Are you an 'Excuse-Maker' or and 'Excuse-Buster'?

Published in is.talk the is.group newsletter
Danita Bye
danita@salesgrowthspecialists.com
612-267-3320

When I talk with presidents and CEOs about why they're failing to hit 2003 revenue and margin targets, their responses typically fall into one of three categories:

"The economy is still recovering; I can't expect much from my sales people. They are doing the best they can."
"The competition is so intense and they just keep slashing prices to buy the business."
"The sales manager just isn't doing what needs to be done; he's not out traveling with the reps and closing deals."

There's a huge difference between "Excuse-Makers" and "Excuse-Busters." Between leaders who are willing to take personal responsibility for their behavior and results and those who instead blame outside factors such as the overall economy or competition or ,even worse, who point the finger at others in their own organization.

Excuse-makers stifle creativity and personal and organizational growth; excuse-users promote it. Says John Miller, author of QBQ! The Question Behind the Question, "No organization or individual can achieve its goals, compete in the marketplace, fulfill its vision, or develop people and teams without personal accountability." There are three simple steps to start putting in place an excuse-buster culture in your own company:

Start Recognizing excuses.

Stop accepting excuses

Start asking excuse-busting questions.

As president of his company, John was appalled to discover that his entire team used the competition-too-tough excuse for any negative results. He began the process of stopping excuses by documenting some of the questions he heard at the next sales meeting:

Why do our customers expect so much?
When are we going to become more competitive?
When will the market turn around?
When is someone going to train me?
When is someone going to put together a decent marketing program?

David Kurlan, a management consultant with Rhode Island-based Objective Management Group, says, "Effective immediately, you must stop accepting excuse-making of any kind, from any one, at any time, or for any reason—even if there is a shred of validity to the excuses offered!"

Following Kurlan's hard but sound advice, John started asking him managers, "If you couldn't use the tough-competition excuse, what could you have done differently to get the business?"

Posing this question empowered his people and forced them to work harder and smarter. John was able to wean his people away from the competition-too-tough excuse by letting them know that it no longer worked.

Determined to create an environment of personal responsibility, John displayed a colorful banner in his office entitled, "How to ask excuse-busting questions." Here's what the banner suggested:

Include an "I."
Start with "What" or "How."
Include the word "might."
Focus on action.

With these guidelines in place, John started to hear questions, such as:

What might I do to help set proper customer expectations?
What might I do to differentiate our company?
What might I do to jump-start the market?
What training do I need to move my skills to the next level?

Is an excuse-making culture stopping you from hitting your 2003 objectives? Learn to recognize excuses, refuse to accept them and challenge your people with excuse-busting questions to unleash the full creative power of your organization.

About the author: Danita Bye is facilitator of the is.Pro sales training program and co-author of is.Sales Coach sales management. For mire information, contact Danita by e-mail at dbye10@mchsi.com.