Jeff Turk, CEO
Formaspace

Jeff Turk’s Bio

Formaspace featured in Austin Business Journal, “Formaspace Finds a Bigger Home”

How did you get into your business?

I arrived in Austin in the fall of 2005.   I was just coming back from West Africa, so all I had was two backpacks and a laptop.  I bought two chairs and air mattress at Wal*Mart, got an apartment on East Riverside Drive, and founded Council Oak Investors.  We closed the fund in 42 days, and the apartment was condemned by the city the following week.  Formaspace was the first acquisition in the fund.

What is your company’s Driving Critical Success Factor?

I’m not sure I understand the question.  Unless you own something completely proprietary, don’t people always make the difference?

What do you love most about what you do?

I like solving problems creatively.  I like working with people I like and respect.  And I love being part of our client’s workspaces.  We’re in all kinds of spaces, from national labs doing top-secret research, to robotics and aerospace projects, to the set of Gray’s Anatomy.  How cool is that?

Elvis or Beatles?

Whoa – you might as well ask “Duke Ellington or King Oliver?”  I’m a child of the 80’s.  When Elvis broke out with ‘Love Me Tender’ my parents were tweens. The Beatles broke up before I was born.  I prefer for the music to fit the context of the environment.  If I’m down in South Texas I might tune in a little Tejano, if I’m in Chicago I might listen to my wife’s Southside music, if I’m clubbing in Austin it could be Bob Schneider, but right now I’m at our very loud, very amped-up factory and Nickelback is playing in my head.

What is your favorite business book and why?

I’m not sure if I can name just one, but if I did, it might be ‘Good to Great.’ Actually anything by Jim Collins.  And Gladwell, and the ‘Topgrading Guys’, and Jack Welch, especially ‘Winning.’  Who doesn’t like to win?  The best book I read in 2009 was ‘Who’ by Geoff Smart and Randy Street, which I think is actually better than Topgrading.  I also like the concept of lifestyle design outlined in ‘The Four Hour Workweek.’  I recommend reading anything Warren Buffet has written as well as transcripts of everything he has said.  I just recommend reading in general.

Do you consider yourself a good communicator?

No.  I’m a terrible listener, and listening is the key to communication. I’m one of those ADHD kids, so when talking to me, it’s best to get to the message quickly. Also, I have an aversion to simplicity  and repetition, so that’ something I’m working on. 

One thing that has helped me recently is a Livescribe pen.  It’s this pen that records conversations as you take notes.  Then you can tap your notes, and the conversation that occurred as you took the note plays back to you.  Very cool.

How do you define success?

I have a little piece of paper that I scribbled on years ago that says “Do good by doing well.”  My goal is that everyone who touches us – coworkers, partners, vendors, and customers – is better off for the experience.  If we can develop people in the direction they want to go in, improve people’s quality of life in the workspaces where they spend most of their working hours, and generate a profit that can be churned back into the community – that’s success.

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To start off 2010, I’d like to share a UnCommon Sense secret you can implement today that will guarantee more sales.  This secret requires no new skills or training.  Anyone can do it. 

If your sales team is like most, you have several members who miss out on a lot of revenue (and profit) simply by GIVING UP TOO SOON.  Most salespeople bail out way too early.  They’ll take the sales that come to them, but they don’t do the small amount of work it takes to go and get all the rest.

The following statistics are hard to believe, but paint an amazing picture:

48% of Salespeople NEVER follow up with a prospect

25% of Salespeople make a Second contact, then quit.

12% of Salespeople make only Three contacts, then quit.

Only 10% of Salespeople Make More than Three Contacts.

At this point, you may be saying “So what?”   Here’s what:

2% of Sales are made on the First Contact

3% of Sales are made on the Second Contact

5% of Sales are made on the Third Contact

10% of Sales are made on the Fourth Contact

80% of Sales are made after the Fifth Contact.

These stats indicate that the different between making one call and four calls per prospect can increase your sales by 400%, but only 10% of salespeople do it.  The results of persistence past the fifth call can be even more dramatic. 

In the face of these statistics, you may be wondering why ALL salespeople aren’t more persistent.   Two of the main reasons are Fear of Rejection and Need for Approval. 

There is also a simple question of accountability and discipline.

There is one big difference between good salespeople and great salespeople.   The great ones do the things that the good ones know they should do, but don’t.  

With a new decade upon us, you have a wonderful opportunity to begin a process of consistency in exceeding sales goals.  It starts with you.   Declare that you will no longer accept mediocrity in your sales organization.  Raise Your Expectations, then Raise Theirs.

Statistics demonstrate that there is lots of low hanging fruit that is not being harvested.  Remember, no response or a negative response is NOT a “no”.  Demand persistence.   Refuse to bail out.  Great sales results with follow.

Joe

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

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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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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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