When the calendar flips from December to January, it’s a great time to establish goals for all that you want to accomplish in the new year. There are the typical lose weight, relax more and increase my wealth type goals which are all fine but the biggest mistakes that most people make in establishing ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ are they aren’t attached to a long-term vision and or they aren’t balanced across all facets of their lives. You can easily avoid these two mistakes by starting with creating a personal vision of what you want your life to be like in the future. This vision will then be the ‘guidepost’ or ‘North Star’ for creating goals that are motivational and enriching to help keep you on track.
As a Certified Jack Canfield Success Principles Trainer, I’m happy to provide Jack’s Vision Exercise as a free download to assist with this process. This tool will help you create a balanced vision across seven key areas of your life that will be the foundation for your annual goals. Don’t be afraid to make this a bold and audacious vision so it provides the necessary motivation for you to work towards achieving that compelling future vision of your life. Then establish annual goals that align and move you closer to realizing your vision. The final tip for success with the vision and goal setting process is for you to share your vision and goals with a trusted person or persons in your life. Someone who you can count on to be positive and supportive. This simple step of sharing your vision and goals will provide many benefits for you as you begin the journey of realizing the life you desire.
Please take the first step to realizing a more fulfilling life and download the free Vision Exercise tool now.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and successful new year!
Course Summary: Interactive team-based sales training focusing on the key skills, behaviors and concepts to drive repeatable sales processes to achieve sales goals.
This sales training workshop will get your sales team on the same page relative to Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and create the foundation for holding your sales team accountable to achieving the most important sales goals.
Target Audience: Commercial and industrial sales teams
Performance Objectives:
Understand the difference between a ‘sales suspect’ and a qualified prospect
Determine the most critical 2-3 Key Performance Indicators for the sales team
Use the NIMTC process to convert suspects into qualified prospects
Manage outgoing calls using a strategic plan
Employ open-ended questions and active listening effectively
Eliminate or reduce stress related to “cold calls”
Execute the Backward Planning technique
Distinguish between Features and Benefits and how/when to discuss them during the sales process
Duration: 8-12 hours depending on optional modules
If you are a sales manager, you know firsthand the challenges of maintaining the right mix of elements for a healthy sales environment that delivers results. One of the key components is the ongoing development of your sales team through your own coaching skills. There are many aspects of coaching that set outstanding coaches apart from mediocre coaches and it all starts with setting a foundation built on trust and empathy.
Many coaches make the mistake of focusing primarily on the numbers and never build a strong enough personal relationship with their team members to be truly effective coaches. I recall working with a very well-respected and to large extent well-feared manager. His nickname was ‘The General’ as he was always very serious and always focused on the task or mission. No one wanted to be the recipient of his inquiries into why you didn’t have the parts necessary to support the production build for that day. The questions were direct and left no wiggle room for avoiding the painful truth. At the core, the questions were problem-solving based and not personal attacks, but it rarely felt that way especially when you got ‘the eyebrow’. When ‘The General’ heard something that didn’t make sense, he would oftentimes give you a look with one eyebrow lowered and one eyebrow raised that signaled he wasn’t buying what you were selling. Your goal then became to change topics or end the inquiry as quickly as possible. Almost always the discussion included suggestions, that most often felt like directives, for fixing the problem but they got lost in the pressure of the questioning and ‘the eyebrow’. During an off-site team building session with the plant leadership session, we did an exercise where we sat with every other team member in a one on one session to share feedback with each other. I knew ‘The General’ cared about the development of his staff and his motivation was to build the capacity in others to be proactive in putting in place systems to drive long-term improvement. I had this insight from reporting to him for a couple of years and we regularly had discussions about the development of each of the team members. The problem was none of the team members knew that he really cared about their individual growth and development especially when getting ‘the eyebrow’.
My feedback during our one on one session focused on him letting his people know that he cared about them as I knew he did and try to connect with them on a more personal level. The one line I recall specifically saying to him was “no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care”. I could sense my words struck a nerve with him and he took my comments to heart. Over the next several months, a different side of ‘The General’ gradually appeared and resulted in him being even more effective as one of the leaders of our senior leadership team. He made an effort to connect with his direct reports and peers on a more personal level, he began to share his dry sense of humor more often to everyone’s surprise and delight but most importantly, he in his own way conveyed the message that he cared for others on a personal level.
Trust begins to develop when employees understand that the person providing the coaching is truly vested in employee’s best interest and not the coach’s best interest. People are smart enough to detect when someone is using their positional authority to get them to ‘buy-in’ to their idea or worse, trying to manipulate them into doing something that is best for the coach. People need to know the coach really cares about their own personal growth and performance before they will truly open up and accept the coaching being offered.
Empathy is just as important as trust in that the coach must demonstrate a human side so the employee knows the coach cares for them as a person. Demostrating empathy as a leader doesn’t mean accepting poor performance or saying “it’s okay” or feeling sorry when someone’s performance is not up standard. Feeling sorry for someone is a form of sympathy or pity and high-performaners are not interested in receiving sympathy. Being empathetic is simply acknowleding the other person’s feelings or their human sides when discussing their performance. High performaners do want to know that they effort, contribution and they as individuals are appreciated.
Getting back to ‘The General’. What happened over time is the people began to ‘trust’ that ‘The General’ cared about them as much or more than he cared about making quality engines that day. They knew he was vested in what was best for them and not what was best for him personally. That increased trust led to reduced fear and better coaching conversations. He also opened up on a more personal level, was more empathetic and connected on a personal level better than in the past. The results were noticeable in both the relationships with and the performance of the people that reported to him. ‘The General’ became even more well-respected and was not nearly as well-feared yet no one still wanted to get ‘the eyebrow’.
Sales enablement is all the ‘buzz’ these days and rightfully so. Having a thoughtful, effective approach to sales enablement “…can improve sales productivity by up to 27.6%.” according to research by CSO Insights. There is no single generally accepted definition of sales enablement but there are some very key similarities in the definitions, key elements and effective approaches. Any sales organization that is interested in sustainable, improved results needs to pay attention to these key elements and effective approaches to put in place their own sales enablement plan. Do you have a defined sales enablement plan or ‘just winging it’ and hoping for better results?
At a high level, the most common key elements in an effective sales enablement approach are Development, Technology and Strategy. Truly effective sales enablement happens where these three elements come together in a harmonious way. In today’s fast-paced, ever changing sales environment, many sales managers are stretched so thin that they don’t take the necessary time to ensure their sales enablement plan is being effectively executed or they even have a sales enablement plan for that matter. Let’s examine each of the three key elements in a little more depth.
Development goes beyond training of traditional selling skills of how to meet and greet, overcome objections and ‘close the deal’. Training on these skills is still important but not enough to compete in today’s environment. Sales professionals need constant skill building to stay current with the technology they use, selling skills and product knowledge. Often overlooked is the development needed by the sales manager. In many instances, the sales manager is elevated to that position because they were the top-performing sales person. The skills needed to be a top-performing sales professional are not the same skills needed to be a top-performing sales manager and yet these folks are very often thrust into the position with very little or no preparation for their new role. Sales managers need well developed coaching, performance management, communication and engagement skills to properly guide and develop their sales teams. Development also needs to take place with the sales team regarding the technology that they have at their disposal.
The key part that having a sales enablement strategy is ensuring that the development efforts, the technology being deployed, and the sales processes all align with each other to provide a seamless and enjoyable customer experience. One that not only meets the current needs of the customer but establishes the foundation for building an ongoing relationship with the customer. Strategy work is critical for assessing the current alignment and constantly looking to the future to maintain alignment going forward. A sales enablement plan should be thought of as a living, breathing ‘sales ecosystem’ that requires constant care and development to ensure sustainable improvement in sales performance.
“Failing to plan is planning to fail” is just as true today as it was when first spoken by Benjamin Franklin. What is your sales enablement plan?
This activity can be completed by as little as two individuals or groups of up to five to six individuals. The purpose of this exercise is to get people to recognize where they are not taking 100% responsibility in key areas in their life and how they can change that. This is a great exercise for introducing the concept of taking 100% responsibility without overwhelming them.
Process
Divide the participants in equal groups in a range from 2 up to 6 participants – have participants sit in a circle or facing each other if in groups of 2
Have the Responsibility Stems that you want to work on displayed on a flip chart or one per page on a PowerPoint slide
Have the participants complete the Responsibility Stems one at time by going around the circle in a clockwise manner – Have them state the entire Responsibility Stem and then adding their words to complete the sentence
Demonstrate the process by completing a sample Responsibility Stem while providing multiple answers
Continue going around the circle until all participants have had multiple chance to complete the Responsibility Stem – this may require 2-5 minutes per sentence
You can use multiple sentences depending on the most important topics that need to be covered
You Have the participants reflect on their responses for completing the Responsibility Stems and determine what adjustments they need to make to accomplish their desired results for each of the topics covered
Example Sentence Stems & Responses*
If I were to take 5% more responsibility for my life and well-being….
• I would exercise 30 minutes a day.
• I would only eat fast food one time per week.
• I would meditate more often
If I were to take 5% more responsibility for the attainment of my goals….
• I would do five things a day to get me closer to my goal.
• I would spend and extra hour a day in action rather than watching TV.
• I would share my goals with family and friends and ask for accountability.
If I were to take 5% more responsibility for success in my relationships….
• I would plan quality time with my kids and put it in my calendar.
• I would have a date night every week with my spouse
• I would talk less and listen more.
*These sentence completions are based on the work of Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D.
