Cleveland Sales Talk

Recently I had been spending some time reading, well, actually listening to Jim Collins and two of his books, Good To Great and then Great by Choice. They are amazing looks at business and led me to believe that truly successful companies are surrounded by great individuals.

At my Toastmasters club, Towpath Talkers, I did a speech on one of the the concepts in Good to Great, the Hedgehog Concept, called "Good is the Enemy of Great". The concept is about taking three distinct areas to focus on and finding the sweet spot at the intersection of all three. The three core competencies are 1) be passionate about what you do, 2) find your key economic indicator and 3) find out what your company is best at in the world. You have to have all three to become great. You can get all of this and more in his books and I have links below for each.

What made me think about this once again was the article, Newbie leadership mistakes and the important lessons learned, on Smartblog for Leadership. The 8 specific tips are by promising young entrepreneurs. Read this great article here.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

Labels: Business, Good To Great, Hedgehog Concept, leadership, management, Sales

Customer first!! How many times do you hear that in the business world? What does it mean to you? If you are not careful you can alienate customers and then of course, lose those customers. Without customers you can just close your doors. So, customer first needs to be top of mind throughout your organization. Here is an article that elaborates a bit more on some key components of putting the customer first.

Read it here.

Labels: Business, Customers

This is an exceptional look at creating inspiring leadership.

Labels: Business, leadership

Have you read the Steve Jobs biography yet?? It is on my living room coffee table. Can't wait to dig into it as I have been a huge fan and supporter of Apple since 1995.

In the interim, I have read an article from the Wall Street Journal about utilizing the biography and applying some of Steve Jobs' principles. Bio as Bible: Managers Imitate Steve Jobs.

You can get the book at Amazon.com by clicking on this image.

Labels: Business, Innovation, leadership, management

You need to check this blog post out from Mark Hurst. Outlines briefly the company and/or product life cycle as it relates to the customer experience. Short, sweet and to the point. My take-away....a company must continue to evolve and focus on the customer experience because the life cycle product(s) won't change. Create, develop, innovate to stay a long time participant in the business world. It's about the customer and you can't forget that!

Read the blog post here.

Labels: Business, customer loyalty, customer service

Listen to one of my all-time favorite sales guru's, Jeffrey Gitomer, address some key areas to help make 2012 a rebound year. He talks about the 6.5 actions that need to be taken to effectively impact your new year. Just start today!

Labels: Business, leadership, Sales

Labels: Business, customer loyalty, customer service, Marketing

An area that needs tended to and evaluated periodically is your compensation program. Here are a couple of articles that will shed some light on commissions vs. bonus and then on the actual incentive program keys. Good timing as this should be top of mind heading into a new year. A great way to focus the compensation program to match company goals and initiatives.

Read commission versus bonus and then designing a world-class incentive program.

Labels: Business, Compensation, Performance

As the new year approaches and the budget forecasts are finalized one thing that reverberates in attaining success in 2012.....NEW BUSINESS!! With that said, how do you get potential customers to come on board faster? Here is an article that will outline some basic principals to convince a prospect to switch. Keep in mind that the area to focus on is the customer. There are times we forget about that.


Read the entire article here.

Labels: Business, Change, prospecting

I  just took an old cassette tape of the audiobook of the One-Minute Manager and recorded it onto my Mac and now was able to put it onto my iPod and had the opportunity to listen to this in the car. I have a print copy of this book by Spencer Johnson & Ken Blanchard and even though this book is now 30 years old it still resonates great leadership traits that can be used each and every day.

Here is a brief summary of the three specific areas on one-minute managing compiled by the editors at Selling Power. Great stuff. Apply it today.

The First Secret: One-Minute Goals

All good performance starts with clear goals. Ken Blanchard once had breakfast with Lou Holtz, the head coach of the Notre Dame football team. Holtz kept a little book for himself and one for each of his players in which everyone wrote individual and team goals for the season. Why did he use these books? He told Blanchard, "Of all my experiences in managing people, the power of goal setting is the most incredible."

Create a model for good behavior by agreeing on your goals up front. Make sure you write out each of your goals. Limit the number of goals to five. Write down what the present level of performance is on each goal and then what level you want. The discrepancy between the actual and desired goal becomes the area for improvement.

Give yourself a deadline for reaching that new level. Make several copies of your goals for home and work so you can refer to them daily. Look at your goals, then look at your behavior and see if it matches your goals.

The Second Secret: One-Minute Praisings

The key to developing people is to catch them doing something right, rather than blame them for doing something wrong. Yet most managers persist in basically leaving their people alone until they make a mistake that's noticeable. Then the manager criticizes. Blanchard called that a "leave-alone-zap" management style, or "seagull management." "Seagull managers" fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, and then fly out.

Tell people beforehand that you're going to let them know how they're doing. Then emphasize three main points with praisings. Be immediate. Don't save praisings for a holiday.

Next, be specific. Just saying "good job" is nice but not very helpful.

Third, share your feelings about their work. Tell people how good you feel about the right things they've done and how it helps the organization and their co-workers. Stop for a moment to let them enjoy feeling how good you feel. End with a reaffirmation, and encourage them to keep up the good work.

The Third Secret: One-Minute Reprimands

What do you do when people don't perform well or make limited or no progress? You have to hold them accountable.

The first remedy for poor performance should be redirection, which means going back to goal setting, trying to find out what went wrong, and getting them back on track. Never reprimand or punish someone who's trying to learn, but if you're dealing with somebody who knows better (i.e., someone who has performed a similar task well in the past), then a "one-minute reprimand" might be appropriate.

Reprimand people immediately. Tell people exactly how you feel about what they did wrong. Then pause. This helps you transition to the most important part of a reprimand: reaffirmation. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation. You want to get them back on course, not try to make them feel bad. Remind them how much you value them. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it's over.

Labels: Business, leadership, management, Self-Development

10 Sure-Fire Ways to Fail at Sales - Sometimes a humorous perspective that highlights the wrong things to do can give you insight into doing the right things. I hope you enjoy our list of the top 10 sure-fire ways to fail at selling today. From the Brooks Group.

Sometimes it is great to see what not to do as opposed to what you should be doing. Enjoy and try to do the right things to make your sales career more successful.

Check out the article here.

Labels: Business, Sales, Self-Development, Training

Great blog post by Jeb Brooks from the Brooks Group.

4.25 Predictions for How Companies Will Change Sales Behavior in 2011.

Enjoy!

Labels: Business, management, Sales

Over the last several weeks there have been many planning sessions and discussions about the success of our 2011 budget forecast. We have the overall objective set with five definitive and measurable goals assigned. Those goals are supported by five strategies and a wealth of tactics to support those strategies. My budget binder is almost complete and I am feeling very organized heading into the new year.

I have all of my performance reviews scheduled with my team this coming week so that 2010 can be reviewed and of course have those individual plans presented so we can get those territories on the same page with the regions plan.

I have the reporting set up so that there can be items easily tracked, measured and bench-marked for the new year. Our marketing plan is well thought out and focused to accomplish our goals on many fronts. Our consultant incentive program is geared for achieving success in the budget goals as well as growing commissions and rewarding performance.

Now, with that being said, we can do all of the planning, organizing, strategizing, budgeting, team-building and cheerleading as possible and it stills comes down to a couple of key components to have a successful 2011. One is EXECUTE. Meaning, to carry out; accomplish or "execute the plan". Without execution the best laid plans can be thrown in the trash. Second is ACCOUNTABILITY. Meaning, responsible to someone or for some action; answerable or "being held accountable". There has to be some form of accountability to the execution of the plan and in the achievement of our goals for all parties involved.

The keys to a successful 2011 is to have a great plan (failing to plan is planning to fail) that you can execute (actions speak louder than words) and make sure everyone is accountable (about meeting the established expectations).

Have a great and successful 2011!

Labels: Business, leadership, management, Planning

Great blog post from the Influential Blogger on Sally Hogshead's book Fascinate.

7 Ways to Fascinate, Persuade, Captivate your Audience

Take your own test to see what your {F} SCORE is. Get a copy of Sally's book now.

Just as a reference. My score results were MYSTIQUE for my primary trigger, POWER for my secondary trigger and VICE was my dormant trigger. You will know more how to apply these once you have read the book and taken your own test.

Be fascinating today!!

Labels: Business, Fascination, Innovation, leadership, Marketing, Personal Development, Sales, Sally Hogshead

Recently had the opportunity to read a manifesto that Robert Bloom wrote. It was called Looking Around The Corner and shatters some old-school thought processes of looking ahead every year. He comments that, "This fixation on an obsolete planning process guarantees that firms that use it will not keep pace with the rapid, substantive changes in our business world".

As I plan for the new year of 2011 and develop the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve our overall objective, this doc hits home and gets the creative juices flowing on how we will go to market in a multitude of areas.

Great stuff. Get it at Change This.

Labels: Business, Innovation, leadership, management, Performance, Planning, Productivity, Profit, Sales

Here are the 8 reasons why 2011 is the the perfect time to convince your CMO or boss to decide that blogging and the blogosphere has finally matured enough to demand serious reconsideration and here’s why:

Read Chris Abraham's article at Marketing Conversation for all of the details.

Labels: Business, Marketing, Social Media

Seth Godin lays the foundation for changing the way we think about using the sales funnel. Check it out on Selling Power TV.
Watch the video here. 

Labels: Business, prospecting

Great article. Identifying these seven deadly habits that can affect an executives career. A little bit like a 'what not to do' article.


In the past two decades, 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs have lasted less than 3 years. Top executive failure rates as high as 75% and rarely less than 30%. Chief executives now are lasting 7.6 years on a global average down from 9.5 years in 1995. According to the Harvard Business Review, 2 out of 5 new CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job. It appears that the major reason for the failure has nothing to do with competence, or knowledge, or experience, but rather with hubris and ego and a leadership style out of touch with modern times.


Read the article now.

Labels: Business, leadership, management, Personal Development

The Performance Review. I have been doing performance reviews of sales people since 1997 and I conduct them every quarter. For the longest time is was associated with taking a look at the most recent quarter and spending upwards of an hour or more in finding all of the substandard results and benchmarks not achieved by that particular sales person. There were moments where you could extend some praises about their performance, but, this review process was not about feeling good all the time. This was supposed to be used to point out the shortcomings and to continue the training of the individual being reviewed. It always ended up being about the numbers and what was not getting done.

My initial goals about these reviews revolved around three basic principles. One was taking a brief look at the past, the most recent quarter, and possibly further back if there were some trends happening that needed further conversation. The second principle was about the present and what was being done to move towards achieving all of the stated performance standards. The last principle  is basically the future and focused on activities and tasks to accomplish the annual and/or long term goals.

The most recent quarter that just ended I decided to take a new approach to the reviews that I was conducting. With everything that is going on in the industry, i.e., customers are buying less, customers are shopping, the competition getting a bit creative and no real business growth overall, I found that I didn’t spend as much time on the past quarter and pounding the reps about the numbers. As I said in all my reviews, “I can’t change or fix these numbers”. I probably spent 15%-20% of the review looking at the numbers versus the old average of 75%-80%. It was refreshing to just highlight some numbers and discuss where they were at and get some feedback from them on the numbers.

Where I spent the majority of the  time was on creating new ideas, bringing support to the rep, looking at ways to enhance commissions and more time engaging the rep in conversation and active listening to provide support. We spent time on the following key areas:

• Reviewing each account and where we were at with them and if needed what support can be given to enhance that particular account.
• Finding ways to enhance their income.
• Removing challenges and obstacles.
• Using technology to help with their sales.
• Providing tools/resources to assist them in their sales.

I know that this new and updated way that I am doing performance reviews is not cutting edge. I do find that these latest reviews would sometimes go 2 hours or more and it would be me having to work at ending the review. These were positive and the two-way discussions we energetic and rewarding. I can’t wait until the next quarter!!

Labels: Business, management, Performance

Bringing in a new year is like hitting a reset button. I have come to refer to it this year as the Etch-A-Sketch strategy. Change the calendars, transition from all of the Christmas decorations and so on. The tree coming down and a Pork and Sauerkraut dinner seem to signify a new year is here. Let’s not forget about all of the New Year’s Day college football.

There seems to be a bit of churning that goes on as I head into a new year. I don’t necessarily need to reinvent myself every year, however, I do reflect on what I had accomplished in the previous year and look at ways to improve myself in the coming new year. You could say that I refocus my energies on a few keys areas. I am not saying to forget about the last year, but, to see what transpired and learn from the experiences, grow your skill set and aggressively prepare to achieve your objectives in the new year.

I have set a up a grid on a piece of paper that is separated into 6 quadrants. These are areas that I want to rethink, reevaluate and drill down in to focus on some objectives that I want to achieve for this coming year. Of course there is work and personal/family and I also have set up areas to focus on several projects that I have been involved with and/or are working on. One last quadrant that I have is leadership and  personal development.

In each of these areas I have started to list my objectives and there may be several that I want to achieve. I will have specific SMART goals for each of these objectives. From there I can develop the strategies and tactics needed to work towards achieving those objectives.

So as we start the new year I am recommending that you take the time to look at where you have been and where you would like to be. Don’t wait....get started today.

Labels: Business, leadership, Personal Development, Planning