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In the 1973 movie, Magnum Force, Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) says his now famous line, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

No matter how inflated our ego is or how much we suffer from low self esteem, we all have two things in common: a key selling strength that must be optimized and a key sales weakness we must navigate around. It’s how we are put together by the big man upstairs. No one is exempt.

Highly successful athletes, politicians and actors are examples of people that showcase their greatest strength and do their best to conceal their greatest weakness. The key to all of this is that they know these things about themselves.

Since sales success is so critically dependent on a number of skill sets, doesn’t it make sense that we should be aware of our greatest strength and use it to our advantage? At the same time wouldn’t it be helpful for us to be cognizant of where we are not strong?

Tiger Woods is generally considered to be one of the best golfers that has ever lived. He acknowledges that his short-irons are a weakness for him, but he also knows that he can hit a driver like no other. Guess what his game strategy is? He uses his driver (his strength) in a way to avoid as many short-iron shots (his weakness) as possible.

We might be tempted to ask, should we work on our weakest sales skill in order to make it stronger? Yes, but I have a few rules for this:

1. We must work on our weak area only after we are sure that our strongest area is razor sharp. Our strongest area is our money maker.
2. When in front of a customer we must be sure to leverage our strength to the maximum; this is not a time to be experimenting with improving our weakness.
3. We can and should use a coach (e.g., sales trainer, sales manager) to help us with our weak area.
4. We can’t always avoid exposing our weak area, so we should ensure that we have at least an adequate and acceptable strategy for handling it.

Sales professionals can be either weak or strong in the following areas: prospecting, account management, presentations, customer meetings, product knowledge, account planning, time management, record keeping, etc. This is a concept where sales management can play a valuable role in helping their individual team members fortify their strength and manage their weakness.

Now go to work on making your sales strength even stronger and your weakness manageable.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Peggy (not her real name) recently submitted a sales career related question and asked me to answer it in Sales Vitamins™.

“I attain my sales goal almost every single month and have done so for many years. I told my boss during an annual review that money doesn’t motivate me that much. He couldn’t believe that anyone in sales would want to be in sales if they felt that way. Am I wrong to feel this way? I love sales, but money is not the main reason.”

Just because many, if not most, sales professionals say they are in it for the money doesn’t necessarily mean they really are. In some sales circles it would be considered politically incorrect to enjoy a sales career for anything other than compensation.

This kind of one-dimensional view of our sales careers can rob us of some of the joys of selling.

Lots of research has been done as to what motivates people at work and, surprisingly, compensation does not come in as number one in most of them. Furthermore, most studies of sales contests indicate that the majority of salespeople prefer tangible awards instead of money.

What motivators are there in a sales career other than money? They include, but are not limited to:

1. Ability to develop significant relationships inside and outside of our company.
2. Outside sales positions provide significant freedom and mobility.
3. Real feeling of accomplishment and contribution, and one that is measurable.
4. Develops personal confidence because we work for a very important department at our company while we simultaneously interface with important decision makers at our customers.

Peggy, I think it’s commendable that you are aware of what does and doesn’t motivate you. Everybody has different motivators and you appear to be tuned into them and obtain your sales budget on a regular basis as a result. I would urge your sales manager not to ruin the soup. Don’t question good results.

Sales can certainly be financially rewarding, but there are many other factors that can make it a fun and rewarding career. Carry on Peggy.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

There are four types of customers in every company.

1. The customers you are currently selling. These are the customers, big and small, that are paying the bills. They constitute the “customer base.” You have accumulated these customers intentionally, accidentally, by good luck, by bad luck, etc.

2. The customers you used to sell. For one reason or another the customer has left the fold. The reasons for this are endless: out of business, moved to a competitor, don’t have a need for your products or services anymore, etc. It is difficult to know why we lose many of our customers.

3. The ones you would like to be selling. I’ve never met a VP of Sales who didn’t have a grand vision for the kinds of customers his “salespeople-should-be-getting.” No company is ever happy with the customers they have; they want bigger and better ones. They want brand names. They want ones that they’d be proud to talk about at a party. This can be a source of discomfort for the salesforce. Salespeople look around and think, “Gee, we may not have the sexiest sounding customers, but they are paying my bills and the company’s. What’s the problem?”

4. The ones you should be selling. This is where the rubber hits the road. After careful consideration it is possible to determine what your sweet spot is. A smart company will ask the question, “What kinds of customers will leverage our strengths and make us the most money?”

Current customers are important because they pay the bills, today. But current customers that are high maintenance and low revenue can hurt more than they help. Sift through these and terminate some of them. Free up your time to find better customers.

The junk pile of lost customers can be sorted. Look for the ones that might be salvageable and that have a lot of potential. Have a fresh face contact them and see if they can be resurrected. Things may have changed since you last dealt with them. A change in chemistry may be all that is needed.

If your ideal customer description doesn’t fit the type of customer you’d like to talk about at the country club, then either come down to earth or get a job where you sell that kind of customer. Determining your best prospect is one of the most important things you and your company can do. You don’t have to wait for your employer to do this; you can start today in your own account base or territory. Accurately defining your sales sweet spot will cause your sales effectiveness to expand exponentially.