In today's blog, we discuss the notion that effective sales leadership requires leaders to meet the challenge during times of major change.
In this article, we bring you 11 concepts to adopt for managing yourself and your salespeople; to help increase sales, productivity, and trust within your organizations.
- What would you do if today where your first day on the job?
- What kind of attitude would you have?
- How would you respond to the responsibilities of your new job?
- You would you interact with your new co-workers?
- You come in the 2nd day of your new job and the company asks you to do something different. How do you respond?
- Who is more valuable in the marketplace, someone that adapts or someone that resists change?
Consider this: “You think you understand the situations, but what you don’t understand is the situation has changed.” Putnam Investment advertisement
Concept #1 – Commitment is a gift you should give to yourself
- What are you committed to?
- If you are not committed to do whatever it takes to succeed and increase sales, then you must:
- Set personal goals that are non-negotiable
- Have a vision of where you want to go (and where you want to end up)
- Failure to do these things will lead to failure to fully commit
Concept #2 – Senior management must empower all others to think like a CEO. If senior management can accomplish this, then non-managers will think and act like they are CEOS; looking out for the entire company, and not only for themselves.
- Support people to make decisions
- Train them on how to make decisions
- If bad decisions are made, it is because of the following:
- Leadership hired the wrong people
- Failure to communicate well
- Failure to train on decision-making
Concept #3 – The use of technology
- You must use it and demand it of yourself and your team!
- If you have people that have a belief that ‘You can’t treat old dogs new tricks’, get those people off of your stage
Concept #4 – Flexible thinking and changing beliefs are critical. There are some truths that you will have to accept.
- Life isn’t fair!
- Life isn't fair!
- Life isn't fair!
Concept #5 – Companies are curious:
- How can you increase my top line?
- How can you add to the bottom line?
- How will you prove it via accountability to measurable achievements?
Concept #6 – Your company will be asking, “Why should I keep you”?
You must demonstrate that:
- You are a good employee
- You work hard
- You get things done
- You are capable of learning
- You have experience that is valuable to YOU and to the future of the compnay
Concept #7 – Lifetime learning
- Information doubles every 5 years
- Power and speed of the microchip doubles every 18 months (Moore’s law)
- The cost of computing drops roughly 30% every year while working faster and better
- Are you twice as smart today as you were 5 years ago?
- Have doubled your capacity in the last 18 months?
- What are you doing today to be twice as smart in 18 months?
- How much are you costing the company? Are you a better “buy”
Concept #8 – Job security
- The ability to initiate new relationships
- Being able to create and sell creative solutions to qualified buyers
- Your ability to facilitate decisions to buy from you
Concept #9 – Make sure you contribute more value than you cost
- The company’s perception about contribution vs cost is the reality
- You are not entitled
- Prove your worth
- If you consider leaving, would the company do whatever it takes to keep you?
- How is your value measured by the company?
- How is your cost measured?
- The value of every company is outside the company (The marketplace) what are you doing to bring that value into the company?
Consider This: “The factory of the future will only have two employees, a man / woman and a dog. The person will be there to feed the dog and the dog will be there to make sure the person doesn’t touch the equipment.” Warren Bennis
Concept #9 – Serving others
- What does it take to please them (everyone in your sphere is a "them")
- How can you contribute to the success of others?
- The person at the next desk, down the hall on another floor; make no mistake they are your clients and customers.
- The "Best Bargain" is based on the value you bring. The consumer will seek and find the best bargain. They will either get it from you or from someone else.
Concept #10 – Ownership / Responsibility / Accountability
- You are responsible for your attitude
- Philosophy > Attitude > Behavior
Concept #11 – Be a fixer, not a problem creator
- Create or find solutions vs. announce and identify problems
- Base conversations and actions on principles rather than your own personal position
- Focus on getting outcomes instead of creating rules regulations and procedures.
Consider This: Who are you holding captive for your success, you or your employer?
How appropriate are these concepts today? Everyone of these thoughts, ideas and action items can and will help you lead yourself and others through challenging times.
What I think you might find interesting is that these notes are a result of a book I read by Pritchett and Associates titled: The Employee Handbook of NEW WORK HABITS FOR A RADICALLLY CHANGING WORLD.
Price Pritchett does a great job of outlining 13 ground rules for job success in the information age. The booklet was written in 1994! However, the principles and ideas make as much sense today as they did back then. Some of the technology data might be a bit off given the advancement of the IT science but if anything, the technology has gotten smarter and faster due to big data capabilities.
