My Best Sale, Ever!
By Ken DiPrima
Whenever salespeople gather, the conversation almost invariably turns into them swapping their personal sales war stories. It makes sense—selling is their stock in trade, and most salespeople are very good at telling stories. Their tales can vary from closing the most skeptical of clients, to converting a competitor’s best client into their own.
There is nothing wrong with a little harmless bragging, especially if it makes the storyteller feel more secure and comfortable among their peers. Almost everyone has experienced a moment when they accomplish something extraordinary during their professional career. These fetes remain indelible in their minds, and may even be responsible for elevating their career. Although rare, these achievements occur to most people, and the salient facts should then be cherished and stored in their conscious data bank.
So, who has the best sales story? Who’s got the biggest whopper? The retelling of one’s successful exploits can be enormously helpful to an individual if done with serious reflection. Self-evaluation can be both therapeutic and a learning experience.
What if a company were to utilize this overflowing ego as a teaching exercise in the form of a company wide contest, geared to help sales people re-focus on all of the vital elements that constitute a successful sale? If these employees self-evaluated their performance in a manor that truthfully exposed key strategies and tactics that resulted in their extraordinary accomplishment, they could identify, evaluate, organize, and be able to use them better in all subsequent sales.
Not all employees are sales people, but every employee has had that best moment that they are most proud of. What accomplishment did they consider to be their best success? The contest could look something like this:
ANNOUNCING A HUGE COMPANY WIDE CONTEST.
LOOKING FOR THE BEST WORK YOU EVER PRODUCED AT THE COMPANY
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY OF THE VERY BEST SALE YOU EVER MADE OR THE VERY BEST THING YOU EVER DID IN YOUR JOB.. DESCRIBE YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT.
EVERYONE IS ELIGIBLE
EMPLOYEES MAY SUBMIT AS MANY ENTRIES AS THEY LIKE
ALL COMPLETED ENTRIES WILL RECEIVE PRIZES
Here are the rules:
- Each entry must be in writing.
- It must contain a detailed analysis of why you consider this to be your best work, ever.
- How did this work benefit the customer?
- How did this work benefit the company?
- How did this work benefit the salesman?
The purpose of this exercise is to have employees identify for themselves exactly what it took for them to do their best work. What preparation was required to set up the particular work? What risks had to be overcome to make it happen? What strategy was used to put them in the position to perform? Were special tactics used in the performance? What were the detailed elements that existed and how did they pull everything together to accomplish the task?
If this were a real contest, who would win? Every employee who submitted an entry would be an equal winner. Because by better understanding and recognizing how each element of their best work fits together to accomplish the goal, an employee would have a much higher chance at replicating their best fete. They can expect better performance from themselves.
By accumulating, deciphering, and analyzing all of the employee entries, employers would also get an insight into what their employees perceive to be most important about their work. Employers would also get an honest look at what employees think is needed to do their best work. Self reflection can be our best teacher, especially if we are honest to ourselves.
