The Capital One Financial slogan, “What’s in your wallet?” is regarded as one of the greatest slogans of our generation. As everyone knows, the tag line shown repeatedly on television each week (and seemingly throughout every football game I watch) asks viewers which credit cards they carry. For almost 20 years the commercial has asked the same question, but the context and perspective have changed. Your wallet continually evolves … sometimes it’s full of old stuff and needs to be cleaned out and updated, and sometimes it’s empty and thus unable to provide you what you want.
The Functional Sales Wallet
Salespeople have wallets, too; functional sales tool kits that house critical information, like product knowledge, prior sales training skills, account development game plans, historical customer insights and personal stories of success and failure. The functional sales wallet is what you reach for when the sales call is working well, or when you need a boost of insight or a new path.
You may be faithfully following your New Year’s Resolutions to affect personal change. Or maybe the resolutions were fleeting ones and you are back to living as normal. But the world never stops evolving, and as we have entered a new year, now is the time to focus on your personal development to improve your functional sales wallet.
What’s in Your Sales Tool Kit?
You can’t build up your sales tool kit without focus and commitment. Some key areas to direct your attention to are sales skills like refining sales strategy development, growing market insights and discovering new sales enablement tools. Equally important is advancing communication, both pre and post-sales. Good communication is a tool that fits into everyone’s wallet!
Bulking up my wallet and my personal toolkit is a top priority for me in 2018. To kick start my growth, I am planning to attend two national sales conferences that should improve the knowledge and capabilities that I bring to my clients. Sales has changed dramatically within the last 10 years, primarily due to the buying capabilities available through the internet. I am keenly aware that my individual sales competency must equally progress to provide the highest value to my client base. I keep this in mind: success will come if I continually bring value to my client base.
Other areas I’m focused on:
- Defining and delivering a path so my teams and I can achieve the stated goals.
- Gain a better understanding of today’s sales route, develop improved sales processes and eliminate obstacles.
- Discover and implement new or proven tools to maximize performance.
I want to learn and implement the latest tips that will really move the needle. By integrating the latest insights on how to drive opportunities and grow revenue through new technologies and best practices, my focus, efficiency, and results will also improve.
The constantly evolving sales world demands a constantly evolving sales tool kit. What was in your tool kit 20, 10 or even 5 years ago is not what is needed in your tool kit now, or next year. This requires you as a sales leader to develop further, enabling improved execution with speed, precision and confidence. It is time to critically ask yourself not just “what’s in your wallet,” but what do you want to be in your wallet?
