There are a couple of very important premises to accept before we proceed.

First: Everyone in our company, from the CEO to the Janitor is a Sales person for your company. Every person within the company has a vested role in the success of the company. And every one needs to be prepared to tell a total stranger what kind of company this is without direct supervision from a supervisor. They all need to have the kind of clarity that they are proud of what they do, proud of the company and can articulate it regardless if they are at a backyard barbeque or in an elevator and are engaged in conversation.

Second: We need to understand what our customers really want to buy and why they want to buy it from us. Too many times, sales people get in front of a customer and immediately proceed into “product dump” mode. They don’t stop to realize what the customer wants to buy.

While beta testing this workshop, it became abundantly clear to the staff of a Chamber of Commerce that what their members want to buy was “connections”. And being able to connect with this person or that, this governmental agency and with this or that individual was far more important to them than breakfasts, mixers, and relocation packets. Hence we changed the title of the CEO to CCO…or Chief Connecting Officer. We also developed an employee connecting award to reward them for an outstanding job of connecting members with members, fulfilling the mission of the Chamber of Commerce.

It is abundantly clear from years in the business that many companies believe they know what their customers want. Few have that kind of clarity that permeates through all of their employees. The message that has to always be left with customers is, “Really! How do you do that?” or “Really! Tell me more about that.”

The What Do You Really $ell program is available for an individual company and is an eye opening experience for management and employees. A version is available for seminar sessions. It is a generic form giving attendees some of the tools that they can apply in a very broad sense. What Do You Really $ell is also available as a keynote speech topic.