Every week we see our political leaders on all sides demonstrating the behaviours that if they happened in the ‘real world’ of business would have severe implications on the future prosperity of an organisation and potentially their own jobs.
Bickering, sexism, insults, insincerity, arrogance, hypocrisy, not answering the questions, spin, the list goes on and on.
Politicians then wonder why their ‘customers’ aka voters view them with such contempt.
You only have to turn on the news every evening to see the types of behaviours that would be deemed unacceptable from children let alone parliamentarians.
And yet, as a Sales Professional there is a lot to learn from watching our politicians in action with key lessons in what NOT to do.
So here are 3 Lessons we can learn from politicians in how NOT to behave.
Political None Sales Lesson #1
Consistently we see politicians try to win points over the other side by running down their ‘competitors’ and using every opportunity to attack the other party, instead of promoting their own Value.
Unfortunately, they are just not smart enough to understand that this negative approach turns off their customers (voters) instead of influencing them positively to buy (vote) from them.
So as a Sales Person or Manager a key lesson that must be reinforced is, no matter how poor your competitors perform, DO NOT run them down in front of customers. Focus instead on the value that you can add for your customers and let your actions speak for themselves.
Political None Sales Lesson # 2
Politicians lack of ability to promote the key features and benefits of their policies is astounding so as Professional Sales People it is important we don’t fall into the trap of thinking it is all about Products, Price and Problem Solving.
Communication and the ability to tell stories that resonate with your customers AND explain your products and services features and benefits is critical.
In his Storytelling For Sales training workshops The KONA Group’s Storytelling Specialist Mick Mooney highlights:
“To be an exceptional salesperson in today’s marketplace requires more than a solid understanding of product knowledge and data; you also need the ability to wrap the data in relevant stories in order to bring more genuine emotion, trust, and connection into the process.”
Political None Sales Lesson # 3
Regardless of if your vote was Yes or No in the Same Sex Marriage debate the lack of leadership demonstrated has been pathetic.
As one business contact recently said on a KONA Linked In post “One of the lessons of leadership is never ask people to do something that you’re not prepared to do yourself. Our politicians have clearly put this on us and have, hypocritically, asked us to demonstrate the leadership and courage they clearly lack.”
A key component of Sales Leadership is about making decisions, and realising that you can’t please everyone all of the time.
Yet far too often we see Managers being indecisive, procrastinating, delaying, deflecting and ‘Managing By Committee’.
Not making a decision makes a leader weak and ineffective and is a sure fire way of losing the respect of their (none) followers.
Final thought:
Selling is one of the MOST HONOURABLE professions in the world.
Sales Pays The Bills and Wages, and regardless of how good your products, systems, brand, advertising, offices etc are, if you don’t make a sale then everything and everyone in the business becomes obsolete.
With the role comes a Burden of Responsibility to be professional at all times, so next time you watch a politician in the news, learn from them and do the opposite to them!
The KONA Group is Australia’s Leading Sales Training and Sales Management Training and Coaching company and provide Customised Training programs that include: Sales Training & Coaching, Sales Pipeline Training, Key Account Management Training, Call Centre Training & coaching, Negotiation Skills Training & Coaching, Motivational Speakers, HR Consulting, DISC and MBTI, Storytelling and more.
If you are looking to increase the effectiveness and results of your organisation, call KONA today on 1300 611 288 or text 0425 200 883 or email info@kona.com.au to discuss how we can help you to improve your organisation’s results.
