In this energizing episode of Training Unleashed, Evan speaks with Elizabeth Lotardo, VP of Client Services at McLeod & More (and self-proclaimed training nerd) about the concept of noble purpose behind the book, “Selling with Noble Purpose,” that Elizabeth co-authored. According to Elizabeth, purpose-driven organizations score high in customer retention, employee engagement and other quantitative metrics.
Evan kicked off the interview by asking Elizabeth, “what is a noble purpose?”
Elizabeth’s response, “A noble purpose is a declarative statement about the impact you make on someone else. You’ll hear a lot in business we talk about the why, the higher calling, some people call it a mission or a vision, we call it the noble purpose. It is the essence of why you exist as a business or why you exist as a person.”
Evan continued the conversation by asking, “what was the genesis of the idea” of a noble purpose?
“The genesis of the idea is that people want to feel good. Beyond food and shelter we have core needs as human beings for belonging and significance. We want to be part of something greater than ourselves and we want our work to matter.”
Elizabeth continued, “[t”he crux of nobel purpose, Selling with Noble Purpose, the first edition which obviously came first, was born out of a research study which identified how that feeling of pride how that impact lens played out in a sales capacity. What we know is that sales is really measurable and you can see now from the research a clear difference in sales and in other professions of the people who do keep that purpose at the fore of their heart who show up every day to make an impact on their colleagues and customers and the people who are only focused on their own individual metrics.
“The difference in performance is really clear on an individual level and of course an organizational level. We’re seeing all kinds of data that the organizations who operate as purpose-driven businesses hit it out of the park on metrics like customer retention, innovation metrics, employee engagement, all those quantitative things we work so hard to adjust.”
Elizabeth notes that being a purpose-driven leader or being a purpose driven employee is a learnable practice and the way you learn it is by through closely connecting with the impact you have on others. She shares an exercise to help people find their purpose or connect to the purpose of your organization. But, you’ll need to tune into the episode to get her recommended exercise.
And, don’t forget to listen to the end of the episode for Elizabeth’s tip!
Elizabeth’s Giveaway
If you think your sales team could use a little more purpose, check out our assessment: Creating a Tribe of True Believers today!
About Our Guest
Elizabeth Lotardo is a consultant, researcher, and co-author of Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work that Makes You Proud.
As the VP of Services at sales leadership consultancy McLeod & More, Elizabeth leads sales transformation initiatives for clients like Oracle, G Adventures, and Fiserv. She is a popular LinkedInLearning author, and her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and on NPR.
With an undergraduate degree in advertising from Boston University and a Master’s in Organizational Psychology, Elizabeth has enabled firms to drive employee engagement, competitive differentiation, and ultimately revenue.