Before we get into it, I wanted to remind you that today, April 24, I’m holding a live call on the topic of Sacred Selling. I’m honored and humbled because over 800 people are already registered for it! It’s about increasing your pricing resonance and it’s about dealing with your anxiety and neediness… because it’s the same issue.
If you’re not registered for the no-cost learning series, please join me. The first two lessons are available for download now. Even if you can’t make the 1 p.m. call, you’ll get the recording if you’re registered.
Register here: Sacred Selling No-Cost Learning Series
Last week, Thursday through Saturday, we had our second Heart of Business team retreat. Three days of diving deeply into messy conversations about our company, what we’re doing, where we’re headed.
There’s a lot to say about the process of the retreat, but since we’re talking about selling so much this week, what’s on my mind is leadership. Because selling and leadership are profoundly connected.
Our team here at Heart of Business is a tremendous group of empowered, powerful, engaged people. It felt great to be able to lean into them in a variety of collaborative conversations.
In a situation like that, what does it mean that I’m the leader? Seriously, I’m not going to just go around telling people what to do, in that old-hat top-down hierarchical way.
At the same time, in a community of equals, as an owner I’m a bit more equal than others, as is my wife Holly. It’s my job to set direction, to keep things moving, and to delegate leadership.
I remember one moment in the retreat when we were discussing a team position, and I asked for opinions from only two people: Lincoln, who is our team conductor (aka Operations Manager), and from my wife Holly, who is the official Heart Monitor of the business (among other things.)
Did everyone else in the room potentially have something to contribute there? They might have, but when I checked in with my heart, I saw that what was needed in that moment was not a big, messy discussion with lots of opinions and viewpoints, but just the opinion and perspective from the two who were most relevant, skilled and responsible in this particular area.
Collaboration is not about abdicating leadership. I say this because in sales conversations, an open-hearted, collaboratively-minded person can easily hand too much empowerment over to the client and end up freaking them out and losing them as clients.
A few months ago I made a Q&A video for our Alumni Community. It’s short, about 3 1/2 minutes, but it makes this point. I want you to watch it.
Do you have any pushback with this? Questions? Inspiring stories of having stepped in to leadership and gained a client because of it? I’d love to hear from you! Add your comment right below.
p.s. Are you going to join me today?
Two things, and one, the live call on pricing resonance-slash-neediness in sales-slash-stepping into leadership, I already mentioned at the top. Over 800 people have jumped into the learning series. I hope you join me, too.
The second thing is that the Sacred Selling full course is offered once a year. Each time we run a course like this we have between 90 and 100 people in it. Already some of the spots in Sacred Selling are gone.
Plus, I made the decision after coming out of our team retreat to limit the number of spots to 90. Because I give so much attention- run small group mentoring calls, plus I answer every single question that any one in the course asks, 90 people is plenty of work for me to be able to keep up and not go insane. 🙂
From a past participant:
It feels like finally, after over a decade of consulting, providing client service, etc., there is a process that feels really good about selling. I’ve become so turned off by how the corporate world works that I even found myself having negative reactions to the words ‘business’ and ‘profit.’
Thank you for showing me a way to participate in the sales process without feeling slimy and contrived. I now realize that selling can be a beautiful process and my offering is truly a gift to those I serve. I don’t think I would have come to this point without the course.
I’ve recommended this course to so many people.
– Brandon Sutton, www.brandonsutton.com
If you’re thinking of joining us, please don’t wait until the early bird deadline next week. Read about it and if the course resonates for you, jump in now.
With love and appreciation,
Mark
2 Responses
Mark, greatly appreciating your wisdom here…
from a psychological perspective, we would call it attachment dynamics… the whole purpose of which, is to help people grow into their own power! Yet as you said, in many situations we need to be the “Earth” to offer the support that allows someone to grow. Thank you!
This is such an essential point Mark.
I really appreciate how nuanced everything you offer is around timing, and cycles of development.
love
Shayla