“In fact, the world I believe in sees the care and development of people as a means of driving revenue” – DeJuan Brown in today’s Tip 281
What do you think?
Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!
DeJuan Brown on LinkedIn
DeJuan Brown on Sales Success Stories Interview
Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]
Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip is a brilliant bit of insight from my very good friend, DeJuan Brown. This started with a text conversation where DeJuan dropped the quote that is the title of this tip. It immediately grabbed me and I told DeJuan that we had to turn this into a sales tip because it’s such an important topic. Thankfully DeJuan jumped right on it and this is the result:
DeJuan Brown: I’m a Sales Leader. Now, This is more declaration than confession and there are a number of implications that should logically follow. The sales segment of my title means that I care deeply about revenue as a key outcome in the work I do every day. The leader side of my title means that I also care deeply about the people I serve and desire to make their goals and objectives a key outcome in the work I do every day as well. Follow me so far. Good. Here’s where I’m headed. I believe that there’s a world in which driving revenue and developing people aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, the world I believe in sees the care and development of people as a means of driving revenue and there’s likely a group of you listening who are scratching your heads and thinking. “Of course that’s the case Dejuan.” On another group. It’s probably thinking whatever everyone knows that sales is all about revenue generation in away. Both groups are spot on. Sellers who don’t generate revenue obviously won’t persist in their roles as continued lack of production as a detriment to any for-profit company. If short term revenue burst or what’s being solved for then, by all means, build a team of revenue machines and set them on autopilot. However, if you want to build a team that will generate consistent, predictable and growing revenue over long periods of time, your people and their development should be a top priority.
Larry Levine, author of Selling From The Heart had this to say about the distinction, and I quote “If you want to have ever flowing revenue, then develop, develop and develop your people. It’s creating the environment of learning and constantly and consistently developing your people. Fail to do this and watch what happens to revenue.” End quote. Now by now, we’ve probably all seen the proverbial conversation between the CFO and the CEO goes a little like this. The CFO asked the CEO, “What happens if we invest in developing our people and they leave us?” The CEO responds, “What happens if we don’t and they stay?” The truth revealed by this conversation is that organizations truly do want people who are developing, growing and increasing their breadth of impact. Left unaddressed based on this CEO’s perspective having an organization of people who aren’t being developed as an undesirable state. The truth is as so eloquently stated by my friend Scott Ingram, prioritizing the growth of sellers is not just going to improve their game and increases their ability to achieve revenue goals. It’s also going to make it easier for companies to recruit other growth-oriented professionals as well. So as you think about the quest to drive revenue through the business, consider whether you’re solving for the short or the long term wins. If longterm is your answer. I believe having a people development mindset will help you achieve sustained revenue goals. for a very long time to come.
Scott Ingram: What do you think? If you’re a sales leader, I’m especially interested in your take here. You can join the conversation at DailySales.Tips/281 and I sincerely hope you will.
Then as always, come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!