A Call to ACTION!

There is something very refreshing about those who take action. People make investments daily in lots of “things” designed to make themselves and their companies better. Whether it is a gym membership, a training course, a book, a new piece of technology or something else, we make purchases regularly designed to increase our output or improve us in some way. And yet, it becomes more and more evident to me that people often do not invest the primary ingredient needed to get the true benefit from their investment. That ingredient is Committed, Focused ACTION!

I just recently ran of my Sales Manager Boot Camps in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a terrific event with attendees from several different industries. Not unlike many of my training programs, each person in attendance had wonderful and very enthusiastic things to say about the Boot Camp, my delivery style, and the content. But one company in particular has since then (a mere two weeks ago) taken massive action on the introduced strategies and ideas and has also put into immediate use many the tools that were offered.

Wade Mayfield and his team Thermal Services in Omaha, NE have immediately put the Sales Coach International Seller Rating/Ranking Grid that was introduced at Boot Camp into to immediate use. They have (in two short weeks) had every leader on their team in every division of their organization (sales and non-sales) break down the important factors of Attitudes, Skills, and Activities necessary to perform and to thrive in his organization. Subsequent to this analysis, each leader has assessed and rated each player on his/her team in each of these dimensions, identifying strengths and opportunities for growth. These manager/leaders now have a road map to coach and improve their people’s performances daily through focused field training and coaching, one to one meetings, Individual Development Plans (IDPs), and other coaching initiatives….and they are being held accountable to doing just that.

In addition to the above, one division of the company through one manager (Phillip) is in the midst of developing a series of key Pay Attention! points” and key questions (specifically introduced in the Boot Camp) for what would typically be considered a non-selling position (plumbers) to identify additional opportunities in every call. Also, one manager in particular has taken to heart many of the strategies that were introduced at Boot Camp regarding the creation of more powerfully focused Sales Meetings. He (Lucas) has, since Boot Camp, invited a vendor to be a guest speaker at one of his sales meetings and, in advance of the meeting, actually inspected what he expected with that vendor. He made the vendor lay out a specific plan of action and agenda to his meeting (vs. the “shoot the BS” meetings of the past) and rolled in the vendor’s information with his specific application and execution training. How do I know this? I received a detailed Thank You card from that manager yesterday outlining his successes. Action, action, action!

There are many more examples of massive action from Wade and his team of rock stars that I can cite from just the past two weeks. The tip of the spear (acting as the catalyst) for this action has been Wade himself. Wade attended the Boot Camp along with all of his managers while in the middle of a major physical move of his office. In fact, after seeing me speak at a Vistage meeting, Wade was the catalyst that was instrumental in getting the actual event put together in the first place, securing the training venue and sparking a group of CEOs to take part by enrolling their leader/managers.

I just spent an hour on the phone with Wade and his partner, Barry going over each of the action steps that they have taken in the past two weeks and identifying the plans for each of his leaders based upon the Boot Camp. His entire organization now has a clearer vision and set of marching orders based upon the action of the leaders—not the training alone. Wade and his team invested thousands of dollars and two days of their lives to be exposed to new leadership initiatives at my Boot Camp. Since then, they are ensuring a climb to $20 million in sales this year through committed, focused action on what it is that they learned. I would place my bets on Thermal Services growth this year and beyond.

So, what is it that you are missing in your expectations of results thus far this year? Where have you made an investment that is not paying off yet? Where can you apply some committed and focused ACTION in your life to spark your results?

• That gym membership will not help your fitness and weight loss without you investing your efforts and action.
• That training course you and your team attended means nothing without your investment in the changes and action identified.
• The books and Cd’s on your desk will do nothing for you without you actually reading/listening to them and taking action on the ideas they offer.
• Wanting, intending, thinking, wishing, and hoping are truly not ACTION WORDS and rarely, if ever, produce any change or positive results.

So….pick one area of your life (business or personal) and be “just dumb enough to believe” that taking ACTION will produce what you desire. Dive in! Get busy! Don’t over-think anything. Commit to spending at least 90 days on the change and the growth you desire and watch the results start to pile up. Be awesome, be courageous, and win on purpose!

Focus Precedes Success (Part 2)

There are a handful of common things on which top salespeople put their focus regularly. I have picked out three of these areas for this article so that my readers can get started (or continue) putting their constant attention where they need to:

This is Part II in a three part series about FOCUS for Salespeople

II—Begin with the End in Mind
Stephen Covey introduced us to this habit in his book entitled “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” It is my belief that when a salesperson focuses on what the end result looks and feels like in any sales cycle, he/she will navigate the seas with a stronger purpose.

Note: Beginning with the end in mind is about the results that the customer gets with the use of your product or service and NOT about simply making a sale!!

This area of focus backs up what I wrote about Pre Call Preparation in my last post but it also requires that you start with a vision and a goal. So, if we are to take a look at three areas of dialogue on which top sellers focus their sales process, they would be:

1-A Look Back over Your Shoulder-(What got us to this point?)
2-A Current Overview (What is the “State of affairs?”)
3-What do you Want to be When you Grow Up? (What is the vision of the ideal future?)

This format allows us to “frame up” the things that got the prospective buyer to where they are and to define the things that are necessary to get them where they want to go. Again, it starts with understanding the past and current situation and then defining the path (with the customer) to the previously defined (and mutually desired) result.

As a salesperson, I often looked at the entire sales cycle as a series of gates that needed to be entered and closed before we could move to the next. Once a gate was closed, then we could proceed to the next step. I believed, as I still do (and teach), that every step of the sales cycle must have two clear things:

1-A clear PURPOSE for the call (as mentioned in my previous post) and
2-A clear

—you can’t always CLOSE the sale, but you have to always close the next step.

The difference that I have found between top producers and most other salespeople is that they define the END of their sales cycle differently. Most salespeople think that the final stage is when the contract is CLOSED. Top Salespeople feel that the sales cycle is not complete until they have received their TENTH referral from the client. This is based upon results! This one difference changes the strategy on most of the sales calls and changes the preparation and value-add initiatives on every interaction of the sales cycle!

Next blog post on FOCUS addresses the need for Constant Forward Motion—don’t miss it!

Are you selling smart?

If you’re a sales professional, you probably woke up one day and said, “How do I make $250,000?”

I’m sure you didn’t wake up and say, “I can’t wait to do an email marketing campaign.” You didn’t wake up and say, “I can’t wait to do some more paperwork.”

You could wake up and say, “I’m a sales professional. I rock. I am awesome when I’m in front of customers. They like me. They like my products. They like my prices. The more time I can spend out there with them, the more time I’m going to spend at the bank making deposits.”

Whether you’re going to define success monetarily like I just did, or you’re going to define it by saying, “I have more success because I can make the money that I’m making today and work about 60 percent of the time on the right things instead of having to work these 70 and 80 hour weeks doing at least 30 hours of those doing non sales work.”

What’s your highest and best use? Where do you thrive? For most of us it’s not banging the phones, not on paperwork or filling out reports, not the Excel spreadsheets. For the majority of us in sales, that’s working smart to get deals moving down the field.

Working smart means doing the things that are going to grow the relationship and add value to those people who are doing business with us today.

The three keys to success in sales

There are three main things that as a sales professional you need to focus on every day.

Here’s the first thing:

Doing the things necessary to get in front of qualified prospective buyers.

Most people say, “Well, he means picking up the phone and prospecting.”
Well, that could be a small part of it, but cold calling into a marketplace that doesn’t know you is a lesson in frustration. If you’re doing that, you need to identify the companies or people you want to go after. Identify them, profile them, find out what they would be willing to pay for, find out what they find valuable and then write blog posts about that and make sure they see them.

I’m talking about doing the things necessary to get in front of prospective buyers and  becoming visible in that marketplace. That’s prospecting to me.

Here’s the second thing:

Understand your sales cycle.

When you’re prospecting, let’s get down to a defined set of potential customers. Let’s define them in advance and let’s dial or let’s walk in the door. Let’s not do it without a purpose. Let’s make sure that we’re clear on our purpose on every single call.

If we’re going to be leaving voicemails, let’s make sure that we’re prepared with the voicemails that we’re going to leave. One of the biggest errors in sales is not necessarily the things you’re doing, it’s the things you’re doing half assed.

Like dialing and smiling and winging it until voicemail picks up and leaving a 10-minute message. Or leaving a voicemail message that says “Ma’am, I’d like to take a moment of your time and… “

Those calls don’t get returned.

Or when a live voice picks up, hell we’re not even expecting that because 83 out of 100 calls that we make ends up with a voice mail. We hem and haw our way through there. We need to get very focused on the things that we need to do to get in front of customers.
Now, speaking of voice mail for a second, the only purpose of leaving a voice mail is to get a call back. You’re not selling jack over the phone on a voice mail.

So, on a voice mail, leave just enough to get them to call you back. Don’t worry about giving information. I like to use a simple rule, the Michael Jordan rule: 23 seconds, no more. In that 23 seconds, you’ve got to leave your name and your phone number twice, once at the beginning and once at the end, slowly.

When you get them on the phone live, the purpose is not to sell your product or service; it’s to sell the appointment. And then, when you get there, go sell your product or service.

Stop worrying about selling on the phone. Tell them just enough, using the old AIDA theory from marketing:
•    Grab their Attention
•    Get their Interest
•    Create Desire
•    Have a call to Action (and that’s to set the appointment).