Featured Video: Is Your Sales Team Struggling to Sell Solutions?

Most executives say they want their sales organization to be consultative, focus on value, and sell solutions. But too many sales teams are still overly focused on pitching and communicating value instead of creating value.

Here is the punchline – the problem is more about how executives lead and deploy the sales function, and less to do with the skills of your sales team. 

A so-called “solution” is not really a solution until it solves something for a customer. It requires the salesperson to make a direct connection from the solution you are offering (your products, services, and support) to the outcomes that customer wants to achieve (the objectives to be accomplished, problems to be solved, or needs to be addressed). Until this understanding is reached with a customer, your solutions aren’t yet solutions. A solution is cocreated by the seller and customer in a mutual agreement about the business outcomes to be achieved. But most sales organizations struggle to do this consistently for a variety of reasons.

See how you can help your sales team connect your solutions to solve customer needs in my article: Is Your Sales Team Struggling to Sell Solutions?

Individual Leadership: Inspiring with Emotion

This month, Harvard Business Review published a special issue, How to Really Motivate People, that includes my article, “Motivating People Starts with Building Emotional Connections.”

As the old maxim says “Logic makes us think. But emotion makes us act.” Very few decisions or actions are based on data or facts alone. The article above highlights how leaders can use emotion to unlock commitment and performance—not through oversharing or excessive displays of feeling, but by engaging employees as people.

Here are some of the ways you can use emotion can elevate performance:

1. Enthusiasm and energy that spark momentum
2. Clarity of vision and strategy that inspires confidence
3. Anger or dissatisfaction that signals urgency and commitment to improve
4. Coaching and developing talent that demonstrates investment in people
5. Integrity and principles that create trust and credibility
6. Drive for results that establishes focus and discipline

Harnessed properly, these emotions multiply a leader’s impact. They’re what enable leaders to bring out the best in their teams. If you want to inspire and motivate people to achieve high performance, emotions are indispensable.

NEW on the Website: Newsletter Archive

I’ve been writing this newsletter for a dozen years and haven’t missed a single edition yet. That includes the COVID timeframe of March 2020-March 2022 when I shifted to a weekly format to stay in closer touch during those very uncertain times. Now, I’m pleased to share that almost all of my newsletters are now available on my website in a new newsletter archive: https://www.scottedinger.com/newsletter-archive I decided that collecting all the newsletters back to 2016 in the archive was plenty. Of course, if you really want to access some of the earlier editions, please let me know 😂. They’re organized chronologically and listed by the title of the main article with most editions containing 3-5 pieces. Enjoy!

You can access the archive here: https://www.scottedinger.com/newsletter-archive

LinkedIn Live

How do leaders inspire and motivate others to high performance? The best leaders use a combination of strategies to bring out the best in individuals, teams, and the entire organization. Join me to learn how you can become more inspiring by making subtle shifts in the way you engage and effectively using emotion to connect with your people. 

If you liked my Harvard Business Review article on this topic above, you’ll find great value in this session. Please join me on Tuesday September 16^th at 10am ET for this interactive session.

"6 Ways to Inspire Your Team"

📅 Tuesday, September 16th

🕙 10:00 AM ET

Sign up here

Watch this short video to see how I work and the impact it creates.