DEFINING YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE

Today I had a very interesting discussion as it relates to leadership. It is clear to me that the greatest impediment that many sales managers have in exercising excellent leadership skills has been time and focus.

Definition of leadership – When I asked a Manager’s Edge Coaching client what his definition of leadership was he responded, “Enabling followers to be successful for their actions and words and guidance”. This definition is a very important part of his fundamental approach of leadership that he takes in providing service to his team enabling them to be successful.

“There is strong statistical evidence that the perception that people have of their leaders

is their biggest factor of motivating and influence regarding their work.

I would encourage you to refer to this saying on occasion for it is a very sobering and accurate reminder of the impact that leaders have upon the culture that they oversee.

History of leadership – The following is how Lao Tsu described leadership. This is perhaps one of the most important precepts coaching leadership which in effect will be the foundation for creating a profitable and rich culture within your organization:

“To lead people, walk beside them…

If of the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.

The next best, the people honor and praise.

The next the people fear; and the next the people hate…

When the best leaders work is done then people say,

we did it ourselves.”

To have this as a constant reminder of how your business culture can be built is to almost assuredly secure success.

We’d love to hear your definition of LEADERSHIP – please add your comments below.

Paul de la Garza

Southwestern Consulting™ Professional Coach

Easy Time Management Tips

“I don’t have time for more cold calling.”

“I don’t have time for follow-up calls.”

“I certainly don’t have time to keep my CRM updated!”

Are you hearing these excuses from your sales team? They are common; but they are also easy to overcome. Here is an audio recording (7 min.) that contains some easy to implement tips to get more done during the day that you can share with everyone in your office.

Let us know if these worked for you or please post some of your own time saving tips below.

How Do You Define Normal?

While selling books door-2-door with the Southwestern Company I received an extremely valuable sales tip.

southwestern_company_what_is_normal

This sales tip came to me from a beautiful woman named Kyah… who is now my wife.   She taught me that what I consider “normal” is exactly what I get.  

Average producers make themselves feel better by thinking that top producers are “abnormal”.  

How do you define “normal”? Do you define “normal” as barely hitting the numbers you need to hit to stay on par?  Do you define “normal” as being in the middle of the pack?  Do you define “normal” as selling more this month than you did last month because you are better at your job? Do you define “normal” as doubling your production and breaking company records?

Top Producers never allow themselves to say “I did my best”.  Once “I did my best” has been declared one cannot do any better.  On the flip side if our self talk is “I did good, but tomorrow will be better”  there will be no limit to what can be done.

Take a moment to think about what you define as “normal”.  What is your “normal” number of calls per day?  What is your “normal” quantity of production? What are your “normal” expectations in general?  Are you holding yourself back by the sheer definition of how you define “normal”?

Here is what Tony Robins has to say about this Southwestern Company sales tip.

The Mimic Effect

Have you ever noticed that when two kids are good friends they mimic each other? Sometimes they bounce around like a Mexican jumping bean and have more energy than what they know what to do with. Or if the kids are like me and my best friends growing up the friends or group of friends could be known as the notorious “gruesome two-some” or kids that your parents warn you about.

“The mimic effect” is a universal principle that’s been around since the beginning of time. We are naturally programmed to emulate the people we surround ourselves with. The good, the bad, and the ugly absorbs into our DNA like a sponge. As Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said “the only difference between who we are now and who we are in 5 years, is the people we meet and the books that we read.”

From birth to death “the mimic effect” determines the altitude of our success. We are only as successful as our 5 best friends. Whether or not you have heard of this universal truth before matters not. Do you purposely use the principle to take your business and life to the next level? Do you find yourself aware of this principle, yet still squandering your life away hanging with negative, lazy, fear paralyzed people?

Try this simple exercise that will forever change your life:

Developing your “peer group”:
Write down specific characteristics you want to have. What do you want other people to discribe you as?

For example: Dependable, Honest, Top Producer, Hard Working, Creative, Wise, Entrepreneur, Business Owner, Financially Free, Dedicated, Caring, etc.

Then make a list of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Then write down the top 5 traits other people would say they have (good or bad). Next make a list of people you know who have all of the traits you just listed. After that compair your lists and see if you have anyone on your list of people you spend time with who are doing the things you want to do with your life. If not… you guessed it’s time to get a new set of friends! Set a goal to surround yourself with the people who are already doing the things you want to do and “mimic” them.

If you want to be a good investor…start hanging out with an top investor in your town. When hanging out ask specific question and try to get inside their brain. Then “mimic” them!

If you want to start your own business, or be a top producer, or be a good husband/wife, or what ever your passion is to become, you must surround yourself with people who are already doing what you want to do and let “the mimic effect” go to work for you. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Dustin Hillis

Co-founder Southwestern Consulting™

Sales Team Conflict?

The key to success in selling in a down economy is figure out what everyone else is doing and help your sales team to do the opposite.

Managing Conflict within your Sales Team

It’s amazing that intra team conflict always escalates when people aren’t happy and focused on their performance. Working to make sure that your team is motivated and that they have the tools necessary to do their jobs will drastically reduce the amount of intra team disputes. Here are 8 steps:

1. Set the example with your attitude – Your team will generally do half of what you do right and twice of what you do wrong so always strive to keep your composure. As a leader you can live with the mantra “things are never as bad as they sound or as good as they seem.” Stay positive and proactive in your approach and always model a mindset of controlling the controllable issues.
2. Remember what your team values most – According to a national survey conducted by K.A. Kovach in 1987 here are how sales forces ranked their most motivational factors (in order)
   1. Interesting work
   2. Appreciation
   3. Feeling in on the big picture
   4. Job security
   5. Good pay
   6. Promotions and advancement opportunities
   7. Good working conditions
   8. Loyalty from the company
   9. Help with personal problems
   10. Tactful discipline

Notice that all but 1 of these are non-financial influencers.

1. Be consistent in your Leadership – Be a jerk all the time or be nice all the time but don’t confuse people by going back and forth. You should never try to be someone you’re not even though different situations call for some different actions. Inconsistency is a powerful de-motivator.
2. Treat Each Salesperson’s Needs Individually – Don’t make your team members feel like a number to the company. If you give them individual attention and you stress their importance to you then they will treat each other similarly which mitigates many of the personal conflicts that often rise between teammates.
3. 5.     Make High-Quality Training Materials Available – It’s an amazing phenomenon that when people are producing they don’t tend to have the time to fight with one another. By giving your team access to a plethora of top notch training materials it keeps them hungry to be learning and growing and helps to pre-occupy them from nit picking with each other.
4. Provide Plenty of Opportunities to be Recognized – Again, when people feel important they feel less of a need to validate themselves with others around them. Eliminate stress and tension within your team by praising often and validating them publicly when they deserve it.
5. Work Together to Set Goals – Few managers collaborate when setting goals, but effective leaders live by this. Information that flows top-down in an organization rarely has the same commitment level or buy-in as initiatives that come from the bottom-up. You’ll reduce the unhealthy part of pressure that people feel when you partner with them to lay out their performance goals.
6. Hold Planned and Organized Meetings – Taking the time to “sharpen the saw” keeps everyone fresh and focused on a long term perspective. When meetings are planned properly and executed efficiently they rejuvenate your team members.
7. Conduct Regularly Scheduled Performance Reviews – Another cause of heightened anxiety, stress, or pressure in an organization is when people don’t know how they’re doing. By having regular meetings at periodic intervals you give people reinforcement, support, and feedback on how they are doing. Just by eliminating this uncertainty in their mind you will substantially improve morale and workplace culture.

Most importantly when it comes to managing intra team conflict create a culture where people are ardent about making a stand for “what is right rather than who is right”. By keeping people motivated and staying present about what’s most important to them you’re able to service your team in a way that keeps them satisfied and absent of a desire for self-validation or righteousness.

Ron Marks

Problem Solving Formula

I’m sure some of you are golf fans.  Let’s say you are down 1 stroke at the Masters and you are on the 18^th hole.  A fan is near the green eating a hamburger when all of a sudden a gust of wind pulls his McDonald’s bag out onto the fairway.  Amazingly, the ball takes a huge bounce and then rolls right into the bag.  Under PGA rules you cannot cause the ball to move once it is in rest or you face a one stroke penalty.  What should you do?

 Solution: Light the bag on fire then hit the ball.

 I want to talk about Problem Solving.  We run into problems every day when we are out selling.  We forget our presentation materials.  We get stood up.  We run into traffic on the way to an appointment.  Meetings cancel.  The financials sometimes do not work out.  A surprise decision-maker gets involved.   We put our foot in our mouth.

To be good in sales, you have to be good at thinking on your feet.  You have to be a good problem-solver. In fact, that is why sales can be such a lucrative profession.  If just anyone could do it, there would not be so much financial opportunity.  The world will pay almost anything for a problem solver.

I’d like to share with you a system that will help you solve nearly any problem.

PROBLEM SOLVING STEPS

 1.  Identify the problem - Some people don’t even do this.  (Example: Wife that is mad at her husband, and he doesn’t even know why she is mad)

2.   Change your perspective - Identify three positives – Let’s say you drive all the way across the city during rush hour traffic in the morning to a breakfast meeting, and just as you walk in the door, you get a call on your cell and your prospective client says, “I’m sorry to have to do this to you, but I just don’t think this is a good fit, so I’m not going to be making our meeting today.” 

What are three good things about that?  Of course, you don’t want to get stood up; but when it happens, you have to learn to look on the bright side.  You can say to yourself, now I have more time to call and set up another appointment.  Or you can say, I am thankful every day for a job that teaches me patience.  Every ‘no’ gets me closer to a ‘yes’, etc.

True Story:  While selling books for the Southwestern Company, Dustin Hillis got 13 flat tires in one summer. After the first few, he turned it into a game to see how fast he could change a tire. By the end of the summer, he could change a tire in under 3 minutes.

3.  Identify all your possible solutions – You can sit around and feel sorry for yourself.  You can take a break.  You can emotionally eat and gorge on the most fattening of breakfast foods to help you cope.  You can call a friend and complain about your job.  You can project that it is just not possible to make money in your profession.   I know all the previous “solutions” sound stupid; but believe me, people do them.  I have seen many off-track sales people take a nap in their car or decide they need to go shopping during the day, when they just need a break.  Another solution would be to go straight back to the phone and try to replace that cancelled appointment with another.

4. Determine which option is best - A good rule of thumb is to pick whatever solution gets you in front of another prospect the quickest. That helps you to get over it quicker and builds your self-esteem; because you know you can work through anything. It allows you to realize that problems are no big deal.

5.  Do it – Sometimes we know what we should be doing, but we still don’t do it.  My dog is even guilty of that.  He will stick his head in the trash can to pull out the scraps; and while he is doing it, he will where a cheesy, toothy grin on his face because he knows he is doing wrong.  Remember, whenever we don’t do something we know we should be doing it takes our self-confidence down a notch.  When we do something that we don’t want to do because it is the right thing to do that increases our self-confidence.  Action cures fear!

Bonus tip on having a problem-solving attitude:

Always focus on the solution – Are we always solution oriented?  How many times do you hear someone complain about the market, about their company’s pricing, or complain about how much they have to do?  If you find yourself, doing any of those, that is not being solution-oriented, that is being problem-oriented.

Emmie Young

Turn the Team Around

Turning around groups of people is one of the rarest of all skill sets in managers and leaders. I’m definitely no expert on turning around organizations but I’ll share with you what I’ve seen and learned and then you can take what you like of it. One of the most essential principles I’d say is that it’s most important to get the right people on the bus.

Anyone who isn’t coachable and bought into the vision and on a functioning schedule is a disease that can affect everyone else. It’s a tough time where tough decisions have to be made but it has to be done or else things will naturally continue down the course they are already on. And sometimes, you will get a pleasant surprise from how the rest of the team responds once you eliminate the bad apples. But if you wait too long, then usually the disease spreads and it destroys a big piece of the majority.

The next thing that would be good is to re-solidify the remaining members of the team on the importance and validity of the vision. In fact, you might have to create an entirely new vision to be a part of. They are generally a bit bruised and many probably have forgotten about what it’s like to be invigorated by their work.

You need create the picture that is something that people can get excited about. It might be good to create a creed of the things they believe in or some cause that they can rally behind.

The next step would be to edify the culture. Making little improvements can go a long way. These would be the things like fixing up the office, maybe having a stager come in to make things look nice; putting up some new pictures or paint. It can also be running some incentives or contests. Getting people talking about their emotional purpose and what is most important to them.

So, to summarize:

1. Get the wrong people off the bus

2. Re-solidify the vision with the team

3. Edify the culture with every small positive change that you can afford

 

 

Rory Vaden

Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

Taking Your Team to the Next Level

It all starts with you, and a good plan. 

Begin the planning process by taking account of your daily schedule, if there is anything that doesn’t require your direct involvement – delegate  (ie sending emails, running reports, creating calendars and flyers, picking up prizes, organizing and printing things for the meetings, picking up magazines, etc…). Get yourself organized, plan out your next two months, complete your meeting agendas for the next two months, and be ready to lead. 

The motivation for getting your team to the next level will primarily come from the expectations and accountability that you provide.  Here are a few items:

 1.  Report Stats – I know it can be difficult getting the team on board to report stats, or even sometimes correct stats, but it’s so critical. You can help them by holding them accountable everyday to filling them out.

2.  Friendly Reminders – For those who don’t fill out their stats, send them a reminder message that may sound something like “Hope you’re having a great day. We’re trying to get the stats report completed for today, would you mind going online and filling them in for me real quick? Thanks.”  If this is done consistently EVERY day, it’ll get them in the habit. Get yourself organized, plan out your next two months, complete your meeting agenda for the next two months, and be ready to lead. 

3.  Run Daily Reports – Run a report on their stats EVERY SINGLE day and email a summary at the end of the day or beginning of the following day.

4.  Expectations – Prepare them with the expectation that this will be starting.

5.  Incentives – You can also create new incentives/contests.  Keep incentives activity based and all contests and incentives should be based on the reports.

Stay motivated – you ARE a great leader!

In the Spirit of Success,

Amanda Johns
Corporate Partner and Program Director
Southwestern Consulting
ajohns@southwesternconsulting.com
Join my professional network on LinkedIn

NOW is the Time to Train!

By Ron Marks

As I enter my 31^st year in the sales training business, I have come to learn that most sales leaders and their companies have terrible timing when it comes to improving the skills of their sales teams. Unfortunately most companies normally conduct training only when the sales person is new to the company when they probably should be doing it all of the time. If I were to ask you to tell me the main difference between a U.S. Navy Sailor and a U.S. Navy Seal, you would probably know that the key difference is in the training regimen and tolerance acceptance. If you were a military leader and you have a critical and crucial mission in front of you, you would likely train harder and more intensely than ever before. Yet sales managers send their sales people out into the field each and every day without the slightest bit of additional training and skill development. Surviving the current economy for the sales professional is critical and crucial. Now, more than ever before, is the time to get serious about your training efforts.

When the economy is difficult, and revenues are sluggish, most companies will cut back on two areas. Training and Advertising. Clearly these two components are critical and it makes little sense drop these from a company’s budget and marketing plan, however look around you, look at your own company. Have advertising programs been cut back or perhaps eliminated all together? How about training seminars and conferences? It has always fascinated me as I have seen this withdrawal occur over the last few recessions. Of course, when the economy is moving along at a brisk pace, those same companies and their sales people figure they don’t need training and certainly don’t have time for it (or so they think).

 So when do they train? My experience shows me that the most aggressive sales training efforts occur at the point when a company believes the market to be getting better. When they feel the downward sales trend has halted and things are starting to turn. That is the time when they begin to run local training, send their teams to seminar by outside speakers and motivators and get serious. I have seen this happen time and time again and I don’t expect that it will be different in 2010.

So the real question you have to ask yourself as a sales manager or sales professional is where do you think the economy is at present? Do you believe the recession is over like some economists claim? Do you believe there is still plenty of downward trend left to go? Here is what I believe based on my experience. Most sales people in our country today are still “waiting it out”. They are fearful to invest their time and money into developing their skills and a proactive marketing approach. Now is your chance to leap ahead of the competition. If you don’t believe things are starting to improve, pretend they are and act as if they are actually getting better already. Step up your personal and corporate training efforts right now by executing on these three simple ideas:

 Read at least two business books a month. You can go to the library if you need to, but quit reading the newspaper and start reading at least one motivational book and one skill based book based on your discipline or industry each month.

1.  Break out the old motivational CD’s and start listening in your car as you head to work or your territory. Download the information to your portable MP3 player or Ipod so you can listen while you work out or run.

2.  Attend at least one sales conference in the next 60 days. There are large rallies all over the country that you can attend for under $50.00 Start there if money is a challenge. Even if you don’t learn a thing (which you will) you will be inspired by the large group of sales people around you all coming for the same “fix”.

As we discuss the importance of improving one’s skills in their chosen profession, we can cite hundreds of examples and I am sure we all agree that recurrent training makes sense. We would likely further agree that we need to be training all of the time. The reality is that we don’t. We know we should, however we just don’t do it as often as we should. My advice to you in this writing is to encourage you to do what you know you should be doing, and do it now. In a few months, as the economy improves and it becomes common knowledge that things are getting better, most sales people will start training again to get ready for better times. You should be different, you should start now before the rest and you will have a huge competitive advantage. Now is the time to train!

Ron Marks is the author of “Managing for Sales Results” published by John Wiley and Sons. He is a Certified Speaking Professional and member of the National Speakers Association. He resides in Scottsdale Arizona and can be found at ron@managingforsalesresults.com

Sales Performance Recovery Plans –When and How

It’s a victory when you become more cognizant of the fires that are interrupting your day. Clarity typically comes first, and then intention, then action, then results. So now the key is finding ways to eliminate the distractions.

 From a purely objective financial stand point, let’s say your time is worth $150 per hour. So when someone is taking your time or you’re involved in a task you really have to be asking yourself “is this worth $150?” If you’re investing into a person or project that is continually showing signs of returns less than that amount, then you should consider eliminating them.

If there are a few people in your office that you’ve known for quite some time are not yielding a strong return for the time invested, it’s time to make some hard decisions. Ultimately only you can make the decision about whether or not it’s worth it to you to keep them on, but it’s amazing that as managers we almost always know within 60-90 days whether or not someone has what it takes to make it; yet we keep them on staff for usually 9 months longer than that before letting them go.

Most commonly we do that because of convenience. It’s easier and more comfortable to just go on hoping that they will somehow turn a corner but it never comes. The big issue is that they drain the time and energy (and often money) of you and the whole team. And in a way you do a disservice to someone by keeping them on board when you know they aren’t going to realize their potential with you.

If you come to that conclusion, then it may be time to let that person go.

However, a clean way of doing it is to partner with the person to give them a chance to turn it around. In other words create a “Performance recovery plan (PRP)”.   Where you (and perhaps with their assistance) lay out a plan of what your minimum performance expectations are. You attach to it some checkpoints of where they need to be empirically in both activities and results.

Usually there is a light consequence during the first conversation of notifying them that they are on the PRP. This can be something like giving them extra accountability, requiring them to do additional self-training, requiring them to attend additional meetings, or just making it mandatory to provide detailed reporting of how they are spending their time.

Then 2-6 weeks later at the first check point, if they are “out of bounds” again there is a fairly stiff penalty such as reducing a draw, taking away leads/territory, or requiring them to work x amount of extra hours a week.

Then 2-6 weeks after that at the second check point there should be severe consequences such as cutting off any such draw, taking away company benefits, etc.

Then 2-6 weeks after that if they are still not meeting expectations you ask them to be successful somewhere else. At the most this would be 4 months.  You’ll typically find that people will either respond right away or they’ll quit before they get through the entire PRP.

The advantage of this, though, is that it makes the termination objective, empirical, and logical rather than subjective, political, and emotional.

You can never go wrong when you’re looking out for what is truly in the best interest of someone else. If they aren’t performing with you, then have the courage to cut them loose so they can reach their potential somewhere else.

Your action item is to have these tough conversations and set change into motion.

Eliminate distractions. Fill your recruiting funnel. Get great results.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden

Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do
Co-Founder of Southwestern Consulting™
Self-Discipline Strategist and Author of Take the Stairs®
Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking Finalist
Email: rvaden@southwesternconsulting.com
Corporate Website: www.southwesternconsulting.com
Find me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Linked In
Rory Vaden and “Take the Stairs” is quoted in January’s edition of SUCCESS™ Magazine.