The Shift Control Sales Podcast

Over the last number of weeks I have made some casual references to GlenGarry GlenRoss. Great movie, great acting, poor sales advice.

In his book To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink talks about the new ABCs of sales - Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity.

The thing is that whilst the book is brilliant - the new ABCs are not all that new...in fact the same lessons have been around since GlenGarry GlenRoss and maybe before.

Not to take anything away from Pink, this podcast reframes the new ABCs in a more down to earth way.

Over the last number of weeks I have made some casual references to GlenGarry GlenRoss. Great movie, great acting, poor sales advice.

In his book To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink talks about the new ABCs of sales - Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity.

The thing is that whilst the book is brilliant - the new ABCs are not all that new...in fact the same lessons have been around since GlenGarry GlenRoss and maybe before.

Not to take anything away from Pink, this podcast reframes the new ABCs in a more down to earth way.

I was prompted to record this podcast following the 2020 Oscars with warranted wins for both Joaquin Phoenix and Brad Pitt (amongst others) and their respective outstanding performances - including acceptance speeches.

This podcast is based around the 2002 movie, Moneyball, featuring Pitt as the GM of the Oakland Athletics Baseball team and how the introduction of data analytics as a player evaluation system helped the team almost win the World Series (of American only teams) in 2002.

It highlights the importance of measurement - specifically measurement of whats important to the end result and how that focus can be further honed in on what really matters.

Often in sales, the individual and team work hard at tasks that are ultimately unrelated to the success of the sale and the business.

If you know what's important and if it can be measured then the old saying "what gets measured gets done' comes in to play.

As an aside, it is a great movie - well worth a few hours of your time if you've not seen it already.

I hope you enjoy the podcast - all feedback welcome through www.shift-control.co.uk

I was prompted to record this podcast following the 2020 Oscars with warranted wins for both Joaquin Phoenix and Brad Pitt (amongst others) and their respective outstanding performances - including acceptance speeches.

This podcast is based around the 2002 movie, Moneyball, featuring Pitt as the GM of the Oakland Athletics Baseball team and how the introduction of data analytics as a player evaluation system helped the team almost win the World Series (of American only teams) in 2002.

It highlights the importance of measurement - specifically measurement of whats important to the end result and how that focus can be further honed in on what really matters.

Often in sales, the individual and team work hard at tasks that are ultimately unrelated to the success of the sale and the business.

If you know what's important and if it can be measured then the old saying "what gets measured gets done' comes in to play.

As an aside, it is a great movie - well worth a few hours of your time if you've not seen it already.

I hope you enjoy the podcast - all feedback welcome through www.shift-control.co.uk

One of the best known and most referenced #sales clips from the movies must be GlenGarry Glenross...if you're in sales you will have seen the clip by Alec Baldwin, if not the entire show.

The Anti-Salesman 7 minute piece by Baldwin is superb as is the entire movie, based on the David Mamet play and nominated for a bunch of oscars in 1992.

What I talk about in this podcast is the link between the acting and sales, rather than the language or the script itself.

How can sales people perform better if they are unable to hear or see how they currently perform or behave...it goes beyond mystery shopping and call listening. It's about understanding why you need thoroughly analyse recordings....just like football managers do on 'any given Sunday' or like actors do every day to ensure they're working to their best.

If you want to improve will you do what it takes?

I hope you enjoy - please get in touch by email on [email protected]

One of the best known and most referenced #sales clips from the movies must be GlenGarry Glenross...if you're in sales you will have seen the clip by Alec Baldwin, if not the entire show.

The Anti-Salesman 7 minute piece by Baldwin is superb as is the entire movie, based on the David Mamet play and nominated for a bunch of oscars in 1992.

What I talk about in this podcast is the link between the acting and sales, rather than the language or the script itself.

How can sales people perform better if they are unable to hear or see how they currently perform or behave...it goes beyond mystery shopping and call listening. It's about understanding why you need thoroughly analyse recordings....just like football managers do on 'any given Sunday' or like actors do every day to ensure they're working to their best.

If you want to improve will you do what it takes?

I hope you enjoy - please get in touch by email on [email protected]

In many sales coaching and sales training sessions we focus on creating a high performance sales team usually siting high performing sports stars and teams.

That got me thinking about some of the fundamental differences in HP in sport and also in business - with recovery, mental/ emotional well being and training as areas were there is often no cross over.

I have mentioned many sources and references before that I have read and that I am curious about - Damian Hughes being one obvious - but others include Anders Ericsson (I always call him Anders Anderson for some reason) Geoff Colvin, 'Talent is Overrated' as well as The Talent Code, Bounce, Outliers.

There are many sources for HP sport, Flow state and improvement etc...but not so often fro business and in particular sales.

I see the following as being important:

- culture

- talent acquisition

- leadership

- shared vision

- surroundings and environment

- teamship

- hard work

- training (coaching and mentoring)

Recovery? Never considered it. Stress? I've felt it for sure but do we plan to mitigate against or are we really dedicated to wellbeing?

I'm as curious about your thoughts on this subject as ever before - I know this podcast contains a lot of my thoughts - much of it isn't in order, but thats how I have been recording these sales podcasts.

Anyway.

Email on [email protected]

Thanks for reading.

Paul

In many sales coaching and sales training sessions we focus on creating a high performance sales team usually siting high performing sports stars and teams.

That got me thinking about some of the fundamental differences in HP in sport and also in business - with recovery, mental/ emotional well being and training as areas were there is often no cross over.

I have mentioned many sources and references before that I have read and that I am curious about - Damian Hughes being one obvious - but others include Anders Ericsson (I always call him Anders Anderson for some reason) Geoff Colvin, 'Talent is Overrated' as well as The Talent Code, Bounce, Outliers.

There are many sources for HP sport, Flow state and improvement etc...but not so often fro business and in particular sales.

I see the following as being important:

- culture

- talent acquisition

- leadership

- shared vision

- surroundings and environment

- teamship

- hard work

- training (coaching and mentoring)

Recovery? Never considered it. Stress? I've felt it for sure but do we plan to mitigate against or are we really dedicated to wellbeing?

I'm as curious about your thoughts on this subject as ever before - I know this podcast contains a lot of my thoughts - much of it isn't in order, but thats how I have been recording these sales podcasts.

Anyway.

Email on [email protected]

Thanks for reading.

Paul

This episode follows a week that included a 20 minute session at a an exhibition at Croke Park.

A hugely successful event which saw a lot of people take time out from their busy days generating revenue to spend 2-3 hours at the North Dublin home of the GAA.

I learnt a lot this week about high performance in sales against high performance in sport and how important it is to fully understand the levels YOUR TEAM can operate comfortably at.

From a sales training perspective it was a busy week - the highlight being my 20 minutes at Croker which reminded me about the importance of value and making an emotional deposit before you ever thing about making any withdrawals.

This episode follows a week that included a 20 minute session at a an exhibition at Croke Park.

A hugely successful event which saw a lot of people take time out from their busy days generating revenue to spend 2-3 hours at the North Dublin home of the GAA.

I learnt a lot this week about high performance in sales against high performance in sport and how important it is to fully understand the levels YOUR TEAM can operate comfortably at.

From a sales training perspective it was a busy week - the highlight being my 20 minutes at Croker which reminded me about the importance of value and making an emotional deposit before you ever thing about making any withdrawals.