you. Trust me, been there and done that.
So how do you build a growth organization or optimize one so that your sales people feel valued even when they lose a deal, so that they don’t answer the DM from the competitor’s recruiter, and so that they make as much money for themselves and the company as possible?
You listen.
More times than I care to remember, I have witnessed personally, and heard many stories about, how sales has next to zero input on defining the value proposition of a company. Or if they are, it’s a box that gets checked in an obligatory rollout of the newly redefined GTM of an organization that is already baked. In my opinion, this has to change.
Your sales team are your ear to the ground. Just like Aragorn would tell the rest of the Fellowship what was coming, so too can and should your growth organization be doing the same for your business. Chances are they already are, you just may not be actually tuned in to what they are saying.
There’s an old Proverb that says “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.”
Your growth team is comprised of discerning individuals that know a lot about their industry, the overall market and what to be looking out for - they are out there every day talking to prospects and customers, hearing first hand experiences and challenges of your target buyers.
Sales, marketing, strategy, delivery - these are all very complex organizations within larger organizations, each with their own goals and metrics that ultimately contribute to the broader success of the company. Oftentimes sales and growth gets shafted - yeah, I know, I sound biased because I am. So here’s where I come in.
I help growth organizations unlock and embrace their actual value to the organization, ‘beyond’ just a revenue number. Revenue is king, I get that - but if you have a team that feels they aren’t being heard, you must make changes.
Wise leaders will seek them out and listen.