"There is no magic!" Oh, really? We hear grand stories from many organizations -- stories of new business strategies, exciting marketing concepts and sales programs designed to accomplish corporate objectives. Then initiatives are defined, people assigned and six months later...nothing. The cycle of frustration continues. Nothing has changed.
Sales leaders must understand that if they fail to show progress on planned commitments or display a lack of attention to detail, the sales team will pick up on that behavior, and that will translate to their sales performance. Sales calls are no longer crisp, activity levels drop off and negative attitudes build up.
While I normally don't like to use sports analogies, the correlation between a coach's success and his or her ability to prepare for each event and manage details is easy to draw. Some make their point with noise, emotion or quiet resolve, but the truly successful ones understand the power of execution.
Several years ago, I asked a professional football coach for his weekly schedule, including practice times, team meetings, lunches, workouts, etc. Every hour during the week leading up to the Sunday kickoff was mapped out with the expectation that players would be ready and coaches would be prepared with game plans. All that would be left was the execution.
This is the same idea that sales leaders must take to the office each Monday. And each month and each quarter, in forecast meetings, sales training, coaching sessions -- everything this blog has covered over the past years.
Sales managers and owners must set the pace with excellent strategy and well-defined tactics, and understand that they create the culture necessary for high performance.
With many of our clients, we like to share the following target areas to set the expectation of change and to help them understand how successful organizations are managed:
- Discipline: Training that corrects, molds or perfects the mental faculties or character.
- Accountability: Obligated to give a reckoning or explanation for one's actions.
- Control: A standard of comparison for checking the results of an experiment or process.
If you've had well-designed plans or made assignments but haven't experienced how to make change occur in your organization with effective execution, send me an e-mail at Ken@Acumenmgmt.com and I'll send you our "Execution Success Roadmap." It will help you set expectations and provide both you and your team with the means to keep yourselves on track to successfully execute.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on March 09, 2010 at 10:16 AM0 comments
If you're a University of Tennessee fan, you had plenty to celebrate this past weekend: The men's basketball team beat the No. 2 team in the U.S. (the rivals from the University of Kentucky), and then the Lady Vols won their league title. Being big fans, we decided to take 16 big, rocket fireworks and blow them up after dark. We laughed, had fun and enjoyed the color and noise.
About 20 minutes later, I noticed a car at the head of my driveway. I noticed the flashing red lights -- a local county police car!
Seems one of my neighbors didn't realize we were celebrating, and thought what they'd heard was gunfire. After explaining our Tennessee pride, the local policeman smiled and drove away.
While it had some unexpected results, that night of celebration was well-intentioned.
Several weeks ago, I discussed the need to build emotion into selling and in past blogs have covered the need for sales management to develop better coaching and create strong emotional stake within the sales team with sales incentive programs. Celebrations are one way to do that.
Celebrating, well, celebration in your sales organization is important and must be considered as an ongoing program.
As the end of the first quarter comes into sight, think of how your team will end the quarter. Hopefully, the answer is above target -- which is a reason to bring everyone together to celebrate! What will you do? How can you really make it unique -- different than a simple sports-bar dinner? How about a limo party with a special dinner or lunch at a special location? Perhaps lunch at the best business restaurant in town?
On the other hand, if your team finishes the first quarter below expectations, you should consider how you'll reach your team emotionally to encourage them to maintain focus, build on the accomplishments of the first quarter and position themselves to exceed their second-quarter goals. Find a reason to build their confidence. Create a "make up sales contest" where the prize is a big celebration if they achieve their second quarter goals, plus the shortfall from the first quarter. Look for something to celebrate for each person. Write them a note or present them with something small but meaningful -- a nice recognition that makes the salesperson know you care.
A quote from one of my mentors said it best: "When a salesperson is 85 percent of the quota, that is when you put your arm around them and help them up. When they are at 125 percent of the quota, that is when you push them for greater achievements."
What are your ideas for incorporating celebrations into your sales culture? Leave your comments below.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on March 01, 2010 at 4:31 PM2 comments
If you've received an e-mail from me, most likely you've noticed my signature line: "Looking Forward." That wording has multiple purposes. First, looking forward is a positive statement. And two, looking forward is also a reminder to stay focused on a goal and your plans.
As a sales leader, you must be consistently looking forward to ensure all your plans and programs are well-designed and ready to activate and that your metrics/dashboard pipeline values are within acceptable levels.
The job of sales management is to make sure they put their teams in position to exceed their quotas each month. Notice I said "their quotas." I've said multiple times that it's the salesperson's responsibility to achieve his or her numbers; it's the sales leader's job to put the right people in place and put them in position to sell. Looking ahead 60 to 90 days will help the sales leader be more organized and give them enough time to take corrective action, if any is needed.
That means that as you close out February, effective sales management must begin to make sure their
- marketing or lead-generation programs are developed and ready to execute.
- sales pipeline values and sales opportunities at Stage 3 are significant at March 1 to achieve May quotas.
- sales training programs are in place and planned for May.
- sales contests defined for April and May have been thought through.
- hiring and interviewing plans are activated to ensure talent is on board.
These are just a few actions that strategic sales managers must do to be forward-looking and build predictable revenue.
From a philosophical approach, I encourage everyone to be proactive versus reactive. This attitude means effective planning and looking forward rather than simply looking at historical performance -- or worse, finding out March 1 that you're out of control, lacking in sales opportunities to achieve quota, and have another month of scrambling ahead.
If you haven't yet received our white paper, "Top 40 Actions Sales Management Must Take for Building Predictable Revenue," e-mail me at Ken@Acumenmgmt.com and I'll forward it to you.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on February 22, 2010 at 11:54 AM0 comments
During this past weekend, I attended the National Speakers Association conference in Nashville. But instead of speaking, I actually went to the breakout sessions, chatted in the hallways and listened to the keynotes. It was an amazing learning experience; in four days, I was exposed to concepts and methods to make my keynote more effective and more meaningful to attendees -- including the two hours I spent with Max Dixon learning how to create and tell a story.
So where does this fit with you as a salesperson (or sales leader or executive)?
Selling and sales leadership are emotional jobs; selling must change buyers' minds and hearts. But too many times, we hear sales teams selling only the facts.
As a sales manager responsible for salesforce training, what are you doing with your sales team's training in terms of increasing their ability to tell your story -- emotionally?
For our part, with many of our consulting clients, prior to going on-site to evaluate their organization, we review their brochures, Web site and standard proposal content. In most cases, the content is boring or stagnant. When we visit on-site and ask each salesperson,"Why do people buy from you?" or "What makes you unique?" the answers are boring or -- worse --logical.
We hear comments along the lines of: "We have been in business since 19-so-and-so" or "Our company has extensive experience" or "Our company is committed to serving you" or "Our people are the best." These are essentially statements of FACT. My question to the sales teams is: "So what?" What do these statements mean to your prospects? Nothing. It's emotion that causes the buyer to take action. This is a fundamental truth in selling; sales managers must understand this and train their teams to create stories with emotion that make their points stand out.
As sales leaders, your sales training program must review your team's content, messaging and verbal descriptions to find the "so what" statements. Create what we call "tribal stories" about when you company saved the day for a client or when your firm solution caused a client's business to blossom. Write them down and make sure every salesperson can use them in a selling mode.
We recommend you videotape your sales team attempting to sell your firm; this will allow them to hear and see why and when their approach is ineffective. The next step is to create a training session that clearly crafts an actual benefit to each statement of fact. The last step is to "inspect what you expect."
Videotape your sales team again in three weeks to ensure the new message has been stuck. In short: Tell emotional stories and bring emotion into your selling.
If you'd like Acumen's "Create a Selling Document" worksheet, send me an e-mail at Ken@Acumenmgmt.com.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on February 16, 2010 at 2:39 PM0 comments
Amazing -- we're already two weeks into the second month of the year. As 2010 moves along, sales and executive management will become engrossed in managing the numbers and actions designed to ensure quotas are achieved. This is essential to building a prescriptive methodology for a business.
While I've written much about discipline, accountability and control and the importance of finding your own formula for success, today I'm looking for your ideas on something else.
In building a high-performance sales organization, sales leadership must focus on building pride in accomplishment and creating a feeling of teamwork and positive energy. My question is: What are you doing in your sales organization to create these important ingredients? Let me know by commenting below or sending me an e-mail at Ken@AcumenMgmt.com.
Here's my own list:
- Set up a "good news board" where all employees can share positive results.
- During your company meeting, have each salesperson say something positive or thank a fellow employee for their work.
- Set a goal to keep a positive attitude; your mood can swing the office.
- Know what your salesperson's personal goals or interests are and always ask about them.
- Whenever an employee calls you or walks into your office, the first thing you should say is, "How can I help you?"
- Are you running a fun, first-quarter sales contest? How are you reinforcing it?
- Send out companywide e-mails recognizing positive news -- orders, contest winners, customer stories, etc.
Keep building on to this list and executing brilliantly every day. In challenging economic times, sales leaders must keep focused on multiple actions, but building the right sales culture is a very important aspect to achieving your overall company goals.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on February 09, 2010 at 3:14 PM0 comments
This week, I'm giving a talk called "Economic Recovery: Growing Revenue and Share During a Recovering Yet Volatile Economy" to a group of NSI partners in Redmond, Wash. These tend to be the larger-sized Microsoft partners, but the message is applicable for any size partner organization.
About 18 months ago, while we were helping our clients create their 2009 budgets, we asked them to create their revenue and expense pro formas, reduce projected sales by 25 percent, and then redo their pro formas again. This exercise was designed to help the clients gain a perspective on what changes or cost reductions they might need to make if expectations weren't met. This helped everyone manage their business well during the past year.
2010 will be a different year.
A recent USA Today headline got it right: "Key To This Earnings Season: Sales." And the deck reads, "Investors want to see profit growth that's not from cost cuts."
This clearly states the objective for 2010: Be aggressive and focus on earning market share and building your customer base. Specifically, the message of my talk will be around creating a culture of success -- what I call "brilliant execution" at all levels of the organization -- and focusing on being aggressive in sales and marketing.
I'll also talk about focusing on the little things: putting up signage on positive messages, celebrating wins and providing positive reinforcement every day. Why is this important? Sales teams are mentally tired, support and technical people are stressed out, and as the business climate improves, retention and development will be important. People might consider moving to other organizations where the internal climate seems more employee-friendly.
The other reason sales leaders must be more aggressive is that many of your competitors are still "sitting back," waiting for the economy to bring them out of the sales slump and recession they've experienced. My recommendation? Be proactive, not reactive.
Final note: If you're going to be in Charlotte, N.C. soon, join me Feb. 16 for the Sales Leadership Summit. Register by Feb. 5 and save! Sign up here.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on February 02, 2010 at 2:27 PM0 comments
If you think you did great in January, or that there's no more work to do, ask yourself: "What else could I have done? Why didn't I exceed my sales? Did I have enough top talent in place?" While short-term success is critical and must be your focus, a larger lesson needs to be considered.
In coaching our clients, we're more interested in looking at September's sales goals than January's. If your revenue curve for 2010 ramps up during the second half of the year, then you must actively recruit and hire now to ensure you have the necessary salespeople in place to achieve your objectives. Many sales leaders get caught in the trap of having to achieve increased levels of sales dollars with either not enough salespeople on the team or with increased expectations for the existing sales team's productivity levels (which might be below-par to begin with).
Sales management training will tell you to plan on unexpected sales force attrition. If, as a sales leader, you have set sales standards for your sales team, there may be "planned" reductions by way of you letting go of underperforming sales representatives. If it takes you 90 days to recruit a top performer and 90 to 120 days for those individuals to contribute at acceptable or quota levels, your organization could be short of overall quota attainment, putting the sales leader behind on a year-to-date basis.
Specifically, if you begin recruiting in February, using the hypothetical timeline above means an April hire and July/August sales production (consider summer month seasonality). Of course, this all assumes that you hire a top performer, that you train them properly, and that they become successful.
Though recruiting is 20 percent of the job focus for sales managers, it should be a consistent focus. Why? The top performers may not be looking when you believe you have opportunities open. Consider actively promoting your organization every 60 days using a variety of media.
For more guidance on this, consider joining other sales leaders at our one-and-a-half-day training workshop. Listen, learn and actively participate in our Sales Leadership Summit, which takes place Feb. 16 and 17 at Charlotte, N.C. Get all the details here.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on January 25, 2010 at 10:55 AM0 comments
The role of the sales leader at this time of year is to focus on building or maintaining a great atmosphere of success, dedication and fun. All the marketing plans should be in place, sales systems completed and training planned for the next 90 days.
Here are several actions you should focus on:
- A shared sense of mission or purpose. Your overall sales goals and "theme" for the year must be reinforced each day, each week, and in every way. Do you have your 2010 theme on posters in your sales areas? Does each salesperson have their "goalboards" hung in their cubes? (These are pictorials of where salespersons rank according to their sales/activity goals, and pictures of your annual sales trip or other goals they have based on their 2010 salesperson business plans.)
- Clear and attainable goals. Everyone needs a quota, but high-performance sales teams have "stretch goals," as well. These must be realistic. Are your compensation plans or sales contests designed to reinforce the stretch goals?
- Frequent objective feedback. A sales leader must find the time to coach, mentor and provide insights to keep their sales team focused and constantly improving. Reinforce the positive actions as well as the need to fix the areas that need to be improved. A great phrase you should always use: "If you had an opportunity to make that sale call over again, what, if anything, would you do differently?"
- Positive rewards for appropriate performance. Do you have a first-quarter sales contest to start the year off properly? Having a yearly sales incentive trip is a must. Now is the time to design your second-quarter contest to build sales activity and required pipeline to ensure your summer will be successful.
- Timely support and help when requested or needed. Sales leaders gain respect when they provide the atmosphere of "being there" for their team. When a salesperson walks into your office or calls you on the phone, your first response should be, "How can I help you?"
Remember, when you walk into your office each day, your body language, your attitude and your actions will be transferred to your team.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on January 19, 2010 at 10:08 AM1 comments
Every holiday for the past 20-plus years, I have sat down with my wife to discuss the previous year and think about the upcoming year. We consider what we've accomplished and what we want to accomplish during the coming 12 months. Certainly, we've experienced difficult economic swings along with the positives. And always, there are new challenges.
We've saved these as written documents, and whenever I reread our goals from years past, it makes me appreciate life more fully. However, the most important thing to learn from this exercise is that there are no unrealistic goals -- only unrealistic timeframes.
As Acumen Management moves into our 13th year (yikes!), I thought I might share the various categories we use to focus ourselves. It's my hope that if you haven't created a formal one-, five- or 15-year plan, you'll consider it. Start with 2010 and build from there.
- Social: What will we do to have a full social life with friends? Dinner parties?
- Personal: What do I want to do this year? Travel?
- Physical: How will we continue to be healthy? Run two miles a day?
- Professional: What are my career goals? Gain a promotion?
- Financial: What are my objectives as they relate to money? Pay off the mortgage?
- House: What are our major projects? Build a backyard patio?
- Societal: How will I give back to society to make it a better place? Work in food banks?
One of the major issues to not only make the objectives or achievements about just you. In one of my keynotes, "The Passion of Impact," I address the need for personal and professional life balance. The real success lies in the ability to positively impact the lives of others, and how YOUR life will grow because of the feeling you get from helping someone else. Make this a better place or help someone make their lives more livable. Make that a part of your yearly plan, as well.
All the best in 2010, and think positive!
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on January 06, 2010 at 10:04 AM0 comments
It's Dec. 14 as I write this, meaning there are only 17 days left to exceed your numbers.
What? Well, if you count Saturdays and Sundays, you can still work to ensure that your year-end numbers will be hit. Maximizing time, increasing sales strategy sessions and focusing on every opportunity can make the difference at this time of year.
I can recall one year, on Dec. 27, we'd been told that a PO had been approved...but we hadn't received it by fax or mail. We called our contact who confirmed it was in purchasing and had been approved. We then asked him for the purchasing agent's name and phone number to follow up. When we called the purchasing agent, we learned that he was taking his year-end vacation time.
We were stuck, and our sales contact had neither the power nor idea to process the paper work.
In our strategy session, I brought up the movie "Watergate," which was about the investigative reporting of Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein after the Nixon presidential campaign break-in. The reporters had one contact, one phone number, but couldn't determine who that person worked for in the White House or what department they worked in.
What did they do? They started dialing all the telephone numbers that "surrounded" the number they had and began to put the pieces together. We decided to do the same thing.
After multiple attempts, eventually we found someone who actually answered their phone. After we explained our dilemma, the person we spoke to realized that she actually sat next to the purchasing agent we were looking for. She went over the person's desk, found the PO and faxed it to our salesperson. That PO was enough to put that salesperson over 100 percent for the year!
It took some creativity, extra work and pushing the envelope, but the numbers count.
What are your stories of doing "extra' to win the business? Please share with all our readers by e-mailing me at Ken@AcumenMgmt.com!
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. HQNHTN8GWN7Q
Posted on December 14, 2009 at 11:55 AM0 comments
During the last week, after many conversations with various organizations and spending some time monitoring my LinkedIn groups, I've noticed that many people are concerned with 2010. After talking to various individuals and probing some chat rooms, I realized that, as usual, the critical success factor that many are finding missing is consistent sales.
However, what was causing the lack of volume or profitability in sales was unique to each organization. I heard comments regarding marketing, lack of salespeople, no sales training, compensation plans not working, no leads, salespeople not working hard enough to win, etc. The list could go on.
What are your problems? Send me an e-mail at Ken@AcumenMgmt.com with your No. 1 problem, and I'll attempt to give you a few quick ideas that might help. Think of it as a holiday gift to all my readers! HQNHTN8GWN7Q
Meanwhile, since there's no one answer for each situation, try to do some self-inspection and then go here. What's there? A list of almost 30 past columns I've written on a variety of sales and sales management topics.
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on December 07, 2009 at 12:28 PM0 comments
At the recent Atlanta Sales Leadership Summit, we held breakout sessions titled "What Can We Do Now To Boost Sales in the Next 90 Days?" I've compiled the following list of tips from the various teams that participated. As always, the key is to "execute brilliantly."
If you have questions or have other ideas you'd like to add to the list, send me an e-mail at Ken@AcumenMgmt.com and I'll compile them for next week's blog.
- Conduct a thorough customer review and determine what you've sold to each client -- and what you have not sold to each client. Create a specific action plan to contact each customer with a special offering to show them your "other services or products." Make the plan easy (i.e., contact 10 a week). This is a great sales meeting idea.
- Create a weekly Blitz Day program, either by telephone or by cold-calling teams in selected areas of your territory. Set up a contest for the most "hits" and make it fun.
- Put more executives on every face-to-face sales call. Team selling will improve sales; more ears and eyes on every prospect leads to better strategy.
- Increase sales skills and product knowledge. Schedule intense training to improve objection handling, selling your firm and closing skills. An increase level of product knowledge builds confidence.
- Conduct a companywide contest with a focus on generating referrals. Create teams of sales, support and customer service personnel. The team with the highest number of referrals wins!
- Create new marketing campaigns with "special packages" (year-ending or new year offerings). Work your vendors for "specials."
- Create a 90-day sales contest with a weekend hotel/dinner package. This could be for the highest percentage of quota for the period, sales or new customers.
- Host two executive forums with an "expert" to speak on business challenges (i.e., CPA, ROI on project management, business management ideas).
- Increase your focus on securing your existing opportunities. Make sure you have a visible list (on a whiteboard, for example) of the top 10 sales opportunities and hold strategy sessions with multiple people discussing each opportunity.
- Create a Customer Appreciation Event at your office. Invite every customer, user and selected prospects to this event. Give tours and promote existing packages and new packages. (See No. 1.)
Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge
Posted on November 30, 2009 at 12:19 PM0 comments