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

Animal Farm and Modern Leadership

Even though I read Animal Farm by George Orwell over 30 years ago, it still haunts me. And, at the oddest times, scenes from Animal Farm invade my thinking. Does that happen to anyone else besides me?!?

In the StarTribune Opinions Exchange on April 5th, David Lebedoff, author of The Same Man: George Orwell & Evelyn Waugh in Love and War,writes about the Orwell’s predictions of economic collapse based on moral failure.

Lebedoff asserts that the Modern Age (which he detested) has a major distinguishing factor that separates 21st Century people from all previous ages-people no longer believe in life after death. Even though Orwell was an atheist, he asserted that this long-term-view-of-life worldview impacted people’s immediate decisions. It caused many to stop and reflect on their actions… from a moral sense.

In the Modern Age, without this long-term-view-of-life guidance, human’s are more prone to live for today. A reigning thought process might be “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.” In the article, Lebeoff says, “If you go around once, then the main thing is to have fun.” He goes on to state, “Materialism, hedonism and Stairmasters are what people do until the clock stops ticking.”

So, what does this have to do with our life as president, CEOs, owners and sales leaders? Earlier this week, we looked at Zenger and Folkman’s research published in The Extraordinary Leader. Character is foundational for the leader. Without character as the center of a leaders life; the trust needed to lead people through tumultuous times will be missing. And, as leaders in today’s economic climate, we need trust, or we’ll be one of the many business statistics.

How does your worldview effect how you lead? How might a long-term-view-of-life worldview impact your leadership?

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.

Tips for Profitably Restructuring-Sales Management Processes

The next place to look is at your Sales Management Processes.

Sales organizations that survive turbulent times will inevitably be the ones who have their sales management processes in place. People draw confidence from the structure created by solid and defined processes. Create your sales management processes around four key elements: accountability, motivation, recruiting, and coaching.

Accountability: Review your performance management system to ensure that goals and objectives are owned by each person on your sales team. Are your salespeople aligned with the company objectives and vision? Are there clear behavior and results metrics each sales person can quickly review to know if they are on track or not? What are the feedback loops? During these times, communication must be clear and constant.

Motivation: Motivation is actually a sales management process. This is a good time to re visit your compensation plans and to see if they are clearly aligned with your growth objectives. Discuss short-term and long-term career opportunities with each team member. Don’t forget to celebrate the individual successes of your people; by doing so you not only motivate your team, you also inspire them.

Recruiting: Use this time to upgrade your salespeople. Strengthen your force by employing the people you have questioned. Get rid of the dead wood. Be ready for the upturn and be first out of the blocks.

Coaching: If coaching is not a defined process in your business, you are losing significant revenues. Effective coaching can lift someone from mediocrity to superiority, enhancing strengths and overcoming weaknesses. Implement core coaching practices such as such as pre‐ching practices such as such as pre‐call planning, call debriefing, field coaching and deal coaching. In so doing, you’ll help ensure your team is maximizing every opportunity.

How strong are your sales management process? Are they strong enough to ensure that you’re recession proof?

Danita

Hire Salespeople with a recession-busting attitude

This is an eMail that I received this morning in response to a recent article posted in my monthly eLetter. Thought it was timely for us to consider:

This morning’s E-mail delivered a sales seminar message from consultant Danita Bye which triggered a set of thoughts I thought I’d share with my friends and business network this Thanksgiving week. Ms. Bye promotes a position to which I agree, and her comments about tough times needing a sales person/staff with a different attitude, is very true.

One of the results of being an “experienced” business person and sales executive as I am is that we have the benefit of history and can remember the oil embargo of the 70’s or the 21% interest rates to get a car loan or mortgage in the President Carter years. (I turned 60 yesterday, which I guess adds to my “reflective” mode this morning.) Those events happened when many reading this note or making today’s hiring decisions were still riding their Big Wheel tricycles and hugging their Chatty Cathy dolls. That is unfortunate.

Why is it that with 91% of us current on our mortgages, and with 94% having jobs, we are even thinking recession? It makes no sense unless you factor in that doom and gloom sells newspapers, and the message of how bad “things are” and voting for “change” gets politicians elected. (To put it in perspective, after eight years in office under FDR, unemployment was at 28%, and my parents generation kept re-electing him. Go figure.)

Pounded daily by bad times stories, no wonder the tendency is to stay home and put your money under the mattress, not hire that new sales manager or postpone that capital equipment purchase. Continually bombarded by negativism and the fiction becomes real in the minds of many, with little room left for what is actually true.

So my advice, such as it is, is:

Reject gloom! Hire now, and hire a sales force that shares that positive attitude. Now is exactly the WRONG time to cut back. No, sales will not simply come. But people want to feel positive and upbeat, and a business strategy that “gets it” and spreads a positive message is one that people want to buy from.

Dump the “he’s over qualified” thoughts from your hiring decision. Jobs are too precious today to job hop. Where after all might the candidate go except perhaps to your competition. This job market will allow you to hire some real talent at bargain rates. (Yah, that includes me.)

Count your blessings this holiday season and tell those who might benefit from bad news to go pound sand. FDR was as right today as he was then when he said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So go sell something or hire somebody who can.

Happy Holidays

Rick Rappe’

Tips to Profitable Restructure Sales-Examine Mindsets

TIP 2: SALES MINDSET

The motto of one of my clients is, “Adversity nurtures creativity.” He knows that leaders set the pace and the tone of a company. You are being observed by your staff all of the time. They take their cues on how to think, feel and act from you. If you are tough-minded, confident, and recession-proof, you will draw like-minded people to you.

In addition, you need salespeople who have a recession proof mindset, who think differently that than the average salesperson. In fact, I was helping a client sift through a stack of Express Screens for a VP of Sales opening. Only 4 out of 52 Screens had a recession-proof mindset that could lead up a growth initiative during these challenging times. To meet the demands of this new economy, they need Objective Management’s 4 Crucial Elements and the 5 Major Performance Factors.

If your existing team has the 4 Crucial Elements (Desire, Commitment, Responsibility, Outlook) than you’ll need to coach your recession-busters to help them develop their “hunter” instincts, their “qualification” mindset, and their “closing” skills. Recession-busters are not afraid to ask tough business questions, talk about money, or navigate the political landscape within companies to find the true emotional decision maker. They understand that their success in intimately tied in with the success of the company.

So, does your sales team have the mindset to be a recession-buster?

Danita

Tips to Profitably Restructure Sales Team-Sales Strategies

I think we’ve all come to the realization that the economic downturn is a reality. However, with a focused sales approach, you have a unique opportunity to gain market share and remain profitable. These turbulent economic and market conditions are creating an ideal environment for business leaders committed to creating a more focused sales approach, maximizing their return investment and capturing market opportunities.

Leaders know that the key to thriving during these times is designing a disciplined sales force based on well thought out sales strategies, mindsets, and processes. When the best option to strengthening your sales team is to restructure a sales organization, you must draw on the power of personal discipline to make objective decisions.

TIP 1: SALES STRATEGIES

Be diligent in defining your sales strategies and aligning each member of the sales team to those strategies. Don’t waste time and resources guessing if you’re making the right decisions. We’ve identified 19 different aspects about sales strategies that are core as you hire, coach and direct your sales team.

An objective assessment is the most effective way to learn which sales people will generate revenue based on your strategic objectives. In these economic conditions, you can only afford to retain salespeople who will successfully sell your product or service in your target market with your pricing strategy. Evaluate each salesperson you currently employ to determine who can be successful in your selling environment, who can be trained and coached to be successful, and who will only tie up your resources without a positive return if retained. Your profile, based on these 19 variations, should overlay all hire/fire decisions.

If you need info on these 19 areas, send me a note–danita@Salesgs.com

Danita