Rachel Clemens, President
Creative Suitcase

Rachel is a graphic designer with international experience. She’s worked on three continents and traveled to over 30 countries, learning the cross-cultural aspects of great design.  Rachel’s found influence in everything from Slovenian graffiti to Australian aboriginal art and believes that when you experience creativity it follows you everywhere.

After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Rachel worked with Traffic Interactive in London, England and JSA Design in Brisbane, Australia along with Tocquigny Advertising and Jolly Design in Austin, Texas.  In 2005, Rachel started Creative Suitcase to better connect with clients and their businesses.

Creative Suitcase is a boutique graphic and web design studio whose award-winning work helps businesses tell their unique stories in a way that reaches their customers, creating a wide range of campaigns, including branding, brochures, websites and direct marketing.  They have been recognized with multiple local and national advertising awards including:

• Austin Business Journal, #8 Top Graphic Design Firms - 2009
• Published in two books – Branding Identity: The Importance of a Good Corporate Identity and The Best of Business Card Design 8
• Two Graphic Design USA Annual Design Review Awards
• Several Austin Advertising Federation Awards
• One of six local design firms to take part in the national HOW Magazine Design Conference
• Recently gave a presentation on social media to a TAB Board. The presentation outlined the tools and practices they recommend for business, the benefits of each and how best to use them. TAB members can download the presentation at http://www.creativesuitcase.com/TAB.

“I joined The Alternative Board (TAB) when my business was just two years old. It’s one of the best business decisions I’ve ever made.   TAB saved me thousands of dollars in rookie mistakes.  Through my TAB board, I’ve gained confidence in my business skills as well as my creative skills.  Whether you’re building a company and need to do it right or taking a growing company to the next level, you should engage with TAB.”

-Rachel Clemens

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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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Bridgett Wallace
PT, DPT/President
360Balance

360Balance featured in Austin Business Journal, “Top Clinics - 2009″

Bridgett Wallace, PT, DPT, has a doctorate of physical therapy and holds a competency-based certification in vestibular rehabilitation.  She has been treating patients with dizziness and balance disorders for more than 13 years and is the founder and President of Balance Therapy of Texas (DBA 360°Balance) – a specialty clinic for the evaluation and treatment of dizziness and balance disorders that includes both audiology and physical therapy services.

Dr. Wallace has been instrumental in the development of hardware and software designed to integrate diagnostic findings for vestibular patients.  She has co-authored two patents on diagnosis and treatment of vestibular disorders, as well as authored the chapter on balance for the textbook, Therapeutic Exercise, and is currently co-authoring chapters for an upcoming neurology textbook for therapy students.

Dr. Wallace also lectures nationwide to other providers regarding the medical management of dizziness and balance disorders as well as provides consulting services for establishing comprehensive balance centers. Bridgett is involved locally and nationally in her professional association and has served on a number of boards. She is currently a member of The Alternative Board (TAB) and is a member of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Texas.

“As a small business owner, TAB has provided me the tools to create a business model that is not only sustainable but ripe for growth and reproducibility. In less than 1 year with TAB, we have increased our collections by more than 30% and implemented metrics that gives employees a sense of ownership versus being micro-managed. TAB is a resource with endless possibilities.”

-Bridgett Wallace

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