Mike Carroll, Sales Force Development Expert

Mike Carroll is President of Intelligent Conversations and our Sales Force Development Expert with over 22 years of sales and marketing experience.  In 2004 Mike founded Intelligent Conversations with the goal of using his vast expertise and knowledge of sales and marketing, with the application of validated formulas, to evaluate sales teams and develop sales strategies for success.  He also writes the Sales Answers blog which looks at sales issues and challenges from a sales person's point of view.

Mike Carroll, Intelligent Conversations, President and Founder, Sales Force Development Expert, Objective Management Group, OMG expert, Gazelles International Thought Leader, MMAC, COSBE, CEO Roundtable, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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Building An Over-Achieving Sales Team - Outlook & Attitude

Posted by Mike Carroll on Sat, Mar 05, 2011 @ 03:01 PM
  
  
  
  
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sales attitude, building an over-achieving sales team, ceo sales guide, Intelligent Conversations, hiring a sales superstar, Milwaukee business consultant, happy, emotion, transfer emotions, sell more, b2b sales, sales win, Attitude, HappyTake a moment to write down the last time you made a major purchase from someone you didn't like. It's difficult because we tend to buy from people we like and who make us feel good.  We buy on an emotional level and then rationalize our buying decisions with logic.  In other words, sales is about transferring emotion.  So the sales people on your team who can effectively transfer emotion and get a potential buyer as enthusiastic about your product or service as they are will sell more.

But your sales people can't fake a positive outlook or a great attitude.  It has to be genuine.  If they don't like their job or their boss or your company or your industry.... if they don't truly believe in your product or that your solution is really the best option for the buyer, it won't work.  The people who buy your product or service will see right through fake enthusiasm and insincere excitement.  Bad attitudes and negative outlooks on your sales team will cost your company serious money.

If you want to build an over-achieving sales team, start by establishing a "No Excuses" culture.  Also make sure your sales hiring process can screen out the people with a negative outlook or a bad attitude.  There are ways to do this in the interview process, but to be sure we recommend using the Dave Kurlan sales screen for every sales hiring decision.  Its accuracy and predictive value is legendary.  To learn more just download his white paper.  Or better yet if you're in the Milwaukee area you can see Dave Kurlan live at the Milwaukee Athletic Club on Wednesday, March 30 at 7:30 am.

Systematically hire sales people with a great outlook and a positive attitude and you will be on your way to building an over-achieving sales team.

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Comments

Disagree on all fronts. I'm an extremely negative person who fakes a very positive attitude, and am constantly given accolades by co-workers, superiors and clients as to how infectious my positive personality is. Like actors, many people simply play the role they need to play to survive.
Posted @ Friday, July 15, 2011 11:10 PM by Roger Causwell
Thanks Roger. If you are in a sales position and can pull this off (i.e. you consistently exceed your goals) then I'm truly impressed. In our experience it is extremely difficult to fake a positive attitude and outlook - possible I suppose but very difficult to sustain over an extended time period. If you're the exception to that viewpoint congratulations! Your comment does raise some interesting questions for me. How much energy are you wasting trying to "play the role" and fake "a very positive attitude" to survive? How much more money could you make (assuming you're in sales and have unlimited upside income potential) if you spent that energy actually being positive rather than pretending to be positive? Why settle just "to survive" if you could do more? And finally, if you buy into your premise that we're all just actors playing a role, how do you know the constant "accolades" you receive from your co-workers, superiors and clients are sincere and that they're not just playing you?
Posted @ Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:07 AM by Mike Carroll
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