Unnatural salespeople are your secret weapon when it comes to winning work

Uncovering business opportunities and winning new clients is a crucial aspect of doing business especially in professional services and engineering firms. So, not surprisingly, in many organisations salespeople are seen as the key players when it comes to the growth of the company. However, some organisations either don’t have any sales professionals, or they have only a few who are tasked with the ‘rainmaker’ role.

But, if you dig a bit deeper, you will find that many employees have fantastic relationships with clients – genuine relationships built on trust and respect. Their job descriptions probably don’t suggest that they work in sales. And they wouldn’t necessarily describe themselves as salespeople. Yet they are contributing to the growth of your organisation by uncovering opportunities for themselves and others, managing client relationships and even winning new business.

However, because they are not considered part of the sales force, they don’t always receive the same training as their business development colleagues. And, in fact, these so-called ‘unnatural salespeople’ may even see sales and selling as a dark art.

By investing in their selling skills – without turning them into ‘salespeople’ – business leaders can unleash a potent weapon to uncover more opportunities and drive client loyalty.

Originally published in C Level Magazine 7 June 2021

Author Gary Williams, Founder of Questas and BD Coaching Hub