We all think a lot about differentiators in respect of the solutions and services we sell and our position in the marketplace.  But what differentiates you?  What makes you indispensable?  We know that you are a sales god, driving home deals and bringing in the numbers, but guess what, so is Bob down the corridor; so are a lot of people.  It’s great that you bring in the business and nothing can replace that, but these days you need more if you are going to get on (by the way, if you’re happy bringing in the numbers and have no ambitions beyond selling and making a lot of commission, that’s fine, but there will come a time when you’re after that dream job and all of the other candidates are as good as you – you’ll still need to differentiate).

Business Creativity and You

No longer can you turn up, do your job and expect your career to grow.  As a good sales person, good results will help you to keep a job, but to climb the ladder you need to stand out.

An excellent start, to get you in the mindset, is Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?  The latest in a long line of excellent books by one of the interweb’s most popular bloggers, this book really sets the tone in terms of what is required to stand out from the crowd.

Whatever you do, check out these Linchpin links:

• The Linchpin Manifesto
• The Linchpin Posts
• Linchpin Audio Book Extract One: You are a Genius
• Linchpin Audio Book Extract Two: Surrounded by Bureaucrats

Linchpin is all about being creative, which, if it doesn’t come naturally to you, will require practice.  Creativity is not just about poetry and flower arranging, it’s about coming up with new ways of doing old things, solving problems in a way that other people haven’t thought of.  It’s a powerful tool for the differentiator.  You take the initiative, you drive change, you create new visions of old work, you give more and you get more.

But you have to start somewhere.  A great way to get going with creativity, is to learn to mindmap.  It’s a tool that I use all the time whether I’m writing for The Seller or trying to work out a new direction for a campaign.  And best of all, it’s easy.

• What is mind mapping anyway?
• And how do I use it?
• Free mind mapping software

You can even use mind mapping to increase the amount of information you retain from reading. A great book you might want to apply this to, to help you with your creativity, is ‘The Creative Habit’ by Twyla Tharp, an excellent guide to developing creativity and retaining it for life.

Finally, there are loads of management tools that you can use to help you analyse all kinds of situations.  Some of them are complex, but many of them are very simple to use, just dive right in there and have a go.  You’ll learn far more by doing.  You can find a great learning resource for all manner of mind tools here.

So, get out there, develop your creativity, apply it and become a Differentiator – but don’t blame me when you’re indispensable.

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It’s the old sales story. You like selling, you’re good at selling, your company recognises this and wants to clone your approach across the whole sales team. Makes sense doesn’t it. So what do you do now?

1. The first thing that you need to do is set expectations. Successful sales managers are the same as anyone else, they need time to do their jobs – in this case MANAGE.

The organisations with successful sales managers are those that free up their sales managers’ time to coach, inspire, mentor and manage.  If your organisation is pushing you to do your old selling job, while giving you the responsibility of a team – just say no. You can’t do it. No-one can.

You must help the business to understand that a successful sales team needs a dedicated manager. I’ve seen teams where the sales manager still sells and the problems are huge and manifold: the manager has no time to deal with the individuals that comprise the team; no time to provide individual feedback and direction; worst of all, the manager competes with their own team for business – and it’s them assigning the leads! How can that conflict of interest lead to a motivated, productive sales team?

2. Flip this on it’s head for a moment. You organisation can’t be at loggerheads with you about this. They need to support you. Again, this is part of you setting their expectations from the start. If you didn’t do this and you’re already committed, take a step back. Are you being as effective as you could be? Do the issues in point 1 resonate with you? It’s time to draft a management strategy and take it to your boss. Demonstrate to the business that it can have a great salesperson or a great sales manager – it can’t have both in the same person at once.

You may not have much/any management experience. The organisation needs to recognise this and provide a supportive environment.

Great examples include: a mentor from within the existing management team; an external coach to aid your transition to management as well as your ongoing development; some initial management training; books and/or e-learning to supplement and reinforce your other learning and development activities; membership of an official body, again providing access to information and support; a budget to support the learning and development of your team (I have found this to be nigh-on non-existent in SMEs).

3. So what about the actual managing. Well, the fact that you are reading this site means that you are concerned about performing your job well. With management this means not being dictatorial. You are not there to command, you are there to add value to your team, using your experience and knowledge to help individuals iron out their weaknesses and exaggerate their strengths.

They will have strengths that you do not. This is an inaliable fact of life. The best managers employ people better than them and help them to get on with it. Do not (as I did when I started managing) be upset if a team member suggests a strategy etc. that you had not thought of. This will happen and it is a good thing. What you bring is a sounding board to these ideas – use your experience to distill these ideas and combine them with your own and those of the other team members to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Then your team will not just survive, but will thrive.

One additional point on this: never….ever take credit for a suggestion that was made by one of your team members. Always give credit where credit is due – there is nothing wrong with explaining the additional contribution that you have made and demonstrating how you have incorporated this idea into an overall strategy.

Down the other path, darkness lies; you will damage your credibility with your team and your manager. Credibility is one of the foundations of good management.

4. If you do not have a clear vision for where the company is going, you will not be able to translate this into a clear vision for your salespeople.

Gain an in-depth undestanding of your company’s goals and ensure that your manager works with you to create from this a clear sales strategy. Hold this strategy at the core of your management approach and make sure that everything you and your team does is contributing to this.

Communicate it clearly to your team and make it the foundation of reviews and ongoing development.

Only if you do this can you provide a clear demonstration of return on investment for your efforts. At the end of the day, it is return on investment that will measure your contribution to the business, hence the effectiveness of your role.

Good luck!

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So what to do if you’ve suddenly found yourself out of work.  There are many steps that you can take to give yourself a leg-up:

1. Think about personal branding. Putting in a few hours effort can really reap rewards in terms of demonstrating your professionalism.

2. Network, network, network. Use that personal branding effort.  Contact everyone you know, using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, the telephone (remember that!) and let people know that you are looking. Direct them to your profile/blog etc. They may not have worked directly with you for years, so you have a great opportunity to re-define their vision of you.

3. Check out Jill Konrath’s (of Selling to Big Companies fame) free (I’ll say it again, FREE) resource to help you get back to work faster.

4. Sell yourself.  No, I don’t mean at an interview.  I mean turn your job-hunt into a sales campaign:

- Don’t rush in.  Make sure that you plan your pitch before-hand: what questions are you going to ask to get the prospect talking, how will you uncover pains, what will you ask to investigate the reasons behind those pains and finally, how will you create a vision where employing you can help solve their pains

- Research the company. It sounds so obvious, so why doesn’t everyone do it? Trust me, they don’t. Get on the Web and find out everything you can about the company and the individual you are calling. Do you know anyone that deals with this company. Call them and leverage their inside knowledge. Perhaps they can even make an introduction. You don’t know until you ask.

- Get all this down on paper and try it out with a trusted friend or colleague.  Use your plan as a prompt for your call, but don’t read directly from it, unless you are an accomplished voice actor!

- Prepare your collateral. Write an email template that you will use in response to requests. Include some bullet pointed benefits of employing you. Remember to underpin them with hard evidence where you can. You will tailor each email before you send it, but it’s good to have done most of the work beforehand. Helps you to avoid getting bogged down when you should be on the phone.

- Prepare a short profile of yourself and a full CV. If you aren’t confident doing this, get help. Friends, colleagues, even professional services. One word on your CV, slight embellishment through appropriate language is one thing, lying is another. Don’t do it. It will come back to haunt you and may cost you your career.

- Make sure that it is consistent with your personal branding. You need to present the same front on Linkedin, email, CV etc. Iron out any disparities and be sure to include URL’s to your online presence in your CV, profile and email copy.

- Phone up Sales Managers, Sales Directors etc., and pitch yourself. Remember, questions, questions, questions. If they are talking, then you are building trust, getting inside their head and buying yourself time to think about what you are going to say next. It’s a telemarketing fundamental, but don’t come off the phone without having agreed a next action that you control. Retain control wherever possible. If they say they will do something for you, get their agreement to accept a call from you.

- Finally, another obvious one. When you say that you are going to do something, do it. Send the email when you said you would, call back on-time etc. These are simple things, but if you don’t do them it speaks volumes about you.

Good luck and happy hunting.

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