Sales Tiger

This afternoon I attended a thoroughly positive event - Sales Tiger 2009, organised for the fifth year running by Dienas bizness and Mercuri International. In my view, taking part in such a competition is primarily good advertising for the company and a confidence-building exercise for the salesperson.

The finalists at the competition's closing event are mainly competing for the audience's sympathies, since the jury has already delivered its verdict after all the selection rounds. Looking on from the sidelines and assessing the significance of this event, it seems that for a participant it matters less to win than to reach the top five finalists - and thereby get a chance to speak to and tell a wider audience about their own and their team's sales achievements. In other words, to demonstrate their art of selling by "selling themselves" to the listeners. ("What people buy when they buy from you is exactly you!" K. Hogan)

Although the host mentioned right at the start that none of the participants is a professional presenter, and therefore no attention should be paid to blunders, mistakes, or awkwardness in the delivery. True, we are all only human - but a good salesperson, in my view, must already radiate something from the very start, in their gestures, their intonation, their words, that makes you want to listen to them and, whatever they may be saying, makes you want to believe them. It is not so much the clever strategies that "land", nor the numbers that pleasantly surprise, but rather the ability to recognise one's own strengths and weaknesses and to use them effectively in reaching one's goal.

When working with a client, you must create a liking for yourself - and by extension for the company you represent - whatever your true intentions may be: whether you plan to tear into the prize like a tiger or gnaw your way through a successfully won cabbage leaf like a rabbit. We are all different - some people are captivated by drive, decisiveness, assertiveness, and ambition; others by warmth, openness, helpfulness, and a buddy-to-buddy approach. A salesperson's flexibility and ability to adapt not only to the client's type but also to the environment and situation is always commendable. So, attending the Sales Tiger event for the second time, I was looking mainly for inspiration from the best salespeople, rather than for recipes for team-building, results analysis, or customer relationship improvement measures (separate seminars or conferences are useful for such things). What interests me is the salesperson's personal charisma - roughly speaking, 60% of it is a gift of nature, 40% is developed through life and through selling.

I liked the way Ģirts spoke with the audience rather than merely to them. His tiger's leap up two steps onto the platform was very evocative. :) And if dropping a pen on the floor or casually bringing along a CD as a little gift helps achieve the result, then why not. If the inner drive is "achieve a good result and then pass it on, or leave it and move on" - then that is his position and not merely a quote, for example, from Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World. I liked Edijs's insight that the client actually buys a hole and not a drill. If a salesperson intuitively feels this, there is a 99% guarantee of making a successful sale.

I don't actually know which of the contenders won the audience's sympathies, as unfortunately I was unable to stay until the end of the event. However, the winner of the title Sales Tiger 2009 this year is the business development director of Stenders soap factory, Gundega Cepleviča, whose main contribution lies in the active application of the franchise business model, expanding the company's operations into new geographical markets (particularly in China). From the history books (so the people know their heroes): Roberts Krusts, Sales Director of Elko Group AS (Sales Tiger 2008); Ingemārs Liakovičus, Board Member of furniture manufacturer De novo (Sales Tiger 2007); Antra Eglīte, Head of the Sales Department of BCH Retail SIA (Sales Tiger 2006); Uģis Zemturis, Deputy Chairman of the Board and Head of the Customer Service Division of Hansabanka AS (Sales Tiger 2005).