What Percentage Of Your Team Is Truly Committed?

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In the lead up to the launch of The Sales Leadership Academy, I have the luxury of interviewing experts in the field of motivation, most specifically, “sales team motivation.”

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As in, “What role does the leader play in the inspiration and motivation of their teams?”

It’s really easy to say (and I’ve said it, too), “Well, it’s not up to anyone to motivate the producer. They have to come to the table with their own motivation.”

That may be true. But does that mean you play no role at all in that? Of course not.

Dr. Folkman’s Take on Inspiring from a Leadership Position:

I had the privilege of speaking with an author, Dr. Joe Folkman. He’s written several books, most notably, The Inspiring Leader. In it, he reveals multiple studies of leaders and what makes them inspirational.

I sat down with Joe this week and I thought you’d be interested in a specific audio clip from that interview. In this clip, he addresses the idea of “commitment” and how you, yes YOU, have a role in creating commitment on your team.

If you’re interested in learning more about The Sales Leadership Academy…and how it can help you create this type of inspiration in your team, go here. A little knowledge here could make a huge revenue difference in your team. It might be worth looking at.

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What You Can Learn About Achievement From The Stacey Dash Interview?

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Recently, Stacey Dash (unknown to me until I saw this and researched her) was on Meredith Vieria. Personally, I don’t watch Vieria mainly because of the tact she took in this “interview.” The video is below.  Watch it, then come back and read on.

I love this girl! Unafraid to speak on a hot, controversial issue, and speak her truth.

I hear this all the time: “My territory isn’t large enough.” “My compensation plan isn’t fair enough.” “People don’t answer the phone like they used to.” “Prospects lie.” “I can’t get referrals anymore.” My company doesn’t invest in me.” “My company has no vision.”

All of these statements (and Meredith’s unbelievably arrogant questions) are perfect examples of our buy-in to a victim mentality. And it wears us out. Actually, it renders us unable to adopt a stance of personal empowerment.
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The Average Of 5 People

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On this week’s audio post, I want you to evaluate who you spend most of your time with. Are you surrounding yourself with people that you admire and look up to? The people you choose to be around are a direct reflection of who you will become. The rule is, you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

The Problem With Idea Generation – And a Solution

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More ideas are not better. I know there is a saying, “If you want to come up with a great idea, come up with lots of ideas.”

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But I see Presidents and Salespeople generate idea after idea – and yet have little to show for them. So what happens. Here’s my take.

My sense is that the person that has the idea (the creator) is seldom the person who will implement the idea and bring it to profit. I didn’t say “never,” I said seldom.

So the idea-creator needs to have either a) someone around him/her who can flesh out the idea before investing too much time dreaming about it. Or, b) a system that walks them through the ‘fleshing out’ process. Read more

My Ultra-Weird Goal That Needs To Be Made Public

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Last month, I turned 59 years old.

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As I was shooting in the gym that day, I saw a few teens at the other end of the court (basketball) trying to dunk. They were close but not quite there. It reminded me when I was that age, where I couldn’t quite get my hands high enough on the rim to dunk.

Eventually, I nailed it. But haven’t thrown one down in over 30 years.

It got me thinking about my current vertical leap. A quick test – an abysmal 12.  (You know where I’m going with this don’t you?) Read more

Agenda Setting

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“You’ll either be part of your own plan or part of someone else’s plan.”

There is very little Agenda making going on, yet it is one of the most important parts of the Sales Process. An Agenda should include what you would like to accomplish as well as what the prospect would like to accomplish. Make place on your agenda for their agenda.

Off Track Thinking

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Have you ever felt derailed? What is the track you are on? What do you want out of life? If you can determine what your track is, it is much easier to obtain your goals.

Goal Setting for Accidental Salespeople

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This is from a Question & Answer call our team recently did in our new program called The Accidental Salesperson. We thought you might like to hear the kinds of questions coming from non-traditional sales teams.

“I seem to set goals, but then do not hold myself accountable for achieving them.”

This has a lot of potential starting points here. Many times, the reason we don’t accomplish the goals we’ve set is not in the how-to. It starts in the, “Why did you put it as a goal?”

So, let’s say you set a goal of generating 10 new clients in 2013. And le’ts also say in past years, you’ve generated only 3 new clients. Then going from three to many more than that in one year is big. I’m wondering, “Well, how did you arrive at that?”

So I think the first question you have to ask on your goals is, “Are they realistic?” We’re not big fans of the whole, “Are they measurable? Are they achievable? Are they realistic?”

Just look in the mirror and ask yourself ,“You know what? I’ve only accomplished this once in the last 10 years, but I’m going forward again times two,” and if you really believe it, then that’s fine.

 The second thing is I think sometimes we don’t flesh out the goal.

A lot of times, companies will come to us and say, “OK, we want to grow our business 25 percent next year.” We say OK or we say, “What’s that based on? What gives you the feeling like that’s achievable and possible?”

“Well, the market is expanding and the economy is getting better and we’ve added a new salesperson and we’ve got a new product…”

OK, fine. Then, sounds like it’s in your comfort zone. It’s not too far out of our comfort zone. The 25 percent is possible. Then the question is, “Well, how?” How are you going to do it?

Brian Tracy mentioned this a lot in his work. Tracy has some good and some not-so-good points. This is one good one. He says the most important part of a goal is how to.

So I have this goal of getting 10 clients. OK. How am I going to do that and what do I need to learn to do that? What new skills do I need to do that?

This is the thing that I would probably ask you: If your goals are right, then the question is the how-to. How, specifically, are you going to accomplish that and what skills do you need to accomplish that?

So it’s the how and the skills. Then there are probably two sides of the same coin. For example, if your goal is to make 10 calls a week to past clients, then again I’m also going under the belief that you’re not in front line sales so you also have other responsibilities.

That’s not all you’re doing. You’re delivering. You’re answering phones. You’re negotiating for companies, whatever role you play. Then sales is probably a secondary role.

“What skills are going to make me better? What skills are going to make me want to pick up that phone?” Because here’s what I know: Fear will stop you. Fear stops all of us from achieving our goals. It’s not so much the goal scares us. It’s the how-to that scares us. Read more