Launching a Sales Lead Generation to Improve Sales Performance
Sales Growth recently created a short educational video to launch its Sales Lead Generation and Nurturing Service. So, you can either view here... or, if you’d rather read, here’s the script for the first couple of frames:
Slide 1: Thanks to a drastically changed economic and competitive landscape, traditional ways of B2B lead generation, such as cold calling, don’t work as well as they used to. For that matter, 
few salespeople are the skilled sales prospectors they should be. And sales pipelines that used to be full are drying up fast.
Slide 2:
What’s the answer? Give up cold calling and other tried-and-true sales strategies? No – those are still valid for sales lead generation. When the markets as crowded as it is, relying on traditional B2B lead generation strategies alone leads to frustrated salespeople and fewer sales. Fortunately, the Web, which is the starting place for 70% of purchasing decisions, provides new and more cost-effective ways of reaching out to potential customers. Yet despite the fact that almost three out of four customers are making the Web an integral part of their buying behavior, only one in five companies have a solid sales strategy for using it to generate leads.
Slide 3: Contrary to popular belief, effective B2B lead generation is not about scattering your sales message as widely as you can and then sorting out the resulting sales leads. You simply don’t have the time or other resources to take a shoot first, qualify later approach to B2B lead generation. Instead, today’s market demands that you have a Targeted Sales Focus on highly defined target markets and customers – customers who are already qualified and ready to buy custom-fit sales solutions, not just commoditized products.
For the rest of the sales Lead Generation and client Nurturing Video, click here.
A Leadership Lesson: Motivate Your Sales Team With High Emotional IQ
Motivate Your Sales Team With High Emotional IQ. Since I spent almost 10 years in sales with Xerox Corporation, I’m always interested to hear of their progress in the news. My interest was piqued when Ursula Burns took over leadership of Xerox from Anne Mulcachy in the spring of 2009. It was clear that the new CEO understands sales leadership. Her first order of business was to assemble sales representatives from around the company and renew the team’s sense of “family.” Her colleagues of 30 years were met with warm greetings and 
hugs.
Clearly, there is friendship. But is there trust and respect? Xerox executives clearly thought so. When Burns tried to leave to pursue new opportunities during the economic downturn, Xerox feared it would be viewed as a trusted leader jumping off of a sinking ship. Burns was convinced to stay.
Is Burns’ Emotional IQ enough for Xerox to take back its sales market lead? Some view the new CEO’s relationship with employees as too warm and fuzzy. Even Burns coached the sales teams to be more “frank” and less “nice” with one another.
The tougher love worked. Revenues are up and earnings are moving positive. Xerox credits innovation with enabling it to develop into the leader in business process and document management. It is hard to deny that this special corporate culture that Xerox has cultivated and communicated to the world has had an effect on its sales performance.
In May, newly promoted to chairman of Xerox, Burns announced her formula for sales growth: To keep investing in technology and expanding the sales channel while controlling costs.
The Leadership Lesson: Sales Leadership success springs from high levels of trust, integrity, authenticity, honesty, creativity, presence, and resilience – all qualities of a great sales executive.
The Sales Management Question: Have you created an emotional climate that fosters innovation and functional synergy within your sales organization ?
The Quote from Leadership Shift: “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.”
Listen to Future Sales Leaders….before Recruiting Sales People
I recently sponsored a Sales & Operations Planning event by Manufacturer’s Alliance. Leaders from Toro, ReconRobotics as well as Goodrich shared their expertize. I was impressed with all of them, including Goodrich’s winning of the Raytheon Supplier Excellence Award for its contribution to the Patriot missile program. However, I’m intrigued most by their approach to both community and leadership.
Listen to this! Five hundred members from the student engineering community belong to the Goodrich Leadership Program 
on Facebook. The network is also connected through leadership conferences, workshops and presentations at schools. The network is not about public relations; it’s about knowledge sharing and gaining early wisdom and insight from its future leaders.
On Facebook, Goodrich listens to its future leaders’ questions and answers them. It’s a drastically different model from 
when resumes sent by mail were responded to with a curt form letter. One potential recruit with the wrong engineering degree was able to post follow-up questions and, importantly, find out why he would not be accepted to the program. Others learned from the exchange. Even at this early stage, through social media, Facebook is cultivating its future leaders.
Facebook leadership friends are also invited to join the Goodrich Supply Chain Club. This is an impressive sign of Goodrich’s trust and respect in the knowledge and contributions of the students. The message is clear: We are not just kicking the tires of potential engineering recruits; we value your input today and would like to share knowledge.
Lesson for Sales Leaders: The strongest leaders, the ones who stand the test of time, depend most on the wisdom, insight, and inspiration of those around them. In turn, they share their own resources with those they lead. Before recruiting your next sales person, listen to the future sales leaders.
Question: Do you draw your strength from the environment?
Quote from Leadership Shift: (which talks about the Qualities of a Sales Manager today)
“Then there is the more humble kind of leader, the ones who remind you that if they’re seeing farther than others, it’s only because they’re standing on the shoulders of giants.
But the humble leaders, the ones who recognize that much of their strength comes from their environment, are more effective That’s why this type quietly dominates the business world.
The strongest leaders, the ones who stand the test of time, depend most on the wisdom, insight, and inspiration of those around them. In turn, they share their own resources with those they lead.”
How to Improve your Sales Performance with Sisu
Sisu…and Sales Force Success. For my readers, you know that I rediscovered one of my favorite words, SISU, at Hostfest in Minot, ND last fall. Consequently, I’ve written a number of articles on SISU and sales force effectiveness, including Filling Your Sails-and Making More Sales-With Sisu, and numerous blog postings on sales leadership:
- Sisu: From Conforming to Courage
- Sisu: From Contenting to Community
- Sisu: From Confusion to Clarity
- Sisu: from Couragelessness to Confidence
- Sisu: From Complacency to Calling
Today, I found a definition for SISU through Urban Dictionary that I found interesting: “A uniquely Finnish quality; the word used to typify the Finnish spirit; a concept that is at the heart of how all Finns view themselves; a certain feature or value considered by Finns to be typically Finnish – endurance, resilience, tenacity, determination, perseverance – an inner reserve of diligence, capacity, the ability to face head-on and always overcome – craziness: the recklessness that inspires a person to take on something in the face of incredible odds – bravery, empowerment, inner strength.
“Gritting your teeth, continuing to fight against an overwhelming enemy, clearing a forest with your bare hands, continuing on to win a race even after falling.
“Sisu means that you finish what you start, you don’t quit in the middle of a job, and you don’t whine.
“Quote: It doesn’t take sisu to go to the North Pole; it takes sisu to stand at the door when the bear is on the other side.”
SISU is a key character quality that we as leaders need in order to help our sales teams succeed during these tumultuous times!
Where do you need more SISU?
P.S. SISU is included in Chapter 7 in my new eBook: Leadership Shift. Leadership Shift deals with the qualities of a Sales Manager today. Download your complimentary copy.
Great Qualities of a Sales Executive – Balancing Creativity and Discipline
Without Sales Discipline, Creativity May Turn to Chaos. Google is considered a model of business innovation and creativity but has a lack discipline hurt its sales performance? This week we find the search giant’s CEO Eric Schmidt squirming in an interview with the Financial Times as he defends charges that Google is arrogant. By invading privacy, Google has ruffled even its most ardent fans. Both its Buzz and StreetView 
products have been illegally collecting information.
“Google is big and Google is disruptive by design,” retorts Schmidt. Whew, that is arrogant! What the world wants to know is has Google’s unbridled innovation and “freewheeling culture” gone too far? Schmidt says Google balances discipline and creativity, or “software magic,” by being transparent and following a “rigorous” policy of admitting mistakes and fixing them. Still, Schmidt concedes, “We have to find a way to continue to be creative with some more oversight.’
I agree with the Google chief. It is absolutely a hard and fine line to walk. That is why I have focused a chapter of Leadership Shift (which talks about the qualities of a Sales Leader today) on how to master the balance between instilling discipline and providing the freedom to create. More and more sales companies are learning the importance of having well-defined sales processes to promote productive innovation, especially in relation to sales. Google’s innovation policy, in contrast, is looking more like organized chaos than discipline of late.
Sales Lesson: Sales Business without discipline, without organizational structure, is doomed to painfully unrepeatable successes and lamentably regular failures in their sales performance.
Sales Question: How do you promote the freedom to innovate in your Sales Business? How do you balance creativity and discipline in your Sales people?
P.S. Have you picked up Jill Konrath’s new book, SNAP Selling? It’s a must read!
Turn Lead Into Gold: Crazy Ideas Boost Sales Performance
It’s a puzzling paradox of business. Ask CEOs what keep them up at night and they will tell you that their number one goal in 2010 is to develop a culture that promotes innovation. In fact, the leadership quality most valued by CEOs is creativity, according to IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study. Yet when employees, like sales people, want to think and act outside of the box organizational constraints often make it hard to get there.
Emerging from an era of management discipline and austerity, tightened during the economic crisis, many organizations have not made the cultural shift required to promote innovation and creativity. Sales organizations think creativity is the job of the marketing or technology departments.
Sales leaders are talking more about motivating sales talent by empowering them to be more creative but does the sales force recruiting process court and cultivate creative thinkers? Do the management, coaching and developmental process promote innovation in the sales ranks?
Creativity can help boost sales performance. It has helped Sir Richard sell everything from records to airplane seats to cellphones, and soon, trips to space. The next time a sales manager or salesperson has a dumb, crazy, out-of-the box idea, go with it and see where it takes you. I have more tips on nurturing creativity in your sales department in Chapter 3 of my new eBook: Leadership Shift. (which talks about the qualities of a sales manager today.)
The Sales Lesson: The creative process is like alchemy. It can turn even crazy ideas into innovative sales products and services.
The Sales Question: What can you, as Sales Leader, do today to encourage and support creativity in your sales organization?
Lessons Sales Leaders Can Learn From iPhone Wars
“Opportunities and risks are subject to change. If you could somehow freeze all the initial conditions present when you set out toward your destination, you’d be fine. Instead of brainstorming opportunities and risks only at the outset, plan regular rest stops to gather new information and adjust your course accordingly.” Quote from Leadership Shift (Management in Synergy with Leadership) which talks about the qualities of a sales manager today.
I’ve been using my new Apple iPhone for about 4 months now. Because I’m a huge iPhone fan, I follow up on IPhone wars. 
Bill Gates’ early retirement may be testament to the fast pace of the technology industry. No one ever gets to rest on his/her laurels – not even for a nanosecond. It’s all about constant innovation and change. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile smartphone platform now finds itself in a classic squeeze between Apple, Google and Blackberry. At this point in the tight race, one of these companies is going to have to come out way ahead with something very innovative. So innovative that it has likely not been developed yet. Nonetheless, I can assure you that all four technology leaders are working on it.
Bill Gates famously said: “”In three years, every product my company makes will be obsolete. The only question is whether we’ll make them obsolete or somebody else will.” So how does Microsoft institutionalize constant innovation? According to Bill Gates, it is all about letting go of control and supporting an inspiring culture and employee empowerment.
I used to think that Microsoft’s partnering – the company is a serial partner – was all about marketing. Its logo appeared everywhere! I had it wrong. It was about constant innovation. Microsoft not only ensures it creates an environment for employees to always be thinking out of the box but also is always actively engaging in knowledge exchange with external partners. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is now the market leader in software that helps enterprises share information among internal and external stakeholders.
The Sales Lesson: As Sales Leaders sales innovation is inevitable. It needs to be part of every Sales Manager’s competencies and be reinforced in the strategic sales plan. – Always be gathering new information and adjust your course accordingly.
The Sales Question: What are you, as a Sales Executive, doing to gather new insights and information that you can use to better chart your course of action?
Sales Leadership Requires the Ability to Time Travel
A leader begins in the future and works toward the now, and a manager does the same in reverse. 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. Quote from Leadership Shift (Management in Synergy with Leadership) 
I’m an avid Star Trek fan. Yes, Captain Kirk is my hero – Going where no one has gone before!
Since science fiction fascinates me, I had to go to Avatar on opening day. Evidently others are also fascinated by scifi as Avatar recently broke box office records.
Yet even in science fiction, moving between the real and enchanting world of Pandora is no easy feat. It requires genetically engineered humanoids. However, isn’t that the connection the world’s best sales manager and sales talent know how to MAKE – to connect “now” with the “future?” To lead in the present by letting the past inform the future.
In the sales leadership literature, we talk ad nauseum about turning vision into reality. But, how many sales leaders are actually doing it? GE’s Jack Welch taught us early lessons on how to traverse these time divides, lessons that are worth repeating. Importantly, he taught us to share the vision and teach managers how to share the vision. First and foremost, you must establish ways of communicating the sales visions. Vision sharing meetings, for example, were part of the GE culture.
The Sales Lesson: As the GE boss famously said, “the best way to manage people is to get out of their way.”
The Sales Question: What are you doing today to help your sales team catch the vision?
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