Jonathan Farrington shares how to become a sales superstar in 2010
A month ago I attended a Sales Webinar Masterclass, led by globally-recognized Business Coach and Sales Strategist, Jonathan Farrington.
These masterclasses are about $60 for non-members, but my fabulous friend (the Sales Coach & Fundraising Auctioneer) Lori Richardson gifted me this one for free. (Thank you Lori!)
The topic was “How to Become a Sales Superstar in 2010,” and it centered around Jonathan’s 4-tiered Success Formula Pyramid. The four tiers are Attitude (the fundamental foundational piece), Skills, Process, and Knowledge.
As we find ourselves beginning the last month of the first quarter of the year, how are you setting yourself up to be Sales Superstar this year? Where can you improve in these 4 areas?
Here is a graphic depiction of Jonathan Farrington’s Success Formula (Click to Enlarge):
I just learned that you can download (or listen online) this webinar from the Jonathan Farrington’s Blog, or by clicking HERE, but I want to offer a few of my notes on each of these four components to Sales Success Superstardom — a position that is absolutely within your reach.
- Attitude: Jonathan says there are two types of personalities: The “running away” personality, which describes people whose behavior is driven by the desire to avoid pain, and the “running towards” personality, defined by people who are in control, prepared, and allow themselves plenty of time to accomplish what they set out to do.
Which personality are you cultivating?
Jonathan puts Attitude at the bottom of the pyramid, the fundamental component of success in sales. Plan for success by improving and nurturing your “running towards” attitudinal personality, mindset, and action-orientation.
- Skills: Sales professionals and teams tend to perpetuate mediocre results because they assume that skills are needed, but have no diagnostic approach to ascertaining exactly what skills are needed, how and when they are needed, and how they will be assessed and measured before and after the training.
Skills are another foundational component for success, but it must be the right skills at the right time with a specific, clear, and tangible Return On Investment (R.O.I).
Key Point: Your training is your responsibility, and it must be continuous and ongoing.
- Process: Many sales professionals are resistant to employing process in how they approach sales. To them, it feels like a time-consuming chose. Yet, the most successful sales professionals embrace a sales process, which actually saves time.
In the age of Sales 2.0, exploring and incorporating social media and online tools (examples: SmartSellingTools.com and FillTheFunnel.com) in your sales process is essential to sales success in 2010.
- Knowledge: Knowledge itself has several components beyond Product Knowledge. How would you rate yourself in the following additional areas:
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- Industry Knowledge
- Sector Knowledge
- Company Knowledge
- Competitor Knowledge
- Commercial Knowledge
- Self Knowledge
That sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?
It is indeed a lot to take in, assimilate, and put into systematic action. But, do you think you could make just a 1% improvement in 1 or more of these areas each day or each week?
It’s the small, incremental approach to improvement that wins the race every time.
“Every journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,” quotes Jonathan. ”Why not take that step today?”
Hey Tshombe – Pleasure connecting with you, as always!
I have a question: why does Jonathan put knowledge at the very top of the pyramid? Can you touch on that? What knowledge is he defining, specifically? Knowledge of the product/service, or something else?
Cheers,
Tia
.-= Tia´s last blog ..What to do if you hate blogging =-.
Great question, @Tia. Thank you!
I’ll take a quick stab at it, but I will also email Jonathan to ask if he will either respond here directly in the comments or write a guest post on this blog that addresses your question.
It’s true that Knowledge is at the top of the pyramid, but it’s the least important. This doesn’t, of course, means it isn’t essential.
However, Jonathan’s take (or, rather, MY take of Jonathan’s take!) is that you build from the bottom up. In other words, the most important component of the Success Formula in Sales begins with Attitude, which is foundational.
“Knowledge” covers knowledge of the service or product a person is selling, but Jonathan says it goes broader and deeper than that.
He says the most successful will also be perpetually learning about themselves, their company, their sector, their industry (a sub-division of sector), etc.
Of course, all of the components of the pyramid are needed, in order for it to be a complete pyramid, but oftentimes sales professionals and entrepreneurs can have all the knowledge in the world, but their attitude is poor…..and they wonder why no one wants to do business with them.
Does that help?
It makes perfect sense. Especially if you look at it from the perspective – what should my approach to this be? Because then, the “small” triangle at the top represents less of the “amount” of knowledge someone possesses and instead depicts what priority it should take.
Great take on Jonathan’s take.
That’s great, Tia! So glad it was helpful. I’ve sent a request to Jonathan for his comments, and I’m eager to see how accurate my interpretation was!
Hi Guys,
I will most definitely respond in detail via a guest post here next week, at Tshombe’s kind invitation.
Thanks for the comments and interest
Best
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
I feel honored to have you featured here on TheMagneticEntrepreneur.com. You always give tremendous value. Can’t wait!
[...] Monthly.Powered by WP Greet BoxI recently reported on renown Sales Strategist and Business Coach, Jonathan Farrington’s Sales Webinar Teleclass on How to Become A Sales Superstar in 2010. Here he expands on why he constructed the Sales [...]