Welcome to The Greatest Sales Leaders in the World - Coach the Best!™
This is an introduction to the transformative experience of becoming a better leader - a successful leader of people who sell. It’s an introduction to the disciplined training process that will, if you allow its shaping, make you more influential with those you hope to teach, mentor and coach into being high-activity sales professionals. It will stretch and build your leadership for many other parts of your life as well.
I know that you want to be better equipped to defeat chaos at home, at work and inside yourself. I also know that it’s hard to find trusted experts who will give you the advice that matters to your life. Some us have not experienced a life-changing upbringing brought about by genuine people who cared for us. We’ve either been left alone, treated with disrespect or not taught the rigors of the hard work and sacrifice that undergird the achievement of noble ambitions.
Most of you want genuine mentors to teach you something practical and easy to understand. You want real solutions to hard issues and you want their use to empower you to lead a team of successful people in sales. You want the truth given in a kind manner and without judgment.
For a practical thought, Theodore Roosevelt said,
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!”
while Gandhi made sure leaders understood to
“be the change you want to see.”
One says be the example and the other says be the best you can be now! Both are right and give us wisdom to remember as we lead.
So, when you experience Coach the Best, I want those 13 weeks to change your life in a way that helps you coach and mentor others with greater results. I want your awesome transformation to excite others into a remarkable growth phase of their own life. I know that you want to put these new attitudes and skills into place quickly. So, let’s do it!
……………………..
You are a selected and unusual group of people. You embrace the fundamentals of outstanding sales leadership and the satisfying rewards of winning through and for people.
The Truth About Social Changes in America
As leaders in your company, and at this moment in your nation’s history you face American cultural issues which impact you and those whom you seek to influence. With your understanding of these issues and your dedication to transformation, you and those you coach will get better and you will lead them into enjoying a more successful life.
Walter Lippmann, an advisor to Presidents, who won two Pulitzer prices, one for his newspaper column Today and Tomorrow, is widely regarded as one of the most influential journalists of the twentieth century. His view of social change was:
“A new social change means a radical change of conscience.”
So as we think about changing our consciences, here are the social issues all leaders face today.
Leaders in every age of our history have faced various challenges within their cultures to win in a manner that makes life better for those around them. You will struggle to overcome problems relating to the negatives within these issues.
For example, a desire for improving quality of life in the next 2-10 years will affect what someone choses to work on today. Addictions will stop progress toward a noble aim’s action steps. They will keep a person from long-term goal setting and achievement and it will keep him from making and mportant life objective a reality. Yet, this struggle has always been present in the lives of people.
Studies have shown that a focus on making people “feel” good about themselves and increasing their self-esteem leads to a loss of self-control. It causes someone to weaken and not to learn how a hard work ethic, discipline and perseverance contribute to life improvement by being strengthened to handle forceful opposition.
Today, reps want a family atmosphere and a sense of belonging. They want nonjudgmental mentors who help them learn to grow and develop. They want a transformational experience and to do work that matters in the world. They want to learn about their gifts and their purpose.
In addition, they need someone who leads them into dangerous waters of new learning which will help them avoid financial traps, poor home lives and bad relationships. They want someone to make them combat-ready for a tough and demanding world.
The avoidance of sociopathic hires is important as well. Much of the last 100 years of research on conscientiousness shows less counterproductive workplace behaviors and stronger cultures when the people who work in them display an industry toward common rules and standards and when they organize their time and resources to achieve company objectives for the benefit of others.
You have what it takes to help teams achieve goals and make their lives better and defeat these issues within our society!
Let’s get started! … Lance
Five days a week he arrived home at 5:30 p.m. We could count on it. It was more than “like clockwork.” It was a sacramental occurrence in the same way that all of us take for granted that day and night will appear each morning and evening. Dad was always home at the appointed time.
The world ran on schedule until the day his heart stopped. Then, things changed and they were never quite the same.
………………………….
When a war occurs or life changes in a major way, how does a person lead in a manner that keeps people safe while they strive to achieve their goals? What attitudes and beliefs propel people forward with optimism and their best efforts. What ritualistic words and actions will bring a leader success.
Caring About Your People
Effective leadership, parenting or running a country starts with love.
When General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the attack on Germany and the invasion of Normandy, he knew this,
“Morale is born of loyalty, patriotism, discipline, and efficiency, all of which breeds confidence in self and in comrades… Morale is at one and the same time the strongest and the most delicate of growths. It withstands shocks, even disasters of the battlefield, but can be destroyed utterly by favoritism, neglect or injustice.”
156,000 soldiers with 4000 ships and 11,000 airplanes invaded German occupied territory in Western France. His letter read to frightened young men contained these words,
“You are about to embark upon a Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. … you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed people of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world. … Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
General Eisenhower's letter also explains to the men how the Nazis are reeling from great defeats and Allied victories and that we have “overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!”
His attitude of compassion was present before the battle began the next day. He prepared for defeat and wrote a note taking full blame for the failed decision to attack. Wow! He would shoulder the blame for his young soldiers if they were defeated.
What to Learn and Ritualize Into Your Spirit
……………….
We will always have tragedies and difficult moments in our lives. As leaders, we make sure that optimism reigns and love triumphs in the fight to win.
If you are faith-based, be authentic about what you believe the God you serve will do for all of you. Here’s how General Eisenhower ended his letter to the troops before they stormed the beaches. “Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
Love, ritualistic presence, appreciation, why, truth, resources and confidence within your family, your company, your friends and your country. These you can build within you as you lead others in battling through a crisis.
Just remember faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.
]]>Last week the Wall Street Journal printed a series of articles around Navigating the Coronavirus. Their writers’ inspiring stories got me thinking about the ways we can grow while we help others during this conflict. And, as I was writing this, it occurred to me that the ways to be hopeful are endless - an infinite number of possibilities only limited by our courage, imagination and ability to look for them. Let’s get started today with our gifts, our resources and our presence.
It’s so cool that everyone reading this is different - very human, male or female, farmers and electricians, painters and runners, children and adults, young and old, etc. Each of you is an individual and unlike anyone who has every been born. Wow, what a unique set of readers, giving and receiving from the world around you in various ways to sustain a collective hope!
Dr. Charles Snyder was known well for his research on the psychology of hope and its contribution to making the possibilities of the future a reality. He wanted to understand how hopeful people identify pathways to a better life in the face of difficulties like this virus, and how they move past their previous failures? He found that as we show hope in hard times with caring actions toward others, we build and sustain greater hope in ourselves. The hopeful things we do contributes back to our own well-being while increasing the positive values present in the situation of others.
There is no greater example than in Victor Fankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. As a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, here’s what he said:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how".”
Now, what can we do today to make a hopeful difference?
Our Gifts
These are unique to each of us. Drawing, writing, fixing automobiles, mowing lawns, planting flowers and gardens, speaking, cooking, smiling, encouraging, listening, electrical work, plumbing, painting walls or decks, exercising, bible-studying, organizing …
What are your gifts and how can you use them to bring hope to those around you or far away? I’ve heard of families putting together encouraging signs in their yards for their neighbors. Some mowed another family’s lawn or fixed cookies (with gloves on) and placed them on doorsteps.
To keep those over a certain age from getting out, friends of mine have gone to the grocery store to get them what they need. Others gifted with an understanding of technology have managed a Zoom call to gather a family or a group of friends together.
When we think about our gifts, the options grow in an exponential way for delivering hope. What are yours and how will you use them to bring increased optimism to people and to defeat depression and pessimism?
Our Resources
What are they? How can they help? When you give them away, how can your assets help someone else through the difficulties of this virus and their limited freedom to move away from their homes?
Give some of it away or share it. Make it available for use. Here’s a thought. What about the delivery vehicles still serving our world: FedEx, Amazon, Post Office, UPS? Greet them with a smile. Encourage them. Give them something to drink or eat or a card to read. Brighten up their day, and lighten up yours as well, as you give to them. Send them to their next delivery point with your word or act of appreciation.
Your Presence
First, I want to give two words to leadership for the essential businesses still operating and their employees still working, “Show up!” Get out of the office and around your people. Be there, ask them how they are doing and just listen. It will make a HUGE difference.
If you employ yourself as a sales rep or in customer service, call your customers to see how they are doing. And that’s it! Call to find out how they are doing. You may also explain any adjustments your company is making to better serve customers, but ask for their permission to explain them.
Make a list and then write, email or text to “x” number of people a day. Send out notes of encouragement and appreciation and gratitude. Do this every day and make this activity a scheduled one.
From the same list, call “x” number of people each day. When they answer tell them, “I’m just calling to see how you’re doing.” And, then just listen. I’ve had some amazing calls doing this simple activity and doing it has caused a remarkable change in my own sense of meaning.
…………
Get started. What can be done is endless! We can all find our way to love others during this fight. You have amazing resources within yourself. You have what it takes to make it today and to help someone else make it as well.
Be responsible and Be hopeful, and as Winston Churchill reminds us,
]]>“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word (or deed): freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.”
The fears crawling around our country today include those we find while we stay at home and those that stare back at us when we go out. In just the last few weeks, what lifts our present anxiousness has shifted to these:
In the presence of these insecurities, what is courage? What does it look like displayed in such a time as this? If we turn to psychology, we find very little research on this quality as compared to other personality traits. In January, 2018, Nate and his associates wrote about understanding the predictors of day to day courage in the workplace, and used this definition of courage:
“courage is a willful, intentional act, executed after mindful deliberation, involving objective substantial risk to the actor, primarily motivated to bring about a noble good or worthy end.”
Aristotle believed that courage was best demonstrated in those moments in which there was a fight and that soldiers in battle were the best examples. We can add firefighters and infectious disease nurses and doctors (think Ebola) to the list. All of them fight for a noble good and the protection of themselves and the citizens of their country. They are patriots.
Aristotle also believed, that because we give public honor to those who either die in battle or successfully overcome the enemy, this was proof of a higher, even a highest, type of courage. And, Mark Twain wrote that courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” If our courage definitions must contain the pursuit of a noble aim - one that benefits people - then those who behave in this way become our heroines and heroes.
……………..
I think, for most salespeople, prospecting for appointments is most difficult - especially at the right levels. Many find it hard to pick up the phone or meet someone new for the first time and win a meeting with them. Why? It’s because, to earn a living, they must move toward someone with whom they have no relationship. They must get a stranger to see them and answer their questions or watch their presentation. And, while a referred person gives a salesperson starting credibility, a sales rep, when prospecting and in face-to-face interactions ,must risk rejection, dial tones and “no.”
First, can salespeople make themselves prospect and sell to people for ignoble reasons? Yes!
Salespeople, to make sales, do not have to believe in the product they sell. In the real world, some with borderline sociopathic tendencies do not. They lie and posture and stimulate a response in others to make a purchase. They just want the money. They do not care about how the product helps someone; and, in the absence of conscience and empathy, they do not feel rejection. They shrug it off and just keep picking the phone up and bashing away at who answers. If in front of someone, they pressure, stimulate, or charm them into buying. This does not require courage only crafty boldness.
When a whole company of leaders value people in this way, this type of salesperson receives recognition at the top of the sales board. Meanwhile repeat business, referrals and brand reputation decrease. This culture brings in money - fast. Even lying is OK! Ever been around this type of sales outfit? It does not take courage to work there - just hard charging, thoughtless people.
Courage in sales requires prospecting at the right levels and handling the rejection. It means being willing to listen to the needs and problems of people. It requires honest declarations and presentations customized to show needs fulfilled and problems solved. It means admitting when your product does not meet customer requirements. It means telling the truth when the truth will lose you a sale. It means facing and handling customer problems after-the-sale and admitting mistakes and then fixing them until what was promised is delivered.
We all know the lawyer jokes and we have experienced ignoble sales reps. And, people in any profession can perform without honor. The best salespeople I know fight the internal fears of rejection and pessimism to earn money for themselves and their family. They do this for a noble aim that makes a positive difference in their home and for their customers. They earn money as the honest catalysts of business and they behave as virtuous merchants of products and services.
Today, at this time, we need courageous suppliers who pursue a noble good. We need the truth from shopkeepers, clerks, retailers and dealers. We don’t need the dishonest and cowardly hustler who preys on naive and trusting people and brings fear to the sequestered senior citizen.
I know you will work to represent decent and courageous sales reps. Then, you will always prosper yourself and your customers. You will be heroines and heroes.
]]>What do you experience when you hear the word, “Cancer,” and it’s dreadful significance enters the life of a friend, colleague or family member? Do you socially distance yourself? Do you wait for an “update?”
This is not an easy time with the virus hiding on our hands or on door knobs. It feels like a virtual hospital and we’re looking for someone to help us cope. So here’s my two cents.
Show up! Be there for those you lead, influence or love. And, if you need them, here’s are some starting words, “How are you?” Or, “Just thought I’d call to see how you’re doing? or, “Just thought I’d stop by and see how you’re doing?” and then - listen.
Yes, just be there and just listen.
It’s kind of like in a hospital with someone you know stricken with cancer. Don’t think you have to have the right words. Just show up and say, “ I just wanted to stop by and see how you’re doing.” Then, listen.
Remember this. No judgement. Today, people are fearful and some more than others. For many, the things they had faith in have been ripped away from them. Some more than others. If they look around and see you their leader, distancing yourself, they begin to imagine you as not present and without any concern for their needs or fears.
Even before this unseen enemy arrived sometime around December or January, the anxiety of Americans had increased as social media usage escalated and as the family structure continued to lose ground or break down. The politics of our day contributed as well along with addictions and a loss of shared American values. With the virus, anxiety has escalated into a profound loss of control and depression.
……………..
So, show up. Recently in the midst of our present scare, Regional Directors for a very large cellular company visited their retail stores. When they arrived they said, “I just dropped by to see how you’re doing?” and, then they sat down and listened.
After their visits, here’s a text one of them received.
“The guys and I appreciate you taking the time to come to the store and just be there. Thank you for taking the time to sit down with men. I really do appreciate that.”
Whether at someone’s bedside in a hospital on in the stainless steel environment of a business, when you show up people know you care and the impact of your presence stretches across the marketplace and even to rest of the country.
Anyone can lead in this way and make a big difference in the lives people. Remember this. In difficult times, people want to talk with someone. So, be there. Show up.
Let’s do this together. Lance
]]>What’s the purpose of a salesperson? To sell widgets? To sell them above a magic number?
Years ago I attended a luncheon and remember a speaker who had a dramatic impact on my life. This man among other things had worked with drug and alcoholic dependent young people in Chattanooga, TN. When he worked with these teenagers, he would ask them a series of questions. As best I can remember, here is what he told them.
Standing in a classroom, he picked up a familiar object and asked, “What is the purpose of this wastepaper basket?” “To put trash in!” a young man exclaimed with some degree of arrogance. “No, he replied with an even tone and a smile, “That might be its function - to have trash put in it, but that’s not its purpose. What’s its purpose?”
After a few tries, one of the kids offered, “To keep the room clean?” “Yes,” he said, “But to keep the room clean for whom?” A young man in the front row raised his hand and said, “The people?” “Yes,” the speaker replied, “The people - the wastepaper basket keeps the room clean for the people. That’s its purpose.”
He then hugged the newspaper basket and asked, “Now, doesn’t that make the wastepaper basket feel better knowing its purpose is to keep the room clean for the people and it’s not just to sit there and have trash put in it?”
The man turned and pointed behind him, “What’s the purpose of this blackboard?” Someone called out, “To write on.” The man smiled and said, “No, that might be its function - to be written on, but that’s not its purpose. What’s its purpose?” A girl in the back of the room raised her hand slowly and said, “To help people learn.” Yes, he replied with a smile as he tried to hug the board, “Now, doesn’t that make the blackboard feel better? It’s purpose is to help people learn not just to be written on.”
He paused. He took a step toward everyone. In a very quiet room, he asked, “What your purpose?” After a slight pause, he asked, “Is it to have trash put in you? Is it to be written on?” Again he repeated, “What’s your purpose?”
Silence.
People sat around me that day at lunch - people who worked as bankers, attorneys, salespeople, business owners and in various other roles. I recognized that the best of them, the ones making a difference for their customers and clients, knew who they were, what they were about, and how they helped people. Their values and beliefs were a reflection of the purpose they lived out in their lives. Attitudes and behaviors followed and over time created reputations of service and excellence.
For example, a financial consultant works to protect and grow the fiscal health of a family or a business so they can have a stable and planned out future during retirement or expansion. That’s his purpose. He is more than someone who buys and sells stocks or does financial planning.
Attorneys work to make sure clients receive all the just benefits that proper legal representation provides under the law of the land. They provide people with a greater peace of mind and helpful advice during difficult circumstances. Their purpose is not a job duty or task like going to court or filing a suit.
There is a difference between function and purpose. The first relates with what you do. The second represents what you strive to be and become and the reason behind what you do for people. One has to do with what - the other with why. One without the other leads to work without meaning. One with the other leads to a life of service and value to others.
But, what’s the point? Why does purpose matter?
John F. Kennedy believed that
“effort and courage were not enough without purpose and direction.”
A nation or people at work would not make a positive impact on the world without a clearly defined purpose. Effort and courage without purpose leaves meaning out of life and leads to selling products and services without purposeful value or a win-win reward for others.
Helen Keller said it another way.
“True happiness... is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
Worthy meant being a meaningful specific in the lives of others - providing a benefit or a solution or a service in pursuit of a noble aim.
You can also make yourself more purposeful and therefore more responsible and of greater value in other roles you have in life - father, wife, coach, etc. Just think through what you want people to experience as a result of your service toward them.
]]>At present, I provide directional and moral support to someone who runs a 30 million dollar division of a national company. Many difficulties hammer his optimism as I watch him suffer through a strain on his faith.
After two months of installing changes, his division is down year over year. He looks incompetent when compared to his peers. But, he is doing the right thing.
He is rebuilding his culture.
Having chased other priorities for several months and recognition from the wrong people, he is now focused on income for his employees, profits for his company and outstanding relationships with his customers.
During the past sixty days, he has removed ineffective or dishonest leaders. In doing so, he has uncovered massive problems with employee morale. In some parts of his organization he has discovered bad hires, low work ethic and dishonest business practices.
Introducing the J-curve, a financial term that applies to times of initial loss followed by a significant gain.
In an economy when a currency is devalued, the balance of trade initially weakens before it recovers to a higher level as compared to where it began.
In a dysfunctional organization, when a leader refocuses everything on how healthy teams win, they still lose at the same rates and sometimes at higher ones - until the accumulated effects of the new way lead to higher returns.
Why?
Maybe you have to fire a dishonest leader who runs a part of your division that operates outside of the values you want. When that happens other employees leave. Your salesperson count goes down, and while you keep honest, hard-working reps, you must hire additional ones to get back to previous sales levels. And, the new reps must suffer through training new hires and rebuilding brand strength and loss of market share.
Getting rid of leaders also leaves unmanaged portions of your business that put a coverage strain on you and other leaders. People work long hours to fill in at all levels. Family life is impinged upon. Stress increases. Production decreases and losses increase as you shape the new culture.
Times of turbulence and stress put the integrity of a leader on trial. Internal and external questions occur. Do we really have to give outstanding customer service? Do we really have to be fully honest? Do we have to work this hard? Will it, the new way, pay off? Will we get there? Will it be better for us if we do?
It’s difficult to maintain integrity in times of turbulence and chaos.
Real time results threaten a leader’s faith and perseverance in the rebuilding strategies. New choices and alliances have to be formed in leadership. The temptation to hire “just anyone” must be overcome. Other pressing matters cause you to listen to competing voices that say, “Just look away, stop pressing, slow down. It’s not that important, but your stock prices, investor relations and immediate results are!”
Many of us experience a lack of results in the initial weeks of a new physical fitness plan. We hurt all over. Our backs are sore. We hear the same voice, “Just go to the couch, eat some popcorn, drink a beer, watch some TV.”
We do not build our businesses or our bodies to last unless we persevere, in faith, toward the weightier matters. Friedrich Nietzsche, the nineteenth century German philosopher, once said, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” Resiliency. Perseverance. Faith in doing what is right. Maturity. They all go together in an ancient and powerful set of words by a friend of Jesus. James said,
“ … be joyful whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature.”
We all want mature parents, mature leaders or mature salespeople. But to grow in this chaotic world implies a testing of our faith. We will face trials in life at home and at work. Our maturity in any role will grow as we persevere in a right direction - one that benefits those around us, doesn’t harm them and contributes to a better life.
Prepare yourself for trouble. Struggle as you develop a good reputation and as you learn to give your best. Shape your resolve and resiliency. Maintain your integrity and grow. Mature as a valuable contributor to the lives of those around you and remember you can make it through the J-curve to better health and better result that before.
]]>Being an excellent sales leader is not easy. It’s difficult. There’s a lot of pressure to get new people performing fast. And, how you begin with someone affects turnover - even if they succeed. I know one large market within a company that loses 45% of their newly hired reps during training.
Research from Sirrus Decisions says that 49% consider onboarding to be very important or extremely important to their decision when considering a position.
Throw them into the storm without support, especially today, when most want integration into a community, and they do not like you or your company. Your brand may suffer as well.
What’s best practice for you when starting a new salesperson? Do you have an on-boarding process that ramps up the average person to a certain performance level? Can you quote the performance data for previous new reps?
What do better than average people earn in their first ninety days, six months or year? What do you expect the best to do?
On-boarding begins by recruiting people who are honest, conscientiousness about work and who will sell at high levels while creating customer advocates. For these new hires, you will help them:
And, you will show them how valuable they are by how you treat them as people.
Getting to Know Them
When we coach today’s new reps, we start by learning about them and their motivating reasons for hitting sales targets. If we have recruiting well, these reasons will be either competitive or income based. New reps will either like to:
Are they just starting to master sales? Do they help support someone else at home? Do they want to reduce or eliminate their debt? Do they want to save money for financial stability? Learn about them. Find out what they want from you? What do they expect? What will demotivate them?
Don’t throw them against a wall and see if they will stick! Don’t let them take on new customers without someone beside them. Don’t treat them like numbers.
Coach them into a better life and let them see that’s your focus. Keep this in mind, that at some point you want them to say to themselves or others, “Wow! This is better than they (the recruiters) told me!”
To get this reaction, treat them as individuals - each with a story. Teach them how to make money and keep their important sales activities high. Help them learn the face-to-face sales process necessary for success. Give them the map and the skills to find their way through the storms we all face in today’s marketplace.
]]>A few years ago, I was teaching sales reps the importance of listening to customers. We were discussing how focusing on someone else’s need and problems, before our own, builds loyal customer advocates and referrals. Then we turned to home and friendships and the culture around us and a young woman raised her hand.
I asked her to turn and stand and face the group. She took a moment, gathered herself and said,
“We suck at relationships here!”
I work ten hour days and no one knows me or cares to ask me, with any degree of sincerity, a simple, “How are you doing?”
She continued, “I lost my mom last week and my daughter is very sick and I wish I had strong relationships here. I know this isn’t a church or a counseling organization. I get that. I just wish someone knew me well enough to ask about me if I’m not having a strong sales month. I just think people are more important than sales and if we change our habits and pay attention to the questions we ask customers maybe what we learn will pay off in the long term and extend into the workplace and into our homes."
Every culture is different and the leaders in this one appreciated what she had to say. They agreed. They realized that the push for profit had created a self-focused environment that had even affected their families. Wow, what a moment!
It’s easy for this to happen in business with the pressures for quota or goal achievement. But at home - with our kids or spouses? We experience a real financial impact and strained and broken partnerships. Tensions rise and boil over at the point of sale and across the dinner table.
But this doesn’t have to happen. As sales or business leaders, we can begin a revolution. We can start getting to know people before coaching them. We can ask customers what they want or need before offering solutions. We can do that with them and we can do that with our spouses and children. We can stop learning 50 ways to close, and instead learn 50 ways to listen, and then as Thoreau once said, “attend to what people say.”
I want to finish with a positive story. Training room - 50 people. The same situation and a woman stands and says, “When I was being hired here and going through interviews with Alec, I received a call that my daughter was in the hospital because of an automobile accident. In the weeks ahead, none of her 1500 Facebook friends showed up at the hospital. They just said they ‘would wait for an update.’ And, do you know who did show up. Alec and his wife Jessica."
"They did not know me. I was just interviewing for a job. It was clear to me by their attitudes and their presence that all they wanted was to find out how my daughter and I were doing. Needless to say I later accepted the position even though I had other offers that were a better financial fit and I’m so glad I did.”
Out of 25 markets in the company, the one that Alec runs is in the top 2 for the highest net promoter score for customer satisfaction. His sales force enjoys repeat business and a high level of referrals. Turnover among employees is low and profits continue to increase.
Relationships through better listening skills bring a high return both on and off on the sales floor. I’ve seen this in sales organizations, sports teams and with my family. Get started today leading this cultural changing effort.
]]>Successful coaching begins with recruiting the best. Do the candidates you hire have what it takes? Are they self-motivated, honest and responsible? Do they like your products? Are they coachable? Do they have a concern for other people.
Can they sell at the right levels and in the right way? Will they sell?
Here are 10 fundamental characteristic of effective sales leaders. Those that mentor and coach with outstanding impact:
Is coaching the right fit for you. If not, promote yourself to rep. Really, that’s O.K. and could be the place for you. The best coaches are teachers and they love to see people achieve as a result of their influence.
Now, start working to be better for those you coach. You can do this important work and make the crucial difference in the lives of others.
]]>Recently, a young sales leader travelled several hours to spend the afternoon with me in Knoxville. Despite icy roads and the cold of the north winds, he arrived around noon. Alan Eason, our Director of Marketing, and I went out to lunch with him. To protect his privacy, we’ll refer to this guy as Sam.
A very talented man, Sam told us something was missing in his leadership style despite leading all market areas in team sales. Even though his multi-store region was the best in revenue per door, his people complained about him. Many were also quitting.
(Did you know, according to DePaul University, that “direct replacement costs can run as high as 60 percent of a salesperson’s yearly salary and total costs can approach 200 percent? With regard to organizational performance, there is a link between turnover rates and organizational success. That is, reducing turnover increases sales growth, improves workplace morale, and increases firm profitability and market value.”)
When his Regional Director sent a survey to the reps, they didn’t write about their success and Sam’s obvious intelligence for the business but about his lack of concern for them. The Regional Director (who actually cared about this) told him this mattered and was something he needed to fix. While coaching him, he recommended a book for Sam to read, gave him some advice and then expected him to get better.
You see every night Sam ran the numbers - all the numbers. The profit here, the money made there. The accessories sold and not sold. But, when he walked into a store, he walked right by the reps. Task focused and time efficient, he didn’t stop to say hi, ask about them or try to develop rapport. Thinking about other things, he offered no encouragement, no inspiration and no acknowledgement they were even present. They did not know what he thought of them or why he was in the store. Sam treated them like a customer who walks into a store and isn’t greeted or acknowledged while the reps busy themselves with other things.
No Relationship
The dollars Sam knew and he knew where the pile had grown, and he knew eight ways to make additional income and how all the other teams were performing compared to his own. He put the hours into what he loved - competing, being effective and making it pay, and when he spoke to other leaders they knew he knew the numbers. But he didn’t behave as if relationships mattered.
Sam did get better. Even though he didn’t feel the need to build rapport with the reps he did stop to say hi, chat and be present for a moment despite his lengthy to-do list and necessary tasks planned for the day. The Regional Director began to get comments from the reps about Sam’s new attitude and interest in them and all seemed well.
But something was missing, and it was stretching into his love life as well.
Like most leaders today who have personal goals but score low on a motivation directed at helping others win, Sam was ambitious. His personal ambition for upward number movement and money accumulation affected this development of “culture leaders,” and eliminated any ability to delegate to goal-achieving leaders who cared about the well-being of the sales reps.
If Sam was to have a life outside of work, and if he was to go to the sporting events of his future children, if he was to be present in a relationship with the person he loved and not lose her, he would have to achieve his professional goals, work less and enjoy time with his family.
But, Sam’s lack of empathy and over attention to the business was affecting his relationship outside of work - especially with someone he cared for. It scared him to think or losing this person, someone he could see spending the rest of life. He wanted to be his best at work. He wanted to remain driven, but he wanted to change to help others achieve at work while he also lived a life with his future family.
What do you think we told (young Scrooge) him?
]]>I know you’ve been thinking about how to best coach the new rep. You want to do this well because you can’t afford to get them off to a poor start. Today, good people are just so hard to find.
But, what about the team. What happens when you’re given a team of new people, or you try to strategize how to increase the average, monthly team production? Most sales leaders, especially new ones, want to know how to to best approach coaching a team for optimum effectiveness.
I want to introduce you to a tool, a bell-shaped curve. After you draw one, I want you to rank your people from low to high in sales or gross margin sold. Write their names on the curve from left to right, lowest to highest, based on their production. Then, those in the middle of the curve will represent your average performers. On the right your best - on the left your worst.
Next, label them. Label some as Hunters (H - will pursue new business and market share), others as Farmers (F - good at maintaining customer business/relationships), or farmer-types, and Coachable (C- eager to grow and learn a new skill).
If somebody has a book of business, label them as having customer Advocates (A). What about if they are a Rising Star (RS) or they are a Leader (L) now or a potential leader in the future? As you label your salespeople on the bell-shaped curve, some of them may have more than one of these designations.
Fundamental #1 - Coach the Middle
If you coach the salespeople in the middle of your curve, and they get better,
the people at the top will feel some performance pressure on their position in the hierarchy.
This will cause top performers to increase sales. Moderate performers will begin to move to the right to higher sales level as you coach the, and that will also pull some people on the bottom to the right. As a result, the whole bell-shaped curve will move the average team production if you coach the coachable people in the middle to improve.
Fundamental #2 - Coach the Rising Stars
That should be obvious; they’re ready. They want to grow. They want to get better. You see them as a star for the future, so coach them next.
Fundamental #3 - Challenge the Top Performers
Find a valid reason for a top producer to boost their sales. Perhaps it’s because of competition - somebody outside of your group, i.e. point to somebody else. Get them to see they could do more than they currently do. If you can convince one of your best to improve (perhaps one of them wants more income for a certain reason), and their sales go up, the middle will also advance, the bottom improves and the whole bell-shaped curve moves, just like when you coach the middle. Coach the folks at the top to higher performance.
Fundamental #4 - Develop Leaders
Find a leader who will help you. This is going to allow you delegate coaching time and influence. It will also help you become a leader of leaders (VP type) and increase your potential for handling large organizations. Pick someone at the top who will help you with training, perhaps with someone they have more natural influence with than you do.
Other Bell-Curve Strategies
You can also rank people on a bell-shaped curved according to a certain product category, or perhaps gross margins or dollars per sale. Maybe your rank people by number of appointments set. Or perhaps they’re giving products away at low margins and they’re not selling value. They’ are price-focused.
When you have visual bell-shaped curves in certain categories, you can actually decide how you’re going to coach somebody. You can see how the bell-shaped curve gives you great advice. It shows you where to start, what to coach and who to involve.
Now go out and make your team better! Lance
]]>How do you prepare a brand new rep for success? If you’re like me, you’ve made tons of mistakes and lost thousands and thousands of dollars and many sleepless nights.
That’s why after I help you recruit people who can sell, I want to teach you to coach them in the best way. I want to help you develop a sales culture of people who love to work in your company and who sell tons of stuff. It all starts in the first few days.
The world is changing. Reps are different and you can make a difference for them and they can make a difference for your business and the customers you serve.
Let’s start them out in the best way possible and avoid losing them early in their career.
……………….
How do you prepare a brand new rep for success?
Parents love their children and spend thousands of dollars making sure they get the best chances to be ballerinas or sports superstars. Equestrians put in hours of training time with young horses on the ground prior to first mounting them. They do this for competitive reasons or to ensure safe and enjoyable rides. In the same way, universities invest millions on weight trainers, coaches and residence hall nutritionists. They want to win championships. They want to be profitable.
None of these administrators or teachers would think of throwing children against the wall to see “if they would stick.”
Only foolish riders would entrust themselves and others to a young mare or stallion without proper training. Yet, sales leaders across the nation do just that because of poor leadership development or a culture that models a hands-off approach to newly recruited reps.
The first ninety days are important if you care about people - if you care about performance - if you care about turnover. The reps you hire believe you thought them right for the job. You hired them and you have a large part to play in their success. In their past lives, Generation Z and Y have already have experienced enough anxiety and depression from the last recession and a lack of dedicated role models.They don’t need more.
First, get to know your new reps. Teach them how to make money. Teach them a sales process. Teach them face-to-face skills. Teach them how to make a deal. Work to make them successful for their benefit, for yours and for your customers.
To do this well, use the tools that help you understand each rep’s unique differences and their motivations to succeed. With this knowledge, design individualized approaches to their training while you realize the universal need among young sales reps for financial advice and a stable income.
They want to master what they do and if you work to accommodate this desire from the beginning, they may stay with you. Making this investment begins the second step to an outstanding culture (the first is recruiting the best talent). In the first few weeks, bring them onboard with mentors or sales coaches who help them find significance in what they do and a practical path to a better life backed up with the product knowledge and sales skills to attain it through your sales position.
To coach them well, get familiar with the science of personalities. The big five are: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion and Openness. Test them them during recruitment with a validated sales profile and use this information when recruiting and coaching. Identify how each rep prefers to communicate and learn to adjust to their needs. Be kind and direct. Remove a judgmental attitude. Listen to them. Prepare yourself for high levels of skepticism, fragile egos, challenging and creative rule breakers and the need for personal or group recognition. From their “personality bent,” predict what stresses they might experience based on their traits and tendencies and your sales job requirements. For will they prospect best through networking and farming current customers or do they have what it takes to “hunt” new business and develop new relationships with a cold contact.
I want to be your guide and help to learn how to do a foundation interview and find out the motivating “why” for each of your reps. I want you to learn how to identify or inspire ambition and then attach it to money and then to sales activity levels and performance numbers. I want you to learn how to teach reps the relationship between financial stability and consistent work effort at the right levels of the right activities.
Are you ready. Let’s go!
]]>Every work day you wake up early, grit your teeth, then travel toward your office with one name in mind, Tom - one salesperson in particular that you just don't want to continue to face off for the truth, someone who seems to "know-it-all" and isn't performing but always has a "good" reason for low activity and poor sales numbers. Tom has an answer for most every action or inaction and doesn't listen to advice and doesn't close many sales.
With training in over 300 companies and close to 100,000 salespeople, I've seen Tom again and again and again. Today, I try to help anyone not hire a sales rep that looks like him, talks like him or speaks like him.
What I've discovered in training sales managers and in leading sales teams is that there's really only three ways to approach the Toms of the world and deal with them.
Tom isn’t the real reason why I developed the Coach the Best!™ training to certify expert sales leaders. I created it to teach young sales leaders the philosophy and system for installing high-performance sales cultures with sales people who want to be coached.
Coach the Best!™ instructs:
For instance, in the Coach the Best!™ certification, people learn to staff their teams with young self-motivated recruits who want to grow, compete or earn a certain amount of money. Then, the stages of guiding individuals and teams to sales success in this best practice system gets a whole lot better.
The system also teach them how to develop outstanding sales cultures with consistent sales results - how to build inspiring and challenging environments in which people want to get better under the direction of nonjudgmental leaders.
But, one thing they learn to do is to:
avoid the uncoachable and choose people they can teach to sell what they sell, at the right levels and in the right way - so that referrals and repeat business occur.
Plus, they learn that people are different and to shape their approaches to them based on their individual personalities and motivations. Some need more time - some less. Others want to compete while most want money for a specific reason in their lives.
Leaders should care to find and develop those who want to be coached. Today's young salespeople entering the workforce look for a nonjudgemental mentor - one that will get to know them and will help them master the sales position and build security through the appropriate level of sales and then through personal financial management.
They want their anxiety lowered not heightened by those who lead them.
Pay attention to the coachability of people before you hire them. Then, put all your effort into getting to know the reps you do hire and make them successful as salespeople and as competent persons in home and in business. Think long-term impact on their lives. That's what they want and that’s what will help your sales team be the best.
]]>We stumble - imperfect and unrefined people - as runners, sales reps, fathers and mothers. And life is tough - being successful is difficult. Obstacles face us from the inside - our attitudes, skills and feelings, and from the outside - what the world throws at us and the people in it.
The best of us have experienced the “refiner’s fire” - someone leading us to a discipline and training that has burned away the impurities in our relationships with others and how we work.
Marriage works that way. Athletics work that way and growing as a successful sales leader or person does as well.
People who grow allow the influence of mentoring refiners to burn away the bad from the good. These crucible moments and coaching conversations have occurred through times of failure and rejection. From harsh rhetoric and criticism and varying amounts of kindness and encouragement, people find the ability within themselves to change and better handle the tasks they have been given. Just as athletes endure their training and experience sore muscles, we also fight through difficult challenges and loses in order to gain the strength and purity of action to be better.
……………….
Ask your new salespeople if they want to be coddled or challenged - if they want to hear the truth about their performance or simply be hired into a role in which they may feel good, but they do not experience the sales vs. income reality of growing mastery. Ask them if they want financial stability? Ask them, “What do you want?” Ask them, “What can I do for you?” Get permission to speak the truth to them and tell them that at times they may not feel good, but that you have faith in them - that you believe they have what it takes to acquire the traits necessary for goal achievement.
Previous management gurus have asked us to “catch people doing something right” and give a praising, And that’s good. I also want you to catch people doing something wrong and offer a “correction,” and do this in the spirit of “I want the best for you and you can better in this way.”
Remember this. As the authors of The Coddling of the American Mind explain, the new salespeople entering today’s workforce have been taught an untruth - antifragility, an that psychology professionals recognize as a proven fallacy by scientific research. Generation Z has been taught that they should retreat to a safe zone if the beliefs and values they feel strongly about are challenge that they should retreat to safer ground.
The authors, Dr Lukianoff and Mr. Haidt go on to say that
“teaching kids that failures, insults, and painful experiences will do lasting damage is harmful in and of itself. Human beings need physical and mental challenges and stressors or we deteriorate."
Said another way, the young sales reps you lead will need your coaching, mentoring and straight talk without judgment. Get their permission to give it. Do this to help their growth and advancement.
Finally, remember these ancient words from Paul of Tarsus - words that have scientific validation today - "Be glad when afflicted, because you know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."
Today, some people experience increased anxiety and depression as a result of "retreating to safety" whenever faced with a challenge or bad situation. We, instead will teach and encourage our sales reps to persevere, make one more call, keep activity high and stand to help the irate customer solve their problem. With will teach our reps to endure and to strengthen themselves for handling future obstacles and to find hope in being a better and stronger person. Along the way they will sell a ton of stuff!
]]>