Transcript
Intro:
Hi, everyone. I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Teams podcast, where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate, and keep together highly effective sales teams…teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits.
Along the journey, we also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive you is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So if you're an ambitious Sales Leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, Stronger Sales Teams is right where you need to be.
Ben Wright:
Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams, the place where we provide real world and practical advice to help you develop super powered sales teams. As we roll into 2025 and the year really is humming now, I received a message from a long-time colleague of mine. Her name is Angela Cacciotti and we’ve worked together for to be six or eight years now. And no doubt Ange will correct me while she’s listening to this if I’m wrong. However, Ange I didn’t know actually studied sales or had some subjects around sales during her time in university. And what Ange forwarded to me was the Ten Commandments of Good Sales from 1989. So, we’re talking almost 35 years ago. And for me I thought, wow, the world has changed not only over that 35-year period of time and I was 7 years old at the time, so I certainly wasn’t doing anything more except trying to sell my parents on the merits of me having more ice cream, I think, but. Or more time outside playing. Right? But in 35 years things have changed significantly. But more importantly in the last few years things have really changed.
So, what we’re going to do today is I’m actually going to sit back through these 10 commandments of good sales and have a look around what holds true today. And for me, as I read through these, what I found really refreshing was that there are things in here that are still really important when it comes to executing on sales results, building revenue, having happy customers, having engaged teams, all those types of broader spectrums, but it also reminded me about some of the fundamentals that simply haven’t changed over that period of time. And some of the fundamentals that sometimes I think sales leaders, particularly sales leaders and I work with a number of them and some really terrific people, but we all can admit that at times, times we actually have forgotten about. So, we’ve forgotten things we already know or they’ve fallen out of practice. Right. In our day to day behaviours. Things that for me really add terrific value to us as salespeople.
So, I’m going to go through these 10 Commandments today solo episode and I’m going to take that lens of still holds true, maybe not so relevant anymore or has been replaced by the next iteration or the next generation of this ten Commandments. Right, so we’ll go through that now. There are a couple in there that overlap. But I really enjoyed actually sitting down going through this and thinking how I see these 10 commandments from 1989 relating to today, 2025.
Okay, so let’s get into it. And I’ve got this note and by the way, it’s handwritten, it’s on one of those very old style notebooks where you have, you know, almost your ring binders on there. Things that certainly my generation grew up with using at school. But I know things have changed completely now. My daughter does her homework on her iPad and she’s in prep and she has homework in prep. Right. Amazing on its own there. But it’s in beautiful blue pen, it’s in really nice cursive writing, which to me is almost a lost art. But I really enjoyed going through this, so really looking forward to sharing it with everyone today.
Okay, so ten commandments according to good sales way back from 1989. Commandment number one, Speak to People. There is nothing as nice as a cheerful word of greeting. Now, I think for me, straight away, I’ll say this one holds. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Speaking to people has become somewhat of a forgotten art. Right now, a vast number of teams who I work with are using email as their default platform. In fact, I worked with a team as recently as a couple of months ago where email was their default response to when customer inquiries come in. Now, this team has made some adjustments in what they’re doing and have had some terrific early results around increasing the speed of which they speak to customers instead of using email or a written form of communication.
So, I would say that this is as important as ever, but is practiced by far fewer salespeople today than in 1989. I also think to an extent there are certainly more barriers put up by the people that we are dealing with around face to face selling. And by the way, I will asterisk this that sometimes it’s just not practical around being face to face. And often in instances we’ll see phone calls or perhaps Video style selling or building of relationships is just as impactful. But certainly, the words speaking to people is as important as ever. And I think we’re seeing now that certainly buyers, if you’d like to call them that, the other side of the equation, are tending to be less receptive or making it a little bit more difficult to be spoken to. No doubt about that. It’s a harder job for salespeople now to be speaking to people and to be getting face to face. But for me, the reward for effort is significant, particularly in chunky sales. Right. So those sales that are not your cash and carry every day where you can jump online and order, but these are the ones where you’re talking generally thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and into the millions of dollars here, where being able to speak to people is so important. So, I’m going to say that speaking to people is absolutely as strong as it was back in 1989, but a little bit harder to execute on. And one that as salespeople, we need to practice more and more because we’re not, certainly not getting the opportunities of carrying the bag, of wearing the rubber off our shoes and getting face to face as much as we used to. So well done, Ange. Ten Commandments, number one. Absolutely. Still holding in 2025.
Alright. Number two is all around smiling at people. Now, when I first looked at this, I thought, smiling at people, wow, that, geez, that was a big call to be a commandment back in 1989. But what I actually looked at was what this means below the lines. And for me, it’s all about creating warmth. I certainly remember leaders who have had a presence and people who have made me feel good along my journey, both in business and in life. And I think for me, the underlying message here is around not just smiling at people, but having your presence felt. I’d love you to take a moment and think back to a leader that you’ve worked with, who, when they’ve been in the room, have made you feel welcome, have made you feel heard, have made you feel warm. And for me, I think that’s the message here, that the salespeople, when we can genuinely allow those people that we’re working with, call it selling to call it whatever you like, know that you’re there, that you have a strong, warm, friendly presence. That for me, that is super important. And I think that leads off, number one, around speaking to people about being able to own the room and own the conversation. Because once we lose that ownership of conversation and others control the many around us, then certainly it can be really difficult to do what we do best. So, so far, two out of two, I think, that are really holding now in today’s world.
Alright, third one here, and this one, I will say straight off the cuff is one that I think I’m 50, 50 on and I’d say is probably less relevant now. But that’s about calling people by name. The sweetest music to anyone’s ears is their own name. And that’s reading out that third commandment there for me. Look, no doubt being able to call people by name is important. So please don’t hear that the art of remembering people’s names is gone. But do I think it’s one of the ten commandments anymore? Probably not for me. I think if you’re able to create relationships by smiling, by speaking to people, by showing them that you care in as many ways as you can, that helps. And if you’re not calling people by name, I don’t think it’s going to kill the deal. But certainly, it’s a step towards showing people that you do genuinely care. And I think there’s a place for it in the modern sales world. And look, for me, strongly recommend that you’re trying to do that.
I’ll put my hand up and say, this is one I find really difficult. I often have to repeat people’s names multiple times for me to remember them. And it’s not because I don’t care, but because I’m so intently listening to everything else they’re saying that it’s one that tends to slip out of my mind. But I certainly do make a big effort. There’s. So, I say, out of the first three, we’ve got two that are absolutely holding and one that I think has the right intent around calling people by name. And I think that’s about showing that you care. But perhaps for me isn’t one of the top ten commandments now. And by the way, I’m happy to hear alternate opinions on this. You know, I love hearing alternate opinions and arguing them through. You know, it’s always a great debate.
Okay, so number four. And I’m seeing a real theme in these commandments here. But number four is around being friendly and helpful. So, for me, that comes down to creating value early and often. I certainly see examples of salespeople that we work with really regularly around how they’re being helpful in areas outside of what they’re selling. And, sorry, I should say that being friendly and helpful absolutely stands as something that’s really important. In the modern sales world. I was sitting with a team last week and one of their key salespeople and experienced salesperson, he was telling me about how one of the things that he does is he looks towards solving related problems for the customer before they get into their own. This person happened to be in the energy space and their prime focus around being helpful was to try and solve any energy related problems before they moved into the technology that they were working on. And I really liked that because essentially what it’s saying is, hey, I’m going to help you solve some things that are really important to you before we even worry about what I have to offer. And for me, when you’re able to do that, when you’re friendly, when you’re helpful, when you’re showing customers again that you care, you tend to get the opportunity to really explore what you’re offering once that’s happened. And so, for me, and this salesperson was very open that they believe it creates that goodwill and that strength of relationship that allows you to move on to what you’re selling, even if the need may not be there. Right now, you get an audience that’s prepared to hear you and from there you can qualify this potential customer and decide what you’re going to do from there. So, three out of four so far, I think absolutely being friendly and helpful is one that’s really important.
Alright, let’s move into number five. Number five. Now, this is almost old school type of speak here. Be cordial, speak and act as if everything you do is a pleasure. So, my definition here is around being easy to work with. I would say that being cordial, speaking and acting as if everything you do is a pleasure has probably been replaced now by a lens of trying to create value for our customer. So yes, we need to be polite and absolutely we want to be easy to work with. Do I think that we need to act as if everything’s a pleasure? No. For me, I think there’s some strength in a relationship, really exploring some of the critical opportunities of a partnership rather than saying yes to everything. Because for me, if you don’t have certainly the fence posts around the field, right, you haven’t defined the map, right, of where you want to work and how you want to work together, then you can get scope creep into areas where you’re just not adding value and in the end not end up with that relationship that you’re looking for. So, whilst I absolutely agree about being cordial at every opportunity, acting as if everything is a pleasure, I would probably Replace around, focus on adding value and do so as if it’s a pleasure. So, find those areas with customers where you know you are going to be able to solve the problem or capitalise on the opportunity and then really zero in here. So, I’m going to say number five is replaced with a more specific focus around what you’re doing with your customers, but certainly not irrelevant in today’s world.
Okay, so I’ll just repeat some of those. I think they’re nice just to look back. I love being able to reminisce and for a lot of those people listening, I’m not sure what you were doing in 1989, but certainly I don’t think it’s too far away from you becoming relevant, whether it be at school or university or so forth. So, speak to people. There’s nothing as cheerful as a word of greeting. Smile at people, call people by name, be friendly and helpful and be cordial, acting as if everything’s a pleasure.
Okay, so we’re five through number six, being genuinely interested in people. This one for me is an absolute tick, tick, tick in today’s modern sales world. Right. And interesting here we’re not talking about any technical capabilities. We’re not talking about the ability to open or close or handle objections or do the best needs analysis in the world. We’re talking about some real baseline fundamentals here that I think anyone who’s moving into sales can really benefit from starting here, and even experienced salespeople. I ran a workshop late last week where we went through some of the fundamentals and I was really nervous how this was going to go because, well, certainly we had a room full of experienced salespeople. We’re not talking one or two year salespeople, we’re talking 10 to 30 year salespeople in this room. And for me, when we went through these fundamentals, I was really apprehensive about how that room would react. In fact, we actually mapped from start to finish a couple of stages of the sales process in detail according to what they were gonna do and what came out of that room was a real interest in proving themselves and working out how they can help grow the relationships with their customers. And I think for me, being genuinely interested in people that actually came through in this session around showing people that you care and getting to know them.
In another session again last week, I had a really experienced salesperson. In fact, I will say the most successful salesperson in that team. And it was a significant business where when we were talking about building relationships, he said, and I quote, unquote, that his customers have actually become some of his friends and he genuinely likes seeing them, he genuinely likes entertaining with them and he genuinely likes catching up with them and showing an interest in their lives. And he said for him, that’s been one of the key parts of his success, because he actually cares about the people he deals with. He’s not in there to make a sale, but he’s there to build a relationship and business comes with that and can grow and grow. So, number six, tick, tick. Being genuinely interested in people.
Number seven, being generous with praise, cautious with criticism. I’m going to say for me that this one has probably passed into a different format around how we sell. And for me, I don’t believe in being necessarily generous with praise when it’s not due. I don’t necessarily believe in being cautious with criticism. What I do believe in is finding where you can add the value. Now, to do that, we don’t need to praise, we don’t need to criticize, but we need to be able to ask questions to find out where that point is, to find out how we can add value, to find out what the opportunity is to find out about that pain. Now, I don’t think we need to criticise or put praise on to be able to do that. In fact, I think we can add value by finding those areas, finding those pain points or opportunities and showing what we can do to capitalise on or solve them. That, for me, is far more important than being generous with praise or cautious with criticism. What I will say, though, is, for me, criticizing competitors, criticizing the way others have done things, I think is a slippery slope. So, I think there’s some merit in there. And I generally recommend to sales teams that they avoid talking about their competitors in that way. In fact, I’ve seen really successful sales teams and we were going through this a couple of weeks ago with one around how they actually sit down. And when they’re profiling competitors, they’ll actually talk about what their competitors are really good at and then they’ll talk about what they themselves are really good at. And that generally works for them because they’ve identified the customer’s pain points to be in line with the value they’re providing. So, whilst their competitors may do things really well, that profiling of customers and working out where the opportunity is has already been done so that they know they are a good fit. All right, let’s move on to. We’re through seven.
Let’s move on to number eight. Be considerate of the feelings of others. There are three controversies that are called sides, theirs, yours and the right one. And what I will say is actually a lot of these were written in the male term terminology here. So, his he, there wasn’t a lot of she or her or they. And for me, I will say from 1989, this is one thing that’s changed. For me, neutrality is really important. I work with sales leaders that are all across the spectrum of he, she, they, them. And for me, I think it’s so important that we are bringing this to a level of neutrality that everyone can succeed in this world. So, I’ve actually changed some of these references to his as to they along this journey.
So be considerate of the feelings of others. There are three controversies that are called sides. There’s yours and the right one. And for me, I think this comes down to that adage around never talk politics. And I made that mistake a couple of weeks ago. I actually started talking about doge, or the Department of Government Efficiency that Donald Trump has brought up and geez, it went down flat. There was a point to the story that I was telling around it, but it just gave me that little reminder that bringing in opinions and I had an opinion around the Department of Government Efficiency around the outcomes, right, Rather than the people. And I’m not going to say what that opinion was because I don’t want to ostracise again. But for me it was very much, and I will say I’m not necessarily a follower though, of the regime that’s in there at the moment. But for me, keeping opinions to be around facts. And now that may not necessarily make sense, right? Opinions being around facts, but certainly supporting opinions with facts is really important. And I would generally recommend with sales teams that they avoid statements around opinion and start to look at facts and actually focus outcomes around customer opportunities and pain points. So instead of talking about what we believe as a business, start to look at what other customers have experienced, look at what outcomes this customer could get, and avoid the need of actually referring to opinions as much as possible.
So, I think with this one, it’s been taken to the next level and it’s not so much around being considerate of the feelings of others, because I think we need to be able to have open and strong conversations. And in fact, I believe that what you walk past is you accept. I’m a big, huge believer of that. But this comes down to rather than worrying about the feelings of others, actually just focus your efforts on where we’re going to solve those problems.
So, that’s Number eight done there. Number nine. I think number nine is really relevant to number eight, and that’s around being thoughtful of the opinions of others. For me, what this is saying is not necessarily being thoughtful around opinions, but listening to the other side of the table. I talk a lot with teams around. When you ask one question, be prepared to ask the second question to really dive deeper. It allows you to understand more fully what the other side’s saying, but also really consider it yourself. So, you’re not just understanding it, but you’re comprehending it. And I think for us as salespeople, allowing our customers time to ask questions, to express their opinions, to have some input into the design of what we’re doing is absolutely critical. So, I’d say number nine here has been overtaken by considering the thoughts of others. And in fact, it’s not that far off about being thoughtful of the opinion of others. But I’ll be more specific to say actively seek out the opinion of your customers and your buyers, because that’s when we can really find that magic and that win, win, win type of scenario where the business wins, the team wins, the customer wins, and even their customer wins. Right. We could go win, win, win, win five or six times.
But for me, I like that one. And I think it’s evolved into more.
Alright, number 10, being alert to giving service. I spoke a little earlier around being easy to work with. I think what this one for me is saying in the modern world, and I think it holds evolved. That comes to me around getting back to people, around being easy to contact around when someone asks you for something. I’m dealing with my bank at the moment. My business bank has moved on and I’ve been completely ghosted. And I’m amazed because I’ve had a relationship for 10 years with this banker, and they’ve moved into a new, more senior role, and I’m really struggling to get contact with them. For me, that’s a really poor way to end that relationship with that person, because we had such a good relationship over a strong period of time. Now, during that period, they were fantastic around their service, and I really appreciated it. But I think being aware of how your response times can impact your customers is so important. Right. So that comes down to when we get a phone call returning at the same day when we get emails coming back to our customer promptly, and if we don’t know the answer to that email, letting them know when you’ll come back to them with an answer by. We can’t always answer things on the Spot. But if we commit to what we’re going to do and when we’re going to do it by, and then we hold to it, that for me is around being alert to giving service. And that for me is the 2025 version of exceptional customer care and a great customer experience. And that is simply communicating. I see it in the majority, and I’ll say that again, the majority of sales teams that I work with when where this needs improvement, where salespeople need to focus more explicitly on getting back to their customers and building a really strong relationship.
Okay, so there we go. We have 10 Commandments from 1989. Speak to people. Smile at people. Call people by their name. Be friendly and helpful. Be cordial. Speak and act as if everything you do is a pleasure. Be genuinely interested in people. Be generous with praise and curious with criticism. Be considerate of the feelings of others. So that’s three controversies around theirs, yours and the right one. Be thoughtful of the opinion of others. Be alert to giving service.
So, for me, out of those 10, I rank that there’s five that still absolutely hold true. So those five are around speaking to people, smiling at people, being friendly and helpful, being genuinely interested with people I think is incredibly important, and being alert to giving service. They’re the five for me that I think absolutely hold. We’ve got four that I think have been taken to another level, and that’s around being cordial. Speak and act as if everything you do is a pleasure. So that comes down to find the areas where you have value and add that service. Being generous with praise, cautious with criticism. That’s all around working hard, again to find that value, being considerate of the feelings of others. For me, that is about taking the time to actually listen to what the other side has to say. Which rolls into number nine, which is being thoughtful of the opinion of others. A lot of these do tend to blur, I think, for me, into a modern approach. And then one where I think the world’s probably changing, that’s calling people by name. I think that actually comes down to building those genuine relationships. And that’s a symptom of, rather than a key 10 commandment.
So, thank you again, Ange Cacciotti, for allowing us to go through those. I think for those listening, if I was to offer anything out of there where I really took some serious, where I guess where I sat down and took some moments around reflection, for me, there was one around smiling at people. I think it’s something that I try to do, but I really want to do more and that was all about how I can have a positive presence in a room. I think that was really, really impactful for me. And the other one was around being thoughtful of the opinion of others and spending a little bit more time for customers to actually engage with me, you know, for me to hear what their opinions are and what they’d like to see. I think they’re two that I’m going to focus a little bit more on as I move through the coming weeks and months.
So, that’s it for today. I loved the blast of the past back to 1989. Looking forward to next week. For everyone listening, please keep living in a world of possibility and you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve. Bye for now.
E105 The 10 Commandments of Great Sales - What on earth does that mean
