People may learn a great deal on development courses, but when they return to the workplace they often have difficulty integrating what they have learnt into their day-to-day work. Quite often, what they may have learnt simply slips from their minds.

We believe that between 50% and 70% of an organisation’s climate, and hence its effectiveness, can be traced to management style. Effective leaders create a favourable working environment that boosts performance. This is where coaching comes into its own. Leadership is a set of skills, competences and attitudes that individuals can develop through practice and by reflecting on their own actions and the impact this can have on others.

Most leadership programmes are too general to provide opportunities for such intensive personalised work. Coaching, by contrast, enables individuals to gain insight into their own motives, interests and concerns. These link explicitly to the challenges they face in their leadership or management roles.

Coaching can also help executives acquire a greater awareness of their own leadership style. This is crucial if they are to develop the variety of styles needed to manage and lead in different situations. All too often leaders rely on a command-and-control style, which has a negative impact on all but a crisis. Coaching people on leadership styles produces positive results in most situations by creating a supportive environment in which employees feel empowered to give their best and find the solutions to problems.”

Not unnaturally, some diehards still hold with an old-fashioned view that coaching can be used only for remedial purposes, but those organisations that have embraced the concept fully, have discarded that level of thinking. Their approach concentrates on leadership and personal development as part of building a high-performance organisation – they are committed to moving away from managing by a culture of process to managing as leaders.

Typically we find that our clients are not interested in adopting the style of coaching used by many companies to focus on simple issues – particularly how to get on with fellow team members. They choose us because they believe we offer a more challenging style that digs more deeply into behaviour and personality. This leaves executives with something more permanent that they can take away from the coaching sessions and use during the rest of their careers rather than just a one-off.

It is not always easy to convince executives that they should submit to a scrutiny of their personalities and behaviour, but in reality, those executives who balk at taking “the journey of self development” could soon find themselves isolated and lesser leaders than many of their contemporaries.

Today’s News: Here is a great new site that is “Delivering Social Collaboration to the Sales 2.0 Community” It’s called Connectize, and the CEO, Tom Canning is a very switched on guy – think you will like it. 

Tomorrow: It’s going to be a very long w/e as we put the final finishing touches to the launch of TSE 2.0.

Here’s the latest news:

“We’re coming … are you ready?”

What is the TSE 2.0 Launch all about?

Well, I am not at liberty to reveal details just yet. The final pieces are clicking into place – literally—as I am writing to you.

But … I can tell you that my TSE colleagues – sales experts from around the world – have created a whopping $2,000 worth of free gifts – extraordinary ”freemiums” – with answers to your most pressing business questions and answers to questions you haven’t yet asked!

Now, if you want to take a sneak peek and watch the count down with me you can … but ssshhh! … don’t tell anybody just yet …it’s all still quite hush, hush.

Follow along here: “We’re coming … are you ready?”

Traditionally, one of our largest clients ran its business from manuals. Staff who wanted to know how something should be done would be directed by a senior manager “to look in staff manual 108” for the answer. It was not a motivational style of management, and had become unsuitable for fast-changing modern business conditions. So eight years ago, based on our recommendations they created what they called “The ultimate service provision” by merging all the information technology (IT) and back-office functions. Management broke with old habits and traditional training, and decided to improve the leadership skills of the senior managers through coaching.

The outcome has been a resounding success, producing far better results than conventional development training. The evident superiority of coaching explains why more companies are taking the same route and making it a priority.

We believe that coaching’s rapid growth will continue. Forward thinking organisations are looking for alternative ways to lead and organise staff. The business world has experienced more upheaval in the past year than in the previous fifty: It’s no accident that this period of unprecedented change has witnessed a boom in executive coaching.

At the moment I am coaching a top executive who insists on becoming involved in every detail of the business, causing frustration amongst his junior executives. “If he’s not in a meeting, he feels he’s not working”, I was told. Time management and delegation courses had done nothing to cure his faults, which leave him no time for the sort of reflective thinking expected of a senior manager. Coaching, particularly by making him study his own diary and cutting down on the congestion in it, is already having an impact.

The signs are that the boom will continue. A recent survey that I read, which polled H. R. professionals from Europe, America, Australia and Asia found that 88% of the respondents were planning to make more use of professional coaching. A little more than half of the respondents had introduced the practice in the past 18 months.

Like our clients, 70% of those polled said that coaching has an edge over conventional development techniques and they would choose it to change the behaviour and performance of senior people.

Today’s News: Jill Konrath is recommending some excellent FREE sales resources here 

Niall Devitt posted “The Apocalypse, Four Sales Trainers and the 1st Commandment of Selling”  which you will enjoy very much and Paul McCord is asking: “What is Operational Excellence in Sales and Marketing?“

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, I welcome back Drew Stevens PhD – “The largest single issue with selling in a difficult economy is change. There is change in buying power, change in budgets, even change in decision criteria. However, what is not changed are goals, annual commitments, and a desire to excel.”  He will also give you the opportunity to download his latest FREE ebook – “Thriving In A Volatile Economy” – so be sure to join us.

In 1957, Roger Bannister became the first athlete to break the four-minute barrier for running a mile. Prior to Bannister’s achievement, on that evening in May at the unassuming Iffley Road track in Oxford, most athletes considered a sub-four-minute mile impossible. But that same year, sixteen other athletes also ran a mile in less than four minutes.

Did they become super-human overnight? Or, more simply, did their beliefs change? That is the way it works – if one person can do it, we can all do it, we just have to believe we can.

Our Colleagues Can Exert Positive Pressure:
Like those milers, salespeople have their own unique sets of beliefs, some of which limit their potential in sales. For instance, during a recession, the members of a sales force may all believe that strong sales are impossible. But if just one person increases their sales, what seemed an inevitable fact will suddenly appear more like a thin excuse for poor performance.

We Must Challenge Negative Beliefs:
Sales Captains who challenge negative beliefs with good questions can help create shifts in mindset. Take a look at these examples of negative beliefs and examples of questions that challenge them.

Statement:
“Our solutions are too expensive.”
Response:
“Compared with whom?”
“Compared to what?”
“How do you know?”

Statement:
“I’m hopeless at cold calling”
Response:
“According to whom?”
“What prevents you from being good at cold calling?”
“What would happen if you were good?”

Statement:
“My sales target is too high this month, I’ll never achieve it”
Response:
“What do you need to do so that you can?”

While challenging questions may not instantly create a belief change, over time, they can enable salespeople to shift their perceptions of their beliefs, recognising that there are other possibilities and options available to them.

Developing Self Worth:
Organisations that recognise the importance of helping their salespeople develop a strong sense of self worth are many times more likely to produce high performers. Self worth is vital to everyone but especially to salespeople who hear “no” more often than they hear “yes, I’ll buy”. A salesperson’s self-esteem can sometimes take a hammering, but organisations that find ways to build their salespeople’s self-esteem reap an invaluable dividend. Self–worth translates into attitude, that small thing that makes such a big difference.

In Summary – The most successful salespeople take care of their attitude and they understand that:

Great Attitude = Great Results,
Average Attitude = Average Results,
Poor Attitude = Poor Results.

The second commonality with successful salespeople is that they expect to be successful and they want it badly enough that they bring about its happening i.e. fulfilled expectation.

Tomorrow: I am heading back to Paris. It has been a great week and I’ll be here for you on Monday as usual – JF

To some, networking means simply meeting or calling someone new for what might be a one-off discussion or event. In this limited sense, networking is only a trading relationship in which two parties seek to discover whether they have anything of mutual interest to talk about. They either make some sort of exchange or quickly move on. This makes networking a highly ‘transactional’ subject, much like buying and selling or negotiating with someone.

My view is very different because I believe that networking has a much wider definition. In fact it can be a major social and life skill to be used in both a business/organisational and personal setting.

This ebook is compilation of articles that I have published on the subject, and I have endeavoured to share with you my experiences, with the hope that you will enjoy improving your own networking skills.

You can download it for FREE, simply by clicking on this banner.

Today’s News: Today, I have been working with one of my favourite (favorit) clients to prepare for 2009/2010. The strategy that we designed is so much different to the one we prepared for 2008 – it is immediate; it is short-term (quarter by quarter, out of necessity); it is more flexible (also out of necessity); it allows for further financial dowturns; it is depressingly realistic. But it should guarantee that they are well equipped to take full advantage, when the first shoots of recovery begin around Q3 next year.

Tomorrow, I am delivering an intense NLP coaching session: “How People Buy: Seeing Your Client Through Your Client’s Eyes” inspired by Kerry L. Johnson – “If you can see John Smith through John Smith’s eyes, you will sell John Smith what John Smith wants” This is particularly poignant in today’s selling climate.

In the afternoon, I am going to expose that very same team to Jill Konrath, who will connect live with them for ninety minutes. This is part of my strategy of inviting a selected few, trusted friends, and world class sales experts into my accounts. My clients are in for another real treat tomorrow.

Tomorrow: My guest is my good friend from down under, Kevin Dwyer who, ever insightful, will be sharing his thoughts on compensation – this is becoming an important issue and Kevin is one of the leading experts in the world on the topic. You will not want to miss his words of wisdom.

For companies to remain competitive now, their sales organisation must be able to respond positively to changing economic tides. As businesses strive to establish customer orientation, sales partnerships and a strategic approach to selling, they are demanding more and more from their salespeople but ensuring that these new methods are widely practised and smoothly implemented falls to sales management.

Building Productivity:
Sales productivity is a strategic issue. That’s why problems in this area stem from salespeople being unclear about their company’s priorities i.e. what their message should be and what they should be selling.

The trend in industry of removing layers of management between the sale force and the general manager presents a challenge to those sales managers who remain. To begin with, the sales manager becomes an essential link between company strategy and what takes place in the customer’s office. He or she must not only grasp the corporate vision but be able to communicate it to the sales force in terms of the real effects on sales practices.

Creating Direction:
Sales managers with an intimate feel for the selling process succeed because their staff regard them as part of the sales team but coaching the team is as important as playing in it. In other words, sales managers must be prepared to provide training, feedback and support to every individual within the team.
Once committed to the training process, they must routinely reinforce new ways of behaving in real sales situations. They must provide a clear sense of direction on a daily basis, not just at the monthly sales meeting / quarterly review / annual appraisal.

The very best sales managers engage in frequent coaching and feedback, even when their sales people work in remote locations. While encouraging salespeople to air their problems openly and discuss their concerns, sales managers must be able to offer clear and specific feedback for improving sales performance.

Rewarding Change:
The sales manager is charged with translating the company’s reward system into specific improvements in sales performance. Both salespeople and corporate managers count on the sales manager to recognise and reward outstanding achievement, formally and informally.

The process of promoting new attitudes about the customer and the role of the salesperson can be frustrating and slow. Reverting back to recent research there is compelling evidence to suggest that companies will see results sooner if they recognise and reward salespeople – “you get more of the behaviour and results that you reward.”

The trend in sales compensation appears to be away from commission to guaranteed salary, from compensation based on orders to compensation based on delivery and sign-off. Interestingly some organisations we know, base their ‘salesperson of the year’ award on the basis of customer satisfaction or customer retention rather than sheer volume of orders or activity.

Today’s News: Three Top Sales Experts are presenting over at Business Expert Webinars this week: Cheryl Clausen, Anne Miller and Leslie Buterin – you can get all the details here

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, Colleen Francis – “Make 2009 the Year You Reinvent Your Sales!”

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto’s Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto’s Principle or Pareto’s Law as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help us manage efficiently but it can also be applied to virtually every facet of our lives.

So what does this have to do with front-line selling? I hear you ask. Well it has everything to do with it because you see, recent exhaustive surveys suggest that only 5% of professional salespeople reach and remain at the highest level, which we call Level 3. A further 15% attain Level 2 status, but the majority, i.e. a massive 80% remain at Level 1 in terms of potential achievement.

It is true that most salesmen and women manage to advance from Level 1 to Level 2 fairly easily but unfortunately, many find breaking through that final glass ceiling extremely difficult i.e. moving from competitive sales professionals to collaborative sales consultants.

Top 5% salespeople are able to first identify and then capitalise upon the political component within the buying process. They develop and sustain strong commercial relationships at all levels within their accounts and these relationships endure because they are based on mutual respect and trust. Their clients feel secure, so secure, that they would be fearful of changing supplier.

In addition Top 5% salespeople rarely, if ever, lose an order that they really want because they are always in control of the sales cycle. They have identified that in marketplaces where product uniqueness and technical expertise are no longer enough, it is they themselves that make the difference i.e. their superior skills.

So What Is It That Top 5% Players Will Be Doing This Year?

• They will position themselves with the real decision-makers and avoid those without ‘approval power’ because they are able to first identify and then access the formal decision making unit.

• Not only get the order but a satisfied customer, repeat sales, enthusiastic reference sites and constantly increase sales penetration within their accounts.

• Know how to minimise the uncertainties of a cold call on a new account, by careful planning and rigorous opportunity assessment.

• Recognise when to treat an old account as a new prospect and keep the relationship fresh, alive and maintain profitability.

• Never entertain business they do not want because they recognise that it takes just as long to work an unprofitable opportunity through the sales funnel, only to lose it at the death, as it does a profitable one. They trust their own judgement but also rely heavily on objective assessment.

• Readily identify and know how to deal with the four different buying influences present in every sale i.e. Economic Buyer, Technical Buyer, User Buyer, and Ally.

• Understand how to prevent sales from being sabotaged by an internal enemy. They insulate themselves by developing strong allies within.

• Will be able to recognise fail-safe signals that indicate when a sale is in jeopardy. This comes from experience but also information supplied by their allies.

• They will be focused on tracking account progress and be able to accurately forecast future sales because they use proven methodology, which allows them to weight every opportunity in the pipeline.

• Avoid ‘dry-months’ by allocating time wisely to their critical selling tasks i.e. Prospecting for new business, covering the bases with existing opportunities and finally closing the best few.

Three additional areas, which set Top 5% players apart from the rest, are:

Commercial Acumen: Collaborative sales professionals have high levels of strategic awareness and they can communicate comfortably with board level players, i.e. the economic buyers using common language and terminology. Level 1 and 2 performers, unable to demonstrate credibility when discussing financial, commercial, and political issues, are usually left behind and require assistance from a manager or director.

Competitive Courage: In order to achieve consistent levels of success in today’s environment, it is necessary to be able to pro-actively target competitors and their client base. Any individual, who lacks the guts for a fight and is not comfortable with competitive selling, will severely restrict their potential.

Being Focused On Political Activity: You can of course question the legitimacy of politics, but you cannot deny their existence. The sales professional that fails to recognise the importance that politics play in virtually every complex sale, will almost certainly consign themselves to a career at Level 1. No one ever said that we must take part in the political game, but recognising that a game is being played, whether we like or not is essential i.e. what you understand you can manage.

However, I fully appreciate that most organisations will not necessarily need to populate their sales teams with Level 3 performers even if they could find and afford them. There will always be tasks, functions, and indeed markets where Level 2 or even Level 1 salesmen and women can comfortably exceed expectations. What is important is that we ensure we have the right Level where we need it most i.e. round pegs in round holes. If an organisation is attempting to compete in a market sector where Level 3 skills are required and yet their team is predominately at Level 2 in terms of expertise, experience, and development, they are unlikely to consistently win the business they need, in order to fulfil their financial ambitions.

What I can say for certain, is that successful selling has become an exclusive club of highly skilled professionals where, for example, product knowledge, time management skills, objection handling and closing skills are the cost of membership, not leadership.

Today’s News: Here is a message from a fellow Top Sales Expert and a very switched on guy, Steve Kraner.

THE SANDLER SALES BOOTCAMP

A two-day, precision selling skills training program

Overview

This hands-on course delivers the core principles of the popular Sandler Selling System—a unique, integrity-based system that promotes a more effective and coachable sales process. Revitalize your team’s outlook with a fresh perspective on the selling process and a crystal-clear understanding of the anatomy of a successful sales cycle. Members of your team will refine their ability to handle every buyer-seller interaction in as close to the optimum way as is humanly possible. Many sales training programs tell you what to do — talk less, listen more, stay in control, get commitment – we’ll show you the latest on how to do it.

Click here to see the two day agenda for the Sandler Sales Bootcamp.

If you are interested in attending the Sandler Sales Bootcamp please call our office at 703-689-0439 or email: skraner@hightechguru.com

Tomorrow: Don’t worry, just because I will not be posting, does not mean I’ll be taking the day off! One of my new colleagues posed the question earlier in the week: “Do you ever sleep?” I responded that I am I very rigorous in ensuring that I get eight hours every week – see you on Monday - JF

Sales success to-day demands a radical shift from the ‘peddler’ mentality of merely demonstrating products and expanding on their features. It requires treating the customer as a participant. More often than not, a ‘flashy’ sales presentation alone alienates rather than persuades.

The best salespeople regard the sales call as a two-way conversation – not a one sided pitch. They have developed active listening skills Average salespeople score fairly well in their ability to provide customers with facts and figures, but top performers dramatically outscore the rest when it comes to gathering information. In addition, how a salesperson collects information still distinguishes exceptional achievers from the rest of the pack. I.e. top performers ask better questions and as a result gain much better information.

Essentially, they aim to engage customers in the buying process with questions that require thoughtful answers, that stimulate curiosity and that reveal the customers underlying needs.

Businesses need to re-define selling and what constitutes basic selling skills:
In to-day’s world of selling, there is less and less room for apprenticeship. Selling has become an exclusive club of highly skilled professionals where product knowledge and time management skills, for instance, are the cost of membership not leadership.

Ongoing research demonstrates that to-day’s ‘average’ salesperson is just as effective as the high performer in explaining features and benefits effectively, relating a service or product to customer needs and closing a sale. But, above this Level 1 plateau of competence, the exceptional salesperson is busy defining the “basic skills of tomorrow”.

Building an up-to-date foundation in sales competence does mean sacrificing some old notions of what it takes to succeed in a competitive marketplace. For example, a salesperson can no longer just “win by knowing”. Every company needs to test their assumptions about what skills really contribute to sales success. Too often operating on old sales theories means training and rewarding people to do the wrong things.

When the buyer and seller act as partners, they are building a bridge to profitability:
Successful selling is definitely not about the “hit and run” sale. Sales achievers regard their relationships with key customers as a partnership and cultivate it as such. When customers face tough business challenges and complex technological choice, they rely on sales people who can assist them in making the right decisions.

The primary objective of a sales partnership has to be, to create and sustain a mutually productive relationship, which serves the needs of both parties, now and in the future. The key word here is symbiotic. Partnership does not mean eliminating the tension between buyer and seller; it means that top-performing salespeople know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and developing the relationship fully.

In Summary: Why Do We Need A Fresh Approach To Selling?
Many organisations have developed without objective analysis of their purpose and structure. The buying power in many industries is no longer evenly distributed – in a large number of markets a few big firms control the majority of purchases.

The development of new marketing techniques has meant that some tasks traditionally performed by the sales team can be more effectively handled by other methods. The prime objective of all sales staff is to gain business. From an organisational point of view, however, how they all achieve their goals must be defined in order to identify what kind and the quality of skills that are required.

Today’s News:

Yes, I know that we were supposed to launch the new “JF Reviews” section today, but we are still waiting for some details, but I promised you a FREE ebook every Wednesday from my “Winning Series” sponsored by SalesNexus and here is the first one for you. If you are serious about making 2009 your best year yet and you are ready to “Plan To Win” then this is a must read – simply click on the banner above.

Tomorrow: One of the most switched on and in-demand sales coaches in the world, my good buddy from NY,NY, Keith Rosen – yet another Top Sales Expert and founder member of the soon to be announced “Global Sales Council”

The JF Guest Author Spot

Paul McCord 

I received an interesting e-mail from Doris, a mortgage loan officer in New Mexico, who is facing a common problem: “Paul, I work for a small mortgage company that doesn’t provide us with any marketing materials. I spend a great deal of time creating stuff and end up not spending nearly as much time as I should actually be prospecting. I believe the quality of the materials I use reflects on me and the quality of work I do, so, I want to make sure they are the best I can do. But this is very time consuming. I know you used to be in the mortgage business, so I’m wondering if you know of any places on the internet where I can get flier and direct mail templates that will help me spend less time designing and more time prospecting?”

Doris is by no means the only salesperson who believes they face this dilemma. Many, many salespeople believe that they must have a ton of well-designed, high quality collateral material in order to successfully do their jobs. Consequently, like Doris, they spend hours and hours designing leave behind and direct mail material to the determent of their prospecting activity. Sooner or later–often sooner–they find that they are out of the business because they have no prospects.

There are several ways to successfully handle this situation. First and foremost, you must recognize that the activity of designing materials is nothing but an excuse to not prospect for many. They use the activity of creating collateral materials as a substitute for the hard work of finding prospects. It is mentally and emotionally easier to engage in the non-threatening activity of collateral material design than it is to face the very real prospect of rejection while prospecting.

Activity replaces accomplishment. If you’re busy, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’re working hard. The “getting ready” becomes the objective. You go home “feeling” that you’ve put in a good day’s work. Yet, you’ve accomplished nothing that will put sales in your pipeline.

If you must make a decision between seeing people and creating leave behind material, the choice should be simple–see people. Collateral material doesn’t sell. You do. Collateral material doesn’t identify prospects. You do. Collateral material doesn’t put sales in your pipeline. You do. Collateral material doesn’t generate your commission check. You do. And you do these things by identify and seeing prospects.

This is not to say that good collateral materials shouldn’t exist or be used. It is simply to say that if you truly face a choice, choose accomplishment over activity. The activity being the busy work of creating leave behind material and the accomplishment being prospecting and putting real sales in your pipeline.

But you can have both–high quality collateral material and a great deal of prospecting time. Simply spend your prospecting hours prospecting and evenings and weekends when you aren’t prospecting creating the materials, you want. For many, this is an impossible solution. Not because they don’t have the time in the evening and on weekends, but because they will refuse to give up their “free time” to do these activities.

Sales isn’t a 40 hour per week occupation. To be a top producer, you’ve got to be willing to invest more time than just your typical 8-hour day. You’ve got to push the non-income activities into non-income producing hours–and that means those hours when you can’t be engaged in prospecting or selling.

You only have three activities that make you money–finding prospects (prospecting), turning prospects into clients (selling), meeting client needs (managing your client’s purchase). Anything that doesn’t fall into one of those categories should be done outside your prospecting and selling hours.

If you’re unwilling to spend the time outside of your selling hours, then your only real alternative is to hire a graphic designer. The problem is that if you’re spending your time designing collateral materials, you probably can’t afford to pay a graphic designer, because you probably aren’t making a great deal of money. Top producers don’t spend their time designing collateral material–they spend their time selling and managing their clients. So, if you’re in Doris’ situation, you aren’t, almost by definition, a strong producer.

Most leave behind material is really nothing but a crutch for the salesperson. If you must have the materials, spend some evenings and weekends designing a couple of decent pieces and then get to work. “Don’t,” as the great UCLA basketball Coach John Wooten used to say, “confuse activity with accomplishment.” Activity can be measured in how quickly it takes you to fail in sales; accomplishment can be measured by your pipeline and paycheck.

Paul McCord, president of McCord and Associates, a Houston,Texas based sales training, coaching and consulting company, is an internationally recognized authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal marketing. His best-selling book on referral generation,Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), is quickly becoming recognized as the authoritative work on referral selling. His next book, SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar will be released in February, 2008. He may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or through his sales training website at www.powerreferralselling.com

Paul will also be a senior member of The Global Sales Council, which is now at a very advanced stage of formation – more soon. – Ed 

Today’s News: Don’t know if you have noticed but there is definitely a lot of PSCD (Post Seasonal Celebrations Depression) around right now – but not in my backyard; we are firing on all cylinders and we have hit the ground running this year. I have so much news to share with you shortly, just be patient “You are such a tease Mr Farrington”

Tomorrow: We launch “JF Reviews” – the long awaited JF book reviews and also your chance to download one of my ebooks from the JF Winning Series, sponsored by SalesNexus, for FREE

The role of a Sales Leader is to translate the organisation’s vision, mission and values into a meaningful context that sales teams can relate to and feel excited by. If this is achieved then the Sales Leader will have created a sales team with a shared mental model. This transforms an ordinary sales team into a high performing one.

For clarity, here is a brief description of the following terms:

An organisation’s vision is a guiding image of success formed in terms of a huge goal. It is a description in words that conjures up a picture of the organisation’s destination. A compelling vision will stretch expectations, aspirations, and performance. Without that powerful, attractive, valuable vision, why bother?

A mission statement communicates the essence of an organisation to its stakeholders and customers, and failure to clearly state and communicate an organisation’s mission can have harmful consequences around its purpose. As Lewis Caroll, through the words of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
 
Guiding principles are the consequence of a mission statement that are intended to inform or shape all subsequent decision-making, which also provides normative criteria allowing policy-makers to accept, reject or modify policy interventions and activities. They are a guiding set of ideas that are articulated, understood and supported by the organisation’s workforce.

Values are beliefs which the organisation’s workforce hold in common and endeavor to put into practice. The values guide their performance and the decisions that are taken. Ideally, an individual’s personal values will align with the spoken and unspoken values of the organisation. By developing a written statement of the values of the organisation, individuals have a chance to contribute to the articulation of these values, as well as to evaluate how well their personal values and motivation match those of the organisation.

The Human Capital Development Model, created by Krauthammer International, is a logical process that can take top management concepts, and translate them into a context that has real meaning for staff at all levels.

The key to bringing this model to life is to answer the following questions:
• Do my team understand the organisation’s vision and how their role moves the organisation closer to achieving it?
• How can my sales team translate the organisation’s mission into one that is relevant to them?
• How do the organisation’s guiding principles impact on the day-to-day responsibilities of sales people?
• Which of the organisation’s values does my sales team relate to?
• How can we interpret these values so they become compelling for each sales person?

An effective sales team understands the big picture and the context of their team’s work to the greatest degree possible. That includes understanding the relevance of their job and how it impacts the effectiveness of others and the overall team effort. Too often, sales people are asked to work on an activity without being told how their role contributes to organisation’s vision, much less how their efforts are impacting the ability of others to do their work. Understanding the organisation’s vision promotes collaboration, increases commitment and improves quality.

An effective team works collaboratively and with a keen awareness of interdependency. Collaboration and a solid sense of interdependency in a team will defuse blaming behaviour and stimulate opportunities for learning and improvement. Without this sense of interdependency in responsibility and reward, blaming behaviours can occur which will quickly erode team effectiveness and morale.

Today’s News: I mentioned yesterday that we have a really big week coming up and it all kicks-off tomorrow, with the announcement of this year’s twelve finalists, who will be battling it out for the “Top Sales Article Of The Year” award.

I should explain that the public poll will account for 50% of the marks and the other 50% comes from the panel of sales experts, who I will be introducing tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Tibor Shanto is my guest on The JF Guest Author Spot

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

Description taken from The Wisdom of Teams (Harvard Business School Press, 1993).

For a sales team to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.

The primary objective of an effective Sales Leader has to be to achieve consistently superior results through the performance of every sales person.

When thinking about your own sales force:

• Do you understand their motivators – what is driving them?
• Do you have visibility of their numbers – year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
• Activity levels – are they working hard and smart enough?
• Engagement – are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
• Messaging – are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
• Qualification – are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
• Closing – are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?

A successful sales team is one that is set up correctly, responds to the responsibility it has for the task, seeks constant improvement and sees its Sales Leader as a fundamental support to its success. A sales team in this situation will do well and is more likely to go on doing well than a sales team who are just told what to do.

The Sales Leader’s role is one of catalyst – constantly helping their team to keep up with events, to change in the light of events and to succeed because it is always configured for success.

Today’s News: I am delighted to announce the launch of Phase One of the new Resource Center, over at Top Sales Experts, which includes “The Best Sales Blogs In The World” – including this one! More than thirty of the world’s top sales gurus are taking part in this project. Do go over and have a look

We are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of Phase Two on January 13th next year.

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot – Colleen Francis – be sure to join us.