Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

I just delivered a session on sales management actions to drive sales revenue. The venue was Business Expert Webinars.  The primary message of the webinar is the topic of this post:  The 5 Dysfunctions of a Sales Team.

1. Poor performance management
2. Poor recruiting practices
3. Coaching instead of coaching for success
4. Lack of mentoring
5. Motivational strategies that don't work

It would be easy as a sales professional to ignore these five and deny that they either apply to you or say that you don't have these problems. But answer this question:  How are your new business sales?  If you are not up over last year or if you are not on track to hit your target goal this year, then you do have a problem.  I would like to help, but it has to start with you.

1. Performance management - Are you managing your sales activity to be extraordinary this year or to a level just to maintain the status quo to keep you job?  Your answer determines your success. Those that are exceeding goals this year have chosen to ignore the economic conditions and focus on being extraordinary. They are managing their sales activity to that level. You can do this.
   
2. Recruiting for a manager is the same as prospecting for a sales person.  Are you diligent in your prospecting or have you slacked off?  Now is a great time to prospect because most of your competitors are sitting in their office licking their wounds. Those that are succeeding this year have found that most everyone is willing to talk.  You can do this.
   
3. Coaching yourself or seeking the right coaching is critical.  Yes, the times have changed; yes, they are difficult; and yes, the buyers are thinking differently than they did 24 months ago. So, what have you changed? Those that are having success that I've talked to have adjusted. They have reached out to their managers for help and they continue to reach out to my staff and me for one-on-one coaching. Our SDE, Walt Gerano, is busier than ever with his one-on-one coaching practice.  You can do this.
   
4. Lack of mentoring is a problem that only you can decide to fix.  Find people that are getting it done.  Pick their brain.  Find out what they are doing and ask them if they would allow you to copy what they are doing. Ask if you can buy them lunch once a month to be mentored.  You can do this.
   
5. Motivation is an inside-out job. I learned that from Mark Victor Hansen years ago.  You have to re-establish your personal goals, develop a goal accomplishment plan and then go back to step #1 - manage your performance.  In the words of Napoleon Hill:  "If it is to be, it is up to me."  You can do this.

We have a training module called pre-call strategy sessions.  When we initially talk about this process, most participants think that the pre-call strategy session applies to only the final presentation when you are presenting your proposal in hopes of getting the business.  There are a couple of problems with this thinking and I'll get to that in a minute.  I want to talk first about my daughter Alex going off to college this weekend to the University of Dayton.

College planning, like sales planning, is more than just planning for the day of the event when you drop your daughter off to school or for the day when you make your presentation.  In reality, in your professional life as a sales person and as a parent, everything you do should be to prepare you for these moments.  It was at that moment when I hugged her, kissed her and told her I loved her in front of Marianist Hall that I realized I had missed several opportunities to be prepared for that moment and to make sure she was prepared. It was then that I realized that:

• My execution did not reflect what should have been my priority.  In other words, I spent too much time on the road, in the office, working at my computer at home and not enough time with her.
• You spend too much time doing admin 'stuff' instead of developing new relationships
• I took her presence for granted.  I rarely went to her room to talk and visit.  The first morning she was at school and we were home, I walked past her room; the door was open, the bed was made and she was gone.
•  You fail to stay close to your best clients on a proactive, regular and consistent basis. The key word being "proactive" - seeing them when they don't need you or they don't have a problem or providing solutions for their problems that you don't have a product or service for.
• There is more to planning for college than making sure there is money.  I then realized that everything that I said, did or thought - good or bad - was now her foundation as to how she would live her life on her own.  I realized and regretted all at once the times I was short with her, criticized her, didn't take time for her, and gave her an opportunity to witness me being selfish, arrogant, prideful, rude, unforgiving, ungrateful, angry and stupid.  (Certainly, there is another side to that coin, but in these moments we are all worried about what we didn't do or didn't do right)
•  Everything you do with your client, EVERYTHING, regardless if it is a direct contact with them or what they observe you do in other settings, gets recorded and they develop an impression of who you are and how you treat others and probably treat them when they aren't around.
• Eventually things come and they go.  It is the natural progression of raising children.  Either by design or by default, they do go away or we will suffer the stages of loss no matter how well we try and intellectualize the departure.
• You will lose clients.  But you need to let some of them go even when they or you are not ready.  You can't grow and they can't grow if the status quo remains the status quo.

Today is Monday the 24^th of August and she is on her own surrounded by 10,000 of her new best friends and the staff at the University of Dayton that is committed to putting her, my daughter, in a position to become the very best she can be.  With all of my short comings and all the things Linda and I may have failed to do, we did manage to do enough of the right things to put her in that position.  She loves UD. She has already made several friends and she is excited about being on her own and exploring her future.  She will do well.

As I talked to Linda about how I felt about Alex's departure, I told her that I needed to blog about this.  It wasn't the answer she was looking for. But after further discussion this morning, I had a chance to explain myself.  My goal is to help others.  Not just in the arena of sales training, sales management and sales culture development.  No, it's just helping people.  My goal with this post is to help those unsuspecting parents think differently about college planning so that when their day comes, they will have felt that they've planned well beyond the financial requirements, that they have paid the emotional bill for that moment well in advance, and they can look back on their time together and say to themselves "Job well-done."

Go Flyers!

Let me start by telling you this post has nothing to do with sales or selling.  It does have something to do with mentoring in sales and looking for the right mentor for sales.

I have some great friends here at Lake Cumberland.  Not only have they become great friends, but many of them are also mentors.  Jerry B taught me how to drive my houseboat.  Jerry H helps me with the mechanical and functional issues of the boat.  Glenn  has mentored me on the fine art of the right music at the right time of the day.  His lovely wife, Vicki, has mentored me on beverage variety.  Alan is becoming my mentor for my specific boat, a Thoroughbred houseboat.  And recently, Paul is mentoring me on catching 'bucket mouth' (large mouth bass) fish.  When my brother-in-law, Mike, visits from Virginia, he will teach me guitar.

This is what they all have in common:

1. They know their business.  They have become 'experts' in the specific area they are mentoring.
2. They all explain what I need to do and they all have the ability to demonstrate.
3. They have been incredibly patient with me.  I've been boating for over 10 years, but there is still so much I don't know.
4. They give me a chance to execute.
5. They continue to learn from each other and increase their know-how.

It is this last point that is important for you even if you are not a mentor.  One of the 'objections' to training I've heard over the years is "Tony, I've been doing this a long time."  Normally, this doesn't come from a veteran sales person that is highly successful, but normally from someone that has a long history of being in the business but is moderately successful or has decided to coast.  Those at the top of the game continue to learn and improve.  They are eager to learn and figure out how to improve their skill thus improving results.

If you are looking for a mentor, pay attentions to these 5 characteristics of great mentors.

If you are a mentor, ask yourself if you fit these 5 characteristics.

If you are not a mentor and don't want to be a mentor but do consider yourself a senior producer, you should still exhibit these 5 characteristics anyway.

Finally, regardless of your status, the best way to learn something is to teach it to others.  As you go about your business today, find a way to help someone just because.