189: Les Lent — The Profession of Sales
People get into sales because they’re great at talking, but once they’re in it, they realize they also need to be good at listening. Once they have these two things down, the final step is to have a repeatable process so that you can close deal after deal, seamlessly.
Les Lent has over 20 years of experience as a sales professional, manager, and leader. He has helped scale his sales department from $30 million to over $300 million in annual revenue. Les has led teams of seven to 70 and is the author of, The Profession of Sales. He is currently working on his second book, Two Things Holding You Back.
Les failed at his first sales job. He struggled over a year to get the hang of things before finally quitting and starting a new career field. Fast forward 10-15 years later and Les realized he could become good at this and he started to teach himself the sales process. When he learned that there was a method to the madness, he succeeded.
Your sales book will change and grow as your organization does, but the importance of this book is to develop consistency in the sales process. This makes it easier for you to grow when your entire sales staff is on the same page.
A lot of companies will have part of their business process set up in a way where it is duplicatable, but the sales teams are often the last department that gets that kind of attention. And in the cases where they might have a sales process, salespeople are so strict in following the process, — the script — that when you get a lead that doesn’t fit the mold, they blunder it.
Interview Links: Leslent.com Les on LinkedIn The Profession of Sales, by Les Lent
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