Are there basics – principles – upon which a successful sales career can be built?
Is there a framework for decision making in a sales environment which can help us retain our integrity – and around which we can build a competitive edge?
Steven Covey’s landmark book – “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – celebrates the 20th anniversary of its original publication this year. The book ushered in a new generation of business and personal development books, and introduced a more structured approach to interpersonal relationships – in business and life more broadly. It exposed an eager audience to ideas and concepts that a myriad of publications over the last 20 years have tried to emulate.
The key lessons from “The 7 Habits” are as relevant today as they were 20 years ago – and good ideas are always worth a review.
Whilst many sales managers would have come across Covey’s work, their younger colleagues and team members may be less familiar with the concepts first introduced in “The 7 Habits”. So, in celebration of its 20th year, this article will review the key concepts of this seminal work, and look at its relevance for salespeople and sales managers 2 decades on*.
What’s the big deal about this book?
They say that timing is everything, and so it is with “The 7 Habits”. To understand the book’s impact, it’s worth considering what was happening at the time it was published. The 1980s had been a transformative period in business, particularly in the US, for a number of reasons. Here are a few:
- A number of established companies – e.g. IBM & Xerox – faced major challenges from emerging rivals, especially from Japan
- It was a decade of downsizing & business re-engineering as the MBA became a moniker of success, and the consultant emerged as the handmaiden of business
- Despite the stock market crash of 1987, M&As and aggressive takeovers continued to the end of the decade
- The personal computer, the fax & the mobile phone moved business to a connected – but, arguably, a less personalised – mode of operation
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