Changing Your Customer's World

To reach the top in sales you have to have passion and a mission. Sales trainer Tom Reilly explains.

In its infancy, Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, realized he needed a real business person to run his company, "...a respectable face who could sell corporate America." He chose John Sculley, an executive at Pepsi Cola. Why would Sculley leave a plush corporate gig to work for a four-year-old start-up that began in a garage?

"He looked up at me and just stared at me with the stare that only Steve Jobs has and he said do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world?" John Sculley accepted Job's offer and became President of Apple Computer from 1983-93.

Steve Jobs tapped into the fundamental spirit of top salespeople - a sense of mission. We all want to be a part of something bigger and better than ourselves. We are all called to change the world in some fashion, using the gifts and talents that each of us possesses.

Value-Added Selling is a way for you to change the customer's world. What if you awakened to this challenge every morning: "What will I do today to help our customers get the most value from our proposition?" Can you imagine the impact that you would have if you embraced this mission to make a difference, not just a deal? Though changing the world is way too ambitious for most of us, rocking the customer's world is within our reach.

Do you want to sell widgets the rest of your life or do you want to change your customer's world?

Tom Reilly is the president of Tom Reilly Training. He is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers.