Want to be a top performer?  One way to up your game is to tap into the power of having a coach. Before you say yes/no – a few thingsto consider:

• What does a coach really do?
• Are you coachable?
• Where can you find one?

First, what does a coach really do? Well wikipedia states that “Coaching is a method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are many ways to coach, types of coaching and methods to coaching. Sessions are typically one-on-one either in-person or over the telephone.” 

Interesting. And I’m so glad to see that they note there are ‘many ways, types ad methods to coaching.’  From my experience a coach is someone who ASSISTS someone else in their development. This can be through asking reflective questions, guiding and mentoring, nudging, providing accountability, challenging – but ALWAYS helping the person commit to action and move forward.   The coach is not the person who gets ‘in the game’ – they help with preparation, cheering them on and debriefing after an event. 

Are you coachable? This might be the most important question of all.  As we help companies hire the best sales professionals and leaders, one of the attributes we assess and interview for is ‘coachability’.  It is a deal-breaker if the candidate is not coachable. Why?  None of us will become the best we can be without opening ourselves up to help and development. 

How important is coachability? Well, I’ll share a recent example with a sales leader. He had the skill, knowledge and experience. His coachability was low but the organization still thought he was ‘their guy’ and they hired him. Short story, he lasted 6 months. Why?  He wasn’t open to other ideas, to feedback, etc. He alienated people because it needed to only be ‘his way’. What did that cost the company? At minimum $200k plus a LOT of ill will in the culture.

Where can you find a coach? There are coaches for hire – but you might not need to hire one. How about your manager?  A colleague who is insightful and will give you the ‘truth’.  A friend or spouse or family member? The right person for you might not be in sales – if they are able to help you firm up your goals, offer insight and a ‘nudge’ (or kick in the pants) when needed and who will celebrate with you.

When I facilitate goal setting sessions – in classroom or with individuals – the goal plan includes identifying stakeholders. One of these can be a coach – the person who helps  you stay focused and on track to achieve what YOU want to achieve. 

Look at the highest level professionals – from sports to entertainment (even politics) – nearly all of them have a coach, an advisor or someone who guides them through their profession. 

Consider the 3 questions listed here…the most important is ‘are you coachable?’  Your coachability matters today – and it very much affects your tomorrow.

P.S. if you would to see the entire goal setting process, click here for the free eBook, Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals. The eBook is short and provides ‘how’ and a tool to get your goals written.

Recovery time. Most of us dislike the thought of needing time to recover from anything. We like to keep on going.  Yet, if we overdue our week at work, we need time on the weekend to recover. If we overdue our fun on the weekend, Monday is tough because we need time to recover. If we don’t take care of our health, we may need medical recovery.  Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t need recovery time?

Recovering isn’t just for overduing it or a medical situation, Lynn Zimmer, of the Sales Pro Insider team, shared the following with me:

There are four things that you cannot recover in life:

 The Stone…………after it’s thrown,
 The Word………….after it’s said,
 The Occasion….after it’s missed, and
 The Time…………after it’s gone.

Today I share it with you because it is a great sales tip!  I am taking liberty to share the four things that are REALLY hard to recover in sales:

Your reputation….after it’s been compromised

Your word…after you have made a commitment and broken it

Your time…if you have used it unwisely

Your honor and integrity…if you ’sell out’ for a quick gain at someone else’s expense

Most things aren’t totally unrecoverable, but the effort to try and recover is significant.  It’s easier to not ‘lose’ them in the first place.  Every action you take – or don’t take – matters.

This weekend is Valentine’s Day.  The time to show those you care the most how much they mean.  Think about  how these four items are also hard to recover with your family and friends.  Make time this weekend to ‘be’ with those you love and build your reputation, honor your word, use your time wisely and show your honor and integrity.  Then you won’t need any recovery time next week.

TGIF -  Thank God It’s Friday!  Do you feel like that this week? You don’t have to.  Let’s make today – FUF!  Follow-up Friday. 

Fridays are great days for follow-up.  Many people are at their desk today trying to wrap up their week and tie up loose ends before the weekend starts. It’s often a GREAT opportunity to for you to catch them!  You can make it a very productive day to:

• Send information of value to a prospect
• Telephone contacts in your pipeline – prepare in advance what to leave as a voicemail message (just checking in doesn’t cut it)
• Respond to emails that have been sitting for days
• Complete the paper work that you have not had time to do the rest of the week
• Prepare for next week’s calls
• Set appointments for next week and the week after
• Review your goals and decide what you will focus on next week
• Take 60-90 seconds and just sit and breathe thinking about what you HAVE accomplished this week.

For me today is about preparation and opportunity.  I have a really great sales appointment this afternoon that I am excited about.  It’s with a long-time customer of my sales training. Today we are broadening our discussion to see how I might help them meet their broader human resource objectives of recruiting, training and coaching a top notch sales team. I know I can help them move that needle to save time, money and their effort! 

A good sales appointment today will mean I have a follow-up Monday

What do you do on Friday to wrap up your week?

Today is a happy day for many parents in my area…the first day of the school year!  It seems a long time ago when we were all singing School’s Out for Summer (this might be an age thing), the song by Alice Cooper that celebrates summer and “no more pencils, books or teachers’ dirty looks.” 

And though the school’s out mindset works for students in traditional schools, what about us professionals?  Is school ever OUT for us?   

Would love your comments…is “school” or learning about how to do things more effectively, information that helps our customers, information about our customers, technology, etc. ever done?  In what ways do you keep yourself IN school? 

We could rephrase the song title to “Schools in Forever” (compliments of Maggi Franks of Harper College for Businesses).

p.s. Feel like rocking to Alice Cooper?  A You Tube version of the song is here.  

Top Sales Experts continues to offer a one-stop outlet for all things sales.  My article, Increase Your Productivity in 60 Seconds or Less, posted on Sales Gravy is a Top 10 for August 2009.  Yeah!

Please vist the Top 10 Sales Articles site and vote for my article - if you find it helpful!  It will take you less than 60 seconds to do this!  While you are there, check out othe other excellent tips from global sales experts.  It’s a great way to get you going for the week!     

Sales Article TSE

Email prospecting is on the rise.  And it has a bad rap because we are inundated with spam emails to collect money from long-lost relatives in Syria, send money to save the orphans, save money on designer watches (I just counted 31 “designer watch” emails in my Junk Folder).  So if you want to use Email as part of your prospecting approach, how do you make it stand out from the junk?

Kendra Lee offers great tips on writing a compelling Subject Line.  One tip:

If you’re attempting to secure an appointment or invite a prospect to a web event, try:

• Shall we meet Tuesday?
• Can you talk Wednesday at 2pm?
• Can you attend Friday at 12?

What makes this work when the contact doesn’t know you? It feels personal to him.

Read the rest of the article Create Email Subject Lines that Draw People In for more tips.

I paused to think of whether Kendra’s tips would get me to open the message if they arrived in my InBox.  (Really they would end up in my Junk Folder   And the answer is YES. I never delete the entire Junk Folder without skimming the subject lines.  I do think these types of Subject Lines would catch my attention….before I hit Delete!

What types of emails will you open if you don’t know the sender?

Following my last post about my Social Media learning points after 8 months of activity, comes this post on 10 Stunning and Useful Facts About Twitter from Rohit Bhargava, Influential Marketing Blog, with 10 Standout Findings about Twitter.

One of the useful facts he writes about:  Twitter is being led by the social media geeks. This particular finding should likely come as no surprise, but 15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2000 people identify themselves as social media marketers. These individuals are more likely to post updates every day (sometimes more than once per day) and also use Twitter more actively for direct communication.

This gives me another learning point to add to my list from Friday’s post…it is OKAY to Unfollow people  on Twitter that do not fit into your “world”.  In fact, the referenced study’s stats on percentage of social media marketers seem low to me. 

One of my newer strategies for Twitter is to remove the obvious over-marketers!  Having 400 healthy Follows is better than 800 that dump useless information that I need to filter through.  This morning I noticed one Twitterer had sent the same marketing tweet 6 times in a minute…and that seemed to be their pattern.  It was empowering to Remove my Follow to them!

Maybe there should be a Twitter-police???

Thanks to Colleen Francis of Engage Selling for her post referencing Rojit’s blog!

A sale is not something you pursue, it’s what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.

This quote from a source “Unknown” is very relevant.  In today’s business climate, serving your customer is the key to sales success today and tomorrow.  Our future is in our hands…if we don’t get bogged down in believing no one is buying.

Make your contacts this week with the intention of finding a way to serve your customer … the “sale” will follow.

There is still time for you to hear from Top Sales Experts who will share with their vision for the future of  selling in the Kick-Off Event of Sales Experts Roundtables. 

The details for this roundtable called the Future of Professional Selling are below…

Join sales experts  Jonathan Farringon, Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein, Nigel Edelshain for this can’t-be-missed event.  They will explore what professional selling will involve in five, ten, and even twenty year’s time

•      Does professional selling as we know it have a future?
•      What impact will Sales 2.0 have on the way we sell?
•      How will organizations train and develop their sales teams?
•      Today, what is the relative value derived from sales training courses versus coaching?
•      Will “one-size fits all” classroom training, be consigned to the annals of history?
•      Which industries are more likely to witness the death of selling as we know it today?
•      What can front-line salespeople do to protect themselves from possible extinction?
•      After this current financial meltdown, will lost jobs be re-created?
•      Will the rapid growth of online sales training and coaching continue?
•      Ongoing research shows that sales performance has been declining year after year.  Why?
•      Quite simply, will selling ever be the same again?

For specifics and to register, click here.   And look around the TSE site – there is a LOT of great information for sales success by worldwide sales experts – including me!  …Nancy Bleeke

How can Jerry Seinfeld help us sell more?  This guest post by Lynn Zimmer of the Sales Pro Insider team shares this tip on building habits (Seinfeld lovers will appreciate this):

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Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show and Jerry Seinfeld a touring comic, he shared one of his success habits during an interview.

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. Here’s his secret revealed:

Using a big wall calendar (whole year at a glance) hanging on a prominent wall that he saw daily, he put a big red X over the day when he completed his task of writing.

 “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

 ”Don’t break the chain,” he repeated.

Daily action builds habits. It is consistent daily actions that build extraordinary outcomes.  Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day.

How does this relate to your sales success?  Determine what action would make the most profound impact on your sales if you worked it every day.  Then take that action and mark your first big red X on your Seinfeld calendar today.  Continue taking that action each day, and as Jerry Seinfeld says:

 Don’t break the chain!

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Thanks Lynn – if we identify the actions that will move us forward and follow this process, we will sell more!  After all, Jerry had huge success with his “show about nothing.”