“I’m The King Of The World” or….
“It’s The End Of The World”?
This is a post that was originally written and published about this time last year. I thought this would be a good time to bring it to everyone’s attention again. Hope you like it!
With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of The Titanic this past Sunday, I thought it was time to turn some old notes in to a post!
I might be the only person in the world who has not seen the Titanic movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. But I do know that Leo screamed, “I’m the King of the world” in a pivotal scene. That phrase inspired this post.
I had a funny thought one day and combined “I’m the king of the world” with “It’s the end of the world” as a way to remember to keep emotions in check when performing a sales role.
Keeping control of emotions has been integral to my success in recent years. I have always tried not to get too high, or too low whatever the situation has been. Of course, I still get excited when I succeed, and disappointed when I fail. But I try to “limit my rides” on the roller coaster of emotions.
I am not saying don’t get excited when great things happen, or upset when things don’t go your way. I focus on minimizing the peaks and valleys. Once I accomplished this, I did not feel as emotionally exhausted at the end of each day.
About three years in to my tenure with one organization, the bottom fell out. I had a drastic drop in sales with a key account, and the reason for the decline was out of my control. It really did feel like “it was the end of the world”. I was miserable for what felt like weeks, but realistically was only days.
I had a brief meeting with my boss during my “pity party”, and agreed that there was nothing that could be done about what had transpired. We decided to focus on growing the business through other channels. Remarkably when the dust settled by year’s end, my numbers had increased year over year! I refocused after the setback occurred, tweaked my goals and ended up having a record year for the territory.
Emotion is great, and those who know me well are aware that I have always worn my heart on my sleeve (just ask anyone who has played hockey against me). You are only as good as your next sale, so keep moving forward. A loss or setback is like a bad shot in golf, tennis, or a goalie allowing a bad goal. Forget about it and move on quickly, learn from it, and stay focused.
With respect to wins, don’t get overconfident. Things can change quickly in sales. Keep focusing on securing more wins and building on past successes. It is just important to realize that if you “ride the roller coaster of emotions” too often, you are going to get off feeling very very dizzy!
Have A Laugh Fridays – Easter Bunny Has “Issues”!
Happy Easter Everyone!
Have some chocolate, just not too much…
Join Us At Our New LinkedIn Group – The Daily Music Sanctuary!
Music is in my blood, and it is also in the blood of my good friends Paul Castain and Roger Demas. Paul has given Roger and I the incredible opportunity to lead the charges for a music subgroup on LinkedIn of his very successful “Sales Playbook”.
We have found that many people love to talk music, but there are limited opportunities to do so on LinkedIn. That is the polite way of saying that any other groups discussing music are not very good! We are going to change that starting NOW!
The Daily Music Sanctuary (or DMS as we are already calling it) is up and running, and we could not be more excited. Stop by the group through the link below and join us:
As a special bonus for joining, you will receive a free pdf of over 500 songs that people contributed on Sales Playbook when Roger and I posted music related questions! These are songs that should get you motivated, and in the mood to face whatever comes your way each day!
We are looking forward to exciting new content, and providing people a break from the daily rigors of work and personal life whenever they need it!
We will chat about any kind of music that you want. Invite your friends, colleagues, family.. whoever you like. The more the merrier!
See you at the Daily Music Sanctuary!
Tim
When Are You At Your Best?
Are you…
– Wondering why a presentation went so poorly?
– Bewildered by the lack of success of phone cold calls?
– Amazed that a sales call was less than well received?
– Frustrated by the difficulty catching up on paperwork at the end the week?
– Have you thought about what time of day you are typically at your best?
– Do you know when you should not be attempting high level activities?
Take some time to think about this as you plan your next week. This is often overlooked as schedules are planned.
– If you are not a morning person, is it reasonable to expect to hit a presentation out of the park at 8 am?
– If your body and mind is starting to wind down after 3 pm, is that a good time to be starting to phone cold call and expect to be energetic and engaging?
– If you tend to feel sluggish right after lunch, should you be scheduling a sales call shortly after you eat?
– If your organization skills need work, should you be putting off cleaning up all of your To Do’s until late Friday?
I can do a presentation at 8 am because I am a morning person, but I try to avoid them later in the day. Certain people are much more effective well in to the afternoon. Cold call when you are at your best for maximum results.
Lunch affects people differently, so plan your afternoon calls accordingly. I am guessing few people look forward to cleaning up their To Do’s late in the day Friday. Put systems in place to keep up during the week, so you don’t end your week on a bad note!
– When are you at your best?
– Are you working to your body and mind’s strengths?
– Is it time to make adjustments to your schedule?
Saturday Music Memories – FANTASTIC Cover…
I was finishing high school in the early 90’s when grunge exploded. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and Alice In Chains hit the music scene and caused quite a stir. They are still some of my favourite bands today!
I have always been a huge fan of Alice In Chains and was saddened by the loss of their lead singer Layne Staley many years ago.
The band has reunited with a new singer, and is sounding fantastic once again.
I stumbled across this acoustic gem of Nutshell by Monicka Hove many months ago and listen to it often. Her voice is very memorable and I think she does a remarkable job.
You can check out her music at: http://www.youtube.com/monhove or https://www.facebook.com/monhove
Have a great weekend!
Do You Have “It”?
All I wanted to do early in my sales career was manage the team that I was working on. I was young, I was new to the industry and I thought I knew it all! I was confident that some day I could handle the role. Unfortunately changes happened within the company, and I turned down my dream Sales Manager role when it was finally offered to me. Even with that setback, I have continued to follow sales and executive management throughout my career.
I did have some experience managing a team before I was ever interested in Sales Management. I was a Branch Manager in the car rental industry straight out of university. It was a great experience, and certainly taught me a lot about managing a diverse group of associates at a young age. Some of the employees were more than ten years my senior, and I learned very quickly how difficult being in charge could be.
The Sales Manager is arguably the most important person within the organization. They have a direct line of communication with the sales force; the associates who drive most of the front line revenue.
It can be very easy to get in to a rut with your day-to-day role. Sales reps certainly do, and it happens to managers as well. It is valuable to take a step back and think outside the box sometimes, from how you typically manage.
Great sales managers use enthusiasm and excitement to their advantage. They celebrate their team’s wins, while proudly announcing personal and team achievements. They may high-five team members in the office, or keep it simple and just pat everyone on the back when there are reasons to celebrate. The positive energy does wonders for everyone.
I have always been keenly aware of my manager’s actions, and I focus on a few areas:
- how they lead the team
- how they treat me
- how they treat other reps
- how they handle adversity within the team
- the relationship they have with their immediate supervisor and others on the executive management team
If they excel in all the above areas, they probably have “it” with their team. “It” is hard to explain, but it can be summarized as the group is firing on all cylinders, and no issue is too great to break the cohesiveness within the group.
I have reported to a total of 16 assistant managers, sales managers and branch managers during my career. I have also had close working relationships with 12-13 executive managers. This has provided me a rich foundation of experiences.
- As a manager what is it like to have “it”with the group of reps that you lead every day?
- If you have “it”, you can probably describe “it” in general terms, but it may be hard to explain overall.
- If you have never had “it” with your team, would you not like to know how to get “it”?
As I continue to discuss Sales Management in the future, I will build on the theme of having “it”. I will leave you with one other thought to ponder….
Are you just a boss to a group of employees, or is their much more depth to your relationship with the team?
Saturday Music Memories – Are You Feeling Better Now?
If I need a kick in the pants, a couple doses of this song at high volume seems to do the trick. I have loved Ed Roland and the gang from Collective Soul for close to 20 years, and their energy on stage is impressive.
I have had the pleasure of seeing them live on a handful of occasions and they never disappoint!
Enjoy this live version of their hit “Better Now” with the Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Have an AWESOME weekend…
Have A Laugh Fridays – Happy Belated “Pie Day”!
Dave Fleming is a Corporate Comedian that I discovered last spring. This is one of two videos that I used for Have A Laugh Fridays at that time. One of these three clips talks about food in the office lunchroom. It is very funny.
I got thinking about food at the office because one of our employees brought in two pies yesterday. It was apparently “Pie Day”. I take all holidays very seriously so we were excited about the deserts. One problem – it was “Pi Day” and not “Pie Day”.
You know Pi…. the mathematical symbol for 3.14 …. and on and on it goes. Yesterday was March 14 (3-14) so I guess somebody was very clever with that one. I am sure lots of pie was still consumed though!
Enjoy your weekend!
Three Pillars of Business – Marketing, Sales & Service
Sarika Periwal reached out to me about a guest blog. I thought it was a great idea to do a post on marketing, sales and service.
For any business to succeed keeping customers happy is essential. It is always more profitable to retain an existing customer who will come back for repeated purchases than to convert new potential customers for each sale that the company makes. Statistics exist to support the fact that the cost of acquiring a new customer can be six to seven times higher than retaining an existing customer. To this effect you need some strong policies which help the company to improve their customer retention rate.
The focus of these policies is to deliver a flawless customer experience when they deal with your company. It does not matter what you sell. It could be a physical product, a digital solution, a service that is offered in special circumstances, or anything else. There are three main areas where your customer or potential customer will interact with you. These are marketing, sales and service. They are also known as the three pillars of successful business. If you manage to get your act together for these three aspects you will have a thriving business model. Here’s how you can do this and benefit the customer and the company both.
Marketing
All the marketing campaigns that you run are to get your customer’s attention. These all hope to make the right kind of offer to the customers at the right time to tempt them into making a purchase. Here the focus is to build on the trust that the company brand name inspires. To make the customer believe that they have the right solution to their needs and to provide the customer with the ultimate financial deal when they buy what the company is offering.
Sales
There is nothing as sad as losing a customer who would have bought from you but couldn’t find how to complete the sale. This pillar deals with providing the potential customer with the ease of buying the product in a quick and hassle free experience. You need to be able to provide the customer with many ways of buying the product. It could be in the shop, online or through partner vendors. There should be many payment options as well. A lump sum payment is easy for a small purchase, but arranging finance options for a larger purchase is a good idea. Also let there be the option of paying via cash, banker’s cheque or credit card. Each customer may have a preference for a specific payment mode.
Service
When it comes to encouraging retention and customer loyalty to your brand it is the after sales service that is most important. Many customers feel that a company loses interest in them as soon as they make the final payment for their purchase. This does not encourage them to buy from the company again. What needs to be done is to make the customer realize that the company is just as interested in pampering them even after the sale has been completed. A well trained team can make this a reality.
Author biography:
Sarika Periwal represents KarmaCRM, an online CRM service for small businesses and individuals. Karma offers a powerful and feature-rich backend system with an easy user interface. This tool can help you manage all 3 areas of your business efficiently. Contact us for more details or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter .
Sell, Lead, Succeed! 