A Servant Mindset is Rocket Fuel for Sales Growth: Are You a Servant?

How often do you hear the key to success is customer service, yet this is one of the greatest struggles for many in sales?

I have a solution, but it requires more than a change of focus. It requires a change in purpose. The key driver to great customer service is to become a servant.

A sales servant is more than a visionary word change, it’s a mindset and belief change. It’s based on the purpose to serve versus reactive customer service. To become a servant YOU must change your mindset, discipline and heart.

Sales Professionals are Servant Leaders

True leadership is the ability to affect change and influence your clients, helping them to do better business. As the coach, you need a game plan, just as a general needs a plan of attack or someone running for office needs a platform. A true professional brings a proactive thought process to how they lead themselves.

One of the most influential people in the history of mankind, once said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must become a servant.” – Jesus of Nazareth

This perspective, however, smacks many in the face of how most people tend to live their lives. Most people don’t want to serve. They would much prefer to be served.

If you want to be ‘great’, if you want to be ‘successful’, learn to become a servant. Stop selling and start serving. Start by leading yourself.

I wholeheartedly believe:

• Servants make themselves available to serve;
• Servants pay attention to others needs;
• Servants do every task with equal dedication;
• Servants are faithful and they are trustworthy.

Servants Lead With Their Heart

There’s a massive difference between being a vendor who takes orders and being viewed as someone who brings value.

A vendor or customer mindset defaults to a defensive or reactive position. Many miss opportunities to help increase value by being able to build a dependable and mutually profitable relationship.

Adopting a servant leadership mindset takes a conscious effort by learning and committing to develop self-effectiveness.

• I want to please YOU
• I want to make YOU feel special
• Making YOU happy is not my job, it is my purpose!

A Heart That Serves Drives Sales Revenue

Those who lead with the heart help their clients discover how to make decisions and manage possible change by using their own values.

Sales rep who lead with the heart are avid listeners of the… Selling From The Heart Podcast.

Those who lead with the heart seek out authentic and genuine ways to continually serve those that mean the most to them, their clients!

A Servant Places Their Clients First

You must put your client’s perspectives and needs far ahead of your own agenda in order to give yourself any chance. Putting them first is not complicated. It’s about making them feel important and valued. If they need help, there should be absolutely no hesitation. If there’s a question, every effort should be made to answer it. If there’s a complaint, every effort should be made to rectify the problem immediately. Client satisfaction should be at the forefront in any reasonable situation.

Instead of worrying about being interesting, we need to first be interested. Develop empathy for your clients. Start to gain an understanding of what motivates them and how this can align with what you can deliver.

Remember, you’re in the outcome business. What memories and experiences are you delivering?

Your clients come first, no matter what, no ifs, ands or buts! This is the only way of doing business and living the sales life. If you take care of your clients, they’ll take care of you.

A Servant Seeks to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Listen closely to your clients. Seek to understand their needs, concerns, desires, issues, challenges and current initiatives. A sales rep sells products, a true professional sells a solution to the problem.

By seeking first to understand, you can turn a transactional opportunity into a transformational opportunity. Position yourself on the same side of the table looking at the problem instead of staying on opposite sides of the table staring at each other.

A Servant Seeks to Open Up Conversations

If you truly want to get to know your clients, you must take the sales hat off, roll up your sleeves and engage in healthy conversation.

Here lies a concern…

How many in sales are having meaningful conversations with their clients outside of the selling process?

The best of the best know how to bring conversation out in the open. It’s about uncovering the conversation your client is having with himself. This enables open and honest communication to what’s really going on providing the freedom to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship.

If your client’s don’t feel like they’re being heard or understood, they may withhold critical information as to where they really are within their buying decision, which may diminish or eliminate your ability to impact the outcome.

Develop conversations, not sales campaigns. It is not about your agenda, it is about opening up a human-to-human conversation. It is not about you, it is about helping them. Develop a sincere desire and demonstrate you’re interested in their world and what motivates them.

Win Their Hearts

In a business world where many in sales are viewed upon with negativity, an authentic, real-deal approach is a breath of fresh air. It may result in losing a few battles, but those who put their hearts and clients first are guaranteed to win the war.

• A servant sales rep has an authentic desire to serve;
• A servant sales rep is all in;
• A servant sales rep is focused on serving the needs of the person sitting in front of them.

Whoever wants to become a sales professional must become a SERVANT!