By Neil Phillips.

Connecting is often seen as one of those touchy-feely, squishy squashy soft things that you can’t prove or make it into a SMART goal. Whew!  All I have to say is:

Right.

Despite such an awful characterization, the ability to connect is important to successful leaders in direct sales.  For our upcoming book on Sellers Connect, I’ve started interviewing successful leaders.  (You can read more about the book: click here.)

These leaders all have a very clear tenet.  Their ability to connect is part of their success.

  • Their team trusts them to do their best to grow the team members.
  • Their customers appreciate the personal touches—the cards and calls.
  • They felt heard when they talk to company personnel.
  • They can share with other leaders.

For leaders, connecting is a way they engage, and engagement is their competitive advantage.

  • Team members stick around and will push harder for team challenges.
  • Customers repeat and expand the product’s consumption to other lines.
  • When everyone grows, their job becomes easier and more exciting.

These leaders may not be able to put a number on what connecting means, but NONE of them are around to just sell products.  They are in direct sales because “who they are” makes a difference.  [I had one leader tell me today that she came out of retirement because she just knew she wasn’t done “making a difference.”]

“Make a difference” is the very definition of competitive advantage.  When successful sellers connect, they have a superior business position for making money, making friends, and making things happen.  You may not be able to see it or count it, but the ability to connect makes all the difference.

How Do You Connect?  Will You Share it?

We want your vision in our new book.  Can you see a book with over a hundred specific ideas of how to connect?  You will see ideas that have been weighed, measured, and shiny as gold!  You will read how successful people share their vision and execute it.  You will find out how top leaders create a voice that’s heard. And you will find the value in connecting that they have.

We WANT to collect your ideas.  If you are excited to share, drop a note to neil@teamconnections.org, and we will arrange a brief interview to give you a chance to talk.  As ideas start to accumulate, we will be posting them on our Facebook page and in our Facebook group.

We will also be sharing more on this blog about the values of connecting.  We will share more on the competitive advantages of connecting.  We will talk about some of the scientific evidence of the benefits of connecting.  And, of course, we will start to share some of the tips and wildly successful ideas are being shared with us.

Ready to start?  We need you!  Please think about how you can contribute and email or text to Neil.