Selling Success: too easy to overlook, too critical to ignore!
I am privileged to spend a considerable amount of my time having discussions with leaders of organisations. I’m continually perplexed at how much focus, energy, time and money organisations are willing to invest in selling their products/services compared to the minimal amount invested in selling the journey of their success, the very things that make their organisation successful; I call it selling success.
Notice, when referring to success, I said ‘make’ not ‘made’. This isn’t just about selling your history, although depending on specific appropriateness, that can be particularly valuable. However, I’m referring to the ‘now’ time, the present and suggesting that now is the moment worthy of recognition and celebration. The ‘right now’ has more relevance to any stakeholder than the past or the future.
The culture of any organisation is made up of many things, far too many to cover here, but show me a workplace where people love to attend, are proud of what they do, are actively protective and enthusiastic; and you can almost guarantee that organisation is great at selling success.
Selling Success; the model – why?
Selling success is both the internal and external continual communication of how great your organisation is; in what it does, how it does it, who does it and who benefits from it.
However, the selling success model is not a childish or stupid exercise; it’s not blind nor ignorant about its flaws or limitations. On the contrary, a selling success mindset identifies and addresses such matters quickly and effectively because they are considered to be both costly distractions and direct enemies of the cause.
When I refer to the cause, I’m promoting the long-established ‘Success Breeds Success’ truth, proven to be a consistent winner. People are attracted to success and want to be part of it, so selling success is fundamental logic.
For many leaders it comes naturally, for others it’s an acquired skill, but either way, selling success is a key factor in creating a dynamic environment.
This is a regular topic of conversation for me, it’s one of my hobby horses. I’m quite passionate about selling success because I see it working and having fantastic results in organisations that embrace it.
Indeed, it’s hard to argue against the concept of selling success. Think about it, your staff want to feel personally valued and successful in what they do and to believe that they are contributors to a truly significant operation.
And you? Well naturally, you would want everyone on your team to experience such an outcome, and equally for you, to share the same feelings and to enjoy similar expectations. This is a core component of EE (employee engagement).
Almost everyone wants to be associated with success. That includes every stakeholder of your organisation; shareholders, staff, customers/clients, suppliers, service providers, professional advisors and any alliance relationships.
And so often, we are part of something that is successful but we don’t know it; we’re so busy doing it, we don’t recognise we’re part of it.
Selling success is a genuine business case win/win; even the most diligent bean counter will see that whatever the incurred costs are, the net profit increases far offset them.
Selling success is simply the right thing to do! Where are you right now? A selling success sceptic? Hope not. Already on board? Are you starting to buy into the selling success model? I certainly hope so; as the title suggests, “too easy to overlook, too critical to ignore!”
Selling Success – the real deal.
I know that this has been a long intro to get to the meat of this topic. I also know that too few organisations adopt this paradigm of selling success, hence I felt the need to prosecute a strong case.
And anyway, the meat of selling success can be described fairly briefly. Anyone who knows my approach to commerce already understands that I believe business, no matter its type or practice, has finite core components; Purpose, People and Processes.
All three are inherently connected to selling success. I’ll explain.
Purpose is the motivation of selling success. It should be considered a fundamental intent of an organisation, an authentic cornerstone, a fully desired outcome that will reflect positively on every aspect and area of the organisation’s operations.
People are the vehicles through which success is sold. People identify opportunities for success, create success and promote success. They are the reason success exists. They are both the manufacturers of success and the beneficiaries of it. They nurture success and empower it.
Processes make up the tools used in selling success; the methods and practises that capture and amplify successes.
In conclusion, if you’re a beginner in the selling success model, I recommend you start with the small things; find someone on your team who has done something well (irrespective of macro importance) and celebrate with them, promoting both the individual and the outcome of what they did.
Tip: Smell the roses often, then tell as many as you can what they smelt like! Give as many people as possible reasons for viewing your organisation as a great success.
Question: If you have a good selling success story, please share it with us.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. russell@russelldriscoll.com
Alternatively I always appreciate constructive comments on selling success.