Everyone will go around telling you their “secret to sales success,” but the truth is that most sales leaders don’t know what they are talking about. Even if they back their claims with data and statistics, chances are their strategies are ineffective because it fundamentally misunderstands the sales process. Rose Garden founder Ali Mirza offers a unique perspective on the sales process that promises to shatter the status quo.
Mirza has an impressive history in sales and consulting, having closed over $250 million in sales, personally working with several Inc 500 companies and growing startups. He had a stint as a CRO at a digital marketing agency, which he brought into the Inc 500 award list after increasing the company’s revenue from $2.5 million to $42 million. His experience and growth-oriented mindset are prime examples of what it means to be a legitimately great sales leader.
Mirza would later found Rose Garden, a sales consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses build a world-class sales team and accelerate their sales experience. As part of the “Sales Accelerator” program, clients working with Rose Garden can expect their process to be redefined into a “sales experience.” The result is guidance on how to build the right team, map the buyer experience, and — most importantly — close deals.
A different sales mindset
For Mirza and his team, success in sales is all about having the proper mindset. “Sales is an art first, then a science,” he asserts. Although this might seem vague and metaphorical, Mirza makes an invaluable point with this statement. Too often, salespeople get caught up in the data that they lose sight of what actually matters in the sales process: the people.
Mirza’s core philosophy is that a sales methodology is incomplete if it’s logic-based. Although logic can be used to make predictions on human behavior and purchasing patterns, they are just that: predictions. There is an inherent element of unpredictability to human behavior, and attempting to explain it using only logic is futile, as there are many other factors that must be considered when determining why an individual makes a certain decision.
The key takeaway Mirza always hopes to remind his clients is that people don’t make decisions based on logic — they use emotion and then justify it using logic. Most people don’t make purchasing decisions based on what makes the most sense, instead purchasing the things they want the most or will make them feel the best. It is only after they make the decision that logic comes into play — a tool to make them feel better about the money they just spent.
A behavioral approach to sales
Mirza and Rose Garden find that the best approach to sales is a combination of behavioral economics with their extensive sales expertise. Although Mirza’s years of experience in sales certainly helped him gain the knowledge he needs to successfully improve clients’ sales processes, he also credits his understanding of people and their behavior as equally important.
Rose Garden offers what Mirza calls a “turn-key solution” approach to sales. Their solution will drive continuous sales performance and revenue growth if clients are willing to follow their lead. Throughout their process, Rose Garden works to understand clients’ teams, diagnose problems, and present them with the solution (or solutions) that will help them repair their process.
Holding salespeople accountable
However, the most important aspect of Mirza’s methodology is accountability. “Accountability is essential when putting together and managing a sales team,” he asserts. “It is the greatest gift you can give someone. Highly trained salespeople are meaningless if they are not held accountable.” Mirza’s key to a high-performing sales team is holding salespeople accountable and ensuring they are hitting — or exceeding — their quotas all the time, every time.
Mirza says there are no valid excuses for missing quotas. At Rose Garden, the team focuses on transforming organizations by establishing accountability within the sales team. “Accountability is at the core of every team I build,” says Mirza. “Many sales leaders are full of excuses, and accountability is the tool necessary to keep them in check. It is simply unacceptable to constantly miss targets and make excuses about it. This is not good for your business and, more importantly, it’s not good for you as a leader.”
In their engagements, the Rose Garden team encourages sales leaders to make the most of their situation. “Circumstances are not the reason you can’t succeed; they are the reality in which you must succeed,” Mirza reminds his clients. “There is no reason that you can’t take your circumstances and turn them into success.”
According to Mirza, the reason so many businesses fail with their sales teams is that they approach the process the wrong way. Redefining the sales process and holding salespeople accountable is the key to success — both in improving the buyer experience and closing deals. The sales industry is ready to be disrupted, and change-makers like Mirza are leading the charge.
