I have spent the last week working with AWESOME sales professionals – many newer to the career of sales.  Many sales manager believe that new people can be  ‘trained’ the right way and not have to unlearn bad habits.  Yet even the newbies can have’ills’ that will potentially keep them from success. 

Not a newbie? If you’ve been in sales a while (or a LONG while) you may have even more sales ‘ills’.   So, what are some of the ills? From observation and sales manager stories, most of them fall into two categories:

1. Not doing something that would lead to success.
2. Doing the wrong things that keep them average or below.

Really?  Is it that simple?  Well, it can be. 

These categories can be cured by two other “-ill”  words:

• Skills
• Will

Skills

You do not have to be a ‘born’ sales professional!  The skills needed to be successful can all be learned and developed!  What’s important it identifying the skills that are necessary in  YOUR type of sales and then building them.

It’s been found that most any skill can be developed in 50 days with practice – Vince Lombardi clarifies the need for practice with this quote:

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

Making the time and effort to identify WHAT is needed gives a higher dividend.

Will

The ‘will’ is your energy and motivation to act.  Without action, you will never reach YOUR personal best.  how to strengthen your will? 

1. Set goals. The power of clear goals is that it provides the target for your actions. You can proactively work toward something if you know where you are going.
2. Identify your rewards. What’s in it for you? What if you take the actions – even if you don’t want to – what will you gain?  Only you can determine that – and if you think money is the reward – think further. Think of the what the money DOES for you or GETS for you – that is the real reward and motivator.  More and more research is finding that the ‘intrinsic’ rewards are more motivating than the ‘extrinsic’ rewards of ‘stuff’ and materials.  Think about what the ‘stuff’ intrinsically does for you? 

In the upcoming weeks I will post additional information about the intrinsic rewards and what it takes to build skills – for now use this time to idnetify WHAT skills you need to build and the goals you want/need to achieve.

Curing Sales ‘ill’s is possible – but no “Pill’ will give you an instant cure.

Make today matter!

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How excited are you about the ‘pieces’ of your job?  Are you in the ‘fresh’ stage of finding it all exciting? Or a ‘stale’ stage where most days you think ‘Been there, done that?’

For me, the travel part of my job has become a bit stale. I didn’t even realize this until my flight this week. I was on my way to Florida to work on Sharpenz. The process was like many other trips until I sat down behind a dad and his daughter. These two strangers reminded me the true joy and wonder of flying!

The girl was bout 12, and from her comments, hadn’t flown since before 9/11 (she must have been a toddler!).  The dad was patiently, and with animation, explaining what was happening from the time we boarded.

He explained:

• How the seats recline – and that if you move them all the way back, it affects the person behind you – so be careful (love his consideration for meJ behind her).
• The de-icing process (it is still cold in Milwaukee in the mornings).
• How the light and air controls work.
• And on and on.

But the magic was at take off – the wonder she expressed as 100+ passengers, in a big ‘metal box’ lifted off the ground!

I smiled the whole time thinking – YES! This is awesome!  We can get from HERE to THERE so quickly in the sky!

As I overheard this exchange between father and daughter – I started thinking about other ‘pieces’ of what I do that might feel a little stale right now. How can I recapture some of the wonder about this career I have chosen and am honored to have!

What about you? What ‘pieces’ of your job might feel stale?  Want to try and capture some wonder too?

I came up with several tips:

1. Look at your job with wonder. I know CRM and sales reports aren’t fun…but imagine how that process worked just 20 years ago!  Faxes, handwritten reports, overnight mailings to the manager, etc.  What technology has done for so much of this is truly amazing!
2. Talk to a ‘Rookie” – ask them what they are enjoying or what pieces of the job they are trying to understand better.
3. Mentor someone! Taking on a mentor role can change your outlook. That’s why mentor programs are still growing –mentors get as much (if not more) out of the arrangement than the mentee!
4. Think about ALL those people without jobs right now – how excited they would be to have your job – even with all the stale pieces that come with it.
5. Make a list of why you do what you do. What is the value to others, the world, your family, yourself for the job you do?  Look at the list – would these people be better or worse off if you weren’t doing these things?

If none of these work to bring some energy and excitement (even a momentary glimpse) then it may be time for a new career for you.  We spend too much time in our careers to be stale for long. Rejuvenate, revigorate and rejoice for yours!  You might find some wonder in the process.

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If you live in the U.S. you may be hearing about March madness.  No, it isn’t people trying to hold on to their sanity as they wait for spring – its all about NCAA basketball!

As the hype begins and the country (or maybe its just the Bleeke family) gets ready for the tournament, we can all think about our own March madness at work. 

In March the reality of the year starts to sink in.  People have a lot of optimism in the month as companies and sales managers set goals.  February follows with lots of activity and a belief it will pay off.  And then March starts…and people start scrambling to make quarterly numbers, and wondering whether they have committed to more than they can deliver. 

Today I received an email from a professional friend wondering what I am noticing as a I talk with companies. Do I see ‘hope dissipating,’ he asked. Well, NO,  I don’t believe  hope is dissipating. I just spoke with two company presidents this week that said February ended with better than expected results. They believe the momentum will push the March numbers even higher.

The real question is, what do you believe?  Do you believe you are positioned for a great quarter-end? What you believe matters:

Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman -                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          not the attitude of the prospect.

W. Clement Stone

W. Clement Stone is a GREAT role model for those of us in sales. His story is told in his book “The Success System That Never Fails“.  W. Clement was also known to say that he never made a ‘cold call’, he made ‘gold calls’. 

But back to March Madness.  Strive to be MAD this month!

• Motivated
• Assertive
• Determined

With the right attitude and a MAD approach, you will succeed. And then your results (and your sales manager) will thank you.

P.S. Today starts a different March madness in my family. All three of my children’s birthdays are this month – starting with Jackson who turns 17  today.

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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?

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I hope the series of Sales Predictions for 2010 that wraps up today has given you some ammunition on actions, strategy and maybe a boost of hope and confidence that THIS year can be whatever you want it to be.  As we wrap up the first full work week of 2010, I share my predictions for sales leaders and sales professionals. 

I am optimistic about this year – with a caution.  The business landscape is different.  There is hesitation on ‘is it over yet?’ and maybe a lack of commitment to MOVE.  This leads all of us in sales – really the driver of our economy in so many ways – to need to think differently, find different paths and collaborate more consciously.  And it will be worth it because there is a LOT of opportunity to ‘light up the sky’ with and for our customers!

My specific predictions:

Sales Leaders

Leaders at all levels will continue to have to do more with less.  Problem solving and finding proactive activities to equip and engage their sales team will be critical.  Retaining top and average performers will need attention as the markets start to show signs of strengthening and sellers realize there are new opportunities. 

Sales Reps:

The gap between high performers and mediocre performers will widen.  Top performers will seek skills, habits and tools to sell even more.  The ‘noise’ of social media and the internet will become louder.  Filtering to find the right tools and right information will be key to focus on what sales people need to do:  get in front of prospective buyers to determine how they can provide value with and for them.  Collaborative approaches in marketing, nurturing, selling and account management will reign.

And there you have it.  A full week of 2010 sales predictions from credible sales expertise sources - Jill Konrath, Nancy Nardin, Jonathan Farrington, Jeb Blount, Anne Miller and Alice Kemper.  What they’ve learned from their contacts with many companies and sales reps globally, and their attention to the economy allowed all of us a glimpse into what we can focus on this year to capture more sales.  If you’d like to have all the predictions in one, easy to access document for your review, click here.    

Now what?  Well, that’s up to you!  Your focus on setting your targets and goals for this year and then acting to achieve them is critical.  That’s why these next sales resources might be very helpful!

Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals  – a new ebook I’ve written with a turn-by-turn route for you to set and achieve goals.  It even includes an effective Goal Planner!   

I’ve put all the best tips I have shared over the last 18 months into one easy to follow document.  I’m putting the final touches on Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals and it will be available next Tuesday FREE!  Come back for the link.

The eBook will be ready in time to be a companion to the upcoming Top Sales Expert Roundtable on Tuesday, January 12th on Time to Get Into Gear Early!  (This roundtable can be free if you are a VIP member – only $25 a year! for dozens of sales sessions and tools.)  Plus, as a presenter, I have a free seats to offer you today!  (Who says the holiday gift-giving is over?) Click here to be a part of this roundtable that is sure to be helpful and entertaining.   

 One final FREEbie today, a FREE Ready-to-go sales training booster kit for you now.  Sharpenz…Half Hour of Power boosters were designed to help EVERYONE in the sales profession efficiently stay at the top of their game!  And YOU can get a free booster to equip, engage and energize your sales team!  Visit theSharpenz site for the FREE booster. 

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It’s January 7th and Day 4 of the Top 2010 Sales Predictions.  So far the predictions include hope that the economy is on the upswing and what sales leaders and sales reps should focus on to build their sales, company and market share.  Today we have two sales experts with a more years of combined experience than most of you have been on this earth. 

Anne Miller, author of Metaphorically Selling and the Make What You Say Pay blog and Alice  Kemper, President of Sales Training Consultants and Principal of Sharpenz, Inc. share their predictions.

For sales leaders:

A slow rebound in business as companies will still be gun-shy about spending money until employment picks up. (Anne Miller)

Leaders in any industry are going to see that they can gain market share from the weakest competitors.  Cream will continue to rise to the top with the inferior companies suffering greater than average loses and in some cases, going out of business altogether. (Alice Kemper)

Sales Reps: 

Success will come to reps who develop (prudent) pit bull persistence with clients; who think out of the box like Steve Jobs; and who  become MBAs on their clients’ business. (Anne Miller)

If they survived the last year and a half then they have developed skills to navigate the new terrain of this economy.  The most successful sellers will continue to seek opportunities within the new terrain.  Q3 and Q4 will reward sellers who have intelligently “laid pipe” through the tough times. (Alice Kemper)

I guess the messages here are that we need to help our prospects aim and fire and MOVE from ‘wait and see’ to leaders in their markets.  This is only possible by differentiating the sales force with great information, skills and tools. 

If what you realize you need to do is find more viable prospects, A resource for today - Ardath Albee shows you how to: 

• Build a foundation for eMarketing based on buyer perspectives.
• Develop contagious content to engage prospective customers.
• Increase your pipeline and nurture prospects till they’re sales ready.

You can click here to download two free chapters of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale for some great ideas to get you started.  And if you are ready to order the book that is full of examples, tools and exercises to help you translate the strategy into practice to achieve dramatic results?  You can order on Amazon: http://bit.ly/6KfVM5

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Ready for more 2010 sales predictions? I am!  Each day this week I am sharing with  you predictions from top sales experts from around the globe. We started with two awesome sales women and yesterday gave time to someone ‘across the pond’ – thanks Jonathan!

Today, Jeb Blount, CEO of Sales Gravy and author of the book Power Principlesshares predictions from his perspective as the most visited job search site for sales professionals.

Jeb’s predictions for 2010:

1. Sales leaders will be faced with the challenge of retaining top sales talent as competition for sales talent heats up with sales employment improves on the leading edge of the global economic recovery.

2. Sales Professionals will find an improved jobs picture with companies hungry for seasoned sales talent. With more choices 2010 will be a great year to make a career move though base salaries, perks, and benefits may lag behind expectations.

Thanks Jeb!  For many salespeople that might be great news!  Lots of opportunity and an economic uptick.  If you know someone looking for work – visit the Get Back to Work Faster site.  Chock full of FREE resources to help in creating your own job opportunities.  

For leaders , job opportunities from your  competitors might bring changes you hadn’t planned for.  It’s not too late to start NOW to coach, provide open communication and most importantly RECOGNIZE and show appreciation for your salespeople.  It is true that people leave managers more than they leave companies – YOU have more to do with retaining your salespeople than the you might think. 

Tomorrow’s predictions might be a little ‘colorful’.  Can’t wait! 

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 It’s Day Two of the Top Sales Predictions for 2010. 

The answer posed to international sales experts: 

• What will the new year bring for sales reps?
• What will the new year bring for Sales Leaders?

Today, Jonathan Farrington, a British bloke yet all-around collaborative and intelligent chap who happens to be the CEO of Top Sales Associates and Chairman of The Sales Corporation – based in London and Paris. Jonathan’s personal site The JF Consultancy, offers a superb range of unique and innovative sales solutions and you can also catch his daily blog at The JF Blogit .

What is the New Year is going to bring for our sales leaders?

One of the very few things to come out the deepest recession in living memory was that sales leaders in most industries, faced with decimated training budgets, were forced to roll up their sleeves and coach their teams themselves.

They no longer had the option to abdicate sales team development to external providers – and do you know what? Many of them actually enjoyed it – in fact they discovered they were pretty good at it.

As a consequence, I believe that in 2010, more and more sales leaders will develop their coaching skills, and look for external mentors themselves, because it is highly likely that sales skills training budgets will never be the same again – ever. An item that appears as a cost on the balance sheet with no tangible return is now going to be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny – shareholders will insist on that.

What is the New Year is going to bring for our sales reps?

I believe that top sales professionals will accept greater responsibility for their own development in 2010 – in fact the most successful already started doing this in 2009.

With massive cuts in training budgets, they had no choice. They were not prepared to sit around in the vain hope that someone else might eventually make them successful: They work with the mantra “If it’s to be, it’s up to me”

Traditional generalized classroom training will be consigned to the annals of history as organizations look to adopt a more blended approach, which will include tailored in-house coaching, together with the more cost effective online training and mentoring.

Whichever way you look at it, 2010 is still going to be tough for front-line sales professionals in most market sectors, but providing they remain focused, diligent and committed to their ongoing development, they will win through.

Thank you Jonathan, and while I love the “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” motto – I’m still very hopeful that organizations will dig in and demonstrate that they value their sales team and invest in their development.  Getting people together in person - especially sellers – has so many additional benefits than the training curriculum!

What do the rest of you think?  What do you predict is ‘up’ for sales professionals this year?

More predictions by the ‘experts’ tomorrow. 

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A few days left in 2009.  What are you doing?  From the number of Out of Office notices to messages sent yesterday, many of you are enjoying time OFF!  Yeah for you.  I hope you are rejuvenating yourselves!  For those still ‘in’ this week- its a great time to to close 2009. 

 How?  If you aren’t able to get in front of prospects and decision makers (though I do have 2 sales calls via telephone tomorrow), its the PERFECT time to do all the activities that we say we are too busy to do the rest of the year.  A recap of the actions and then tips follow.     

1. Organize.  Yes, the dreaded organization.  Take time to go through files, drawers, stacks of paper.  
2. Set goals.  Many say there is no time to do this the rest of the year.  Today is the day!
3. Plan. Once the goal is set – putting together the plan is next.
4. Rest.  Give your body and mind time to regenerate.

Tips for each action:

Organize – it’s more than straightening and getting things out of sight.  Start with this 3-step process:

1. Review.  What is in your hand?  Scan it over and then,
2. Decide what to do with it.  Is it something you will need again?  If you discard it, would you have access to it in some other way without it taking up your ‘space’? 
3. Keep, toss or file.     Yes, each item – once you get started this is only seconds per paper, item, etc. 

Once you have control of the stuff – set up your files for next year – electronic or paper files.

Set goals.  I’ve written about goals many times, they are THAT important.  A few posts to help you: Ready, Aim, Action and  4 Rs of a  Great Goal Process,  

Plan.  Planning is a different activity than setting the goals.  The goal is the target, the plan is the how you will get there.  If you would like a copy of an effective goal planning form, email me and I’ll send you a Word document.  This document not only allows you to write your goal (an important part of goal achievement) it also has places to write your actions and planning considerations. 

Rest.  As a person who ‘gos’ full steam all the time.  The resting is something I have had to condition myself to.  And I realize the benefits every time.  Make time to get enough sleep, get your ‘head’ out of work, enjoy yourself and others without work pressures!  A previous post speaks to the benefits of rest.

And there you have it.  Make these days work for you!

-     -     -     -     -

Special Note:  If one of your goals for next year is a more productive sales team – we have a great resource for sales boosters!  Sharpenz…Half Hour of Power sales boosts.  Get a FREE Booster here.  And then take advantage of the 30% off sale through 12/31/09- a full robust training library for under $1000!  A great way to use year-end budget dollars. 

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I remember the public service announcement that used to be on the TV/Radio at 11 p.m.  “Parents, do you know where your children are?”  Well, the curfew signaling the end of 2009 is nearly upon us, so my public service announcement is:  It’s mid-December, do you know where your sales stand?

For this final FULL week (if you will be out for any of the  year-end holidays), its time to MAKE it happen.

M - Move!  No idle time this week.  Make your to do list to contact everyone! 

A - Advance! Ask for a decision to what comes next (is it review of a proposal, a decision to use/buy, a meeting time?)  Advance the prospects to the next step of your sale!

K - Know what your objective and approach is for every contact you make. The more clear you are, the more effective your contacts will be.

E - Extra.  Yes, this is the week to for extra! Extra effort, extra time, extra care.  It all matters!

Simple, isn’t it?  Put the peddle to the metal as they say.  A fitting ending to the entire series of Countdown 2009.  To review the past 7 weeks:

I’m charged and ready to roll (which is why I am still working this evening – I don’t want to stop!)  Not only to complete this week -but all the contacting has me set up with appointments for the first week of 2010!

What abut you? Do you WANT to make it?  Consider this Yiddish Proverb:

 If you don’t want to do something, one excuse is as good as another.

Then decide. 

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