Professionals realize (and act like) they’re part of something bigger than themselves (mind-set two)
Mindset #2 often has the biggest impact on results.
An underdeveloped mindset #2 plays havoc on an organization’s culture—and the results that emanate from that culture.
Consider:
***An executive team that is littered with people who have messiah complexes and regularly back-stab each other.
***A department head whose self-aggrandizing style puts the organizations needs secondary to their own.
***A front-line clerk who believes they have a job—but not responsibilities.
For those familiar with The Power of Professionalism, these examples remind us of the debilitating impacts that the lack of mind-set #2 has on an organizations performance. And sometimes when we think culture, we think inside the organization. Yet culture naturally impacts an organization’s outside world as well.
Take the sales function for instance. An underdeveloped mind-set #2 clearly hurts sales. Sales leadership expert Lisa Earle McLeod’s research has shown that quota- driven sales people sold substantially less than those sales people who wanted to make a real difference with their customers. The latter group held mind-set #2 in spades, the former group far less so.
McLeod refers to the ‘difference makers’ as ‘selling with noble purpose’. Her latest book—Selling With Noble Purpose–outlines the specifics. McLeod’s research turns on its head the belief that money is the primary motivator for top sales performers. The irony, of course, is that those whose primary motivation was on making a real difference with customers made far more money than those whose primary motivation was money.
For sales people the lesson is clear: put the client’s needs first and the money will follow—you needn’t have to choose between the two. Isn’t that what you’d expect from a professional?
Trouble is “average reps are usually thinking about themselves and closing the deal”…this according to McLeod. Whatever attention the average rep pays to the client, it isn’t their full attention. Many of these reps can’t ‘get beyond themselves’. This doesn’t suggest they’re bad people, but it does suggest they’re subject to the whims of human nature—as we all are. Plus, the fact that most sales managers focus almost exclusively on ‘the numbers’ (at the expense of truly understanding—let alone appreciating– customer needs) no doubt contributes to this problem.
These average reps (and often their managers) simply haven’t yet developed a full appreciation of mind-set #2. Unfortunately results suffer as a result. It’s just as true with customers as it is inside the walls of the company.
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