(Brought to you by Meeting to Win. Interactive sales team meetings begin with Meeting to Win.)

Over the past 15 years, I have been a student of “the business person”. It has always fascinated me to see a normal co-worker transform into “Business Guy” upon entering a meeting or seeing a customer. Their voices deepens, their vocabulary changes and their laugh borders on maniacal. I was guilty of this transformation myself in my younger years. I would be listening to myself and thinking “who is this creepy person using every buzzword known to mankind?” Did anyone see the episode of friends where Chandler made this transformation in front of Monica? The “work laugh“?

In observing this tendency of myself and others over the years, I realize two things:

1. The more experience and confidence someone has the more real they sound.
2. The majority of sales people transform. Being “real” is a true differentiator – it really stands out.

For fun, here is a link to Buzzword Bingo.
http://www.robietherobot.com/buzzword.htm

Have a real day!

Brought to you by Jill Myrick at Meeting to Win.

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Abby covers Meeting to Win’s favorite topic – Check out March 10th’s Dear Abby, BOSS ALLOWS BUSINESS MEETING TO BECOME PERSONAL CHAT FEST.

DEAR ABBY: How do you convince co-workers to stay on topic and on track in business meetings? Each week I am required to attend a mandatory meeting, and each week the people in that meeting drag in personal issues or start talking about the news.
I have tried suggesting that we stay on track and keep the meetings brief, but it’s not working — especially since management is one of the worst offenders. Please respond! — ON TRACK IN LAWTON, OKLA.

Read Abby’s answer here.

Good things happen when you get outside the four walls of your office and get face to face with clients. This simple activity creates momentum. When sales are slow and clients are afraid to talk about spending, too often, we get trapped in our offices. Instead of focusing on selling something, focus on truly helping your customers navigate this tough economy.

Today, make appointments to see your clients. Here are two reasons they will meet with you even though they “have no budget”.

1. Let them know you’d like to share best practices. You get visibility into other clients in their industry and can maybe share some ideas to help them solve similar problems. This is a great opportunity to get an understanding of current challenges, share some best practices and maybe even position your solution to help them when the time is appropriate.

2. Conduct a business review. Business has changed drastically every month in the past 7 months. Now is a great time to sit down with your clients and review the reasons they began doing business with you. Do those reasons still exist or do you need to modify your solution to meet their changing needs? Think of this before they do.

Both of these conversations help your client now and don’t cost a dime. You position yourself as a trusted advisor and are more positioned to help them in the future, also.

Get out of the office and help your customers.

Anytime I’m invited in to talk about my “stuff”, I always ask a question. What outcomes are you expecting from investing in this “stuff”?” My goal is to make sure I am addressing their real needs and honestly assessing if I can help them reach the desired outcomes. What I find is interesting.

Of course, when I am talking to senior leaders, they can very clearly articulate the reason they are interested and the outcomes they are hoping to achieve. So, so often anyone below them does not know why they are doing something. For example, many (certainly not all) sales training managers just know to find sales training. Very rarely do they know to what end.

How hard is it to make sure everyone in the organization knows the desired outcomes of all their efforts? It is great to have people in these functional roles (marketing, training, recruiting, etc) and it seems worth the effort to keep them aligned to the desired outcomes.

If it were me, I would hold every purchase or initiative up to my company’s desired outcomes and if this purchase or initiative didn’t move us in that direction, it would be denied. Now might be a great time for spending on purpose.

Just an idea….

(Brought to you by Jill at Meeting to Win, LLC.)

Companies make significant investments in sales training and, as we’ve discussed before, too often that is where the effort ends. Since I write this blog with Sales Managers in mind, I’d like to share, as promised, some ideas to maximize the sales training investments already made. Sales Managers have the power to adopt or discard any new skills and methodologies introduced. If the skills and ideas introduced can help a team succeed, here are some FREE ways to apply, reinforce and advance the skills.

• When reviewing live deals, follow the format of your sales methodology. Often, forms are provided to reinforce the methodology. Use the forms until it becomes habit.
• During each sales team meeting, ask a different member of the team to “teach” a module from your training session. They can review the lesson and apply it to the current selling environment.
• Share weekly success stories in the context of the sales methodology.
• Use the tools or forms provided until you no longer need them.
• Use the new language or terminology taught in the training.
• Become a certified trainer or coach of the content.
• Subscribe to any tips from the sales training provider and discuss them at the following team meeting.
• Join a LinkedIn group hosted by the training provider. Often you can have access to experts and other practitioners of the content.
• If the training provider provides on-line tools or practice, assign these practice sessions monthly and follow-up at next team meeting.
• Assign “buddies” on the team. Buddies can attend sales calls and coach each other on the new skills and methods.
• Each month, focus on changing one behavior taught.
• Practice, practice, practice. In every team meeting, practice the skills with role plays, etc. Repetition is key.

Taking the next steps toward adopting and applying the new skills can set a team apart by miles. It simply takes discipline.

Meeting to Win was honored to be interviewed and mentioned by Dave Stein. Dave is CEO and Founder of ES Research Group, Inc., and author of How Winners Sell. ES Research Group puts out an amazing tool anyone who is interested in being a good steward of their sales training budgets should consider purchasing. It is the annual Sales Training Vendor Guide.

Here is a snippet of our interview and a link to his blog:
“Most companies we work with at one point or another ask us to review their approach to sales meetings. Many sales managers, having no idea how to run a sales meeting, just wing it. The meetings are of little value to the reps and leave the sales managers embarrassed and often seen as incompetent in this area by their teams.” Read the rest….

If you would like to lead better sales team meetings, visit our list of 10 Tips for Meeting to Win and begin doing just that.

(Blog post brought to you by Jill at Meeting to Win.)

As the book The Secret became more and more popular, I gave some thought to the law of attraction. I haven’t read the book yet, but the concept intrigued me enough to give it some thought and, finally, take some action. I realized that I unconsciously used the law of attraction on at least 3 occasions I could remember – I envisioned my then current reality before it became reality. The crazy thing is that I didn’t consciously take any particular action to make my vision a reality… it just happened. (Cue the scary music.) I am also a praying person and wouldn’t discount the role of prayer in anything I’ve been given. As I learn more I’m inclined to believe the law of attraction is a gift we’ve been given.

So, realizing this – and not wanting to defy the laws of nature – I decided to consciously use this to my advantage in 2009. Instead of a new year’s resolution, I created a “vision board”. (That term is from The Secret.) At the top of my dry erase 2009 calendar, I listed the “outcomes” I wanted. I listed a number of visions that I wanted to become my new realities. This list is bigger than goal setting. It is a list of things I don’t necessarily know how to accomplish and, therefore, can’t create a plan to get there. I’ve done nothing else aside from look at it from time to time.

It is only March and two major goals have become realities. Two things that I had no idea how to accomplish, by the way.

Here is one thing I’ve learned from my experience with this law. If you know your destination, you are going to recognize the signposts along the way.

There are other forces at work in this law of nature and I know I’ll never understand completely how this works so well. I am sharing my journey one lesson at a time.

Sales Managers have so many responsibilities to juggle to keep their teams humming along at full performance capacity. If one of these responsibilities is not executed effectively, part of their sales engine will falter and cause the entire sales machine to run inefficiently or, worse yet, crash. No pressure – right?

What if you, the sales manager, could simply avoid most of these problems?

There is a way. It is a simple operating system that takes a small amount of work on the front end and then … runs on auto-pilot.

Just like a pilot with a pre-flight checklist and a disciplined system, you can operate within a similar system. The following is a list of management activities – your operating system, to be scheduled in advance. Committing to this operating system will put your team on “auto-pilot” so you and they can focus on the destination.

The sales manager’s operating system covers four main parts:

1. The Manager,
2. The Team,
3. The Customer, and
4. The Company.

Use the following to-do list, adjust it to your world, and go on auto-pilot for a more proactive and successful ride to the top.

You, The Manager:

• Create a network of your peers (successful sales managers) and commit to having one conversation per week with one person in that network.
• Think! Each day schedule some time to think – it’s a big part of what you were hired to do.
• Read one book on leadership per quarter. Set aside time on your calendar to read. Get ideas here.
• Find a mentor. Commit to lunch or coffee once per quarter with your mentor.

The Team:

• Commit to interviewing and networking with one sales candidate every week. Open territories mean declining sales and neglected customers.
• Commit to weekly sales team meetings with your team. See our 10 Tips for productive, interactive weekly sales team meetings.
• Schedule weekly one-on-ones with each member of your team.
• Whether your company does them or not, commit to quarterly performance reviews with your team.
• Continually build sales skills on your team through scheduled practice and repetition.
• As a team, read and discuss one new book about selling or business each quarter.
• Thank and praise your team regularly.

The Customers:

• Send thank you notes to your team’s customers every week.
• Commit to customer days every week.
• Attend Customer Business Reviews with your reps whenever possible.

The Company:

• Block out time to complete necessary reports for senior leadership. Setting aside time will allow you to pay attention to detail and provide insights on the data.
• Filter communication between other company departments and your reps.
• Create a communication system on your own team. Decide, as a team, the best way to share and receive useful internal communications in the least distracting way possible.
• Identify and/or create subject matter experts on your team.
• When you must send emails with random pieces of information, use a coding system in the subject line or set up Outlook rules.

Clearly, sales management is a full-time job. It can be a proactive, rewarding one when a disciplined operating system is installed. Putting a system like this in place will allow you and your team to enjoy the ride and all the rewards that come with your destination – success.

Enjoy your flight.