Good morning everyone,
I hope that you are into Saturday reflecting on all the opportunities that have come your way and that this blog is giving you some ideas to think about and build upon. If you see something in the blogs that you would like more information on, feel free to reach out. I am here for you guys. I want to add value any way I can. If you have questions feel free to also reach out as I would love to help you understand if I am being unclear. Keep in mind my education came as an engineer so sometimes I get very tactical and it can get unclear to some.
Having said that lets change up a little bit and discuss how the sales process is very similar to how influence works. I believe that to be successful at leadership you must have influence, not a position. One of the best leadership people of the past decade has been John Maxwell. I had the opportunity to get trained by him a couple of years ago on Leadership. He has authored many books and flies with groups of volunteers across the globe. I highly recommend his book 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. It is the basis of his curriculum and training.
What struck me while taking the training is how similar the sales process is to grow your influence. When I am working to gain influence and lead groups of people I notice how the steps of the sales process come into play. If you change sell to buy-in you can see how influence will be what you are selling. Getting people to buy in to your ideas, plan, coffee brand, etc Influence is there. Some have said you are influencing the market when your brand is so large that people use it as a verb in a sentence.
How often have you wanted to get some traction on a project and not be able to get all the people going with you. They have not bought into either you, your vision, or the plan. Having buy-in from people is crucial. I have worked on projects that have been so slow to get moving, but when I have gained enough influence with the people it almost seems to move itself forward.
Too often individuals are put into a position and think that people automatically need to follow them. I have been in that position and have seen people mentally check out. It is in John’s book that one of the first levels of leadership is position, but you need quite a bit more if you want to get people that will follow you into battle. Influence is that key to getting the gears moving. And when you have influence you can change cultures. I have attached a picture of the buying decisions reframed into the buy in decisions people make as you gain influence.
As side note, I have noticed that when I have loaded up pictures that they do not show up on the browser on my phone. I am still trying to figure that out, but if you look at this blog with your computer, you should be able to see the pictures.
As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises