If your company is like many today, you may be experiencing the perfect storm of a shrinking market, shrinking margins and greater competition.  You may also be trying to deal with this storm without a surplus of available cash, or under conditions of tight credit.  Many 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.  Some currently have people in a selling role, but the results are sub-par.  They 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.  If you decide to go for it, here are simple steps that will be required: 

1.   Acknowledge the Brutal Facts:  If you want to upgrade to a powerful Sales Culture and reap the rewards that doing so 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.  

3.   Use Effective Tools and Processes:   You must be able to identify that small percentage of people.  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 wishy-washy or vague.  You must clearly communicate your desire and 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 people 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 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  2009.   All Rights Reserved.

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Todd R. Hewitt
President
Texas Fifth Wall Roofing Systems, Inc.











GIVING BACK
Business Philanthropy
Friday, February 27, 2009

Local company replaces roof on child development center Forty employees of Fifth Wall Roofing Systems replaced the entire roof at Sammy’s House Child Development Center at no cost to the nonprofit group.

Work and materials to repair rain damage had been estimated at $80,000.

“We never would have imagined that one company would donate materials and labor,” said Isabel Huerta, executive director of Sammy’s House, which helps special-needs children.

“I am heartened that even during this uncertain economy, people remain generous.”

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“This initiative arose spontaneously from our employees who volunteered their time and included office staff in some hands on work that they never typically experience.  An unanticipated outcome was the unsolicited letters and phone calls of appreciation that we received from people that viewed the newspaper article.  Some from people we knew and others from strangers that went out of their way to acknowledge our involvement.  The whole experience made me feel a deep and unexpected sense of community,” says Todd Hewitt.

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Keeping customers happy is a must in today’s business climate.   As a result, its time to take a hard look at your customer service. Are employees making the grade—or do they need some incentives to get there?

A board of your peers, who are members of The Alternative Board®, recently took on this issue.  Peek inside their meeting with CNNMoney.com. 

This is no time to be alone! With the help of fellow business owners led by a professional facilitator, you can make better decisions and effectively conquer the toughest business challenges.  Does it make sense to talk more about your unique business issues?

Respecfully,

Joe Zente

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Who will drive Change in YOUR Sales Organization? 

Over the last two weeks, I gave five talks on Upgrading Sales.  I spoke with over 200 highly engaged entrepreneurs.  I asked all five groups to raise their hands if they would rank their Sales Organization as “Great”.  Less than 2% of them raised their hands.  Next, I asked them to raise their hands if they would rank their Sales Team as “Good”.  Maybe another 8% of hands went up.   In other words, approximately 90% of a diverse group of private business leaders in varied industries in multiple states ranked their Sales Organizations as Average or Poor.

So here is my question:  “Since Sales in the Lifeblood of Consistent Success, why do so many owners TOLERATE Mediocrity?”

If you are a business owner seeking to build a consistent, scalable and predictable Sales Team, don’t look far.   It all starts with YOU.  This doesn’t mean that YOU need to Sell.  You don’t even need to know how to sell.  It also does not mean that you need to Manage Sales.  It does, however, mean that you need to DECIDE and COMMIT to Upgrading Your Sales.  Building a Great Sales Team takes no magic, just a decision, a checklist and execution.

If you’d like a copy of the Uncommon Sense© World Class Sales Checklist, email me and write “Checklist” in the Subject Line.  If you’d like to expand on your biggest sales challenge, I will reply in short order. 

Stay tuned–I’ll be expanding on this step-by-step approach to Upgrading your Sales in the coming days…   

Onward!

Joe

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