MODELS: Lives exemplary sales habits, creating learning moments that last

MODELS: Lives exemplary sales habits, creating learning moments that last

As the thumbnails disappeared rapidly, from the screen, Rupin realised with a start that his was the only name left. He pointed the cursor at the phone icon, clicked to end the call and dialled Tarun.

Tarun’s firm provided accounting services to small and medium businesses and this was Tarun’s maiden webinar introducing their new product offering.

Rupin was clearly excited “Hey Tarun, I’m blown to bits man. This promo of yours was just epic. You did that like a real pro. Can’t believe you’ve learnt so much in just 6 months. Where did you get trained for this?”

“I didn’t need any training Rupin. Our team is led by an experienced veteran who gets us all to learn without his having to utter a word”

“Now you’re kidding me Tarun” said Rupin

“No Rupin, working with our boss and observing his sales habits is our richest learning experience and our unpaid top notch training. Take this webinar for example. Watching him do a dozen talks online was all it took for us to pick up the essentials. In his webinars you can hear and feel his enthusiasm and energy oozing from the screen. His voice modulation will do a radio jockey proud. He keeps the excitement level sky high. He ensures everyone is engaged through smart use of chat. The speed and pace of delivery, the intelligent use of the pause and the personal connect he establishes, all make his webinars irresistible”

“Yeah, I could see you use all that. Even your content was excellently packaged Tarun”

“I would credit that too to our boss. Watching him, we’ve seen that an excellent way to package a sales presentation is to follow a structure around 6 points – 1. Your brief (Or situation as understood by us) 2. Your needs (Or how is it in your view?) 3. Our proposal to address the situation and needs. 4. Why ….? (Your company name) 5. Your questions. 6. Action ahead. And he always tells upfront what he plans to tell”

“What about other aspects of selling, Tarun?”

“Learning from him covers all dimensions of selling. Seeing him handle sales calls is another huge learning experience. His calls are real conversations that Customers enjoy and get value from. There’s nothing salesy about them. Sales happens almost automatically. The proposals he puts together, the price negotiations he does and the advisory support he offers expecting nothing in return, are all part of our continuing sales education. He models exemplary sales habits and that creates learnable moments for us all the time”

“Wow Tarun, is your team looking to expand? Count me in whenever you do”

To build competencies, outstanding sales managers model sales habits and behaviours that go into creating superior sales skills. In the Indian tradition, Gurukula vasam – to live with your Guru – has been considered the best way to imbibe learning. Students learnt much more than what was taught simply by seeing watching their Guru model or practice the teachings.

Modelling, therefore, is a behaviour that promotes osmotic learning and inspires mastery. For example, a salesperson present at a sales call or a client visit by a senior absorbs the best way of say, building rapport, through observation. She then internalizes the open ended questions and acceptable themes, like traffic, weather, Customer’s city or the economy that a seasoned sales professional uses to create congenial contact climate. This kind of learning extends to the entire range of sales skills from prospecting to proposing to closure to relationship nurturing, that an outstanding sales professional acquires over a life time, all of which can be learnt through modelling

Exemplary sales leaders live the change they want to see in their people. In doing so, they create lasting learning experiences for their people.