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5 Steps to Successful Leading

5 Steps to Successful Leading

by Ivan Rios

Some time ago I listened to Zig Ziglar's audiobook 5 Steps to Successful Selling. The first time I played it, all I could relate it with was the selling of physical products, such as lamps, vacuum cleaners, or computers. The second time, I saw how this selling process was also applicable to the selling of services, perhaps management consulting products or legal advice. But the third go-around was the most enlightening one, since I realized the connection between the selling process and leadership: it was one and the same! This obviously does not mean that all good salespeople will necessarily be good leaders. What it does mean is that all good leaders are in a way good salespeople. Leadership involves selling ideas. It involves trying to persuade people to believe in your 'product', which is your vision. Leaders want to gain 'costumers', or followers. This is definitely not a breakthrough in human history. Many before me have expressed the link between selling and leading. Nevertheless, it is always helpful to point it out. For that reason, I have decided to attempt to demonstrate, in this short introductory series, how Zig's 5 Steps could be implemented in the development of the leadership process. The 5 steps are: building a positive self-image, prospecting, having a planned presentation, closing, and following up.

Build a positive self-image

I wrote a previous article called Self Confidence to Be a Leader which I believe provides good suggestions on this topic. It talks about the importance of goal-setting, preparation, practice, small victories, and acting confidently. Although self-confidence and self-image may be seen as distinct terms by some, they are synergistic. The key to building a positive self-image, in my opinion, is to have self-confidence. Why? Because to believe that you are capable of achieving success means that you have a positive outlook on yourself. This positive self-image is what prospects, clients, or followers see and respond to. Very few people will buy something from someone who doesn't believe in what is being sold. They conclude, "If the salesperson wouldn't buy it, why should I?" Believe in your product. Believe in your mission as a leader. If you don't, then you have no business trying to sell it. So the first step to become a good leader, as in becoming a good salesperson, is to convince yourself that what you have to offer, be it a lamp or a vision to change the world, is truly worth buying. Then, project that into your prospects.

Prospect

Salespeople need to find others to make their presentations to. They need to find potential clients. If they don't, who are they going to try to sell to? Leaders also need to prospect. They need to find people willing to listen to them, and they have to try to turn them into repeat costumers, or followers. That's common sense. There's one common mistake, though, that many salespeople and leaders make when prospecting: trying to convince EVERYONE. Doing that may be fine at the beginning. After all, you need to get a feel for your audience, and seed out the most effective methods of finding followers. But ultimately, the smartest way to go about it is to concentrate your efforts in the groups that you have seen are most open to considering your proposal. This implies using economies of scale. For example, a luxury-goods salesperson may not do so well trying to sell his products in a poor neighborhood. People who live there don't have the buying power to buy those goods. It would be a bad strategy for that salesperson. In the same way, a leader who wanted to liberate India from English rule, as Mahatma Gandhi did, wouldn't focus his energy in trying to gain followers in the rich class of the United States. That group had very little connection to his mission! That doesn't mean Gandhi wasted opportunities to add anyone to his cause. In fact, one of his principal strategies was to persuade rich English men and women that his was a cause worth fighting for. But the most important prospects were found in the poor lower castes of India. Those were the groups that felt the harshest effects of English rule. Those were the groups that were starving to death. They were the ones who had the power to change the course of history, and Mahatma Gandhi knew that. So he focused most of his efforts in trying to convince them. He knew they would be much more open to his message.

Planned presentation

A lot goes into planning an effective presentation. A rough outline may include finding or creating the potential costumer's needs, presenting how the product will fill those needs, and responding to objections. Leaders also need to have a planned presentation. This doesn't imply memorizing every last word. It does mean being able to be organized and coherent when communicating your message. If you start mumbling disparate sentences that are loosely related to that message, prospects will lose your line of thought. For this reason you need to have a proper outline of what you are going to communicate. You must also be prepared to handle any objections. For a salesperson that may mean prospects complaining about a high price tag. For leaders it may mean people telling you that your cause isn't worth working for. There are a couple of other suggestions I believe will aid in the leader's presentation. I believe the leader must emphasize the goal or vision of his journey. It must also contain a reasonable outline of the plan to meet this goal. In other words, the planned presentation is the perfect moment to make others feel happy to do what you're asking them. This phase may not be a specific moment in time. It may be a process in and of itself. This includes building trust with the prospect, among other things. But it is a presentation nonetheless. So prepare yourself. You may be totally convinced of your vision, but if you aren't prepared it will not be captured by anyone.

Closing

This is what makes someone a salesperson. Someone who has a positive self-image, has a group of prospects, and has a planned presentation, but does not close the sale, is not a salesperson. That person may be good at building relationships, but not at selling. Buying costumers are needed. In the same way, someone who goes through all the previous steps but does not gain any followers cannot be called a leader. Gaining a follower is the equivalent to making the sale. You have to be sure to motivate people to follow you. Here, what becomes important is that you do all the little things that, again, makes people happy to follow you. You close the sale when the prospect decides to become your follower. But this will only happen after you have provided all the tools that are necessary to reach a conclusion. If you have, all you can do is urge the person to make the right decision.

Follow-up

When the product is sold, a transaction occurs. The seller sells, and the buyer buys. You have met your goal! The problem with this statement is that a true salesperson doesn't just want to make that one-time deal. The true salesperson doesn't want this sale merely to stay as a one-time transaction. The true salesperson wants to make it a continous transaction. In other words, to gain a repeat costumer. Leaders want repeat followers. They want loyal followers. They want people who stay committed to their mission and who are willing to continously work on it. The way to build this relationship is to deliver the value that you promised. Not only that, but also to offer continous support in the journey to reach that goal. A leader should not, for example, gain a great following only to turn around and abandon the mission. The best example of not following up is the politician who promises and doesn't deliver. That person 'closed many sales', represented by the amount of votes he had, but didn't follow up, letting the followers down. Properly following up, then, involves staying true to what you believe in, keeping up the things that gained you a following, and offering support for your followers.

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