Manager's Minute

Are you selling or guiding?

by Pat Rodgers

Do you know how things are purchased in your organization? Have you ever tried to buy something for your team? If you have, you probably hit a couple of gates along the way. You’ll have the obvious ones, your leader, the budget holder internally, maybe the IT team? If you have a Sales Op’s role you may have been shut down due to workload or higher priority items. This list goes on and on.

Here is a confession: I’m a terrible buyer. I get distracted with any number of other tasks that take priority on any given day. The buyers your team is engaging with today all have varying priorities and numerous gates that they too have to cross internally.

If your sellers are just “selling” they are missing out on the greatest opportunity in front of them. Shifting their mentality from selling to guiding will pay incredible dividends. Familiarize yourself and your reps with all of the challenges that could hinder your opportunity. You know all of the risks we pretend and hope aren’t there. The hurdles your buyer will run into with their boss, their peers, and their internal processes. Once you identify these and become proficient bring them up with your buyers. Guide them through the gates they may hit, the questions they should ask internally, and do that work for them. Prepare them to sell for you. Guide them to the desired outcome and it will never feel like selling. It will be one of the greatest mindset shifts you will ever see.

As a bonus, we’ve linked to the Daily Sales Tip Podcast where I go into greater depth and our blog post outlining the best practices and process: