Farewell Zig Ziglar

Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar died in Texas on Wednesday, aged 86. He had been suffering from pneumonia.

He wrote more than 30 books and and was well known for is corporate training and motivational speeches. 

"See you at the Top" was not only his catchphrase but also the title of his first book.

I have included here a copy of Seth Godin's blog that outlines the great inspiration Zig Ziglar was.

Thank you, Zig
My teacher Zig Ziglar died this morning. He was 86.
Thanks for teaching me how to sell and why it mattered.
Thanks for reminding me how much it mattered to care.
Thanks for telling us a fifteen-minute story about Johnny the Shoe Shine Genius, so compelling that I flew to the airport just to meet him.
Thanks for 72 hours of audiotapes, listened to so many times I wore out the cassettes twice.
Thanks for that one day we spent backstage together in Milwaukee.
Thanks for making goal setting so clear.
Thanks for elevating the art of public speaking, and making it personal, not something to be copied.
Thanks for believing in us, the people you almost never met in person, for supporting us with your voice and your stories and your enthusiasm.
Thanks for teaching so many people, people who will continue to remember you and to teach as well.
You'll be missed.

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What is it that all good sales people have?

In our sales lab we know that high performance sales comes from training and developing good sales people through four specific stages.

1. Build a sales process
2. Conduct activity around that process
3. Develop 'swagger' from the wins and losses of your activity
4. Create sales effectiveness and efficiency through refinement.

That's how to be a good salesperson, develop a high performing sales team, start a restaurant or grow a business.

In our minds, we see the 'swagger' as being the key enabler of a good sales person. Although the word swagger can often convey arrogance or an overly assertive manner when it comes to sales people, we keep coming back to it. For the record, swagger means: 'to walk with a swaying motion; hence, to walk and act in a pompous, consequential manner'.

Call it whatever you like, but there's no doubt certain qualities make a good sales person stand out from the crowd. The characteristics of a good sales person, are hard to describe and unquestionably rare.

Good sales people, with exceptional talent, usually have a sense of calm urgency, a coolness matched with persuasion, confidence with empathy and directness with rapport. All behaviours that would seem at odds in the dictionary but perfectly describe what we call 'swagger' or 'sales essence'.

If you have a better word to describe these sales cats, please let us know.

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