Sales Force Development – Are You Doing It Right?

•  Right Value Proposition – Do your customers tell you what problems they need to solve by buying from you?
•  Right Selling Process – Do you have the right process in place for selling your products or services to those prospects that need them?
•  Right People Selling – Do you have the right people selling your products and services?
•  Right Sales Behavior – Are your sales team members performing the right activities, in the right quantities?
•  Right Measurement Systems – Do you have systems in place to measure behaviors and their results?
•  Right Monitoring of Metrics – Do you use your statistics effectively to understand what’s happening and why it is or isn’t what you expect?
•  Right Redirection – Are you able to use the information you collect to redirect and update your people and correct their behaviors and tactics?
•  Right Behavioral Accountability – Do you have a tool that allows you monitor and hold all participants accountable?

Can you hear me? 

Engagement or re-engagement in the computer age: easier or harder? We're shouting; can anyone hear us? It seems there's so much "social" noise that:

• We send out lots of stuff and lose track of the people from whom we expect response...
• The people we're trying to contact don't respond, and we don't know if that's because:
• they can't hear us,
• they're too busy to acknowledge us,
• they're getting around to us when they've time,
• or, they just don't want to speak with us!

What's your guess?

Can YOU hear me?

 

The Suitcase Theory

I remember being a road warrior. Well, maybe a minor combatant. I'd be up late the night before, packing for a two or three day trip. (Including, in more recent years, what-had-to-go-where to facilitate the security checks…and now, pat downs!)

Being relatively compact, and going for short trips, I was able to carry a computer bag and a carry-on suitcase or duffle. For three days, I could make it easily.

Today, I am thinking about my next trip, two weeks from now. I will be gone for about 8 days and nights. Yikes! That image will cause some serious packing woes; I know that even before I start! You can only get so much stuff in…one… OMGosh! That sounds a little like the story I hear from  my clients these days!

"I don't have time to…!" " I'd have done that but…came up!" " It's an issue of bandwidth!" I'd be very surprised, no matter how organized you are, if you haven't uttered those words in response to accepting  a new undertaking, when viewed as a time commitment!

Regarding time, my favorite reality: Time can't be managed! There are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute; you can't do anything about it! THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS TIME MANAGEMENT! The only thing you can manage is what you put in the time you have to allocate! That parallels packing your suitcase!

Here are the questions to help manage either:

The Suitcase Theory	Priority Management
What must I take?	What must I do?
How big is my suitcase?	How much time do I have?
How much will it hold?	How long will each task take?
Will it all fit in the space?	Can I get them all done?
What must I have?	What has to be done?
What can I leave behind?	What can I pass-off or save?
What if I don't have it?	What if I don't do it?

The management of these issues is really quite simple! Learn by answering these questions. Is there anything that can't be removed? Would it be better to pass-it-off or save it, rather than do it poorly? Have you ever learned to delegate? Do you have the right supporting cast?

Do you know how to pack and travel?

Sales Manager by DEFAULT?

Took a while yesterday to speak, by phone, to an old friend/client, whom I hadn't spoken with for a long time. A successful business owner, she'd fallen back into a habit, I thought she'd broken. (Guess she'd gotten too far away from this support group.)

To make a long story, short, if I can, about 2 years ago we'd put a sales manager in place in her company, to manager her 8 sales people (the outside number for 1 full-time sales manager!) He'd done very well, subscribed to the methodologies we'd put in place, righted the team with a couple of good hires and used the systems and processes we put in place, with the Sales Force Toolbox, to help him! As they should have, numbers went up!

Six months ago, out of the blue, he left for greener pastures and my client, much to my dismay (she was too busy!) left the position unfilled and, once again, took on the role of sales manager! Too busy to hire; not too busy to take on the full-time job of managing 8 sales people!

Ever find yourself in this position? Sales Manager by Default! Default is a common word in the computer world…it's where you go when what you're attempting to do isn't going as you'd like it to go, and out of desperation you go back to the original settings.

If you're there right now…bumping-up against the choice:

1. I'm the president/owner and chief bottle washer…what do I know about hiring some expensive person to manage these sales people…so I'll just do it myself!
2. I'll just take one of my sales people…Joe's the most successful; he can bring the others along!

STOP! You're about to make a terrible mistake! Allocate time, find some outside help if you need to, and hire a real sales manager! 

The Unholy Trinity…Not a Holiday Story!

Our seawall is being ravaged by time and the sea! A month and a half ago I called an engineer (a specialist in the art and science of seawalls) to take a look and make some recommendations for saving our wall, and ultimately, our property, which the sea seems intent on reclaiming!

A good guy, he made some reassuring comments, and then began to peel back the layers of my pain…I was a good prospect, in that I wanted him to know how important the issue was to me and I wanted him to get some sense of urgency! He told me he’d get back to me within two weeks with his take on the situation, and a couple of fixes.

Two weeks passed, with no word…and three weeks! I contacted him and was told… Busy, vacation, stalled projects, holidays, on-it, soon, next week, etc.

There still have been no recommendations.

Last week I was surveying the seawall, and made a observation…no more erosion of soil, not damage to the wall. It seems that the sea has done its worst (knock-on-wood) for the time being. Called the engineer this morning; thanked him for his visit; told him I wouldn't need his recommendations! He said “Are you sure?” I said, “Yes! Why didn't you act sooner?” He said, “Busy, vacation, stalled projects, holidays, etc.”

His inability to make a COMMITMENT that he could keep, hold himself ACCOUNTABLE, and take RESPONSIBILITY for his actions probably cost him $3500 for the recommendations and untold thousands for the actual repairs!

Ever happen to you? More important, did you ever play the engineer’s part?

3 Metrics to Prove to Your Boss That Social Media Marketing is Working | The Customer Collective

I'm really new at this Social Networking stuff, and I know it's going to take awhile to generate results (aka Sales Appointments and $) Meantime, the above article seems like a pretty good thing to review. My friend Andrew Freedman - @humanlearning - tweeted this (hey, folks! How far has the luddite come?) so, thanks, Andrew! What do you think about this resource and information? How's it help you? How will it help me?

3 Metrics to Prove to Your Boss That Social Media Marketing is Working | The Customer Collective

Routines: Try 'Em; You Might Like 'Em!

 "Rainy days and Mondays always make me ________." It's not raining and I have that old feeling! I watched the sun rise with coffee in hand, watered and fed the dogs, had morning the chat with Jacquie and now, I'm at it!

Not hard to know what "it" is…harder to know what to do with "it"! I don't believe in time management! I've written some places, sometimes, that there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day, and we can't do anything about it! All we can do is figure-out what to put in those packages of time.

I need, for lack of a better word,  a routine. I can't get everything done! You probably feel that way…no matter what your occupation, as my friend says, there just isn't enough "bandwidth".

Being anal, routine is pretty easy for me, once I've got it in place! I described my pre-work, morning routine above. Then there's the once-I'm-at-my-desk routine. I wake-up my computer, go to the internet, and access 3 sites. (secret pleasures…woot.com, the Mandolin Café and JazzMando. They take me about 5 minutes, altogether.)

Then it's on to the rest of the day: routine aimed at productivity! The routine is simple, pre-determined (and would be boring to you; it is to me, sometimes) and focused on generating revenue, fulfilling obligations of committed revenue and exceeding the expectations of those who've paid me!

The routine keeps me focused. It protects me from outside influences, because times to handle those things are all scheduled in my routine. I operate a closed-door policy! Nothing encroaches upon my routine except actual fires. (If you and I were involved in businesses where "real fires" sprang-up we might have to react…most of us aren't!)

If Pete Jones, a client, calls and I'm in the middle of solving a client's problem, taking his call then, as opposed to returning it an hour later, probably costs me a loss of creative time, and momentum. It's not likely Pete can't wait…all due respect to Pete!

And, I might even rather speak with Pete than write! Gotta' stay focused!

My routine is, by some standards (and remember: I'm very anal!) over-the-top! Don't go crazy…try a simple routine of your own. Place your priorities on the calendar 1st. Separate the activities that are time-sensitive for others that aren't. (You shouldn't have sales person one-to-one's at dinner time.) Be sure to leave a space for handling the incoming stuff like Pete's call. You might even schedule breaks.

Then…work your routine!