Can A Sales Guy Save The World?
We’re lucky to have access to top sales executives in the world and to learn from their prolific careers. It’s all about helping out the community – whether it be for sales or the environment.
This week we spoke to Scott Sullivan, VP of Sales and Marketing at Neighborhood Power Corporation. Neighborhood Power is pioneering the solar energy business and Scott is at the forefront, driving the world to new energy alternatives. I sat down with Scott to ask him about the top three things that keep him at the top of the renewable energy industry, and how he plans to save the world.
(Spiro’s sales automation CRM was also on the list!)
Sales Guys, It’s All About Rapport Building
With all other things being equal in a deal, who are you going to buy from? Scott’s answer – the person that you know, like, and trust the most. Scott explains that his process is all about building rapport. You aren’t selling – you’re offering a solution. You’re connecting to a human being – everything really takes a backseat to that (unless you’re a sales robot, of course).
A successful sales professional will put the time and commitment into building that relationship. And you’re going to have to do a little bit better than talking about the weather – small talk – does NOT count. Asking meaningful questions and getting to the core of what motivates and excites a person. That’s the good stuff, and is what is going to help someone know, like and trust you.
(As a small aside, Scott told me a story of running into US Soccer star Mia Hamm while on his travels. He went through his mental rolodex, and was able to think of someone who would appreciate an autograph, which he got on the spot. I bet you can imagine the appreciation his contact felt when getting that gift!)
Make It Easy For Prospects To Remember You
Scott uses a simple trick when meeting with someone who may not remember him. Until a contact can call him by name (unprompted), he will continue to hand that person a business card. How does this help?
It removes potential awkwardness if the contact may not remember Scott, and hammers home name recognition. The idea is that the best sales professionals will do all the little things so that it’s easier for the customer to know and like you (and for you to save the world).
Rank Every Single Sales Relationship
What do high school girls and Buzzfeed have in common with top sales professionals? They rank everything – especially their relationships (not to be confused with using relationship apps, which is a whole other story).
One of Scott’s keys to success has been his ability to maintain a system for him and his team to systematically rank relationships with customers. Using a scale of 1-10, always knowing where you stand with someone is key to your approach in building rapport. Unless your product or service provides such undeniable value proposition, you should always be working on sliding your contacts up on the rank scale.
In Conclusion
It’s all about putting those deposits in the karma bank. Scott is a firm believer that no time is wasted when investing in your personal relationships and making connections where they make sense. If you aren’t genuinely interested in helping people (or trying to save the world), you’re going to have a difficult time faking it. Looking at Scott’s results, it’s difficult to argue with his methods.
Photos courtesy of Flickr user Matt Hinsata.
