Feb 16, 2020
Meridith helps her clients gain the sales and leadership strategies they need to turn uncertainty to competitive advantage. She shares that clients would say, ‘we have had our best year but oh, the uncertainty,’ talking about uncertainty as if it’s a bad thing. Meridith wanted to flip the switch, so she started to look for companies that looked at uncertainty as an opportunity. She uncovered a few and they did things business in a different way.
Mindset is the first step to thinking of it as an opportunity rather than obstacles, says Meridith. If you know this time next year that things will change why don’t you start to condition yourself for change, so, you have more lead time? Prepare for it to change! Like exercise, says Meridith, you are in a state of readiness so whatever happens, you can adapt.
As an example, every quarter Meridith would brainstorm with a client on what was happening in their business and market. She said we saw a competitor getting ready for a merger and we knew their client would go through pain during the merger. We switch the engagement to prospect the competitors’ customers and won many customers because we were ahead of the market, there is a serious opportunity when you pay attention.
Meridith writes books based on her client pain points and her latest is: Who Comes Next? Leadership Succession Made Easy. Stating, one of the biggest problem’s organisation face is who is going to take over the sales leadership, or who will lead the company?
We have a real void in our organisations and part of it is that after 2008 we did not invest in training and developing, we were just trying to survive the economic crisis and 10 years later we do not have the talent pipeline. There are shorter training burst and online courses and more mentoring, but we need to think of the different skillset that people need. Certainly, they will not need as much training in technology, said Meridith, but they may need interpersonal skills training.
Diversity is highly important to the organisation Meridith works with because you need to look like your customer base otherwise you are sending a strong signal that you do not understand them, she says. If you are to attract your customers, you need to reflect them. Meridith said she gets a lot of push back when she points out to a leader that most of their customers are diverse and your leadership team is not. You cannot understand your customer if you do not have their voice at the table. I do not care what your leadership team looks like, says Meridith, you need to look like your customer base if you want to have the voice of the customer at the table.
41 trillion dollars of intergenerational wealth is going to transfer to women in the next 10- 20 years. Meridith said we women must work to make sure that we hold on to wealth and invested well. Successful people remain successful because of the power of their network.
Today, it is a who you know and who knows you, the fastest way to scale anything is to invest in your network. Meridith delivers courses for LinkedIn Learning, the most requested course was Soft Skills for Sales Professionals.
Technology is the method it is always a people business; technology makes you so much more efficient. The only thing that moves you forward is your ability to connect, listen to and really solve the problem for your customers.
Meridith is part of Women Sales Pro founded by Jill Konrath, Jill is creating more opportunities for women in sales and she is really dedicating herself to this, she is a SHero.
Meridith Elliott Powell Voted Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch, A Top 40 Sales Motivational Speaker, Meridith Elliott Powell is an award-winning author, the keynote speaker who helps her clients learn the strategies they need to turn uncertainty to competitive advantage.
Please do connect with Meridith on:
@meridithpowell