Book: Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World’s Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers
Author: Benson Smith & Tony Rutigliano
Summary: Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World’s Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers is a wonderfully counterintuitive exploration of developing star salespeople. The book’s premise is the idea that focusing on a person’s strengths will allow them to perform at an exceptional level, while focusing on weaknesses merely produces average results.
You’ll love this book if: You want to try a new strategy for improving your sales results, and the results of your sales team.
You’ll hate this book if: You are steeped in “old school” sales training, such as “working to improve” people’s weaknesses.
Words of Wisdom:
Focusing energy on weaknesses might improve performance somewhat, but – contrary to conventional wisdom – great performance comes from strengths. Knowing your talents, understanding them thoroughly, building them into strengths, and seeing how you can put your strengths to work every day isa key to greatness and, our research would attest, the surer path to success.
Why we think this book is important: Your salespeople are quite possibly your organization’s most important customer touchpoint.
The book Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World’s Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers is a wonderfully counterintuitive exploration of developing star salespeople. The book’s premise is the idea that focusing on a person’s strengths will allow them to perform at an exceptional level, while focusing on weaknesses merely produces average results.
What is a strength?
A strength, as defined here, is a capacity for near-perfect performance on a consistent basis. To fully grasp the significance of this, you are well-advised take the companion online assessment, StrengthsFinder. A unique ID number is located on the inside cover of the book and you will use it to complete your own StrengthsFinder assessment.
StrengthFinder measures the presence of talent within the thirty-four themes we have discovered are most indicative of success.
Discover your Sales Strengths does a beautiful job of debunking the prevailing sales training and sales management techniques:
The myth that we grow fastest by paying attention to our weaknesses is incredibly damaging. Sadly, some company development programs are build around this destructive myth, which usually comes disguised as career help.
Ouch! But wait, there’s more:
“What did I do wrong?” This is the curse of the average performer, always trying to improve a weakness. It is a never-ending task. Great performers follow a different tack. They figure out what they do right – and do more of it!
In the section entitled The Manager Effect, the Q12 concept is presented. The Q12 is a list of twelve key questions that affect on important business outcomes, including customer loyalty.
I will divulge only one of the Q12 items:
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, your sales force is a crucial touchpoint.
Your assignment
- Read Discover your Sales Strengths .
- Give a copy to each of your sales people so they can take the StrengthsFinder assessment.
- Put the findings into action.
- Prepare for the exciting change ahead.
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