SALES Archives - Wheeler Coaching Systems

Leadership. I talk about it all the time in these posts. Maybe you don’t really think you are a leader or you think you aren’t a good one. Let me ask a question: what is a leader?

I had the opportunity to study leadership for my Masters and I could go into all sorts of academic eloquence on what a leader is or is not. First, are leaders born? Well, yes. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t met a leader who was not born. Some people may have a natural tendency to take charge, but does that necessarily mean they are a leader? Are people following them?

Often when I speak in front of people I ask the question: are you a leader? A few hands go up unless everyone in the room has a leadership position. Then I ask: do you interact with anyone? Every hand goes up at this point . . . or at least should. You interact with people and so do I so we lead them in one way or another. Leadership in its most simple definition is influence. When we go to the grocery store the way we interact with the people at the register (if we don’t use self-checkout) either helps them move in a positive direction or negative direction during their day.

Ok, so we all lead someone. How do we lead? Let me give you an illustration and for those who are in the auto industry forgive my ignorance in general.

Let’s say we go into a car dealership to look at a car. The salesman approaches us and starts to ask us questions. Now, one of those salesmen after some brief introductory questions starts moving in the direction of finding out what type of car we want and explains all the great features of the car he thinks is best for us. This is fine, but as we continue the conversation the focus is more on the car and closing the deal.

Now, we go into the same dealership and a different sales person comes up to us. He starts asking questions too. He still is asking what we want in a car since we are there to potentially purchase a car, but there is something different in his line of questioning. He is asking about us and what is important to us personally. He asks a little about our family and genuinely cares about our needs. These questions are not manipulative, but a genuine concern that whatever he guides us to is going to meet our needs and provide great value. Does he want to close the deal? Absolutely! He needs to feed his family, meet his numbers, etc. His bigger priority which we sense in how he interacts with us is understanding us as people and our needs and steering us (no pun intended) toward the vehicle that will best meet our needs even if it may not be the best for his pocketbook.

This is a sales illustration, but both individuals are leading the customer. One is saying just follow me and I’ll show you what you need, but the other starts from a position of asking lots of questions, listening, and building a relationship that will enable him to provide a transformational experience and make the customer want to come back.

Let me simplify this:

Transactional Leadership – getting the job done with less concern for the relationship. “Me”-centered.

Transformational Leadership – seeking to build connection in a way that others know you care and want to help them reach their goals. Other-centered.

We may not have a physical product we sell, but we are always influencing others. In your leadership are you being transactional where the end goal is your agenda or are you being transformational where you are trying to make your vision and the other person’s goals align so who work together to both win? Whether at work or at home transformation takes time and sometimes help from a coach to help you see what you can’t, but in the end accomplishes more and adds greater value to both sides. Stay tuned because next week I am going to share a tool I found that has helped transform me and helped me learn how to be more transformational in my leadership.