Disciplined and Daring Sales Strategies

This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters program in Transformational Leadership. If you could participate in this short survey, it would be much appreciated. Here’s a quick, 15-second survey.

Be sure to foster creativity in your sales team. In an article published in the Inc. Newsletter, Rebecca A. Morgan, a leading performance strategist, wrote: “Continuous improvement is a commitment to working to get better every day. It means changing things continuously, with the intent of making them better.” Changing for the sake of changing can be – and usually is – useless. At some level, we know that, “Organizational discipline is the basis for creativity.” However, what does that mean for the sales management leader? In working with my clients, I’ve learnt a few important lessons:

“Well-defined processes for recruiting salespeople, coaching, motivating, and ensuring business accountability are critical if you want anything more than random, unrepeatable successes. At the same time, creativity is crucial for growing company sales. Without it, your processes are frozen and can’t evolve to meet changing conditions. Because you’re stuck in the past, you paradoxically won’t be able to repeat the successes of the past.” – Leadership Shift Paradox 3 pp. 43

I recently worked with a client who reached their pinnacle of success about three years ago. With technology changing at breakneck speeds, the industry rapidly evolving and the impact of the recession, he and his team felt a bit shell-shocked and went into ‘hunker-down mode’. (See my blog posting #5 for more information on this catastrophic attitude.)

Three years later, realizing that ‘hunkering down’ was not a viable strategy they’re now trying to get back on the fast track. When I evaluated the results of their Key Management Dynamics, I discovered that the leadership team had strengths in execution, problem solving and negotiation. However, they had little depth or expertise in innovation and risk taking. They are going in circles, trying to resurrect old ideas that worked five to ten years ago, but are not of much use today. After ‘hunkering down,’ they now need to actively pursue new ideas.

First they need to build structures that will care for the creative genius of their teams. It’s quite possible that many of you find yourselves in the same place. The lesson to be taken from all this, is to record your creative process so that, if successful, you can repeat the exercise at a later stage. If not, at least it will be easier for you to figure out where you went wrong so that you can take action to correct past mistakes.

Sales Growth Leadership Question: Which sales management processes are strong in your company? Which ones need developing?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Creativity + discipline = a mark of successful sales teams.

Sales Growth Leadership Action: To benchmark your sales management systems and processes, do an Impact Analysis on your sales team.

In my next blog posting we’ll look at three action steps that you can use to develop disciplined creativity in your team.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

February 28, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership, Sales Management | Leave a Comment

Successful Sales Teams are Creative

Creativity and discipline becomes results. Imagine the great loss if Beethoven was not disciplined. His creative genius would have been worthless if he did not combine it with the discipline. It was discipline that for him to put pen to paper and capture the beautiful melodies that he could already hear in his own mind. In sales management and sales leadership we also need to combine creativity and discipline to ensure that our ideas can be communicated and executed successfully by all the team members. Here’s my musing from Leadership Shift:

“If you’ve ever listened to a jazz pianist or a rock-and-roll guitar player shredding away on their instruments, squeezing a life story from a single held tone, you know how breathtaking it can be. The creativity, passion, and expression of complex musical ideas seem effortless and off-the-cuff.

“Now, rewind 20 years. If you were to look in on this virtuoso, you’d find her practicing scales, endlessly, up and down, down and up, in eight-note sequences…..I spent 13 years faithfully practicing them on the inherited upright piano that took up a large corner of our 800-square-foot house when I was a kid. It was my mom’s idea. She believed that through the consistent practice, I would learn the value of discipline and hard work. Boy, did it do that. Pages black with notes and music pregnant with passion. Because I practiced those scales over and over, I conquered Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique, Op. 13, a creative masterpiece that thrills me to this day. And it wouldn’t have been possible without those boring old scales.” – Leadership Shift Paradox 3 pp. 41

Without that upfront investment in structure, without learning to walk, I wouldn’t have learned to fly with Beethoven. True creativity requires a structural framework. Think of it this way: if creativity is rule-breaking – and it often is – there must first be rules to break. If everything is wildly creative, obeying no order whatsoever, then nothing is creative. All you have is chaos. Does this sound a bit crazy? Well, it’s a bit of a crazy world we live in today, isn’t it? Rapidly changing technology, globalization, increased competitive pressures … you have to be a disciplined, creatively crazy entrepreneur to survive!

Sales Growth Leadership Question: How do you nurture creativity in your sales team? Then, what discipline and structure do you use to guide that creativity?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Both creativity and discipline are vital to succeed in today’s crazy business climate.

Sales Growth Leadership Action: To find out which of the 5 Sales Management disciplines are natural to you, contact me regarding the Sales Manager’s Evaluation.

In my next blog posting we’ll take a look at organizational discipline as the basis for creativity.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

February 25, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership, Sales Management | Leave a Comment

Fighting the Fear of Change in the Selling World

Obstacles to you Sales Management and Sales Leadership. One of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to sales management and sales leadership success is our own resistance to change. Sometimes this unwillingness is simply caused by fear of the unknown – the ever present comfort zone. But, if we are not careful, our comfort zone quickly becomes more than a stumbling block. It becomes a dangerous pit that you and your sales team may need to spend years digging out of to get back on the road of market domination. When we refuse to heed the danger signs of sticking to outdated methods and technologies, we may fall into the pit. Oh, once you’ve fallen, it’s comfortable down there. However, your competitors quickly surpass you and you’re left in the dust.

“Here are four actions steps to help you, heed the signs, keep to the road and get to your destination safely.

Understand the strengths and weaknesses of each employee.
Without a deep understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses you’ll never know what your resources really are and never realize the benefits of the synergy.

Know that opportunities and risks are subject to change.
Instead of brainstorming opportunities and risks only at the outset, plan regular rest stops to gather new information and adjust your course accordingly.

Know employee triggers.
Adversity brings out the best in some people, but what inspires one employee to greatness may leave another flat. Know what motivates and inspires your sales team.

Understand what you won’t do as much as what you will.
Before you travel, and throughout the journey, identify areas that are counterproductive to long-term strategy, for example tactics that undermine morale in favor of short-term profit.” (More details on these action steps can be found in Leadership Shift, pages 35 – 37)

Starting today, you can change the future of your company. Heed the signs in the economy, in your industry, and with technology advances. Make a leadership shift and use the stumbling blocks that you encounter on your journey as stepping stones on your road to extraordinary success.

Sales Growth Leadership Question: Which of your sales-marketing-customer service capabilities are your strengths? Which are your constraint factors, which could become a dangerous pit?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Your competition is getting better every day; therefore, to even stay even in the game, you need to get better every day also.

Sales Growth Leadership Action: Discover what you feel is the constraint factor in your sales growth efforts by taking this 30 min. Growth Diagnostic.

Do you know how to cultivate disciplined creativity? This third paradox will be discussed in my next blog posting.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.

February 23, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership, Sales Management | Leave a Comment

Successfully Combining Sales Leadership and Management

One of my first sales assignments with Xerox Corporation was handling key accounts in North and South Dakota, a part of Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. My easiest trek was between Fargo and Bismarck – the road was perfectly straight except for a slight turn in Jamestown and Valley City. It was easy driving; I didn’t even need a map to make the 3 hour trek from one city to the other. Then, I moved to the Twin Cities where my first territory included accounts in downtown Minneapolis. What a new world! I not only needed a map, now I needed to plan my trips in order to get to my destination safely.

To make sure that you do not lose your way in your sales travels, here are a couple of ideas that Vadim Kotelnikov outlines in his Leadership-Management Synergy.

Vision + resources = employee empowerment.
Your people have a map and a vehicle to get where you want to go.

Identified opportunities + reduced risks = strategic achievements.
Leadership creatively brainstorms opportunities, which management creatively pursues in as risk-free a manner as possible. Think of this as an accelerator-and-brakes scenario.

Inspiration + coordination = teamwork.
It’s hard to get anywhere when everyone is moving in contrary directions. This is much like the connection between the steering wheel and the tires, where the rubber meets the road.

Improvisation + structure = innovation.
Not every road is straight or free from potholes. This synergy lets you take detours and still make it to your destination, maybe even faster and in better style – like a GPS which instantly re-routes you when you get off the beaten path.

Doing the right things + doing things right = effectiveness.
Pursuing a good opportunity in the wrong way can lead to a partial or total loss of that opportunity. The penalty for driving toward your goals while putting yourself and others in jeopardy is a ticket. Worse, you might just lose your license.” – Leadership Shift Paradox 2 pp. 31

Although management and leadership are two separate functions, doing one without constant reference to the other, results in an organizational vehicle that’s either careening out of control or stuck at an eternal stoplight. To this day, my heart rate increases as I drive downtown…still the daughter of a rancher at heart! But I’m incredibly thankful for my GPS that guides me to the right place, as long as I input the correct coordinates.

Sales Growth Leadership Question: Which of the five key areas are you strongest in? Which are you weakest?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Make sure that your people have the destination in mind (vision) and that they have a map of where you want them to go (strategies).

Sales Growth Leadership Action: For keen insights into your Management & Leadership developmental opportunities, call me about the VP of Sales and Director of Sales Evaluations.

In my next blog posting we’ll discuss some action steps for synergizing management and leadership.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.

February 21, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership, Sales Management | Leave a Comment

Visionary Leadership for Successful Sales Growth

Cattle ranching requires excellent balancing of management and leadership. In his article, “The Difference between Managing and Leading”, which appeared in Industry Week, June 17, 1999, Sal F. Marino writes: “Management is the skill of getting people to do something that you want them to do because you want them to do it. Leadership is the art of getting people to do something you want them to do because they want to do it.” A common situation from my childhood might illustrate the point more clearly.

“In the cattle business – and growing up in northwestern North Dakota we were deep in the cattle business when I was a kid – you spend a lot of time moving your inventory (your cows and bulls) around. At least you do if you’re a good leader, one with the foresight to judge the feeding capacity of a pasture and the current and future needs of your cattle.

If you can’t see the future at least a little way out, you’ll overgraze your pasture to the point where all you’ve got left is dust. On the other hand, you’ve got to tame that grass-is-greener-in-the-other-pasture leadership vision with the management skills that tell you how to extract maximum value – no more, no less – from the pasture you’re harvesting right now. You need to know the best way to get your cattle to the next pasture when it’s time to move on. Plus, you have to have all your horses, saddles, ranch hands, and neighbors lined up and ready to go so you don’t lose time (or, worse, cattle). If you don’t have both the ten-gallon leadership and management hats handy, and know when to put them on, you’ll waste resources, not to mention how you’ll undercut your future and your present.” – Leadership Shift, Paradox 2, pp. 30

I’m not suggesting that it’s an easy task to balance sales leadership and sales management, to plan with vision for the future while tackling day-to-day tasks. You have to make the choice of where you want your company or your sales team to be. And just like my dad had to decide when it was time to move his cattle to the next pasture, you may also have to make the difficult decision of when it’s time to move on to new opportunities.

Sales Growth Leadership Question: Which of your mentors exhibits the best balance between leadership and management?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Remember not to neglect the mundane day-to-day management tasks, while you are visualizing your next great venture for your company.

Sales Growth Leadership Action: For fresh insights into your Management & Leadership Strengths, call me about the Director of Sales Evaluation.

In my next blog posting I’ll give you a recipe for combining vision and management.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

February 18, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership, Sales Management | Leave a Comment

Dynamic Sales Leaders and Sales Managers – Can you be both?

Some people are great sales managers. Others are great sales leaders. However the biggest miracle happens these qualities are in one person. Business – especially for small to medium sized sales organizations, is tough. As a business executive, you often lay out your vision for the future during one meeting. Then, five minutes later you’ll walk into the next room and have to deal with the ‘brutal facts of today.’ It’s important to know the difference between the two so that you’re accessing the right skills at the most opportune time. Here’s how I report an insight I gleaned from Marcus Buckingham, one of my favorite authors, in Leadership Shift:

“Marcus Buckingham, author of The One Thing You Need to Know about Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Effort, tells us that, in a nutshell, a manager coaches the success of the individual in the here-and-now while the leader visualizes and pied-pipers an entire organization toward the future. So the leader begins in the future and works toward the now, and the manager does the same in reverse. But the secret of successful business leaders, owners, and CEOs is that they’re able to do both – able to live simultaneously in the future and the now – all guided by the lessons of the past.”

I expound further, “Improvisation, knowing what’s right to do, seeing opportunities, visionary thinking – these are the province of leadership. Structuring, maximizing resources, minimizing risks, and directing your team, have management written all over them. And to move ahead, especially when the roads are as rocky as ours currently are, you need both leadership propulsion and management steering. Otherwise, you’re going to either stand still or drive your company over a cliff – and very quickly.” – Leadership Shift Leadership Paradox 2, pp. 29

In short, the sale management leader of today must be able to keep up with the fast-paced business world where technology changes almost daily. The leader must identify needs and develop new strategies to keep up with this pace. The managing side, however, must also stay in the moment – the spot where the action takes place. They must take care of even the smallest detail that will make the sales team outpace and outperform the competitors.

Sales Growth Leadership Question: When are the times when it’s difficult to be a leader? To be a manager?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: High performance calls for us to balance our role as a leader and a manager.

Sales Growth Leadership Action: For insights into your Sales Management & Leadership Skillsets, call me about the VP of Sales Evaluation.

In my next blog posting I’ll share a story from my past to illustrate the importance of being both a leader and a manager.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

February 16, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership | Leave a Comment

A Sales Process with Hopeful Realism

Strength in Numbers This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters program in Transformational Leadership. If you could participate in this short survey, it would be much appreciated. Here’s a quick, 15-second survey.

One of the key concepts from Good to Great is to ensure that you, as a sales leader, have the “right people on the bus.” Don’t try to solve your problems on your own. There’s tremendous power when you have the right players on your sales team. You have acquired the services of a specific group of people with unique gifts and talents. Now is the time to bring these qualities together to work for the greater good. This is the results of a stunning study that I highlight in Leadership Shift:

“Research into the challenging economic cycle before 2002, conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, found that companies which kept employees in the loop saw profits 200 percent higher than those which didn’t. Such is the power of hopeful realism in the hands of many.”

Let’s look at some of the steps you can take to tap the power of the team.

Take stock of your situation from as many viewpoints as possible.
The facts of a business challenge are often distorted or unrecognized altogether because business leaders haven’t yet leveraged all the human creativity, ingenuity, and experience available to them. Don’t cloister management together behind locked doors. Light up your entire organizational “brain,” shedding light on all facets of the problem as well as all the talents and resources available to solve it.
Work the problem transparently.
It’s tempting to hide your problems from your employees, but don’t do it. Once you’ve developed an accurate picture of your entire situation, open up the entire problem-solving process through company-wide memos, e-mails, meetings, and other communication efforts. Use the feedback you get to generate better solutions faster.
Break solution steps into manageable chunks.
Farm out your solutions in bite-sized chunks to those best equipped to implement each piece and then give them enough space to do their jobs. After all, they were handpicked for their particular mix of talents and aptitudes, so give them the autonomy to let those talents flourish.” – Leadership Shift, pp. 21-24.

What other sales leadership strategies do you use to tap the talents of your team members? I’m interested in learning from you.

Sales Growth Leadership Question: Are you using all the abilities of every member of your team to assist you to overcome problem situations?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Remind yourself daily not to exclude your team from solving problems.

The second paradox, Management in Synergy with Leadership will be addressed in my next blog.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

February 14, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership | Leave a Comment

Hunkering down? Or, Grabbing new Sales Opportunities?

Upward trending. This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters program in Transformational Leadership. If you could participate in this short survey, it would be much appreciated. Here’s a quick, 15-second survey.

There are many definitions for the word realism. The one that really grabbed my attention said: “A tendency to face facts and be practical rather than imaginative.” Hopeful realism is a reasonable expectation of a good end – not false hope or false despair. This can become the ruling attitude in your business. I definitely won’t tell you to hang on to false hope, but just look at what two company presidents had to say about our economy. Decide for yourself which one you would like to follow.

“A construction company president I recently spoke with threw up his hands and said, “Yup, last year was bad. And this year is going to be bad. We just need to hunker down.” If this statement leaves me feeling less than hopeful and inspired, imagine how this guy’s employees must feel? Because they’re focusing solely on the mud, this organization’s tractors are not only hopelessly stuck, they’re not even tractors anymore – they’re monuments to defeat.”

In Leadership Shift, I compare my observations about this leadership behavior with another company president I met just 24 hours later.

“Same market, same economy, yet this president said, ‘Yes, the next 18 months will be extremely difficult. However, this is a time for us to operate wisely as well as open new channels to our clients so that we’re poised to capture market share.’ This man knew exactly how bad his situation was – and exactly how he was more than equal to it. He didn’t ignore either the negative or positive facts of his situation. He assessed them accurately and responded appropriately. Realistically. Hopefully.”

I also observed the following: “And the construction company president who saw an opportunity to capture market share while markets were shrinking made sure everybody in the company saw it, too.” – Leadership Shift

As I reflect on the differences between these two leaders, I realize that my dad never hid the reality of what we were up against, even when the odds looked impossible. Both of my parents are incredible entrepreneurs who have a deep faith in God – the Greatest Entrepreneur! “They believe that the simple fact of a stuck tractor – literal or metaphorical – is no match for the internal, communal and higher resources at our disposal.”

Sales Growth Leadership Question: Who are the mentors in your life that helped to shape your leadership thoughts? Were those leaders more like the hunker-down leader or the one poised to capture market share?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Recognize the power of mentors. And, be open to substituting mentors, if needed.

In our next section we’ll look at ways to unlock a successful action plan for adversity.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

February 11, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership | Leave a Comment

Deploy Your Powerful Sales Team

Good to Great This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters program in Transformational Leadership. If you could participate in this short survey, it would be much appreciated. Here’s a quick, 15-second survey.

Most leaders have a copy of Good to Great on their shelves. Some leaders have done more than reading, they have integrated some or all Good to Great principles into the core of their businesses:

Level 5 Leadership
Getting the Right People on the Bus
The Hedgehog Concept
The Flywheel

One of the most memorable stories for me is that of Admiral James Stockdale. The lesson to be learnt from Stockdale’s experience is critical for all of us. When we’re faced with a difficult economy, unreasonable competitors, or an unpredictable market, we need Hopeful Realism.

“Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, once interviewed Admiral James Stockdale, the highest-ranked naval “guest” of the “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp. Stockdale endured torture beyond comprehension. He spent seven years in Hoa Lo Prison, four of that in solitary, complete darkness. Yet he never gave in, never stopped inspiring his fellow soldiers to remain strong in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Asked how he survived, Stockdale replied that he refused to lose faith in a good ending to his story. In Stockdale’s case, the optimism he felt, “the good ending” he never stopped believing in, took into account the grave facts of his long captivity. But it was also based on the fact of his determination and his deep knowledge and respect for his own internal resources, which couldn’t be diminished by the enemy. His brand of optimism was what I call “hopeful realism,” a levelheaded response to adversity which acknowledges all the facts, negative and positive.”

Now, how does this concept apply to real life? Let me use an illustration from Chapter 1 in Leadership Shift:

“When I was a kid growing up in North Dakota our landscape in springtime was dotted with tractors – red, green, yellow or blue mechanical horses. But unlike horses, tractors could get stuck in the mud – and stay stuck until resourceful human beings unstuck them.

Assessing the situation accurately, rolling up your sleeves, and getting your tractor out of the mud, was one option. A second was to let the fact of the mud overwhelm you…and make you wonder why you kept doing this year after year. Option three was to sit and stare at the tractor, willing it to rescue itself and when that didn’t work, call it quits for the day and hope the tractor would be easier to get out tomorrow when the mud might be drier.

Options Two and Three have emotional benefits, sure, but the result is a tractor just as mired in mud as before.

Today’s businesspeople are farmers, too. Their harvests are a bit different on the surface, but it’s all the same in the end. Their mud is the sticky economy or the sludgy markets. Their tractors are their people, their processes, and their visions. And their three options are the same.” – Leadership Shift

Sales Growth Leadership Question: What “stuck tractors” are you dealing with today? Which approach are you taking?

Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: One of the first steps is to be honest with yourself and your leadership team and recognize the “stuck tractors” in your business.

Read more about hopeful realism in the next section.

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.

February 9, 2011 | Filed Under Sales Leadership | Leave a Comment

Commandments for Successful Sales Leadership

Creativity. This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters program in Transformational Leadership. If you could participate in this short survey, it would be much appreciated. Here’s a quick, 15-second survey.

In 1968, Kent M. Keith wrote the Paradoxical Commandments – so there is nothing new about the idea of paradoxical thinking.

“Optimism never hurts. Creativity works best in an atmosphere of complete freedom. Good leaders are self-sufficient and independent…

In one form or another, ideas like these have been handed down from one generation of business leaders to another. That’s understandable – these concepts just sound right. It’s all just common sense, right? The trouble with common sense, however, is that it’s often not sensible, no matter how common it is. When you look deeper into these widely held business truths, you find paradox. You find that optimism, pleasant as it feels, can blind you to real causes for hope. You find that creativity generates useful ideas only when it’s constrained. You find that the best leaders are also the most dependent.

Though there are probably hundreds, of common sense “truths” that are dragging businesses down every day, we’ll concentrate on seven of the most widespread that I see. Then, we’ll learn how to take advantage of the paradox – the “truth behind the truth,” giving you the insight and the tools you need to lead your business past unchallenged common sense to uncommon success.” – Leadership Shift

Until next time, enjoy these Paradoxical Commandments by Kent M. Keith:

The Paradoxical Commandments – by Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
- Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
- Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
- Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
- Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
- Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
- Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
- Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
- Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
- Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
- Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, 2001, www.paradoxicalcommandments.com

In the next section we’ll discover how optimism can lead to depressing sales results and how a more realistic approach to hope can open your eyes to the bona fide opportunities that lie ahead.

Sales Growth Question: What do you think separate a salesperson that succeeds with one that cannot succeed?

Sales Growth Lesson: Belief in yourself; put your beliefs into action and receive results

What are your thoughts? I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights.