Joe Galvin on The Growing Gap Between Good and Great in Sales Organizations – Episode #20

It’s a wonderful thing to be part of a good sales organization, but what does it look like to be part of a world class sales organization, the truly great ones? Joe Galvin is part of a sales and marketing research and training organization that conducts studies that dig into the practices of sales organizations across the board. In their recent report, “The Growing Gap Between Good And Great” we find some very revealing things about what the truly great organizations do that make them truly great. Most of them are common sense on one level, but that doesn’t mean they are easy to implement or build into the culture of a sales organization. On this episode Anthony chats with Joe about the report to glean the high level insights from the research so that you can build not just a better sales organization, but a great one!

3 dominant behaviors of world class sales organizations, on this episode of In The ArenaClick To Tweet

3 dominant behaviors or great sales organizations.

While there are many similarities between good and great sales organizations, research has discovered 3 primary areas where the great ones shine. Those three areas are: A customer-core, a collaborative culture, and calibrated success. The three work hand in hand, in that order, to enable world class organizations to build a culture and a strategy that truly understands and meets the needs of the customer in a cohesive way. You can find out more details about each of those traits and hear Joe Galvin’s explanation of how they work in a world class sales organization, on this episode.

What does it really mean for a sales organization to be customer focused?

If you ask most sales managers if their organization is customer focused, you’ll get a very quick, “yes” answer. But is it true? You can look at the way they strategize and create their sales presentations to find out. A truly customer focused organization will do the hard work of getting outside the organization and into the customer’s world so they can truly understand the customer’s needs and desires. That is how they are able to not only create products and services that help their customers where they live and breathe, but also service them in ways that maintain good relationships and promote customer loyalty.

Why dominant sales organizations focus dominantly their customers, on this episodeClick To Tweet

Relationships matter in the sales process.

For a long time the mantra in sales has been to “lead with the pitch.” But Joe Galvin believes that’s an approach that is less and less effective. Why? Because everybody has a pitch and customers are becoming more savvy to the way a pitch is made. They don’t care so much about your product or service right off the bat, they care about whether you will care for them and their needs more than anything else. That’s where relational capital comes in. Sales professionals have to spend the time building relationship with customers so that the pitch is backed up by personal trust and commitment. It’s a no-lose approach that Joe’s research supports.

The research shows that the easy answer to sales success is the hardest answer.

Anthony has observed that sales professionals are prone to the “shiny object” syndrome, looking to the next fancy piece of software or system to increase their sales numbers in a “simple and easy” way. But what he’s long thought is that there is no easy way – at least not like that. The only “easy” way is to truly understand and take care of your customers, which turns out to be the hardest work of all. You can hear how Anthony and his guest, Joe Galvin approach that issue and how Joe’s research supports Anthony’s conclusion, on this episode of In The Arena.

Why the customer is at the core of world class sales organizations, on this episodeClick To Tweet

Outline of this great episode

Anthony’s introduction of Joe Galvin and his background in sales.
3 dominant behaviors of world class sales organizations.
Why it is sometimes easier to count the things we can count instead of looking externally to our customers.
How internal collaboration impacts the effectiveness of a sales organization.
The benefits of collaborative organizations in a variety of areas.
The importance of strategic relationships VS. leading with the pitch.
How research shows that the easy answer is the hardest answer.
How you can get a copy of the report for yourself.