Building a Successful Sales Team for the Future (4)
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.
From my experience in working with a wide ring of businesses and sales forces, there seem to be two scenarios that can damage our effectiveness as business and sales leaders. First, difficult situations can blind us to the possibilities available. Paradoxically, positive scenarios can do the same, encouraging us to rest on our laurels. Here are a few steps you can take to lead your business from a more future-oriented perspective:
1. First, think about your thinking.
You need to identify your negative thoughts before you can stop them. It may help to bring an outside consultant onboard. You might be stuck thinking “We used to be number one in our industry,” the implication being that you have a constitutional right to continue succeeding.
2. Next, put yourself in your competitors’ shoes.
If you were your own competition, how would the future look to you? Maybe the grass isn’t quite so green over there. This perspective shift helps you to clear the air and see your current situation in a more realistic way, revealing effective ways to correct your problems and putting you in a future-focused mode of thinking.
3. Then, ask better questions.
When you or others on your team are not taking personal responsibility for results, you’ll hear talk about how tough the competitors are or how dismal the economy is, without hearing any solutions. When you hear the Blame Game starting up, shift the conversation by asking questions that inspire creativity and possibility thinking. – Leadership Shift e-Book Paradox 6 p. 84
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that virtues like courage, self control and justice will go a long way in steering you in the right direction in all situations – good or bad. Virtues-based leadership will help you to take action and even make course changes without wandering so far off the road that you never make it back.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: What processes and/or resources do you have in place to help you take a critical look at your own thinking?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Inspire your team not to become blinded by difficult situations to the prospects of a brighter future.
Sales Growth Leadership Action: To learn about how your thinking about your client-facing processes might be constraining your growth, take this Growth Diagnostic. It’s a 30 min. assessment based on sales force effectiveness criteria similar to Baldridge or 6 Sigma.
We’ll start exploring the last of the seven paradoxes, “Drive Sales Results by turning Adversity into Energy” in my next posting.
I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey. This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters in Transformational Leadership.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Sales Strategies without Panic
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.
“Stop, drop and roll” is a safety technique that is taught to children as part of health and safety training. The main aim of this technique is to extinguish a fire on a person’s body, but it also is a powerful psychological tool: with your focus on the job of putting out the fire you are less likely to panic about the flames. A difficult economy can be overwhelming. Over the years, I’ve had many opportunities where I could put the technique of STOP-DROP-N-ROLL into action.
“Stop:
When the facts of past and current reality become overwhelming – give yourself permission to worry about those things later, but not now.
Drop:
With the panics of now and yesterday temporarily quieted, drop below the smoke and look for the door. The economy and the competition is still hanging over your head, but it’s going to be there whether you’re standing and getting choked by it or whether you’re on the floor. Call this smoke-free region a planning zone. There’s more than one route to the door and you can evaluate and pick the best one. In business terms, you can now see clearly enough to develop new products, new competitive strategies, and a new and better future for your company.
Roll:
Just keep your head down and work your way to the door, using the escape route you devised.
From here you can deal with past and current problems because you can see clearly.” – Leadership Shift e-Book Paradox 6 p.80
What’s happening where you as a business and sales leader need to do STOP-DROP-N-ROLL?
Sales Growth Leadership Question: Do you allow adverse conditions to cloud your vision for the future of your company, or can you see beyond the smoke?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Take a deep breath and apply the technique of stop-drop-n-roll if your problems seem to overwhelm you.
In my next posting we’ll explore some of the steps that you can take to become more future-focused.
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.
Sales Solutions for Sales Managers
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 my previous blog posting, I shared with you the seemingly disastrous outcome that loomed after I purchased a snowmobile company … and it stopped snowing! As sales leaders, unforeseen circumstances can strike at any time. As much as we like to think that our sales organization is invincible and that we’ve got everything under control, earthquakes, tsunamis or global recessions can reduce our business ventures to nothing in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it takes a serious focus-shift to help us overcome disaster. For me it started with reading the right book at the right time…
“… So, I put all that blame aside and focused on the way forward, which for me was selling the business to someone with more passion for it. I didn’t magically forget the past or the present; I just learned to lift my head and watch where I was going, too.
Because of past results, I worried that the business wouldn’t sell. Because of present conditions, I was concerned that we’d lose money on the deal, even if we could sell. But because I had put responsibility for past and present results where it belonged – on my shoulders – I was free to let go of the blame that obscured my options and focus on the future. The business sold in only six weeks. I did not make money on the deal nor did I lose any. But I didn’t break even. I lost all the creative energy and three years of time we could have invested in a business that made us want to get out of bed in the morning, eager for what the coming day would bring.” – Leadership Shift Paradox 6 pp. 79
It must be a terrifying experience to be inside a burning building. My first reaction will possibly be to panic. When I panic, my ability to think clearly is seriously affected. If you feel that your business is at a stage where it’s on fire, letting the smoke of current and past business problems overcome you, your company will be left wheezing, incapacitated and eventually dead. Before that bad end sneaks up on you, you need to do the business version of Stop, Drop, and Roll.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: Blaming “outside factors” for your business problems will not help you to find solutions. What can you do personally to help with this process?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Take the first step of dealing with your current business problems by becoming fully accountable for finding solutions.
In my next posting we’ll look at how a simple fire fighting technique can save you and your business from disaster.
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.
Building a Sales Team with Future Focus
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 a recent Strategic Sales Initiative Survey to determine whether businesses are starting to see a recovery in sales figures, we found that companies who reported growth were also 20% more likely to update their sales, marketing and client strategies. The sales leaders know that conditions change constantly and they need to focus on the future. Here’s how I talk about it in Leadership Shift.
“Your business has problems. You’ve got past messes to clean up. You’ve got current fires that you scramble to put out before they get too big to handle. Between focusing on those two, you’ve got no time to focus on the future.
That’s the setup. The end of the story is that you’re so busy dealing with the past and the present that the future comes along and, unnoticed and unchallenged, burns away the support beams of your business. As the smoke infiltrates your lungs and clouds your judgment, it starts to seem like the best thing to do is close your eyes and take a nap. And we all know what happens after that. Or at least I do…
Back in 1997, I purchased a snowmobile ride-behind-vehicle business (trust me, in Minnesota this makes sense). Also of note in 1997 was the reappearance of El Niño, which chased away all the snow. Apart from blaming the weather for our diminishing sales, I even faulted God for his part in this mess; after all, who makes it snow?” – Leadership Shift Paradox 6 pp. 77
Because I chose an approach of focusing on the past and fearing the future, I was blinded from seeing some obvious solutions for my problems. For three years, results got worse and worse and I played the blame game. Then I read an eye-opening book on personal responsibility and accountability. At last I was able to see things in a fresh, forward-focus perspective.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: What steps to you take as a leader to prevent the problems you are currently facing today from being all-consuming? What steps do you take to ensure a big-picture perspective?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Balance your focus between the past, present and future when dealing with current problems or planning ahead.
In my next blog posting I’ll share with you how a change in my focus helped me to overcome my problems.
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.
Step up your Sales Motivation Process
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.
Growing up on a ranch in cowboy country, I loved the Lone Ranger. However, in reality, I know that “real” cowboys know that there’s lots of team work necessary to carry out a successful cattle roundup. To be a lone ranger may look great on the big screen. Be honest, at some stage as a sales leader, you’ve desperately wanted to say: “Go ahead, make my day!” Can you see yourself looking at people across a room – or a boardroom table – with only a hint of a smile, feeling completely self-sufficient and knowing that you can rely on yourself to pull anything off?
“The foundation for gathering strength from your organization is to listen closely. Here are a few guidelines to help you:
1. Schedule regular staff listening events
In many organizations, the predominant flow of information is from the top of the tree to the bottom with little insight flowing back from the roots to the leaves. Schedule regular employee meetings, allowing your staff to speak freely and interrupt only to encourage further comment and assistance.
2. Join a peer roundtable
Reach out to your wider business ecosystem with informal lunches and larger, more structured meetings centered on constructive give-and-take. Many Chambers of Commerce and private organizations offer monthly peer circles with CEOs from non-competing businesses providing a chance to exchange valuable advice and insight.
3. Raise your Emotional I.Q.
A high emotional I.Q. allows you to effectively communicate with and motivate those you lead. According to a UCLA study, 93 percent of leadership success springs from high levels of trust, integrity, authenticity, honesty, creativity, presence, and resilience. Leaders who score well on these traits create emotional climates that foster creative innovation and functional synergy. In turn, employees with high E.Q. are happier, more capable, and more committed to the team’s goals.” – Leadership Shift Paradox #4 pp. 58
An ancient Hebrew proverb says: “If you refuse to learn, you are hurting yourself. If you accept correction, you will become wiser.” I built a successful business over a ten year period. I thought I knew what it takes to be an effective leader. But over the course of my career and in my Transformational Leadership studies, I’ve rubbed shoulders with leaders from other market segments and industries. They have showed me how much I didn’t know – and I did the same for them. By putting ego to the side and accepting our lack of understanding, we can open doors to unsuspected rooms full of new insights and techniques.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: What are the most valuable contributions that you have recently received from your team members?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Listen to what your team members have to say. Gather constantly from their inspiration, wisdom and experience.
Did you know that a great leader should also serve those he is supposed to lead? We’ll start investigating this 5th paradox in the next section.
I once heard someone say: “Even if you live on an island, you are still dependent on the island to provide food and shelter.” What do you think? Is it even really possible to be independent?
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.
Sales Growth through Supportive Management
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 my daily dealings with sales managers and CEO’s of large companies, I often find that they hesitate to admit that they need help – especially from consultants like me and other external resources. I think they might feel they have failed to do their jobs properly. However, if they can allow themselves to be open to see the many advantages of making use of all the resources available to them, they will find that the complete opposite is actually true – they become much more effective as managers and leaders.
At a recent FORGE event, I had the privilege of meeting the presidents of two large companies – both of whom have experienced revenue and profit growth over the past couple of years. In this economy, you might ask? Yes, I was also puzzled and thought about their comments and insights. I realized that there was a common thread. They were both very humble and they were both open to input from outside AND inside their companies. I commented on their modesty to one of the panelists, then adding that I also spent time with another leader who was very resistant to any input. He chuckled, and said, “I was like that when I started out in business, however I quickly realized that this arrogance stalls creativity and growth.”
“This is the paradox for great leadership: To be strong, you must also be dependent. You must be dependent but internally resourceful as well. So how do you pull this off? Actually it’s quite simple – you listen. You constantly gather insight from those around you. Their collective wisdom, their creative ideas, and their inspiration become yours and yours become theirs. Together, you build an interlocking network that enables your business to stand when others fall. Like the tallest of the Coast Redwoods, you lead.” – Leadership Shift Paradox #4 pp. 56
Just like the proud Coast Redwood, you can still be respected even when you don’t do everything on your own. You can show the way to greater heights. You can let your inner strength inspire the others, but at the root of it all, you can work with your organization, taking and giving strength, creating a majestic and towering sales organization that withstands the test of time.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: Which resources do your rely on more, internal or external resources? Which area do you need to strengthen?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: A strong leader will access both internal and external resources to exceed growth objectives.
Sales Growth Leadership Action: Take the Growth Diagnostic to identify which of your client-facing capabilities are strong, and which factors handicap growth. Use this as a guide to which resources you need to leverage at present.
In the next section we’ll list a few steps that you can take to get the best out of your team.
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.
Leadership Shift Recap
This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters program in Transformational Leadership. Since I assume you are reading this blog because you have an interest in sales & leadership, I NEED your input. If you could participate in the short survey from each post, it would be much appreciated.
Paradox 4: Foster Collective Independence
- Great Sales Leaders Cultivate Great Sales Teams (1) – Survey
- Great Sales Leaders Cultivate Great Sales Teams (2) – Survey
Paradox 5: Inspire Servant Leadership
Stay tuned for the 6th Paradox: A focus-forward-approach.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Shift your Sales Focus to Serving First
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 my own biggest sources of servant leadership inspiration was none other than St. Francis of Assisi. Now, St. Francis wasn’t a rich man, so you couldn’t measure him by that yardstick of success. In fact, I wanted to use St. Francis and his famous prayer as the centerpiece of my graduation speech, but was warned by my superintendent: “Danita, your job is to inspire people to be successful. St. Francis wasn’t successful. He was just a poor monk. To inspire people to success, you need a stronger image.” Those who know me well won’t be surprised to learn that I went ahead and used St. Francis’s example anyway!
I keep the Prayer of St. Francis on a wall in my office as a daily reminder of the higher calling to servant leadership in all of life, including business. For those who don’t know this prayer, here it is:
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joyO divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console
to be understood, as to understand
to be loved, as to love.
for it is in giving that we receive.
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and, it is in dying that we are born
to Eternal Life
Sales Growth Leadership Question: What reminders do you have in your life to remind you of your “higher calling”?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Inspire your team on a daily basis to make a difference in at least one person’s life.
Sales Growth Leadership Action: Invite your sales team to work through Energize your Dreams in order to help them align their personal and professional lives.
In my next blog posting we’ll look at the 6th Paradox: A focus-forward-approach.
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.
Servant Leadership for Sales Success
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.
During my first year in sales with Xerox Corporation, I attended a Zig Ziglar seminar in North Dakota. I’ll never forget one of Zig’s mantras: “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” You too can inspire this attitude in your organization. There are a few people who have inspired me over the years to realize that helping people get what they want can be a reward in its own right.
“Robert K. Greenleaf, in The Servant as a Leader, coined the term “servant-leadership”. According to Greenleaf, service leadership is a natural feeling that inspires one to serve first and only then make the conscious choice to lead based on that service.
A book that also helped me to grasp this concept fully is the excellent how-to book, Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: Practicing the Wisdom of Leading by Serving by James W. Sipe.
Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts and now chairman of the Leader to Leader Institute describes leadership as “circular” and notes that its highest form consists of leaders embracing their organizations and everyone in them.
Or consider Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford and former CEO of Boeing. Leadership, according to Mulally, isn’t about oneself but the people one works with, all of them great in their own ways.
Finally, take the example of Jesus Christ, who in many eyes is the Leader of leaders. Yet he washed the feet of his disciples. More than that, his entire life was service.” – Leadership Shift Paradox #5 pp. 65
Paradoxically, the first becomes last, and the last becomes first. Management leaders who use their position to serve become greater leaders. Leaders who don’t serve don’t lead.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: Where do you build “serving” into your leadership practices?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Make the act of serving others a part of your company’s business plan.
Sales Growth Leadership Action: Take the Revolution 360 to identify the strength of your leadership relationships, roles, responsibilities and results.
In the next section I’ll give you some tips to help you encourage this concept in your organization.
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.
Your Sales Team can stand tall
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.
California’s Coast Redwood, Sequoia Sempervirens to scientists, is the world’s tallest tree. The current record-holder, found in Redwood National Park in 2006, soars 379.1 feet into the sky. To picture this, imagine a 38-story building!
Last July I made a special trip to northern California with my husband and one of my daughters to learn more about these magnificent trees, some of which have been around for over 3,000 years! We were surprised to learn that if we dug around the base of this tall tree, instead of the massive roots we’d expect to find, we’d see a network of tiny roots only one inch in diameter. That root system taught me a valuable leadership lesson which I talk about in Leadership Shift.
“Think about this: If we were to build something so tall with such a minimal foundation, it’d last only until the next stiff breeze. So why do Coast Redwoods even exist in the first place? The answer lies in that same shallow root system. If the tree had to rely on this alone to stand, few would, and certainly not for millennia. But Sequoia Sempervirens interlocks its roots with others of its kind, forming a supportive network that’s kept some of them upright since biblical times.” Leadership Shift E-book pp. 55
The tree that I’m describing to you is proud and appears to be standing on its own. What is not obvious at first glance is the fact that this tree is really just part of a broader ecosystem. It gets its strength from outside itself. Even when fall comes and its leaves drop to the ground, Mother Nature will use those resources to feed the tree in spring. I can’t wait for our next trip to California, when we plan to visit Yosemite to look at these giants again.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: When are you most like a Sequoia-like leader?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Your team members are there for a purpose. Use this support system to strengthen your leadership role.
Sales Growth Leadership Action: Have your entire leadership team participate in the Key Management Dynamics evaluation to learn how your talents can work together to create a stronger company.
In the next section, we’ll dig even deeper to uncover more secrets from the roots of this wonderful tree.
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.
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