Episode 152: We need to make sales more fun again ! (but we’re doing the opposite)

Episode 152: We need to make sales more fun again ! (but we’re doing the opposite)

Author: Bart Vanderhaegen April 15, 2024 Duration: 17:53
Rapid Idea Improvement
Business

Sales is not easy, and all things not easy can be made fun. More on that later

What is not fun about sales now

  1. Inherently disappointing : getting so many no’s for 1 yes’

  2. We make it dull or frustrating in two ways

    1. by the typical KPI management 

      1. Discussions about numbers

    2. By throwing vague ideas around

      1. Customer is key / our products have value

      2. Can say that about everything at all times, it does not solve any problem

    3. By justifying “the right way” all the time

      1. “You should just sell like this and the business will grow”

      2. If it doesn’t work, it is frustrating to having to repeat that all the time

      3. It does not allow for alternative trials/ suggestions

  3. What do we do to compensate, but what does not make it more fun

    1. Coaching

      1. Often analysis of who you are and what you should do to improve

      2. At the level of your personhood, not ideas to can help you sell more

      3. Also quite generic, simple tests, simple ideas (be more self conscious, we are all in this together)

  4. What can actually make sales more fun ?

    1. Approach it as a problem solving exercise

      1. The problem of what to do or say so that the subjective valuation of your product by the customer goes up

      2. You need a theory

        1. About the valuation 

        2. About what to say or do

      3. You need to improve your theory

        1. Find better ways to convey

        2. You can do that together with other sales people

          1. Not as just sharing opinions

          2. But really testing the theory “what is we did A instead of B, what would happen, and why ?”

          3. Creativity ! new ideas / improved theories !

        3. The role of data: to point to an issue / not something you derive conclusions about

      4. All actions are a test of your theory. They provide useful information to change it or improve it. Don’t just celebrate succes, but more importantly learn from mistakes !

      5. There is an objectively best theory about what to do to persuade a customer, it’s fun trying to seek it out, by throwing out ideas that don’t work and replacing them with ideas that might work



Bart Vanderhaegen hosts Rapid Idea Improvement, a podcast that digs into a powerful and practical question: how do ideas actually get better? Instead of staying in the abstract, it applies the principles of knowledge growth-particularly those from thinkers like Karl Popper and David Deutsch-to the messy, real-world domains of business, management, and economics, while also reaching into fields like physics for broader insight. Each episode is an exploration of critical rationalism in action, examining how we can systematically criticize and refine our thinking to solve problems more effectively. You’ll hear discussions that treat business challenges not as puzzles with fixed answers, but as opportunities for evolutionary idea improvement, where bold conjectures and rigorous error-correction drive progress. This isn't about motivational tips or surface-level analysis; it's about building a deeper framework for understanding how knowledge expands, and then using that framework to make your own thinking more potent and adaptable. The conversations in this podcast are for anyone who suspects that the way we approach problems-in leadership, strategy, or innovation-can be fundamentally upgraded. By weaving together epistemology with practical application, the show aims to provide listeners with a genuinely useful toolkit for accelerating the development of their most important ideas.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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