I can still remember those summers as a preteen learning to swim the murky creek of Camp Dark Waters (CDW) in sleepy Medford, New Jersey.
The name doesn’t lie. The water’s color is a deep orange/ brown that’s so dark, you can barely see your hand in front of your face beneath the surface.
Despite its shady complexion, the water’s been safe to swim for 85 years.
It was during those formative years that I was first introduced to The Buddy System.
Buddy Love
Salespeople of all levels across all industries should embrace The Buddy System if they want to close more deals.
Excelling at Sales takes more than reading a few best sellers, watching You Tube videos and waiting for osmosis to do its thing.
- What good is a well-rehearsed pitch if you can’t weave it into conversation naturally?
- How can you outline your solutions’ benefits while dispelling objections before they even come up?
- How do you get a prospect excited in an opportunity if you’re not jazzed about it yourself?
The Science and Art of Sales can’t be manufactured or transmitted in an artificial environment. Too often, sales knowledge is force-fed in a vacuum. Concepts and theory are taught in a classroom as opposed to being applied in real-time and real-life situations.
Additionally, sales meetings are often stagnant and rarely executed to promote growth. They’re typically agenda-driven and mired in some red-tape directive from the brass upstairs..
It’s a perfect example of cardboard cut-out leadership VS individualized attention to what a salesperson needs to reach their potential.
This is one of the main reasons many salespeople hate meetings – they suck time and don’t add value.
And naturally, no salesperson wants to be the one that “doesn’t get it” during meetings. When objectives are unclear, salespeople tend to fake it till they make it for fear of being labeled as incompetent. Consequently, they end up at the bottom of the rankings and eventually quit or get fired.
Management then replaces them with warm bodies only to repeat the vicious cycle.
If you’ve ever wondered why some organizations are always hiring, look no further than the tone-deaf training techniques masquerading as coaching.
Study Buddy
I subscribe to the school that every salesperson is different and should be schooled in a way that’s conducive to their tempo and style. If leadership hasn’t figured out there’s no one size fits all in sales management, they’re part of the problem. By ascribing to their bass-ackwards methods, you’re hurting your chances.
An easy way to ramp up and build sales momentum is by partnering with a peer and incorporating The Buddy System.
By doing so, you ease the pressure of intimidating sales meetings which in turn allows you to focus on the material and not someone’s reaction to how you regurgitate said material.
To succeed in Sales, you’ll need to ask a lot of questions.
What better way to revamp sales strategies, increase product knowledge and tighten up messaging than by partnering with someone who’s in the trenches day in and day out; a colleague with boots on the ground who’s willing to share their assessments with you.
Working in tandem will bridge any communication gaps between you and prospects.
More often than not, our egos get in the way of progress. Whether you’re a rookie or a veteran, you best recognize how your peers close business and learn from them as part of your continuing education.
With a trusted peer, you’ll increase your knowledge base over the course of a Sale.
Recycle That Insight | Apply It to the Next Sale | Rinse and Repeat.
No Buddy Does It Better
In my first gig selling into the Fortune 500, I met my all-time favorite confidant and sales buddy. She was instrumental to my success and record-breaking wins.
We ate every meal together, took the same coffee breaks, sat next to each other in meetings/ training sessions and exchanged a ton of email before sending them to prospects.
This ensured that our value propositions and messaging were always clear and purposeful.
It worked like a charm because we trusted and challenged each other every single day. And, I can say without doubt that I closed more business as a result of our frequent collaboration.
Face it. Sales Managers don’t have time to cultivate a symbiotic relationship of this magnitude and you can’t possibly run to them every time you’re unsure of where to put a question mark.
The Buddy System is a tried and true method for increasing sales performance in today’s competitive market. By adopting it, you increase your chances of making bigger checks.
7 Advantages of Utilizing The Buddy System
1. Exploring a new style of communication/ pitching
2. Implementation of new sales strategies
3. Peer to peer opportunity and deal stage review
4. Adding a layer to conference calls or in-person meetings by introducing ‘another voice’
5. Asking ‘stupid questions’ freely without fear of judgement
6. Making a friend and confidant
7. Reviewing/ red-lining emails and/ or RFP’s prior to sending to prospects
Your Buddy is a Wonderland
- “The buddy system is a procedure in which two people, the “buddies”, operate together as a single unit so that they are able to monitor and help each other.
- Both the individuals have to do the job.
- The job could be to ensure that the work is finished safely or the skill/ learning is transferred effectively from one individual to the other.
- The main benefit of the system is improved safety; each may be able to prevent the other becoming a casualty or rescue the other in a crisis.”
Buddy Check
Every so often during swim time at good ol Camp Dark Waters, the lifeguard on duty would blow the whistle.
No matter what you were doing in or around the creek, you had to find your buddy within seconds, lock fingers and raise your hands high above your head so they could see you.
Suffice to say, all hell broke loose when someone couldn’t find their buddy. Panic, Alarms and Absolute Pandemonium.
Salespeople!!!
Buddy up…
What’s the best that could happen?