Ray daSilva from IAM Mobility Exchange offers the first in a series of three articles focussing on selling for moving professionals.
In his article ‘In Praise of Selling’ in the June 2024 issue of The Mover Magazine, Steve Jordan asked why sales in our industry was not being given the proper priority and respect, given its undeniable importance in a moving company’s success, and encouraged the moving industry to increase its focus on sales training.
I have always considered myself a student of sales in my over 40-year career in the moving industry and so I greatly appreciate any effort to highlight the importance of sales. I do wonder though if the industry has not really given sales the adequate focus that it needs, or has the effects/results of sales training just been limited to a receptive subset of the industry, The Twenty Per Cent, all this time?
The Pareto Principle
Most of you must have heard of the Pareto Principle by now. It states that roughly 80% of the results or consequences are driven by 20% of the causes. In sales, we can apply this to say that 80% of the sales are generated by 20% of the salespeople.
It is this 20% of the industry that understands the importance of the art of sales. They focus on it as a priority and commit resources to the talent management, information technology, training, and management aspects of sales.
Steve suggests that the industry lacks sales training resources. This might have been true at another time but if we look at the available opportunities now, the situation is not as dire anymore. Not only do industry associations sponsor online and live training opportunities, many organisations including van lines, forwarders, larger enterprises, and a host of independent sales trainers provide general sales training as well as moving industry specific sales courses.
It may not be a lack of resources but the Pareto Principle in action, again.
Steve’s point that our industry would be well served if a higher percentage of our community understood the ‘Art of Sales’ is something I wholeheartedly agree with and support and so to this end, I have offered to help raise awareness of it by contributing a series of articles on the subject to The Mover Magazine. The series starts here with this idea: Stop Selling ...
Photo: Ray daSilva, IAM Mobility Exchange.
Click here to read the full story in The Mover magazine.