By Jeb Brooks, The Brooks Group, SalesEvolution.com

We’ve always believed that “Buying is an emotional event.”

Science, it turns out, backs up that statement. In his book, “You Are Not So Smart,” blogger David McRaney shares a couple of anecdotes that are useful to salespeople…

“Elliot” was a successful man by most measures. He was an excellent student who met with a great deal of success in his career as an accountant. Then he developed a brain tumor. Even though it was removed, the procedure left his Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC) damaged.

After the surgery, “Elliot” spiraled out of control. He divorced his wife, quit his job, and had trouble holding a new one. He succumbed to a scam artist who took most of his money, he drifted away from his friends and family, and remarried a prostitute. All of this happened because he would become completely debilitated when making even the simplest decisions like what to eat or wear. He suffered from extreme “paralysis of analysis.”

The Orbitofrontal Cortex

The reason? The OFC is critical to decision-making. When it becomes damaged, you might swear excessively, compulsively gamble, abuse drugs, or become unable to empathize.

In Elliot’s case, he froze-up. His emotions (the OFC) couldn’t communicate with the more logical parts of his brain.

“Elliot’s” experience is evidence of just how critical emotions are to making decisions.

An experiment in 1990 made it even more clear.

Professor Tim Wilson (of the University of Virginia) presented two groups of students with a free gift. Students in group 1 were allowed to select a poster from among several and keep it. Members of group 2 were also given the opportunity to select a poster, but they had to justify their choice by writing about why they liked it. Most of the members of Group 1 selected an attractive poster. Group 2, on the other hand, tended to choose a poster with meaning (like one of those with an inspirational quote overlaying a picture of an eagle). So, that’s kind of interesting. If buyers are forced to justify a selection, they’ll make choices that seem more socially acceptable.

But, it became much more interesting (at least to those of us in sales) about six months later when the students were asked how they felt about their choices. Group 1 overwhelmingly loved their choice. Group 2 overwhelmingly hated it.

The sales lesson? When your prospects and customers are asked to think about a decision (like when procurement gets involved or they have to present a case to management), you pay less attention to emotions and more attention to logic. And when people are denied access to the emotional part of decision-making, they not only freeze up, but they might also suffer from buyer’s remorse. This is so fundamental that it’s hard-wired into our brains.

But, buying - choosing - is an emotional action. When organizations attempt to place boundaries on the emotions (Formal RFPs, Procurement Departments, etc.), the emotion is drained. Your job is to find the emotion and sell to it.

When has emotion in a sales interaction impacted you?

By Michael D. Maginn

As the Great Recession continues to abate, there are signals companies finally are shrugging off the siege mentality of 2009 and cautiously looking ahead for opportunities to cultivate markets with new products and services. According to a McKinsey global survey (Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2009: McKinsey Global Survey results, McKinseyQuarterly.com), executives are looking for external funding and actively returning to planning medium- and long-term initiatives. This is in stark contrast to the “cut-and-cover” tactics of the last two years.

What do these hopeful signs mean for sales teams working with these companies? One implication is that it is also time for sales teams to switch gears. Calling on customers can be more rewarding and productive for everyone if sales teams are in touch with what customers want from them as they plan for growth.

So, what exactly do customers want from the sales relationship as signs of growth return?

A recent study conducted for an industrial distributor (C-Lens Index, Redacted Proprietary Report, Singularity Group, Inc., January 2010) provides some answers. Distributors and dealers were asked to rate what was important to them in the buying process, and the frequency with which they saw sales teams demonstrating sales actions that delivered value. The results from 410 respondents paint a picture of customers looking for both basic efficiencies in getting things done, as well as stimulating ideas and creativity. On the other hand, the data also reveals that many customers in the sample felt a significant percentage of sales teams weren’t delivering value beyond product and service transactions.

When asked to rate what was important to them in the sales relationship, a set of sales actions that had a theme of “getting things done” percolated to the top of the list. The highest-rated of these reflected taking steps within the vendor company to fulfill customer requests, solving problems effectively, making sure the customer was getting the benefits of the product or service, and knowing enough about the customer’s business to understand its needs. Straight talk about the products and services and how different they were from the competition was also highly important.

The customers seem to be saying that what is important to them, first and foremost, is a sales process that matches a need to the right product or service and gets it efficiently delivered and installed. This is a more or less transactional set of expectations that view the sales process as an ends to a means. Why is that so important to customers? One possibility is that this narrow focus serves a hunkered-down economy where expectations are lowered across the board to completing basic functions. Also, it could be that customers don’t expect much more than that from sales teams. Have sales teams literally trained customers to view them as “order-takers,” that old nemesis label? There is additional data to suspect that might be the case. When customers were asked how frequently these “get-it-done” sales actions were demonstrated, most of these were highly rated. That is, sales teams were responding to the transaction urgency of customers by performing sales actions that do, in fact, get it done. That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news is it appears salespeople are doing the obvious, the relatively easy, and not much more for customers. Other important sales actions are seen less frequently; this is a red flag for sales teams, especially now. While still rated relatively important, this set of sales actions reflects a more consultative selling approach. What customers see less than transactional skills—in some cases significantly less—are sales actions that revolve around offering unique and fresh ideas and advice, finding other resources, creating alternative approaches to problems, providing business advice, and exploring the future. These and other similar consultative sales actions require more skill; more sophisticated knowledge and business acumen; and perhaps most importantly, an attitude about the sales team’s role as a customer’s ally. The data suggests that at least half or more of the sales teams in the sample infrequently demonstrate these kinds of consultative sales actions. Bear in mind: these actions were still viewed as important to customers, only slightly less so than the “get-it-done”-oriented sales actions.

The risk for sales teams, especially in this fragile market environment, is to be absent from the planning table when those mid- and longer-range plans mentioned earlier are being contemplated, and the opportunity to influence decisions passes by. If that is the case, the challenge for sales teams is to re-brand themselves as resources, not just vendors. If sales teams can position themselves as sources of advice and ideas, act as liaisons to experts and valuable resources that are connected to industry networks and stimulate thinking about not only product application ideas, but future business solutions, then their immediate value and the value of the sales process goes up astronomically.

Do salespeople know they need to improve on these more idea-, resource-, and network-oriented aspects of the sales process? In three separate studies (C-Lens Index Sales Self-Assessment, Proprietary Research, Singularity Group, Inc., Sept., 2009), a total of 99 salespeople were asked to rate themselves on the importance of sales actions to customers and whether they rated themselves as “Do It Well” or “Need to Improve” on each. Ironically, the highest Need To Improve scores provided by these self-ratings were given to many of the same sales actions that reflected a consulting orientation. So, salespeople know there is room for growing into a bigger role.

What can sales management do to close this gap? Salespeople have to be both excellent facilitators, ensuring customers get what they need, but at the same time, they have to offer more than just a delivery service, providing additional value to customers and differentiating both themselves and their products. There are three routes to the re-branding process.

First, training has to go beyond pitching, questioning, objection-handling, product knowledge, and order-fulfillment activities. Specifically, sales teams need industry-oriented education where salespeople are taught to think like customers, understand a customer’s business priorities and concerns, and evaluate decisions from the other side of the table.

Next, sales coaches have to step up to a critical development role. They have to be focused on developing customer-focused business skills in the sales team. Sales meetings can include customer application stories, cost justification models, product configuration examples that demonstrate how solutions can be more tailored to customer needs, and discussion of problems actual customers are facing in their businesses. The task is to get sales teams to think through all these like a customer, sorting through what fits and what doesn’t. Consistently practiced over the long haul, this customer focus will become a sales priority for all sales teams, not just a pocket of engaged salespeople who have learned the importance of this point of view.

Finally, sales and marketing must work together to create materials and processes that can be built into and delivered through the sales team. While not every salesperson will be quick to learn and apply analytic skills, he or she can learn to use an analytic checklist or deliver industry news, present documented application stories, and provide access to technical experts and resources. The combined focus of both sales and marketing on enriching the sales experience can be vital in giving ongoing value to customers in ideas, education, and connections to industry networks.

If the sales team finds itself stuck in the role of facilitator of deliveries and order fulfillment, then it is only providing a portion of what customers want. What customers also want now are salespeople to help them engage with the problems and challenges of growing their businesses out of the Great Recession.

By Tony Cole

Normally, one would not connect politics with sales success, but if we allow ourselves to think about it, politicians are always selling.  They are either trying to sell us or sell each other on their ideas, programs or interests.  Please ignore the politics of the individual I am about to discuss because his specific politics are not important to the discussion.  I would like to focus on a comment in his book.  

I am in the middle of reading Decision Points - The Presidential Memoir of George W. Bush. In the chapter Leading, he discusses his decisions that led to the “No Child Left Behind” legislation and he makes the following statement:

“You cannot solve a problem until you diagnose it.  Accountability would serve as a catalyst for reform.”

I read this, stopped, and thought about the dozens of sales organizations we have worked with in the past and those we are talking to today as prospects.  In almost every instance, the chief executive’s objective is to achieve some variation of reform.  The clients we work with are not broken, but they universally realize that they are perfectly designed for the results that they are getting today.  They realize that, for various reasons, they need a different set of results or outcomes.  And, they realize that in order to get a different outcome, they need to change or reform.

In his book, the former president goes on to discuss, in education, everyone knew the symptoms; the fact that the USA finished 3^rd to the bottom only above Cyprus and South Africa in mathematics.  There were not any standard accountability measures in place to help schools and school reformers determine how to duplicate success or fix failure. Accountability was needed as the catalyst for reform in education.

So, let’s get back to the business of selling. If there is anything in your company, specifically with your sales team, that you can no longer accept or have to change, then you must get beyond treating the symptoms (for example new CRM or new sales process).  You must diagnose the root cause of the problem.  Our company helps other sales companies with this very critical “diagnosis”.

Traditionally, this is what we find out when we help companies with the diagnostics:

• Crucial Elements of Success are strengths or weaknesses that impact growth and the ability to be coached.  These include desire, commitment, responsibility and outlook.
• Major Performance Factor deficits impact execution of ANY sales system. These factors are need for approval, money issues, poor record collection, and non-supportive buy cycle.
• Strategies and priorities for the business are not aligned between senior management and sales management, therefore creating a disconnect between what should be executed and what is executed.
• Hiring - the population that is supposed to execute the strategies and priorities are incapable of doing so because the wrong hiring criteria has been used and there is normally a lack of a consistent process to keep the candidate pipeline full.
• On-boarding - Accountability standards to execute sales activities to drive early success are missing.  New hires exhibit slow starts and are either fired too early or kept too long.

These are just some of the major issues we uncover and then deliver training to help companies with their ‘reform’ efforts.  But these few issues have a dramatic impact on the results they are getting.  As you think about the “problems” that exist in your sales team today, clearly you know the symptoms and chances are, you’ve been attempting to treat the symptoms with some success.  However, long term change, improvement and growth will eventually require deep diagnosis and accountability.

To get you started, take advantage of these free assessment tools.

By S. Trunkett, Salesracehorses.com

Every sales rep appreciates winning a big order from a key customer; but it’s rarely appropriate for him or her to say so to the customer.  Saying ‘Thank you for your business’ is bush league, and can significantly weaken your position.

Top performing sales executives recognize that customers buy their solutions because to do so makes good business sense for the customer’s organization.

That isn’t to say that personal relationships don’t play an important role in the process.  Strong relationships throughout the complex network of buying influences can play a significant strategic role in the sales rep’s ability to understand and communicate the relevant value that their solutions offer their customers’ organizations, to the exclusion of the competitors.

World class sales organizations train, coach, and provide the tools necessary to enable their sales reps to systematically investigate, identify, quantify, and prioritize customers’ specific value drivers, and enable them to formulate and communicate high value solutions across the buyer’s organization in order to clearly differentiate their offering against the competition.

Receiving a big order is confirmation that the sales team has successfully established its solution as offering superior value versus the alternative competive options.  This is no time to weaken your value proposition with bush league ‘thank yous’.  Receipt of the order means that it’s time to proactively manage your customer’s post purchase evaluation phase.  A strong competitor is not going to go down without a fight, and purchase orders have been known to be withdrawn after their award for a variety of reasons.  Receipt of the purchase order means it’s time to reconfirm to all of the important buying influencers that their decision was the correct one.  Saying ‘thank you’ serves virtually no purpose towards this objective, and will more likely plant seeds of doubt about their decision.

Send your customer a message that successful execution of this project is a top priority to your organization, and that it will be planned and executed in a manner that exceeds the expectations of the customer.  Be careful not to open any cans of worms that may potentially cause doubt, but be thorough in communicating that your organization has a solid plan to execute and deliver.

While it is certainly acceptable – and generally expected – to send an order confirmation, the confirmation should be oriented around the message of “We look forward to working together with you to ensure the successful execution of this very important project,” versus “We would like to thank you for your business.”  Below is a sample listing of some key activities you can initiate to solidy your position and competitor-proof your Purchase Order.

• Provide your custmer with a Point/Counterpoint Table illustrating the customer’s key issues and how your offering will successfully address each;
• Initiate an internal project kickoff meeting to ensure that your organisation is prepared to deliver 100% customer satisfaction;
• Submit a detailed production, service, installation schedule that illustrates how your solution will meet the customer’s key milestones;
• Initiate a joint production kickoff meeting with your  customer and the key influencers in the decision;
• Develop a joint project communication protocol and milestone update schedule that highlights the collaborative teaming nature of the project;

Yes, receiving a 6, 7, or even an 8-figure purchase order is a milestone that deserves celebration.  It may have taken you and your team months – or even years – to secure such an order.  But don’t put such a huge win at risk by letting down your guard.  In today’s highly competitive business environment, receipt of the PO doesn’t signify the end of the race.  It represents the beginning of a joint collaboration between your company and your customer’s team to successfully execute and deliver a complex high value solution that will solidify your long-range organizational relationship.

By Kelley Robertson: The Robertson Training Group

The other day I received a prospecting email that caught my attention. That’s rare because most emails lose my attention in a few short moments (15 seconds or less).

The sales person’s first two paragraphs were,

“We have yet to connect and the reason I am reaching out to you is that my company specializes in finding top performing sales people for sales leaders who are faced with the daunting task of building or rebuilding the sales function within an organization – no small challenge.

“We recognize that you are in the business of helping business and sales leaders get more performance out of their sales teams. We are interested in having a discussion around how we could potentially partner together as we have clients who could use your services just as I am sure you have clients who would benefit from our level of specialization and expertise.”

As I read her message, I thought, “Hmmm, I should probably talk to her; I know some people who might benefit from her service.”

However, as I continued reading, I changed my mind.

Here’s why…

After explaining why she contacted me, she wrote,

“If you can spare 5 to 10 minutes, I’d like to arrange a meeting with my company’s CEO (author, speaker and sales management expert, Name was inserted here) who can discuss your goals and how our Program Name (followed by the acronym) helps new VP’s achieve accelerated results and sales growth.”

I was initially interested in what SHE had to say but I really didn’t want to listen to someone else talk incessantly about their company, their history, their successes, etc. and I suspected that the “5 to 10 minute” conversation would be much longer than that.

If your email correspondence, telephone communication or face-to-face meeting focuses on anything besides the problem at hand, you run the risk of the prospect losing interest.

Anything else just wastes their time and yours.

You see, people don’t want—or need—to know everything about your company. All they want to know is how you can help them solve them a problem they might be facing.

If she had concluded her email with, “I’d like to schedule a quick chat to outline some of the results our sales training clients have achieved…” I probably would have responded with a positive reply.

Remember, your goal in any type of sale conversation (written or verbal) is to keep your attention focused on your customer or prospect. The more successful you are at this, the more likely it is that they will listen and eventually buy from you.

By James A. Baker, Founder and Chairman

Baker Communications

The modern workplace has become far more complicated and far more diffuse in the past few decades.  Telecommuting, international commerce, far-flung business branches, virtual offices and frequent travel have introduced work environments where managers frequently have to manage individuals, and even entire teams, that they don’t see every day, or possibly ever.

If your employees are in a different location, another time zone, or another country, face-to-face weekly meetings or office walk-bys are obviously not practical management solutions.  How do you effectively manage individuals or teams that are located somewhere else?

Establish Accountability

When managing remote employees or teams, it is critical that you establish accountability.  You must be able to trust employees to do their jobs and to stay on task, even though you can’t wander by their desks or pop into the warehouse to oversee them.  Create a structure for tracking their productivity, and make sure the remote employees are aware that they still answer to you.

Get the Right People

Hiring employees who will work in a different location or allowing existing employees to begin telecommuting carries an element of risk.  Selecting trustworthy and industrious employees for such remote positions is key to avoiding future problems.  Carefully consider which candidates or employees can be trusted to work well without personal supervision.

Communicate Frequently

Even if you can’t talk to your employees face-to-face, don’t let that keep you from communicating!  This is critical to setting expectations, delivering feedback, and even to making your remote employees feel like they are part of the team.

There is no excuse for leaving your employees out of the loop; use e-mail, phone calls, teleconferencing, online meetings, text messaging, chat programs, fax, snail mail, telegraph, smoke signals or messenger pigeons — whatever you have to do — but keep in touch.  Do not let employees sit around wondering what they are supposed to be doing.  Clearly and frequently communicate with them about goals, assignments, progress and problems.

Travel if Possible

Depending on your situation, it can be an excellent practice to arrange occasional travel to meet face-to-face with teams or employees in distant locations.  Personal contact goes a long way in establishing a real relationship with your employees, and helps them feel like integrated and valued team members.  It can also give you a clearer idea of who you are working with and how best to communicate with and motivate them.

Encourage Balance

Those who telecommute or work from home (as well as those who don’t) occasionally have problems maintaining a balance between work and home life.  Remind them that they are not expected to be available 24-7 just because they are working from home.  Overworked employees are less effective, and may risk burnout.  Try to ensure that telecommuters are working comparable hours to the time they would spend in the office.

Managing Remote Employees

Astute readers may have realized that most of the rules for managing employees at a distance are the same as those for managing anyone else!  Hiring the right people, establishing accountability, communicating well, setting expectations, and establishing a respectful relationship between manager and employee are always key to successful management.

The modern workplace has evolved alongside modern technology and methods that facilitate a more diffuse and varied work environment.  As there can be many potential benefits to a company in using remote teams and telecommuters, this is a trend that seems unlikely to reverse. The ability to accommodate the needs of remote employees and establish a good working relationship with them will prove to be a valuable management skill as the business world continues to change and evolve over time.

Managing remote employees or teams will present some special challenges, but these can generally be met by a manager who is dedicated to maintaining a productive and effective team.

By UPSA, United Professional Sales Association

We intuitively know there are skill and proficiency differences between salespeople who consistently achieve high results and those who don’t. The search for defining those differences has been a robust area of discussion and study for many years. The assumption is that if you can define the behaviors that correlate with success, you can hire and/or train to that profile. Competency studies, formal academic research, anecdotal stories, and insights from sales managers and executives have all been the bases of models of high performance that, in the final analysis, revolve around some level of customer focus as a salient, unifying concept as well as on face-to-face, product knowledge and relationship skills.

At C-Lens Index, after working for many years with different sales organizations, we recognize that all these studies and discussions describe a salesperson focused on delivering value through the sales process. That means the customer actually benefits from the sales experience, both before buying anything and throughout the relationship that follows. For example, the discovery process results in new insights about needs and their impact on the business, products and services can be creatively configured to the situation, the salesperson’s resource network can be brought in to help, and application ideas and examples from other sources in the customer’s industry are discussed. To put this example in plain terms, if you are a car insurance consultant then you need to use insightful questioning to ascertain the needs of a particular customer, and use your response to these needs to build rapport and present a solution to the customer’s need. You may add value to the customer’s experience if you compare bike insurance options as well as car insurance options. This is what a superior sales person does. In all, the relationship-through the sales process-becomes an added value from the vendor. Our point of view is that a salesperson who recognizes that delivering this value is the key to his or her role and whose actions reflect that philosophy will be a High Performer compared to those who are otherwise focused on product, fulfillment, or price-based selling.

We’ve been able to identify the behavioral indicators of that value-laden relationship and use them to measure what customers are actually seeing in the sales process. We call those indicators “Sales Actions,” and they mirror the behavior and attitude of a salesperson who is focused on customer value. In a recent C-Lens Index scan for a manufacturing company, we collected data from over 400 customers on their views of their salesperson. We asked them how frequently they saw the sales actions played out and how important those actions were to them. In analyzing the data, we compared the results of salespeople who were identified as High Performers with those identified as Low Performers. These were defined by our client in terms of consistent long-term results as well as reputation in the company for professionalism. In our sample of 58 salespeople, we worked with eight salespeople in each category. The results provide some insights into what customers are seeing High Performers do more frequently than Low Performers.

High Performers Seen Performing All Sales Actions More Frequently

Overall, customers see High Performers demonstrating each and every C-Lens Index sales action to a greater extent than low performers. While this helps to validate the C-Lens items and concept, it also shows that High Performers are seen differently in the eyes of the customer. The average frequency score of High Performers was 64.28 percent while the Low Performers scored 47.75 percent. The larger differences will be discussed below. However, it is important to point out that these sales actions are associated with success, and they are aligned with delivering a value-based experience to the customer. Apparently, customers see this difference.

The Largest Gaps Between High and Low Performers

We identified 12 Sales Actions out of 28 where High Performers scored 20 percentage points or more than Low Performers in terms of frequency as seen by customers. It doesn’t matter what products are being sold whether they are payday loans or investment properties or fancy dress or even an essay writing service, these figures tend to stay true in any market. Since the numbers in the sample were not large enough for statistical comparisons, we felt 20 percent was a sufficient arbitrary difference to note any trends or themes between the groups. The following are the Sales Actions which were the largest gaps between High and Low performers

1. Asks in-depth probing questions to better understand my business and my needs.

2. Discovers what is on my mind by focusing on what I say and how I say it

3. Reassures me that the vendor company’s team working with me has experience and expertise in addressing needs

4. Finds other valuable resources for me that also might help address my needs

5. Always remains diplomatically straightforward in describing issues

6. Tells me how the vendor company, its products and services are uniquely different from other vendors

7. Provides clear, easy-to-understand examples of how the vendor company, its products or services will help me and my own customers

8. Directly and creatively addresses real or perceived concerns that I raise

9. Takes appropriate steps within the vendor company to accomplish tasks for me in a timely manner

10. Uses internal/external experts and resources to maximize the value to me of the vendor company’s products and services

11. Ensures my company and I are receiving the promised benefits of the products and service provided

12. Stays current and informed about my business performance, its strategy, recent changes, and emerging needs

What this tells us about High Performers versus Low Performers is most interesting:

High performers more frequently practice basic face-to-face selling skills. [Asking questions (1) and Listening (3).] We presume that comfort in using these fundamental skills effectively is an indicator of High Performance. Euso The lower frequency by Low Performers may indicate a need for training, lack of experience, differences in coaching and supervision or poor execution.

High performers also are seen more frequently describing product or service uniqueness and examples of how these can be applied. [Tell how uniquely different (6), Provide clear examples (7), other basic face-to-face skills.] Fluency and confidence in product knowledge is apparently an indicator of high performance. It is one thing to describe features and benefits and quite another to tell convincing stories about how product or service uniqueness plays out and how applications actually work for customers.

High performers more frequently bring other resources and expertise that can help the customer to the sales process and, if needed, help solve problems. [Find other resources (4), Creatively address concerns (8), Use internal/external experts (10.] This suggests an openness to leverage value that salespeople have cultivated in their own personal networks as well as to widen out the scope of the customer’s situation and open it up to creative problem-solving. Seeing beyond the immediate set of facts and data is a sophisticated skill that not only requires product and service knowledge, but confidence and knowledge of other applications. Creatively solving problems-whether independently or with internal colleagues-shows a command of concepts and applications and fluency of thinking skills.

High performers show empathy as reflected in reassuring the customer that he or she is in good hands and acting diplomatically. For example a sales consultant for resveratrol would show sympathy with the problem of ageing and assure the prospect that others have had good results from using the product. [Reassures me the team has experience (3) and Always remains straightforward (5).] Is this a matter of higher emotional intelligence or experience in pre-empting difficult situations? These Sales Actions could signify the High Performer is more “tuned in” to the customer’s reactions as the relationship unfolds.

Finally, High Performers are seen as more frequently being invested in the customer’s company and the buyer. [Ensures benefits (11) and Stays current and informed (12).] These are higher-order Sales Actions, requiring an effort and a certain amount of risk by opening up the possibility that the customer is not getting what he or she bought. Hydroxatone Nevertheless, this kind of pro-active inquiry into the outcomes of product and service applications as well as customer status is a mark of being truly interested in serving the customer.

by Paul Castain, The Sales Playbook

I was recently asked by one of my readers if I thought that our profession in sales has changed.

My answer is both a quick “No” and a resounding all caps “HELL YES!”

No in the sense that the idea of assessing and identifying needs, presenting solutions, gaining commitment etc have always been a part of the deal and most probably always will.

But that’s where all of this becomes very dangerous!

Why?

Because we’re actually asking the wrong question!

In this week’s podcast, we’re jumping headfirst into this debate and I’ll offer several areas that you need to understand with regard to  HOW things have changed!

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Download this episode (right click and save)

Paul Castain works with individuals and organizations to achieve higher levels of what experts refer to as “awesomeness”.  For more information on Paul’s services, download his cool PDF

By Paul Cherry, Performance Based Results

It had been one year to the day since my friend Jake had relocated to Florida to beef up profits at a medical equipment company. Since I was in Jake’s area on business myself, we agreed to meet after work for drinks to celebrate. Jake had every reason to think he’d get a glowing evaluation on his performance review. But when he trudged into the bar at my hotel, Jake looked like he was down in the dumps, not on top of the world.

“They gave me the sack! Can you believe it?” As he knocked back his drink, Jake was so angry I half-expected him to swallow his swizzle stick along with his Mojito. “I relocated for them. I worked nights and weekends, I even broke dates. I did everything right and then some. And what does my boss tell me? ‘You did a pretty good job, but you could’ve done more.’”

I shook my head. “It’s outrageous, Jake. I’ve seen for myself what a great manager you are, and I’d bet the ranch you followed the company’s performance standards to the letter.”

“I would have, if they’d ever bothered to outline their standards for me.” Jake took another swig. “I tried to get specifics, but my boss was the kind of guy who acts on gut instinct. How am I supposed to measure my performance using somebody else’s gut feelings?” In his frustration, Jake bit his swizzle stick in half. Lucky for him, it was one of those sugar cane sticks, so Jake didn’t have to see a dentist on his way to the unemployment office.

Good managers create performance standards for their people that are as clear as Jake’s sugar swizzle stick, but far more substantial. How can you, as a manager, expect your team to meet your expectations unless you provide concise, concrete standards from square one?

Jake’s hardly the first employee to be stymied by unclear performance standards. My associate Patrick once worked with a celebrated 4-star hotel. The hotel’s Human Resources Manager met with him after one of the department heads had been let go. The reason? “He didn’t meet the hotel standards.”

That indicated to Patrick that this hotel had specific, measurable standards for their staff. He was impressed, until he asked, “Which standards did he fall short on?”

“The hotel standards,” the HR Manager repeated. He never actually got around to explaining exactly what the hotel’s standards were. Perhaps he wasn’t sure what they were, either. When pressed to elaborate, all he could do was describe a vague feeling or two about the former department head’s performance.

As the late economist Peter Drucker said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” How can any workplace talk standards when they haven’t established measurable standards for their team to follow? As you can see from Jake’s and Patrick’s experiences, someone can be fired for not adhering to standards, without being told what those standards are! When managers set impossible goals, it only leads to frustration. When managers are frustrated, the inevitable trickle-down effect results in frustrated team members, too. For the sake of your team’s productivity and self-esteem, it’s crucial to set achievable standards for reasonable goals within your team’s grasp, and to deal with them based on specific, measurable standards leading to measurable results.

For instance, Patrick had a different experience when he worked with IBM. A manager friend of his, George, had been doing well there, so when Patrick met with IBM’s Vice-President, he asked how George was doing. With regret, the VP explained that George was no longer with the company. “He broke a cardinal rule: he lied to one of our customers.” Now that’s a specific standard — far more understandable, valuable, and enforceable than a vague feeling.

As Stephen Covey said, “Begin with the end in mind.” Make sure you don’t just do things mindlessly; always stop to consider WHY you’re doing it. There must be a result in mind. By the same token, you must make sure your employees understand that they do each of their assigned tasks for a reason; it’s not just “busy work.” Help your team members to go beyond saying, “What do you want me to do?” Rather, get them to think in a results-oriented way before they act, so they consider the end results you want them to achieve on the team’s behalf.

Recently, my wife and I had dinner at a popular upscale restaurant in our area. The grounds surrounding the restaurant had a beautiful garden on a lush green lawn. As we enjoyed our meal and each other’s company, we heard the pitter-patter of little raindrops against the windows. By the time we were ready to pay our check, those little raindrops had joined forces to become a big downpour. The monsoon continued as we stood inside the restaurant doorway, waiting for the valet to bring our car around. Looking around idly, I couldn’t help noticing the lawn’s sprinklers were on at full blast — while the rain kept pounding down! I asked the young assistant manager on duty at the time why the sprinklers were on.

“It’s Tuesday, sir,” he said brightly. “We always turn on the lawn sprinklers on Tuesday.”

“Oh, so it’s an automated sprinkler system set up to run every Tuesday?”

“No, sir, I turn the sprinkler on and off myself,” the assistant manager said. “It’s one of my duties.”

Puzzled, I gestured at the windows. “But it’s already raining — pouring, in fact. Isn’t it overkill to have the sprinklers running while it’s raining?”

“Well…” The assistant manager’s smile faltered; suddenly he was at a loss for words. His smile crept back, but not quite as bright as before. “That’s what we do here on Tuesdays, sir. I’m just doing what my boss told me to do.”

The lesson here: performance standards must be results-oriented, not task-oriented. If you want to get your boss in trouble, do exactly, literally, what he tells you to do. This young man was just following the rulebook, doing what he’d been told had to be done on a typical Tuesday. He hadn’t stopped to think why he was putting on the sprinklers in the rain; he’d simply figured he had to follow his superior’s instructions to the letter, without considering extenuating circumstances like downpours, otherwise he’d risk being in hot water with his boss.

Like the song says, “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it.” It’s up to you, as a manager, to set clear, concise, unmistakable performance standards for yourself and your employees. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things at work, and when you and your team know your office’s performance standards inside and out, everybody benefits.

By Eye On Sales

We went out of our way to collect the best and the most inspiring quotes about success in business and everyday life and conveniently combined them for you in this booklet. Go ahead and print them, share ‘em with your team and take them with you wherever you go.

May this booklet inspire you to great sales success!

File	Size
eos_quote_book_success.pdf	0.09 MB