Developing a Successful Sales Team

What’s a sure-fire way to create a dysfunctional sales team? Encourage quantity over quality. Some executives drive sales teams to increase short-term numbers, without thinking of the relationships that equate long-term success. 

As a sales manager, you are put in the center of these conflicting demands. You must answer to the demands from your boss by keeping sales numbers high. However, you must also have the foresight to craft meaningful relationships with clients, both current and potential. 

Taking the time to create a lifelong client benefits your company more than rapidly closing a sale without delving into the true needs of the customer. The good news for sales managers is that you don’t need to do it alone. 

Change your company’s sales department culture by developing each of your salespeople’s planning, communications and leadership skills. 

1. Work with each salesperson on your team to create a clearly defined sales plan and set of goals. Each salesperson has a different set of interests and strengths. Play to the unique skills of each employee by encouraging them to pursue their strongest skills, while improving their weaker areas. 

2. Encourage your sales team in developing long-term relationships with customers. A lucrative, one-time deal may appear more beneficial than a long term buying relationship with a customer, but many sales people forget about the “spread-effect” that occurs with longer-term customers. Customers who are satisfied with your product and service will recommend your company to business partners. 

3. Develop every salesperson as a leader. As a manager, stepping back during meetings or other company functions will allow salespeople to develop their confidence and presentation skills. It also challenges salespeople to work on their management and leadership skills as they organize the meeting agenda. Another way to develop leadership skills in salespeople is to default to them in conversations with clients. In sales calls or meetings, encourage the newer member to take charge of the conversation instead of immediately looking to the veteran salesman for answers. This will help rapidly build a newcomers confidence, and encourage employees to collaborate on building each other's skills. 

As a sales manager, you play a key role in defining the sales culture of an organization. It’s up to you to support each member of your team in developing leadership and relationship-building skills. Using the tips listed above, you can effectively bring a sales team together to reconcile long and short term sales goals.

Stay Motivated!

Even the most motivated of us can feel unmotivated at times. In fact, sometimes we get into such a slump that even thinking about making positive changes seems too difficult.

Yes, it seems impossible at times. You don’t feel like doing anything. I’ve been there, and in fact I still feel that way from time to time.


But let’s take a look at some specific ways to motivate yourself:

1. Reminding yourself of your goals and ambitions. If you want something badly enough, you're going to get it... Simple. Unless you forget what it is you want, which is easy to do in today's world full of distractions.

2. Track everything! Start writing down your accomplishments to see what made you feel good and to also see what is working. If you find out what's working, do more of that! Of course, the contrary goes for what isn't working. Maybe you've been spending a too much time with distractions and you could afford to give a little more time to your goals. Whatever it may be, remember to have some concrete evidence that you can look at to keep convincing yourself that your progress is real.

3. Check your mental attitude. Try to start thinking positively and change the way the world affects your thoughts. For example, "I can't go to the gym, I'm just too tired" will become a reality. Try saying something like "Yes, I'm tired but it's not going to stop me from going to the gym". You might also think about the benefits of going to the gym and how they outweigh sitting at home.

4. No excuses! Motivation and excuses are arch rivals. They don't get along at all. You might start thinking about working on that big presentation but then the other voice in your head starts reminding you of thousands of reasons NOT to do it. And of course, it's easy to give in.

5. Role Models: Pick someone great. Someone who has done or come close to doing what it is you want to do. This brings a certain level of comfort because you now know without a shadow of a doubt that it is possible and that this person has done it. So, why shouldn't it work for you if you put in the same amount of hours as he/she did?

Once you are motivated to act you have won half the battle. You have thought about what you want. You have made mental and written notes about what you want and HOW you are going to do it. You are amped up and ready to get going.

Now the last step is all on you.

So You Want To Be a Leader?

Ah, leadership… The thought of being a leader causes some people to conjure up images of the perks, the expense accounts, the company car, the company credit cards, and the fabulous salary.

However, leadership isn’t about easy days in the office and events at night. It’s about worrying about the team. It’s about finding out that someone just caused the company property and casualty insurance to increase by 46 percent. It’s about trying to accomplish work through others but finding that you have to satisfy the demands of customers, vendors, other departments, governments, and shareholders at every level.

Leadership is NOT easy. So here is an open letter from a TRUE leader to team members:

I’m positioned to be your biggest cheerleader. If you perform well and help make us successful, I’m more than willing to promote you and to recommend you for promotion. 

Don’t let us or yourself down. Bring your ideas to me. I truly want to hear them. But please understand that many times my hands are tied by silly bureaucracies over which I have no control. 

If you don’t see your idea implemented, it isn’t because you were shot down. I may be considering the long term ramifications of how it will affect our team and the organization. 

Occasionally, we will have differences of opinion. But in the end I have to make the decision and I need your support. And we must own the outcome together. 

I know there’s a grapevine and I know it’s impossible to squash it (smart leaders don’t even try). If there’s something troubling you or if there’s some crazy rumor, ask me about it.
As far as I’m able, I will tell you everything I know, but there are some areas where I’m required to maintain confidentiality. 

I don’t believe it’s my job to motivate you. You should motivate yourself. My job is to provide you the resources to do good work, set goals, establish expectations, and follow up. I will make mistakes. 

I will screw up. Please give me the same understanding that you’d like me to give you when you blunder. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing. 

If something is going wrong, or about to go wrong, tell me as soon as possible. Don’t wait around hoping it will get better. 

Always tell me the truth. I can handle the truth and deal with whatever happens. I cannot handle being lied to. Don’t force me to make a decision about a situation based on a lie, a half-truth, an exaggeration, or based on a situation where some little bit of information was conveniently left out. 

If you see me about to make a blunder. Tell me. Quickly. Don’t wait around and don’t beat around the bush. 

Part of my job is to set the targets, supervise what is being done, obtain the required resources, and deliver the results called for by the next level of bosses above me. All of that is political and I don’t like it either, but I have to play the game to get anything accomplished. Sometimes, even the targets that are set for me get moved around. 

Please respect my time by not coming at 5:30 PM with a critical issue we could have discussed at any time during that day. Emergencies happen but when they happen every day it’s not an emergency, it’s a way of doing business. I may need time to consult with others about this critical issue and raising it late in the day causes stress on both you and me. 

Don’t always be concerned about CYA. It’s a disgusting way to live and your co-workers will not like you. I would prefer that, yes, DO cover your bases, but please don’t try to spin everything in your favor. 

So, still want to be a leader? Being a leader can be a scary proposition at times. It can be a frightening proposition to realize that your career is in someone else’s hands, namely your subordinates. That’s why the best leaders hire the best people, reward them well, and have a plan to retain them as long as possible.

Success and Self-Discipline

When working toward a goal or striving for success in any endeavor, self-discipline is often listed as absolutely necessary. 

Do you cringe at the thought of self-discipline? Many people do because it brings to mind visions of sacrifice, denial, and a constant battle against their natural tendencies. 

To some, the whole idea of having any form of discipline imposed on them just feels too much like punishment. The way you approach self-discipline has a major influence on how you feel about it. One of the most common problems happens when people get “fired up” and try to go from having no self-discipline, to forcing themselves to undertake a huge new challenge in the name of success. 

Enthusiasm is a wonderful quality that can be very motivating. But enthusiasm can be short lived if you try to do too much. 

If you struggle with self-discipline you will probably benefit from the following three suggestions:

1. Change your attitude about discipline. One reason you may not feel disciplined is because you think the activities or chores you need to do will be unpleasant in some way. The most common reaction to such thoughts is to put those activities aside or avoid them altogether. In other words, procrastination! 

What if you adopted a different attitude? What if, instead of procrastinating, you mentally pumped yourself up to get them done as soon as possible? Could you decide to look forward to the challenge instead of trying to avoid it? 

One way to accomplish this mental shift is by reminding yourself how great success will feel when you get there. Keeping your eye on the prize and focusing on where you are going will help minimize any adverse feelings you might have toward the task at hand. 
 
2. Make self-discipline a gradual process. Rather than trying to force yourself into submission with a giant list of tasks or activities, try a more gradual approach. 

Identify one small task or activity that you can use for practice. Make it something fairly easy to accomplish each day, and then make sure you do it. If you tend to forget, you might strategically post a few notes of encouragement to help remind you. 

If possible, get this one task out of the way first thing in the morning before you do anything else. If you make it one of your highest priorities, it will soon become a painless habit. If you break things down into a series of smaller steps the whole process will feel much more manageable. 

This is a great way to build momentum on your journey toward success. Eventually you will probably find yourself doing the things you set out to do without excuses or procrastination.
 
3.Commitment. If you’re not fully committed to achieving your goals, you’ll probably have a harder time pushing yourself to work on them. Make a promise to yourself that you will do whatever it takes to work toward your goals every single day. 

Write a list of important action steps and make it your mission to do one or more of them daily. Reaffirm your commitment to yourself and your success as often as necessary to make sure you stick to your plans. 

Consistency is the key!

More than anything else, self-discipline is the result of a series of small decisions that you make each day. It is so easy to chase after things that offer a giant reward with little or no effort. How many times have you done that? How did things turn out? I am reminded of the words of Jim Rohn who said, “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”

Use Goal Setting to Achieve Greatness

Goal setting is integral to success in any endeavor. Instead of relying on the goals set by management and the organization, top performers strive to exceed base targets and engage in personal goal setting to get there. This allows them to consistently achieve greatness and maintain a clear direction for their careers. 

Here are some of the tips that we share when talking with people who want to become top performers: 

Goals Should Be Challenging, But Achievable  

Setting goals that are easily achieved can defeat the purpose of goal setting. The desire to do better should be behind any goals that are set. 

Challenging goals should:

a. Present a challenge while still being achievable; unachievable goals can be discouraging rather than encouraging, and don't provide the same benefits that realistic goal setting can.  

b. Be aligned with your personal and professional desires; the more involved you are with the goals you set, the more likely you are to achieve them.  

c. Reflect the core priorities of your organization; in this way your goal setting can benefit you and your company and lead to recognition and other career benefits.  

Goal Setting Should Be As Specific As Possible 

Goals that are intangible or unclear are difficult to achieve because even if the goal is reached, there is no way to identify the achievement. 

Specific goals include: 

a. Goals to reach percentages above previous milestones. 

b. Goals to achieve a specific outcome within a set amount of time. 

c. Goals to hit highly specific numbers. 

Specificity also helps high achievers describe their contributions to the organization in clear terms.  

Goals Should Always Include the Steps to Achievement  

People commonly fall short of the goals that they set for themselves because the goals they set did not include an outline of how the target outcomes would be reached. Setting goals without including steps to achievement is like trying to drive to an unfamiliar address without directions. 

To support success in reaching their goals, top performers tend to create a map of incremental steps describing how the goals will be reached.  

Goal Setting Should Be a Constant Process 

Goal setting is all about growth, whether that growth is in sales numbers, career achievement, or personal fulfillment. To support that growth, goal setting should be a constant process. High achievers may allow themselves time to celebrate success, but you will always find them setting a new goal once a previous goal is reached. This ensures that goal setting supports constant advancement. 

Wherever you are in your career, you can follow the example of how top performers use goal setting to achieve their success to find the same success in your own career.

Leading By Example

Every leader knows this: we must Lead By Example. In fact, we are always Leading By Example, whether we do so consciously or unconsciously. 

What leaders do every day, how we behave, the things we get involved in, how we set priorities — our people watch, observe, and emulate. What we do, always trumps what we say. So the issue isn’t about Leading By Example, but Are We Setting The Right Example? 

 If we conduct meetings that are a waste of time, what kind of sales calls do you think your sales people will have? 

If we spend our time sitting behind our desks, hiding behind paperwork, where do you think your sales people will be? 

If we blame our people for poor performance, or others, how do we expect our people to take ownership? Likewise, if we make or accept excuses. 

Our actions and behaviors ALWAYS set the example for our people! If our actions aren’t aligned with out words, guess what people will do—they’ll emulate your behavior. So, whether you like it or not, you are already leading by example. 

The key question is, as it always is, Are You Setting The Right Example? 

• Are you asking more than you are telling? 
• Are you disciplined in the way you manage your own personal workload? 
• Do you maintain a schedule, do you focus on your priorities, and do you get things done? Are you continually learning, do you look to continually improve? 
• Do you care about your people, do you care about your customers, and is it obvious in your behaviors? 
• Are you using the processes, systems, and tools you have put in place to improve effectiveness and productivity? 
• Do you create value in every interchange with your people? In every interchange with your customers? 
• Do you meet your commitments? 
• Are you interested and interesting? 
• Do you have a disciplined approach to problem solving? 
• Do you hold yourself accountable, do you take ownership for your goals, your behaviors, and the results you create? 
• Are you collaborative and open? 
• Do you respect your people, your customers, your peers, and your own management? 
• Do you trust and are you trustworthy? 

If we want our people to stop pitching, to engage the customer in conversations, then the most effective way to do that is to stop doing it ourselves—stop telling, start asking. 

Start engaging your people in conversations, ask questions, learn, make suggestions, grow. It not only develops your people, but it sets an example they will start emulating in their behaviors. 

We are always Leading By Example. There are no time outs in leadership. Everything we do or say has an impact.

The issue is, are we having the impact we want, or are we creating unintended consequences?

Under-Promise And Over-Deliver

If you deliver a better service than you promise, your customers are delighted. If you don’t live up to your own guarantees, you will be flooded by complaints. 

This is what makes the model of under-promising and over-delivering so relevant for companies. Customers will be positively surprised that you exceeded your promises and this increases the likeliness of them coming back to you for their next order and spreading the word that you are a great company to deal with to their family, friends and colleagues. 

But how does this apply to leaders? 

Studies from political science have found that the biggest reason that people hold politicians in such low esteem is that candidates make so many promises when they run for office that they can never deliver on them while in office. 

 Anyone who wants to be a genuine leader must realize that they must maintain absolute integrity, rather than relying on empty rhetoric. It is easy to make promises, but it always requires effort to accomplish what needs to be done. Those who are truly effective as leaders under-promise and over-deliver, never creating unfulfilled expectations. Nothing demotivates anyone as much as raising hopes and expectations and failing to deliver. 

Strong leadership always begins with both a commitment to absolute integrity. That is why every service academy (West Point and Annapolis immediately come to mind) place a premium on integrity in leaders development. How can anyone believe in any leader they do not fully trust?

SMART Leadership

There has been more written about the various aspects of leadership and what it means to an effective leader than nearly any other topic. 

However, effective leadership involves so many nuances that there is always more that can be learned about what it means to be a great leader! 

Therefore, it makes sense to understand that smart and meaningful leadership often requires one's willingness to become SMART. What does it mean to be a SMART Leader? 

A SMART Leader has real strength; combines moderation and motivation; realizes how attitude and aptitude produces impactful leadership; use and rely on both reason and personal responsibility; and make trust and trustworthiness their first priority. 

Leadership STRENGTH combines having inner strength and fortitude, as well as motivating others and gaining their respect by leading in a strong and meaningful manner! Weak leaders often confuse this concept and take it to mean being inflexible or heavy handed. 

Great leaders combine MODERATION and MOTIVATION. Leadership moderation means being open and willing to listen with an open mind to alternatives and alternative approaches. When a leader behaves in this manner, their behavior invariably motivates others to become more involved, caring more, and being more committed. 

 Great leaders maintain a positive and proactive ATTITUDE, but must also commit to capitalizing on their APTITUDE by gaining broad experience, expertise, and knowledge through a commitment to training and learning. True leaders need talent and a positive mindset! 

A great leader must have the ability to REASON, while assuming personal and professional RESPONSIBILITY for their actions. A leader’s capacity to maximize potential to achieve objectives often depends on the combination of both of these behaviors. 

Great leaders are committed to absolute TRUSTWORTHINESS. Unless a leader maintains absolute integrity, the organization's stakeholders at every level will rarely be interested in following their lead or becoming involved. 

Do you want to be a SMART leader, as well as proceeding in a smart manner? Then commit to these five basic steps and concepts, and focus on how you can, rather than why you can't!

Your Results In ANY Endeavor Are the Result of Your Choices

In anything you do, your results are the consequence of the choices you make. There are three fundamental choices that determine your results, and it is important to spend time examining all three. 

The three choices are your choice of beliefs, your choice of focus, and your choice of actions. 

Your Choice of Belief 

What you believe is the foundation of ALL your results in life. Your beliefs are your blueprints. But we spend far too little time reflecting on what we believe, why we believe it, and whether or not the beliefs serve us. 

If you believe that you can succeed against great odds, that belief will allow you to take actions that produce some result. Do you believe that you can compete against bigger competitors and win? Or, it is your blueprint that bigger competitors beat smaller firms? Those two different beliefs will provide you with some result, but one will be vastly different. 

You get to choose your beliefs. You can shed old beliefs and replace them with new, healthier beliefs. Your beliefs underlie your focus. 

Your Choice of Focus 

Your results are, in large part, the result of your focus. If you focus your attention on negative ideas and events, your results will suffer. Likewise, if you focus your attention on positives, you will produce greater results. 

You choose where you allow your mind (the most complex and powerful thinking device in the known universe) to focus. Your beliefs underlie your focus, and combined, your beliefs and your focus drive your actions.

Your Choice of Action  

This is where the rubber meets the road: action. The actions you take and the actions you choose not to take also determine your results. 

Did you take the actions that nurtured the relationships that you need to create and win an opportunity? Or did you spend the day with the weapons of mass distraction, surfing the Internet for sports scores and gossip? 

Your results are made up of the actions that you take, and the actions you fail to take. Taking the right actions leads to greater results. Taking the wrong actions leads to poor results and, potentially, a career change.

Never Take it Personally

If you ask a non-salesperson why she so adamantly wouldn’t sell to earn her living, more than likely she’d say something like, “I couldn’t deal with all that rejection.” To a non-salesperson, a prospect’s “no” is seen as a harsh personal repudiation, a direct assault upon her sensitive ego—it’s so humiliating. A master salesperson is apt to roll her eyes at such a comment. As the gangsters say, “it’s only business”; a master salesperson never feels personally rejected. 

Learn to never take “no” personally. Instead, take responsibility for it. In baseball, no batter gets a hit every time up and no salesperson closes every prospect. Selling is a numbers game, a law of averages marathon. My father-in-law always says, “You have to get the “no’s” out of the way, in order to get to the “yes’s.” 

We live in a free country; everyone has a right to say no. To take it personally, to hang on to it for dear life, to keep replaying it over and over and over again is to surrender your power to someone who isn’t even a customer. Why would you do that? What possible benefit can it bring you? 

If you go to your next presentation with that kind of baggage strangling your concentration, you’re allowing a “no” to do double damage to you and your career. 

A salesperson must have skin thick as a rhinoceros; prospects can be downright insulting at times. It should go in one ear and out the other. You’re there to make a sale, that’s all that matters; indulge in anything peripheral to that sacred purpose and you’re being self-destructive. 

Never take it personally; it’s only business.

8 Points for effective leadership at any level

Leadership isn’t about a title; it’s about influence and the leadership traits you exhibit that come from within. 

What kind of leader are you? What kind of leader do you aspire to be? 

Here are 8 Points for effective leadership at any level: 

1. Give your team credit for the victories. Your team did the work. They did the heavy lifting. Take none of the credit, even when it was your idea and even when you worked harder than anyone. The victory belongs to your team. 

2. Take the blame for the mistakes, the missteps, and failures. Your team may have had their share of missteps, failures, and setbacks, but the responsibility is yours. Because you are their leader, you own the mistakes and failures. You take responsibility, and then you lead the team to better results. 

3. Invest as much time and energy as you possibly can in building relationships. If you want to get things done, invest your time in building relationships up and down your organization. Invest in building relationships with your clients and suppliers. You’ll need these relationships in the future, and you want strong relationships before you need strong relationships. 

4. Spend more time in informal meetings than required meetings. You will learn so much more in informal meetings than in formal meetings. If you want to understand where to find the roadblocks, obstacles, and bottlenecks that need your attention, meet with the people who don’t report to you directly. 

5. Say the same thing over and over again, especially when you believe you have said it too often. If you want people to believe, you have to say the same thing over and over again. You will feel like people are getting bored with what you say. You will feel like they want something new, like they need something new. They don’t. You just need to be more creative and find new ways of saying the same thing and new stories to tell. 

6. Build leaders. One of the main challenges you will face as a leader is identifying and building more leaders. Your role is necessarily to further the organization’s goals and your legacy is going to be found in the people who can pick up and take the organization further than you did. Don’t worry about having a painting of you in the boardroom. Worry about all the portraits that come after yours. None of the faces that follow yours will be dependents; they’ll be leaders. 

7. Embrace the “new” new thing. If you want to doom your organization, the fastest way to do so is to resist change. Leading is about the future. Leaders look around corners, embrace, and lead “what’s next.” You protect purpose and values; you embrace the new ideas, the new technologies, new trends, and new demands. 

8. Change when necessary, not because the calendar changed. You embrace the new and you change. But you do it when it is necessary, not just because the calendar flipped to a new year. You can’t whip your people from one new shiny object to the next. Much of the time, you will find that the reason your initiative failed isn’t because it wasn’t the right idea but because it was poorly executed.

Confident vs. Arrogant Leaders

There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance. This is especially true given both entail a strong belief in one's own abilities. When it comes to the responses they provoke, however, that's where the similarities end. 

Confidence is inspiring; arrogance is a turn-off. 

Confidence gets hired; arrogance is shown the door. 

Building confidence takes work; arrogance is simple. 

In fact, it's easy to come off as arrogant. 

 Avoid these behaviors so you don't leave the impression of being a Class-A jerk people would rather avoid instead of the confident leader they want to follow. 

1. Openly ask for feedback. Confident leaders are constantly looking to find out what they can improve upon. Therefore, they actively solicit feedback from ALL levels in the organization. 

2. Be willing to take an unpopular stand. Great leaders look to be respected by others. They don’t seek to be liked by all because they realize that, at times, the decisions they have to make will not be the ones everyone will agree with or like. 

3. Don’t show off. Top leaders realize that their value is in drawing the best in all around them. They don’t show off or try to make themselves stand out as wonderful to anyone. 

4. Own the consequences of your decisions. Great leaders absorb the blame and share the fame. They take ownership of what wrong. 

Some business leaders are unquestionably arrogant — people whom you may have heard about or even for whom you have worked. Be a leader people want to follow and not one people would rather avoid.

Motivating Another Person

This one is a tough one since we can’t actually motivate a person to do something. Motivation has to come from within. 

But we can spark people and push them in the right direction. 

1. How do you ask for things? Are you vague? Do you make assumptions? Do you use “we” too often? "We" is good to use except when you are trying to get someone to take direct accountability. Then the use of “we” allows the other person to NOT take the accountability. 

2. Make sure you remove judgment but hold the person accountable for their part. 

3. Candidly step back and see the lesson you want learned and take a good look at whether you are hindering or helping the problem. This is best done through a series of questions. 

Here is an example many parents can relate to: Your teenager not turning in their work. 

• What is the worst that will happen if I do nothing and let her fail? 
• If I take control and check on her work and assignments what lesson will she learn? 
• If I take something away, like TV, time with friends, what message will that teach? 
• How hard will it be for me to let her fail? 
• How will I handle that and why will it be difficult for me? 

4. Go through each option with the other person so they OWN the result. Let them continue to walk through and handle each situation. Ask them to set the punishment if they do not follow through and the reward if they do. Then stick to it.

Who Will You Be This Year?

2014! It’s the start of a great year! 

And as it begins, think about this: You are your own greatest asset. 

What are you going to do for you this year? 

Your obligation to yourself is to fulfill your potential. Your obligation to yourself is to achieve all that you can achieve by increasing and improving your capacity to do so. You are only limited by your own vision, and your willingness to take action to realize that vision. 

2 important questions:

1. Is what you are doing helping to enrich and improve your life, as well as helping to ensure you reach your full potential? 

2. What are you going to do for your health to ensure you have the energy and the capacity to accomplish all that you want to accomplish? 

Time is short. 

This year will be gone before you know it. Your personal and professional development is your responsibility alone. It is not your company’s job to develop you to your full potential. 

You cannot—and will not—reach your full potential and generate the results you are capable of generating for yourself and for others by sitting around waiting for someone to discover you and your potential. 

The sooner you recognize that your growth is your responsibility alone, the sooner—and the faster—you will begin to reap the rewards of developing your own skills, attributes, and abilities. Your personal development is an obligation you owe yourself. 

No one is going to check on your progress, and no one is going to hold you accountable here. You alone own the outcome that is your personal development. You are your only real asset. 

Get started! What are you waiting for?