Sales training ideas – The importance of taking responsibility for your success when selling.

Whether you’re talking about how to sell, or how to live, taking responsibility can play a key role. Let’s look at it here with regard to success in sales. 

Responsibility equals success in sales 

Top salespeople take complete responsibility for their businesses and their lives and thus find themselves in control of both. While outside factors can influence what happens to us, at the end of the day, we ultimately control our own destinies both in business and in life. By taking complete responsibility of everything in our lives, we significantly increase the odds of success and we get superior results.  While top salespeople take complete responsibility for and control of problems, mediocre and poor salespeople try to shift blame to everyone but themselves. Thus mediocre and bad salespeople have much more difficulty resolving problems than top sales people do. Top salespeople know that taking responsibility means owning the problem and that once you own the problem, you will be motivated to solve it. When blame is placed on your company, you need to shift that blame to yourself. Your primary goal is to keep company market share, not your individual market share. Once your competitors get a foothold in an area, they can spread like wildfire. If a customer blames a salesperson and that salesperson falls out of favor, a different salesperson can take over that account. However, if a customer blames a company and that company gets a bad name, the company as a whole is out. Often, if you have a good relationship with the customer, she will be willing to forgive you. After a mistake, tell the customer that you value her highly as a client, but if she is unhappy with you, you would be pleased to bring in a different sales representative. The bottom line: take the personal blame; take responsibility. Taking responsibility also means resolutely dealing with the problem. For example, if you sell a product and someone informs you during the installation that something has gone awry, you have to get on the phone, get in touch with your people, figure out what’s going on, get back to the customer with an update, and then you need to jump in your car and get out there. Stay there until the installation has been completed while at the same time calling the customer every so often with updates. If you cannot reasonably get to the site in person, you need to stay on top of the situation every step of the way, preferably by phone, and hang on to the situation with the tenacity of a pit bull.  One of your first steps should be to inform management of the situation by letting them know precisely what is going on and how things are being resolved. You want to keep management involved for several reasons. First, they may have some ideas that can help you, or they may go to bat for you immediately; second, if you do eventually need their help, you won’t catch them completely off guard; and third, if the proverbial doo-doo does hit the fan, they aren’t going to wonder why you didn’t make them aware of the situation earlier.  You also want to make sure the people tackling the problem have all the resources they need. Inform the person directly above the people working on the problem about it.. Occasionally, you will have to escalate an issue up the chain of command and go over people’s heads. Also, pass messages from customers on to other people involved, including management. You do this for some of the same reasons listed above. In addition, messages from the customer keep everyone apprised of how the customer views the situation and offer insight into the customer’s state of mind.  Remember that one of your objectives in staying on top of the situation is to support your people and help them do their job. Bring food, coffee, and other items in order to take care of the people working at the site, and let them know you appreciate their efforts. You want them to regard you as moral support. In this same vein, don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Ask your people what you can do to help them and what they need to get the job done. As a salesperson, you may not have their technical knowledge, but they may simply need an extra pair of hands or need you to be an intermediary. Occasionally, you’ll run into someone who does not want to escalate an issue up the chain of command even though he needs help. In a situation such as this, it is your job to recognize this and either have him escalate the situation or do it yourself. Be diplomatic—there may be some egos in play here. But never forget: your most important priority is to get the situation resolved for your customer. Start by simply making a suggestion, and if that doesn’t work, take action.  For example, if you know that a particular individual is adept at solving the issue facing you, you might say to your person, “I’m very confident that you’ll figure this out. I also know that Steve Smith faced the same problem about a month ago. I’m going to try to get him on the phone and see if he has any suggestions.” And then make the call. If you can’t think of anyone in particular who can help, try this: “If you could have anyone here to help right now, who would it be?” Once you get a name, start tracking him or her down.  Take responsibility, own the problem, and then resolutely deal with it. Solve the problem or otherwise make sure the customer is satisfied with the end solution.  If you take complete responsibility for your business and your life, you will soon find yourself on the fast track to success, both in life and in sales.