Sales and Sales Management Blog

November 17, 2008

CanDoGo is Now a Free Site–Get Great Sales Tips from more than 60 of the Top Trainers in the World for Free

Filed under: Sales Resources, motivation, sales, sales training, selling, success — Paul McCord @ 6:17 am
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I have great news to share with you. I am one of the exclusive authors/speakers/trainers/coaches for a company called CanDoGo that delivers concise advice for sales, personal development, leadership and motivation over the Web. CanDoGo has just launched a brand-new site with thousands of free pieces of advice.

Now is a really important time to hone your skills and CanDoGo’s advice can help you adapt and succeed. I am proud to be part of CanDoGo’s world-renowned experts and I encourage you to check out CanDoGo or click on one of these three links that go directly to some of my sales tips on CanDoGo.

PWWR: Grow Your Own Referral Garden
What If They Don’t Purchase?
Why Clients Resist Giving Quality Referrals — Part 1 of 2: The Problems

Who are some of the other exclusive trainers on the site?  Tom Hopkins, Jim Cathcart, Jill Konrath, Jonathan Farrington, Zig Zigler, Denis Waitley, Tony Alessandra, Tony Parinello, Neil Rackham, and  dozens of others.

Go to CanDoGo now

October 13, 2008

Attitude, Expectations, and Reality

Filed under: Economy, business, motivation, prospecting, sales, selling, success — Paul McCord @ 5:14 am
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“I have to work harder than before, but even so, my sales this month will be better than last October’s.”

“My prospects and clients are certainly feeling the pinch of the economy and they’re fearful.  But I also closed the biggest sale of my career last week.”

“Despite the news and the hype of the last two or three weeks, I’ve only seen a slight decrease in our sales.  Our salespeople have to be much more selective in qualifying prospects and they have to spend more time building value into the sale, but our customers are still buying, they’re still getting the financing they need, and their companies are still profitable.  It’s tough, but not nearly as bad as what you’d believe if you just listened to the news.”

“Seems like everybody wants to just sit and wait it out and see what happens.  Everyone is afraid.  No one knows what to do at this point, so our sales have fallen off the chart the past couple of weeks.  I really don’t want our GM to talk to the salespeople because there’s a sound of panic in his voice.”

“I’m finding it more difficult every day to make sales calls.  No one wants to make a decision and even some who would be willing to go forward aren’t sure they can get the funds to do so.”

“I’m working hard.  I’m willing to talk to people I would have passed over just a couple of months ago.  I’m spending a lot of time talking but I’m not getting anywhere.  I’ve even found myself reverting back to doing some pretty hard sell stuff trying to get something going.”

The above are comments about selling during the last two weeks from several of my clients from various parts of the country, each in a different industry.

Like many others, I’ve spoken to many salespeople and managers over the past couple of weeks who blame the economy on poor sales.  Their words indicate they are struggling, their voice indicates defeat. When we talk about strategies to overcome sales resistance and to find and connect with quality prospects, they complain that I’m not being realistic, that I just don’t understand their situation, that in their industry in today’s economy it isn’t rational to expect to maintain their sales volume or their pricing structure.

Yet I have other clients in the same industries as those who claim it unrealistic to expect to maintain their sales volumes, who are still selling at or near their previous levels-one who signed the biggest contract of her career just last week.

Which ‘reality’ is reality? Is it the reality of those whose voice communicates defeat and hopelessness–or is reality really reflected by those who although they say the market is tough are producing at or near their pre-crisis levels?

I believe that both realities are, in fact, reality.  More correctly, I believe that the ‘reality’ of defeat and hopeless is a self-fulfilling prophesy, whereas the ‘reality’ of “it’s tough but the sales are still there” reflects the actual marketplace.

Let me explain why I believe that.

When we begin discussing the specifics of their activity, those who foresee doom and gloom and whose sales have plummeted, have:

  • Spent less time prospecting than they did prior to the economic ‘crisis’
  • They are less selective in whom they speak with, hoping against hope to find someone interested
  • Their conversations are more hard sell than they had been previous to acquiring their current attitude of desperation and depression
  • They expect the prospect to refuse to make a decision at this time

Not surprisingly, they get exactly what they expect.  By making fewer contacts with less qualified prospects and then trying to strong arm a sale, they are seeing their sales fall drastically.  They are getting the exact results they not only expect but have set themselves up to get.

On the other hand, when I speak to those who are doing well in this market I find that they:

  • Have increased their prospecting activity
  • Are more selective in qualifying their prospects
  • Are spending more time working with prospects to understand their needs and issues to build more value into the sale than they had previously
  • Are taking additional time and care to build relationships prior to seeking to sign a contract
  • Understand that although the market is more difficult, there are still more quality prospects in the market than they can take care of-their job is to find them

Yes, these men and women are working longer and harder than they have in quite some time.  But they aren’t seeing the drastic decrease in business many others are.  And, yes, they expect to be successful.  But that expectation is balanced with a serious dose of reality that says they must work both harder and smarter-they must invest more time and effort and be much more selective in how and where they spend their time.

The current paralysis that a great many are seeing in the marketplace is only two or three weeks old.  It is very likely-a foregone conclusion-that the market will get tighter before it begins to get better.  But for a few, the current market driven by fear-for both prospects and clients-isn’t hindering their production.  Not because they’re lucky or because they have some magic formula, but because they haven’t allowed the ‘reality’ of the ‘crisis’ to stop them from selling.

They have to spend more time prospecting.  They have to work harder.  They are having to develop new skills and new strategies.  But they aren’t letting the perceived ‘reality’ of the negative and hopeless create their reality.

You need not accept the defeatist ‘reality’ either. You will have to invest more time and be more selective in finding and connecting with quality prospects-but they are out there.  You will have to invest more time in building solid relationships and building more value into each sale.  You may well have to invest in training and coaching to learn more effective prospecting and sales methods and strategies.  It isn’t easy and it takes commitment, innovation, and perseverance-but it works.  Just ask those who are finding the current market to be just as lucrative as the market was before the ‘crisis.’

September 25, 2008

Guest Article, “How to Become a Winning Sales Ace,” by Waldo Waldman

Filed under: motivation, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 4:55 am
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How to Become a Winning Sales ACE
By Waldo Waldman

If you want to test the true character of a person, see how they respond to adversity.  Watch how they handle the pressure of a lost sale, an angry client, or a difficult boss.  What do they say?  How do they act?  What is their emotional state?  Do they freeze up and get angry, or do they buckle down and increase their focus and commitment?

The same holds true for those who would assume the mantle of leadership in business.  When adversity hits, how they respond in the market will determine their ability to stay in business and win. Leadership - both on a personal and organizational level - ultimately drives the actions taken amidst crisis and change.

Today’s economy is full of adversity. I call them “missiles of business and life.” It seems we are being fired at every day. Rising costs of fuel, shrinking budgets, demanding clients, and a lack of qualified (and loyal) employees all create an intense and constantly changing environment. As soon as we think we defeated one missile…BAM! Another one is fired.  As soon as profits start coming in…BAM, another competitor enters the fight.

The missiles will come and you will be fired upon. It’s not a matter of if, but when and how often. The key is NOT to get shot down!

This week we saw one of the most reputable giants in the financial industry - Lehman Brothers - get shot down.  Just a few years ago, who would have thought such a thing could happen?  But it did. And it will happen again. It’s just the nature of business…and life.

In fighter combat, the best pilots who are able to adapt to adversity and change are called ACES. They prepare relentlessly and are the most focused and committed under pressure. They are the respected and accomplished leaders in their squadrons because they don’t run away when fear knocks on their door. They buckle down and ultimately take action.

The right action.

Here are a few WingTips that can turn you into an ACE and help you avoid getting shot down on your next mission:

A: Attitude + Action.  Attitude does not determine altitude. Attitude plus Action does. Being positive and enthusiastic is a critical component of success, but your customer ultimately rewards your actions, not your positive attitude!  An attitude that breeds confidence is a by-product of disciplined preparation and mission rehearsal. When dealing with a price objection, last minute competitor, or late product shipment, it’s the commitment, focus and sense of urgency you have to fix the problem, provide value, and deliver results that counts.

C: Customer: Success in business is not about you, your company, or your product. It’s about your customer.  Prior to each meeting, gather the latest, up to date intelligence (from multiple sources) and commit yourself to meeting the needs of your customer. Be original. Come prepared with questions. Learn about the person you’re meeting.  If you’re not focused 100% on your customer - your target - you shouldn’t strap on your jet to fly. (By the way, it can’t hurt to learn about your Competition too …but only after learning about your customer.

E Environment: Every mission is unique. What works with one client or industry, may not work with another. The environment in which you and your customer operate will ultimately determine your tactics.  Was there a recent merger or perhaps some lay-offs at the company you’re meeting?  How’s their stock price? What’s the nature of the industry you’re operating in? Who are you meeting?  Who is the decision maker? What resources (wingmen) do you have that can help you prepare for your meeting? Never sell by the seat of your pants!

Take it from somebody who’s been shot at in real combat, the winning ACE’s in business and life prepare for the worst, but then expect the best. They acknowledge adversity and develop the confidence to overcome it by hard work and focus. But being an ACE is not easy.  You can either “push it up” on your throttle and defeat the missile, or pull it back and risk getting shot down. It’s your choice.

I hope you’ll push it up!

Waldo Waldman builds team unity within organizations as a high-energy leadership and inspirational speaker. A former combat-decorated fighter pilot with corporate sales experience, Waldo brings an exciting and valuable message to organizations by using fighter pilot strategies as building blocks for peak performance, teamwork, leadership and trust. His clients include Aflac, Hewlett-Packard, John Hancock, Nokia, Bank of America, NY Life, and Home Depot. To download Waldo’s Top Gun Motivation mission briefing, visit http://www.YourWingman.com

September 24, 2008

Now Is The Time to Suit Up for Battle

Filed under: Economy, business, motivation, sales, selling, small business — Paul McCord @ 6:00 am
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I’ve received several emails and phone calls from clients wanting to know what they should be doing right now.  Should they be battening down the hatches?  Shrinking their sales teams?  Waiting to see what happens in Washington this week?  Heading for the mountains with food rations and ammo?  Others indicate they feel too depressed and fearful to get out of the office and into the field-what good will it do anyway?

As Wall Street smolders, Congress grandstands, and the business community frets, our lives continue.

Are you spending more time checking the news and than finding prospects?  Are you more worried about the economy than your pipeline?  Are you frozen in place, mesmerized by the teetering financial markets?

The spectacle in Washington and New York is important.  What’s going on is going to impact all of us-and we probably aren’t going to like the impact one way or another.  However, no matter our view of the proceedings, we have to continue to sell, to find prospects, to put food on the table.

We must maintain our focus.

When it’s all said and done, we’ll still be doing what we’re doing today-although, admittedly, it may be harder.

Although the future is murky, the present isn’t-our job is still intact, our responsibility today is the same as it was days, weeks, or months ago.  We still get paid the same way.

More importantly, there are still prospects out there.  There are still individuals and companies making money, needing products and services.

There are still prospects out there working hard to grow their families and grow their businesses.

We must do the same.

Put aside the newspaper.

Turn off the tv and radio.

Forget the Internet news sites.

Ignore the hysteria.

I don’t mean forget the issues or stick you head in the sand.  Certainly there are fears of recession-maybe even worse.  But when the work day starts, we have to get to work.

We have to concentrate on our business and let the rest go.  We must focus our efforts on our prospects, our clients, our sales.

If the world comes to an end during the workday, we’ll find out soon enough.

For many of us, this will take a great deal of discipline and self-control.  Certainly we’re all concerned about the economy, our jobs, and our families.  Even though the future may be murky, we know what we must do today.

For those of us who have lived through the turmoil of the economic crisis of the 70’s and the Savings and Loan debacle of the 80’s, we have some history to help bolster us.  For those that didn’t, take some solace in history-this isn’t the first crisis-and it won’t be the last, since we never seem to learn.

Set your focus on developing and expanding your sales business.  Take heart in knowing there is a very good possibility your competitors will be sitting at their desks fretting over the economy, watching every twist and turn of the proceeding in Washington, skipping a heartbeat with the slightest up or down of the big board.  Take advantage of an opportunity to act while your competitor is stagnant.

The more you allow yourself to wallow in fear and become sluggish with worry, the harder it is going to be to break out and get back to business.

Now is not the time to lose your focus.  Now isn’t the time to wallow in self-pity or to succumb to fear.  Now is the time to suit up for battle, to hit the streets harder than ever,  to take advantage of your competitor’s lose of focus.

September 19, 2008

Guest Article: “Successful Selling and the Theory of Relativity,” by Lee Salz

Filed under: career development, goals, motivation, sales psychology, success — Paul McCord @ 7:58 am
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Successful Selling and the Theory of Relativity
by Lee Salz

Albert Einstein formulated the theory that says that space and time are relative concepts rather than absolute concepts. For example, consider a car speedometer reading at 65 miles per hour. How fast is the car going? This question seems like the beginning of the joke of who is buried in Grant’s tomb and you are expecting a punch line. No joke here, I assure you. As a matter of fact, most would respond 65 miles per hour. This is the correct answer if and only if you are comparing the car to someone who is not moving. However, if you compare that same car to the car driving next to it that is driving 55 miles per hour, your car is only moving at 10 miles per hour.

So, what does that have to do with sales? When you look at your sales performance, to what standard do you compare yourself? Is it to the others on the sales team? Is it to your quota? Is it to a sales record that has stood for 10 years in your company? Maybe you look at your performance relative to your income goals?

While any of these comparative points are important, they all have one thing in common. They limit your potential. How good can you be? If you set a ceiling to that, you will never know. Yes, hitting your quota is important. Achieving your income goal is also important. But could you achieve more? Could you be better? The car moving at 65 miles per hour is moving pretty fast, but only relative to a non-moving entity. Your competitors are moving right along with you. Maybe you are in the lead, but competition does not stagnate. To them, maybe you are only moving at 10 miles per hour.

Compare that same car to a jet. The speed of the car is not overly impressive. The jet can get you from New York to Florida in a couple of hours. The car needs 24 hours to reach the same destination. Competitors get smarter. Customers get smarter. And you have to get better if you are going to be successful. What worked yesterday is not going to work tomorrow. Self improvement is the only way to do it.

There are no ceilings in sales unless you place them there. One of my favorite quotes is, “When someone says it can’t be done, it only means that HE can’t do it.” Every day people accomplish the seemingly impossible. How do they do it? Simple. They don’t compare themselves to any standard. They have no limitations. As I write this, I’m flying on a plane. If the Wright brothers believed in ceilings, I’d be driving. If Bill Gates believed that people would never own a personal computer, I’d be writing this on a typewriter.

To further make this point, I thought I would share a personal story. When I was in the eighth grade, my family moved from New York to New Jersey. (Where to start with the jokes…) At the time that we moved, I was an excellent student, A’s across the board. Shortly after moving, I injured my knee playing baseball. I ended up having two knee surgeries and spent my entire freshman year of high school on crutches. Here I am living in a new state, going to a new school, knowing next to no one. I lost my focus.

I became friendly with a few kids who were not very good students. They were nice kids, not troublemakers, but they did not perform well in school. During my freshman year of high school, I set my personal worst records for grades, but I was able to rationalize my performance. My grades were nothing to write home about, but I was scoring better than my friends. From that relative point of view, I was doing fine.

Towards the end of my freshman year, I became friends with a different group of kids. These friends later attended Wharton, Harvard, Emory, and Bates. All prestigious schools…  Relative to them, my grades were a disgrace. They never made me feel badly about it, but I felt uncomfortable. Their success drove me to rediscover myself. During the remainder of my high school and collegiate career, I elevated my game to top of the class. I credit much of that with changing my approach to relativity.

Nature also uses the theory of relativity. If you put a fish in a 10 gallon tank, the fish will only grow to a certain size. The surroundings of the fish limit its size and growth. Put that same fish in a larger tank and the fish will continue to grow. Want to get better at golf? Play with better golfers. Want to run faster? Train with better runners.

What limitations are you putting on your sales success? Are you failing to achieve your quota? Are your friends on the team missing their quota too? Do you accept that because you are all failing? Or do you compare yourself to a higher standard? What are you doing each and every day to improve yourself? Is your goal just to be better, or is it to be the best?

You are the only obstacle to your success. Get out of your own way and enjoy the results.

Lee B. Salz is a sales management guru who helps companies hire the right sales people, on-board them, and focus their sales activity using his sales architectureR methodology.  He is the President of Sales Architects, the C.E.O. of Business Expert Webinars and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” Lee is an online columnist for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, a print columnist for SalesforceXP Magazine, and the host of the Internet radio show, “Secrets of Business Gurus.” Look for Lee’s new book
in February 2009 titled, “The Sales Marriage” where he shares the secrets to hiring the right sales people. Lee can be reached at lsalz@SalesArchitecture.com.

July 22, 2008

Guest Article: “Compensate to Motivate,” by Lee Salz

Filed under: Compensation, Sales Management, motivation, sales, selling — Paul McCord @ 8:09 am
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Compensate to Motivate
By Lee Salz

When I speak to business executives, one of the challenges I often hear is that their sales team is not doing the things they feel are most critical to the success of the company. I then ask to see their compensation plan. After a thorough read, I share my impression of the message of the compensation plan and ask if this is their intention. That’s when things get scary! They look at me blankly and say, “No, our intention is for our sales people to…” For them, the disconnect has been exposed.

What many forget is that the blessing of sales is that a compensation plan doubles as a job description. However, that blessing is also a curse as a compensation plan doubles as a job description. As one executive shared after going through the aforementioned exercise, “We want our sales people to focus on selling our new product to our existing clients. Yet, we are compensating the sales people in a way that they are better off pursuing new clients.” He got it!

The incongruence of sales compensation is one of the biggest disconnects in companies. Executives sit in a board room with strategic plans of grandeur, but the plan collapses when they don’t address the compensation for the sales troops. It is a very simple equation. Sales people invest their time on activities that drive their compensation. Plain and simple. The thought that sales people will actively and consistently perform activities that are not in their best financial interests is naïve.

Further complicating matters, there are instances where sales people are compensated for delivering certain results while their managers are compensated on a different set of results. Thus, the sales managers are driving their team consistently with their compensation message, but inconsistently with their sales team members. It creates the visual of the sales manager pushing a boulder up a hill trying to get their team to focus on activities that contradict their income. Best of luck!

When structuring sales compensation plans, a company should strongly consider the goals for the company. Working backwards, the goals for the company drive the structure of the sales compensation plan. Thus, they should be directly aligned. If the company’s goal is to gain adoption of a new product in the marketplace, the plan should reward sales people for accomplishing this feat. If the goal is to increase revenue with their current clientele, the plan should reward for that. Anyone should be able to read the plan and derive the intended message.The second consideration, when structuring sales compensation plans, is that sales managers and sales people should have alignment with their respective results. If one is compensated for adding new clients and the other for selling a new product to existing clients, and it does matter which is compensated for which, the incongruence causes a paralysis of performance.

Making this more daunting is that in complex sales environments, those that have protracted buying cycles, the standard salary and commission model does not create enough of a framework to ensure that the sales team performs the right activities every day. How do you structure the plan so that the team is motivated to do the right things every hour of every day?

Employers also face a challenge of hiring sales people who are concerned about the length of time of the buying cycle in contrast to their earnings. The standard solution is to bridge the gap with a draw. As you probably know, there are two types of draws. There is the recoverable draw which is, in essence, a loan against the sales person’s future commissions. Then, there is the other, the non-recoverable draw which is money, free and clear, to the sales person for some period of time. Nothing good comes out of either of these. The recoverable draw, almost always, puts the sales person in a financial hole. They wake up each morning knowing they owe the company money. No one enjoys the feeling of debt. The non-recoverable draw, often times, creates an earnings cliff. Let’s say that the draw is for three months at $2,000 per month. In month four, the sales person probably experiences a significant fall-off in their earnings. The end result is relationship damage between the sales person and the company and a poor corporate investment. How do you structure the sales compensation plan to bridge the earnings gap when recruiting new sales people?

The challenge of motivating sales people and bridging the sales earnings gap can be solved with a creative compensation approach. In the 1980s and 1990s, the big buzz term was MBO (Management by Objective). Business people were provided with a series of objectives, and following a performance review, were compensated for achievement of such. What if the MBO concept was applied to sales compensation? What if you created a Sales Behavioral Objective or SBO?

If you are reading this and think that I’ve just created additional sales cost, think again. I’m proposing a reallocation of the dollars paid to your sales team. A percentage of the dollars normally budgeted for commissions would be allocated for an SBO bonus.

Consider this. A company has a typical buying process with its clientele that is six months long. They pay their sales people a base salary of $60,000. At 100% of plan, the sales person earns $90,000 or $30,000 over their base salary. However, no commissions are earned in their first six months of employment due to the buying cycle. The company, as a means of managing sales behaviors and attracting strong sales talent, budgets $15,000 of the $30,000 of commissions for the SBO bonus. The sales person is then eligible to earn a $3,500 bonus each quarter in year one.At the beginning of each quarter, the sales person has a formal review where the results of the prior quarter are shared and the mission for the second is presented. The SBO changes from quarter to quarter based on the tenure of the sales person and the needs of the business. The SBO is also not a “gimme.” 100% accomplishment should be a stretch goal, but achievable for the sales person.

In the first quarter, the overall mission is getting the sales person assimilated into the company’s environment. The measurements of success at the end of the quarter are: a business/territory plan, the ability for the sales person to call on prospects, and knowledge of the products. As measurement of achievement, the company provides a written test on product knowledge, a scored, mock sales call, a scored, mock, sales presentation, and review of their business/territory plan. Based on the sales person’s accomplishments, they will receive a percentage of the $3,500 up to 100%.

In future quarters, a points system is put in place, making the SBO entirely objective, tied to performing the activities deemed critical for the success of the business. In each quarter, the goal is for the sales person to achieve 100 points. The main objective in the second quarter for this company is to have face-to-face meetings with qualified prospects. They are looking for their sales person to have twenty face-to-face meetings in the quarter as a way to jump start their sales pipeline. Thus, the SBO compensates five points for each meeting held. At the end of the quarter, whatever percentage the sales person delivers of the 100 points, with a minimum achievement of 75%, is paid as a bonus. This includes those who over perform. Why penalize them for doing more of the right things? What about quality? How do you know they are doing the right things in the prospect meeting? Hopefully, you measured their proficiency in doing those things in the first quarter.

The SBO program, in future quarters, is designed by identifying key, measurable sales activities aligned with the needs of the business. Place weighting on the activities commensurate with your expectations of the sales person.

Some of you are probably thinking, “No way, I pay for results!” Well, results are a function of doing the right things each and every day. Results are not miraculous. They are formulaic. The reality is that you have skin in the game with the SBO. As a business executive, you and your team are tasked with determining what it takes for a sales person to generate the results you desire. If you have done your job of identifying the success metrics and the sales person achieves those, the results take care of themselves. The SBO is not just for year one since the challenge of managing sales behaviors is perpetual. One important key is to budget enough dollars for the SBO bonus that it gets the attention of the sales people, but not so high that it overshadows commissions.

The bottom line is that the SBO program gives you the tool kit to channel the energy of the sales team toward achieving that goal. It also provides you with a mechanism to attract sales talent to your company where, right on day one, they need to perform to earn dollars over their salary. One other benefit of this program for those companies with lengthy buying processes, the SBO provides you with a way to assess the sales person’s performance in a way that you can identify, more quickly, those who will not be successful in your company.

One thing is for sure, the executive team of the company in the story knows that if they paid a sales person $15,000 SBO bonus in year one, year two and beyond are going to be stellar.

Lee Salz is the founder of Sales Dodo, a training and consulting company dedicated to helping companies, sales managers, and sales people adapt and thrive in the ever changing world of business. He uses the metaphor of the dodo to show what happens when one fails to adapt. Those who adapt, thrive. Those who don’t become extinct like the dodo bird of ages ago. Visit his website at www.salesdodo.com.

Lee is also the creator of Business Expert Webinars, the premier source of great sales, management and leadership training via webinars.

May 22, 2008

Guest Article: “Harness Your Desire to Break Bad Sales Habits,” by Jeb Blount

Filed under: career development, goals, motivation, sales, selling, success — Paul McCord @ 6:41 am
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Harness Your Desire to Break Bad Sales Habits
By Jeb Blount

It’s reality. Salespeople fail. Maybe even you. Sadly, thousands of salespeople are fired or quit each day because they failed to attain quota. When you ask these salespeople what went wrong most are quick to point out that their failure was due to some external factor, which prevented them from achieving their goal. Poor territories, bad managers, difficult environments, lack of training, and defective products are fodder for these conversations.

However, when studying successful Sales Professionals in those same organizations, we find, that when faced with identical difficulties, they still managed to succeed. Why did some salespeople succeed where others didn’t?

The answer is simple. The successful salespeople have developed the habit of looking inward for inspiration, motivation, and accountability when things get difficult. They have developed the disciplined habit of finding solutions to problems while the less successful people have developed the habit of finding excuses for failure. I’m sure for some this seems a bit harsh, but the truth is the truth. Success or failure has a lot more to do with our thoughts and actions than the difficulties we face.

A habit is defined as a pattern of behavior that is followed regularly until it becomes automatic. In other words we do things we are comfortable with and we keep doing them. When we do the same thing over and over again an amazing thing happens: we get the same result over and over again!

Unfortunately, many people become so comfortable with their habits that they will continue the behavior even if that habit is causing them to fail. This is called a bad habit and anyone who has worked to quit smoking or even correct a poor golf swing, will attest that bad habits die hard. In many ways, failure is just the manifestation of our bad habits.

Stepping out of a comfort zone is very difficult and one of the core reasons so many salespeople find themselves moving from company to company and failing time and time again. Despite the training each new company provides, despite the coaching, despite the mentoring from successful Sales Professionals, eventually these salespeople revert back to their old habits and ultimately failure. The good news is, that though difficult, it is possible to break this cycle of failure. But to change your habits, you must first change your thoughts and actions. And who has control of your thoughts and actions? You.

Four PowerPrinciples for Positive Change

Identify Your Bad Habits: The first step to creating new, winning habits is identifying your bad habits and examining and understanding your behavior. In this process you must be honest with yourself. You must place the responsibility for your failure where it lies.

Harness Your Desire: The next step is to mentally make the status quo untenable. As long as you are more comfortable with where you are than where you want to be it will be difficult, if not impossible to change. To make positive changes you must harness your desire. That means defining what you want, writing it down, and becoming laser focused on that goal. A burning desire to achieve a defined goal is the one key that unlocks the door to the formation of powerful new habits.

Invest in Your Mind: Just because you want to change, need to change, and desire to change doesn’t mean that you have the skills to change. Thanks to the Internet and sites like www.SalesGravy.com you can now browse the minds of millions of individuals with the click of a mouse, instantly. There are thousands of books written about success, sales, and self help. There are also Podcasts, eZines, printed magazines, and seminars. Take every opportunity to learn new skills that will lead you to new habits.

Get a Coach: Perhaps the most powerful step you can take towards positive change in your life is to get a coach. There are coaches everywhere and, as long as you are coachable, a great coach will help you break through your self-imposed barriers and will illuminate the path that will lead you straight to the success you deserve.

Jeb Blount is the author of PowerPrinciples and has over 20 years experience in sales and marketing. As a business leader he has extensive experience turning around and righting troubled organizations. He has a passion for growing people and the unique ability to see potential in everyone. Over the span of his career he has coached, trained, and developed hundreds of Sales Professionals, managers and leaders. He is the moderator of Sales Gravy, a popular on-line community of sales professionals.

May 14, 2008

From Water Cooler to Pipeline

Filed under: career development, motivation, sales, selling, success — Paul McCord @ 6:50 am
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Over the next couple of days, keep an eye on the salespeople in your office.  Who is associating with whom?  If your office is typical, you’ll probably find the majority of new and average salespeople hang around together, the top producers socialize and go to lunch with one another, and there may be a young up and comer or two who stays kinda off to himself or herself.

Why aren’t the top producers chumming it up with the average and new salespeople?  Is it simply arrogance?  For a few, yes, it’s arrogance.  But for the majority, it isn’t arrogance at all—it’s simply that they have little in common with the lower performers in the office.  They see themselves, what they do, how they do it, and even why they do it differently than the other sellers.

Typically, the top producers are not only working with more accounts than the average and below average producers, they are also dealing with better, more productive accounts.  Most don’t generate their business using the same methods as the lower performers, they don’t use the same selling process, and they don’t develop the same relationships with their prospects and clients.

And most importantly, they don’t have the same attitude and concerns as the other salespeople in the office.

What happens when the new and average salespeople gather at the water cooler or go to lunch together?  Sure, there is some discussion of who’s doing what to get business.  There may be a bit of a discussion of how to overcome obstacles or how to get in to see a particular prospect.  But the majority of the time is spent complaining about how the company doesn’t do this or doesn’t do that; how the sales manager screwed this up or blew that; how bad things are with so much competition, pricing out of the market, late deliveries, products that don’t perform, and all the other excuses salespeople make for not selling.

Those conversations are a far cry from the conversations the top producers have when they go to lunch together.  Their conversation at lunch may touch on the subject of intense competition or late deliveries but instead of griping, their focus is on how they can proactively deal with the issues or mitigate their impact.  But the majority of their conversation about business is on exchanging information that will help them sell.  They want no part of the complaints and moaning and groaning.  They won’t allow themselves the luxury of wallowing in misery because they know it only leads to failure—the attitudes and beliefs developed at the water cooler translate directly to the success or failure of the pipeline.

The top producers focus on success, most of the others focus on excuses for failure.

If you are a new or average salesperson, I urge to consider carefully who you spend time with in your office.  Select not only your mentors carefully, select your companions with equal care.  Keep in mind that the top producers can teach you how to become a top producer, whereas the other new and average salespeople can only teach you how to fail.

Take pains to develop relationships with the best producers around you.  If you are sincerely wanting to learn, have a positive attitude and bring something to the table—even if that is only eagerness and a desire to learn, they will accept you in their group.  It will take time.  It will mean you will have to pursue the relationships.  You will have to work to gain entrance but the payoff is education you cannot possibly get from anyone else in your company.

Don’t allow yourself to become infected with the negative attitudes and beliefs of the majority who surround you because in a very concrete sense, what happens at the water cooler translates directly to your pipeline.

May 12, 2008

Science, Your Brain, Imagination, and Success and Failure

Filed under: career development, motivation, sales, sales psychology, selling, success — Paul McCord @ 6:13 am
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How often have you heard that what you think and what you believe is one of the most important factors in sales success? I imagine you’ve heard that preached so often you’ve almost become numb to it. It’s a theme preached by most sales trainers and managers. You find it in sales books, on training CD’s and DVD’s, you hear it at every conference you attend.

You’re told to repeat positive affirmations, to give yourself positive pep talks, to think positively, to envision yourself being successful, and to imagine yourself giving the perfect presentation or the closing the mega-deal.

Despite the preaching, a surprisingly large number of salespeople take these admonitions with a grain of salt. Some simply think its junk science and blow it off, others don’t believe they need it, others acknowledge they should be doing it but don’t do it, others just let the words go in one ear and out the other, and many others argue that it is what you do–not what you think–that determines your success or failure.

There is, however, solid scientific evidence for the impact imagination and thought has on performance. What you think does translate to some extent to what you do, how you act, and ultimately, what you achieve. Your brain is the single most powerful tool you have and what you feed your brain is translated by your brain into action. Feed your brain negative material and it will generate negative actions. Likewise, feed it positive material and it will generate positive actions.

Subject-Expectancy Effect
The Subject-Expectancy Effect (also known as the Placebo Effect) is an observation by scientists primarily involved in medical research that the recipients of placebos reported the same positive and negative effects as the subjects who received the actual drug being tested. In addition, there are documented cases where the placebo recipient experienced the same physical changes as the recipients of the drug. Scientists have no other explanation than the power of the placebo recipient’s belief changed their physical state. The belief of the recipient in the healing power of the drug they were presumably taking produced the actual physical changes the drug would have produced.

This phenomenon has been observed in the social sciences as well. In experiments, subjects who believed they could not successfully perform even simple tasks managed to unconsciously find ways to sabotage their actions, assuring their expected outcome—failure. The subject’s belief about their abilities influenced their actions to such an extent that they guaranteed they could not do what they had convinced themselves they could not do.

Reshaping the Brain
An experiment at Harvard demonstrates that our imagination not only changes our abilities, but actually changes the shape of our brain in the same way as performing the actual act.

Researchers at Harvard placed a group of people who could not play the piano in a room with a piano and a teacher who gave intensive lessons for five days. A second group was placed in another room with an identical piano but told to have nothing to do with the instrument. A third group was put into a room with another identical piano but told to do nothing but imagine practicing the piano—they never touched the instrument.

After five days, the first group had a rudimentary ability to play. The second group, of course, couldn’t play a lick.

The third group who had never touched the piano could play almost as well as the first group. More astounding, the brains of the third group had undergone the same physical change in the area that controls finger movement as the first group.

Simply imagining performing the act had almost the same affect as actually performing it.

Changing Your Sales Business
Salespeople and managers who argue that actions—both positive and negative—determine success or failure in sales are correct. You either make the sales or you don’t. You either connect with qualified prospects or you don’t. You either develop the relationships with your prospects and clients or you don’t.

Nevertheless, there is solid evidence that the actions you take aren’t independent of your belief system or your thoughts. The ultimate determination of your success lies in your head. What you think, what you imagine, and what you believe about yourself will find its way into your actions. If you feed your brain success, it will demand you take the actions to become successful. On the other hand, feed your brain defeat and your brain will accommodate that outcome also.

Excerpted from SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar by Paul McCord, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and all find bookstores.

May 3, 2008

Will Sales Metrics Ever be More Than a Bat to Beat Salespeople?

Filed under: Sales Management, motivation, sales, selling, technology — Paul McCord @ 6:18 am
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Sales metrics, those pesky sales and activity numbers—hated and loathed by salespeople, and often for good reason.

In many companies (most?), the bit of metrics data the sales manager and company get on their sales team members is used only for the purpose of harassing, browbeating, and threatening the salespeople.

Call reports turn into demands for the salesperson to make more calls. Commission reports are used to highlight weak sales and demand more calls. Pipeline reports are used to demonstrate a lack of activity and to demand more calls.

So what happens to the call and pipeline reports? They get padded. Salespeople have learned that if you’re just going to use it as a bat to beat them with, they’re not going to cut the tree down for you.

With the ‘metrics’ available to managers from the traditional call, pipeline, customer status, and commission reports it is very difficult to isolate the root issues a salesperson has. It can be done. It takes study, practice and well developed analytical skills and real knowledge of the salesperson involved.

Unfortunately, that’s a lot of work. So, many managers take the easy way out—take a quick look, determine the root cause is not enough calls and demand more. It makes no difference if call quantity is an issue or not. It makes little difference if the salesperson has been properly trained in prospecting and personal marketing strategies. It makes no difference if the real issue is their interpersonal skills, their communication skills, their presentation skills, or their ability to probe, identify and solve prospect issues. The answer is usually the same—make more calls.

Since the salesperson sees no benefit from developing accurate reports—but certainly sees a very real determent, is it any wonder the reports are fanciful?

Now, what happens when the company institutes an automated system and demands compliance to faithfully use the system? Resistance, of course. From the salesperson’s point of view, all the automated system is going to do is give the manager and the company a bigger bat to beat them with.

Yet, salespeople can be taught to relish sales metrics. Certainly not by using the data the way it’s been used in the past, but by using it to proactively help the salesperson make more money.

The information gathered by an automated system—in fact, even that puff of information generated by traditional reports—can literally change a salesperson’s career if used properly. Even a reasonable handful of accurate data can pinpoint real issues and real root problems that hinder a salesperson’s performance. The data in the hands of someone who has been properly trained to analyze the information can be used to create an individualized training and coaching program for each team member.

If salespeople understand the information makes them money through pinpoint training and coaching, improving their skills, getting them to comply with using the system and producing accurate data—even a handwritten or very basic spreadsheet system—isn’t an issue. Most salespeople want to sell more. They want to earn more. They want to excel. But those same salespeople have no desire to be consistently beaten over the head.

If you want accurate reports from your salespeople, think seriously about why you want them and exactly what you’re going to do with them. If can’t or won’t use them to help your salespeople become better salespeople, don’t even bother to ask for them because what you get will be designed to keep you off their back as long as possible.

On the other hand, if you’re goal is to help your team become the best salespeople they can be and to grow your team’s sales, communicate to your team in no uncertain terms what the purpose of the reports is and then stick to it—use them as training and mentoring tools, not bats. It will take some time to get the response you desire because salespeople have been taught—either at your company or by a previous manager—that metrics aren’t to be trusted.

If you or your managers need help in learning how to thoroughly analyze and use the reports as training and coaching tools, hire a company such as McCord Training or any of the other consulting and coaching companies that specialize in the area. But whether you need outside help or not, you can have salespeople who welcome sales metrics—and the side benefit is the reports you have in your hand will actually have some relationship to reality.

Would you like to learn more about how the new sales technology is going to impact salespeople, managers and companies? Visit The Management Curve where I’ve gathered a group of sales management and tech consultants, sales performance researchers, and CRM, Sales Performance Management and Sales Force Automation developers to discuss the real world impact of technology on the sales force.

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