It seems multitasking is today’s badge of honor. In the 90’s the badge of honor was comparing how hard or how many long hours and weekends you were working compared to others.

Today’s sellers say they work better when they are multi-tasking – although studies now indicate that multi-tasking is a myth.

Humans, they say, don’t do lots of things simultaneously.  Instead, we switch our attention from task to task extremely quickly.

With all the different thoughts in a seller’s head – for everything they are doing simultaneously – can multi-tasking really help or is it emotional and mental clutter – and is it costing you sales?

This tip cautions leaders about their own level of multitasking.

Send the message to your sellers that they matter, by being physically and mentally present.

Want to shock a salesperson? Next time you are with them mute your phone, turn off your computer and let them know that the time with them is more important.

“Salespeople soon discover the level of performance their manager expects and perform to that level. Managers then believe that is all the salesperson is capable of producing and quit challenging them to do more. Both reinforce what the other believes.” by Ron Willingham

Today’s Tip steers managers to believe in their sellers more than they believe in themselves.

What would happen if you constantly sent the message that all of your sellers are winners?  If you are saying to yourself that you already do this, think again.  Most managers send the opposite message to their medium to lower producing sellers.

Challenge yourself today to believe everyone, and I mean everyone – on your team is a winner.  Now find ways to say this to each and everyone one of them every day for the next week.

Then let me know what changes you see in your team.

A few weeks ago when working with a team of 15 managers I asked what they liked about their managers.  One action on all 15 leaders list was receiving recognition.  When further discussing recognition – individual and public praise was mentioned as one of the most satisfying forms of recognition.

Then I asked these managers, how often do they praise their direct reports.  They all agreed probably not as often as they should.  Several interesting comments were” “I think my team knows I appreciate them.” and ,”That’s not really my style.” and  “I don’t think about it.” 

We set out the challenge to praise each person as often as possible with these guidelines:

1. Specific

2. Authentic

3. Immediate

4. Private and Public

 

The feedback one week later was the energy and attitude was higher, there was a skip in more people’s step, the level of friendliness and support raised.  Not too shabby for one week’s worth of praise. 

 

Tip: Everyone wants to be noticed, appreciated and recognized for their efforts. 

 

It’s your turn now.  Praise each seller this week and notice the power of praise.

If you’ve ever been to Seattle Washington and visited Pikes Market Place you’ve most likely experienced the Fish Monger’s. 

There’s the book Fish! by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, John Christensen and the Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZKiJejNRtw. 

The Fish Philosophy is:

• Choose your attitude.

• Find ways to play.

• Be present.

• Make their day.

This tip is about finding ways to play and recommending you take your team on an outing! 

One fun outing our team does with sales leaders before our coaching workshop translates easily with your sellers…. Go Bowling!

We add a little twist to the bowling event.  Here’s how it goes: 

Invite your sellers to go bowling.  Line up the bowling alley, food, shoe rental, etc.  Ask the bowling alley to allow each person 2 free practice frames.  (Today, the bowling alley’s are all computerized and this generally needs to be negotiated in advance.)  After the team takes their practice frames, gather in a huddle before the official games begin.

In the huddle announce you’ll be bowling 2 games.  The first game is with your opposite dominant hand – and yes, you’ll hear a lot of groans!  The second game is with your dominant hand.  As you hear complaints and comments – smile and shrug your shoulders!

Let the games begin! 

 The opposite dominate hand bowling is fun, funny, challenging and team building!  There will be a lot of gutter balls and possibly some unhappy competitive players.

 Often people expect the second round scores to be better – and they may not be.  They aren’t concentrating as much – taking things for granted – and it shows in a lower score.

 Remember it’s all in fun!

The next day award a variety of prizes – highest and lowest scores, best coach, most congeniality, best form, worst form, and anything else you can think of.

After gifting the awards lead a discussion with this question: 

How was the bowling activity similar to your job?

It leads to an enlightening and engaging discussion which may include some of these concepts:

• Take our customers for granted

• Don’t react well when new information is given when least expected

• It takes teamwork to achieve new goals

• Effective communications improves time to performance

Where will you take your team on an outing to play and build a better performing sales team?

Motivating employees isn’t an easy task especially since motivation comes from within.  As a manager and leader it’s how you activate each person’s personal achievement drive – what I call the fire in the belly – and bring it out. 

I’m also an admirer of bringing fun to the workplace and the creative ways managers build their people from the inside out. 

Ernie Capabianco, CEO of Sq1, a digital conversion optimization agency, motivates by awarding the Red Chainsaw Award.  The recipient of this fine award has gone well above and beyond the call of duty – they have cut through the normal bull to produce exceptional results.  The recipient is announced during a staff meeting and their name is added to the plaque with all previous winners. 

What are you doing to recognize and reward?  Is there a creative award for your team?

Tip: As you ponder new ways to recognize and reward consider these tips:

1. Find ways to appreciate and recognize people.

2. Recognize publicly.

3. Rewards count too. 

4. Rewards are tangible and intangible.

Do something today to recognize employee achievement and you’ll reap the rewards.

 

Managers often get caught in the trap of only discussing the pipeline, today’s activities, and anything related to accounts, problems, or concerns.  It’s typical to do this as your company is growing fast and there are a lot of projects and activities competing for your time.

Good managers recognize great management is about deep personal relationships.  The one thing many managers say they don’t have time to do.  Want to be a great manager?  Want to continue to have a top producing sales team?  Then stop and allow time to build relationships with everyone. 

Either change your conversation from time to time with your people or include the personal side to the conversations where you are mapping out current and future sales. 

Tip: Do You Really Care?

Getting to know them is easy with conversations about their past and their future. Explore their past with questions finding out the changes they’ve made over time, reasons they made those changes, what they truly care about, their most important aspects/accomplishments to date and what they don’t want to repeat.

The future is discussing that the three to five things they really want to be or do in life.  How they want to be remembered or known for and what will after work life look like?

When you show you really care about their goals and values, it’s easier to connect their work with their success for the next year. 

Their big picture and the organization’s big picture are working together.  You really do care!

Busy?  Caught up on the hamster wheel?  When’s the last time you stopped and checked in with your plan to meet your sales quota this year? Making your plan is tough especially since what and how your sales team performs drive it.  Because everyone gets caught up in every day life and work, consider taking a strategic review time – every month or at minimum every quarter – and work with your team to answer these 5 questions:

1. Who?

Who is your best, highest probability customer or client? 

How many of these are currently in the pipeline? 

When’s the last time they were contacted? 

How were there contacted? 

Is it time to do something different? 

Did the high probability client explicitly state their problems, opportunities, wants, desires, dreams or needs?

Who’s the decision maker and am I talking to the right person?

2. What?

What has worked well before to acquire these high probability customers?

What crashed and burned that I won’t repeat. 

What barriers are keeping me from advancing the sale?

What additional resources do I need?

What products and services match? 

What’s missing from the mix that I need to work around? 

3. When?

When is the next meeting?

When do they need to change suppliers?

When will I know I need to bring in reinforcement? 

4. Why? 

Why do my best customers select me and my company? 

What are the reasons behind the reasons – the emotional, intellectual, personal aspect? 

How can I articulate that succinctly with my current high probability prospects?  What current best customers match the current high probability prospects that I can have them call, get testimonials or create case studies? 

Why aren’t the high probability prospects advancing to a sale? 

5. How? 

How can I position myself as a strategic business partner?

How can I differentiate myself from the current supplier or competition?

How can I remove the barriers that are keeping from advancing the sale?

What is the best plan with specific actions to move this relationship and sale forward?

When your sellers are checking in wit their plan – they are guaranteed to meet your sales quota this year!

 

Yesterday was week two of what’s going to be once a week massages for several weeks.  My upper back has 2 knots that feel like big concrete blocks.  At the end of the treatment I asked how much movement was she able to make on the 2 knots.  Her response was – they are only hands, not magic wands.  I got the message – not much – the knots didn’t get there overnight – and I might have been expecting too much.

Selling is the same.  Your sellers didn’t stop responding well to objections or reduce asking solid investigate questions in one day.  They began acquiring bad sales habits over time.  And you as a sales manager either overlooked it, didn’t notice it or hoped they’d figure it out on their own and get better.  Warning:  that isn’t going to happen.  Just like the knots in my back are not going away anytime soon.  I expect I’ll have the “hands” – not “magic wands” work their magic on me for at least 6 weeks if not more.

A few tips to get the kinks out of your seller’s bad habits:

1. Field Rides.  When is the last time you made joint sales calls?  Not the one to make a joint presentation.  I mean the days or weeks when you ride for the day, or several days, observing a variety of sales situations.  You aren’t there to sell for them.  You are an extra set of eyes and ears discovering what the seller is doing well and looking for areas for improvement.  Go now to your calendar device and begin carving out time to schedule sales rides.

2. Coaching.  Too often when sales leaders say they are coaching, they really aren’t.  If you think conversing about what did you sell for me today, what are you working on, or putting out the latest fire is coaching – it isn’t.  Business Week’s article, Five Steps for Effective Sales Coaching, reports coaching needs to be an “ongoing, continuous process where one coaching conversation is a continuation of the last” and that it needs to “remain an ongoing priority, not a passing fad.”  If you or your sales leadership team isn’t already coaching – beware – you can’t just tell someone to start coaching.  Coaching is an art and a science as is selling. Provide the right coaching training.

3. Sales Meetings. Sales meetings can be your low cost/no cost training opportunity if they include a selling skills workshop.  It’s an easy way to fix bad sales habits, curb their re-occurrence and develop best sales practices.

You know you want a top producing team.  It’s easy enough with these 3 ways – field rides, coaching and skill building sales meetings.  I can’t ride with your team or coach them tomorrow.  What I can do is get you the best skill building sales training in your hands now – and you can start with that tomorrow.  If you don’t want to do the training – give it to one of your top producers or a seller who shows interest in training. Either way – you’ll get sales cranking in the right direction immediately.

So, which of these 3 actions are you willing to commit to get the kinks out of your seller’s bad habits?

Years ago Huthwaite research showed that the more benefit statements made in a sales conversation was a direct correlation to the higher chances the prospect or customer would buy.  When I first heard this as a sales person a big light bulb went off and I said that was easy enough to do.  And over the next few weeks my sales increased.

Benefit statements – stating the value or ‘What’s in it for Them’ applies to your conversations with your sellers.  As you are presenting ideas, challenges to overcome, new policy/procedure are you presenting only the features (facts, description, characteristics) or are you adding the value and particularly ‘What’s in it for them’?

This tip suggests: for the next few weeks as you plan and prepare for conversations with your team ask yourself – ‘So what?’ and if you didn’t include the answer to that as a benefit to them – it isn’t going to fly the same way as if you did.

Why do people buy your products?  They seek value, not price. The value is what’s in it for them.  What’s your product or service going to accomplish, fix or avoid?

So don’t be fooled when your sellers tell you if they could reduce the price, they could beat the competition and sell much more than they are currently selling.  It may sound tempting, only are you really in the discount business? And when the client is a price buyer, they are quick to leave and tend to be the more difficult customer and eat up your seller’s selling time.

Instead of selling price, build your seller’s confidence with the focus on the value offered by your products and services.  Then watch sales soar.

• On a flip chart or an 8 x 10 handout create 5 columns.

• Title the first column Value.

• The second is your company’s name,

• Select 3 competitors. Place the competitor’s names in the remaining columns.

• In the Value column, list everything your customers get or gain when they buy from you.

• Place a check mark next to each Value in the column under your company name.

• Take each competitor, one at a time, and ask whether they provide that value.

• Check when they do and leave it blank where they don’t.

• Discuss and evaluate the comparative value.

• Add to the value list until your value outweighs the competition.

Now go out and sell your value. Forget about discounts.

The question every sales manager and sales representative can’t get out of their head is, “Can I really make target?”

There is a simple checklist to give you your ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

But first, last weekend I had the opportunity to spend the day with my bestie… who I also believe is the best sales manager I have ever met.

For 20 years she has led her sales team through 3 buy-outs, 3 recessions, and everything else that can come your way with customer attrition and increased competition.

Yet she consistently meets quota and has less than 20% staff turnover – and more often that’s because the spouse got relocated – not because they were a poor hire or performer.

I give you this background because I wanted to once again test my theory of the most compelling sales manager challenge.  I asked Carole, “What is your biggest challenge?”

And without any hesitation she responded with, “Making target.”

How does she do it year after year?  Well, I’d love to take credit for her success – yet it’s the 3 guaranteed actions (the ones I write endlessly about) to meet sales targets that Carole does…

• Action 1:  Field ride alongs
• Action 2:  One-on-one coaching – weekly
• Action 3:  Skill Building Sales Training Meetings

So take a look at your calendar and monthly plan, and if it’s different than taking these 3 actions – change your schedule.

You can begin implementing the 3 actions.

For it to be even easier for you, here’s a  quick 30 minute sales training meeting (action 3) for your sellers to answer the question, “Can I really make target?”

With your sellers together complete this exercise:

1. Are you leading or lagging?

• Look at your current sales.
• Are you behind or ahead of target?

2. Is my pipeline real or a pipe dream?

• Who’s in your pipeline?
• Realistically who will close?
• Drop the ‘who am I fooling’ accounts from your pipeline.
• What’s the final number now?

3. How many new customers do I need?

• Determine your average dollar per customer.
• How many new ones do you need to meet target

4. What’s the new activity plan?

• What actions do you need to take to close the current realistic pipeline?
• What actions do you need to take to add quality prospects to the pipeline?

Now go out and do it!

And yes, You Can Really Make Target.

This Ted Talk can help you get everything that you want.  Really.

What do you want?  Be selfish.

You get to pick one thing to get what you want.

And did you know that not getting what you want all comes down to one word.

Mel Robbins in this TedX Talk San Francisco will help you stop screwing yourself over and stop being just F*@#.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp7E973zozc

Plan to show this at an upcoming sales meeting followed by a discussion on what it is you want and how you’ll stop being just F*@#.

 

Imagine a leader answering questions with, “Well, I’m not really sure” or “Possibly”, or “Maybe”.

That’s a sign of lack of confidence, reluctance to commit and fear of making decisions.

You are the leader of your team.

Lead with confidence in your stature, your tone and choice of words.

If you don’t know the answer, do what a good coach tells their sells people to do/say – “Good question, let me find out”.

Stand tall, lead with confidence.

You’ve decided to joint ride with one of your sellers and as you’re observing the conversation with the prospective client you:

• Don’t like the direction of the conversation

• Think the seller is handling this poorly

• See the customer is tuning out

• Observe the seller talking non-stop

• Can’t stand not being the one selling

So you cut in and take over the sales conversation.  The prospective customer switches their attention to you and the seller becomes an ornament.

You may have saved the day and closed the deal, possibly only advanced the sale or determined this is a prospect to let go.  In either case, what really happened here?

You took over, undermined the seller, and risked any future credibility with the seller/client relationship – let alone your own as their coach.  Now that you know what not to do, here is the #1 Tip to capitalize on joint sales calls.

Tip: Pre-determine when, if, and why you will join the sales conversation.  Plan in advance with the seller how they want you to participate.  A good rule of thumb to agree on is if you see the call going south, the seller is talking too much or the customer is tuning out, the best way for you to participate is to ask a question.  This allows for a pause in the conversation, engages or re-engages the prospective client and everyone re-groups.  Once the client answers, sit back as the seller will take the lead again.

I know it’s tough to not jump in.  Remember, Thomas Edison tried 100,000 times before he got it right.  Your job as a coach is to allow your sellers to fail to be able to learn from their mistakes.  Asking questions and turning it back around is more valuable than taking over.

Which reputation do you want as a coach –  the day my sales manager rides with me is the kiss of death – or the best day selling is the day my manager rides with me?

A sales manager’s biggest obstacle to moving their sales team forward is remaining at status quo.  If you do nothing, then there will be no transition or change and that’s probably is the kiss of death. The good competitors in your space are coming after you.  They think about you constantly and they are finding ways to take the business from you.

So what can you do quickly to ward off and get ahead of the competition for better sales results?

It can be as simple as coaching your sales people.

Forget all the excuses:  I don’t have time, They don’t want me to ride with them, They’re all over the country, They’re experienced sales people – they don’t need me to coach, I don’t want to take time away from selling and many more.

Planning the coaching session is very much like modeling your preparation for a sales conversation.  Determine the objective of the conversation and prepare several opening questions.

These 20 Thought Starter Coaching Questions help launch an effective and efficient coaching conversation:

1. What’s your vision of the ideal…? What can you do in the next 30 days to move in that direction?

2. What is one thing you could start, stop, or continue doing in the next 24 hours that will get you closer to your goal?

3. What would have you jump out of bed in the morning excited about the day ahead of you?

4. What would you like to be most proud of a year from now?

5. What would be your one breakthrough goal that you can conceive of but do NOT believe you can achieve?

6. What is getting in the way of making you successful?

7. What are your aspirations for yourself in our organization?

8. Talk to me about your pipeline/what opportunities should you be pursuing?

9. What are the biggest obstacles to advancing sales and closing more deals?

10. What do you think you do best to meet your goals?  What areas if improved would help you meet goals easier and or sooner?

11. Who is your toughest competitor – and what are they doing right?

12. What are the top reasons a lead doesn’t close?

13. What are you trying to achieve/ what would it mean to if you could achieve this?

14. What are your short-term and daily activity goals?

15. What stands in the way of achieving your goals?

16. What are the top three things that you’ll need to make your number this quarter/year?

17. In your typical week, what takes you away from sales opportunities?

18. What else do you spend time on, how is your time divided?

19. How can I, as your manager help you put a plan together to better utilize the resources available?

20. What are you willing to commit to doing/trying/changing and by when?

Let us know how your coaching session goes and please – add any of your great questions to this list.

Are you the sales manager who asks, “What did you sell today?” or are you the one asking, “What opportunities did you advance today?”

“When managers focus on the close, the deal, or the sale, that’s when sellers begin to lose focus on the collaborative win-win sales process and switch to telling, pushing and throwing out features hoping the customer will buy.”

Alleviate the pressure to close more sales and demotivate your sales team.  If you want your sellers to sell more and stay energized, then concentrate on what they are doing to advance each sale.

• What successes did you have today?

• What opportunities did you advance today?

• How will the client benefit by taking on our product line?

• What did the prospect say was most important in relation to our products and services?

• If you were the prospect, would you buy now?

• What was the objective of the last phone call or meeting?

• Why is it important to the customer to add or switch suppliers?

Incorporate some of these questions and variations of them as you engage with your sellers.

It may take your sellers by surprise at first.  Your shift from “What did you sell today?” – which demotivates to “What success did you have today?” conveys your belief in them and that they are working hard to bring in the business.  Watch their achievement drive soar.

You were promoted because you were a successful sales person and by now have noticed your sellers may not be selling the way you did.  Don’t fall into the trap of pointing out how you did it.  That’s a sure bet you’re on your way to failing as a manager.

Take the “I” out of the conversation.  Offer suggestions through questions:

• What do you think of asking this question?

• How do you think this would work if you approached it this way?

• I saw (insert other rep name) present this way and his client responded well.  Does that method appeal to you?

• What went well on that sales call?  What could have been done differently for a better outcome?

It’s tough not to tell, so resist that urge and collaborate with each seller to develop their talents and greater success.

 

Not all current client relationships are necessarily good.  Several probably come to mind where the deal is costing you and the company more time and energy than your return.  They can be the problem account that takes your seller away from more productive sales activities or deals you accepted at a lower price and then it begins to get harder to deliver.

These types of accounts tend to be not good for you and not good for your client or not good for you and good for the client.  Either way – there isn’t a win-win happening.

Use either your one-on-one coaching meeting with each seller or a joint sales meeting where each seller reviews their accounts to see how many of these accounts your organization has.

Next steps are to reflect on how the client came to fruition.

Then strategize on how to move these relationships to a better level.

And lastly, discuss how to prevent these accounts from coming on board in the future.

According to Kindle I’m only 29% through Alison Levine’s book, On the Edge:  Leadership Lessons from Mount Eerest and Other Extreme Environments.

I’m riveted by her gumption, experience and lessons while she survived sub-zero temperatures, hurrican-force windes, sudden avalances and a career on Wall Street.

Alison served as the team captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition and has earned her place in history books for other feats that fewer than 40 people have ever done.

In my 29% completion, I’m sharing several compelling quotes on leadership:

• The way you react to something in the moment will depend heavily on the way in which you prepare to ace challenges.

• Everyone is in a leadership position – regardless of age or title or tenure or where we work.

• Technique and ability alone do not get you to the top – it is the willpower that is the most important.  This will power you cannot buy with money or be given by others – it rises from your heart.

• Don’t wait for mentors to come to you.  Seek them out.

• If you try to win alone and you’re successful, you’re going to jump up to celebrate alone.  No one will share the moment with you.  If you win as a team, you’ll all jump up together.”

• Good leaders understand it’s their duty to develop leadership skills in others by routinely asking team members to steAp into roles of greater responsibility so they grow as leaders themselves.

I recommend this book for you and for your sales teams. Each chapter has nuggets of leadership examples.

In fact, It’ll be a great book club to discuss a chapter per week.