If you’ve worked through the heavy lifting involved in the eight steps I described in Volumes One and Two, Congratulations.  You are well on your way to consistent over-achievement and significant revenue growth.   The Final Four are quite easy and straight-forward.    Three of these steps can be easily determined via an objective assessment.  The final step involves simple a simple commitment.

9.  Skills – All selling skills are a blessing.  The more, the merrier.  But certain skill sets are essential for overachieving.  Your Sales Team must be able to hunt for new opportunities, identify the most qualified and be able to close them.  Seek and develop Hunters, Qualifiers and Closers.  Consider everything else a bonus.

10.  Urgency - An over-achieving salesperson must have a killer instinct.  They must have the sense to understand when their prospects are trying to deflect or wiggle away and the skills to deal with these put-offs.  The Law of Diminishing Pain is profound and abundant.  If a prospect doesn’t agree to do business with you while you’re speaking with him, while you have the ability to influence him, while you have his attention and while his issue is biggest and brightest, the chances that he will decide to do business with you when he returns from vacation or his “two crazy weeks of busy-ness” are highly unlikely.  He’ll have 89 pressing issues to deal with upon his return and the problem you are now talking about will seem less pressing.  If you allow for put-offs, understand the consequences of your bailing out.  If you are LUCKY, you’ll extend your sales cycle by weeks or months.  More likely, the order will simply not happen.

11.  Weaknesses - Unfortunately, there are dozens weaknesses that will neutralize all of the factors listed above.   The five most debilitating weaknesses are Need for Approval, Non-Supportive Buy Cycle, Emotional Involvement, The Money Weakness, and Self-Limiting Psychological Records (aka:  Head Trash).  Fortunately, these can all be measured and systematically eliminated once identified.

12.  Coaching and Training - Your coaching must support any training initiative and help salespeople overcome their weaknesses, develop skills and master the selling process.  Make it clear that your salespeople understand that their recurrent coaching/de-briefing appointment is the single most important meeting on their calendar.  Each over-achieving salesperson must be prepared for their weekly de-brief. Attendance must be non-negotiable.

There are your 12 steps.  If you follow this simple formula, the results will exceed your wildest expectations.  Start now and watch what happens in 2010!

Joe

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2009.   All Rights Reserved.

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Last month, I discussed the first four ingredients necessary to transform your Sales Culture into one that consistent over-achieves.  Here are the next four…

5.  Director of Culture Transformation (DCT):  The DCT should likely be your company’s top executive.  If you are the CEO, but would prefer to delegate this job to your Sales VP, you must still make it crystal clear to everyone that this individual has your 100% undying support. The job of the DCT is to clearly communicate the new paradigm—that mediocrity will no longer be tolerated and that a new culture of over-achievement IS expected, not only from the sales team, but by all of the people that you’d like to be more sales aware.  For example–perhaps you want branch managers at a bank to go out and find local business customers, order takers to become proactive by making outgoing calls, or professionals to bring new clients into your firm.  In any of these cases, the biggest mistake is that management usually fails to communicate this expectation to the very people they would like to change.

6.  Processes:   A process is NOT a model, an approach, a philosophy or a strategy.  A process is a series of steps that leads to a RESULT.   It is your job to define that simple and effective series of steps.  Every salesperson in your company should adopt this singular game plan and follow the same, exact Sales Process.  If you do not currently have a sales process, you might consider starting with UnCommon Sense©.  These processes are adaptable to virtually any type of product, service or industry with very minor modifications.   You will also want to adopt a Sales Management Process and a Sales Recruiting Process.  These three processes are absolutely vital is you are seeking to build consistent growth into your sales effort. 

7. Motivation:  This is the combination of Goals and Incentives. The Bottom Line–does the salesperson have enough powerful Desire and an UnConditional Commitment to do Whatever it Takes - every day - to reach the goals?  When they don’t, it’s your job to motivate them by knowing what each salesperson’s goals are.  This is not about income requirements or gross sales.  It is about Personal Vision, aka:  paid-off mortgages, boats and cars, beach homes, golf trips, world travel, balloon trips, home theaters, fantasy camps, etc.

8. True Champion:  Most companies today require salespeople to work remotely without a supervisor.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of salespeople simply do not have the discipline and mental toughness to carry this load.  I refer to this special breed of self-starters who do have the right stuff as True Champions.  These are individuals who can not only work independently but can also work without supervision.   If either attribute is missing, you’ll need to wind them up every day, twice daily or sometimes more.  Even for people who are not working remotely, most small business owners simply do not have the resources to re-start their people.  If you have self-starters, you are a fortunate manager.  If you don’t, I’d suggest you find some. Sales Teams with these champions are much more likely to consistently over-achieve.

I’ll wrap up the list of the Essential Dozen next month.  In the meantime, if you haven’t yet seen the UnCommon Sense© Sales Upgrade Checklist, it is a simple and effective way to launch your ascension to a more predictable, visible and scalable sales organization.  If you would like to request a copy of the list, you can your request it at GrowMySales@zthree.com.

Continued Success!!!

Joe

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2009.   All Rights Reserved.

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There is no silver bullet when it comes to over-achieving.  The recession may be beginning to wind down a bit, but I do not know of a single economist who has predicted a rapid recovery.  So if you want to burst out and really grow, don’t wait for the economy.  I’ll get started here, then share the remaining top factors for helping salespeople overachieve in my next several articles.  A list of a dozen may seem like quite a bit, but the rewards to your bottom line will make the time you invest well worth it.  

For starters, understand that there are objective, time-tested methods to assess the gap between where your sales organization is today and over-achievement.  There are also verifiable methods to close the gap and take your Sales Force from mediocre to good to great.  So let’s get started…

1. Goals - You must raise everyone’s expectations in order to create superior performance.  It is unlikely that you will raise anyone’s expectations until you raise your own.  This sounds simple, but the majority of companies have an abundant tolerance for mediocre sales performance.  Now is the perfect time to burst out of the comfort zone and set some real stretch goals– much higher that the typical 5 -15% increase in sales.  When setting goals, there are two vital things to remember: (a) that a forecast and plan come from the goals (not the other way around) and (b) that goals are derived, not from the company, but from each salesperson’s income requirements, based on the expenses that accompany their own individual obligations and desires.

2. Incentives – Include more than just salary & commission.  Consider contests, awards and prizes.  Incentives enhance the sales experience and close the chasm between corporate perks and the personal goals listed above.  If an individual has good goals but the firm’s compensation isn’t designed to reward superior achievement, the incentive to perform will not be maintained.  If the company does have a solid compensation plan but the goals wouldn’t excite anyone, the personal incentive to perform will be missing.

3.  Managing the Pipeline – Visuals make it significantly easier to manage the pipeline.  The true key to effective pipeline management is working with critical ratios.  Get crystal clear about the monthly goal, closing percentage, average sale and length of the sell cycle.  If you don’t have enough history and don’t know your ratios, do not let that be an excuse to delay!  Start with your best estimates.  Clarity will come along soon.  You must be able to demonstrate a clear path to success.  Create a Success Recipe based upon your average sales cycle, monthly goal, average sale, and closing percentage.  Then manage the pipeline effectively.  This means ensuring that your salesperson is adding enough new opportunities into the top of the funnel far in advance of your sales cycle.  For example, if you have a 9 month sales cycle and a 20% top to bottom conversion rate, then a minimum of five times the monthly goal must be visible in the pipeline 9 months in advance of the monthly goal (if the goal is for December, then the opportunities must enter the pipeline by March).  Develop a process to make this work and the outcome you desire will follow.

4. Accountability – Effective sales accountability is the component I most often see missing from under-performing sales organizations.  If your sales team is less productive than you believe it should be, lack of accountability is the likely culprit.  Implementing effective accountability into your sales management process is the most direct path to rapid ROI for your company.  Salespeople must be held accountable to correct metrics (e.g.: the number of conversations required to book the number of sales calls required to add those vital new pipeline opportunities) every week.  Equally important, there must be consequences for failure to meet those requirements and consistent follow through when necessary.  Commit the time and develop the courage to implement full accountability and you’ve nearly won the game.

One final note about accountability—great salespeople LOVE it.

I’ll be sharing the other eight essentials to building an over-achieving sales culture in future articles, but please get started today with the Big Four listed above.  On the other hand, if you can’t wait, if you’ve been tolerating too much sales force mediocrity or if you feel you’d like to move faster and get a more production from your sales team starting right away, feel free to email me at joe@zthree.com.

Happy Selling…

Joe

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2009.   All Rights Reserved.

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A lull in the economy presents an enormous opportunity to upgrade your Sales.  Each year, I speak each year with hundreds of Presidents, Business Owners and CEOs.  Rarely, if ever, do I hear from one that does NOT want to improve their Sales and Profitability.  Most owners agree that in order to do this, their organization must change the Sales Culture.  So, the question is not whether or not a leader WANTS Sales to improve.  The question is simply whether or not the leader DECIDES whether or not he/she will CHOOSE to COMMIT to making it happen.

Changing your Sales Culture includes several components.  It is simple to accomplish, but not easy.  Although it is possible to make incremental improvements in revenue without changing to possess a Sales Culture, business leaders who are serious about effecting lasting, consistent, and sustainable CHANGE must be prepared to undertake a larger and more intensive commitment.   This commitment starts at the top and must be transmitted throughout the ranks to the entire company, especially to the management team.  The commitment is a declaration to:

• Change the Results

• Change the Beliefs and paradigms of  the organization

• Change the Attitudes of the organization

• Change the Behaviors of Sales Managers and Salespeople

• Change the Techniques –  Begin with the Sales Management Process
  • Install a congruent, effective Sales Process
  • Install an effective Sales Recruiting Process

Finally, the leader must demand the adoption of a Consistent Vocabulary that will be supported by the entire organization.

Again, Culture Change is not easy, but it IS simple.   There are only five steps.  They are: 

CHOOSE to COMMIT to CHANGE 

EVALUATE YOUR SALES FORCE 

RAISE YOUR EXPECTATIONS 

RAISE THEIR EXPECTATIONS 

HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE

If you CHOOSE to COMMIT to implementing these steps,

Here’s what you can expect:

Most Employees and Managers will NOT embrace Change.  But as I mentioned earlier, the weak economy is your biggest asset here.  Employees are much more willing to change when things are not so rosy. 

If you are a business leader who does choose to commit to building predictability and sustainability into the fabric of your company by implementing LASTING change to the Results, Beliefs, Attitudes, Behaviors, and Techniques of your organization, be prepared for:

resistance from employees and managers (especially your weaker players)

plenty of hills and valleys

attempts at politics

a project that will take more than a few months

Also, be prepared for only a few leaders to emerge and for some turnover among the folks that insist on status quo. 

Choosing to commit to a program to upgrade your Sales Culture may seem like a daunting undertaking.   However, the benefits will be well worth the effort.

As the process progresses and begins to mature, be prepared for a team that welcomes accountability, behaves consistently and performs far better than your existing group.  

Copyright © Joe Zente 2009.  All Rights Reserved.

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