Recently, one of the
members of my CBIG groups suggested I make a list of the 20 most important things I’ve learned in my 30 years of experience working with B2B sales organizations.
I was hesitant at first, because I thought it was a bit too focused on me. But I realized that I have learned some really important
things, and that since I have a unique perspective and an out-of-the-box way of thinking, these may not be obvious to the world at large, and would potentially be helpful to a lot of people.
So, I created a list and discovered it to be far longer than 20 items. To narrow down the long list, I
applied these four criteria:
1. It had to be an important lesson – one which has the potential to dramatically impact a person, a sales team, or a business — not superficial or trivial.
2. It had to arise out of my personal experience. In other words, not something that I garnered from a book, or borrowed from someone else. Something I’ve learned in the trenches.
3. It had to have been tested in
the caldron of real-world experience. No blue-sky stuff.
4. I had to unwaveringly vouch for its validity. These are concepts and lessons that I would stand behind.
Applying these four criteria, I narrowed the list down to 25, and then connected them to the group (or groups) to which that idea was most appropriate: Salespeople, sales leaders, small businesspeople, executives and businesspeople at large.
In no particular order, here’s one of the 25, most applicable to sales leaders, executives and small businesspeople: When you change the structure, you change the behavior of the people who work within that structure.
Let’s first define ‘structure.” The Oxford dictionary says it is: “the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex.” While my most frequent application is sales systems, the concept can be applied to multiple parts of an organization, and with a little stretch, to individuals as well.
