In one of my all-time favorite movies, Clint Eastwood articulates what might be the greatest salesperson’s motto ever – and he wasn’t even playing a salesman!
Okay, I admit it. I’ve never seen Clint Eastwood sell. I’ve also never seen him play a salesman in the movies, although I’m sure that at some point during his career, he’s had to do some selling to get a part, or to get a movie made. What I have seen Clint do is articulate one of the best sales philosophies I’ve ever seen.
One of my favorite movies is an early-80s piece called “Heartbreak Ridge,” starring Clint as Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway, a craggy Marine that’s committed to the Corps, but is too headstrong and rebellious to ever hold rank for long. Highway takes over a small band of misfits that he must whip into shape as a model Marine Recon unit. At one point, one of his charges asks him how to accomplish a challenge, and Highway growls, “You’re Marines. You adapt. You improvise. You overcome.” If “adapt, improvise, overcome” isn’t one of the most succinct selling philosophies around, I don’t know what is. Let’s look at what it means to a salesperson, shall we?
Adapting, as it applies to sales, should be the most natural part of our jobs. As much as we’d like to think, we don’t know everything. We’re not going to know everything. Our environment, both competitive and customer, changes constantly. Salespeople who don’t adapt simply don’t survive.
To adapt (change) to meet the needs of our environment, we must first understand what our environment is. We do that by acquiring information and knowledge. The best single source of that information, happily, is also the most important – our customers. When salespeople begin sales calls by asking questions to determine needs before presenting, they are adapting. In short, the essence of adapting in sales is to discover how your customer wants to buy – then create a way to sell that matches. Listen to your customers. They will tell you what you need to know.
Improvising is a very important skill for salespeople. Generally, “improvising” means creating something on short notice – or no notice. A good example in the entertainment world might be improvisational comedy, where the audience suggests a topic and actors make up a skit on the spot.
In sales, improvisation means changing our selling techniques, tactics, or presentation at a moment’s notice. If you’ve ever walked into a presentation where you anticipated an audience of one or two, then found that the entire executive committee decided to sit in, you know what I mean.
Improvisation can also be found in the salesperson who avoids canned sales “pitches,” but rather tailors his/her presentation and product offering to the client – and does so on the spot. That kind of salesperson is almost always guaranteed to be successful in sales, because he/she is speaking directly to the customer’s needs at all times.
The real key to improvisation is to be prepared for as many eventualities as possible. Know your stuff, and use the knowledge of your stuff, and you’ll be prepared to improvise.
Finally, salespeople must overcome obstacles in their path – but they must recognize those obstacles. Some salespeople turn selling into a contest between themselves and their customer. Not surprisingly, the customer usually wins, and the salesperson loses. Let’s be clear – the contest should NEVER pit the salesperson against the customer. The salesperson is pitted against any and all competitors or obstacles to helping the customer reach a beneficial buying decision. Note that “competitors” does not have to mean other companies that do what you do – “competition” can simply mean maintaining the status quo, doing whatever it is in-house as opposed to outsourcing, or anything else that serves as an alternative to buying what you have to sell.
If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend renting it. You’ll see Clint at his crustiest, and you’ll also see a pretty accurate sales philosophy played out in war guise.
