Back @ IT: Challenging Traditional Sales Myths and Behaviors with Ken Lundin

Some sales approaches and processes have been implemented through the years. Many of these processes have had some success and proven quite useful for some time. However, many have fallen by the wayside with the rise of digital business, social media, customer expectations, and more. As a result, these approaches have turned into sales myths and behaviors that are detrimental to organizations.

When the pandemic hit the world, some companies faced a crisis with their sales strategies. These companies hadn’t diversified their portfolio, or their staff, or thought that the way they had always done things would help them ride through the storm. This couldn’t be further from the truth. So, what can companies and sales teams do?

In this “Back @ IT” episode, I’m joined by Ken Lundin, the President of Ken Lundin & Associates where they challenge sales myths and old-school ways of thinking. We will chat about learning from misfortune, diversity and inclusion, re-thinking sales approaches, and more.

01:21: Ken Lundin shares his personal story of misfortune from 2008 and how this forced him to re-evaluate things.

04:32: How “failing forward” (nod to Gayle Keller) changed Ken’s outlook and two orientations that changed things for him.

The "maybes" in the middle [stink] ...where you just hold on to doing a thing too long

07:07: How did the pandemic impact the challenges people faced? Were they already there or were they exacerbated?

09:15: When corporate goals are being hit, then underperformers “have a cover”. When many things shifted over the past 18 months, “busy work” was exposed and doesn’t amaze folks.

The number one thing that [sales teams] do wrong [is] they don't truly understand their customers and their customers’ plight so that they can actually add value by exposing the latent pain, the unknown pain.

13:20: Customers will speak up when they realize you aren’t providing value to them. This can put you in a position where the customers are seeing you as a risk.

16:15: Many companies saw tremendous growth during the pandemic, but this was impacted by the industry you were in. 

19:06: The impact of technology tools in sales teams and needs to be evaluated as the sales teams grow. What worked for a team of 20 people, may not work for a team of 50 or 100. One tool that is helping salespeople identify how to write better email messages is called Lavender.

24:10: Technology needs to scale as the business scales for customer relationships and internal users of the tech tools.

26:06: Diversity and inclusion are changing how managers, leaders, and coaches are approaching business decisions. There are unique ways of looking at things that would have been possible without diverse though leadership.

Ken Lundin & Associates utilizes "The Sales Alpha Roadmap™" which focuses on

Launch (Match Product to Market)

Lift (Gain Sales Altitude)

Locate (Choose the Right Destination)

Level Flight (Seek Balance; Avoid Turbulence)

To learn more about Ken Lundin & Associates, check out their website.