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The Biggest Thing Sales Leaders Overlook: SALES!

May 16, 2013 by 1 Comment

REALITY QUESTION FOR SALES MANAGERS: Why would you, as a leader, take an improving salesperson who is having the best year of their career, and tell him or her they’re “not making enough calls”? Why not do something to actually help?
REALITY ANSWERS: (Pick any or all that apply.) You’re an idiot who knows nothing about leadership, coaching, or creating winners. You’re a micro manager with little or no current sales talent yourself. (You may have sold before, but that was before the internet – and you’ve probably never tweeted). You’re an unschooled leader, following the old way rather than learning what’s new. You’re using CRM as an accountability tool, rather than a sales tool. You’re totally clueless about your customer base and what will grow more and profitable sales. OUCH!

Successful sales leaders…
• Manage the sales cycle, not call activity.
• Measure the sales cycle, not sales activity.
• Help make follow-up calls with their salespeople to learn more about the sales cycle.
• Study the last ten sales to help understand what will make the 11th.
• Discover their most profitable customers – and then go on to uncover WHY they’re the most profitable.
• Find where the profit comes from in every sale.
• Discover their most loyal customer – and WHY they stay loyal.
• Make a few sales calls together with their people.
• Teach salespeople to ask better questions that emotionally engage.

REALITY: Maybe by spending more VALUE time with each existing customer it will increase their wallet share and your market share, and referrals will go UP.
REALITY: Maybe making too many calls is actually hampering growth. Someone measuring activity and numbers would never know that. Pity.

“Measuring activity” gives you a false read on the reality of sales. And as a leader, a manager, a coach, a teacher, you have a far greater responsibility to help increase sales than to just bellow out “more calls” as your cure-all answer.

And maybe more calls IS the answer, but until you uncover the other ninety nine possibilities, you have no right to destroy or discourage your best salespeople from becoming better.

Or worse, they quit because they’re sick of you and your style.

Sales management and sales leadership is one of the hardest jobs in the world. First you have to know each of your people, why they’re working, why they’re working for you, and what will make them better. Second you have to know your customers, why your customers buy (beyond price), and what keeps them loyal. Third you have to be a better salesperson than they are. And fourth, you have to be a great teacher – able to convey your knowledge in a way that others WANT to hear you.

You know these things so that when your salespeople come to you with issues, you can actually help them make the sale – not make more calls.

Make more cold calls? Huh? In 2013? Really?

If you’re looking to become a hated sales leader, with lots of turnover, make your people make lots of cold calls.
If you’re wanting to drive your best people to the competition, make your people make lots of cold calls.
And if you’re looking to have low morale and poor performance on your team, make your people make lots of cold calls.

NOTE WELL:
• The new cold call is a social media connection. Start with LinkedIn.
• The better cold call is an expanded relationship with an existing customer.
• The best cold call is a referral. One that you earn, not ask for.

BIG REALITY: The object of sales leadership is to IMPROVE INDIVIDUAL SALES, not improve “team” sales.
BIGGER REALITY: Your encouragement and enthusiasm – to them, and with them – will help build both their confidence AND their sales.
BIGGEST REALITY: Managers somehow believe their salespeople want to be on their team and win for the team and the company. To hit some big goal arbitrarily set by management. Nothing could be further from the truth. Salespeople wanna win for themselves and their families – and they wanna win for their customers. Not for you, your other employees, or the company.

Get a grip on “why” salespeople want to win. Give them real-world help. Coach them, and it will have a major impact on their sales, and your leadership success.

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Filed Under: Leadership, My Books, Sales Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Make a Sale on Monday. It Does Wonders for Your Week.

May 13, 2013 by 2 Comments

If you’re looking for consistency in selling performance, try these steps. You won’t believe how lucky you start to get.

Monday. How you do on the first day of the week sets the tone for the rest of it. And how you do on Monday is based entirely on how smart you worked last week. If you are disciplined enough to follow these methods, you won’t believe the difference it will make in your week and your productivity.

1. Make a sale first thing Monday morning… Set an appointment for early Monday morning you are confident will buy. It makes you feel great to capture a sale to start your week. Sets you in motion and gives you a mental boost to work harder (and make another one).
NOTE WELL: Since there are a lot of companies having sales meetings on Monday AM, you’re as productive as you can be with an appointment. You can start making sales calls after 10am. (If time permits you can also try a few calls before 8am. Lots of decision makers are early risers.)
2. Learn something new… Listen to a training CD in your car or at home (or both), and instead of listening to the same old news or music, try to feed your head with new knowledge that will help you make that first sale. When you learn a new technique on the way to an appointment, you can try it out in minutes.
3. Make at least 5 appointments for the rest of the week… Why not have a Monday full of success and positive anticipation. It’s up to you. Pick up the phone and work at it.
4. Work like hell all week.

Friday. How you do on the last day sets the tone for next week. Most people slack off. If you work intensely on Friday, it will ensure success next week and give you good reason to have a great weekend.
5. Learn something new… Continuing your sales education throughout the week on a regularly scheduled basis is as important to your success as any other aspect of sales, but make sure you listen on Friday morning.
6. Make a sale on Friday afternoon… Schedule a close for Friday afternoon… nothing like ending the week on a positive note.
7. Confirm and solidify your Monday appointment on Friday… If you worked hard the last four days, you’ve already set your “Monday AM make–a–sale” appointment. Call the prospect on Friday and confirm it.
8. Make at least 5 appointments for next week… Why not guarantee yourself a full schedule next week? Spend your weekend relaxing instead of worrying about how few appointments you have. Make this commitment to yourself: I won’t leave work on Friday until I have 5 appointments and I’ve have set my Monday appointment/sale.
8.5 The secret to a great week is to use Monday as a springboard. The bigger secret is to trigger it by making a “sale” call on Monday. The biggest secret is you having enough qualified prospects in your pipeline to make that Monday sale possible. Keep your sales pipeline full. PREPARE for your success or it won’t occur.

Sounds simple. Make appointments, listen to CD’s, make sales. It is simple. It just isn’t easy. But if you work intensely, you can do it. I can make one promise to you… follow these guidelines and you’ll have sales consistency (you’ll also earn money).

Now you know the secret. I’ve given you the answer. The question is what will you DO with the answer.

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Filed Under: Overcoming Objections, Productivity, Sales Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Jeffrey Gitomer’s Deal of the Week #600 – Celebrating Sales Caffeine

May 7, 2013 by 2 Comments

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The Importance of Likability in Leadership | Jeffrey Gitomer

May 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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The Golder Rule of Leadership, and Life.

DO THE RIGHT THING ALL OF THE TIME – Jeffrey Gitomer

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Filed Under: Attitude, Leadership, My Books Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Getting ready to think! Are you ready? What are you thinking?

May 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Here are 8.5 personal insights that will help you achieve some original thought, reaffirm some existing thought, and maybe even get rid of a few unwanted thoughts…

1. Identify your NOW feeling and state of mind. What’s up? Happy? Sad? Afraid? Mad? It’s important that your mind at least be in “neutral” before you start the thinking process, and the more the needle leans toward happy and positive, the more productive and rewarding the thinking time will be.
2. Wake up and write. It doesn’t matter what it is, just write whatever comes to mind. Don’t force yourself to do it, just let words flow. As you think, capture your words.
3. Mentally go back to the house you grew up and picture yourself in each room one at a time. Stories will begin to pop into your head about what happened. Pick the fun ones and document them. This may even prompt you to call some people you love that you haven’t been in touch with recently.
4. Don’t write about your goals – focus on things you would like to achieve. Write a bucket list of places you must go before you die. Go online and find pictures of each one of them and paste it next to the place you want to go. Make it real. Going to India may be a place you want to visit, but putting a picture of the Taj Mahal makes it more real. After you have listed all the places, jot down a few things you MUST do. Maybe it’s run a marathon, or go to the library more often. Whatever it is, or they are, commit to it (or them) in writing. Add to the lists regularly.
5. Find a quiet place where you can be alone to write. Starbucks is not the best place. A park is better. I spend a lot of my time in parks and by water. Something about the sound of wind or the sound of the water is calming. Just an added note: I do not listen to music while I write, but if I did I would listen to light jazz or classical.
6. Don’t let your thoughts get away. Rather than dwell on them, write down the key words so you don’t forget. Thoughts are fleeting. If you wait one minute and then go back to it, it’s gone.
7. Write your biography. Just a short history of where you grew up, who you are, and what you did. Two or three paragraphs.
8. Write down what you love about work, what you hate about work, and what you wish were different at work. From that list (especially what you hate about it) you will begin to generate a few ideas. Write them down immediately and then let them sit for a day. Don’t just write the idea, write everything you are thinking about it. I refer to it as a brain dump. Having written more than 1,000 articles, they often come from frustration, not just ideas. And when I first think of them, I immediately write everything down that’s in my head, not in sentence format – just the ideas and words so I capture the thought and can go back and fill it inlater.
8.5 Write everything down at the end of your day. Before you go to bed at night clear your mind so you can dream and wake up with answers. You do this by writing your thoughts, your to-dos, your challenges, and maybe even your hopes and fearsbefore you go to bed. Once it’s written, you can forget about it. This will allow you to sleep like a baby and wake up with an uncluttered mind.

Please take advantage of your personal time. It will pass quickly. Try to invest as much of it as you can FOR YOURSELF. I’ll be doing the same.

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Filed Under: Attitude, Productivity, Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Jeffrey Gitomer – Win Now Webinar

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Are you ready to gain a greater share of sales in a leaner, meaner marketplace…NOW?

In our first live webinar of 2013, you will learn:

- Why THE economy isn’t YOUR economy
- The real reason you may be struggling
- How to change the way you make sales, and your numbers
- What steps you need to take NOW to reach your full potential

Filed Under: Jeffrey Webinar, Sales, Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

It’s Time For Reflection | Part 2

April 29, 2013 by 1 Comment

Beyond sales, reflections are about people and moments and books that have impacted you. The lessons you have learned along the way. Things completed and things left undone. Your bucket list and the next thing to cross off. And, of course, your present situation and how you got there.

While it’s a little easier for me to reflect right now, at some point in your life reflection will begin as well. I don’t know the day, and neither do you. But I promise you it will happen. And when it does, it will mark the beginning of a new era. A big picture era that no longer focuses on quota. Rather, it allows you to take a hard look at life. When that transition begins to happen your sales will double.

You’ll no longer be fretting about the subject line in an email. Instead, you’ll be taking actions to build your personal reputation, your personal brand, and your stature in your marketplace.

The transition will help you evolve from salesperson to sales leader. Not manager, leader. You lead your own charge, you lead your own way, you lead your own plan to build your own reputation through the leadership you created with customers.

The way people speak about you.
The way to refer to you.
The way they refer other people to you.
The way that they reward you, not just with sales, but with referrals and accolades.

And hopefully those accolades will show up someplace in your social media profiles or on their blog or their website, and most certainly on Google.

For some of you right now this makes no sense. Reason? Simple, you haven’t begun the reflection process. Save this piece. Your day will come. And as I’ve said many times before, when you get what you want you better be ready.

“One of the biggest and most fatal mistakes that salespeople make is “waiting” for someone else to give you sales tools.” ~Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sale Re-defined, our new book, available only on Kindle!

Filed Under: Attitude, Leadership, Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

It’s Time For Reflection.

April 28, 2013 by 1 Comment

Not the one you see in the mirror in the morning. I’m talking about a way bigger reflection than that. It’s a reflection about time, accomplishment, achievement, and fulfillment. Life reflection. When I was cold calling in New York City, often making sales, but more often getting my head handed to me, waves crashing on the beach never entered my mind. The ocean never entered my mind. I was caught in the spiral of the process, failing to reflect on it and see what else could’ve been done, or how much smarter I could have (should have) been. How many more chances should I have taken?

What do you reflect on right now? And how are those reflections impacting your actions? Your achievements? Your success? Reflections are not just about sales, they’re an important part of life. Your life.

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Filed Under: Attitude, Jeffrey Recommends, Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Ready Set Boost Event Featuring Jeffrey Gitomer | June 19, 2013

April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Make people want to know you by the business, market, and community actions you take. ~From Jeffrey’s new book, The Sale Re-Defined.

Filed Under: Customer Loyalty, Leadership, Sales Videos Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Two Most Important Words In Sales

April 22, 2013 by 1 Comment

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Here are some specific examples of before and after the sale “value ideas.” Think about these and then create your own!

• Sharing industry best practices.
• Manufacturing components and offering plant safety tips.
• Medical devices to doctors and teaching bedside manner.
• Teaching clerks how to close sales when a customer comes in to buy using your coupon or voucher.
• Office supplies and teaching customer service to receptionists and accounting.
• Anything in favor of your customer that helps them increase productivity, communication, operations, morale, and especially profit.

OBVIOUS ANSWER: If you really want to deliver value, ASK YOUR CUSTOMER what he or she considers valuable. Whatever they say, do that, offer that, share that, communicate that, teach that, print that, and say that. In a nutshell, that’s value. Real value. Value perceived.

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