Every day I speak with CEOs and Sales Managers who are frustrated.

Most of these executives have well-developed strategies.   Many have invested big bucks in recruiters and/or employees with big credentials.   Lots have read the most popular books and articles.

To their credit, these execs have worked hard to build organizations with great knowledge, great people, and great plans.  Although a good percentage of them are outperforming their competitors, the great results they are generating fall far below their expectations.

There is a huge Execution Gap. 

Their employees KNOW better, they simply do not DO better.

Nowhere is this statement more apparent than with salespeople.  Most salespeople understand that if they knock on twice as many doors or make twice as many calls, they will generate at least twice as many sales.  Most salespeople know they can easily identify a large portion of time they spend in NON-selling activities every week.  They KNOW these activities do not contribute to higher sales.  Yet, they do little or nothing about it.  

Just ask them.   The majority of salespeople can tell you things they should do, starting TODAY, to improve their chances of exceeding their sales goals.  They can and will TELL you.  But they will likely not DO it.   This is the main reason they will fall into the majority of salespeople who will fall short of their annual quota.  Again.

They Know better, but they will not Behave differently.

There are many reasons for this, including, but not limited to:

• Lack of Incentive
• Laziness
• Self-Talk
• Fear of Leaving their Comfort Zone (aka:  Good is the Enemy of Great)
• Lack of Accountability
• Self-Limiting Records
• Fear of Rejection
• Ineffective Sales Management

Then there are the two biggest reasons– Lack of Desire and Lack of Commitment.

How do Your Salespeople measure up in these areas?

How much will the Execution Gap cost you this year?

There are proven methods to both identify these problems and to Close the Execution Gap.

If you believe you have an Execution Gap that requires repair, feel free to email me at GrowMySales@zthree.com.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

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Are you stuck?

While there may be debate about the state of the nation’s economic future, many CEOs tell us today that they are experiencing the perfect storm of longer sales cycles, shrinking margins and greater competition.  Some believe that this may be a perfect time to capture new market share in anticipation of a turnaround. 

You may be trying to deal with this storm without a surplus of available cash, or under conditions of tight credit.  Business owners are frustrated with the lack of new business and the fact that few, if any, of their people relish the role of obtaining it.  Most have people in a selling role, but the results are sub-par.  Many feel they are being held hostage by mediocre salespeople who may have valuable information or relationships.  The answer to these seemingly perplexing situations is you.  By virtue of a simple choice, you possess much more power than you might think to dramatically upgrade your Sales Team and grow now.  Upgrading to a true sales culture will not only affect your top line revenue, but can also improve your margins and net profit.  Don’t feel over-whelmed—it’s much simpler than you might think.  If you decide to go for it, here are simple steps to follow: 

1.   Acknowledge the Brutal Facts:  If you want to upgrade to a powerful Sales Culture and reap the rewards that a powerful culture will bring, it is vital to realize that the very people you would like to change have chosen to behave in the way are currently behaving.  They act the way they do for one reason–because they want to.  So despite your strongest desires, they probably will not choose to do what you would like them to do – Hunt and Close.

2.   Needle in a Haystack:  Hunters and Closers represent a microscopic portion of the “salesperson population”.  In fact, only a very small percentage of people are really suitable for taking on any part of a sales or business development role.  If you have a small sales team, it is highly likely that you have NO Hunters or Closers.

3.   Use Effective Tools and Processes:  You must be able to identify that small percentage of people who can hunt and close.  This isn’t hard to do if you use the right types of assessment tools and processes.

4.   Raise Your Expectations, Trumpet Your Intentions:  This is not the time to be ambiguous or vague.  You must clearly communicate your unbridled commitment to create a powerful, lasting Sales Culture, especially to those who must carry part of the Sales Culture load.   For example, let’s say you want the regional managers at your professional services firm to go out and find local business customers, the customer service call center to become proactive by making outgoing calls, or your professional service providers to bring new clients into your firm.  In all of these cases, a common mistake management makes is to neglect the clear communication of expectations to those very people they would like to change.

5.  Appoint a Competent Culture Transformation Director:  Again, this is going to take steady commitment on your part.  But it will pay off.  Appoint someone who understands what needs to be accomplished as well as how to accomplish it.  Then hold them accountable for executing.

6.  Train and Coach:  Make sure that the chosen stakeholders are provided with the training they’ll need to succeed in this strange new world of selling and new business development.  The assessment tools can provide you with a development roadmap.

7.   Demonstrate a Crystal Clear Path to Success:  Don’t throw them out to sink or swim.  Even with the most talented of salespeople, it is up to you to clearly define what it is they should do and how often they should do it.

8.   Don’t Try to Push Water Up Hill:  You must get buy-in from the people that will participate in your culture transformation.

9.   No Surprises:  You must be clear as to how their success will be measured.

10.  Hold Them Accountable:  The Culture Transformation Director must hold the participants accountable to doing what they agreed to do.

A sluggish economy is the absolute best time to perform a Sales Culture Transformation.  With a simple choice, the right tools, and a simple checklist, you’ll be well on your way to higher revenues, increased profits and consistent performance.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

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At a recent TAB Conference in Colorado, I had the pleasure of attending a fantastic presentation and spending some time with Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers – How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.

Multipliers outlines the fundamental differences between two dramatically different types of leaders.  The first type of leader, referred to as a “Diminisher”, feels the need to always be the smartest person in the room.   These “leaders” are loaded with “brilliant” ideas and like to defend the reasons they are great.  As a consequence, they tend to drain intelligence, energy, talent and commitment from their employees.

The second group of leaders are “Multipliers”.  These leaders inspire the flow of ideas, create energy, and amplify the capabilities of the people on their team.   They get more done with fewer resources, attract better talent, solve the most difficult problems and create world class innovation and productivity.

In listening to Liz speak, I was struck by the incredible parallels between leaders who deploy the philosophies and principles of Multipliers and salespeople who deploy the philosophies and principles of UnCommon Sense^© Buyer Facilitation.

Here are just a few examples:

Diminishers and Traditional Salespeople:

• Believe they are the experts

• Spend the majority of their time talking, explaining and convincing

• Make lots of assumptions

• Squelch disagreement

• May win at the expense of others

• Often accept mediocre results/lost margins

Multiplier Leaders and UnCommon Sense^© Salespeople:

• Facilitate expertise and discovery

• Embrace healthy disagreement

• Unleash the genius of others

• Spend little time talking, but ask great, inspiring questions

• Understand Human Psychology and Principles of Communication

• Try to never make assumptions or convince

• Do not need to feel smart

• Inspire others to feel smarter, be experts and multiply results        

If you have ever worked for a multiplier, they probably inspired you to produce much greater results than any diminisher.  Whether in business, in their community or in their home, Multiplier leaders consistently outperform their diminisher peers.  Similarly, UnCommon Sense salespeople consistently blow their traditional, expert, smooth-talking sales peers out of the water.

I encourage you to learn more about Liz and Multipliers at

http://thewisemangroup.com/research/book/

For more about how to Multiply your Sales, check out

http://zthree.com/blog/sales/your-salespeople’s-great-loves-why-premature-satisfaction-is-costing-you-a-fortune-2/

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

 

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When I wrote my blog in September titled “Sales Training Doesn’t Work”, I had no idea that the emotional reaction from readers would rival the debate over Roe vs. Wade.  The article (http://zthree.com/blog/sales/sales-training-doesnt-work/) inspired vigorous debate among thousands of responders.

For some reason, the topic ignited a firestorm of responses ranging from “Joe–You are an idiot and have no idea what you are talking about”, to “I couldn’t agree more…”  Some respondents reacted only to the title and used their comments as an opportunity for self-promotion.  Some accused me of attempting to promote my own business.  Fortunately, most of you who took the time to read the article (versus reacting to the title) engaged in an extensive, on-going, interesting (and hopefully beneficial) commentary regarding:

* rational approaches that any business leader or sales executive can use to upgrade their sales.

* decision criteria to consider before investing in sales development.

* strategies and tactics to avoid wasting money in anticipation of ROI.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am actually a huge proponent of sales training.  In fact, training is an essential component of any program designed to increase sales.  However, an investment in training will only reap dramatic, sustainable results if supplemented by a holistic program designed to take salespeople out of their comfort zones by transforming their thinking, resulting in productive, consistent behaviors.

I expect that this article will inspire additional ideas and suggestions.  So if you’ve been considering taking your sales to the next level, I would strongly encourage you to peruse the comments of the many professionals who have responded to both this blog and the original.  Doing so will likely save you lots of frustration and many thousands of dollars.

As always, thanks for sharing….

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

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Are you BUSY???

Whenever I present to or facilitate groups of CEOs or other business leaders, I love to ask this question.  Typically, a minimum of 80% of the executives will raise their hand.  Most believe they are really busy.

“Busy” is an interesting word.  The concept of busy-ness inspires all sorts of interesting conversation.

• Is it good to be busy?

• If so, why?

• How does busy-ness affect your energy level?

• What would you do with your time if you were not busy?  Would you be bored, or would you become more productive?

• How does busy-ness relate to effectiveness?

• If you are busy, are you in control?

• How does busy-ness relate to happiness?

We know that in selling, self-talk has a huge effect on a salesperson’s ability to be productive.  Great salespeople have empowering self-dialogue.  Weak ones have all sorts of limiting self-talk. 

In training and coaching sales executives, we dramatically affect sales results by helping them identify and eliminate their head-trash.  They quickly realize that the conversation that they have with themselves is MORE important than the conversation they are about to have with their prospects.

The same goes for business leaders.

If you are a CEO who feels you are always really “busy”, I suspect you spend a good portion of your day reacting to urgencies, chasing deadlines (many of which are self-imposed), solving problems, and spending a good portion of your day doing things you wish you didn’t need to do.  In other words, you’d probably rather be doing something else.

This does NOT need to be the case.   If you currently feel “busy”, and if you’d like to improve your situation, here are few tips to gain control, improve effectiveness, and feel better:

• Start by removing the word “busy” from your vocabulary, especially from your self-dialogue.  Whenever you are feeling busy, tell yourself that you are “in demand”. 

• Evaluate other limiting self-talk, mind-warping words, and dis-empowering beliefs and phrases you carry today.   They are likely sucking your energy and creating ineffective behaviors.

• Ask yourself if you have an Addiction to Urgency (for a survey to learn how addicted you might be, email me and write “Urgency Addition” in the subject line).  Remember, Urgent does NOT mean Important. 

• Get out of the weeds and review any activities that you consider to be “busy-work”.  You will likely learn that many of these items can be delegated, outsourced, or perhaps even eliminated. 

• Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle.  On the top right side place a plus sign, on the other a minus sign.  On the minus side, list all of your recurrent activities that suck your energy.  On the plus side, list those wonderful activities that GIVE you energy.  Then get to work on spending 100% of your time where it belongs.

Limiting self-talk and urgency addictions are serious.  On a business level, they can have huge effect on your top and bottom line.  On a personal level, they will not only harm your efficiency and productivity, but can also have a detrimental effect on your happiness and your health.

Copyright © Joe Zente 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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