Book: Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud
By: Lisa Earle McLeod with Elizabeth Lotardo
Reviewed by: Leah Parkhill Reilly
The Premise: Selling with Noble Purpose by Lisa Earle McLeod is a book that challenges traditional sales approaches and offers a fresh perspective on achieving success in sales. The book’s central premise is that salespeople who understand how they make a difference in customers’ lives outperform those solely focused on meeting quotas and internal targets. McLeod introduces the concept of Noble Sales Purpose (NSP), which emphasizes the importance of aligning sales efforts with a higher purpose beyond just making money. She argues that having an NSP drives better performance, increases customer engagement, and leads to more fulfilling work for salespeople. The book provides practical advice on how to discover and implement an NSP, both for individual salespeople and entire organizations. It includes real-world examples and case studies that illustrate the power of purpose-driven selling.
The Bottomline: The book offers a paradigm shift in sales thinking, emphasizing the importance of purpose over pure profit. It provides practical strategies for implementing this approach, backed by research and real-world examples. While not a magic solution, it presents a compelling case for rethinking sales motivation and strategy. There are three key concepts in the book: 1.) Ensuring there is alignment to purpose first before the financial incentives, 2) Being deeply customer-centric and 3.) Creating an organizational culture that facilitates sales success. Overall, Selling with Noble Purpose presents a compelling argument for aligning sales efforts with a higher purpose, offering a refreshing and potentially more sustainable approach to sales in today’s competitive business environment. For leaders, the book offers insights into motivating teams beyond financial incentives. It provides a framework for creating more engaged and purposeful sales organizations.
This book was very much focussed on how products or services can genuinely improve customers’ lives again tying to a deeper meaning. I found that reading this book helped shift my perspective from “selling” to being an advisor in the business of providing solutions to clients that are useful and valuable. I really appreciated the perspective shift that the author generated by moving the focus toward selling with the primary driver being to improve the lives of customers.
Recommendation: I would recommend this book, especially to sales professionals, managers, and business leaders looking to improve their sales approach and team motivation.
