The themes
What is this all about?
As the first blog post I think it is good to shine a bit of light on my thinking. It is all about the perspective right? Things look different depending where you stand. Or as the French-born American essayist Anais Nin put it: “We dont see things as they are, we see them as we are.” I will talk more of my themes but as an opening post I want to share three leading philosophies that I follow:
Best in Sales are Best in Basics
Especially in professional life one of my main mottos or philosophies has been that Best in Sales are Best in Basics. Of course the philosophy is not tied to sales alone. The mindset applies to other aspects and functions as well. In that sense my core beliefs are that success follows people who identify, understand and are humble enough to focus and keep practising the basics. The routines. I picked up the sentence early days from a Finnish Business allrounder Jari Sarasvuo. The book he wrote and Pertti Jarla illustrated was easy enough for the simplest of mind (me) to grasp (part of it is comics). A recommendation for everyone working in sales: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31393821-myynnin-korkeaj-nnitysStart with Why
Other professional game changer was this 5 min Youtube clip I found while sitting on my desk and wondering the reasons for losing a client early at my sales days in Sanoma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeg3lIK8lro
It is of course Simon Sinek presenting The Golden Circle - a simple yet powerful frame to communicate. This tool or way to communicate has been powering my success since that day and is such a low hanging fruit for everyone to look into if you yet havent. Because people dont buy what you do they buy why you do it. Nobody cares about your product. The sooner you realise these the faster you are able to succeed. In business and in life.
3. Passion, Energy, Fun.
Third pillar would be passion. Energy. I remember back in the days being interviewed for a sales leadership position at a large media company. I was asked what would I do if I was chosen to lead their sales. I answered that firstly I would focus on making sure that people have fun at work. The recruiting manager looked at me and said: “that sounds a bit startup talk to me.”
I get it - maybe I came out as naive but believe me when I say that especially when markets or times are tough - you need to make sure your people (in sales especially) have energy and will to overcome the challenges. One way to inject energy is to create a culture and working conditions that makes people want to contribute and even in the toughest of times make them want to come to work with a smile. This can be done by making sure its fun to work. Unfortunately often the challenges are faced in organisations by increasing pressure and sense of threat. This has never lead into increasing results far as I have seen.