Sales Force One

Accountability - Can You Count on Yourself?

ACCOUNTABILITY.  Think about your top salesperson and what they would say if they did not hit their sales target this month.  "I'm on it; my pipeline is strong and I will fix the problem."  Accountable.  Now, think about the weakest salesperson that you have; what would they say about coming short of goal?   "I had to do Operation's job, the market is soft."  Excuses.
 
As the sales leader, how accountable are you to reaching your sales goals?  What shadow do you cast when it comes to taking full responsibility and not allowing an environment of excuse-making?
 
Tony Cole, President & CEO of Anthony Cole Training Group, works with sales managers and business owners across the country.  He will share with you three specific ideas to implement that will help you instill a culture of responsibility.  If you need to drive more consistent sales growth, participate in this free webinar,  Accountability - The 14-Letter Word for Sales Success, from 12 to 1 pm EDT on Thursday, August 6, 2009.
 
In this webinar, you will gain:
 
1.    A process for setting extraordinary standards
2.    An understanding of how to more effectively evaluate and manage
       sales activity and success
3.    An accountability matrix to use immediately with your sales team
4.    A way to accurately assess the commitment of your team
 
Please register now or call us at (877)635-5371. 

Selling Lessons From The Neighborhood

We live on a cul-de-sac in our neighborhood and I was struck by two events this week in terms of their application to selling.

First, in a game of wiffle ball this week my daughter Madison hit the ball and then realizing the second baseman was going to beat her to first base and she would be out, decided to run back to home crying!  That made me think of some of the reasons sales people get called out at first base on the initial prospect call...and how they go back to the office wondering "how did that happen?"

Secondly, Madison has swim practice every day in the morning...and I mean every day Monday through Friday.  But her friend Logan from across the street has not yet given up in the hope that he will get a different response when he comes across the street to see if she can play.  Every day the door bell rings.  Every day it is Logan asking if Madison can play.  And every day it is me telling him she is at swim practice and will be home after lunch.  These porch step conversations with Logan remind me of sales people who keep calling on the same prospects over and over again but expecting a diffent outcome and who do this primarily because the prospect will at least take their call.

Translation - make sure you are knocking on the right doors...with people who have compelling reasons to speak with you...and that you have a plan for getting past first base (without crying).

Motivation That Works - Free Webinar

How would your salespeople rate your ability to inspire and motivate them? 

Most sales managers agree that one of the toughest jobs they have is to keep their team upbeat and selling, especially now.  Motivating your sales force is one of the 5 key roles of an effective sales manager and it takes time, guts and creativity.  The ability to motivate your sales team may be the difference between making your business plan or missing it in the last half of 2009.

 

Mark Trinkle, Sales Development Expert with Anthony Cole Training Group, works with sales managers across the country.  While there is no secret formula to becoming a great motivator, there are three specific activities that he will share with you to implement that will energize you and your sales team.  If you need fresh actionable ideas for motivating your salespeople, participate in this free webinar Motivating Your Sales Team - 3 Must Do's from 12 to 1 pm EDT on Tuesday, June 30, 2009.
 

In this webinar, you will gain:

• An understanding of the underlying reasons why salespeople work to achieve their goals
• A method to get all of your salespeople focused on burning platform issues
• Sales management tools that you can easily use immediately with your team
• 3 specific strategies for motivating your team

Please register now or call us at (877)635-5371. 


Good Selling!

Motivating Sales People

How would your salespeople rate your ability to inspire and motivate them? 

Most sales managers agree that one of the toughest jobs they have is to keep their team upbeat and selling, especially now.  Motivating your sales force is one of the 5 key roles of an effective sales manager and it takes time, guts and creativity.  The ability to motivate your sales team may be the difference between making your business plan or missing it in the last half of 2009.

 

Mark Trinkle, Sales Development Expert with Anthony Cole Training Group, works with sales managers across the country.  While there is no secret formula to becoming a great motivator, there are three specific activities that he will share with you to implement that will energize you and your sales team.  If you need fresh actionable ideas for motivating your salespeople, participate in this free webinar Motivating Your Sales Team - 3 Must Do's from 12 to 1 pm EDT on Tuesday, June 30, 2009.
 

In this webinar, you will gain:

• An understanding of the underlying reasons why salespeople work to achieve their goals
• A method to get all of your salespeople focused on burning platform issues
• Sales management tools that you can easily use immediately with your team
• 3 specific strategies for motivating your team

Please register now or call us at (877)635-5371. 


Good Selling!

Best of the Best

Given the opportunities I have to work with some incredibly talented sales professionals across the country, I am always updating the list I created in 2008 that summarizes what makes those sales professionals so successful.  Here is my mid year update for 2009:

1.       They have goals/dreams in writing with due dates that are measurable and non-negotiable.  It provides them with self-management capabilities.  It is their passion.

2.       They always project the image that they don’t need the business….they are ready and willing to walk away at any point in time (even when they really do need the business).

3.       They never make excuses.

4.       They never fail to prospect – they always carve out time to make their dials.

5.       They never – and I mean never – act, sound, walk, talk or look like a salesperson.

6.       They make only a few cold calls since most of their dials are coming from introductions and they understand that cold calling is the least effective way of reaching first base with a prospect.

7.       They use a pipeline management system that is visual, stage based and criteria based.

8.       They are life-long readers and learners.  They realize selling is a slight edge business and they are constantly looking to get just a little better every day.

9.       They show up on the first call prepared with great questions that will disqualify the prospect.

10.   They have the ability to recognize the tipping point on a sales call – the exact moment when the prospect is in enough severe mental anguish to take action.

11.   They know the difference between pain and compelling reasons and they figure it out quickly on the first call.

12.   They never compromise their standards relative to what they will work on.

13.   They spend time working on their business as opposed to working in their business.

14.   They track everything – activity, results, etc.  If it moves they measure it.  They know their stats.

15.   They know their “uncommon offering” and can articulate it in a way that makes the prospect ask “how do you do that?”

16.   They are prepared to take risks in order to change.

17.   They hold themselves accountable…they don’t need babysitters.

18.   They see each loss as an opportunity to learn and adjust.  They never waste anything.

19.   They never confuse what they do with who they are.

20.   They know money gives them two things:  freedom of time and freedom of choice.

21.   They know that the accumulation of wealth for any reason other than to satisfy a dream is simply obscene.

22.   They know the moment at which they were in enough pain with their results that they had to change because the pain of not changing was greater than the pain of changing.

23.   They always have a sales goal that is bigger than what the organization gives them.

 

Quote of the Week

"I remind myself every morning:  nothing I say this day will teach my anything.  So if I am going to learn, I must do it by listening." ... Larry King

Is The End in Sight????

"When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight."

That quote belongs to Jack Welch.  And it makes me think of the last book I read titled World Wide Rave.  So many organizations are struggling to keep up with the incredibly rapid rate of change in today's world  - particularly in connection with how those changes impact selling.  But how true are the words of Jack Welch?  Unless you keep up and make the necessary adjustments the end is not far away.

You may not like the social networking sites...you may not know how to use them...but more and more that is where your prospects either are today or will be tomorrow.  Do you see them...or do you see the end in sight?

It's More Than A Job

I abosolutely love this article from Vern Harnish's blog in connection with the latest Jim Collins book How The Mightly Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In.

Job vs. Responsibility -- p. 57 -- this is one of my favorite "how to's" in the book -- notes Collins "One notable distinction between wrong people and right people (in key seats) is that the former see themselves as having 'jobs,' while the latter see themselves as having 'responsibilities. Every person in a key seat should be able to respond to the question "What do you do?" not with a job title, but with a statement of personal responsibility. "I'm the one person ultimately responsible for x and y." Think columns two and three on our People Accountability worksheet. In fact, Collins, when he's hosting executive teams at his research lab often challenges executives to introduce themselves not with titles, but by articulating their responsibilities. As he notes "those who have lost (or not yet built) a culture of discipline find this question to be terribly difficult."

You Decide

One of the most striking attributes of great leaders is their willingess to make decisions...and most of the time to make good decisions.

Do you know anyone who has trouble making decisions?  They struggle with simple decisions (what to order for lunch) as if that decision is going to impact the rest of their life.  From time to time I will simply ask the waiter or waitress to bring me something/anything off the menu just to remind myself of the power in making decisions and to remind me of the importance of distinguishing between important decisions (the God you serve, the friends you choose, the person you marry, etc.) and more trivial matters (what to order for lunch, where to go on vacation, what car to buy, etc.).

Which leads me to the sales people and sales managers I meet in my travels.  Some of them are absolutely terrified to make decisions.  Now I don't mean to even suggest that some of the decisions are not important.  After all, deciding who to hire and who to let go often has a deep impact on the lives of good people.  But if you are a sales manager, that is what you signed up for....so get on with it.  If you know that one of your team members is not going to cut it...if you know they won't be able to sell in the current economic environment...then how are you helping them or your company by hoping things will get better?  As I have written before on this blog, hope is not a strategy.

If you are a sales person, what decision do you need to make?  Is it to finally decide to be 100% committed to your profession?  Is to decide to stop wasting time on unqualified opportunities that clog up your pipeline?  Is it to have the guts to pick up the phone and fire a prospect that you know has no shot of becoming your client?  Is it to finally agree that your results or lack of results are due to one thing only - and that would be you?

I like what Havey Mackay wrote on his web site this week:  "Don't be afraid of making decisions.  Be afraid of not making decisions."

As always, it's up to you to decide.

An Apple A Day

I was in Houston this week on a business trip when I needed some assistance with my iPhone...which by the way is the single greatest technology related purchase I have ever made.  So I made an appointment at the Genius Bar (tech support) inside the Apple store at the Houston Galleria.  Wow, what an experience!  Apple has to be one of the five greatest marketing companies of all time.  What struck me about the Apple store (specifically the Genius Bar) was how incredibly young nearly all of the techs and salespeople were. 

Do yourself a favor and read Steve Chazin's ebook Marketing Apple - 5 Secrets of the World's Best Marketing Machine.  You can get to the ebook by clicking on this link:

http://marketingapple.com

Which leads me to the latest book I read this week by David Meerman Scott.  The title of his book is World Wide Rave and it is a book about using the internet to get people to spread your ideas and share your company's stories.  So back to technology.  So many firms today are still resisting embracing social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  But do you know who the new decisionmakers of today and tomorrow will be?  They are the same young people and friends of the people who work at Apple's Genius Bar and they are absolutely fearless about technology.

Memo to all you out there who are not using social networking sites:  that is where your customers either are today or will be tomorrow.  Shouldn't you be there as well?