After our last post on sales, “The art of closing”, in which we gathered valuable information through the experience of Chris Bijou. We continue our journey within the sales profession, with the insightful appreciation of this top-tier salesperson, Chris. To know more about our sales expert, you can read earlier posts, “The deal makers handbook”, “How to focus on strongholds to close a million-dollar deal”, and the one we already presented, “The art of closing”.
Here’s a summary for those who don’t want or haven’t had the time to learn more about Chris’ figure in the sales force. His career spans three decades. In which he’s been able to acquire billion-dollar and recurrent million-dollar deals—gaining at the same time the satisfaction of teaching high-performance professionals to outperforming levels on a year in year out basis, among Chris’ customers Nike, Disney, Marriott, Warner Brothers, etc.
When asked about the fun in the sales profession Chris Bijou, at an executive level, perceives the sales journey to be fun through these four profession specifics:
· Discover dirt
· Enjoy the work process
· Deep understanding drives performance
· Ownership of knowledge
The above bullet points are taken from “The Magic of Crawling in the Dirt to Build a Loyal Team”, at The CEO Magazine, where Chris Bijou posted it some years ago. Going back to the four profession specifics, they need some explanation.
The first fun factor within the sales force is the capacity and drive to discover dirt and, at the same time, make your reps enjoy it. In Chris, “If your reps aren’t crawling around in the dirt, finding out how and why your services and your products work…they’re missing the magic.”
Acquiring this sentiment provides the profession with a whole new way of actioning the process, making it tiresome by perceiving it as studies. But when the fun is injected, the prism changes, and it becomes a detective adventure, focused on assembling information to over-shine the competitors.
Understanding the value of dirt discovery as a pillar of the sales roadmap and grasping the element of discovery into the equation, rather than study, adds new meaningful and constructive fun. The spark of magic suddenly occurs when the time and effort have been set and surpassed.
In the same realms of imagination and fun arrives the next element to bring sunshine into the sales, although in a wider spectrum. In Chris’s words, “Reps who get a pat on the back once a quarter or just waiting for the paycheck are missing the magic in “enjoyment of the process.”:
· Sales process - Lead > Discovery > Engagement > Commitment > Close sale.
Those in the business just for money don’t have the fun of those who can enjoy the work process. A process that goes from the first cold calls going through the connecting stage and finalizing with the partnership or customer stage.
By reinforcing the strongholds that make up a sale, and understanding it as fluid and dynamic, a leap of confidence bursts resulting in a state of constant relaxation throughout the different sale phases. Once achieved, the fun part of the deal arrives, uncalled-for but very welcomed, as it’s a natural birth forced by none.
Here the executive is called out to ignite the fun of sales through a knowledge base created by “Spending time each day and each week getting your reps deep into your company…”. By following this path, which some might believe to be a luxury, and they are wrong, nurtures a sense of belonging.
Thus, being cared for lets the fun side of everybody shine and accelerates the process of making sales fun. In its turn, it funnels the enthusiasm and joy into competitive loyalty (performance) advantage. Forming an accurate team picture stimulates trust, which inevitably brings out the fun.
Call your team to listen, answer, and learn from them, and about them draws a huge number of curtains down. Curtains that have to do with fears, prejudice, or loneliness, and once down, pay turn to trust, openness, commonality, engagement, and fun!
What does Chris Bijou mean when he implies that ownership of knowledge promotes fun in sales? In this case, the attitude towards “The hard work of digging in and understanding is never lost. It’s gained in the sense of ownership and loyalty.”
Fomenting this sense of ownership within the sales team provides actioning hardworking protocols that are not enforced. These attitudes arise naturally within a fun ecosystem where professionals are like-minded people fostering an enjoyable and productive atmosphere. In this place, ownership of knowledge translates into brotherhood among the peer-to-peer spectrum opening windows of fun in an ongoing process and bringing to the workspace a childlike kind of approach that sets in motion playing techniques to have a blast while being productive.
So what is the secret to being able to state that sales is fun? From the input that Chris has provided us with, there is a common pattern that shines through the four bullet points presented in the introduction. The main ingredient to be able to have fun while in the sales journey is appreciating all the steps, and to achieve this, the whole team has to be involved.
Embrace the sales highway’s difficulties to attain a happy smile that will beam everywhere you go. A touch of pixie dust elevates your mind and soul, regaining the child in you to feel the emotional rush Neverland injected into the Lost Boys with the aid of Tinker Bell and the leadership of “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” aka Peter Pan.
There lies the magical mystery tour that will pull you through the less appreciative moments of the ride and will remind you why you’re in this sales game. Don’t underestimate the value that fun offers to the office and how it forms a positive vibe to the sales process. It’s common knowledge that time flies when we have fun, so reaping the sentiment results in seamless over-performance.
Before finishing, remember the essential elements that lead to a steady flow of fun within the sales journey. This atmosphere strives to bring out the existing magic in the sales profession and ignite the power of perceiving a day's work as a play day. Something that comes through, from Chris Bijou’s 30-year-experience as a salesperson, by transforming pain points into playgrounds and focusing on small wins throughout:
· Discover dirt
· Enjoy the work process
· Deep understanding drives performance
· Ownership of knowledge
Do you have other ache areas that need transforming into fun playgrounds when driving the sales highway? That’s all for today; in the following article, we’ll expose how to build a first sales team through Chris Bijou’s 30-years expertise.
May your business live long and prosper 🖖!
