Sprout!

Everything I Need to Know about Sales I Learned from My Garden

Alan Vengel, Greg Wright

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781609943929
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Ventas

Sales has always been a high burnout profession. These days, with the intense focus on quarterly earnings reports, there is more pressure on sales professionals than ever before. The relentless push for immediate results can leave salespeople exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why they ever got themselves into this business. And it can leave sales organizations with a serious turnover problem. SPROUT! was written by two long-time sales veterans to help their fellow professionals rediscover enthusiasm for their chosen profession and to help sales organizations retain top talent. Vengel and Wright use a page-turning story to outline a new strategy for sales, one that will make salespeople better able to cope with the inevitable ups and downs and take a more effective, long-term approach. As the book begins, Marsha Molloy has had it. Once a top pharmaceutical sales representative so crackerjack her nickname was Marsha Money, she's been laid low by a tough economy and just plain exhaustion. The once-hungry top producer has seemingly lost her touch and grown indifferent to a sales culture that appears to value faxes, emails, and cell phone chats instead of the relationship building that had been her forte. An avid gardener on a visit to her local nursery, Marsha runs into Bob Rawlings, the store's new owner and an ex-sales professional himself. They begin to chat, and Marsha mentions her career frustrations. Bob replies that he'd had the same problem, but found that the more he began treating his business like his garden, the better his business grew - and a happier, more relaxed salesman appeared. Marsha is intrigued but puzzled - how could sales be like gardening? Bob takes Marsha under his wing and, with the assistance of several other salespeople he's mentored, teaches her the secrets of his sales garden. By using the authors' sales garden metaphor to change their whole way of thinking about sales, and by adhering to the easy, practical steps outlined in SPROUT! salespeople can beat the career blues, increase their sales, and sustain themselves for the long term.

Planning a Sales Garden

The week passed without Marsha feeling any boost in energy. But as she got ready for her trip down to Rawlings Garden Supply to meet Gardener, she noted that things hadn’t grown worse, either.

“I’ll take my victories wherever I can get them,” she said to herself, reaching for her keys and heading out the door.

First stop was for coffee, and then straight to the garden store. At 8:55 she strode in, sipping some hazelnut-blend coffee with one hand and carrying a bag containing doughnuts and another cup of coffee in the other.

She spied Gardener with a customer, showing her a variety of garden hoses and sprinklers. The customer peppered Gardener with questions, but Marsha noticed that he answered each one patiently, with a friendly smile. The woman laughed in a delightful “Oh right, I should have thought of it that way” manner as Gardener walked her to the register with a spray nozzle and a new sprinkler head. She paid for her purchases, and Gardener smiled and waved at her as she gathered up her goods and walked out of the store.

“People,” he mused. “They never plan things out. They never have a vision.” Gardener glanced over at Marsha. “Why do you suppose that is?”

“I think they’re afraid to; it means they might have to think big, and people don’t want to do that— sometimes they want someone to do the big picture for them,” Marsha answered, handing Gardener the bag. “Careful,” she said, “there’s hot coffee inside.”

He deftly took out the coffee and placed it on the counter. “There’s something to that,” he said, blowing gently on it before taking a sip. “Come on, it’s a beautiful morning outside. Let’s take a walk out back and see some unusual new azaleas that just came in.”

Outside they went and headed down a path. They walked in silence for a moment, and then Gardener spoke. “Let me ask you something. You’re in sales. Ever hear much about ‘planning’ to sell?”

Marsha shrugged. “I don’t think so. You might have mentioned something last week. But prior to that—no.”

Gardener nodded. “Planning is a big, and often overlooked, component to the sales process. All it really means is to plan your personal vision for your garden and your sales career.”

“Planning, huh? You’ve really thought about this gardening thing, haven’t you?”

Sales Seeds

A successful sales career, just like a successful garden, needs a plan.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SALES

Gardener mulled over Marsha’s question. “Thought about it? I lived it during the last twenty years of my sales career. In fact, I’ve always approached my career like a gardener approaches a patch of land,” he said. “You evaluate the landscape and really examine things. You don’t simply start digging where you happen to be standing.”

He held up a pot of deep pink azaleas for Marsha to admire and then gently placed it back down. They walked farther down the path toward the camellias. “Like a good gardener, a salesperson should research the area for a location that’s easily accessible, has good light and good soil, and is close to a water source. She shouldn’t passively or carelessly adopt a sales strategy. She must lay the foundation and build a blueprint for selling, just as a good gardener chooses a good location to grow his vegetables.”

“She—meaning me?” asked Marsha.

“You’ll do for this example,” he said.

“But what does all that have to do with planning?”

“Everything,” Gardener replied. “You can’t have passion for something if you don’t respect it, if it doesn’t challenge you and make you play at the top of your game, using everything you have. I believe planning is meaningless without vision.”

Marsha shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, I know I’m feeling burned out, and I recognize that I’ve lost my passion for sales. But ‘personal vision’… I’m not sure I fully get it.”

Gardener laughed. “What have you got against envisioning what your garden looks like, or what your career might look like?”

“Nothing, I guess. Honestly, I don’t think about vision or planning too much. It’s just a little out there for me … I’ve always gotten through on common sense and hard work!

Gardener grinned. “Fair enough—it’s probably better that we start from scratch, anyway. That way we don’t have to, ah, unlearn anything.” He paused to straighten out some pots of perennials in a wheelbarrow and then move it back until it was out of the way. He wiped his hands on his pants and turned back to Marsha. “OK, so what’s your definition of vision?”

Marsha was perplexed. “I’m not sure where you’re going here.”

Gardener sighed. “OK. Do you have an idea of how you want your future to be? Have you ever thought about what you want to create with your life—with your sales career? Have you ever thought about why you are in this game?”

“Not really,” she answered, staring down at the ground. “Just give me my sales goals and cut me loose—that’s been my career!”

Gardener nodded. He was beginning to understand where she was coming from. “That’s the norm. So many salespeople go right to goals and forget what is really driving them. Heck, it’s easy to get burned out this way. Anyone would.”

Marsha looked up. “Yeah, but you’re asking all the questions here. Now it’s my turn. What’s your idea of vision?”

“I’ll tell you like I used to tell my colleagues at work. Vision is more than a vague idea of your future, or some pie-in-the-sky unachievable goal. Strong vision has details that are so real you can see it, taste it, and smell it. It’s one of the most real things you can have.”

Marsha looked at Gardener quizzically. “Keep going.”

Sales Seeds

For a vision to be motivating, you must be able to see it in detail.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SALES

“Once you have clarity about your personal vision, you should write it down and put it someplace where you can see it every day. It’s so exciting and so invigorating that just having it around on a yellow legal pad somewhere in your office will inspire you!” Gardener was quite animated now. “Isn’t that what a vision should mean?”

Marsha nodded. “Yeah, I see your point. You’re saying that by having a vision—a tangible one that I can sink my teeth into—it will inspire me and help me regain my passion.”

Gardener grinned. “And what else?”

“Well, propel me to action, hopefully.”

“Not hopefully,” Gardener replied. “Definitely.”

Marsha traced a circle in the dirt with the toe of her sneaker while she listened to Gardener. Passion, she thought, he had in spades. Probably vision, too. But she wasn’t sold—not yet. “Hey Gardener, what about my company’s vision? They’re the people who sign my paychecks, right? Shouldn’t they have a vision that I could use?”

“Don’t you know what your company’s vision is, Marsha?”

“Yeah,” she joked. “Churn and burn, baby.”

He laughed. “That’s good—but not what I meant exactly.” He thought for a moment, and then his face brightened. “Let’s try this: what’s your vision for the garden you’re starting? You know, how will everything turn out?”

“That’s easy,” she said, warming to the task. “I see a gorgeous panorama of color on a calm July morning. There are rows of deep green plants, tomatoes, carrots, and peppers. The soil is dark and rich. There are also the fire-engine-red roses that I planted last year. The aroma is wonderful as I stroll through my gar- den. It’s all beautiful, every square inch of it.”

Sales Seeds

Envision how you want your garden to grow, draw it, and put the drawing someplace where you will see it every day.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SALES

Gardener clapped his hands. “Now we’re getting somewhere! I can see your excitement coming through loud and clear as you describe it to me. But let’s take it up a notch.”

“How so?” Marsha asked.

“Tell me, how do you see yourself using that beautiful produce from your garden? And what do you see yourself doing with those vegetables? How will you use your new roses?”

Marsha cupped her chin in her hands, thinking a moment. “My husband and I love to entertain at small dinner parties, where everyone is involved in the cooking,” she said softly. “We’re all standing around in the kitchen talking and sipping some really good merlot. And on the table is a beautiful vase full of my red roses, with that wonderful aroma.”

“What happens next?”

“My guests love the roses and ask me how I grew them. They ask me how I grew such luscious red tomatoes and such succulent peppers. And you know what I tell them?”

“What’s that?” Gardener asked.

“That I had so much fun growing them, I hardly noticed how hard it was.”

Gardener let a moment pass for that point to resonate. “So imagine if we could translate that breathtaking vision you have of your real garden to your sales garden. What would we have, then?”

It was like one of those cartoons Marsha used to watch as a child, where a lightbulb popped on over someone’s head when he got an idea. “Oh, yeahhh,” she said, “my sales territory.” She bit her lip and mused for a moment. “Let’s try this: friendly, accessible customers who return my calls in ten minutes. Customers who buy 100 percent of their medical supplies from me and me alone.”

Gardener shook his head. “I said ‘vision,’ not ‘nirvana.’ Having perfect customers would be a little like taking your seeds in April, blindly scattering them to the four winds, and having everything come out perfect with no work or thought from you. How realistic is that?”

“Not very,” Marsha admitted.

“OK,” Gardener said. “So wouldn’t you get bored with such an easy life? Isn’t it the hard work and challenge of beating off the competition and really driving home a great customer solution that makes it fun for you?”

“That’s it,” Marsha thought. “The thrill of the chase.”

Gardener went on. “What if you were to build a sales activity plan that supports your vision to accomplish those tough tasks, easily and profitably?”

“I know what you’re driving at,” she said. “I’ve gotten so focused on the big-ticket sales in my top five accounts that I’ve almost stopped going for the building-block sales in my second- and third-tier accounts. After all, you need some of those in your garden, too. Solid, steady plants that consistently produce over time.”

Sales Seeds

Positive pictures give you energy and create optimistic feelings that will carry you through the day.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SALES

Gardener chuckled. “That’s what having a vision is all about. I remember a guy in my company—another territory—who was cruising along at 110 percent of sales quota with four major accounts. No worries, right? But then the bottom fell out when two of his accounts went through acquisitions and spending got really tight. He dropped from number six to number ninety-seven in the company sales rankings; it took him two years to recover. Why did this happen? Because he became so enamored of his results and numbers at his four key accounts that he completely neglected the rest of his garden. Then, when the big yielders failed to produce, he was in trouble. All because he forgot—or never had—clear personal vision.”

Marsha nodded. “Got it.”

“Good. So let’s try that vision again. This time, really see it, smell it, taste it.” After a moment he asked, “What are you doing? What does sales success look like?”

This time Marsha was ready. “Well, let’s see—I’m sitting with a good customer, having lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. We’re talking really easily; she’s asking my opinion of a new product. It’s not my area of expertise, but she values my point of view an...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• One: The Sales Garden
• Two: Planning a Sales Garden
• Three: Persistent Seeding
• Four: Nurturing Pays Off
• Five: Harvesting and Renewing
• Epilogue: New Beginnings
• The Sales Garden Model
• The Sales Garden Glossary