Archive for January, 2013
Eight Reasons Great Leaders Let People Fail
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES LEADERSHIP on January 28, 2013
Sales leaders, how comfortable are you letting failure happen? Are you OK letting your sales manager make a mistake? Are you OK letting the sales rep lose a deal? What do you do when you see a flaw in the strategy of your sales V.P.? Do you let them execute the plan?
What should you do when you see failure on the horizon? — Let it happen!
Letting failure happen is one of the most difficult challenges of sales leaders and other leaders alike. No one likes failure, especially when we see it coming. The best leaders know this however and let it happen anyway.
Why let failure happen?
Failure is the only way to learn:
Failure is the only way we learn. As leaders we need and want people to learn and grow. Failure is a part of the learning process. If people aren’t allowed to fail, they won’t learn and without learning, they won’t grow.
It creates ownership:
When we don’t let others fail, we strip them of ownership. When we don’t let people fail, we in essence make the decision for them. We don’t let them make the final call. When people don’t get to make the call, they don’t feel attached to the end result; good or bad. Ownership is important to creating accountability. We want our people to feel ownership for their decisions and the consequences; good or bad.
People need to make their own decisions:
At the end of the day, people have to make their own decisions. They have to be empowered to make the decisions they think will work best. Preventing people from failing takes away their ability to make decisions. We have to let people chose for themselves.
It creates accountability
When people make their own decisions, it creates accountability. We can’t hold people accountable for outcomes when they aren’t given the latitude to choose for themselves. When we don’t let people fail, it’s because we chose for them. We disagreed with an approach, we saw a flaw in the thinking, and we did the work for them. When we step into avoid failure we are taking over the decision making process. Taking over the decision means it’s no longer their decision and we can’t hold them accountable for the end results. People have to be allowed to make their own decision if we want them to experience the consequences — good or bad.
It’s empowering:
When we let people fail, we are empowering them. We are telling them, “We trust you.” People need to know they are trusted for their expertise. People need to feel valued for what they know and for what they do. When we don’t let failure happen, we strip people of a sense of competence. We send the message that says; I don’t trust your judgment and therefore I’m going to do this for you. Do this too many times and your will create stunted robots, as no one will make any decisions. They will just wait for you.
You could be wrong:
Has it ever entered your mind, you could be wrong? What happens if you are wrong? What if your idea wasn’t the right one and failure happens? What if they WERE right? Now what? Just because we think we know the answer, doesn’t mean we are right. We can be wrong too.
It creates diversity, creativity and innovation:
By letting people fail, we are giving permission for people to think for themselves. When an entire organization is allowed to think for themselves it creates a wide swath of ideas and approaches for creating opportunity and to solving problems. If there is one single greatest benefit to letting people fail, this is it. When we don’t let people fail, we stunt creativity. Idea’s are put through the leadership filter and stripped of creativity. When ideas or approaches have to be run by management rather than implemented they lose their ability to be proven out. Letting failure happens means, letting ideas go out without the constricting filter of you. Leadership can’t think of all the good ideas, nor can they determine what the good ideas are. Let people fail, you’ll learn more than by trying to keep them from failing.
It’s why you pay them:
At the end of the day we hire people to do their job. If you don’t trust them to make good decisions, don’t hire them. If you do trust them, then let them fail. They will only fail once. They will learn a lot. They’ll feel as if they have ownership and that they are empowered. The will grow and get better. Letting people fail is an investment.
Let people fail. You’ll have a much more creative environment and a lot more time on your hands to SUPPORT all this new found creativity — and that’s exactly what you should be doing.
Let failure happen. You’ll be happy you did.
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Eight Qualities Which Lift Sales Leaders Above Managers
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES LEADERSHIP on January 19, 2013
What’s the difference between a sales manager and a sales leader? How can you become more effective on the job and dramatically increase your influence with your customers and your company?
Here’s the CODE leaders live by:
- Company orientation. They’re interested in the future of the company and are concerning about every department, not just Sales. They’re always ready to suggest ways to help work flow more smoothly, save time or cut costs. They embrace responsibility, recognizing that salespeople who try to put the blame on others don’t inspire others to follow them.
- Organization. They never approach the day in a state of panic and are in full control most of the time. They put the needs of others ahead of their own to achieve goals. They are goal-centered rather than ego-centered, when dealing with customers, their sales manager or other employees.
- Detail focused. They take the time to listen about customer concerns and question any areas of confusion. They listen carefully before setting goals and moving ahead. They get others to cooperate by selling their vision on what must be done and are able to get customers and other employees to accept their roles.
- Energy. They’re willing to work longer than required, getting a lot done in a day’s time and enjoying it.
Traits of a leader
Of all the characteristics of a sales leader, four are particularly important. Test yourself to see how you measure up.
Do you:
Relate to the larger picture? Sales leaders understand how their jobs go beyond selling. They act as a treasure-trove of information for their customers, keeping them abreast of competition and paying close attention to the markets in which they and their customers are competing. They’re seldom surprised when price cutters suddenly threaten their accounts.
Have a vision? Sales leaders have visions that are easily understood by customers and are attainable if everyone works together.
Prepare yourself to make fast changes? Good leaders are prepared to change direction whenever new information warrants making a shift.
Think long-term? A sales leader’s focus extends far into the future. How long? At least a decade, often longer. Whenever you evaluate your future, ask yourself, “What demands are likely to develop over the next two to 10 years? How can I help my customers and my company meet them?
Four critical steps
These steps will help you improve your sales leadership skills:
- Connect with people and stay connected. That means being open to ideas from customers, prospects and your own management. It takes more than simply listening and asking a few questions. It requires building a feel of trust and letting customers know what’s happening. Talking to them is important, but listening to them is critical.
- Expand your boundaries. Don’t restrict yourself to your job as a salesperson. Converting features into benefits and practicing value-added selling is only part of your job. Ask questions to help you investigate the possibilities for doing your job more effectively. The answers you get may help you become bolder in your pursuit of efficiency and productivity.
- Show respect for established practices. This is a good way to win respect from both your customers and your management. Respecting “the way things are done around here” may also help you suggest changes when they’re needed.
- Be willing to take risks. All of the techniques outlined above involve some element of risk. You’re going to be wrong sometimes. But you’ve got to do it. A willingness to take some risks separates the sales leaders from average salespeople.
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Ten Reasons Why Salespeople Fail
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on January 13, 2013
I have yet to meet a sales professional who doesn’t want to succeed, who doesn’t want to exceed quota and make more money. But the reality is salespeople still fail. Sometimes it’s a temporary slump, sometimes (unfortunately) it’s a career-long trend. In the work we’ve done with sales organizations, managers and individual reps, these are the 10 most common reasons why salespeople fail.
1. No experience
Honestly, this is a bit of a false crutch & excuse. If you have the right drive and make-up, you can succeed with zero previous sales experience. I’ve seen it happen countless times. Of course, a raw, inexperienced new sales professional can’t succeed without the proper support, training and management to help them accelerate through the learning curve.
2. No plan
If you come to work every morning waiting for the good leads, you’re going to fail. If you’re waiting for the phone to ring, reacting to what comes into your email inbox, that’s not exactly a recipe for success. And yet, many salespeople work without a plan – reactively and opportunistically going through the month or quarter without a strategy. Just because you have a plan, doesn’t mean you’ll always follow it. But if you don’t have a roadmap, how do you expect to get where you want to go?
3. No discipline
Sales can be incredibly difficult. Oftentimes, it’s not even fun. The daily grind, the never-ending activities required to get through the “no” answers and find the ready-to-buy prospects, that not only takes a ton of work but requires daily discipline to stay focused and actively on the path to success. Look at the most successful reps and you’ll find men and women who get up early, power through their calls, and do what it takes – every day – to make their number.
4. No training
This is more than just product training, which is critical. Every rep should know the details of their product or service, but that’s table stakes. They also need to understand the market into which they’re selling, as well as who their target prospect is – what they care about, what their problems are, and what they’re trying to achieve independent of your product or service. And this training needs to happen far more often than the annual sales kick-off meeting too. For world-class sales organizations, training and reinforcement is a regular, ongoing habit.
5. No support
To be successful, sales professionals need tools to help them work smarter. They need sales support and operations resources to provide the infrastructure, tools, processes and other execution best practices so they can spend more of their time in front of customers. And they need a proactively supportive management team, including managers who know that coaching requires more than just reinforcing process, but also proactively helping reps solve unique sales problems.
6. No leads
This is another place where many sales professionals find a perfect excuse for why they’re not hitting the number. In some sales organizations, reps are given leads for follow-up. Some leads are qualified, some are not. But even when reps aren’t handed leads, they’re responsible for finding their own. Yes, this can be a pain-staking, inefficient process. Yes, this can directly impact an individual reps ability to close more business. But you have two choices when face with no leads – get some yourself, or go somewhere else.
7. No motivation
Motivation can come in a variety of formats, of course. It can be material, such as a new boat or stereo system or exotic vacation. It can be fundamental, like putting your kids through school. But whatever it is, motivation to succeed drives performance and ensures consistent execution for reps who don’t let failure take hold.
8. No adaptability
The way you were taught to sell 20 years ago might not be as effective today. The tools you used, the approach that once worked, might fall flat today. If you aren’t able to adapt to the changing market, the changing customer – you’re likely to see declining results. Successful sales professionals constantly adapt their strategy and execution to what’s changing and working around them.
9. No customer insight
Gone are the days of one-sided selling (if they ever existed in the first place). Gone too are the days when the prospect allowed you to ask them questions to which they already knew the answer. Reps today fail in part because they don’t take the time to understand their customer before making an approach. This is far more than just having a solid introduction or insights to break the ice. This is about getting to the root needs your customers has, and differentiating yourself as someone who isn’t there just to sell, but to teach and enable the outcomes the prospect needs and/or has envisioned in the first place.
10. No focus
There are so many things that can distract you during the day. Things that feel important, maybe even feel urgent, but are neither. It’s incredibly difficult to stay focused on what’s important, what will truly push your results forward. But that’s why so many reps fail, and so few consistently hit their number.
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This article was originally posted to Heinz Marketing on January 8, 2013
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The Ten Best Sales One-Liners of All Time
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on January 5, 2013
Great sales managers are great coaches. More often than not, they’ve worked deals “from soup to nuts,” and have “carried a bag” as individual contributors to sales teams early in their careers. Now it’s their job to motivate and develop inside and outside account executives to achieve goals and advance their careers.
To successfully motivate their teams, managers should first make themselves equal, rather than different. This often requires managers to “talk the talk” and make their points fast while educating teams.
What follows are ten of the best sales one-liners, Ever! Call them clichés, truisms, or idioms, whatever. Executives, sales managers, customers, industry pundits, and other sales reps use them all the time. This is only volume 1, and there are a whole lot more where these came from. Enjoy this first installment, and share with us in the comments which one-liners you use and hear most, as well as which ones you’d add to the list.
Ten of the Best Sales One-Liners. EVER!
- Just tell them what time it is; they don’t care how you built the watch.
- There’s no need to engineer the Starship Enterprise when all they need is budgetary pricing.
- If you can’t thoroughly demo your product, you’ll die on the vine.
- You prospect’s got a finely-tuned BS meter.
- You can’t expect to take a fishing boat out and just watch the fish jump into the boat.
- You won’t get by on just personality and good intentions.
- It’s better to lose in the 1st round than in the 15th.
- If you’re going to lose, don’t lose alone.
- If all you’ve got is a hammer in your hand, then everything will look like a nail.
- From a strategic perspective, this deal’s carved in butter.
Learn them. Know them. Live them
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