Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

Once again, I had the great honor and privilege to visit our United States Military Academy at West Point, NY.  I visited there in the fall and posted a blog about my time there, and now, once again, I was overwhelmed by the courage and passion of those that occupy this post.  Yes, it might be a stretch to tie what happens at West Point to sales and selling, but not much of a stretch.  This group of young people consistently demonstrates at an extraordinary level all of those competencies necessary to succeed in selling:  courage, desire, commitment, persistence and ethics.  Here are the lessons from my most recent visit.

Lesson 1:  There is time, and then there is military time:  We met at 0600, began our program at 0610 and finished at 0640. I shook hands with this group of majors and corporals as they filed out to go to formation in the square prior to heading to mess hall and then to their first class of the day at 0700.

Cadets pack more stuff in before breakfast than most people do in a day.  It is truly amazing to observe the capacity for work and effort that this group has.  And their intensity is unmatched in anything I've ever experienced.  Imagine what you could achieve if you approached your professional career with this kind of intensity.

Lesson 2:  If you want to be good at something, I mean really good at something, desire and commitment alone won't be enough.  You have to drill, drill, and drill and then drill some more so that you can perform your task with near perfect execution every time. These cadets go through ‘the routine' of preparing for battle in everything they do, so that when faced with the most difficult scenario, they can perform automatically and with precision.   In selling, you may not think it's critical, but at the academy, it means someone's life.

Lesson 3:  If you commit to something because of the desire for great reward (BHAG:  Big Hairy Audacious Goal), you have to be willing to pay a substantial price.  You need to invest.  And not at the level that anyone would be willing to pay.  No, if you want the big reward, you must invest the big investment.   These cadets willingly complete their 47 months of training and development knowing that they will be asked to make the ultimate investment.

Lesson 4:  You must have standards of excellence. These standards of excellence rest upon your vision, your mission and your core values. The core values at the academy are Duty, Honor, and Country.  Every cadet lives his or her life by those values.  Those values become their DNA.  As a sales person, how you approach what you do for a living has to be in your DNA.

Lesson 5:  Finally, I learned that the best of any class are the best of any class because of their willingness to learn.  It amazes me that these cadets, one and all, are sponges when it comes to learning.  They devour information.  They ask questions. They ask for clarity.  They want to practice what they've learned. They want to execute and implement.  They strive for extraordinary and do not make excuses for failing to meet "agreed to" objectives.  Imagine pursuing your own goals the same way.

My parting thought is this:  For those of you that I get a chance to work with, I am honored that you allow me to be part of your success, and I commit to continue to serve you to help you be your best.

I work with CEOs that are afraid of what the current economic environment will do to top line sales revenue.  Certainly they can get more creative with expenses, but eventually that will have a negative impact on leveraging  new opportunities.  It doesn't take talent to cut expenses;  it is a math formula.  However, it does take talent and creativity to drive new business sales when markets are like they are today.  That is where we come in.

At Anthony Cole Training Group,  we use an assessment built and constantly perfected by Objective Management Group.  The assessment and the resulting findings provides information about sales strengths, sales weaknesses and sale skills as they relate to 21 core sales competencies.  My question today, and in 2 additional blog posts, will be:  How are you addressing these core competencies in your sales development program (either individually or corporately?)  If you are reading this as a participant of one or our training programs, then this information will have a tone of familiarity, so you will be able to relate to the content.  However, you may have been more recently focused on technique rather than the core issues that may be hindering your sales success.  I encourage you to read these posts and identify how they can be additive to your current program.  If you are not one of our participants, feel free to go to our website and take the sales grader to find out how you are doing against best practices in sales.  Here are the first 7 core competencies:

1. Has written goals: this is where your courage and passion come from. Without written goals you won't have the passion or commitment necessary to ask the tough questions, continue to prospect when the market is tough and to consistently ask for introductions
2. Follows a written goal plan: Often people have goals that are written, but then fail this next critical step - establish a written goal plan. Without a plan your goals lack clarity and therefore the activity required to accomplish your goals is unclear as well. And when the required activities are unclear then they won't get executed.
3. Positive attitude: This isn't about looking through rose colored glasses. This is about keeping your head about you when all those around you are losing theirs. It is easy to get caught up the water cooler talk and the complaining about the company, economy, or what the competition is doing. Ignore the talk and focus on what you have to do to be successful.
4. Take responsibility: Excuses are like opinions - everyone or most everyone has them and, unfortunately in selling, we use them when we fail to accomplish our goals. The easy thing to do is to blame something or someone for our shortcomings. If you've been in sales long enough you know that something is always going to happen to make selling difficult for you, but if you are committed to your own personal goals, then you won't let anything get in the way.
5. Strong self confidence: This is critical to succeed. You certainly can't expect yourself to perform well if you don't feel fully confident in what you are doing, what you are representing and what you are saying to the market. But what drives all of this is how you feel about yourself. You must have the confidence to maintain your ‘posture' when you are faced with difficult selling situations. Keep in mind that external gimmicks and crutches won't support you when things are tough. You must consider yourself a ‘10' and maintain that assessment of yourself no matter what happens in your roles.
6. Supportive beliefs: What you believe dictates what you do. If you believe that the economy is too tough to sell in, then you'll be right and won't sell anything. If you believe that people don't want to talk about spending additional dollars in a tight budget environment, then you will have trouble scheduling appointments. You get the point?
7. Control emotions: You must focus on executing your sales system and be prepared for curve balls, and ‘tough' questions. If you anticipate ‘what can go wrong' then when something does come at you that ordinarily would be considered unusual then you will be prepared to handle the situation. If you haven't thought through your phone call, or sales call or presentation, then you will be vulnerable to surprises. When these surprises happen, instead of continuing to execute without ‘panic', you will ‘choke' and deviate from your tried and true sales methods and approach. The symptoms of losing control of emotions are during review of a meeting your self-dialog contains words and phrases like: "should have, shouldn't have, could have, why didn't I, I can't believe that". These are indicative of losing control of emotions.

The best thing to do is to pick just one of these that seem to be the area where you need the most work.  Tackle that one first.  Not the one that is easy, but the one that will have the most positive dramatic impact on your business.  And if you need me call me @ 513 791 3458.

I hate having these discussions because the typically come out the wrong way in writing. When I read articles like the one from Fast Company - The Most Valuable Player in Sports - I can't help but think about sales people, selling and sales results.  Check this out.  In 2006 major league baseball spent $311,000,000 (14% of payroll) on players that didn't play.  I automatically think - hmm, how much money was spent by companies on sales people that didn't play / perform?

I also think how many goals were washed out because the sales professional in charge lacked the desire, commitment, or responsibility to overcome obstacles to executing the game / goal plan to make sure they got the sales results they stated they would get.  And, as a result, failed to achieve some, if not all, the personal goals they had set?

The article goes on to talk about how Dr. Andrews, in addition to his orthopedic wizardry, developed and honed his therapeutic  mastery as well.  He would engage the prospective athlete in dialog that allowed him to identify a multitude of success factors ‘post' operative procedure.  Here are just 6 of his questions ‘translated' into sales talk to assess a sales person's acumen and preparedness for recovery.

1. What exactly is your current sales problem? Where is / are the choke points to successful selling?
2. What happens if you don't fix it?
3. What are your short- term, intermediate and long term sales goals?
4. How committed are you to rehabbing or turbo charging your sales career?
5. What is your appetite for change?
6. What are the other external factors that will help or hinder your success?

Powerful and insightful questions that need to be asked before engaging in any sales training, individual coaching or on-going development plan.    Too often people jump into the fray of training and or self - help only to find themselves light in the checking account, lost investment of time and very little improvement in results. 

My suggestion to you is that you should look at those 6 questions before  you begin to re-invent yourself or re-commit yourself to ‘really getting it done this year'.  Honestly answer those questions and then decide on what your sales goals will be, what your goal plan will look like and how you will hold yourself accountable over the next 12 months.  Oh, and one more question once you've decided that this time you are really going to get it done:

Why should I believe you?

Sales lessons come in many disguises.  This one is about hitting sales goals with a ‘no excuse' attitude about doing whatever it takes to execute your required sales activity.

During basketball season when I was in high school, I had to work on our farm on Saturdays from 7:00 AM until basketball practice, which was about 2:00 in the afternoon.  My sister, Tresa, worked with me. We had to build blueberry crates that we used to ship pints of blueberries across the country.  On a normal day, Tresa and I would make about 800 to 1,000 crates.  On a short day, when I had practice, our goal was about 700.

One day, we had a little fight. Tresa got mad, went to the house and told my dad.  He came over to the barn where I was working, reamed me a good one and then, for good measure, told me that if I planned on going to basketball practice that afternoon, I had better plan on still building 700 crates without the help of my sister.  I could have gotten mad at Tresa, but admittedly it was my fault; however, the real issue was that I couldn't miss practice or I wouldn't start in the next game.  So instead of sitting there fuming and playing the blame game and thinking dad was unfair, I started hammering nails into those wooden crates like a machine.

I finished my 700 by 1:30, went to practice and started the game on Tuesday.

You see, it all comes down to what motivates you to do the things you have to do to succeed.  Certainly, my goal wasn't to make the 700 crates.  It was to make practice so I could start and nothing, not even my own stupidity of having a fight with my sister, was going to get in the way.

What have you let get in your way this year?

• 1. Decisions by your company to change pricing, policies or products?
• 2. A competitor going to the low cost provider strategy and doing a land grab?
• 3. The economy blues where you now have an easy excuse not to prospect for new business?
• 4. A sales manager who is taking a bullet for the team by telling the president that she shouldn't expect to hit the sales goals?
• 5. A too understanding spouse who says, ‘that's ok we'll take a nice vacation in 2010?

Whatever the reasons, you have a choice. Buy into the excuse making or ignore it and focus on your commitments.  If you focus on your commitments chances are you'll be the lone ranger because your competition is laying around making excuses, instead of making sales, leaving the market open for you to go and grab.

At the end of the day, all you have is your reputation. Will your reputation be one of an excuse maker or one of a person that fulfills their obligations?  It's your choice.

I landed at the Bradley International Airport outside of Hartford Connecticut when I was 18.  I flew out of there a couple of days ago, 35 years later, after one of our sales training sessions with an insurance company's  salesforce.  I can't believe the changes. Though I didn't remember all the details of the airport, I do remember it being small and unremarkable.  Today it is a bright, vibrant and a much-expanded hub of air transportation; the improvements are mark able.

As I sat there having lunch, I wondered how much I had changed over that same time-period.  Certainly, the physical changes were obvious.  When I was 18, I was there as a recruit to play football for the University of Connecticut.  Today, I'm a 53 year old consultant to companies that are trying to change / improve their sales force, align sales efforts, and build systems and resources that support extra-ordinary sales growth.  Money isn't the measure of everything that happens, but it is one way to keep score and to track how far you have come.  35 years ago, if you had told me that someday I would own a company with 8 employees and generating 2 million dollars a year, I would have thought you were nuts.  My goal at that time was to graduate and become a college football coach.  How did I go from football coach to entrepreneur?   The following list isn't meant to be all inclusive answer to that question, but maybe it will give you some idea of what it takes to change from an average doing ok sales person, to one that is considered extra-ordinary and best in class.

1. Goal setting - you have to establish non-negotiable goals that extend who you are
2. Commitment - you have to demonstrate your commitment with consistent behaviors
3. Persistence - nothing that you want will be easy, you have to persist beyond obstacles
4. Passion - I love what I'm doing. If you don't love what you are doing get out
5. Learning - you can't stop learning. If you do you'll stop earning and growing

Certainly, you can make a living and probably do ok, but is that why you chose professional selling as a career, to be average and ok?  Challenge yourself in the following ways:

1. Set new goals for yourself that are way beyond what you think is possible
2. Commit to write down your goals, share them with others and then execute activities consistent with those goals.
3. Persist - Do not let yourself or others convince you that you are too old, too young or already good enough to take on a challenge of getting better.
4. Re-ignite the passion that you had the first day you started. Think that you have nothing and you have everything to gain and prove. Start over again as if you had to prove something.
5. Read a book at least every other week. Learn something new about yourself, your business and about selling. Expand your knowledge and skill to become best in class.

Again this isn't the end all and you may actually be thinking is it worth the effort?  I can't tell you the answer to that and only once you accepted this challenge will you know your return on investment.

   

Yesterday, I got the honor of meeting some remarkable people.  They are sales people in fatigues. They spend their day selling other on the connection between athletics and winning on the battlefield.  One of the metrics for success:  bring everyone back alive.  That is life or death.

I was introduced to Dr. Ralph Pim by one of my first clients, Mark Bodnar.  Ralph is the head of competitive sports at the military academy at West Point.  We spent the day talking about how to transition cadets into the work environment ‘after' West Point.  We talked about how he has led to charge to ‘fix' some of the elements of the competitive sports program at West Point.  

Now, you can't go to West Point without gathering in some of the history of America and the history of West Point, where I was introduced to some amazing people.

MAJ Shawn Bault ( 3 combat tours - Assistant Director of Company Athletics)

MAJ Kahn Diep (Director of Competitive Club Athletics - 1 combat tour)

MAJ Joe Gelineau (Special Forces - 2 combat tours - Director of Company Athletics)

MAJ Scott Blanchard (Below the Zone Officer - 1 combat tour - Assistant Director of Competitive Club Athletics)  

We talked about measuring commitment.  Commitment at the military academy is at a different level then what we consider as commitment.  We think in terms of committing to prospecting activity; they commit to bringing entire companies of soldiers back to the states alive.  However, we both have the same problem:  "how do you measure commitment".  I think it's kind of simple:

• Achievement of stated and agreed to non-negotiable goals
• Do not offer up excuses when you fail to accomplish goals.

As simple as this concept is, and with all the leadership taught at the academy, this seemed to resonate and help them realize that yes, even at this high level of performance, people will be susceptible to performing less than they are capable of.

In addition to our discussion around identifying and measuring commitment, we discussed how they work to develop commitment and cohesion within their teams.  I asked them what they do or discuss currently; their response:   they talk about and coach to vision, goals and core values, having the right team members and creating a culture that enables teams to succeed.  Sound familiar to what it takes to build a committed and cohesive sales team?  It was comforting to hear that one of the best learning institutions in the world addresses this crucial element of success the same way we do.

I'll close by reminding myself and you that their objective of focusing on building teams of significance and winning with honor is to prepare cadets for battle, for fighting, for protecting our country.  They measure success by lives not lost and those not wounded.  These are their objectives, their metrics for success, and all the while they have fun, they joke, they enjoy a deep commitment to each other and to the cause.  Truly a remarkable environment.

As you go about your day today, remember that selling isn't life or death.  However, if you prepare and have commitment, your approach is based on solid core values, and you execute and work to win with honor, then you will win more than you lose, you will thrive and can be proud to call yourself a Sales Professional.

So what is the connection?  Maybe nothing at all.  We have a program called Sales Management Environment.  One of our clients adopted the program and changed the name to Sales Management Effectiveness.  I like this too, but the point is this:  What does it mean to have a sales environment and/or culture, and how and what defines the culture?  In addition to answering that question, we must also address this question:  ‘what is the impact on sales results?'

Unknown!  That's a scary, yet valid, answer because most companies do not have the ability, or simply do not track the appropriate metrics that would indicate progress or a decline in results other than sales results. Certainly that is an indicator, but depending on the ramp-up time you expect for a new sales leader, new sales people, or a new sales training program, how could you possibly use just sales results as a measure of success?  That's like using just the score at the end of the game to determine how well your team played.  You may have won, but did you play well enough to win again and again?

Ideally, you would look at the following:  Sales activity and critical sales ratios , such as conversion of contacts to appointments, appointments to opportunities, opportunities to presentations and presentations to closed business.  In addition, you would have to know your average size sale.

In the past, when I've asked senior sales management, sales leaders and sales people about these numbers and ratios, I got a blank stare, a shrug of the shoulders and an "I don't know'.  Why is it a problem?  Because without knowing this information, you can't possibly measure the impact that sales leadership and other influences have on sales results.  And, if you are trying the ROI of a sales leader or sales program, then you MUST know this information.

With our system of testing, training and tracking you can be sure that you will know what needs to be fixed, how to fix it and if it is being fixed.  Without that approach to hiring a sales leader or sales training program, why would you invest the money?

How committed are you to success? Are you sure? Maybe you're compliant. The difference is obvious, when you are compliant you do the things that you have to do to keep your job, maintain the status quo and stay off of the radar. When you are committed you go over the top, you do the extra and you fail to see the concern over company goals because your own personal commitments require more. Which are you?

As the sales leader of your group, you have to be willing to do those things that are challenging, uncomfortable and sometimes flat out messy. Brian Tracy described this as eating frogs. If you are like every sales leader I've ever worked with, if there is a situation, an occasion or an an opportunity that requires that you get messy, you eat the frog. That is the test of your commitment. That is the test of your integrity. Your commitments become obvious because of your actions not your words.

Fierce / tough questions:
1) What conversations are you avoiding?
2) What activity should your sales people execute that you are letting slide?
3) What excuses are you making (taking bullets for) for your sales people's lack of results?

Ask yourself. Are you just being compliant with the systems and process of reports, meetings and evaluations or are you committed to accomplishing what you said you would do when you took the job?

I've never been good at managing. The first time I had to fire someone was when I was the sales manager for Nautilus Equipment Inc. We were a distributor for Nautilus Exercise Equipment and our region covered 12 states in the southwest and mid-west. We had a sales rep in Missouri that wasn't getting it done, so our President sent me there to suggest he find alternative employment.

Ken met me at the airport; we drove to a restaurant that had a bar. We ordered a late lunch, had a few beers and eventually I worked up the courage to tell him he was fired. A little while later he excused himself and never came back. I've never seen him since.

So much for my initial management success.

Have you ever really stopped to analyze why you failed to achieve goals, execute stated action plans, accomplish those lofty objectives that when you dreamed about them and work up excited determined that you were going to ‘just do it:?

Well I have, and I've had the opportunity to see lots of other people fail to accomplish what they said they wanted to do. And in the meantime, I've seen companies time-and- time again fail to accomplish exactly what they set out to do. Yes, they might grow year- over-year; yes, they might land a big sale; yes, they might hit their financials; but they still fail to get the right people in and the wrong ones out. They continue to fall short of hitting top line revenue production growth. They fail to recognize that it is the things they are failing to do, instead they blame the economy, the competition, or changes in regulations regarding their industry. Very few leaders or managers stand up at the end of the year and declare, "We failed because I failed."

One, but not the ONLY, reason for failing to accomplish goals is lack of true commitment and accountability to hitting the goals. The goals are just really suggestions. I know this because in so many places sales people fail to hit goals and they still have jobs. If the goal was a goal, and the expectation was to hit the goal, then failure to do so would have dramatic consequences. Well, you might say that the consequences are that the sales person doesn't make as much. Ok, but what does that have to do with the company. Suppose you have sales people that aren't motivated by money, then what? You still have to grow don't you?

Now I don't want to go off and just blast sales management and leadership, so you sales people jump in this as well. Because when you fail you fail for the same reasons: lack of commitment and accountability to hitting and or exceeding the goal. You are satisfied with ‘not winning'; you've decided that it is ok to fall short; it is ok to transfer responsibility for your success to someone or something else.

Ok, ok, I know this is harsh and you probably don't log onto blogs to get this treatment. So you do have the choice of clicking and going somewhere else. But before you do I have a question. Would you really rather accomplish your goals than not accomplish them?

If so then hang in there.

Here are just 5 things to do that will help anyone accomplish more then they ever thought was possible.

1. Have lots of goals (100 or so is a good start).
2. Narrow your 100 down to about the first 12 that are absolutely non-
negotiable.
3. Share these goals with someone else that cares enough about you to give you a swift kick when you are failing to do the activities required to accomplish your goals.
4. Create a system that forces you to systematically follow up on your activity progress and accomplishment of action items that lead to your goals and accomplishment of stated goals.
5. This is really important: create a small group of people that have the same passion for success and meet with them regularly to discuss your progress and to get coaching where you need help.

There you go. Last question. How do you know a goal setter when you meet one? They accomplish things in life.