No Excuse Sales Leadership

Feedback on the June Minnesota Business Journal Power Player article (No Excuses, p. 40) suggests that my rural roots are showing – and that sales leaders connect with the down-to-earth business insights they generate. If you haven’t guessed yet, the article focuses on my vision of what accountability means for business today.

So, I’ve been reflecting on the relationship between ranch life and the life of the business leaders I work with every day.

I’ve seen my fair share of tractors. When I was a kid growing up in North Dakota, especially in springtime, our landscape was dotted with these red or green mechanical horses. But unlike horses, tractors had a habit of getting stuck in the mud. And staying stuck until resourceful human beings unstuck them.

Assessing the situation accurately, rolling up your sleeves, and unsticking your tractor was one option. A second was to let the fact of the mud overwhelm you, cause you to curse and throw things, and make you wonder why you kept doing this year after year. A third option was to sit and stare calmly at the tractor, willing it to unstick itself, and when that didn’t work, give up for the day and hope the tractor would be easier to unstick tomorrow, when the mud might be drier.

Options two and three had emotional benefits, sure, but the result was a tractor just as mired in mud as before.

Today’s businesspeople are farmers & ranchers as surely as those I grew up with. Their harvests are a bit different on the surface, but it’s all the same in the end.

Their mud is the sludgy, sticky economy.

Their tractors are their people, their processes, their visions.

Top Sales Experts & “The Power of Sales Process”

 Sales leaders, you’ll find this upcoming roundtable on “The Power of the Sales Process,” sponsored by Top Sales Experts, to be packed with practical, how-to ideas on structuring your sales process. A strong process will give you a competitive advantage, even during this recession.   I’m on the expert panel with well-respected sales process gurus Craig Klein, Steve Matinez, Jonathon London and Jonathon Farrington. You can get more details here.  

I’ll be sharing principles used to create the Hardball sales process for Flint Group, formerly xSYS Print Solutions. They were the largest international supplier of narrow-web tag and label-printing inks struggling to reverse a three-year trend of declining revenues. We help the VP of Sales develop a system of sales management processes that change a culture of excuse making into one of personal accountability to generates predictable, sustainable results.  Listen to Hank tell the story of how we accomplish the following: 

• Market share grows despite an industry recession
• Predictable revenue with more accurate business planning, more efficient operation and higher margins
• Faster, organized sales process generates revenue more quickly
• New hires reach higher performance levels 30% faster

I recently conducted a webinar with EcSELL Institute on the same subject.  Bill Eckstrom, Founder of EcSELL Institute says that it was one of the most practical webinars they had–strong take-aways that sales leaders can implement immediately.  

Hope to see you there!

 

Pursuing Sales Execution

I’m slowly working my way through Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. I usually speed-read books, especially if it’s the second time I’ve read them. However, one of the largest gaps that I see in sales organizations is lack of execution.  They “talk the talk” but don’t “walk the walk.”  Where should leaders focus their behaviors in order to build a culture of execution?

Larry and Ram have a great list of leadership behaviors that lay the foundation for a high-performance sales team (pg. 57):

• Know your people and your business,
• Insist on realism, 
• Set clear goals and priorities,
• Follow through,
• Reward the doers,
• Expand people’s capabilities, 
• Know yourself. 

How would you rate yourself on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being “This is an area where I’m weak” and 10 being “This is an area where I’m a hero!”?

Over the next couple of posts, I’d like us to talk about each of these. Where are you strong? What can you leverage to create a recession-busting sales team? Where does your leadership need “enriching”?  What will it take to “Make it Happen”?  

 

Healthy Sales Cultures Rule!

I have tremendous respect for Rich Breau, president of Breau Bros Garage, a business consulting firm specializing in people, operations and strategy. In a conversation today, he mentioned that healthy cultures have two things in common. First, they know that culture starts at the top. Second, they have strong accountability. He defined strong accountability as having these characteristics: 

·      Well-defined performance standards

·      Rigor to achieve those performance standards 

·      A response for when the performance standards aren’t met 

Whether you’re a CEO, a president or a VP of Sales, these accountability characteristics apply, don’t they?  

This list reminds me of questions that another colleague, Dr. Mark McCloskey, uses in his business consulting practice when he’s getting to know the culture of a company: 

·      What really matters around here?

·      How are you doing on what really matters to you?

·      How do you know?

·      What are you going to do about how you are doing?

Great questions to ask yourself as you think through your company culture. How are you doing in creating the a high performance culture that keeping Making It Happen?

Leaders Improve Sales Execution

I had a great conversation today with Kurt Theriault from Business Efficacy about  the relationship between excuses-making/blame-gaming and execution. It was insightful because  both of our companies specialize in helping companies execute.  I lamented to Kurt that my advisors tell me that I should be more PC. However, we concurred, “Excuses kill execution.”  

Kurt talked about his work with companies that have great strategies, great training &  great insights….however, they aren’t executing.  That reminded me of a quote from Execution, “Organizations don’t execute unless the right people, individually or collectively, focus on the right details at the right time.” (pg 33).

So, do you have the right people in your sales organization? 

And, are the focusing on the right sales issues?  

Finally, are the focusing on them at the right time with the client? 

Where do you need to improve execution in your sales organization?

Lack of Personal Accountability Kills Sales Execution

Excuses kill execution, even with the best sales teams with the brightest sales management leaders. 

Everyone who knows me concurs, I disdain excuses.  Everyone—husband, kids, friends, colleagues, clients.

And, advisors coach me to be less harsh, to use more PC words, i.e. externally or internally focused, etc.

I work at it.

However, when I net it out, I hate excuses.

Why?

Because excuses kill execution.

According to Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, “Execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it.” (Pg 22) Excuses do the opposite. They distort reality. People start emotionally blaming anything external to them (economy, competitors, manager, company policy, etc) rather than objectively examining what’s really going on and taking appropriate action.

That’s theoretical. Here’s practical. In the last 10 years of consulting, I’ve send the correlation between the percentage of people on the sales team who lack personal accountability and the lack of the team’s ability to exceed goals….even when there’s a great strategy.

In studying DICE+1 through my work with Dr. Mark McCloskey at Bethel University, I see why excuses are so cancerous. Here are some of my insights:

D (Dynamic Determination):  Playing the Blame-Game erodes one’s willpower to accomplish the task. Excuse making kills determination.

I (Intellectual Flexibility):  Justifying the pasts stunts creativity. If you’re content to stop your thought process at the economy, competition, etc., then you’re selling yourself out to mediocrity. Excuse making kills intellectual creativity.

C (Character Soundness):  A key virtue in virtue-based leadership is courage.  It’s more courageous to face reality saying, “In light of the new situation, I/we need to change or improve in order to get the results we want,” than the oh-poor-me alternative. Excuse making sabotages one’s character.

E (Emotional Maturity): Only a leader with clear thinking can wisely execute in light of the gray zone. (Larry Jullian talks about the gray zone in his new book, God is My Coach) Excuses clouds thinking.

+1 (Partner Up Ability): Synergy only happens when there is hope, when people see possibility. Excuses kill hope.

 

As leaders, there are four steps that we can take to nurture a culture of Personal Accountability…and execution. Which steps do you need work on? 

 

 

Need a Sales Turnaround?

Over the past 10 years, my business has grown because of positive word-of-mouth referrals from clients and business leaders who know of a friend or colleague who’s incredibly frustrated with their sales team’s revenue and margin production…and are fed up, ready for a Turnaround! Here’s what I often hear:

•We’re dependent on a few large clients; it’s too risky. We must diversify.”

•“90% of our sales come from current clients and their business is sliding. I need new clients.”

•“I have order takers; we need people who can generation new business.”

•“Our salespeople can’t hold margin. Help!”

•“Our website is generating leads; but no ones closing them.”

•“Our sales cycle is so long; however, I don’t think there’s anything we can do to shorten it. Or, is there?”

Are you experiencing any of these? If yes, it’s a good time to find help. One place to look is Yes You Can: 67 Tips to Raise Sales Results in a Recession.

I’m looking forward to hearing which tips are most helpful for you in your Sales Turnaround initiative.

Danita

No Room for Dead Weight in Entrepreneur In Action Team

I’ve had the honor for the last two years of being on the Board of Advisor’s for University of Minnesota-Carlson School of Management Entrepreneur In Action course that is operated out of the Gary S. Holmes Center of Entrepreneurship. I’ve been continually impressed with the quality of the students and the incredibly real-life learning that happens through this hands-on experience.

At our last Board of Advisor’s meeting, when Rachel Nearhood, the CEO of Aozora Organics, reported on their teams’ learnings, she said, “We’ve learned that everyone needs to be a leader. There is no room for dead weight.”

I was thrilled! I was thrilled that they were learning this lesson while in college because it’s a lesson that will fuel their success in the rest of the career. We all need to be leaders, in any and every situation. We can not be dead weight, and we can’t have dead weight on our teams, if we’re to come out of this economic storm stronger then every.

Where is there dead weight in your company? On your leadership team? Sales team?

You may find some helpful tips in my most recent booklet: Yes You Can: 67 Tips to Raise Sales Results in a Recession Yes You Can: 67 Tips to Raise Your Sales Results in a Recession.

Raise Sales Results in a Recession

If you haven’t had a chance to download my Complimentary eBooklet, I invite you to do so: Yes You Can: 67 Tips to Help You Raise Sales Results in a Recession.

Our Deepest Fear as Sales Leaders

I’m certain that most of us have read this poem that is popularized by Nelson Mandela. However, it struck me anew as I was rereading it. I’ve been dealing with a couple of sales
leaders this week who are so tentative in their decision making.
In fact, when they asked me about what might be one of their
greatest obstacles to turning their sales force from declining sales to record-breaking sales, I answered, “Your decision making ability.”

Stopping the downward spiral of an excuse making, blame-game culture takes DICE+1 leaders. Yes, that leadership means that we as CEO, owners, board members, and sales
leaders, need to build strong relationships with those around us.
However, that leadership also calls us to be clear with our
expectations and to be willing to follow through with consequences when
expectations aren’t met and promises are broken…even when we’re
afraid.

So, what are you afraid of? What’s holding you back from doing what you know is right?

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some of us,it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

Next Page »