Selling with Passion, Selling with Authority

We here at GrowthHive have written extensively about how investing in your team pays off with customer experience. In this blog, we dig into the relationship between People Experience, Employee Passion, and Customer Trust.

It has been well documented that People Experience (PX) is a valuable element in developing a positive Customer Experience (CX). Our prior blog, Is Customer Experience a Function of People Experience is a great read to dive into this relationship in depth.

I’ve summarized the core points below, but I encourage you to go back and read the blog in its entirety to learn more about the topic and gain a richer understanding of the PX→CX connection.

Key takeaways for the PX→CX Model:

• People Experience (PX) → Customer Experience (CX)
  
  PX is the internal counterpart to CX: happier, more empowered employees lead to better service and stronger customer engagement in a direct link echoed by the classic service‑profit chain model.
• PX Drives Customer Excellence & Growth
  
  Investing in PX not only boosts staff performance but also ripples into elevated customer outcomes including greater satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately higher revenues.
• PX and CX Are Interdependent
  
  It’s not about either-or: employee satisfaction enhances customer experience while positive customer feedback, in turn, strengthens employee morale in a virtuous cycle.
• Leverage the Service-Profit Chain
  
  PX and CX are tightly linked to profitability. Happier employees drive engaged customer interactions while engaged customer interactions fuel profitability and brand growth.

Digging into the PX→CX equation further, what variable adds additional direct sales growth? The answer starts with Passion.

Passionate Salespeople

Passionate salespeople are advocates for your brand. They engage with customers because they truly believe that your product is the best solution available to your customer’s problems. That intrinsic belief and energy is a potent sales tool. If your salespeople seem disconnected or act more like clerks (order-takers), then it is your job as a manager to dig into where that disconnect comes from.

Asking why is a solid first start. If you have developed a positive PX, you can leverage that in the form of transparency. A comfortable salesperson should have no problem telling you why they don’t believe your product is worth being passionate about! Listen and reframe. If the answer comes from a lack of understanding of how your product fits in a competitive landscape, educate your sales team on why your product truly is a best-fit scenario.

If the answer from all concerned is that it is not a best fit, be courageous and look for what may need to change in your company focus. Does the product have a flaw to be remedied? If you are simply ‘competitive’, dig further and look where you have a Unique Selling Point (USP). Don’t dismiss your sales team out of hand; listen to where their objections are coming from and be prepared to help them work towards a passionate outlook about your solutions.

The Next Step: Authority

While passion is critical to truly great sales teams, I have heard frequently from technical teams that they find passionate salespeople to sometimes be a turnoff. In investigating the root of this objection, I have discovered a common inflection point: when sales teams are passionate without truly understanding how their product creates a solution for an individual customer.

That’s why the key to harnessing passion is to couple it with authority. Authority comes from a deep understanding not only of how your product functions, but how it solves the problems of a customer.

When passion is combined with authority, the salesperson is able to act as a guide. Donald Miller’s bestselling work, Building a Story Brand, talks about how customers are looking for a guide to help them overcome a problem and avoid failure. Passionate authorities are uniquely positioned to help a buyer or specifier (such as an engineer) navigate the myriad of potential options to find the right solution for their problem and help avoid the potential pitfalls of an incorrect choice.

Why Passionate Authority Matters:

In summary: passionate, well-equipped sales teams are your most potent closing tool and brand advocate. If your sales team doesn’t have the tools they need, consider revisiting the PX→CX formula to look at ways to build up the team and invest in your salespeople.

In this age of information overload, your customers are looking to sales teams to be fully educated. Customers navigating an increasingly disconnected world see salespeople who are genuinely passionate about what they do, and not just order-takers, as the difference that sets your company apart.

Make passionate authority the core of your sales team training, connect with a competent marketing program, and watch your revenue grow.