Elon Musk is the man behind the Tesla and a huge number of other game-changing ideas.
He thinks at a level different than 99.9% of all other people. As sales leaders, we can’t be content to merely think like everyone else. If we’re to succeed, we have to have at least a little bit of Elon Musk inside of us.
Too many times we settle for status quo, only because that is what we know or it’s what we’re comfortable with. How many big opportunities have we seen not followed up on merely because they seemed too big and too improbable?
I’m not saying we should spend all of our time chasing the mother of all deals. No, what I’m saying is that we do need to spend at least some time chasing the mother of all deals.
Maybe it’s not the mother of all deals. Maybe it’s a new sales process or a new marketing plan. Whatever it is, we need to not be running from the idea, but rather finding out how to embrace it.
Reason I like the idea of being a little bit like Elon Musk is because he likes to think in the open. His design work for the hyperloop transportation system is out in the open for all to see. His goal is others will jump into the process and help make it a reality.
Think about that as a leader.
Do we allow others to participate in our ideas or do we keep them a secret until they’re fully baked?
Leadership is about being able to achieve things others didn’t see possible. Leadership is about helping others become people they didn’t think they were capable of becoming. As a sales leader, our job is to embrace both of these, not only with the people we lead but also in the customers we serve.
Take the opportunities you have before you and ask yourself, “How would Elon Musk approach them and what would he do differently to make the results 10 times better?”
Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
