To wrap up this series on Win Together, we’re going to explore its core principles.
1. Principle of Peace
It’s especially true that the world has changed radically over the last 50 years. But let’s go back 2,000 years to ancient Rome. If someone wanted to send a message from Rome to Jerusalem, it would take at least a couple of weeks to arrive. In fact, that time frame didn’t change much for over 1,800 years, until we were well into the 19th century.
In the mid-1800s, the first major technological leap in communication, the telegraph, arrived. The next significant advance, the telephone, came about a short time later. In the late 20th century came the internet, with which communication has become instant.
Among many others, the internet brought about one important element: transparency. Today, nearly everything is visible. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to hide shady dealings or tricks designed to cheat customers. We’re now using Smartphones for just about everything, and they accompany us wherever we go, monitor what we’re doing, and practically know more about us than we do about ourselves.
It certainly is a networked community in which we live. If someone commits any type of crime, it is very hard for them not to be caught. In past times, they could simply disappear to another location and often escape detection. Now there is nowhere left to hide. Transparency contributes to win together because what you do can immediately be transmitted around the globe.
Transparency brings us to another aspect of win together, because it directly relates to a key principle of the Austrian School of Economics—that trade has a peacekeeping element. When two parties, or two countries, are engaged in fair and equitable trade, they can’t be in conflict at the same time. We can translate this directly to sales, and declare that salespeople should be agents of peace. Transparency, of course, illuminates such behavior…
This is why peace, as you might guess, is one of our philosophical cornerstones. More than anything, peace is something everyone is longing for. Who truly wants to experience endless war or limp from one crisis to another?
What other motive might a salesperson have, if they’re not selling something that produces peace? If they’re selling illegal drugs or weapons of mass destruction, they must have some other agenda. But sales, conducted with a peacekeeping element, not only create a win for both sides but builds up the middle class and creates a more stable society.
Win Together, please note, is not an approach from “top-down.” It is instead built on personal responsibility and a commitment to making the world a better place. It has a deep ethical component.
2. Principle of Joy
Win Together’s second philosophical principle is joy. It is actually more than an emotion–joy is an active decision. It is related to the soul of a person. It is not a momentary thing but something that is carried forward and infused into all elements of a person’s being. . It is an inner feeling, not an outward expression, and above all, it is deliberately something chosen by us.
Is joy really important to a salesperson? It certainty is. Because when you sell, you should bring joy. When someone is buying, they should be happy. And in the end, most people would like to have more joy in their lives.
Joy is also a vital component of the customerCustomer Customer is an individual or an organization that purchases a product or signs up for a service offered by a business. relationship. If a salesperson makes a customer happy, the relationship is much more stable and enduring.
We can therefore see that a salesperson needs to be an agent of peace, spread happiness, and bring joy. As a salesperson you want a customer to be happy with your productProduct Product refers to anything (an idea, item, service, process or information) that meets a need or a desire and is offered to a market, usually but not always at a price. or service, and as a result, will spread the positive word about it. With your joy, you directly create happiness in the customer. You’re excited about the product, the process, the sales, and how you conduct them because they all stem from the inner strength of your joy.
When you have an innate sense of joy, you bring it to everyone else—and we all Win Together, don’t we?
3. Principle of Honorable Business
The conduct of business honorably and nobly is our third principle. Earlier in this series, I quoted the book of Leviticus in the Bible: “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.” If a merchant is being dishonest, they are cheating someone. Being honorable means doing the right thing in sales, and treating your customer fairly.
I always say that when a deal is truly good for both parties, both sides are hurt just a little bit. Each side must give up just a small measure in order to reach an agreement and shake hands at the end. That means being honorable, with price, quality, and all other aspects.
In a network society, when someone is not acting honorably, someone is going to find out about it sooner or later (probably sooner). For example, if you’re using an unfair price structure, someone will figure it out, and word will spread. Your customers will obviously not be happy about it. Or, if you’re using components or ingredients that are harmful to people, it will come back on you. An example is a company that was knowingly poisoning a community’s water for years with chemicals. Such deeds were exposed and were the subject of a major lawsuit, which the company lost. Details were portrayed in the movie Dark Waters. There have been other examples of drugs that produced birth defects or other destructive side effects.
Win Together is Critical
The three principles of peace, joy, and honor are vital to Win Together and are right at its core. When everyone wins together, it brings about what every marketingMarketing Marketing is the field, set of actions, or practice of making a product or service desirable to a target consumer segment, with the ultimate aim of effecting a purchase. person and organizationOrganization Organization is a cohesive group of people working together and formally bound by a shared identity (e.g., one team, company, club, etc.) and a common purpose (e.g., business growth, athletic victory, etc.). is striving for: turning customers into fans!. A fan is someone who is cheering for your product or service and creating a community around it. Within that community, you have loyal customers who will promote you to anyone who will listen. They will identify with you, wear your t-shirt and even put bumper stickers on their cars promoting your products.
