Implement An Employee (Sales) Engagement Culture
Learn how to leverage sales engagement
According to Gallup, over $350 billion is lost due to employees, including sales people, not being engaged. When salespeople aren’t engaged, they underperform and become disenchanted. This underperformance has dire consequences for sales teams. At a time when most sales organizations are running lean and mean, everyone on the team needs to be at peak performance achieve profit goals. An important key is establishing an employee (sales) engagement culture.
Hillary Feder, is a trusted colleague of mine who’s helped hundreds of business leaders design and implement an employee engagement culture. Plus, we’re both contributing authors of Business Expert Guide to Small Business Success. Hillary teaches her client the subtle, yet critical, nuances that communicate appreciation to your employees …inspiring them to work harder for your firm and stay with you for the long haul. With the ramping up of the economy, the war for the best talent is beginning again. Establishing an employee engagement culture is your secret weapon to bringing out the best in your people and retaining them.
I hope you can join Hillary at the upcoming Business Expert Webinar where you’ll learn how to:
- Develop a culture of employee engagement to drive productivity
- Increase retention of your top performers and inspire them to perform
- Recognize the achievements of your employees without breaking the budget
- Design programs that show appreciation for the contribution made by your employees to the company
As an added bonus, the first 50 registrants receive Hillary’s employee engagement tip sheet to help you implement the teachings from this eLearning session.
Sales Growth Question: How do you make sure that your salespeople commit to something or someone in their organization, how hard they work and how long they stay as a result of that commitment?
Sales Growth Lesson: Engaged employees work harder, are more loyal and are more likely to go the extra mile for their company.
A strong sales leader is essential to the growth and long-term health of your company. Do you have what it takes to find a successful direction for your company? Can you get your sales staff to buy into your vision and work hard to achieve it? Our sales leadership assessment will help you find out.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Book Recommendation: Rainmaking Conversations
(and a Special Offer when You Buy Today)
One of the highest ROI activities for a Sales Leader is in coaching their salespeople through the sales process. Often Sales Managers are frustrated with their teams because it seems like their sales conversations don’t go as well as anyone would have liked! Sometimes it’s a problem with the sales process and other times it’s the salesperson’s inability to execute on the process.
Either way, no matter what your team is selling; at some point your salespeople have conversations with buyers. Much selling success is determined here. Over the years I’ve seen too many sales people and professionals struggle to kick sales conversations off well, uncover needs, and win business. Without realizing it they make the same mistakes over and over again. The results? They end up frustrated from the lack of success their experiencing.
That’s why I’m so excited that my friends at RAIN Group (publishers of RainToday) have just released a new book, Rainmaking Conversations, which teaches your salespeople everything they need to know about leading masterful sales conversations.
Written by Mike Schultz and John Doerr, Founders of RainToday and Co-Presidents of RAIN Group, this book gives you a practical step-by-step process to go from the first “hello” to “send me an invoice…let’s go.” Full of compelling stories, examples, and winning techniques, the book covers how to:
- Build rapport and trust early on in the relationship
- Uncover the full set of prospect needs (most advice and training only gives you half the story)
- Develop winning value propositions that get prospects excited to buy
- Apply the 16 principles of influence in sales
- Overcome all types of objections (including price pressure) and move towards the close
- Craft compelling solutions and close the deal
- Avoid the most common mistakes that kill sales
The book walks you through RAIN Selling, an acronym that stands for Rapport, Aspirations and Afflictions, Impact, and New Reality. It provides a guide for the most important part of sales – the conversations you have with prospects and clients.
Rainmaking Conversations is hot off the presses, and it’s a great sales book. A classic in the making. To kick off the book launch, the authors have put together an amazing bonus package for those of you who buy a copy today.
Special Offer: Pick up a copy today and you’ll get tons of bonuses including a special bonus from me! So get your copy at Amazon.com. Then stop by: www.RainGroup.com/Book/Bonuses to pick up all the bonuses.
I highly recommend it!
Sales Growth Question: How do you as a salesperson, during an interview with your new prospect avoid common mistakes that kill sales?
Sales Growth Lesson: Master your sales conversation and stop your mind from worry, fear, lack of confidence and doubt as this can all result in no selling at all
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Hire Sales Reps Who Will Be Rock Stars On Your Sales Team
Learn a process to identify the standouts in the crowd and quickly eliminate the bad fits for your company
“How do I hire a sales rep with the best chance to become a superstar in my company? Identifying exceptional sales talent for your unique team is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and a wrong sales hiring decision can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hiring the wrong salespeople results in lost revenue, longer sales cycles and, ultimately, a loss of market share.
Danita Bye, sales hiring expert and contributing author to Business Expert Guide to Small Business Success, helps companies turn generic resume and interview screening into skills-match assessments leading to peak-performing sales teams. She teaches you how to systemize your unique sales process, profile ideal candidates and make hiring decisions that deliver the highest sales ROI. Learn to quickly identify candidates who best fit your business’s needs and bring aboard reps with the greatest potential to deliver outstanding sales results.
In this virtual training session, you’ll learn how to:
- Ask the right questions to determine if your applicant will be a headache or a go-getter
- Test the questioning or qualifying abilities of the candidate
- Peel away the fluff and hone in on the “real goods” in your interview
- Compare your applicant’s selling capabilities with your company’s critical selling strategies and process
- Assess quickly whether the salesperson is coachable, trainable and has a growth mindset
- Avoid high failure rates and slow ramp-up times of new sales hires … freeing up more resources for growth initiatives
All registrants will receive Danita’s eBook “Measuring Sales DNA.”
Sales Growth Question: What measures do you take to hire a sales rep that outperforms the sales market?
Sales Growth Lesson: Make sure you hire salespeople that are coachable, trainable and have a growth mindset.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
A look at the health of Minnesota’s sales teams (3)
This post is part three of a three part series. Read part one here and part two here.
From the replies received to our recent Sales Growth Survey it was evident that business leaders were not equally optimistic about the future growth prospects of their businesses. So what’s the secret to why some companies are growing? There were many distinct differences between growth companies and those reporting flat or declining sales. The four areas with the largest discrepancies are:
Recruiting high-performance staff. Growth companies are nearly 85% more likely to “consistently” hire top performers and are 35% more likely to use a recruiter to secure the right candidate. Over 40% of companies with flat or declining sales report a weak recruiting process, compared with 24% of growth companies.- Compensation. Growth companies reported a 50% better alignment of compensation to company goals.These companies also had a 25% greater belief that their compensation plans motivated sales performance.
- Staff motivation. Growing companies are 60% more likely to score themselves high on staff motivation.
Updating sales strategy. Companies that reported growth checked the option: “Strategic sales efforts are a key growth strategy for 2011”with 30% more frequency, and were 20% more likely to update their sales, marketing and client strategies.
Conclusions
The economy is slowly improving, and some companies have taken steps and made investments for getting back on the growth track in 2011. Those companies have expressed optimism about their 2011 sales results. But companies that admit their sales processes are lacking and expect better results are likely to be disappointed. Learn how all the process pieces fit together at http://www.salesgrowthspecialists.com, or contact danita@salesgrowthspecialists.com.
Sales Growth Question: How do you ensure a high performance workforce that is focused on continuous improvement?
Sales Growth Lesson: Motivate your sales people in becoming “Sales Rock Stars.”
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
A look at the health of Minnesota’s sales teams (2)
This post is part two of a three part series. Read part one here.
Notwithstanding surprising positive remarks from respondents in our recent Sales Growth Survey, it was clear from the responses that there was still much room for improvement in different areas of the sales processes companies use.
Room for sales growth improvement
The bulk of the survey questions (18) asked the participants to rate their current sales processes/initiatives. From a high level perspective, the companies that are continuing to grow, report a significantly higher focus on sales management processes. However, more often than not, sales processes are the least understood and most overlooked by leadership teams.The survey findings supported this growth-inhibiting trend:
- 73% of the participants reported that they do not have a defined recruiting process;
- 53% do not have a formal process to update strategic plans;
- 77% do not have a defined sales coaching effort;
- 82% do not have a defined sales management process; and
- 65% reported that their lead generation process needs improving.
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Since strong sales processes are the foundation of a company’s long-term growth and repeatable success, there is much room for improvement. Implementing and strengthening processes yield positive results almost immediately, making it possible for companies to realize their 2011 sales potential.
SGS assists clients build stronger sales cultures, starting with assessing process strengths, creating a prioritized strategy map, and installing skill development for up to 18 key sales management processes
Sales Growth Question: How does your company build a strong sales culture?
Sales Growth Lesson: Any sales company can find room for sales process improvement and maximization.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
An inside look at the health of Minnesota’s sales teams
Survey Overview: This report is intended to be a high level overview of the findings from a Strategic Sales Initiative Survey conducted in January. In future reports we will compare each category in more detail and compare responses between different segments. This is posting 1 of 3.
Note for our data focused readers: These reports shows summaries of combined responses of all participants, but some of the commentary mentions comparing segments inside that data, this was done to keep this first report concise and easy to read. Also note that some questions allowed readers to select multiple answers if they applied.
Will Minnesota Companies Meet Their 2011 Sales Growth Expectations?
The answer seemed elusive in light of conflicting economic news stories so we surveyed business owners and C-level executives of Minnesota-based companies. All are involved in business-to-business sales in a mix of industries including high tech, software, engineering, manufacturing, advertising, and printing. There were some distinct differences between how growth and non-growth companies approach sales processes.
SGS Survey Process
An online survey sent to over 1,000 business executives and sales leaders reaped nearly a 25 percent response. The 23 questions focused on current initiatives to strengthen sales: sales management processes, strategic planning, staff coaching, marketing, compensation and recruiting initiatives. Five of these questions were designed to create baseline comparison data about company size, last year’s sales results and 2011 outlooks.
The 23 questions focused on current initiatives to strengthen sales:
- sales management processes
- strategic planning
- staff coaching
- marketing
- compensation
- recruiting initiatives
Positive growth in 2010 and even higher expectations for 2011
Nearly half of the respondents reported that 2010 sales performance was “up,” with 12% indicating, “best ever.” However, some companies were still struggling, with 15% reporting a decline and 25% reporting “flat” sales results. When the focus of the survey shifted to sales goals for 2011, the news was even more positive, with a whopping 89% forecasting growth in 2011 and only 11% projecting flat or declining sales—unexpectedly positive responses in the current less-than-perfect economic environment.
Next posting will contain more details on our findings about the health of Minnesota’s sales teams.
Sales Growth Question: What measures do your salespeople take to focus on ways to create value for your clients, and on developing your company’s positions for future growth?
Sales Growth Lesson: Encourage salespeople to focus on initiatives to strengthen their sales.
P.S. Need to know how to Hire Sales Reps Who Will be Rock Stars on Your Sales Team? Check out this webinar.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Maximize your Sales Team with Confident Leadership
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 truths that we’ve probably all discovered as sales leaders of our business ventures is the importance of having the right set of tools to get the job done. I’ve embraced the Finn’s word for guts and determination – sisu – as part of my way of living. Like the Finns, I believe that you just do what you gotta’ do until the job is done. However, without the right set of tools, sisu turns into stupidity and stubbornness. So what is the right set of tools for sales growth? Apart from the obvious – a strong leadership team – business leaders often overlook the power that lies in the strength and maturity of their client facing team. Here’s how I position it in Leadership Shift:
“Even a sisu-powered workforce needs leadership that understands its own strengths and weaknesses. In my work, I help management uncover and leverage those strengths (and fill in any weaknesses) using assessments like the Key Management Dynamics Assessment. This assessment identifies nine critical management styles and shows clients how to synergize them to maximum effect and to create unsinkable confidence in their ability to lead their way through any business crisis.
Once you know how your employees and management are strong (and weak), you’ll need to translate that into a global, big-picture overview to help you direct your sisu where it will do the most good. One of the best tools I’ve found for accomplishing that is the CAMMILogic Diagnostic System. This assessment identifies foundational, organization-wide capabilities and recommends a prioritized program for going after your goals.” – Leadership Shift Paradox 7 p. 96
You can find out more about CAMMILogic and other diagnostic tools in the Sales Assessment section of my website.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: How can you develop your team to make full use of all their abilities?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Identify your team’s strengths and weaknesses and use this knowledge to go after your goals or take rectifying action where necessary.
Sales Growth Leadership Action: Check out both the Sales Force Grader and the Growth Diagnostic for a quick snapshot of what aspects of your sales organization could be constraining growth.
In the last posting for the Leadership Shift we’ll challenge common sense in order to gain uncommon success.
I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey regarding your insights.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Assess Your Sales Team
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.
I recently worked with a business owner and sales leader who finalized the purchase of his business in 2008, one month prior to the onset of the Great Recession. Immediate panic set in with clients cancelling projects, accounts receivables being stretched to the max and clients going out of business. As a result, he had to lay off loyal employees. One of the things that I noticed in talking with him was that each thought he conveyed was a fragmented idea. It was almost like he had A.D.D. I recognized how perilous this thought process was for the health of the business and worked with him to reduce the panic and helter-skelter behavior. He was so stressed out by his problems, that he failed to recognize solutions that were staring him right in the face. There are many avenues for accessing creative, third-option solutions. One of those avenues is to tap the talent of your sales team.
“Too many business leaders lament the lack of resources – human and otherwise – to stand up to tough economic and competitive conditions, when often they already have all they need hidden away in themselves and their employees. Even if these leaders do have a sense of the latent potential in their organizations, they don’t often know who embodies any given strength.
So, help your employees – and yourself – learn about their strengths using assessments, such as the Sales Force Evaluation from Objective Management Group. The Sales Force Evaluation sheds light on the unique mix of strengths and weaknesses in each salesperson. With the insight gained from an evaluation like this, you can then learn how to deploy those strengths optimally with the help of a qualified consultant.” – Leadership Shift Paradox 7 p. 95
Finding ways for my clients to battle the competition, deal with a fickle market, and sell when the selling is tough is just something I do. Pit-of-the-stomach fear doesn’t enter into it. There’s no pay-off for hand-wringing; that just delays your progress. Take a step back and assess and evaluate the resources already at your disposal, then find ways to develop and utilize those resources to their full potential.
Sales Growth Leadership Question: What are you doing to help your employees discover their hidden strengths and talents?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Help your employees – and yourself – to overcome your fear of an uncertain future, by combining your talents to do battle.
Sales Growth Leadership Action: Check out the Sales Force Grader. In 7 minutes you’ll get an instant score on the effectiveness of your sales force.
In the next section we’ll discuss more ways to apply SISU in your business.
I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey regarding your insights.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Drive Sales Results by turning Adversity into Energy
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.
Being of Finnish ancestry, sisu (their word for guts and determination) has been instilled in me from the beginning. I grew up in Little House on the Prairie-style conditions. The lack of running water, the football field-long trek to haul it back for cooking, and the nightly snow blowing under the door in the winter might have gotten me down. Sisu helped to form character. Nowadays, my challenges are of a different sort, but that same sisu still drives me in the pursuit of excellence. Here’s how I talk about sisu in Leadership Shift:
“If anxiety is the prevailing emotion in business, Finland could be the poster child for small to mid-sized companies. Like some of those businesses, it’s something of a minor miracle that Finland exists as an independent entity at all. Of course, the Finns themselves wouldn’t call it a miracle; they’d put their unlikely existence down to something they call “sisu.”
“Sisu” has been likened to guts. Sometimes, the word is used as a synonym for courage or stubbornness. But really, it’s more than that: it is unwavering determination paired with knowing when to quit one course of action and pick up another. “Sisu” is unapologetic perseverance (come what may) and a preference for turning paralyzing anxiety into forward motion no matter how scared you are. Talk about paradoxical thinking! If you had to live next to a giant (the former Soviet Union) you’d be rightly nervous. The people of Finland could have used their fear as an excuse to roll over, but they chose to turn their fear into energy to tackle their adversaries: national, environmental, financial, whatever. And then, they get back to business. That’s called determination.” – Leadership Shift Paradox 7 p. 91
Maybe we all could do with a little (or a lot) of the sisu attitude in face of all the obstacles we face in business and sales. It’s time to admit, “We are creative, we will persist and conquer every obstacle that comes our way.” In the words of Zig Ziglar: “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes your way.”
Sales Growth Leadership Question: How can you use your fears about the future to your advantage?
Sales Growth Leadership Lesson: Do not allow your fears to paralyze you – use your energy to fight adversity with guts and determination – sisu!
In my next blog posting we’ll look at ways you can apply SISU in your business.
What are your thoughts? This series of posting is part of a research project for my Masters in Transformational Leadership. I invite you to a quick, 15-second survey, regarding your insights. In return, I will send you a full report containing all of the data collected on this subject, and the conclusions drawn.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
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