Here we are at the cusp of a New Year. A time when many of us make resolutions, set goals, and develop annual plans.
Sales leaders set quotas and share goals with their teams. Sales coaches help sales team members develop plans to achieve what they want to achieve. Company leaders look at the market landscape and set priorities to better position themselves for a successful year. Thought leaders look at trends and make predictions about where the year will take us.
I sit here with my coffee, thinking about the rapid, world-changing developments we’ve seen in AI use and capabilities over the past few years. I think about how Membrain continues to bring AI tools into our platform in powerful, effective ways. And I think about how the future of sales won’t be centered around AI.
It’ll be about humans. Technology will continue to evolve and support us in new and exciting ways. But in the end, where it really matters, the winners will be those who successfully elevate others.
In the end, the winners will be those who successfully elevate others.
Here’s why:
- Salespeople who elevate the conversation take the lead
Once upon a time, complex sales could be made on the golf course, or by simply demonstrating more features than the competition, or by checking the right boxes of a commoditized offering via an RFP.
We’ve seen a shift over the past twenty years or so away from these approaches to a more structured, outcome-based approach. Today, world class sales teams don’t just respond to prospects and show products and features , they change the conversation, help the prospect to see their problems in a new light, and facilitate alignment of stakeholders to reach the desired end result.
Because, how you sell is how you win. When your sales teams elevate their approach to elevate the conversation, they make the deals. Best of all, this work also elevates the prospect, providing them with better outcomes.
- Sales teams who structure their thinking elevate the conversation
When a salesperson first speaks to a prospect, the conversation usually begins transactionally. The prospect tells the salesperson what they want, and the salesperson is expected to demonstrate that they can do the thing the prospect thinks they want.
But when you structure your thinking, you can escape that song and dance and elevate the entire conversation. The 5 “mental moves” of DSRP enable salespeople to move the conversation from “do you have what I want?” to “let’s look at the problem and find the solution that will actually address it.”
These mental “moves” helps you elevate your approach:
- Is/Is Not: Helps guide prospects in defining the problem and prioritizing what they want to accomplish (and what exclude)
- Zoom In/Zoom Out: Helps clarify both the high level mission and the details that impact solutions
- Part-Party: Uncovers hidden relationships that can influence outcomes, so they can be addressed during the problem-solving process
- Relationship Zoom: Helps anticipate dependencies and potential barriers in the decision-making process
- P-Circle: Ensures all stakeholder perspectives are considered, reducing misalignment and improving win rates
This shifts the conversation from features and benefits, to solving the underlying problems, and elevates the salesperson to the role of advisor and collaborator. It also helps salespeople and prospects identify relevant stakeholders and invite them into the conversation, so they can build internal alignment with the solution.
- Managers who elevate their teams elevate results
When managers move from a savior or dictator mindset to a collaborative, structured, human-centered approach, they elevate the way their teams work, and therefore elevate their results. Tools like Membrain Elevate help managers understand the individuals on their team, identify what they need in order to succeed, and provide them with the support that will help them elevate their performance.
- Companies who elevate customer success elevate their revenue
Many sales experts talk about “increasing share of wallet” and “selling to existing accounts.” Winning teams don’t just try to grab more money from existing customers. They elevate the customer’s experience and improve their outcomes. They understand what their customers are trying to accomplish, and strategically introduce them to the ways they can help them. The customer’s growth becomes the company’s growth, elevating both at once.
As you’re looking into the New Year, its opportunities and its challenges, I encourage everyone to start by asking: How can I elevate the people around me? How can our company elevate our partners and customers? When you shift the thinking that direction, then you shift from chasing technologies, to selecting technology to align with and enable your mission.
What are the ways that you’re planning to elevate your teams, customers, and personal performance in 2026? I’d love to hear. Happy New Year.
