Top Sales Manager Blog

Robert Goizueta was a revolutionary. He was a “visual sales leader”.

Robert is the late former CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. Everyone knows Coca-Cola, but sadly only a few people knew Robert Goizueta. He often used to say to his troops,

“Each of the world’s six billion people drinks on average SIXTY-FOUR ounces of fluids a day… of which TWO ounces is Coca-Cola.”

The statement makes for a great visual interpretation, doesn’t it? This “sixty-two ounce upside” concept established the core belief that the drinks they worked hard at day in and day out had limitless growth potential. Robert had talent for communicating something, anything, in a clear and visual way.

Reading his speeches is enough to inspire me in a good mood.

Robert was a true “visual sales leader.”

Question is, are you the same with your sales team?

Visual sales leaders take in complex ideas and transform them and then communicate them in a way that’s easy to visualize and understand. The simpler, the better. But visual sales leaders still have to make it memorable if they want to achieve anything using this method.

Visual sales leaders are like foreign currency exchangers. They accept a one form of currency and exchange it in a currency their customers could put to good use.

Here’s an example.

You are in the business of selling a specific kind of women’s clothing.

In 2008, the total market did $24 million for your sales district.

Your total sales were $4 million.

So the market opportunity… $20 million.

You have ten sales reps in your team and each is responsible for a quota of $100,000.

As a visual sales leader, you could say something like…

“When you place our dress in the hands of ONLY one out of every 200 women dress shoppers in your area—congratulations, give yourself a pat on the back, you just hit quota!”

“But if you put one of our dresses in the hands of one out of every 100 women dress shoppers in your area, then go out and buy yourself a drink because you just became a star in my team.”

Simple? Yes.

Effective? Absolutely.

This example not only allows you to lead the team visually, it also opens up room for you to set the bar higher (something I’ve discussed in one of my previous posts). A visual sales leader is a carver of skin from the bones, and he does it bring out the best from the people working under him.

When you create pictures with words, your sales reps are able to keep their eyes focused on the prize.

The prize is the “sixty-two ounce upside…”

Do you see yourself as a visual sales leader? What steps are you taking to get one step closer to “leading visually” like Robert Goizueta?

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Filed under: Leading by ralphburns