Actionable Strategies to Kickstart Your 2023 Staffing Teams

Growth Mindset to Boost Your Teams and Business Growth for 2023.

Attracting the right sales talent can be a difficult challenge for business leaders working on expanding their teams. Members of a staffing and consulting team aren’t meant to be software engineers or master IT experts. However, they need to know enough about the industry to be able to build and nurture a successful sales team. This is paramount. This process can be difficult to implement, despite being straightforward, though we have a few tidbits of advice to help jumpstart your 2023 to accelerate your efforts.

Casey Jacox, a Sales & Executive Leadership Coach, and author, has some actionable strategies to kickstart your sales teams. The first is that for long-term success, sales leaders need a growth mindset. They must embrace a combination of vulnerability, humility, and curiosity as part of their business process. There might be a bit of overlap between the three keywords, but they all help guide a comprehensive approach to the sales business practice.

Let’s jump straight into the discussion by first discussing how vulnerability can help develop key skills to make a successful sales team in your company and encourage a growth mindset:

Vulnerability

Business leaders must also actively find ways to build leadership and instill healthy leadership practices within your company’s team, according to Jacox. It’s impossible for the person (or people) in charge to know everything, but accepting vulnerability fosters a more creative workplace. Don’t be afraid to bounce ideas off your team, ask for feedback, and show that collaboration and learning are valuable components to long-term success.

The ability to understand past frustrations or struggles during a project creates new avenues for future victories. To this point, a successful leader likely started out as consciously competent – learning a new task and practicing to fully hone skills – until it becomes an unconsciously competent activity that no longer requires extra attention or focus.

Another strategy, Jacox recommends, is the need to use less of “business swear” words that include terms like “need to,” “should do,” “have to,” “want to,” and “can’t,” which should be replaced with: “I will!” Using Swear words only increases anxiety and creates a scenario that leads to an end goal that doesn’t have a realistic plan. Instead, working “I will” into common vocabulary forces you to have achievable action items – and increases the likelihood of a roadmap to complete those action items.

Even though avoiding business swear words might seem trivial, it could be the building block to larger changes that benefit your team. Give it a try!

Humility

Another component of a growth mindset is humility. This one seems off-putting as we are taught to be confident in business. Remember that selling is never an easy activity, regardless of whether it is a service or product being offered. Although some industries might rely on recurrent training and learning for employees, sales and consulting tend to be trial by fire. Each interaction with a customer or prospective customer is the moment to learn from past interactions – and that isn’t always the best practice.

Both successful sales cycles – and projects that fell short of expectations – can be used as valuable learning experiences. Sales leaders must instill a mindset that practice makes perfect among their teams, but there is a time to just sit back, be patient, and listen. Keep in mind there is a difference between hearing and listening – listening can build better relationships, based on what is heard. Setting ego aside and ingrained habits to embrace humility can enhance one’s ability to learn, listen, and implement from past mistakes.

Active listening to a prospect’s business challenges is an important strategy before providing any potential pitches for products or services. There shouldn’t be a rush to try to close a deal before you fully understand the best workable solutions for your customer that would benefit them most.

Curiosity

Jacox also warns against becoming complacent. Companies cannot just stand back and display weariness or an acceptance of maintaining, instead of growing their day-to-day business operations. They need to remain alert and curious. This is Jacox’s personal motto, “Stay Curious!”

Curiosity is a vital part of the sales process and of a growth mindset. The best slide deck/ presentation does not mean anything without a verifiable story behind it. A success story resonates better with a consultant or client because it provides a complete example of an actual resolution your company was able to provide.

Another aspect of curiosity is selecting the correct type of questions to ask. Avoid closed questions typically yielding simple yes or no answers with little chance of a follow-up. Instead, ask open questions, which encourage dialogue and back-and-forth chatter to keep both parties engaged. You should also be careful to avoid asking two or more questions in a single question. Slow down and create space for a conversation to develop while nudging the conversation along how you see fit based on responses.

Ultimately, curiosity comes down to an ability to solve business problems by understanding your client(s) wants, needs, and business issues. It may take a bit of effort to challenge clients to think through their problems. Asking the right questions, while presenting an opportunity for them to speak freely, proves invaluable during this part of the process.

Final Thoughts

Strategies to identify and implement successful sales programs will always be an immense challenge for companies. Making sure to embrace various aspects of vulnerability, humility, and curiosity can greatly benefit your company in the long-term – but it certainly takes patience, practice, and a consistent attitude to move forward.

Jacox, reminds us that there are no easy shortcuts that lead to overnight success. Overlooked ideas such as creating the right mindset in the workplace tends to be a choice that can be developed and worked on. No one is perfect but there is no excuse not to work with a growth mindset, with lessons being learned from multiple angles.

All the analytics, software, and modern tools available won’t make a bit of difference if the mentality and culture – both of which can be adjusted – aren’t continually modified. Building a successful business is a never-ending process, so be sure to learn from the wins and losses that your team endures throughout the journey.

You can find more Indepth details about these strategies in the recording of Casey Jacox’s webinar. Members can view it here

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