One of the most frequently asked questions I get is ‘How do I be a better ……’ and then fill in the blank, usually with marketer or salesperson or some other role of the business.
The first thing I think you should realise is that when you ask this type of thing – to me or to yourself – you have to first understand that it is a skill. You don’t have to be a born salesperson to be a good salesperson. You don’t have to have a talent for it to be good at it.
Why?
Because it is a skill. That by very definition means that you can learn it. You have a talent or you don’t, but a skill can be learnt.
You know, I’m not a talented salesperson, never have been, wasn’t born a salesperson. But the funny thing is, I have a really high conversion rate! Why is that? Because I learnt how to make sales or more importantly, I learnt how to allow people to buy from me. (That is a conversation for another blog post sometime!)
The key to being better at something that is skill based is to learn and to practice, but the magic comes when you can use your natural talents or the skills that come more naturally to you to improve the skills that need some work.
I like to call this focusing on your strengths.
The example I use when I’m presenting at workshops, trainings or conferences is that if you had a kid at school that was excellent at art but was borderline passing math, which subject would the majority of the population get them a tutor for?
Math.
What if we got them a tutor for art? They are displaying a natural talent or skill for art, so what if we focused on that strength rather than their weakness?
Business is not school. Sure there are certain things that you will need to get to a ‘pass level’ in your business, but what if you focused on your natural strengths and improved them?
Let me give you an actual example of this. The other day I had a franchisee I was helping for one of my franchisor clients. This franchisee was not very tech savvy let’s say, but was telling me that they were going to ‘make themselves’ learn how to market online, they were going to get better at this computer thing. They were also going to ‘spend’ money (they didn’t really have) on ads in the newspaper and a mass flyer drop. Now all of these things could potentially work for this franchisee, but they weren’t going to be fun for them. I had a different idea for the franchisee……
This franchisee was actually really good with people. They were extremely knowledgeable about their business and the facts of the work they did for customers. They had lots of repeat business and glowing testimonials from customers. Their customers loved them. When they spoke to people – in real life, like in person or on the phone – they had an extraordinary high conversion rate. So I asked them why they were pushing themselves to do mass marketing strategies rather than using their natural strength of talking with people where they could share their knowledge, where they could show the type of person they were. Why didn’t they instead ask their existing customers for referrals and then also go out and do some networking for new customers as well as potential strategic alliances.
The franchisee was all of a sudden excited at the prospect of finding new customers where only minutes before it was like the prospect of finding new customers was about as exciting as if they were going to pull out their own teeth!
Not only will it be more enjoyable, I think they will definitely get a better result.
So we didn’t ignore or not do the marketing – it was required for their business. What we did was find a way that it could be done more in their own ‘style’.
The only question left is…. Where could you be better utilising your strengths rather than focusing and working on your weaknesses?
