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Archive for the ‘management tips’ Category

Underperforming Sales Reps, Put Yourself on a Performance Plan

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

In most cases, we see an official “performance plan” as the beginning of the end for some poor sales rep.  The performance plan seems to be more of a termination plan as the evidence suggests that the goal is often not better performance, but instead a way to begin documentation to justify termination.  In every case where I’ve seen someone put on a performance plan, that was their cue to start a full court press job search before they were fired.   

So, it’s safe to say that no sales rep wants to be put on a performance plan, right?  Right!

If you are a sales rep facing underperformance, my guess is that you are worried about your job.  You might be hoping no one has noticed, you might spend your time sharing the positive news while keeping everyone’s focus off the negative performance, you might be explaining away your bad sales (customer budget cuts, etc) or.. you might even be job hunting.

Here is something to try instead.  Put yourself on a Performance Plan.   This is a Turnaround Boot Camp style Performance Plan by the way. 

We know that we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. That really is the premise of a Performance Plan. 

To get started:

  • Look at what you have been doing and critically analyze exactly how you are spending your time to determine what is producing results and what is not. 
  • Consult with team members who are exceeding goals for advice on what you could be doing differently. 
  • Once you determine which of your sales activities are producing positive sales results, triple your output of those activities.
  • Figure out where you are investing time in non-selling activities (learning a new CRM, sitting on an internal committee, etc) and eliminate those activities from your week. You can politely request to be excused – if you get fired, none of those things will really matter anyway.
  • Start your day earlier and end your day later.
  • Look the part. 
  • Exercise, eat right and get enough sleep.
  • Write out your 30 day plan.  This should include day by day what you will be doing and with which customers or prospects.  For example, maybe every day starts with 50 cold calls, maybe Sundays are research days, Tues-Thurs is for 15 face-to-face appointments, etc. 
  • Have an accountability plan in place – a report, updates in your CRM or something to monitor your progress.
  • Have a clear goal for the end of 30 days and a way to monitor progress along the way.

Now, here’s key element:

Request a meeting with your Sales Manager – NOT during selling hours (you need those).  Have an early coffee or after hours meeting with your Sales Manager to let them know you have put yourself on a Performance Plan, walk them through it and get their input to fine tune it and gain agreement on your course of action. 

By proactively addressing your underperformance with your Sales Manager you will open the doors of communication regarding expectations and possible outcomes of underperformance.  You will show the initiative to address the problem proactively giving your Sales Manager an opportunity to help you succeed instead of look for a way to manage you out.  

Too often we keep moving along hoping no one will bring up the issue everyone knows exists (we do this with customers, too).  If you know you are underperforming, your sales manager knows it, too.  His boss will ask him about it and it will eventually be dealt with.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could change the story by being brave enough to call it out and proactively do something about it? 

So, if you find yourself falling short, stop worrying and start acting.  Build you plan ASAP and start executing with your Sales Manager’s support.

Put yourself on a Performance Plan today.

(Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, CEO of Meeting to Win.   Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting topics for Sales Managers who want to run sales team meetings that aren’t a bore.  Inspire your team with Meeting to Win.  Subscribe here.)

Sales Managers, Trade Teams for a Week

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

(I posted this article, Sales Managers, Trade Team for a Week in February.  Today, my HBR Management Tip of the Day came across my e- mail on the same topic.  I thought it would be nice to update this post with a link to the HBR Tip, Need New Ideas? Trade Places.)

I had the opportunity to work for a company that created a culture of sharing best practices.  Due to that culture, Sales Managers really developed relationships across territories and had the neatest (seriously, that’s the only word that really described it) flow of best practices.  These managers would even ask to be put on each other’s team distribution lists so they could have visibility into each other’s communication style and content (can you imagine requesting more e-mails!).

From this culture comes a sales meeting idea that should wake up Monday mornings and fit right in with our Guest Speaker spotlight this week.  Why don’t you and another Sales Manager trade teams for a week?  Lead each other’s sales team meeting, conduct one-on-ones and get out in the field with each other’s team.  Get together the next week and share observations, lessons you learned and ideas to improve.  Then, discuss those lessons with your team on your next sales team conference call.

This is fun, enlightening and energizing for both teams and both Sales Managers.  Keep it interesting – trade teams next week.

(Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas and sales team meeting topics for Sales Managers who like to provide sales training and development weekly.  Visit us here:  http://www.meetingtowin.com/)

Wake Up Monday Sales Meetings with Guest Speakers (Plus: Sales Team Meeting Idea)

Monday, February 15th, 2010

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Wake Up Monday Sales Meetings with Guest Speakers

Sales team meetings are a great time to learn new skills, exchange ideas and share best practices. They are also a great time to dig deeper on topics relevant to the sales team. This could be a product the team would like to sell more of, an upcoming marketing campaign or pricing issues.  When digging deeper on a certain topic, it is very helpful to invite a guest expert to your meeting.  This could be the Product Manager for a new product, your Marketing expert or your financial analyst. 

At Meeting to Win we recommend commiting to inviting guest speakers at least once per quarter. This adds a fresh voice and perspective and really adds some variety and interest to the weekly sales team meeting.  Choose the topic in advance, ask the team to choose and invite the guest speaker, make sure the topic is relevant to helping the team sell more and enjoy a nice twist on your weekly sales team meetings.

Sales Team Meeting Idea:

  • Look at your next few sales team meeting agenda topics. 
  • Determine if there is a relevant guest speaker that you could invite to support and provide expertise on one of the topics.   
  • Invite them to your upcoming meeting and enjoy the fresh perspective and voice. 

Guest Speaker Ideas:

  • A top performer from another sales team.
  • A customer to share their experience with your company.
  • Your CFO to discuss pricing, margins, company performance.
  • Your Marketing Manager to share marketing information that can help you target and sell more effectively.
  • Your Sales VP to discuss the company’s top initiatives and the sales team’s role in those.
  • Another entire sales team (choose a peer Sales Manager and join the teams together for a sales team meeting/call) to share best practices across teams. Choose two or three topic areas – getting appointments, reduce discounting, etc – and ask the participants to bring ideas and best practices where they have them.
  • If your company has Sales Trainers on staff, invite them to teach and practice a module that could benefit the team.
  • A top performer from another company.
  • A customer of a competitor. By sharing why they work with your competitor, they help further the industry as a whole and educate you at the same time.
  • A sales consultant who has visibility into other companies.
  • A C-Level person in your own company who can share their impression of sales reps who call on them.

Go forth and invite!

LinkedIn Groups are Valuable Sales Tools – When Used Appropriately (Article & Sales Team Meeting Idea)

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

LinkedIn has become a very valuable tool for me.  I enjoy partnering with my connections for referrals, business opportunities, learning experiences and awareness of our industry and business climate.  In the few years I’ve been using LinkedIn I’ve reconnected with former colleagues, exchanged valuable referrals, developed deeper relationships with clients, kept track of clients when they’ve switched companies, connected employers and employees, created great peer networks and, not lastly, increased sales.  My point?  LinkedIn is a powerful tool in my business. 

In the past year, I have gotten more active on LinkedIn Groups.    I wanted to share my experience and some of my best pratices for using these groups to build business acumen, share and gather best practices and grow as a sales professional. 

  1. First of all, you need to find a group that is well-managed.  This means that the group manager is actively involved in the discussions and ensures that spam or selling is not tolerated.  The groups that add value are made up of a community of peers that value sharing ideas and best practices for the benefit of the group – and ultimately the customers they serve.  Here are three groups I am active in and would highly recommend:  Sales Blogcast, Sales Gravy, Sales Playbook  (If you know of other good groups, please post a comment and share them with our readers.)  Visit one or more of these groups and request to join.
  2. Once you are a member, you should share your ideas and opinions on discussion questions already posted. 
  3. If you are facing a sales challenge such as getting a prospect to take your call, overcoming a price objection or dealing with customer service issues, you can post your dilemma for the group.  These groups are made up of professionals from the sales industry and are great about sharing their experiences, ideas and suggestions.  You will have a great list of perspectives to consider as you decide how to tackle your sales challenge.
  4. Be respectful of your network.  You can disagree -it is actually interesting and valuable to get differing opinions.  Just do it politely and with respect.
  5. Make an effort to share news that might be useful to the group.  Most groups have a place to post news.   If you find something helpful, share it with the group. 
  6. Follow up on discussions you post.  Thank group members for their input and continue to facilitate the discussion until it runs its course.
  7. Be abundant.  In the The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, Dr. Stephen Covey defined this abundance mentality as “a paradigm that there is plenty out there for everyone.”    The Abundance Mentality is in contrast to the Scarcity Mentality.  (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen R. Covey)
  8. Invite colleagues to join and participate in groups you find useful. 
  9. Stay positive.  The groups I’ve recommended manage to stay realistic and positive. They are solution oriented no matter the challenge.
  10. Remember the Golden Rule always.

These groups are a great enhancement to your life and career when you participate appropriately.  Please feel free to share your own best practices by leaving a comment for our readers.

Get active in LinkedIn Groups and reap the benefits immediately.

Sales Team Meeting Idea:

Ask your sales team to

  • all join the same group or
  • each join a different group.

At your sales team meetings, bring one of the discussion questions from your LI group to your own team.  Share the LinkedIn Group’s responses and then build on those.

Or, determine a sales challenge that exists on your team and post it to the group(s) you belong to. The next time you get together, share the answers from the LinkedIn group(s).  Be sure to let your LinkedIn Group(s) know how they helped your team by leaving a comment in the discussion thread, also.

(Meeting to Win offers subscribers sales team meeting agendas every week.  Join us by subscribing at https://www.meetingtowin.com/subscribe.)

Neal Boortz is Outraged. You Should Be, Too.

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Neal Boortz is outraged this morning.  To be fair, no matter which day I choose to write this, I could start my post the same way and, to be fair again, there is a lot of stuff to get outraged about if you enjoy being outraged.  Today’s particular outrage is about a school district here in the Atlanta area spending $400K of federal stimulus money to take 200 teachers to a conference in Hollywood, CA for 4 days of learning and development.  The justification for this includes the idea that the teachers will come back from this trip excited about what they learned and eager to implement what they learned in the classrooms.

This topic made me think about the annual sales meeting that many salespeople just came back from.  January is a hot time for this.  It is typically fair to say that salespeople learn a lot during these annual meetings and do come back excited.  But then what happens? Well, the same thing that will happen to these teachers.  Back home things continue to churn and students need to pass tests, parent conferences need to continue, a failing student needs to be addressed, discipline problems continue, the school play needs to be rehearsed, tests need to be graded and so on.  Before these teachers realize it, they are doing exactly the same things they were doing before they left for the conference and the conference was nothing more than a pep rally and a chance to socialize and sightsee with peers from around the country.  Lfie can get in the way of great intentions after all.

Hopefully what will happen is this instead.  The school system will follow this Hollywood conference with a plan to implement the top ideas from these meetings that will make the most impact on key areas this school district needs to address.  Whether that is increasing graduation rate, implementing more sports programs, raising the SAT test scores or reducing absenteeism.  What is the plan and what is the plan to hold these teachers accountable to bringing back the change that will make a difference?

If you’ve just had your annual sales meeting, what is different in the way you help customers because of the time you invested to attend your meeting?  Some companies follow these up effectively and many, many do not.  Everyone comes back after the company has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and selling time and salespeople have invested selling and family time and …. do the very same things they did before they left.  Sure, they are a little excited, but are also now 4 days behind in their day jobs.  Now it’s catch up time instead of implement-what-you’ve-learned time.

Bottom line, you should be outraged like Neal if your company dragged you half way around the country for a big rah-rah session with no plan to advance, reinforce and apply the valuable lessons and information you absorbed during your meeting.  I know I would be.

(Post brought to you by Jill Myrick of Meeting to Win.  Meeting to Win provides weekly sales team meeting training topics.  Each agenda offers 60 minutes of sales development content along with ideas to reinforce, advance and apply the training in the field.  Join us by subscribing today.)

Communicate First

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

(Post brought to you by Jill Myrick of Meeting to Win.  Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas and topics to our subscribers.  To see subscription options, click here.)

Communication seems to be the common theme in any successful relationship – parent and child, husband and wife, co-worker and co-worker, boss and employee. The most successful salespeople become masters of communication. Before you can master effective communication, it’s OK to … just communicate. If there is a relationship in your life that is suffering or just feels vulnerable (customer, employee, etc), first just communicate. Here’s the powerful part – to communicate you have to be there. You aren’t communicating my sitting in your office wondering about the problem. You have to pick up the phone, spend some time with them – just reach out.

Spend the time on the relationships you care about and communication will happen.  Mastering effective communication can happen over time and even then….you’ve got to be there to do it.

Pull Up Your Anchors – The Sea Awaits

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

Being a successful salesperson takes unbelieveable self-discipline.  It is a job that requires proactive activity to move forward.  At the same time, there are enough things to simply react to that a salesperson can stand still instead of move forward.  I am in the process of writing a sales team meeting agenda to help our subscribers identify their anchors and then figure out how to pull them up occassionally so they can move forward into the sea of opportunity that exists for them.   I thought I’d share the concept in a blog post, also.

How can you tell if you have anchors?  Here are a few questions to answer:

  • Have you identified a new problem to solve for your current clients?
  • Have you presented new ideas and solutions to help them meet their goals?
  • Does your pipeline grow and move at a good pace?
  • Have you added new customers, new contacts and new referral partners to your client list in the past year?
  • Are your sales growing?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions, you may need to find and pull up your anchors so you can move forward and grow your business.  Anchors are the things you are doing instead of developing and expanding your business.

To get started, think about everything you do in a week to simply maintain, or not lose, your current business.  These are your anchors.  Examine those activities closely and determine how to use those to grow your business or how to delegate them to a capable associate with different responsibilties (customer service, etc).  Anchors can be good sometimes.  Occassionally it makes sense to stop, drop your anchor and get ready to move forward again.  Just don’t sit there too long. 

Now, replace your anchors with business development activities.  Your ship will be sailing again before you know it. 

Pull up your anchors – the sea awaits.

 

Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win, LLC.  Join our growing community of subscribers for weekly sales team meeting topics in a 60-minute format.  Agendas include practical exercises, practice sessions, discussion topics and leadership opportunities.  Grow your sales with Meeting to Win.

Stay “On The Grid” During the Holiday Season

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

It is almost impossible to not “go off the grid” with your prospective customers and customers during the holidays. Everyone is heading to some much needed time off.  You can have a competitive advantage by staying on the grid while your competitors are dropping off.  Here are 5 ways to do it that won’t cut into your much needed and deserved R&R.

1.  Send Happy New Year cards to your clients.  These cards should arrive right before or right after Jan 1st. Your greeting will stand out since it won’t be arriving with the pre-Christmas gifts and cards that get lost in the shuffle or arrive during vacations.  Your New Year’s greeting could include a calendar or some useful information for the new year. 

2.  Send an article or book that is relevant to the current business climate or their current business issues.  They can start the new year thinking about you and gaining some fresh ideas.

3.  Get on their calendar for a January meeting.  The new year is a great time to evaluate the business you did the previous year and set plans for the new year.  Requesting a Jan meeting in December is extremely effective.  Customers want to feel they have a productive Jan set up before they leave for the holidays, also.  Setting up a meeting with a good objective is a good way to help them do this.

4. Help them prepare for new year planning meetings.  If they are a current customer, one way to do this is to send them a slide deck outlining the work and accomplishments in 2009 along with some ideas to continue the good work in 2010.  Your email can start with “Often our clients ask us for a recap of the previous year so they can use it during thier new year planning sessions.  I thought you may also find this helpful.   Please see attached document.  I am happy to walk through the slides with you at your convenience.  Hope it’s helpful as you head into the new year.“  Write it in a way that they could use it with their superiors and in planning meetings.  They will see you as a true partner and you’ll cut their 2010 workload before the year even begins.

5.  Instead of just an “out of office” reply, send a proactive note to your customers and prospective customers several days in advance of your vacation.  Let them know you’ll be out and how they can get in touch with you if appropriate, or at least how to get in touch with someone who can help them in your absence.  They probably will be out, too, but they will have you in mind and feel that you took an extra step to ensure they are taken care of even when you are out.  (It’s a great reason to reach out to them when you return to let them know you are back in the office and move your relationship forward.)

Enjoy your time “off the grid” while a few small efforts will keep you “on the grid”.  Happy New Year!

M2W Sales Performance Book Club Discussion Guide – Let’s Get Real

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Each quarter Meeting to Win leads our subscribers through a business book in the Sales Performance Book Club.  Each week’s reading assignment and Discussion Guide are included in the weekly sales team meeting agenda newsletter.  To subscribe, visit us at our website www.meetingtowin.com.  Enter the promo code Q4PUSH and get weekly agendas free for all of Q4 2009.  First payment isn’t due until Jan 2010.  Learn more here.

Grab the following book, read a chapter per week as a team and use the Discussion Guide during weekly sales team meetings.  Your team will be motivated and inspired by the new ideas and practical advice.  Happy Selling from Meeting to Win.

Sales Performance Book Club

Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play

by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig

LetsGetReal

 

Chapter 1

  • Chapter 1 lists 5 premises or key beliefs. Do disagree with any of those? 
  • Which of the key beliefs made you think about your client relationships differently? Why?

 Chapter 2

  • Each participant should share if and how they will take one of the “No Guessing” challenges.

Chapter 3

  • What is different about the way the authors suggest you qualify an opportunity vs. the way you do it today?
  • What will you try from this chapter?

Chapter 4

Discussion questions:

  • Share thoughts around qualifying the resources of time and people. Does the team do this today? What are the benefits?

 Exercise:

  • Each participant should practice the “three-part response” (pg. 85) out loud for the group.

 Discussion:

  • How comfortable is each member of the sales team with executing the “three-part response”?
  • What, if anything, will each participant do differently when qualifying resources, time, people and money, moving forward?
  • When will each participant expect to have a chance to practice qualifying resources and using the “three-part response”?

Chapter 5

Discussion questions:

  • Each participant should share one “take-away” from Chapter 5.
  • Are there benefits to understanding the Decision Process as outlined in Chapter 5? Why or why not?

 Exercise:

  • Take two live deals in the team’s pipeline and fill in the blanks on the Decision Grid on page 98. (There will probably be blanks since this is not in practice yet.)
  • What gaps exist in the salesperson’s knowledge of the decision process for each deal?
  • How can those salespeople fill in those gaps?
  • Each salesperson on the two deals should share specific next steps to complete the Decision Grids for those opportunities.

Chapter 6

Discussion:

  • What differences exist between the way each participant prepares and executes the final presentation vs. the way the authors suggest sales professionals should do it?
  • How does the authors’ advice apply to the team’s sales process? What would work?
  • What specifically will each participant do differently, if anything, after studying this chapter?

 Exercise:

  • As practice, choose one person with an upcoming presentation to prepare and share their presentation for the team prior to sharing it with the prospective client.

Chapter 7

Discussion:

  • For each participant, what opportunities are you currently pursuing? What has been the approach so far? 
  • After reading this chapter, what will be each participant’s specific next steps in pursuit of the top opportunities?

 Exercise:

  • Three volunteers should practice for the group an “opening statement” (pg. 195) for an upcoming meeting with a new prospect.
  • Group should share feedback and reaction.

Last Words

Discussion:

  • Upon completing the book, what does each participant want to do differently after reading Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Playby Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig?

 

Exercise:

  • Please complete the SPI.
  • Each person should share their SPI (Sales Progression Index) score. 
  • Based on the SPI score, each participant should share their next steps on that live deal.
  • Did the SPI reveal any surprises for the sales rep?
  • Is the SPI exercise a valuable exercise to use to advance deals?
  • How can you use it moving forward?

 

Helping Clients Succeed sales training is based on Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Playby Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig. To learn more and follow their blog, visit ninety five 5 at http://www.nf5.com/default.aspx.

Meeting to Win leads a new Sales Performance Book Club every quarter.  These are included on weekly sales team meeting agenda newsletters.  To learn more and subscribe, visit Meeting to Win at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.

The Q4 Push – Are You In? The Time to Act on 2010 is NOW!

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

j0433410This has been a tough year for many.  It’s Q4 and salespeople could be feeling tired and ready to “write this one off” and take another shot at it in 2010.   Here’s the problem with that.  Momentum is a very cool thing and it’s great when it’s working for you and horrible when it’s working against you.  So, even if 2009 is a lost cause in terms of goal achievement, there is no better time (well, a month ago would have been better, but…) to get momentum going for 2010.

To gain more and more momentum as you close in on 2010, try these strategies:

The first five on the list come from the advice my friend Alvin of Tactivity shared in a LinkedIn discussion. I’ve added (and repeated) a few ideas that have helped me, also.

  1. If you’re on pace to the President’s Club in your organization, then increase your activity.
  2. If what you are doing hasn’t been working, then complete a thorough cleansing of the pipeline/funnel: Is it real? Is it good business? Can you win?
  3. Prioritize your activities around the health of your newly cleaned funnel
  4. Brainstorm a list of possible actions for your top opportunities; then choose only the 3-5 activities that will really advance them towards closure
  5. Go get it done!
  6. Conduct business reviews with existing clients to secure relationships, identify risks and uncover new ways to help them.
  7. Examine your territory for new opportunities a tough economy has turned up.
  8. Increase your sales activity.  Oh, did we already mention that one?  Action creates action, energy creates energy.  Make more calls!
  9. Solidify referral partners.  Decide to gain 20 referral partners and stay in touch with them, ask for referrals, be accessible and be someone they would be proud to refer (hint: send them referrals, also).
  10. Stay “on the grid” with prospects and existing customers.  Share useful information to help them run their business more effectively.  Don’t be out of sight or you know where you’ll be…. Out of mind.  Many of their sales reps have “gone dark” lately as companies do lay-offs and reorganizations.  Just being there may differentiate you!
  11. Have a team meeting every week to celebrate successes, share ideas, collaborate on hot deals and challenge each other.  This team accountability and celebration is fuel for your sales engine.  (You know we couldn’t leave this one out!)
  12. BONUS:  Increase sales activity.  In my experience, there is NO substitute.  Commit to accelerated sales activity in Q4 if you do nothing else.  Yeah, it’s worth mentioning 3 times. 

2010 can be an amazing year.  Salespeople that build momentum now can get a head start and be rewarded by helping more customers in 2010 than they ever thought possible.  Not to mention, for some 2009 can be a distant memory….  Get started today.  Staring in January 2010 will be TOO LATE.

To help sales teams build momentum during Q4, Meeting to Win is running a Q4 Push Promotion which means…free sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers.  Sales Managers can subscribe for sales team meeting agendas and get all of Q4 for free.  First payment of $10/month won’t be charged until January 2010 (sales managers can unsubscribe any time in Q4 and never be charged).  The agendas are designed to motivate sales teams and accelerate performance while continually gaining and maintaining incredible momentum. 

Read more HERE then join us by subscribing HERE and entering the Promo Code “Q4PUSH”.