All right, good morning everybody. This is Todd Cohen coming to you live from a very hot and humid Miami Beach Florida where I just finished a keynote for the Stanley Black & Decker Corporation. And I am excited to be back with everybody here at AED. Today we are going to talk about my absolute favorite topic which is also the one that I keynote and workshop on. It's about building a sales culture, everyone's in sales. I don't know if any of you were at the AED National Meeting in Washington a year and a half ago, but I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with everybody there. And I actually did a version of this in keynote form back then. And again, it's a real excitement to be back with everybody to talk about again, my passion which is this notion that in organizations, in companies, everybody does something that is impacting a customer's decision to say yes. That is what I call a sales culture. That is what I call an environment where everybody is in sales. So a special welcome. We have some folks joining us, and we will also be recording this for later viewing as well. But to those of you hearing this live, hey, you are the smartest people in the room right now, because you are taking about 50 minutes out of your day to join us, and we are grateful. So before I get started, let me tell you that this particular presentation is rated for all audiences. And I don't think the slide looks exactly like it should there, but it is rated for all audiences. I do require and ask that you do a couple of things as we go forward. One is of course, I want you to suspend all disbelief. Anything that you hear in this, I want you to understand that I am presenting to some of us, and maybe to none of us. I don't know everybody's background. I'm presenting things which put the notion of sales and sales culture in a very different light. It requires that you of course have an open mind. And the third thing is we need to stop apologizing for things. And I'll explain what that means in a little bit. It's about being the sales apologist. And of course, my favorite topic and the title of my first book, Everyone's in Sales. I think the other way to set the table for this particular presentation is that it's important that we don't overthink anything that I'm going to share with you. Now my guess is to everybody on this call, this will feel somewhat natural, and this will probably sit pretty well with what you are thinking about how you want to grow your businesses and grow revenue for 2017, 2018, and beyond. And I would suggest to you, as I suggest to all my audiences, because this topic of building a sales culture is something that I present to audiences of every background, not just sales teams, because everybody impacts the customer's decision to say yes, everybody's in sales. So we don't want to overthink any of this. Just take this in and let it disseminate, and you'll see a lot of what I'm saying is actually natural behavioral sort of activities. Let me set the stage for what we are going to talk about today. And that is that in a way, there is an elephant in the room. Now that elephant in the room is when people hear this notion of building a sales culture, they think oh my gosh, this is another sales training exercise, or this is just for sales people. And I've alluded to this a little bit up until this point. The elephant in this room everybody, is that this is not sales training. In fact, I don't do conventional sales training. This is about building a sales culture. And if I were sitting in front of you live, I would ask that you all do the following right now. Write that down. This is not sales training. This is about building a sales culture, a culture where everybody in an organization understands that what they do matters. What they do has a profound positive impact on the customer's decision to say yes, and nobody is overhead. Now hang on to that thought. And I'll ask you to write certain things down as we go through this. And of course, my understanding is that this will be available to you on a recorded basis as well. So really what I just said a moment ago, this is your opportunity to set the stage for a sales culture. It's your opportunity to make a behavior and mindset change that ultimately drives sales. So when people ask me, well Todd, what's the difference between sales training and sales culture? Well, sales training is for sales people, and it's all about the block and tackling, do this, do that. I have 30 some more years than I care to admit of being a trainer, a speaker, and I have to tell you I've probably seen, or been through, or sat in most sales training methodologies. That's not what this is. Sales culture, building a sales culture, first and foremost friends, is about a mindset and a behavior shift that everything we do impacts the customer's decision to say yes. So if you get nothing else from this, and I certainly hope you'll get plenty from this. In fact, I know you will. When you hang up the phone and you start interacting with people again in your organizations, the question you want to ask them is, do you know how what you do helped our clients say yes? You see, that's not a question to challenge people. It's a question to begin a big positive reshaping of people's mindset, and how they behave in terms of how they see their role impacting the customer's decision to say yes. When they can articulate that, and you can help them build that bridge, then this is not sales training. This is a sales culture. So this also is not another lesson on customer satisfaction. So I often say that building a sales culture is really, really a state of mind, and it all really comes down to your perspective. And I remember when I shared this particular notion, this particular slide with many of your colleagues in Washington at the AED Summit a year and a half ago, this resonated in particularly strong. In fact, I had a number of your colleagues come up to me afterward and said, you know, when I walked in the room, I thought we were getting sales training, and my perspective is that now I see how everybody is in sales. It doesn't mean that I want people to stop doing what they are doing, and go knock on doors and sell, although personally, I believe that in an organization, everybody should have customer interaction, and everybody should have an opportunity to hear how what they do matters. It does mean your perspective counts here. It means that we have to make a decision. You have to make a decision about how you want the culture of your business to be. Now let me refine that point for you a little bit more. Is your organization siloed? In other words, is it an organization where people are saying, hey, that's their thing, or that's their job, and sales, that's not my job, and product development, that's their problem, and so forth and so on? Or is it an organization where their culture is such that every conversation is about how what anybody does past, present, or in the future impacts a customer's decision to say yes? And yes, if you think you've heard me say that multiple times, you're right, because it is a mindset shift, and I'll continue to say that as well. So this particular picture could be, in my opinion, any business leader. It could be any of you on this call this morning. In fact, I believe passionately that as we are in a new economy, and I have watched as you have what happened in 2008, 2009, 2010. Now we're in 2017, 2018. I believe passionately that business leaders, and that doesn't have to be just the CEO. It could be anybody in an organization, because we're all leaders of our own individual abilities to build and do. We're all business leaders. I believe that business leadership in today's economy, and let's be clear, I'm not an economist. I'm giving you what has been fed to me, what has been shared with me after your summit, and after delivering this keynote on stage many, many, many times. Business leadership is really struggling with a couple of basic questions today, and I have validated this over, and over, and over again. And those questions are, you know, when you think about it, the number of conversations, the number of interactions, the number of emails, the number of times we connect with our colleagues, we connect with our customers, colleagues are connecting with each other, and so on. How do we take advantage of everyday interactions, right? How do we take those interactions and do something positive with them? You see, we all know in the economy that we're in, we're all constantly in a reactive mode, in a position to react to email, react to text, react to customers who may not be happy, react to our bosses and our colleagues who need something from us. In fact, as one of your colleagues said to me not too long ago, I needed to hear this message because I've lost sight of the fact that we need to be proactive because everybody comes at me all day with emergencies and things I need to react to. So as a business leader, that first question is, how do we take advantage of all the interactions we're having with people? And then the second question is, how do we convert those interactions into revenue? So I want you to think for a moment about the last email that you just had, or the last text message, or if anybody out there like me still, actually still picks up the phone and has conversations with people, think about the last conversation you've had. What was going on? Was that a conversation where you were reacting, putting out a brush fire as it were, or was it a conversation where you're thinking, my goodness, I now have the opportunity to help somebody understand that what they do will ultimately help our client say yes. You see, when we can have those conversations, our conversations become laden with revenue. They become conversations that have real monetary, sales, customer service, company growth, and positive impact. Now remember what I said at the very beginning of this. Suspend disbelief. Take a deep breath. Don't think about – right now if you're thinking about what's happening next, or what's going to happen after this webinar, that's the point. Think about where we're at in the moment right now, and think about a conversation you've just had. What really transpired? Was it a conversation about the customer and how what your colleague does helped the customer say yes, or was it something reactionary? Folks, this is something that is a real challenge to do, and it's something that I passionately believe is a must if we're going to truly build the sales culture. So it's not a surprise, and I'm sure many of you have heard this comment a number of times. It's not a surprise when I make the comment, silos kill companies. Look, when the economy is good as it was in 2006, and 5, and 7, and 8, things happened. People bought. People spent money. Clients had budget. And it wasn't too much effort to make it happen. And when the economy is good, what happens is people tend to shrink into a silo. They tend to escape into a silo. And silo might mean if I'm in sales, I'm going to hang out with the sales people. If I'm in product marketing or product development, I'm going to hang out with those people. And if I'm in old manufacturing, I'm going to hang out with those people. In sales, you know what? It'll happen because the economy is good. There's sort of a blind trust in faith. Now what's happened as we've come through a terrible economy, you would think that people would say, wait a minute. Hiding in the silo is not where I want to be. I want to understand how I connect to revenue, how my role connects to revenue. And in a bad economy, unfortunately what happens is people tend to sink deeper and deeper into their silos. And now we're in a better economy, and we have the same siloed structure. Look, silos kill companies. If we are not coming out of the silos and interacting in a way that's about how what we do collaboratively helps the customer say yes, then we are doomed to mediocrity. Building a sales culture is how we begin to bring down those silos. And I'll share with you in a little bit a couple of key ways to make that happen. So I would say write this one down. Silos kill companies. We have the option to stay in or come out of the silos. And then when we're in silos, what happens is, and those of us who have worked for companies for a long time, we get this. Things become an us versus them mentality. And once you have an us versus them mentality, that reinforces the siloed culture. And unfortunately, unfortunately, the ultimate recipient of that negativity is the customer. And while we may not think of this or see it initially, we're all smart people, and we know that when we're not functional internally, we can't function to the best interest of our customers. This is why I believe and I say over, and over, and over again in my keynotes, in my books, in my workshops, everything we do has to be about how every person around you has worth and value when they understand that what they do helps a customer say yes. Not too long ago, I spoke to a large equipment manufacturing organization called BOMAG, B-O-M-A-G. They're in the South Carolina area. They're also members of AED. And I delivered my sales culture keynote to the entire company. And what was most startling to me and validating at the same time was when the manufacturing crew, the guys and gals literally in the other building on the line, screwing on wheels and installing engines, the people who were at least happy about coming to this event left the most satisfied, because they left understanding that an us versus them mentality doesn't promote company health, which oh by the way, also keeps us all employed. They understood that when they do what they do, build efficiently, create great products, the customers say yes quicker. This resonated with them. That's why building a sales culture is about an entire company message. So it's also about, and let me be very parochial about this for a second. As a sales professional my entire career, it's never easy when we feel like the entire weight of the company is on our back. Everybody else gets to do what they do, collect a paycheck and go home, but we have to produce. We have budgets. We have goals. When we build a sales culture, we want to help the sales organization interact with people in a way so that everybody impacts the customer's decision to say yes. I can tell you as a salesperson in some of the most functional and dysfunctional companies probably ever created, and I won't name them on this call, I can share with you, there was one company that I worked with that was so dysfunctional in its culture. It was so siloed that people's number one response to our plea for help was, sales, not my problem. That's your gig man. And they would walk away because there was no culture of collaboration. It was a culture of silos. So as we sit here in 2017, it is a fact that being technically proficient is no longer good enough. The people in our organizations have to understand that just because you have degrees, and you've passed tests, and you have a great title, it doesn't mean that you're part of a sales culture. It does mean that being technically proficient isn't good enough. We have to be able to sell it. Now there was a time many years ago, to those of you who are close to my age, and I don't really want to admit what my age is, let's just say I do remember in 1989 when the movie Field of Dreams came out, and there was an iconic line from this movie and became part of our lexicon in this world. If you build it, they will come. And that was the iconic line from the movie. And what was interesting about this was this has become almost a call sign, a siren if you will, for business strategy that is not healthy. You see, in organizations that are siloed, in organizations that have hubris, in organizations that are functioning as if the economy is the same as it was, the attitude is, well, we'll just hang a shingle out. We'll put our sign up. We'll build a product. And of course, they are going to come to us. Well, those days, ladies and gentlemen, are gone forever. And anybody who is still functioning in that mentality will be doomed to mediocrity just as if they had not brought down the silos. Today, it's if you build it, will they come? And the answer to that is only if everybody in the organization understands that every conversation is a selling moment. Every conversation is an opportunity to get people to say, tell me more. So I'm sorry, this slide looks a little off to me, but it says creating a sales culture means that every conversation is about the customer. Now this is the suspension of disbelief part. Some of you might be rolling your eyes and you might be thinking, Todd, no kidding. Well, guess what? I'm not kidding. And here's where this matters. You see, this is something that organizations far too often give lip service to. They say the customer is always right. They are all about the customer. I get that. But that begins, ladies and gentlemen, or I should say, and that begins internally when we understand that every conversation is about how what we are doing is going to help the customer say yes. You see, if our internal conversations become a battle of I need, you need, I need, you need, or somebody wears the other person down until you get what you want, that's not a sales culture. That's a disruptive culture. And that's not one where we are going to sell more. We are going to spend our time and valuable energy in a shrinking day debating with ourselves what has to be done instead of saying timeout. How is what you are going to do, how is what this team is going to do, going to make its way down the food chain, the value chain, and our customer will ultimately say yes. Now, I'm going to ask that you all take a deep breath right now and see the bigger picture here. And you are probably already there. If we take out the you versus me of our conversations and make it about how what you do, and I know you know what I'm going to say because I've now repeated it many, many times and you can never say this enough, how what you do is about the customer saying yes. Watch what happens. People light up. They contribute and they want to be part of the conversation. So here's really where it begins building a sales culture. Every conversation is a selling moment. Every conversation, every interaction, every single time we connect with anybody whether by phone, text, email, we are creating images. We are laying down buying images in the minds of people. And by buying I mean I want to work with you. I know what you do. I want to connect with you. I want to be on your team so that collectively we can help the customer say yes. I want to come out of the silos. This is probably the most critical element that I can share with you today because this is what people forget because we are so busy reacting day in and day out. We forget that every conversation is a selling moment. Every conversation we have we leave an image for people. Now listen to this. Every conversation we have we leave an image for people where they make a decision on us, and that decision impacts a customer's decision to say yes. So actually I love to say, and that's me there, my very handsome twin brother. There's a reason why you can't see me in this particular conversation. Every conversation you have fulfills three bold purposes. It's a selling moment. It's a networking moment, and it is an opportunity to take time to do coaching. Every conversation fulfills three bold purposes, and I want us to be proactive in this mindset. This is the open mind, take a deep breath. Everyone is in sales setting the stage. Every conversation is a selling moment. Every conversation is a networking opportunity, and every conversation is an opportunity to coach, to say to somebody, what you do matters. Don't waste a single word. So I said this. Now you can see it in writing. Yes, it's always about the customer. Ultimately it's this. How do you help me help the client say yes? That's the call sign. That's the beauty of having a sales culture. Every conversation is about the customer, not in a reactive way, but in a proactive way. And when you do this, and when you commit to it, watch what happens. And I can share with you that your fellow members and organizations where I've keynoted and workshopped, in AED have said to me, this makes sense. This helps us get out of our own way. Sales culture is a mindset, and it's about being proactive. Everyone does something that impacts a customer's decision to say yes to your organization. If we don't build that bridge for people, we will lose them. Nobody is overhead. Here's my basic premise. If you want to sell more, then you need to engage more. And by engaging more, it means having these interactions, how to take advantage of these interactions, and we turn them into revenue by saying we're in a sales culture. What you do, help the customer say yes. So it really isn't that complicated. It does however, require a mindset shift as I said earlier in this. So there's a couple of things folks that kill sales, that really kill the sales culture, that scream we're not a good organization, that screams individually, I am not somebody you should pay attention to. In fact, there are three words, just three words that we utter that absolutely have a profound detrimental, negative, and destructive effect on not only our careers, but the company, and ultimately the customer's decision. Those three words are, and you may have heard them, I'm just the. When people say, what do you do? And by the way, what do you do is the number one most asked business question on the planet. And people say, hey, I'm just the. Well, when I say I'm just the, what I'm saying to you friends is I don't matter. I don't count. Please disregard me. In fact, ignore me. In fact, I am useless. These three words absolutely are destructive, and they are corrosive. And usually, as I've watched this over the last 30 plus years, I can share with you that these three words are always followed by, sales, not my job, when in fact what you do does help our customers say yes. So a sales culture is about three things. It's about transparency. It's about being courageous enough to allow anybody to have a conversation, to have input, to have a view into why our customers say yes. Two, it's understanding how you individually help the customer say yes. It's about the chief of HR saying, when I write a good job description, we can hire people quicker, we get them online faster, and then we are a better company, and our customers are served. That's when they are in sales. And then finally, a sales culture is helping others see how they help the customer say yes. If you remember a moment ago, I said that every conversation is about the customer, and every conversation is a selling, networking, and coaching moment. That's where this comes into play. People want to know what they do matters, and how it impacts the health of the company. So the next thing that kills sales, I said there were a couple of things. The next thing that kills sales is what I call being a sales apologist. I've written two books on this topic. One is called Everyone's in Sales. The second one is called Stop Apologizing and Start Selling. This is about the fact that we are passionate people. Those who work for companies I like to believe want to be there. And if we allow people to speak up and share what they know, that's a good thing. You see, the sales apologist is the person who has earned the right to ask for something. They've done the job. They've earned a right. They've built credibility, and they don't ask. They are the people who start a conversation with things like, hey, I'm sorry to bother you, or I don't want to be in the way. The sales apologist looks like this poor fellow right here. And the sales apologist says things like, I'm afraid to ask, because I don't want to hear no, or I feel icky, or I don't want to put somebody out. The sales apologist says, hey, I don't want to upset you. Well, I always look – when somebody starts a conversation with me, like I'm afraid to ask, I say, well, come back to me when you want to ask, because if you've earned the right to ask, then ask. You have earned the right to ask, and if you don't, then you are a sales apologist. Or, just get back to me whenever you can. This is so frustrating to me. And again, one of your members related a story about a colleague of hers who was in product marketing, had some great ideas, did the research, did the business case, had every reason to ask for funding for this new project, and they didn't. And they presented all the information. The information was built perfectly, and the response was, just get back to me when you can. You can imagine what the result was. Nothing. Nothing ever happened. The sales apologist also says, I don't want to impose. Well, you are not imposing if you've earned the right to ask. And finally, my least favorite expression on the entire planet is, just shoot me some dates. There is nothing more frustrating when you are trying to get together with somebody, especially if it's about a customer, and you spend more time trying to find a date to talk than you do actually talking. Schedule something in the moment. Ask for the meeting. Don't shrink away. The sales apologist is always dealing with the perception of perceived rejection. Let me tell you about rejection. It doesn't exist. I wrote an article not too long ago. It's on my LinkedIn page. It's called, The Myth of Rejection Part 1. I haven't actually written Part 2 yet, because I had a little surgery in between there, and I just haven't written it yet. So if I used to say, rejection is a myth. Rejection is only a personal thing. If we are sales apologists, because we are feeling like we are going to be rejected, that is a self-confidence issue. Your job, ladies and gentlemen, as leaders in your organization, is to help people understand that they matter, they are not overhead, and when they do what they do, helps the customer say yes. The next thing, the next sales killer if you will, is I call it, being at the intersection of ho-hum road and easy street. Of course, I say that because Google conveniently gave me this image, and I could make it work for this. It's basically being complacent. What kills sales? Complacency. And I see far too many companies as we've come out of this bad economy saying, hey, if anything broke, don't fix it. And that's just a deadly, deadly, deadly attitude. We have to encourage people to speak up. We have to encourage people not to be sales apologists. We have to encourage people to come out of their silos. And we do that by starting the conversation by saying, how is what you are talking about going to help us help the customer say yes? Watch what happens friends. People light up. They get excited, and they share their passion. And that is worth more than the price of admission. So the reason, so whenever I say everyone is in sales building a sales culture, I typically speak mostly to non-sales audiences. My message is company-wide, because people have a sales stereotype. And I love to fight the uphill battle that says everyone is in sales, and here's what sales is and is not, because we all have this stereotype of sales people, which is why people say, I'm just the, and then sales, not my job. Well, the sales stereotype you see are these guys right here. It's sort of that slimy used car stereotype. And by the way, I'm not saying all used car sales people are bad people. It is however, a stereotype. In fact, I can share with you the guy in the middle is probably the gentleman who sold me my first car in 19 — well I won't tell you what year it was, which was a yellow AMC Gremlin, if anybody is old enough to remember that. And frankly, if you really want to see that car, Google it, and you will absolutely feel sorry for me. That's what I drove in high school. But you see, this is the stereotype of the sales person. This is why people like to say sales, that's their problem over there, because I don't want to be one of these guys. I get it. I don't want to be one of these guys either, and I'm not. Or they think the sales stereotype is this guy. Hey, how you doing? Buy this, life insurance, whatever. You see, what is sales friends? Sales is this. If you look at these words on the screen, I have redefined sales. I have redefined, I am redefining, and I am so committed to this as should you. I am redefining what sales actually is, because if you look at the words on this screen, every single activity in here, every single activity in here is part of every conversation that we have, every single one. Every conversation that we have is part of everything on here. So every conversation has an element of buy-in, teaching, asking, talking, persuading, coaching, helping, conversing, so forth and so on. You see, with every conversation being a selling moment, what it means is we're persuading people. We're influencing people. We're listening to people. We're building credibility. We're differentiating. We're networking. We're handling objections. You see, that's what sales is. It's a recognition that it's about helping people be better at what they are. It's about taking care of needs and wants. Now I want you to look closely at this slide. Everybody kind of stop what you're doing. Hopefully, when I say stop what you're doing, and hopefully it's paying attention to this. I want to ask you if you look at this, what is the one word on here that is without a doubt the most undersold, if you will, underappreciated adjective activity There is one on here, ladies and gentlemen, that I believe we don't spend enough attention to. We don't spend enough attention on. Excuse me. I call it the silent selling tool, or the silent tool of selling influence and impression. And if you guessed the answer is presence, you are right. You know, presence is how people perceive us. When you're walking through the hall, and somebody comes up to you, and they make eye contact. When you walk through the hall, and somebody shakes your hand, or they make it obvious they're listening to you, they're addressed to the audience, whatever it might be. You see, this is demonstrating a presence. And what's so profound about this is people make decisions on us before we ever even open our mouths, before we ever utter a word. Decisions have already been made, and that is based on our presence, how well we quote, unquote, show up. Do we have our game on? Is it obvious that we're disconnected? Or is it obvious that I'm with you when you're speaking to me? You know, we've all had the experience where we're talking to somebody. They're looking at us, but we know the elevator just isn't quite going to the top floor. You can tell they're somewhere else. They're already worrying about the next thing ahead, or the next email, or the next text message. And by the way, if you're all laughing, or smirking, or rolling your eyes, you know what? You've all done it as well. So have I. You see, if we want to build a sales culture, and understand that it begins with us being able to interact with each other, and talk about how what we do impacts the customer, the ability to say yes, and buy something from the company, it begins with the credibility of presence. I'm starting work on a third book now, and it's all about the intersection of presence, mindfulness, and sales. And I had a friend of mine doing a guest chapter on Zen, but we'll go down that road another time. So the reason why presence is so important, and I think Stephen Covey summed it up the best, when he said, most people do not listen with the intent to understand. They listen with the intent to reply. Why do I quote Stephen Covey now? It's because we're so busy reacting that the first thing we see is what we see, and our decision has already been made. Is this person this, that, or the other? And we actually make a decision, often erroneously, based on somebody's presence. And presence is a selling tool. Before we ever even have the opportunity to have a conversation where we talk about credibility, and networking, and all those good things I put up on that slide a moment ago, your presence matters. So ladies and gentlemen, everybody on this call, and everybody who's going to listen to this at one time, think about this. Are you present for every conversation? In fact, I would suggest to you that our job, according to this particular study which came out in 2013, The State of the American Workplace, our job to build a sales culture begins with making sure that every employee understands how his or her job affects the customer experience. Let me reframe that for you if I could just real quickly. Not just the customer experience, make sure that every employee understands how his or her job impacts the customer's decision to say yes to an order, because this directly and unambiguously impacts the entire organization as does our ability to be present. In fact, I'll suggest to you the best sales tool people have, especially those who say sales, not my job. I'm just the. The best sales tool we have are our eyes, because you see your colleagues, your customers, your coworkers, your community. They see things that you don't that will help make things different, better, efficient, more profitable. Have we created a sales culture where people can speak up without penalty and say, listen, I have an idea so that this customer will do something with us? The people on the manufacturing lines are often the best sales people, because they see firsthand the impact of decisions. Now, if we have a culture where people can go from, I see this opportunity to speaking up, that's the beginning of a sales culture, because if we limit those conversations, then we leave money on the table. So my belief is simple. People do not wake up in the morning and say, I am proud to be overhead. We have got to make sure that people understand that in a sales culture, what you do matters, and what you do impacts a customer's decision to say yes. So I'd like you to write this down if you would please, because this is where I believe it begins to get summed up. And I talk about this in the first book. When we build a sales culture, and we talk about leveraging those conversations, and turning them into revenue, and every conversation is a selling moment, and it impacts the customer, it really comes down to this. In anybody's job, I don't want them to do anything different. I want them to think differently about what they do. I want them to think about what they do in the context of, is this eventually going to make its way to a customer's desk? You see, it doesn't matter what we do, if people don't see the impact on our business, and the client's business. Now check this out, and the client's client's business. I have advised clients for years. If you want to have a very impactful conversation, don't talk about their business. Talk about how what you are going to do is going to help their clients make money. They will open up and have a very different, more deeper, and personal conversation with you. There may be some of us on this call who remember the Rubik's Cube. And I will share with you that the Rubik's Cube is a great analogy for a sales culture. You see the Rubik's Cube on the left has all the colors lined up which is the solved Rubik's Cube. And the goal, as those of you who know what a Rubik's Cube is, is to take it from the one on the right, and make it look like the one on the left by twisting and turning it. The problem is, the solved Rubik's Cube is an analogy for an organization without a sales culture, a dysfunctional organization. It's siloed, and it's obvious why. If you think about the colors representing different people's roles, everybody is saying, hey, I'm just hanging with my peeps. Sales, not my job. I'm just the. The other Rubik's Cube is permanently unsolved, because we are constantly moving it to invite people into the conversation, because we need what they do to help us help the customer say yes. Now, as we begin to wrap this up a little bit, I want to share with you that there are three gears of sales culture behavior. There are three gears that are interlocked, and they are required to build a sales culture. Now in deference to our time together today, I'm only going to discuss one which is value proposition. If you'd like to learn about the other two, there's plenty of information out there on my website. You're welcome to reach out to me. I'll share all my contact information at the very end of this. When we talk about value proposition, it harkens back to the days of the elevator pitch. And the elevator pitch was an old thing, an old-style method of sales where you got onto an elevator with somebody, and you had 30 to 45 seconds to impress them. And here's what people did. They got on an elevator, and someone would ask, the number one most asked business question, what do you do? And the poor victim would say, well, this is what I do. And they would kind of verbally vomit on them for about 30 to 45 seconds. And you had 30 seconds to impress. Well, here's the deal, ladies and gentlemen. Those days are gone forever. The number one most asked business question that sets the stage for conversation which allows people to talk about how what they do that's going to impact the customer begins with our value proposition, how we answer that question, what do we do? And today, we no longer have the elevator. In fact, the elevator is broken. It's out of service. It's never going to open again. We have 7 to 10 seconds to get people to say, tell me more. What does that mean? I don't understand what you just said, and I'd like to continue to talk with you. Because you see, when we ask people what they do, and they lead with their title or their company, it's like the image you're seeing in front of you right now with that music, nobody cares. You see, when we talk about value proposition or the what do you do statement, what I'm asking you is what do you do so I can begin to talk with you, not to you, not tell you anything, talk with you to build a relationship so that together I understand that I know when to call on you to help me help a customer say yes. So when we talk about value proposition, it's really about answering the question, why should I engage you? Not what your title is, because frankly, I don't care about titles. And I'll share with you ladies and gentlemen, as somebody who has been out of work in transition, and had a very, very large title with a very large software company, and was told one day to leave the company because of something somebody said to me which was, you're fired. I went out into the world and I knew that I had to help people understand why they should engage me, because my title was meaningless. Think about the people in your organization. Don't think of them as titles. Think of them as people that help the customer say yes. They're members of your Rubik's Cube. If colleagues don't know what you do, then your clients won't either. Your clients do not want to talk to title. They want to talk to somebody that they have a relationship with, and that relationship begins with, what do you do? In fact, the acid test if you will, is do you resonate with the people around you? When I tell you what I do, and I can say, wow, tell me more, now you know that you have a winning value proposition. Do people get you, and do they keep you top of mind? Another rule of thumb for your value proposition, that first year of sales culture behavior mindset, is it has to be what's called agnostic. Your value proposition has to be agnostic, because it needs to be about you. Now that may sound obvious, and you may be rolling those eyes a little bit saying, hey Todd, no kidding. Allow me to explain what this means. You see, your value proposition has to be from your gut, from your heart. What do you actually do? You see, when people ask me, hey Todd, what do you do? I don't always say, I'm a speaker, I'm an author, because frankly, I'm not sure people really care. What I do say, friends, is that, well my name is Todd Cohen. I build sales culture. Well, they're like, what does that mean? But you see now, in that first 7 to 10 seconds, I have them. I have the beginning of a conversation, and that conversation is now mine to own, to take that individual on a journey, so I can begin to build a relationship. And that relationship leads to a mutual understanding of what we do, and how we do it, and why we do it. So how do you learn your value proposition? Well, it's called vulnerability is nobility. So I'll tell you this story fairly quickly. In 2008, after I left my position at a very large global software company, and I was an executive vice president, the economy was just about tanking 2008 and 2009. Hi everyone. It's Todd Cohen again. I apologize for that. My line went dead, and I'm on a landline here. So I hope you can all hear me, and I'd like to just pick up real quickly where I was going from, where I was headed actually, and it's this idea about building a sales culture and learning your value proposition which is all about vulnerability is nobility. And ladies and gentlemen, as I was saying a moment ago, I actually walked into the office of the CEO that I had been consulting with, and I asked a very direct question. And I said, what is it you think that I do? And that ladies and gentlemen, was the beginning of my career because he said to me, you've helped us build our sales culture. You see, we can't define what it is we do without asking people how they see us. So the notion of building your value proposition through vulnerability is nobility is a critical one. The picture I have up on screen right now is something near and dear to my heart. It's a picture of me, my college graduation. And on the right was my father. His name was Marvin Cohen. Now he passed away in 1989. And I'll share with you that my dad, my father was a phenomenal, phenomenal salesperson. And he had a value proposition that was spectacular. And that value proposition, when people asked him, what is it that you do? Now he was a wedding photographer. And when people asked him what he did, he said, well, I make people smile. You see, that never failed to promote conversation. So my question to you all is when you think about your value proposition, what do you do that gets people to say, tell me more? What do the people around you in your organization do, and them say, tell me more? That's the building block. That is the building block of building a sales culture. So what's your call to action for this webinar today? What do you need to do next? Well, there's quite a bit actually. And I would suggest to you three things. One, think differently about every single conversation. Think about how every conversation impacts the customer's decision to say yes. Second of all, I would call it the new ABC of converting conversations. And if you think about it, when I first started this, I talked about this notion of – I'm hoping you can all hear me. I'm hoping the new ABC of converting conversations which is suggest something, ask for something, and then ask, how are we doing? And then finally, be proactive about every single interaction. Be proactive about every conversation. In fact, I would suggest to you that sales, sales culture is your new brand. So I hope that this webinar has been helpful. I hope that you have gained some knowledge and some insight. If you would like more information, and if you would like to get a complimentary sales culture special report called, Sales Culture, It Takes a Company, just email me at Todd at ToddCohen.com. And then in the subject line, please put special report please. If you would like to learn more about what I do, you can certainly visit my website. And you can talk about, or you can sign up for my newsletter. And certainly, there's lots of great free information there that is for everybody. And I invite you all to connect with me via LinkedIn, or Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever it might be. I wish you all good luck, great luck in building your sales culture, and helping people understand how what they do impacts a customer's decision to say yes. So I hope that this, again, I hope this has been helpful. I am done. And Liz, I will turn it back over to you.

sales culture

customer decision

mindset shift

behavior change

breaking down silos

collaboration

selling moment

relationship building

value proposition