Sale Management Leadership Styles - Napoleon Vs Roosevelt

Your style as a sales manager literally will define you. Whether you consciously nurture it from within, copy it or have it refined via education, the approach you take with respect to all aspects of the management position you hold, will become your sales management leadership style. If you have been part of the sales profession for any length of time you have experienced what seems like an endless array of manager types. Remember the gruff guy you were assigned to on your first sales job? What about the button down, three piece suit that had all the numbers all the time? Who can forget the graduate of "fill in the gap" business school, with a case study for every problem? In some ways, we are very much molded by the sales managers that have cross our paths as we develop our skills. So, it stands to reason that the type of manager you are will, in fact, have a considerable impact on, not only your career, but the careers of those you manage.

Surely, libraries are full of tomes about this topic. Much research and yes, many case studies have been done, defining sales management leadership styles. Are you the expressive outgoing type who likes to be involved in all aspects of the sales cycle or the more analytical manager, equipped with all the data necessary to make whatever decisions come your way? After many years of observations, I have come to the conclusions that there are two basic styles of sales management: the Napoleonic style and the Teddy Roosevelt style.

Napoleon, as you may know, was a brilliant military commander who rose through the ranks during the latter portion of the French revolution. He later became Emperor of France.

Teddy Roosevelt was also a military leader, forming the famed Rough Riders and distinguishing himself in combat. Later, he became the 26th President of the United States.

Both men have these similarities but their leadership styles were quite different.

Napoleon relied on the loyalty of his warriors. He gained their trust by knowing, intimately, the roles of each rank below him, often doing their jobs if need be to succeed. He knew this loyalty would propel his armies into the most intimidating combat imaginable. He was known for his unconventional strategies and tactics, still studied extensively today. Napoleon was known to seek the highest point in the battle field and visibly direct the various components of his forces. This observation/direction approach allowed him to be flexible, react to changing situations and have a continued sense of his army's strength at any given time.

Translated to sales management leadership style, this approach has the manager fully aware of each step of the sales cycles, ensures the proper training and equipping of the sales force and willing to be flexible. The approach has the manager engaged when necessary but primarily providing support, direction and guidance. There is no question that the manager is willing and able to become part of the "fray" at any time though.

Teddy Roosevelt also had the loyalty and admiration of his troops. He often spoke of walking softly whilst carrying a big stick. He was known to lead by complete immersion into the battle at hand. He is famously remembered for his charge at the Battle of San Juan Hill defeating a Spanish garrison. He lead his Rough Riders atop his horse, sword extended, charging forward. His men knew he had as much to lose as they did and so, fought heroically.

This, in terms of today's sales management leadership style, has the sales manager fully engaged in the sale process by leading upfront. The manager is confident, knowledgeable and willing to lead by doing. Whether that is by participating in many sales calls, establishing relationships with key decision makers, taking a key role in important sales presentations or simply being visible for support.

Both these style can be very successful. They both rely on developed skill sets, willingness to be flexible, establishing a strong relationship with your team and developing a loyalty. Each approach can be dependent on circumstances, personalities and preferences. That said though, it seems to me that ultimately you are either one or the other.

It would be easy to begin a discussion to determine which sales management leadership style is the best. The arguments for either would be many and even emotional. That is not the intention here.

We did intend to define these styles and for you to consider the merits of each. You will be the best judge of how your style fits with the above and how successful your style has been.

If you are interested in or immersed by the sales profession, you may be interested in our articles and musings at Maximum Sales Solutions. We fuse decades of sales and management experiences with current innovations in technology, social media and advanced selling techniques. The result is an opinionated, informative and educational experience. Join Us!

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Decoding the Secrets of Profitable Customers

Lets face it, sales professionals like to sell based on what is in front of them. They don't like to look backwards. Yet looking back can provide great ideas for going forward. I'm talking about your data and what it is trying to tell you about your customers, who you should be selling to, where to look for growth and profitability. Financial services firms, and Wall Street in particular, while much maligned by those in the industrial world, know how to use data to drive profits. Sales and marketing professionals also need to learn how to use data to profitably grow sales. Instead of selling based on what you think, sell based on what you know!

This article will case study an industrial company (an outdoor picnic furniture manufacturer) as they identified the factors that predict profitable customers. They used this information in their sales and marketing activities to productively grow sales by pursuing prospects that were most likely to be highly profitable. Because this is a case study article, it is very specific to this one company. Of course what they learned is only applicable to this one company in this niche industry.

The problem this team solved was predicting which prospects are likely to be highly profitable customers. By understanding the attributes of a highly profitable customer, this manufacturing company could effectively target its marketing campaigns and resources. The marketing activities at this company are primarily mailing out printed catalogues to customers and to prospects via rented mailing lists. Targeting their marketing efforts would improve sales per mailing lists rental fees and catalogues mailed. In addition, they wanted to use the predictions from this analysis to re-assign existing sales representatives to higher profit potential prospects. The goal was to build a model that would help the company achieve greater profit and improve sales per marketing expenses.

Factors that May Predict Profitable Customers

The team brainstormed the variables that would help predict gross profit per customer. A key consideration for the selection of a variable was the availability of data, either within the company database or in the public domain of the web. The variables selected are as follows:

1. Key customer: Key customer was a binary variable (1 = key customer, 0 = not). Key customers were assigned by sales management. If a customer had $20,000 in sales in a single year or $5,000 per year over three years they were designated a key customer.

2. Whether the customer ordered product via the company's web site or only over the phone: Web Y/N was a binary variable (1 = order via web site, 0 = order only via phone).

3. Whether or not the customer was located in a coastal state: The company's outdoor furnishings are highly corrosion resistant. Therefore, management wondered if customers in coastal states, where outdoor furnishings are more prone to salt water corrosion, were the more profitable customers.

4. The sunshine percentage of the state the customer was located within: They also wondered the effect of sunshine, i.e. how sunny/rainy the location of the customer was on total profit. We used sunshine percent of the state as a proxy for sunniness of each customer's locale.

5. The number of employees of the customer: We used this as a proxy for customer size, wondering if larger or smaller companies were more profitable.

The team also wanted to know if income and population affected customer profit. The hypothesis would be that companies ordering from areas having higher median incomes and companies ordering from more populated areas purchased more products. We were able to acquire median income and population by zip code from the 2000 census. This data was matched to customer billing zip code.

6. The median income of the zip code that the customer was located within,

7. The population of the zip code that the customer was located within.

These variables were used in single and multiple-variable regression models to predict gross profit per customer.

Data Summary

Our original database had 50,505 customers. Here is some data about the customer base, to put the results of the analysis into perspective:

The average gross profit per customer was $1,333

The average orders per customer were 1.57

There were 284 key customers in our data set of 50,505 customers

13,641 customers ordered via the web

26,331 customers were located in coastal states

The least sunny state had sunshine percentage of 37.6%, the sunniest state had sunshine percentage of 84.5%, and the average was 60%

The fewest employees per customer was zero, the most was 11,000, and the average was 51.9; Note that a privately owned business for which the owner performed all of the work would have an employee count of zero

The lowest median income for a customer billing zip code was $2,499, the highest was $200,001 and the average was $47,714

The lowest population for a customer billing zip code was 5 people, the highest was 143,987 and the average was 24,818

Results

Five of the seven independent variables proved to be statistically significant. That means we are able to predict customer profitability based on these factors. Here are the results from our analysis:

Key Customer: A key customer will have an average gross profit $19,977 higher than non-key customers. This verified that key customers were being correctly chosen.

Web-Yes: Customers that use the web will have an average gross profit $741.94 higher than customers that call in orders

Coastal-Yes: Customers located in coastal states will have an average gross profit $332.83 higher than non-coastal state customers

Customer-Size: For each additional customer employee (again a proxy for the size of the customer) a customer will on average have gross profit $1.29 higher

Median-Income: For each $10,000 increase of median income in a customer's zip code a customer in that zip code will on average have $74 higher gross profit. Because the average profit per customer is $1,332, even $74 is economically meaningful. This is about a 5% increase in gross profit per customer for every $10,000 in median income of their zip code.

Conclusion

This analysis began by asking if the seven variables could predict profitable customers. Can this company use historical data to improve their sales and marketing strategy and profitably grow sales? The intent was to use this information to more effectively rent direct mail lists, choose customers and prospects to receive a mailed catalogue; and to determine which customers and prospects get assigned to a sales representative. Because of the statistical significance of the variables and this analysis overall, these four variables (customers that purchase on the web, customers that are located in coastal states, greater number employees at a customer and greater median income of the customers' billing zip code) will be used to select where to expend marketing and sales resources. Each variable predicts a more profitable customer.

By taking a step back, and analyzing their sales history, they learned to sell based on what they know, versus what they think. By looking backward they can now plan forward with greater confidence that they are not just shooting from the hip.

For more detailed information about this subject goto http://www.supplyvelocity.com/ for our white papers.

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Effective Sales Management

Sales are the lifeblood of any company. Bringing in new business is essential for companies to grow and maintain their profit. Successful sales people are often among the highest paid employees of companies because they are responsible for generating new leads and business. There are some key skills that are required in order to be a good sales man and additional skills in order to manage a team of sales men.

Time Management

Having good time management skills is vitally important to be a good sales manager. Planning and organising your team is essential for a successful team. Having regular sales meetings and having a system of receiving your sales reports on time is important for the manager to know how the team is doing and if anything needs to be done about the performance of sales team members.

Daily to do lists for the manager and the team are a good idea to make sure there is a focus on the most important tasks. This will ensure things get done as you tick the items off one by one.

Set daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual goals. This will make sure you are focussed on the most important things and have a target to meet and work towards. These are often linked to the money a sales person can earn which is a good motivator for salesmen.

Education

It is important to keep up to date with the latest industry trends and techniques. This will ensure you are able to get the most out of the tools you use and be able to find new ones to help you perform well. Getting new ideas from other successful sales managers would be beneficial and even from others outside your industry where you can use their ideas and see if they work in your business.

Motivating Your Team

It is going to be vitally important to make sure your team is motivated to sell. There are many options available to you and some will involve a strong performance based remuneration scheme. However, there are other ways to motivate employees. Perhaps you offer a leader board where the top sales person will earn a reward. You could simply keep telling your team that they are doing a great job and give them the freedom to make decisions for themselves. Often staff feel unmotivated because their ideas are not listened to or they feel unworthy.

Team building activities once a quarter are a great way to bond the team and reward them for a good previous quarter. There are many to choose but perhaps let the team decide what they want to do.

It is vital to a companies that their sales team are performing well and it's the sales managers that will drive the success of the team.

Tim Tavender is a writer with ten years experience running his own businesses. He has written for National Newspapers and Magazines. For Sales Management Training he recommends the Influence Business

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Positive Thinking in Sales Management: Cut the Rope That Holds Back Your Sales!

Throw a rope around a calf's neck and it's caught. It may struggle and kick to get away, but it can't because someone else is in control, holding the other end of the rope. Have you ever felt like you have a rope around your neck? Have you ever felt like you weren't making any progress in your job? Have you felt like the rope pulls you back every time you try to move forward? Let's face it, customers complain, sales are missed, sales reps are upset, your friends don't support you, the competition is rough, your company changes, there are quality problems, and so on. You become frustrated, confused and tired.

Right & Wrong Forces

In every person, there's an odd combination of right and wrong thinking. For the purposes of this message, right means what works and wrong refers to what doesn't. For every dream, there's darkness; for any ounce of confidence, there's an equal amount of doubt; for every mountain of hope, there's a valley of despair; for every mile of determination, there's the same amount of apathy. Too often people let the wrong thoughts dominate their thinking, or they let the right thoughts pass by unnoticed. Which pattern will control one's life? Which will prevail? Each person experiences this struggle that never ends. Right living is like the game of golf. Hit a few good shots, and you feel great, but once you flub a few, your concentration and confidence slip. Now, do you take it out on your team?

Right living has to be worked at, again and again! In the sales business, there's an unlimited opportunity to do well. Yet, many well-intentioned people fall short of their potential. Sometimes, the idea of doing business with integrity and providing excellent in sales and customer service can seem foreign to people in business, particularly when it comes to applying these principles daily. It is one thing to talk it, and it's another thing to walk it everyday! Their negative habits and poor images from the past stop them in their tracks. Yet, there are a few enlightened leaders that are propelled toward success. In spite of obstacles, their vision of professional selling is brilliantly executed, which attracts customers and attention from all angles. Think of the salmon that swims upstream every year to spawning waters. The trip is difficult and often fatal, but an inner echo drives them forward to their goal. Isn't every experience in life a possible victory or failure? As Shakespeare said, it's your choice: "Nothing is good or bad, except thinking makes it so."

Choose Right Thinking

Think of a time in your life when you did your best work, closed your largest sale, cared for a friend, laughed hysterically, or romanced your spouse or significant other. How did you feel? How did time pass? You might have been elated, satisfied, happy and energized. Time most likely passed without notice. Now, think of a time in your life when you did poor work, neglected your friends, cried mournfully, or argued with someone? How did you feel? How did time pass? You might have felt rejected, disgusted, sad or exhausted. Time most likely moved at a snail's pace. Any of the situations recalled have a number of common characteristics. First, your mind was filled with thoughts about each experience. Second, you experienced feelings. Feelings are just there, they don't need to be good or bad. Third, the passing of time was as constant as the heavens, although you may not have experienced it that way. And fourth, you responded in each experience. What did you do during and after each experience? That is the key to sales leadership success and the golden ticket to inspiring your team to excellence.

Did you reach up and pull down the best there is to offer, or did you curl up in a ball and let the world push you along? When things didn't work out, you may have focused on the problem and took minor action, if any. But, when things triumphed, you probably envisioned all of the possibilities and let the creativity flow. You had right thoughts about the experience, and then you took action to make positive things happen, rather than lashing out in fear or frustration. What you think - you become! It's always pure choice.

Professionally and personally, your greatest gift is your ability to choose your thoughts and actions. We must do this in good times and bad to be true champions in life. How? Take a break and think, review your goals, remind yourself of your purpose in difficult situations, and remember to focus on the customer's point of view and needs. Think of your sales team's needs. By learning to think right, you'll do what's right more often. Once you do, you possess the ability to cut the rope that holds you back from achieving excellence in sales management.

Take Right Action

A prophet was on a hill one day. He told his followers, "I quit." They were aghast and cried out that they needed him; they would do anything for him, they would die for him. The prophet smiled and requested, "Live joyously." But the followers put their heads down and walked away slowly. That was too hard to do. All they wanted was to talk and dream about it. If you're not willing to take action, you're no better than the man who starved in a kitchen full of food because he didn't have the sense to cook it.

Our customers define what's right for them. By listening and paying careful attention to them, you'll know the right actions to take. That's the only way to overcome objections, rejection, complaints and dissatisfaction. Do your work with a smile. Be polite and say thank you. Think innovatively about how you can help customers and coach your reps. Solve problems, quickly and kindly. Work cooperatively. Give customers the value they deserve.

A frog once let a scorpion hitch a ride on his back to get across the stream. Somewhere along the way, the scorpion stung the frog. The frog cried, "Why did you do that, now we'll both drown?" The scorpion replied, "I don't know, I guess it's just in my nature." What's your nature? Is it to be positive or negative in your efforts to motivate others and sell to your customers? You will generate premier results by choosing the right thoughts and actions.You will make a difference!

By the way, do you want to learn how to sell more effectively? If so, download our free sales guide: http://wcwpartners.com/free-sales-training-article/

Or, do you want a proven gameplan for leadership effectiveness? If so, check out Rick's new book, http://wcwpartners.com/superstar-leadership-model/

Rick Conlow is the CEO/Co-Founder of WCW Partners, a global management consulting and training firm. Rick has helped organizations increase sales 218%, improve repeat-and-referral business by 20%, increase customer retention to 99%, reduce complaints by 60% and achieve 34 quality awards. You can reach Rick at: rick@wcwpartners.com or 888-313-0514.

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Lead Nurturing - Are You Quitting Too Soon?

If you quit after two or three months, the answer to the above question is YES!

I have read that in B2B sales it is estimated that only one-quarter of sales happen within the first six months. Another quarter of sales happen in the 13-to-18 month period, and then another quarter buy after 18 months. In B2C it is typically a shorter sales cycle, but there is still a high percentage of those who do not buy immediately.

Most salespeople hurry to close sales from the most promising and qualified short-term prospects while ignoring a large percentage of leads that are not quick closes. Why? Probably mainly because salespeople are rewarded for quick sales.

When attention is focused on the immediate sales, the leads that take time and nurturing are left to the wayside and forgotten. These forgotten leads are costing your company a lot of lost revenue.

If your focus has been on the immediate sales, just imagine the sales volume you could have if you worked on a way to foster and nurture those leads through the long term! If we look at the statistics, that means you are missing out on 3/4 of your sales.

The time has come to put your processes in place so that you can benefit from the leads you have paid so dearly to acquire.

What can you do to make sure all leads are front and center until you either close the sale or receive a NO? What kind of system or process can you set up to help bring those leads to the selling point?

Nurturing happens through consistent communication, spoken or unspoken. Think of how you currently communicate with your prospects. What are you doing so that you stay in the thoughts and minds of people you have met three months ago? Six months ago? A year ago?

Have you set up an effective communication chain so that when the time comes for them to buy your product or service, you are the first one on their minds, and your contact information is right at their fingertips? Once you have done the initial work of marketing and seeking out those leads, would it not behoove you to continue growing and working on those relationships so that you are the go-to when they need you?

Lead-nurturing must be an integral part of your business if you want it to thrive, grow or even maintain itself.

"WINNERS NUTURE"

Susan Raisanen is in the business of increasing revenues for businesses through the use of an effective lead, sales and marketing management software. She is a sales professional for By The Numbers ( http://www.bythenumberssoftware.com/ ) who specializes in educating business owners, sales and marketing managers in regards to the very numbers that affect gross revenues. If you want to know more about lead, sales and marketing management tracking made easy, Susan invites you to submit your questions to her at susan@ByTheNumbersSoftware.com or call her at 480-652-9212.

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Coaching a Sales Professional on Responsibility

Yes, maybe some sales skills come natural to some people, but for the most part, most of it can be learned. This is great news, and it's important to stress this with the sales professional you are managing or coaching because he may get frustrated as he works through the basics and becomes convinced he doesn't have what it takes. One of your main roles as a coach is to realistically motivate - sharing the hard truth and the hopeful truth, so that you paint a real, but positive perspective for them.

This leads me to suggest that after exploring a client's time-management abilities (which is the topic of another article), the next thing you should explore with your sales professional client is his/her perspectives on responsibility and accountability. Young or old, expert or amateur, there are a lot of individuals that blame their lack of success on something their leader is lacking.

I'll illustrate this point with a story. Let's say you're car shopping. You don't quite know what you want, but you venture into a dealership. In this example, the car dealer is your leader. You are the consumer. Despite not knowing what you want, you could still do some online research, ask a few friends, consult your spouse and family, and just take a look around to see what catches your eye. But instead, you don't do any of that. You go straight to the dealership, and buy the first thing the dealer recommends. A week later, you see a report on the news that puts this particular model at the bottom of the list; supposedly after one year, everything starts to go down the tubes. You discover that the car manufacturer is covered from any liability because your warranty covers things that apparently don't really matter. As your stomach drops, you think, "I should have read the fine print." So, just a few days after purchasing a new car, you are counting down the days until it breaks down. You are beyond livid with the car dealer, and you start to blame it all on her.

Back to the point... should she have recommended that car? Probably not. Did she make you buy the car? No. Were there other options that you could have explored to make a better decision? Absolutely. This is exactly how it works in the workplace. Leaders aren't perfect (FYI: neither are you), they are going to do things, suggest things, and say things that are sometimes, so wrong. That doesn't mean you can sign them up to be your easy out. It simply means you need to rely more on yourself for the success you want.

Ask yourself... does my client blame their lack of results on their leader's deficiencies? Do your best to find the answer to this question. Stress the importance of the value in taking responsibility for one's actions. Let your clients know that if they can't take responsibility for where they're missing the mark, they can't expect to claim the rights to anything that happens to go well. They can't claim their good work if they won't recognize their less-than-perfect performances.

Looking for more insights about coaching a sales professional? Download a complimentary coaching article at http://wcwpartners.com/free-coaching-for-excellence-article/.

Doug C. Watsabaugh, senior partner at WCW Partners, understands how to meet your unique performance challenges. You can reach Doug at: dwatsabaugh@wcwpartners.com or 1-888-313-0514.

Check out WCW's latest book, The SuperSTAR Leadership Model: Good Boss, Bad Boss - Which One Are You? http://wcwpartners.com/superstar-leadership-model/.

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Over Management and Too Much Paperwork For Sales Staff a Huge Mistake

Those who are extroverts and very good sales are probably not too good at writing or various forms of mathematics. They probably wouldn't work too well on the factory floor or in any of your other business units such as accounting. Nevertheless you must manage your sales staff to make sure that they are in line with their expenses because there is a cost to doing sales. Although they are the team that brings in the revenue, as a business you must do it as efficiently as possible. Okay so let's talk about this for second shall we?

"FORM" is a four letter word to salespeople. If you are constantly making them fill out expense reports, itemizing every single thing they do and micromanaging them to that ninth degree, then you will actually be hurting sales because you are wasting their time. Time that they could be doing what they do best. Happy salespeople are not the ones who are busy filling out forms all day, or trying to mold their sales processes into your nice neat categorized formatted system. If you make them do too much paperwork, they will eventually leave, and you will have defeated the purpose of having a sales staff in the first place.

It's easy to over manage or micromanage a sales team into oblivion, and perhaps it is the need for authoritative control of those who have MBAs and wish to be in charge of everything. You should never have a salesman fill out any form that you are not actually going to look at, or data input any information you don't really need. Often they will write right in the form; "are you actually reading all this crap" and if you never catch that, they won't take it seriously ever again.

Why collect information you don't need anyway? You might think you will need the information later, but chances are you don't. What you are concerned about is lots of sales, and as long as those salespeople are meeting their goals and their expenses are line, you should be happy.

If you really want them to fill out forms and if you really want to measure everything they are doing perhaps so you can duplicate the sales staff in another region of the country, then I suggest that you get them a secretary and have the secretary work closely with each salesperson filling out the forms and putting the data input for them. It's getting tougher and tougher these days to do face-to-face sales because more things are being done online.

Nevertheless, you probably do need a sales staff so you shouldn't be wasting their time. You should allow them to do what are good at, and as long as they are staying within the boundaries you should be happy and encourage their sales goals each consecutive month or quarter. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Managing Sales Teams. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Tips For Managing Sales Meetings

Managing your large corporate sales meetings can be quite the hassle. You have to plan the event, choose the venue, make sure everyone who is required attends the event, and you have to plan the program and topics of discussion. Not to mention the refreshments, parking, and time slots that fit into everyone's schedule. The truth is you already have enough on your plate. You are busy, and you seem to get busier every day, and that does not include planning a big sales meeting for your company and your employees. But there are services that will actually plan your sales meetings and make sure everything goes according to plan. This allows you to focus on the meat of the presentation and enjoying yourself, too.

Finding the right company to manage your meetings can be a chore in and of itself. But that is only if you do not know what to look for. The first thing to look for is on-site management duties and responsibilities. When this is included, that company should arrive to the venue before your sales meeting and make sure everything is in place and ready to go. They will also stay on-site throughout the duration of the meeting, so you can rest assured that everything you need is taken care of. Also, they should also manage registration and attendance, coordinate transportation needs for those traveling from out-of-town, and even coordinate photography of the event, if that applies to your needs. The right company is even in charge of the food and beverages.

If you need help selecting the right venue for your business meeting, you can find a company to do that, too. This means that you will have more time to focus on more important matters, and you can greatly reduce your stress levels. This is not to say that you have to hand over all duties and responsibilities for planning your sales meeting to a third party. What this means is that you need to first learn to delegate. Take care of the items on your list that are most important to you. The other stuff can be given to members of your staff or a third party company who specializes in the preparation and management of professional sales meetings.

If you can find the right meeting management company, your next sales meeting will be a hit. Not only will every detail be taken care of, but you can enjoy the entirety of the meeting without unnecessary disruptions or from running errands. You will find that your meeting will have a more professional and put together ambiance. And that alone is worth it.

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How I Motivate My Sales Team

The sales person doesn't always make a sale in a training situation so it is important to teach them how to take rejection, i.e. determine what's the ratio in the field? It can vary from person to person, the end result is the key.

Repetition

Habits and skills take time to learn and develop, telling and showing is not enough. Drilling and practice must be there before it becomes permanent.

Reward

Praise, recognition, material prizes will build confidence.

How to train

The principles and steps of effective training are the same whether you're training a new or experienced person except for the possible differences in the degree of emphasis that you place on each step.

How to get ready to train

Know how to do it yourself

Know it the way you expect the learner to do it

Pick out the steps and key points you want to train on

Decide how you're going to train the techniques

Have everything read

Have all of the necessary supplies, training material, sales aids and visuals at hand

Use the aids the way you expect the sales person to use them, stay away from home spun ways

The persons training procedure

Prepare

Explain

Show

Observe

Supervise

Step one - Prepare

Put the sales person at ease

Let them know the only reason you are working with them is to help them improve and they should what they normally do.

Get the sales person interested

Don't take it for granted that the sales person is interested in receiving your help. Create interest by - what's in it for me W.I.I.F.M. High performance = high production.

Easier to get the job done and more free time.

Step two - Explain

Stress key points

The sales representative must be told what the job is, how it is to be performed and why it is done that way.

Do not tell and show too much at one time - give the sales representative no more time than they can master

Too much at one time leads to confusion and disappointment, use simple explanations that are easy to follow.

Step three - Show

Set a high standard as you tell and show the sales representative

When the sales representative observes your demonstration of how to do a specific task and how well to do it - no short cuts. You set the standards and you are the role model.

Step four - Observe

Let the sales representative role play,

Let them alone when they demonstrate, don't step in as they may recover on their own despite the error unless they misrepresent. If you always jump in at the slightest provocation they won't function properly.

Compliment before you correct

This builds confidence because they know now that everything they do isn't wrong. Use the sandwich technique.

Correct the sales representative sparingly and privately

Offer constructive and friendly criticism, no one likes to be criticised, but most people want to learn. When done correctly it becomes part of the training and is taken positively.

Step five - Supervision

Establish a programme for continual follow through

After training it is important to spot check and inspect, and this shows you want to help them improve by doing it the right way rather than slipping back into old behaviours.

Most sales representatives cannot organise or discipline themselves to follow through on their plans.

Most don't work up to full capacity as they are inclined to work no harder than driven by necessity or the desire to acquire or enjoy something gained by the extra effort

The need to be reminded constantly to do the things they planned or said they would do or the temptation is strong to yield to the old familiar way. Avoid blunt needling expressions such as, "how are you coming on", "are you getting results" or "do you think you will make it"

Conclusion

The five step training process is a must if you expect improve a work skill or impact on a new one. Leave a step out or a piece of a step and you may expect nothing but mediocrity. However even the best training programmes are useless unless your motivation, attitude and a sincere desire to help the sales representative is a priority. The amount of time you are willing to give to the sales representative is the deciding factor in developing successful sales people. Building confidence is the key to continuous improvement in skills and knowledge.

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Nine Ideas That Can Help Sales Supervisors Achieve Improved Selling Success From Their Sales Team

One of the key challenges of selling is the drastic increase in the cost of sales visits to prospects and customers. Despite new sales strategies, including e mail marketing, direct contact between a sales person and the customer remains by far the most effective method to achieve sales success. Many sales managers attempt to offset the increased costs by motivating their sales team to a lot more personal effort. However, having interviewed more than 2,000 salespeople from over 200 organizations, the American market researchers Barton A. Weitz, Harish and Mita Sujan propose a different approach: sales professionals shouldn't work more, they really should work using a more customer-oriented strategy. To attain a customer-orientated approach sales managers should encourage their staff to get to know each and every client better and also to try out new selling approaches based on customer types. The following nine sales management training pointers should help you to increase the selling results of the sales team you manage.

1. Teach your sales people to categorise their clients much better. It's advisable to keep different basic selling strategies ready for each and every customer type so you can then adapt to their individual buying motivations all the more effectively. It's not only external characteristics, such as age, that should serve to categorise customers, but, above all, characteristics of behaviour which can be noticed quickly. Does the customer, for example, want a friendly atmosphere for discussions, or do they attach importance to a cooler and more business-like environment?

2. Regularly present your sales team with general details about your market place. This sort of information will help them to categorise customers' general buying interests better. Thus, a car salesman has to understand the significance of a cars "sportiness" or "environmental acceptability" for his clientele.

3. Include the company's best sales people in management training sessions. With the involvement of your very best sales people, training programmes can be designed on a made-to-measure basis with the desired goals of one's own business in mind. In collaboration with external experts you can, also, track down reasons for sales success which you were not mindful of until now.

4. Ensure that the work is enjoyable. In many businesses, great stress is laid on external bonus schemes like money and promotion - that's to say, so-called extrinsic motivators. Try to motivate the staff intrinsically as well through the way in which you set a task. A successful conclusion has to be recognised verbally as well as financially, for then this will have a favourable effect on your sales professional's self-esteem.

5. Be cautious with incentives. Bonuses must never form too large a part of income, but must retain a symbolic character. If a sales person gets far too dependent on incentives, this could reduce their creativity and their will to consider new things. Rather, personal supervision really should be to the fore as the method of motivation, above all in the case of new members of your sales team.

6. Offer the sales team feedback which is not simply about whether or not they are working well or badly. If an employee is only ever informed about whether their performance has been satisfactory or not, then the sales manager is throwing away the opportunity to deliver their very own experiences to the subordinate by means of specific feedback. Only conversations like that include a stimulus to and prospect for improvement, even in the situation of sales people who're already effective.

7. Encourage your staff to evaluate successes or failures. Only individuals who think successes or failures through completely will be able to discover the true causes. In order that mistakes are not simply suppressed mentally or failures attributed to your client's unwillingness, the sales person must also be at liberty to admit them. This being the situation, help by asking about the "why" of results or failure in sales discussions. Admit that unusual customers aren't easy to sell to, and stress that the correction of sales errors can create a feeling of personal achievement.

8. Educate your staff to help themselves. Sales people have to be resourceful and independent. Simply because they've to take instant decisions in a given sales situation, they cannot count on too much assistance from others but must take the initiative on their own. The sales man who's mindful of this and has the ability to act will be more strongly motivated to their job.

9. Create an atmosphere for mutual assistance. The business has to show its personnel that it truly is interested in long lasting cooperation. Having good co-opperation can decrease competitive pressure among the staff and increase commitment to the organization's more far-reaching targets.

Even if a number of these management training suggestions are actually already familiar to you and have, in addition, been partially put into practice, there could nonetheless be a lack of awareness of their importance for your organization. The success of these kinds of strategies and training programmes can rarely be expressed in terms of an instantaneous increase in sales figures, but rather in the long-term continually increasing productivity resulting from these practices which will, ultimately,l benefit both your business and its staff.

Richard Stone (richard.stone@spearhead-training.co.uk) is a Director for Spearhead Training Limited ( http://www.spearhead-training.co.uk/ ) a company that specialises in running management and sales training courses. Richard provides consultancy advice for numerous world leading companies.

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The SPAM Feedback Model

As a child, I had one really big decision every morning. It was to decide what filling to place in between my two slices of Farmers Wife white bread for my lunch. The dilemma was spam meat from the tin or sandwich spread from the jar? Invariable the verdict was Spam. Easy to slice, would last for ever and oddly enough, rather tasty.

SPAM is a way of structuring your feedback with your team members when you're carrying out on the job coaching. As an energetic and active coach, you wander your workplace, listen to calls, observe customer engagement and help your team to sell more and give superior customer service.

Customer engagement coaching doesn't happen behind closed doors, believe me it doesn't.

Here's how SPAM works. You happen to sit down on the counter and observe one of your teams advising on a product with a customer, maybe a credit card or bespoke insurance package.

You observe them and in your mind, you're comparing them with some best practice techniques. As the sales manager, you know what good looks like. If you don't refer to your team's best practice playbook. You don't have a best practice playbook? It's all in your head?

That's dangerous if you ever leave.

So the engagement has ended, in order to give them the benefit of your wisdom and best practice you want to give them feedback. Now slice up your SPAM.
S stands for self discovery. Classic. Ask them how they did, what went well in their opinion, if they could do it again, how might they tweak it. Now we know the outcome, i.e. the customer's reaction, what might you change.
P is for a positive piece of feedback. Let them know specifically and in detail what you particularly admired about the observation. Make it real, not that your shoes were shiny or the colour of your tie was stunning. Find something that was the best aspect of the engagement, the one of many.
A is alternative. Next, launch straight into a suggestion from you on how you can do it differently, an idea on some aspect of the engagement, something very specific that will make the meeting even better. Don't debate, just move onto the...
M, which stands for a meaningful overall impression. Remember primacy and recency, people remember the beginning and end of any conversation, so end on a high, an overall good first impression. "Fabulous meeting with Mrs Brown, that lady has an excellent impression now of our company, thanks to you Mary, well done"

As Dale Carnegie said, "Salespeople bristle with emotions". I say don't ruffle them, make them feel good but help them to get even better.

And then leave, as I had to do since my long winded decision as to sandwich spread or spam usually meant I was late for school. Oh and does anyone else pine over Unigate's Farmer's Wife sliced white bread adorned with sandwich spread. Totally lush.

Paul is an international speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. His expertise and experience is in selling and sales coaching, his books and articles focus on rapport selling which puts the customer at the heart of the sale. Visit his website http://www.archertraining.co.uk/Sales_tips.htm to sign up for his Weekly Sales and Coaching Tips or visit his blog at http://www.paularcher.com/ where you'll find his unique style of weekly blog posts for you to enjoy. paul@paularcher.com

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The Best Personality For Sales

If you were to analyse the characteristics of business owners, business management and senior executives they would generally include;
Quality peopleAction peopleGreat plannersGood knowledge of sales systemsRecognise the importance of motivation and most of all the importance of self motivationUtilise the aim high conceptPeople of integrityExtra milersGoal orientatedBelief in the themselves and their organisationGenerally speaking have a substantial dose of inspirational dis-satisfactionBelief in the sense that everyone can do better, regardless of how good or bad a year they have finished

Evaluate the above traits and ask yourself can you improve or even build on them as your mental attitude is the one thing you have complete control over. This is what separates winners from losers and also turns disadvantages into advantages.

Let's look at the people with the right mental attitude believe in:
In the aim high conceptThat every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit for those who look for itThey look for one reason why something does work rather than the many reasons why it may not workThey search for positivesThey are good finders rather fault findersThey believe in the concept of sharing and helpingThey look to the future and learn from the past

Those who are the mark of the organisation and live by it day by day and week by week letting nothing get them down and focusing on what is good and rewarding. They are also people orientated and know with clarity that no person is an island, meaning that nothing can be achieved without teamwork.

Let's examine what a people orientated person looks like:
Believe that there is good in everyoneThey get the best out of everyoneOpen door policyThey make themselves availableOpen mind policyThey believe in the magic ingredient of hope and they attempt to share it with those around themThey treat their staff and clients with fairness and respectThey believe that everyone can be successful in their business provided your try and keep on trying regardless of the obstaclesThey believe in the concept of not asking anyone to do something they are not prepared to do themselvesRecognise a personal obligation to train, coach and mentor people working under their supervisionThey recognise a concept that is essential in business, that people are motivated by motivated people

As you can see those who are the mark of the organisation are people centred not self centred and above all they are real team players. Team players are those who firmly believe the acronym together everyone achieves more. Together we conquer and divided we fall.

Character and Integrity

The wonderful thing about character and integrity, which are intimately related, is that they're one of the few things in life that no one will ever be able to forcefully take away from you. Your choices are your own and that is what makes the real difference, let's examine what people with character and integrity look like.
Its been honest with yourself and those around youIts recognising corporate and personal standards, living by them not deviating from themRecognising one of the basis fundamentals in business and personal life, doing the right thing because it is rightWillingness of those who are the mark of the organisation (MOTO) to except the personal responsibility of the quality of service and quality of businessThe responsibility of taking action when something isn't right

The actions above cannot be done at once, nor should they be. Each of them takes time to fully understand and apply towards your life. Follow the steps above to improve yourself by building your character.

The final area to cover in this article is loyalty which is an area we don't talk enough about, it is a great trait. Loyalty is like a character, some people have it and have it naturally, others may have to concentrate and acquire it.
Loyalty is necessary in both directions, you will never develop loyalty to other people unless you develop loyalty to themDon't expect loyalty from others without giving it to themLoyalty is all encompassing, it is difficult to have loyalty in one segment or another, people are generally loyal to their company, country, family and themselves

There is a unique trait that some people have and few organisations have, that is the unique trait that combines together as "The Mark of the Organisation and when the going gets tough the tough get going once their will is strong and the mind is focused on a definite major aim.

Can your clearly state you are "The Mark of the Organisation"?

Charlie Mernagh owner of ASK Solutions http://www.asksolutions.ie/ specialising in Management Development such as organisational skills, motivational skills, leadership skills, coaching skills. Log onto my website for up and coming events or just for other articles.

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How to Get Your Point Across Without Being Aggressive

Guides for good human relations

Ask questions to win co-operation

Always ask for an individuals opinionAsk them to do you a little favourCool off an individual by asking questionsAsk questions to get others to relate certain experiencesWhen asking questions do not Pry into personal affairsAsk unless you are pretty sure the person can answer themCross examineDo it in an antagonising wayDo it to show off
Ask them could we do it together
The magic questions - in addition to that....
Ask questions instead of talking back
Try giving orders in the form of questions

Be brief to clear up troubles

Keep quiet and listen to the other personWhen a situation is tense - listenWhen someone is angry be brief - let them talk

X + Y + Z = Success

X = Hard work, Y = Play, Z = Ability to keep your mouth shut

Confidence bearing to help others

Hesitation and timidity holds them backLook at the person intensely when talking to them and when they are talking to youKeep confidence in letters and reports

Directness to make personal contact

Notice others and let them know it by directnessLook at the person intensely when talking to them and when they are talking to youBe sure to reach the person - talk to them

Sincerity

A sincere faith in the importance of the other personThere is no leadership without sincerityTalk and act as if you meant it, not to arouse antagonism with sincerity

Rules for managers

Remember that the desire for importance motivates nearly everything we do. Make others feel important, make the person feel that they mean something to you.

Speak to your employees and acquaintances whenever warranted; if someone deserves a compliment always give it to them.

Be an honestly interested listener, let the other person talk. Find out what makes them tick.

Jingle praise to secure best effects

Some people are tight lipped with their words of praise because they feel that only the world's best deserve it. They neglect the opportunities that are always at hand, praise for little things count as much in stimulating one to do ones happy best as does acclaim for the top most accomplishments.

Forget looking for big things to praise - look for little ones.

Praise counts most when it comes from the boss or a close relative and those are the ones who are most likely to neglect it.

Don't imagine you are looking to notice and praise little things in little people, the praise that counts more in making the workers certain of themselves, that keeps them interested has a letter "P" in front of it - like this P-raise.

The best way to stimulate is to say something encouraging or say nothing.

If you do not use praise in handling people, you are not leading them.

Practice jingling praise in your own family, little compliments to husband, wife or partner helps human relations in the family.

One of the best ways to get praise for ourselves is to give it to others first.

Know your people to generate harmony

People crave to be noticed, to be known especially by the boss. Nothing takes the place of being acquainted with the boss, and knowing that the boss is acquainted with you.

Mental level 1 - The closed mind

The first mental level is the closed mind, this is the dog house level which people think "nuts to you", oh yeah etc no matter what you say they are against it, their minds are closed to anything you suggest.

How can we open this closed mind, the answer is not as easily given as one thinks, because many people don't realise that they have a closed mind and the ability to open a persons mind will depend on your mental attitude toward that person, your willingness to understand them and help them to be right. Opening their mind is your first step toward getting them to believe what you say and do what you want.

Your first job is to open their mind by persuasion and when you do this you are perfectly sincere about it the other person is much more likely to open their mind and listen to your side of the question. When you open your mind and approach a question from the other person point of view you have a good chance to round out a complete picture of the facts and to find out and admit it if the other person is right and you are wrong in some respect. Once you prove yourself capable of doing this the other person is inclined to want to prove that they are capable of being just as fair and just as open minded as you are.

Whenever any two people open their minds, each to the other they are well on the way toward a common agreement. On the other hand two closed minded people may argue forever and not arrive anywhere.

In getting down to cases you can classify your everyday situation as they come up under one of three main headings, each of which can be discussed in its own area.

First, sometimes you are right and the other person is wrong.

Secondly, sometimes you are wrong and the other person is right.

Each one of these can be used in discussing the means of opening a closed mind.

Mental level 2 - The open mind

When you have a person with an open mind then you immediately know that what you say is considered and perhaps accepted by the individual. Once you have opened a persons mind by helping them to be right, above all you're certain that you'll have a hearing. What you say or do from there on determines whether you gain their confidence or know the reason why not.

Mental level 3 - Confidence

If you have a good reason for opening a persons mind, they will have confidence in you and their attitude towards you will be friendly. They will be willing to do what you want but will want to know the reason why.

There is nothing mysterious about gaining a person's confidence, it depends upon our everyday thoughts and actions in little things as-well as in big things. Whenever you feed an open minded person with favourable evidence you gain their confidence as everyone is favourably impressed when you show them that you are thinking and acting in terms of their interest as well as your own. In other words think of the other person's interest.

It is also very important to select the right time to present your evidence, no matter how foolish you consider the other person's interest, no matter how much you deserve their confidence there is a right time and a wrong time to present it.

There is a right time and a wrong time to ask for a favour, everyone has their moments and it is up to you to be patient and bide your time until those moments come.

Mental level 4 - Belief

Confidence if consistently cultured and nurtured with favourable evidence will eventually develop into sound belief. Once you have gained a persons confidence your next step is to keep on showing them in every new situation that arises that you are worthy of their belief in you. A belief relationship represents the highest plain of human relationships, to believe in one another is not the most civilized, the most satisfying and the most beautiful form of human relationship, but it is the most efficient and you can easily see why. The person who is merely open minded requires complete proof before they will do as you ask, while even the person who has confidence in you requires some proof but as their confidence in you grows they require less and less proof before they follow your recommendations and when they believe in you they do what you ask without delay.

The average person anywhere can be persuaded providing enough evidence is given to them, that confidence and belief relationships with others should be planned and extended to anyone who deserves such trust for the simple reason that such relationships provide the basis for the most productive and most satisfying ways of living.

People want to believe in you, they would rather believe you are right, rather than have to exert themselves to examine and analyse everything you say to find out whether there are any loop holes or selfish motives, that's the test of a belief relationship. Whenever you feel that a person is ready to believe in you, just ask them to do something of some importance without giving them evidence of proof why they should do it, and see what they do.

The quickest way in the world to destroy your belief relationship with others is to check up on them at every turn and show their actions in everything they do. Belief inspires belief and you must believe in others if you would have them believe in you.

You can enjoy almost anyone's belief in you if you will first strive to deserve it, second - ask for it and third - be careful not to destroy unwillingly your belief relationship with others by failing to show belief in yourself.

Ten suggestions for personality development

Be conscious of the other person and note what they doAssume that person likes youWhen you greet a person, greet them emphaticallyBuild up the other persons feelings of self worthAdmit your own defectsPractice the use of the word "you and avoid "I"Admire your friendsLove someone intenselyChange your environment occasionallyAssociate with people who are successful and happy

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Best Wedding Cake Ever Made But A Day Late Keeps It a Secret and The Baker Remains Pocket Poor

One of my clients made the following statement: "You can have the best wedding cake ever baked and decorated, but delivering the day after the wedding will keep your business a secret" and I added "not to mention keeping you pocket poor."

From my observations, there are still a lot of pocket poor bakers be they small business owners to individual employees. Missed delivery dates still haunt many small businesses to even large corporation.

How many times in the quest to increase sales the solution comes a day late and a dollar short? Crazy busy sales people are continually looking for this new sales lead or new customer. They make promises and contracts are signed. Then when the solution is due the delivery date is not made. People scramble here and there, casting blame on everyone including the client. The salesperson is left holding the bag and possibly a debit to his or her commission check.

In today's workforce, there appears to be a ":que sera sera" what will be will be attitude by some employees not to mention small businesses. The attitude or belief that the solution should be delivered on time and on budget appears to have been lost back in the 20th century. Now, people expect payment for excuses instead of results.

With the trend to hire independent contractors especially when it comes to technology services, this is a rampant almost epidemic problem. One of my colleagues in attempting to work with some programmers over the course of several months had to literally cancel the contract three separate times until he found a team willing to do the work. What is so sad he had the entire project laid out and was very specific in what he wanted from the IT programmers. What he received was excuse after excuse even after promises were made to honor the delivery date.

Another client is facing this productivity challenge both from his full time employees as well as independent contractors. He sets the parameters, clearly communicates the expectations and still projects are delivered late. Now he must make amends with the customers.

Que sera sera

With the economy still very shaky, one would think people would do what they needed to do as quickly as possible so they can either keep their jobs or get paid for their efforts and onto the next project. However this is not the case. Again, a lot of pocket poor bakers appear to be in the workforce.

The only suggestion is to invest more time in finding the right people. What this means is the use of performance appraisal tools and a tight interviewing and hiring process to ensure the right people with the right talents making the right decisions for the right results in the right time frame enter your workforce (the right environment). By investing more time on the front end of the hiring process will result in spending far less on the back end.

Free sales skills assessment.

If you want sustainable results, then maybe it is time to solve the real problems and not just the symptoms facing you or your organization. Call 219.759.5601 CDT USA and speak with Leanne Hoagland-Smith to just have a conversation about the results you are seeking.

Consider this proven individual diagnostic assessment.

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The Lead Wolf Sales Star

Being number one on your sales team just isn't that difficult. Salesmanship is a learned skill. You can perfect that skill. Yes, it does help to have an outgoing personality, high self-esteem and an ego. But, these attributes alone won't make you successful. Confidence in yourself, confidence in your products and confidence in your company is a key ingredient. The only way to gain this kind of ultimate confidence is by attaining knowledge. Study your products, understand your value propositions and understand what your competitive advantage is.

If you interview every sales person in your company, what you learn may really surprise you. The "Law of Averages" leads you to believe out of ten sales people - Two will be Stars, Two will Really Suck and the remaining Six will just be Average.

All ten would demonstrate different personalities, temperaments and each one of them will have created their own personal model for selling. Influence on the building of their personal model comes from past experience and the coaching, mentoring and training they have received.

A few of your sales people may seem to have lost their edge. Exploring the reason for this as a means of improving your entire sales force starts with defining what a real "Lead Wolf Sales Star" is.

The Lead Wolf Sales Star

The single factor found in all producers is consistent sales production, regardless of the time of the year or economic conditions. In this century, the customer expects you to understand their business, their marketplace, and their customers and most importantly, they expect you to understand how they make money. Ultimately, the biggest expectation they have of the sales people they choose to do business with is the ability of that sales person to enhance their ability to make a profit.

The "A" sales person (A Lead Wolf Sales Star) in today's sales environment understands this sales methodology and has the expertise required to succeed in this century. The Lead Wolf sales person has evolved, educated themselves, utilizes their resources and recognizes the necessity to embrace team-selling concepts. They understand their customers and realize it's really about what the customer is buying and what they are buying is not a product. Through their relationship with their customers, they raise their customers' expectations of them as a supplier to the point that they can create competitive advantage. Through this Lead Wolf methodology, they create trust, respect, value, and not only a personal relationship, but a company relationship that employs all the company's resources in providing value to the customer.

But, every Lead Wolf Sales Star under stands and demonstrates the following characteristics

Characteristics of the "Lead Wolf Sales Star"

• Appearance - personal, vehicle and sales material
• Pride - in yourself, your company and your profession
• Confidence - in yourself, your company and your product/service
• Sincere and trustworthy
• Desire to achieve - wants to help others get what they want and, in turn, earn a higher income
• Excels in time and territory management
• Does not ignore prospecting
• Creates definitive, comprehensive, documented sales plans for all major accounts
• Never visits a customer without a call plan
• Seeks self-development
• Enjoys selling
• Persistent and consistency

Attitude

Attitude is a key factor in becoming a "Lead Wolf Sales Star". Regardless of the number of years spent selling, or level of understanding one has in regards to sales techniques or strategies, without a strong conviction in oneself, the prospect's conviction in moving forward will not be there. Let us not forget that our attitude can affect the attitude of others and how others react to us can affect our attitude.

Most sales people think they have a positive attitude-unfortunately, many of those people are wrong. While some in the world of selling are consumed by the rejection, and high levels of negativity they are subjected to daily, the "Lead Wolf Sales Star" never allows anyone to diminish their confidence or their self-worth. The Lead Wolf star turns rejection and negativity into energy that drives them even harder toward success. If they lose one sale they begin a new search of their pipeline for a replacement. The old sales cliche that every "NO" brings you closer to a "Yes" is actually engrained in their psychic.

Unfortunately, the current recession has created an increase in the amount of negativity and personal rejection sales people experience. This negativity can affect many sales person's self-esteem, which in turn reduces the sales person's "level of expectation" for success. The Lead Wolf Star does not allow that to happen. They simply do not go through the motions, they move forward with consistent behavior in order to produce results! They have an ever present sense of urgency that is reflective of their positive attitude. A poor or negative attitude creates a snowball effect that eventually lowers the sales person's levels of performance.

"As long as there are cars in the parking lot ---- they are buying something. I am going to get the biggest share of that something as possible."

Anybody Can Sell

Anybody can sell to some degree and we all do it without exception. However, to be a professional "Lead Wolf Sales Star" accepting these concepts as truths is the starting point. Accepting the concepts described in this article will enable you to understand that salesmanship is not a born trait. Agreed, there are some personality traits that may help you create success quicker but true professional sales skills are learned. Sales is a profession that requires professionals. It's a profession to be proud of. It requires persistence, tenacity, confidence and understanding. Study yourself, study people, do your homework and never forget the fundamentals to succeed in this century. Targeting, goal setting, action planning, solution selling and follow-up never go out of fashion no matter how much of a star you become.

http://www.ceostrategist.com/ ? Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. ? Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com. Don't forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business. E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for your special Howl discount order form. Get the CEO Strategist Interview Guide and Conducting an Effective Sales Training Session Guide just for signing up for "The Howl".

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How Sales Managers Can Introduce the Concept of a Zero-Mistake Culture in to Their Sales Force

The "zero mistake" principle was first used in manufacturing environments because it's a lot more cost-effective to manufacture a flawless product from the very start than to search for flaws that have emerged in the course of production and then fixing these. The principles of the "zero mistake" approach can be transferred to a sales environment and is, therefore, generally included by sales supervisors in their internal sales training programmes. Zero mistakes in selling means that the sales department's aim is to create a situation where there are no un-happy customers.

It will take a lot of work to build up a zero mistakes culture in sales. The task begins with you, the sales supervisor. As soon as you have recognised the merits of the approach, you need to shift your conviction to your sales people. From there it is really an easy step to transfer this approach to your customers.

Prior to doing anything to change your sales organisation, do a sort of stock-taking. This will involve a number of steps, including:

1. Enhancing your own personal client contacts. Do this by going with your salespeople on customer visits or make client visits your self. Listen and experience first hand what the clients think of you, the product, and the services you deliver.

2. Reviewing the very last complaint through to its conclusion. What future improvements did this indicate to you? What would make clients un-happy and what would make them happy?

3. Looking at yourself. How do you talk to your sales people regarding clients? What exactly is your attitude towards customers? How does your attitude or conduct colour the conduct of your sales people?

Taking stock in this way will show you exactly where you stand and exactly where, as a result, the vast majority of your salespeople stand.

Satisfied customers do not come about just because you send your sales team to the relevant sales training seminars. The basis for building happy customers is creating a working environment which makes it likely for no errors to occur, combined with an appreciation of your client and his/her wants.

Organise the sales process to make it as straightforward and streamlined as you can. Complex official channels for order forms, multiple copies of order information, or vague responsibilities don't create situations condusive to flawless work. Eliminate all the actions between client contact and delivery which are actually not crucial or which do not add to client satisfaction.

Convey your appreciation of the client to your sales team. Top performances in selling always depends on the working atmosphere. When you appreciate the client and their satisfaction is important to you, this attitude will rub off on your sales team. Exactly the same is sadly true of the reverse.

If anything goes wrong, make up for it! There are, sadly, still organizations that force bureaucracy on the clients and insist on the small print. The reason for this is often minimal freedom of decision-making on the part of the salesperson or service representatives. If something goes wrong, the sales person in contact with the client has to possess the desire and also the freedom to compensate for the error in some manner. Your client should feel that:

Everybody in your company has a stake in making certain that every thing goes according to plan with the delivery - even if sometimes a mistake happens. This way the client doesn't have to carry the can for your error.

As an illustration of this principle, consider the following example. Imagine you have delivered on time, but have not delivered their total order. Do not wait until your client contacts you to complain. Make contact with your customer and explain what has happened and apologise for the error. Offer them an alternative: delivery as soon as the goods are available, naturally free of charge, or immediate delivery of a substitute product.

Do build up a consistent follow-up procedure and use it. Each and every client who doesn't go on to order more items from you must be asked "why". This really is the only method to discover possible weaknesses in your sales organisation. You'll be amazed at how much data you obtain this way concerning the market place, the competition plus the customer. Make the data you obtain accessible, in report form, to the sales team and also the office sales team so they can react to this information.

In conclusion, close client relations and constant customer orientation, supplemented with targeted sales training are good ways of achieving competitive advantage and, during situations of high cost pressure, have the further benefit that they do not need a large budget to implement.

Richard Stone (richard.stone@spearhead-training.co.uk) is a Director for Spearhead Training Limited ( http://www.spearhead-training.co.uk/ ) a company that specialises in running management and sales training courses. Richard provides consultancy advice for numerous world leading companies.

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Coaching For Better Performance - A Definition And Its Implications

Coaching has become the skill that is spoken about nowadays when the discussion turns to middle management effectiveness. There is nothing wrong with this; it is absolutely correct that the development of staff should sit primarily with their management and they need the tools to do the job.

But like any area of business improvement that comes under the spotlight around the world, it attracts an unreasonable amount of charlatans. There are those out there who would have you believe that attending a seminar, training course or online learning event will give you good coaches and a coaching culture in your business. Of course they are wrong - but pointing out shortcomings is easy. What is more valuable is knowing what is right.

This article looks at a considered definition of performance coaching and the principles under which it becomes a useful tool to change performance.

A definition: "performance coaching is a set of practices, tools and skills which, when used consistently and effectively in an environment that is both conducive and accountable, leads to improved business performance and competitive differentiation.'

Let's deconstruct this definition and look at the implications.

'A set of practices, tools and skills'- managers need to know what to coach as well as how. This means there must be practices that are documented and are observable and measurable. Otherwise we end up with one persons' opinion of how well someone else is doing the job. When was the last time you agreed with an unsubstantiated, subjective criticism of your work? And worse, how do you react when this happens? Tools are needed to ensure uniformity of process, irrespective of the areas being coached. And skilful coaches understand the huge difference between feedback and coaching - feedback tells someone where they went wrong. Coaching helps a person build a plan to maximise strengths and improve areas for development.

'Consistently and effectively' - this is probably the area where most managers need more discipline and companies need to support their management better. What must happen is regular and skilful coaching for everyone. (Recognising that some need more than others, but no one is omitted). Our observation is that managers tend to look upon coaching as a fire-fighting exercise. We coach when performance is an issue. Apart from the fact that this makes coaching stigmatised, resented and unpopular, it misses the point that coaching is a very important tool in the development and retention of talent, not just helping to deal with performance issues. We had one client who was stunned when a top performer left because they got no management time or input. The manager told us, 'she didn't need it.' He was wrong.

'An environment that is conducive and accountable' - a conducive environment means both the physical setting where coaching takes place, as well as the atmosphere and approach created by the coach. You will not get people to be honest and open about the areas they find difficult if they know it is going to be used in evidence against them.

Accountable means that the coach is accountable for making sure the coaching happens and has valid outcomes and that the person being coached is accountable for acting on the agreed areas to work on and develop. And both are accountable for making sure the process is leading to improved business performance. This implies measurement of coaching, changes in performance and changes in results.

What is evident from this deconstruction of the definition is that the management of coaching in the workplace has significantly more impact than the any training. In addition there are a few other principles of good business practice that are particularly applicable to good coaching.

It is said that what gets measured gets done and what gets rewarded gets done properly. We have a client that used a simple 360 degree feedback process to measure the effectiveness of coaching and set a company standard. They also stated that if any manager did not meet the standard, they could not get more than an average rating on their performance appraisal. The change was phenomenal, in both attitude and performance - managers coached well and insisted on being measured accurately. You must embed coaching into HR, induction and training and performance management systems.

We believe that senior management communicate what is important in the company by the questions they ask. All too often the questions are about figures. You can't manage a figure. What you can manage is the quality of the performance that produces the figure. Senior management should get religion about the techniques used to improve people effectiveness and relentlessly ask about how well this is happening.

I founded Prosell Sales Training because I saw the importance of people's potential contribution to a business and also saw how many companies missed the biggest opportunity they were presented with; the challenge to fully engage their people and to achieve high productivity and overall business performance.

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Improve Sales: Overcome Call Resistance Forever!

Call reluctance can be painful. Anyone who has experienced the discomfort and anxiety that stops them from making calls, does not want to admit how awful they feel about this irrational 'weakness'. Nor do they want to listen to logic about how successful they'll feel after making the sales that invariably follow sales calls.

People who are confident in multiple areas of their life may feel ambushed by their surprising inability to pick up the phone, which characterizes call reluctance. Trying to understand the origins of one's call reluctance can be confusing at best. As an Executive Recruiter who has trained new Recruiters for years, the term we use in reference to pondering why we don't make calls is 'analysis paralysis'.

The sales profession has lost millions of potentially phenomenal sales people. Many quietly left with their heads bowed in shame because they could not reconcile their fear of cold calling with their professional image. They know they were competent, but the cold call issue makes many people too miserable to give the sales profession a chance. The sales industry is littered with wasted talent.

What's the solution? After years of trial and error, I stumbled upon Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and the results were spectacular in another area of my life, so why not apply it to cold calling? EFT is simple, fast, effective, and available. Another positive quality is it works incredibly well!

Think of EFT as emotional acupuncture. Our physical body is an intricate energy system. Past experiences, negative emotions, traumas, and painful memories, stay within our systems, creating havoc for us in the present, until we dislodge and rid ourselves of them for good.

Medical and healing practices around the world are using EFT daily with consistent, positive results. Because EFT lends itself to modification, it's the ideal modality for overcoming call reluctance. Anyone can be rid of the consequences that follow when sales calls are not made!

EFT is easy to learn. There is a short and a long 'tapping' sequence for users. As we tap a series of pressure points on our body, paired with statements acknowledging the discomfort we want to eliminate along with a positive acceptance of our being, the negative emotions vanish.

If you're a skeptic, that's okay. Try EFT and judge for yourself. I felt the same way. How could something so simple accomplish what we've come to believe takes years of therapy? I'm not a scientist and frankly I don't care how it works, just as I don't care to understand how every component works inside the engine of my car. I love the fact that EFT works amazingly well and I'm no longer concerned with why it's so effective.

The burden from guilt, shame, insecurities, feeling incompetent, and every other possible negative emotion related to the discomfort of call reluctance, can be eliminated with EFT. When we are emotionally free to work happily and unhindered by ancient emotions, our world changes dramatically.

Support your staff by providing them with cold call therapy. Introduce EFT to them and watch your sales skyrocket.

Kimberly Schenk is an Author/Executive Recruiter/Trainer. Cold Call Therapy is designed to help anyone eliminate call reluctance, or any negative emotion impacting performance, for good.
http://www.coldcalltherapy.com/

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Confidence at the Inside Sales Desk

The most important ingredient to success as an Inside Sales (I/S) person is self-confidence. The foundation for self-confidence is training, education and preparation. Just like it is in sports, success and building self-confidence requires the practice of skills learned during training even if it's only On-the-Job training. Success is about practicing perfect. Sports legends often say you play like you practice. In relationship to Inside Sales this means if you don't take training and preparation seriously you will fail. Group role playing is an effective way to reinforce training and build confidence. Notice I said group role playing. Individual role playing can sometimes do more damage than good to self-esteem and confidence if it is not conducted properly. Group role playing eliminates threat and embarrassments. Practice should include planning what they are going to say in different situations. Practice of the presentation and delivering a meaningful and engaging message. Customers are only interested in how a service or product will benefit them or their business - it is the responsibility of the Inside Sales Manager to ensure that the message is perfected prior to the delivery. The art of inside sales is one that must be practiced daily - just as an athlete practices their skill, an inside salesperson must practice their craft.

A successful I/S person knows what they are going to say prior to the prospect answering their call. While every conversation is different, the introduction throughout the inside sales presentation should remain the same. One of the main purposes of inside sales is to deliver a consistent message - one that matches the branding and messaging of the firm he or she represents. Great Potential but Effective I/S Management is Required The potential for I/S to contribute to sales and penetrate accounts can be the defining difference between just surviving and thriving while maximizing growth opportunities. Industry surveys and case studies prove:

I/S persons have more customer and prospect contact than any other employees. Studies cite 85% or more of all orders are taken by inside sales personnel who are in an excellent position to influence purchasing behavior. The consistent use of suggestive selling techniques and promotional sales during customer contacts can increase average order value and penetrate sales potential An inside sales person must be prepared. Their confidence is dependent on that preparation. And their success is dependent on that preparation and training. The ultimate objective of the inside sales department, in consultative selling, is to build relationship equity in order to present the product or service - the company and the value it represents to the customer.

While it is important to respond to the customer, answering their questions and concerns and further exploring their interest and needs, the ultimate goal of the inside sales professional should always be the same - get the order, build on the relationship equity and satisfy the customer's needs. I/S people are no longer just sales support and orders takers. Inside Sales personnel are now considered frontline warriors that make a substantial contribution toward the company's growth objectives. They have become the key customer contact, the backbone of the business and the primary influence that proves the company's commitment to service excellence.

Once you master confidence, a proactive outcall program to generate new business is a logical next step. This can also lead to defining the real difference between customer service representatives and Inside Sales personnel.

The Role of the Inside Sales Manager

As I/S Manager you must understand the changing role and importance of front-line customer relationships to achieve the core mission of the business, i.e., customer retention, growth, satisfaction, and profitability. When managers do not envision the relationship between management practices and inside sales front-line actions, the business is not focused on meeting today's customer demands for service excellence. Additionally, failures to recognize the critical role of inside sales can destroy individual confidence which leads to individual failure at the desk. Further, as Inside Sales Manager you cannot take appropriate steps to support and train front-line inside sales personnel if you do not understand the need for the right support and training, thus core measures of business success suffer.

The most successful businesses in any industry are those that maintain relationships through ongoing customer satisfaction earned by meeting changing customer expectations versus those that focus on new business and new sales but lose existing customers. The importance of customer retention and its relationship to profits and growth through existing account penetration and through referrals from existing satisfied customers is well documented.

SOooooo... Guess who becomes the "Point of the Spear" on customer relationships, customer retention and increased customer penetration; The Inside Sales Person.

Answer These Questions As CEO, Sales Manager and as a leader, how are you treating your inside sales staff? Are they trained adequately? Do you recognize their value? Have you implemented an incentive program for I/S? In the past, Management often viewed inside sales people as order takers and treated them accordingly. This 'attitude' was reflected in areas that impact customer service, retention and job performance.

For example:

• Job descriptions: the lack of them or inappropriate job descriptions that do not reflect the realities of job responsibilities, tasks, or performance measures.

• Recruiting standards: the lack of them or inappropriate standards that do not reflect today's knowledge, education, skill demands, and empowerment needed to perform.

• Compensation and performance recognition programs: 'clerk' and 'order taker' compensation is considerably different from the knowledge worker demands of today's front-line inside sales professionals. An inside sales incentive program based on growth and profitability is essential.

• Training: the lack of training or inappropriate training that does not address the use of complex computer and communications technologies, product and product applications training. Value propositions and solution selling.

Customers rely on the day-to-day interactions with inside sales personnel to get product and applications questions answered. This reality appears not to be recognized or is the subject of multiple management excuses when it comes to training:

• We can't take them off the telephones during work hours

• We don't allow overtime so we can't train them after normal business hours

• We only allow vendors 15 minute increments during lunch hours to train them

• We would have to increase our costs to train them

• We don't have a training budget for inside sales

• We can't afford to send them offsite for training

Since the early 1980s, industry studies position I/S at center stage. They document changing customer expectations. They prove the primary day-to-day contact with all customers, and the only contact with the majority of customers, is the inside sales function. Inside sales people are the customer's window into the company. Through that window, customers see and experience the commitment to service excellence. All suppliers tout "We have the best service in the industry." Today's customers demand talk the talk be proven by walk the walk! When a company does not meet new demands of I/S for service excellence as customers define it, customers will readily switch suppliers to get what they want: "Anywhere, anytime, their way, for less, now, and fast!" Treat them right and confidence will grow. As confidence grows - success becomes imminent.

So... I ask you again:

"How are you treating your Inside Sales Personnel?"

The answer to that question may well define your level of success as a company.

http://www.ceostrategist.com/ ? Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. ? Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com. Don't forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business. E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for your special Howl discount order form. Get the CEO Strategist Interview Guide and Conducting an Effective Sales Training Session Guide just for signing up for "The Howl".

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How To Be A Top Sales Manager Starting Today

Managing a successful sales team is no easy task. You don't have control over what your sales representatives do, and yet your career and financial well being is based on the accomplishments of the reps on your team. The most successful sales managers possess common traits and utilize proven sales techniques to enable them to consistently outperform their peers. If you follow these effective sales management methods, you will increase your teams sales performance and become a top sales manager starting today.

Adapt And Leverage The Strengths Of Each Team Member. It's important for you to understand your reps unique skills, strengths, weaknesses, and what motivates them. To be effective, you need to adapt your management style to the needs of each individual and should not make the mistake of trying to manage or coach everyone in the same way.
Set Realistic Sales Goals. Make sure the sales goals you set are challenging, measureable, and attainable, and hold your reps accountable for achieving them. The financial incentives available for reaching sales goals, and even those tied to specific deals, should be crystal clear.
Lead By Example. Top sales managers earn the most trust and respect from their reps by rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty. Work closely with the reps on your team that need the most help and you will increase your sales performance. Whenever practical, have your more successful and senior reps mentor your junior ones.
Share And Celebrate Successes. One of the best ways to motivate your team while sharing valuable sales techniques is to have your reps present their most strategic wins to the rest of your team. By doing so, everyone will learn firsthand how their peers overcame difficult obstacles to close their best deals. It's very likely that your other sales reps are having similar challenges with their own opportunities and will benefit from the experience and success of others.
Provide Honest And Constructive Feedback. The best sales managers I've worked with were the ones that I learned the most from and those that provided prompt and constructive feedback. Make sure you point out and reinforce the positive behaviors while also suggesting changes in the areas your reps can improve upon. A well balanced discussion will be appreciated.
Reward Your Top Performers. Rewards can be provided in many ways and it's no surprise that most people in sales are in it for the money. Find ways to acknowledge the success of the individuals on your team and most importantly give credit where it's due. One of the best sales managers I ever had, used to march us into our CEO's office after we closed a large deal and share our win with them right on the spot. It was a great feeling to be recognized in that way, and although that approach may not always be possible, you should get creative rewarding outstanding performance.
Assemble The Best Team You Can. Your success is measured by the overall performance of your team, and it's up to you to be sure you have the very best people supporting and selling to your customers at all times. If there are individuals that consistently under-perform no matter what you do, cut your losses and hire someone new to replace them.
Connect With Your Customers. Engaging directly with your customers is essential to building your own relationships and will help you grow your business. Additionally, it will enable you to assist your reps with their key deals and overcoming the obstacles they face.
Stay Positive. Negative attitudes and actions are extremely contagious. By focusing your conversations on solutions instead of only the problems, you will see the behavior of your team change in a very positive way. Counter a discussion focused solely on challenges with productive questions geared towards solutions.
Have Fun. Creating and fostering a culture where your team works hard, plays hard, and has fun, provides additional incentives for your team to work together and help each other.

As you can see, to become a top sales manager you must coach, mentor and organize your sales team to maximize their potential. Successful managers empower their team by providing an atmosphere of trust and encouragement. This is a challenging undertaking that requires skill and experience. Utilizing the sales management techniques set forth above will assist you to build on the strengths of your team and help you to exceed your sales goals.

If you would like more free information about proven ways to increase the performance of your sales team, please refer to Sales Management Techniques And Strategies.

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