Category Archives: Sales
The 5 Star Five – Quotes Submitted By Readers
As promised earlier in the week, here are the best quotes submitted by my readers. This is a follow-up post to “My Favourite Sales Quotes”. Have a great Saturday!
“I ain’t never learned nothin’ while talkin” – President Lyndon Johnson (submitted by Jack Pyle)
“If you can’t then you must” – Tony Robbins (submitted by Murray Osborne)
“Prepare to win, or lose to somebody else who is” – Jeffrey Gitomer (submitted by Michael S. Rickert)
“‘Be and act as if it is inevitable to succeed” – unknown (submitted by Norm Tashe)
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky (my favourite)
My Best Sales Manager
One Sales Manager in my career was a cut above the rest. As I think back to our first meeting close to 11 years ago, I realize that it took about 5 seconds for us to click. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not in a business relationship. But I knew right away that I had made the right decision to move and start a new life in Edmonton.
Everything between him and the team worked. There was limited drama in the office, and the focus was always growing the business, and having fun along the way. He never made it feel like he was our boss, more of a team captain. He was a leader who supported us in every way. He was there for us when we succeeded, and when we failed. He assisted in our personal development, and often commented on how lucky he was to have a team like us to support. It was never “below him” to help us with whatever we needed assistance with. He was a manager, but he was more than willing to get “dirty with us in the trenches”.
He was the consummate mentor, and was always thinking about succession plans for those who were interested in moving up within the organization. He was an ear for everyone with respect to business or personal problems.
I had often thought about what would happen to the team if he ever decided to move on. I have to be honest; it worried me a bit, more than it should have. When he finally did move on, as expected, things were never the same again with our sales division.
I called him out of the blue when I was in his city a few months ago and we had a last-minute coffee. Before I knew it, more than an hour had passed. We picked up right where we left off from the last time we saw each other! I had to pinch myself to realize that we were not between sales calls working for the same company anymore. I will always credit him for being the most influential person who assisted in getting my sales career to the next level as quickly as it did.
- Who has been influential in getting you to where you are today?
- What awesome things have they done that really stand out in your mind?
I really enjoyed this post by Carol Dougherty this morning. It is a thought-provoking look at teams generating ideas (or lack thereof). Enjoy!
Does your team generate great ideas? Are you open to all ideas? Do you encourage even seemingly off the wall thoughts? Does each of your team members feel they will be heard? Do they all come up with unique ideas or concepts?
If you can answer yes to all of these your team is rolling along well and is open to any and all input. Great! Unfortunately most teams aren’t operating in this well. There are several reasons this may be the case.
- Lacking Diversity – If the team all has the same job functions/ background you may not get unique ideas. When everyone does the same thing or has the same background they tend to see things the same way.
Solution – Bring in people who are outside of the area of expertise of the team. Open it up to internal or external customers and suppliers, or people from…
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Inside Sales – Your “Personal Assistants” or Valued Members of the Team?
Within the sales function of organizations, an individual or group of people go about their business day after day, and in many cases, without a lot of respect from their colleagues. It is the Inside Sales team.
If you haven’t taken the time recently to think about how much easier your job is because of them, take some today. When was the last time you bought them a coffee, took them out for lunch, or phoned/emailed to say thanks?
Our team always pitched in to get inside sales Christmas gifts with one company that I worked for. The group knew how much we appreciated them, and always loved the surprise!
Have you been guilty of using inside sales as your personal assistant?
Be honest with yourself!
Inside Sales’ role is typically clearly defined, and if you consistently dump tasks on them that you did not feel like doing yourself, you are just being lazy! Work with them on moving activities towards closing sales like quoting price and delivery, handling customer questions etc.
One concept that really helped me get on to the same page with one of my Inside Sales teams was establishing “Rules of Communication”.
The goal was to communicate on their terms as much as possible, not mine.
- Currently, are you calling or emailing inside sales for every situation that arises during the day?
- Do you even know if they prefer to be phoned or emailed?
Our agreement included the following clauses:
- If something was an emergency or crisis, I called immediately
- If something needed to be completed as soon as possible a detailed email was sent. They were always monitoring their inbox, and would respond as soon as possible
- For non urgent requests – follow-up notes, general questions and other important items were put on a Daily To Do List. It was sent to Inside Sales at the end of the day. In my case, there was a two-hour time difference, and I typically had my answers waiting for me by the time I got to my computer the next morning!
The less nagging, disruptive phone calls the support team handles internally, the more they can focus on booking business. Call when needed, but always take a moment to think, “Does this have to be dealt with immediately?”
The more you strategize with them as teammates, and respect the job that they do, the smoother the sales function should run in general. Who do you think they will give priority service to when they are in a time crunch? The rep that treats them like gold and respects them as people and colleagues of course!
And always remember, they are not your personal assistants!
Reality Check – Has Work Become Your Life?
Do you work to live, or live to work?
I will write it one more time…
Do you work to live, or live to work?
Every time I hear that somebody passed away shortly after they retired, I hope that they took time to really enjoy life along the way. When I am working, I am a loyal hard-working solider. But when I am not, I am enjoying free time with friends and family when possible.
I saw a report on CNN a few years ago, and it gave me a horrible feeling in my stomach. The corporate world has made us believe in many cases that taking holidays shows a sign of weakness. When I hear that an employee has not taken holiday in several years, I always cringe.
This issue continues to get a lot of press, and work life balance has become more important than ever. Work demands and commuting makes our personal time very valuable. I have seen several managers and reps work way too many hours on a regular basis during my career. The question that I always have is…
What steps are you taking to insure that their work does not become your life?
Should it be common to work late at night?
- At what point do you admit that there are inefficiencies in your work habits, and you need to change how you do your job?
- Maybe you have too many responsibilities in your current role, and need to sit down with your manager to discuss the toll it is taking on you
There are still managers who subscribe to the theory of “most hours worked wins”, but this line of thinking is slowly going by the wayside.
I hate the saying “they were the first one in the office in the morning, and the last to leave at night”. How do we know that they are working all of that time? With all the distractions online, they may just be goofing off on the internet all day, or having “text-a-thons”.
I sent a group email one night at 10 pm from my home office once, just to tidy up a few odds and ends. I received a complaint the next day from one of my accounts. He asked me not to send correspondence at that time of night. I was a bit confused, so I asked why? He said that his phone vibrated on the night stand, and it woke him up! I forgot that some people are on call 24-7, and sleep with a phone close by.
I met an outside sales rep earlier in my career who told me that her kids had moved out, and she was not in a relationship, so work had taken over her life. She sounded far from excited about it!
I have heard of several organizations where employees never leave the office before their managers, even when they have completed their work for the day. This is one of the dumbest things that I have heard during my career!
Are you guilty of sending late night emails trying to “impress the boss”? Give your head a shake. This is just silly!
I know several reps and managers who work constantly during their holidays. A good friend of mind was got caught by his wife returning customer’s phone calls from his backyard shed when they were packing for vacation! I still bug him about that, but his wife did not think it was very funny!
I understand there may be the occasional need to communicate with the office when on holidays. But what does it say about the group that you surround yourself with, when they cannot “survive” for a few days, or even a couple of weeks without you?
I heard of the best “holiday-work compromise” from a rep a few years ago. He and his wife were going on a holiday without their kids. Things were both incredibly busy at work at the time. They agreed to one hour of work each morning at the hotel. But for the rest of the day, they left their cell phones in the room, and enjoyed each other’s company. Another rep was not so fortunate to be able to curb his work to one hour. He and his wife agreed to put his phone in the hotel safe before they left in the morning. That completely reduced his temptation to check every time another email came in!
I reference several European countries for setting the bar high for excellent work life balance. They have much more holiday time on average than most other parts of the world. Most stores and services even close during the day for a bit while the employees rest! How great is that? This is an unrealistic goal in many places including Canada and the United States, but I believe the message is very powerful. These people definitely work to live and not live to work.
We only live once, and you need to sit down and think about what is really important in your life if this has become an issue. Focus on enjoying your personal life now while still keeping up with work commitments. Obviously everyone’s personal situation is different, and many circumstances come in to play. I get that. I work odd hours to keep up with projects that I am working on via my blog and other forms of social media. But I make it all work.
Health issues, stress and strain on your family life can come in to play due to a heavy workload, among other issues. Don’t fall prey to the vicious cycle of work becoming your life.
- Do you feel like you are living to work, and not working to live?
- What changes can you make ASAP in your current role if other priorities are more important?
- Do you find it challenging to shut down “work mode” and get in to “family mode” when you are on holidays?
- What steps can you take to make a “holiday-work compromise” as a first step (then eventually phase out work altogether)?
- If your current situation makes it impossible to work to live and you prefer that, perhaps it is time to make a change!
- Promise yourself to take one action step today towards making a change, or it will never happen
I just love this post from Bruce Zimmerman! Take a few minutes to read over the weekend. I will certainly be thinking of the number 5 much more going forward…
The number five has long been considered a number of power and good fortune. It is the number of harmony and balance. It is also known as the number of the divine grace. The number Five is also called the Pentad. Known as the living principle, the number five indicates the action of the active principle of form.
The number 5 is also found on the human body: the five fingers of the hand and feet, the five senses (touch, taste, sense of smell, hearing and the sight), the five members (two arms, two legs and the head)
For the sales person, it only makes sense to utilize this number to your advantage. Why? It’s a powerful yet simple number. Generally speaking, most people think this way and it’s easy for most to focus on or remember five points. When I first started in sales, my mentor shared with me what…
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Really? Customer Service Is That Bad?
I was recently away on a business trip, and received a phone call from my wife. She was sad to inform me that our PVR (personal video recorder for our TV) had finally died. She promptly made a phone call to our satellite provider, and they gave her two options:
- $150 for a repair
- $500 for a new unit
She proceeded to explain to the agent that one of their competitors was offering a TV and internet package at a very aggressive price. Their response,
“We will note that on your file”.
That’s it? Really? They will note that on our file?
We may call the competitor and never give our current provider the chance to match packages because of their lack of interest in my wife’s comments. We have had several other issues with their customer service department over the years, so I think it was the “audio-visual gods” way of saying it is time to move on.
Paul Castain had an excellent blog post recently over at Your Sales Playbook which discussed his trip to a local gas station. You can read about his adventures at http://bit.ly/HBF47a
Good friends of ours just returned from a family trip to California, and could not believe how they were pretty much “tossed to the curb” by one hotel, but had the “red carpet” rolled out by another.
I have a strategy that has worked for me a couple of times now, in situations where I was negotiating with customer service in regards to products and services for my family over the phone. There is a certain amount of negotiation that goes on, and you can be put on hold a few times as the options are debated back and forth. I start to lose patience quickly, and have a new technique.
Early on I ask them to pretend that I am very irate (only I am still calm) and request that they give me the best deal or result possible. I call it “the freak-out resolution”. It shows that I am very serious about being well taken care of, but I don’t want to be a jerk about it. The strategy works well, and lets them know that I mean business, and minimal concessions will not be tolerated.
After reflecting about these stories and many more, I could not help but turn my attention to the sales profession. Customer service support is vital to the success of any sales team, and I wonder how often management and reps evaluate the job that these teams are doing for their organizations.
If you are reading this and are not in inside sales / customer service, you need to realize how important they are to your success, or possibly failure. Too many negative experiences with support representatives could turn off customers. As a manager, you need to provide these teams with all the necessary support and ongoing training to give them the best chance to perform their roles to the best of their ability.
If you are a rep, you need to have great rapport with the team and be able to assist and support them if things ever go terribly wrong. It is probably in your best interest to bring up any larger issues with your manager first, and let them decide who should talk to the person in question. You can ill afford to lose any customers, and certainly not ones where customer service made a mess of things.
Other things matter too. You need to treat this group very well. They are difference makers and make our jobs as outside sales reps much easier. Be easy to work with, and certainly DO NOT treat them like your personal assistants! Who do you think will get preferential treatment when their time is limited? The reps who treat them like crap, or the ones who respect the job that they do, and considers them a valuable part of the team?
The stories are endless about customer service today, but the horrible experiences tend to get shared much more than the positive ones.
Let’s change things up a bit….
Send me an email at TimMushey@gmail.com if you want to share a customer service story when they really WOWED you, and exceeded expectations.
Powerful Message From Paul Castain – A Lesson From Your Remote
Paul Castain has been a tremendous influence on everything that I have accomplished online to date, and I wanted to share a recent video of his. Who knew that a remote control could provide so many lessons for us?
Paul is passionate about everything that he does, and is one of the best people that I have had the good fortune of coming in contact with over the past two years via social media. I highly recommend that you follow his body of work if you do not already.
His content can be found over at www.yoursalesplaybook.com and you can connect with him in several different places including Twitter (@PaulCastain ).
Enjoy his message.
I have been following Dan Rockwell’s content on Twitter for quite some time, and enjoyed a post over the weekend on WordPress. I love the fact that his posts are 300 words are less, and are very insightful. Check out these 10 powerful strategies to build your confidence!
(Photograph courtesy of NASA Langley Research Center)
*****
Repeating the past in a changing world makes you irrelevant and insignificant. Employing old strategies in new situations tends toward failure.
Transition, turbulence, and change test leadership-confidence.
Danger and beauty:
The danger of confidence is quantity – too little paralyzes; too much and you’re an arrogant fool with a closed mind.
The beauty of confidence is lower stress and quiet boldness both in you and those around you.
True competence:
Confidence connects to competence through past performance. Competency during turbulence, however, is the ability to adapt – not repeat – in order to create the future.
Confident leaders:
- Prepare for uncertainty, challenge, and opportunity. They don’t have all the answers – they establish predeterminedprocesses and procedures for finding answers.Know your response to tough situations before they occur. What is your response to challenging questions, for example. Hint: Don’t give solutions immediately.
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I really enjoyed Kim Brechin’s post on leadership over the weekend. It is insightful, and delivers a very powerful message that all leaders should keep in their hip pocket.
Recently, as I was looking for inspiring quotes on leadership, I found this gem and it resonated with me.
“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.” ~ John Buchan
On Pushing or Pulling
I had been focusing my efforts on a marketing challenge and was reading a great article that appeared in the Harvard Business Review titled Three Steps to Generating Social Gravity, by Mark Bonchek.
The article describes the push and pull concept of today’s savvy consumers and also touches on the concept that leaders these days need to take a note and apply some pullvs. push in their style.
It’s true… people don’t like to be pushed.
I certainly do not — whether it’s in a long line at the airport queuing up or in a boardroom — I find it’s…
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Sell, Lead, Succeed! 