10 Telltale Signs You Just Might Be A Sales Change Agent

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." ~ Pericles

 

1. Not only do you 'default to prospecting mode' [Weinberg], it's your favorite part of your job - talking to prospects, customers and clients. In fact, you'd always rather be dialing, skyping or inmailing rather than doing reporting for the reporting or endless admin or passive strategic process docs.
2. You're fundamentally proactive. If you don't get 3 major boulders moved by lunch, you know you failed so you always do this with gusto and that habit generates big commission checks this quarter and ensures rich pipeline for the next.
3. The status quo is like a challenge to you. You see the world through disruptive rose-colored glasses and this is a good thing. When you look at a business model your knowledge of the industry already plugs in 5 ways to stand the legacy paradigm up on its head.
4. You speak CXO, the language of outcomes and risk, the language of strategy. Your vernacular is about 'real business outcomes,' opportunity cost and risk mitigation.
5. 'I can't' and 'I'll try' aren't in your vocabulary. You abhor too much talk and not enough action. While everyone is busy strategizing how to get into the account or proceed to the next step in the sales cycle, you've already had multiple cell phone conversations with the key stakeholders.
6. Your CEO loves you as do dream clients. You're treated as a trusted advisor everywhere you go on many subjects way outside the realm of "selling" - branding, marketing, product innovation, scaling, forecasting, technology and 'big ideas' to take back to any discerning board.
7. Face-to-face contact is the root of your book of business. You preference meeting with real people above anything else, even if you run an inside sales team. Nothing happens until a sale is made and a customer is satisfied. You are the engine of the new technoconomy.
8. You don't follow a script. You riff off 10 scripts you're A/B testing in real-time until you've honed in on the chained lightning winner.
9. Your activity levels are off the richter scale. By 9am you've done more outbound hunting than the next 5 people on your team did last week. Serious! You understand the symbiotic relationship between leading measure activities and hard revenue outcomes. You're action oriented and detail oriented without being overly-fastidious. You practice economy of effort in your writing, speaking and body language.
10. You are confident to a fault but empathetic and collaborative. You're never afraid to challenge but do so respectfully. You see the world differently like Steve Jobs.You're not afraid to give candid feedback and speak your mind. Although you may not be the ideal manager of people, clients love and trust you because you tell the truth and that's literally 'priceless' in their business. Your deeper motive is aligned with helping them succeed with your solutions and navigate the complexity of the ever changing landscape. There is no need for a tactical 'social selling' distinction - only high quality strategic selling - Social has been in your DNA since 2004.

Now it's your turn: How do you personally relate to these 10 points? How and why do you see yourself as a change agent? How have you changed the company's culture you work in or that of a customer's? Where do you need to improve? I ask myself this last question every day. Please comment below.

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Tony Hughes is ranked as the #1 influencer on professional selling in Asia-Pacific and is a keynote speaker and best selling author. This article was originally published in LinkedIn where you can also follow Tony's award winning blog. Also visit Tony's keynote speaker website at www.TonyHughes.com.au or his sales methodology website at http://www.rsvpselling.com/.

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