ThinkSales™ is a company-wide program whose leaders fervently believe all employees provide value, regardless of position, power or influence in the company. These leaders follow the Pygmalion philosophy that models a predictable way of acting towards others. Taken a step further, ThinkSales extends to team behavior.

When employees view all their teammates as collaborators and seek each other out, in cross-departments, they routinely find innovative solutions to every-day challenges and output automatically increases. They become creative, actively seek ideation, and are more consistently effective and productive in their thinking.

The primary result of a ThinkSales culture is that ALL employees, regardless of position, drive sales. They understand that each of them plays a role in satisfying customers. This type of culture enhances every marketing effort by increasing support from every employee. Selling your product or service is only one part of the equation. How well do you deliver? What follow-up formula is in place to insure satisfaction? As your company grows, are your employees offering up the systems you need to run like a well-oiled machine? You can’t be everywhere and watch everything!

Employees who empower each other to think creatively, engage differently and promote shared responsibility. When you seek deliberate innovation by bringing your staff together for professional development workshops, sales training and retreats, you  teach them collaboration is essential. You send the message they are valued and imperative to the process. Their communication with each other, and you, naturally improves. They willingly bring you innovative solutions that result in new growth. A go-to process offers them a way to think about the issue before involving you.  No longer are your people simply ‘working’. They become contributors, take risks and are happier. Check out Tasty Catering and their well-known team model.

10 questions leaders should ask:

  1. What is my preference for creative thinking: Am I a Clarifier, Ideator, Developer or Implementer?
  2. What thinking preferences exist among my employees? If I knew, would it make a difference?
  3. Do we have a proven creative problem solving process in place?
  4. As leader of my company, am I encouraging innovation?
  5. Are my employees afraid to risk failure?
  6. How do we effectively train all our employees to ThinkSales?
  7. Do we have a culture of mediocrity or are we actively striving for excellence?
  8. In what ways do we teach new hires our ThinkSales philosophy?
  9. When we initiate a new marketing project or activity do we seek support across all departments and levels?
  10. Is every employee an integral part of the business development team and do they know it?

Now ask yourself, “Could implementation of a ThinkSales culture throughout the organization impact our bottom line? Could it increase our forward moving trajectory? Might it make our employees happier and impact recruitment and retention?”

You are right to consider this carefully. Learn more about our Executive Coaching, ½ Day and Full-Day ThinkSales Workshops and Retreats available for your organization.  For more information, contact Gail Zelitzky, 773-957-8582, gail@gailzelitzky.com or visit gail@gailzelitzky.com.