SOCOM Sales Tips » Leadership

Determined to Succeed but Still Failing: Why?

SOCOM Sales — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:22:00 +0000

You’ve probably heard the story of the golfer who steps up to the tee box and hits a wicked duck hook out of bounds.

Embarrassed, he reaches in his pocket, tees up another ball and again, hits another horrific twisting shot left out of bounds. Now angry and determined, he walks back to his bag, gets another ball, tees it up again, and duplicates his first two shots out of bounds to the left. In a fit of frustration, he slams his club into his bag, aggressively flings his club over his shoulders, mumbles some choice expletives to himself as he’s chipping his teeth, and heads up the fairway uncertain as to where he’s going to drop a ball to make his next shot.

I use this as an analogy often in my talks with groups when discussing business professionals who are determined to be successful yet continue to fail. People like:

The determined sales executive who is working extremely hard and is not bringing in the sales and makes the decision to work even harder.

The determined manager who has a tight grip on her team but cannot get them to take their game to the next level, so she implements even more controls.
The determined leader whose company is not reaching their numbers and meets endlessly with his team to discuss solutions, but he keeps asking the same questions over and over again to the same people, never getting any outside opinions.

So, in these examples, what’s missing? You certainly can’t fault their determination, can you? These people possess many characteristics of a determined individual. Their persistence, assertiveness, and even aggressiveness are to be admired, right?

Well, yes and no.

You must be determined to rise to the challenge when faced with adversity, challenges, even hardship. However, determination alone doesn’t solve problems.

In my daily work with others, I encounter many different executives in sales, operations, management, and leadership roles who are very determined people. They are successful on many levels, yet many are also struggling to breakthrough to new levels and have hit a wall in terms of how to get there. Usually it is because the very thing that got them this far, their determination, is missing a key ingredient: the willingness to make intelligent changes along the way.

People who make personal and business related breakthroughs of any significance are first and foremost determined individuals. However, inside their determination is the ability to learn from their actions and constantly change those actions until they reach their desired goal. Trial and error causes them to rethink and retool their strategies. Their determination is fueled by their willingness to make intelligent changes and adjustments along the way.

Top 5 Things You Must Do Today For Breakthrough Achievements Tomorrow and Beyond

1. Write down the goals you want to achieve and list the obstacles or roadblocks that keep you from reaching them. Be thorough.

2. Brainstorm three new ways to get around the roadblocks. Make sure they’re things you’ve never tried before. Run your ideas by someone you have confidence in and see if they can add to or give you any new ideas. Better yet, meet with someone who has achieved the goal you are after. Be open-minded.

3. Turn the three best ideas into actual strategies and prioritize them with the most important coming first. Be bold and take some risks outside of your comfort zone.

4. Put tactics behind those three strategies. Be detailed on the little tasks you have to complete to implement your strategies.

5. Start with your best strategy and implement with pure determination. If that doesn’t work, move on to the second one, and so on. If you’ve exhausted the three best ideas and still have not achieved your goal, make a list of three more ideas and repeat the process. Make intelligent changes.

Successful people have a “crack the code” mentality.

Successful business leader, executives, employees and people in general are forever making changes to their problem solving approaches until their problems are solved. Then, they move on to a new one. Like the golfer used in the example, if your duck hooking the ball off the tee—change your grip, your stance, your back swing, something. Don’t do the same thing harder and expect different results. Fuel your determination with intelligent changes along the way.

By Chuck Mache
Chuck Mache has 25-plus years of experience in selling, managing, building and leading sales organizations regionally and internationally. Get his book, The Four Kinds of Sales People: Your Personal Path to Breakthrough Achievement, at www.chuckmache.com.

Avoid Getting Your E-mails Deleted

SOCOM Sales — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:46:00 +0000

Avoid Getting Your E-mails Deleted

From the E-Business Newsletter
It’s easy to fall into bad e-mailing habits because the whole format can begin to feel casual. By now everyone knows to avoid writing in all caps and using emoticons, but people often make the mistake of shooting off overly chummy professional e-mails and forming a devil-may-care disregard for grammar and punctuation. Simple rule of thumb: treat e-mail the same way you’d treat phoning someone. Get to the point, but be polite about it. Here is a look at some of the subtler nuances of the written word to help get your message across with style and grace:

1) Do An Introduction
Launching right into your request is the same as bursting into someone’s office and making demands. “Please send me this report” is a cold opener, and it may lead someone to brush it off until they’re good and ready to help. “Good morning, I hope you had a nice weekend” will ease your reader into a much more cooperative state.

2) Conduct a Read-Through
The software world has yet to invent a “Does This Sound Curt and Snippy?” check. This means your spelling and grammar may be perfect, but your tone may not be. An easy fix is to pretend you’re the receiver and read through the e-mail before sending it. You’ll notice if a phrase rubs you the wrong way or seems surly.

3) Make the Subject Line Short and Snappy
Thinking up a subject line that will pull the receiver in and still fit in a small space is tough work. Don’t make your subject line too vague or your reader may think its spam. Squeeze in too much information, and it will just confuse. Think of it as more of a reminder line, and write something that will help your reader easily pick it out of their inbox.

4) Avoid Long URLS
Ever get an e-mail that has a link to a Web site that goes on for 30 characters and gives no clue where it will take you? Be a better Web guide in your own e-mails by snipping a long URL down to a bite-sized one. Check out SnipURL.com, a free site where you paste in a long URL, give it a nickname, and click a button to generate a short, clear link. Your reader will appreciate it—and maybe even click through.

No Motivation? It’s Costing Your Company

SOCOM Sales — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:11:00 +0000

Motivation is not enough. If you motivate an idiot, all you have is a motivated idiot.

Education alone is not enough either. Many “educated” individuals achieve very little on or off the job. They know what to do, and they know how to do it. The problem is they’re not motivated enough to do much about it.

The Gallup organization once analyzed its massive database and determined that about half (55 percent) of today’s employees have no enthusiasm for their work. Gallup labeled these people as “not engaged.” In other words, they didn’t have much loyalty to their organization or much desire to improve their job performance. It found that one in five (19 percent) were so negative about their jobs that they actually poisoned the workplace. In fact, when those employees called in sick, their organizations were more productive and efficient.

You may think, “Big deal. So what if some of our employees are not fully motivated?” But it is a big deal. Their lack of motivation is costing your organization big bucks.

Gallup estimated that if companies could get 3.7 percent more work out of each employee, the equivalent of 18 more minutes of work each eight-hour shift, the gross domestic product in the United States would swell by $355 billion, twice the GDP of Greece.

In today’s competitive world, the really successful person is not only educated, but also motivated.

If you’re educating or training your employees, but you’re not motivating them to use what they learn, you’re wasting your time and your money.

The famous author, William Butler Yeats, said it quite well: “Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire.” A more contemporary figure, Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, says, “In the 21st century, organizations have to achieve peak performance through inspiration by unleashing the power of their people—not by teaching them, not by managing them, but by inspiring them.”

If you educate and motivate your staff, you’ll see an increase in productivity, efficiency, effectiveness and ultimately an increase in profits.

The Mercedes Benz plant in South Africa learned that. For a long time, the managers said their quality problems were due to an unmotivated, lazy workforce. That’s why it took them two weeks to make a car that had 70 defects. By contrast, the Mercedes Benz plant in Europe could turn out a car in one week that had only 14 defects.

Then, a fortunate accident occurred. After a year of suffering with productivity and quality problems, it just so happened that a car was being made for liberator and president Nelson Mandela. No particular mention or fanfare was made. The vehicle simply went through the assembly line with a tag on it that read, “For Mr. Mandela.”

To the managers’ amazement, the car was completed in one week and had only 10 minor problems. A light bulb went off in the managers’ heads. Their workers were capable. They were educated enough to do the job and do it well. They had simply not been motivated enough to give their very best. It was at that point that the Mercedes leadership learned that they had to engage their workers’ hearts, not just their hands.

Are you doing that in your organization? You’re buying your employees’ time. Are you also getting their hearts and minds?

Education plus motivation will not only help your organization make more money, but it will also save you a lot of money.

When I was speaking at a construction company, the CEO asked his employees a question. He asked, “What does it cost to put a piece of plywood on the floor? How much does it cost in terms of time and money?” The employees answered, “About ten minutes and twenty dollars.”

The CEO replied, “Yes and no.” He said that’s what it would have cost if the job had been done right. Unfortunately, an employee slapped down the plywood poorly and didn’t cover a hole properly. The ensuing lawsuit cost the company $450,000. The employee was educated. He knew what to do, but he wasn’t motivated enough to do it right.

Here are my top 3 tips to motivating and engaging your staff’s hearts:

1. Take a look at the training you’re offering employees. Is it really motivating them? As a speaker, I find that many people in my audiences are quite well educated. They’re filled with knowledge. However, sometimes they don’t have enough motivation to use all the knowledge they possess.

2. Listen to what your colleagues are saying when they hear about an upcoming seminar. Do you hear groans and complaints about having to go? Or do you hear comments of excitement, as people can’t wait for it to begin? What you hear will tell you how successful your past classes have been in motivating people.

3. If you’re not hearing almost unanimous excitement, re-examine the education you’re offering and re-examine those who are leading it. One bad class or one poor instructor can leave a negative legacy for a long time to come.

So you see…education without motivation serves no useful purpose.

By Alan Zimmerman

Best-selling author and Hall of Fame professional speaker, Dr. Alan Zimmerman has taught more than 1 million people in 48 states and 22 countries how to get and stay motivated all the time. For more information, visit, www.journeytotheextraordinary.com/.

Be CRM Savvy

SOCOM Sales — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:05:00 +0000

Missing the target with your customer relationship management strategy? Follow these five steps to success

By Julia Chang

In his work in CRM consulting, Yacov Wrocherinsky has seen some disasters. One of the most recent was a large manufacturing company that spent millions on a high-end CRM system, only to realize two years later that it wasn’t providing accurate forecasts. “In the old days, people used to select a system based on a decision by the higher-ups, invest millions, and if the project didn’t meet expectations, they would write it off,” says Wrocherinsky, founder and CEO of Infinity Info Systems, a New York–based sales technology consulting firm. “Today, expectations are different.”

That’s because companies now are much smarter about CRM. They want faster implementation that produces value more quickly. And vendors have done a good job of mastering the basic features and making their offerings available at price points for companies of all sizes. But that doesn’t make the process of implementing a CRM strategy any easier—especially since CRM is now expected to be part of broader business strategy.

One thing’s for sure: CRM is at the top of managers’ minds. In a survey of S&MM readers conducted by consulting firm The Alexander Group, 35 percent of sales leaders say they will work to improve CRM in 2007, making it the third most important operational priority for the new year. Not sure if you’re going about it the right way? Follow these five steps to make your CRM strategy stays on point:

1. Set Clear Business Goals
By far, the biggest mistake companies make when it comes to CRM implementation is “not thinking through what customer-facing business outcomes they want to achieve,” says William Band, principal analyst for IT research firm Forrester Research, based in Cambridge, Mass. “You don’t want to start using the technology without thinking about if you want to improve your cross-sell, up-sell, or call-center [capabilities]. You have to think through what business metrics you are trying to improve.” Otherwise, how else will you measure success?

When Toshiba America Medical Systems (TAMS), a diagnostic imaging company based in Tustin, Calif., began a new CRM strategy, it first identified its business need: How to overcome flat growth. In the late 1990s, TAMS was losing customers as fast as it was gaining them, while the industry as a whole was growing about 10 percent.

After extensive customer surveys, TAMS realized the problem lay in its support and service. “We just didn’t have a good understanding of what customers really valued and what they wanted us to do,” says Cathy Wolfe, director of marketing services.

In order to improve service, the CRM system had to let reps know when a service problem was rearing so they could nip it in the bud. Now, TAMS surveys customers at the start and midway through their relationship with the company. The results are fed into a database managed by its Cognos CRM system, which uses the data to send e-mail alerts through Lotus Notes to managers when a customer is showing signs of dissatisfaction. “It’s an early warning indicator,” Wolfe says. “If you don’t know about it, then you don’t have the chance to address it. [Otherwise] you could have a customer mad for a period of time, bad-mouthing you, and you’d never know it.”

The result of the CRM implementation? Since 2001, the company has enjoyed about a 25 percent year-over-year growth rate and has seen its name rise to the top in several independent customer-service rankings.

2. Assemble a Crack Team
If it involves the customer, it doesn’t involve just sales—marketing, customer service, the call center, accounting and even back-office operations merit consideration when forming CRM strategy. Although the stakeholders can vary by company, most experts suggest representatives for Team CRM come from the following: sales, to provide end-user input; marketing; IT; an executive who can translate the CRM to bigger business strategy; accounting or finance; and dedicated administrative or sales support, if any.

It also helps, Wrocherinsky says, if the group includes a champion who has the respect of his peers and can spread the CRM gospel. It can be someone who is tech-savvy, but it can also be a “difficult or skeptical candidate,” he says, “who once you convert, helps other people see the light.”

Picking the right people as part of the team is essential, since these folks will be responsible for making sure budget, timing, and cost expectations are realistic, and will spend the most time with the vendors in the setup process. And make sure someone on the team has some decision-making authority, or the project could get stonewalled or mired in bureaucracy.

3. Do an IT Audit
For Bob Ritter, there’s one simple rule to the tech side of implementing CRM software: Meet or exceed the requirements. The CRM vendor will tell you what the parameters are for the operating system, network, hardware, software, infrastructure, etc., but there are other hidden IT roadblocks. “Maybe someone hasn’t rebooted their workstation in six weeks and their resources are a mess, or the drive is up to the gills with garbage from the Internet,” says Bob Ritter, president of 1stdirect.com, a CRM reseller and consulting firm in East Fishkill, N.Y. “When you’re putting a mission-critical application out to everybody, you have to make sure the foundation of the infrastructure it is running on is healthy.”

When it comes to choosing the actual software, there’s always a basic checklist to mind, before you even get to customization. Is the software easy to use? Will it link to mission-critical applications, such as e-mail, back-office functions or accounting software? (This is especially important to consider with hosted CRM.) Is it scalable? Make sure your cost analysis includes such areas as licensing, maintenance, configuration, training and data migration, Ritter says. And it doesn’t hurt to do a little detective work on your vendor’s business model, because you want to make sure it’ll be around for the long haul.

When it comes to security, the biggest concern used to be whether hosted software was vulnerable to hackers. Since that fear has largely been assuaged, the security concern these days is securing data on the road, says Richard Smith, vice president of CRM strategy for Green Beacon Solutions, a CRM consulting firm for mid-market companies based in Watertown, Mass. Part of CRM’s value is the convenience it provides when integrated into mobile devices. But laptops and BlackBerrys get stolen and lost, so the cost of securing data on the road should figure into your tech investment.

4. Fine-Tune the Features
Determining exactly what features should figure into your software will probably be the hardest and longest part of implementation, but one of the good things about this step is that it forces a compan
y to face how it does business and uncovers needed changes. “It’s an excellent time to revisit the business process,” Ritter says. “Are there ways to break up your data more efficiently? Are territories properly balanced? What communications do you want to merge or manage? Are you trying to fulfill a virtual request more efficiently?”

Running a pilot project helps avoid future pitfalls. When Johnson Controls, an environmental controls company based in Milwaukee, acquired HVAC supplier York International in 2005, one of its first priorities was integrating the new company into its Saratoga CRM system, which is used by about 2,200 employees. York’s service organization was integrated relatively easily; it was mostly a matter of eliminating duplicate accounts, merging databases and training the York service folks.

But York’s systems installation unit was another story. “Their business was different enough from our installation business that we didn’t believe the same CRM screens and business flow could work for them,” says Bill Hable, director of market planning, research and systems for Johnson Controls. “They are different in how they go to market, who their primary contact is, and they go through different routes [to prospect].” A CRM pilot ran in the spring in three district offices so they could tweak the views and fields that this particular unit needed. The new system is set to roll out the first six months of this year. “I didn’t want to hear first impressions,” Hable says. “They used it for three or four months so we could get a good idea about how they do business and what had to be changed.”

Large companies often require a lot of CRM customization, but even small firms should tweak solutions to their needs. Donna Keller, senior vice president for Financial Advisory Consultants, based in Naples, Fla., worked with 1stdirect.com to install GoldMine CRM software. Keller says she tried out about six versions before finalizing the solution that her company will roll out early this year. Keller’s firm has about 10 employees, but nonetheless needed a more uniform process to qualify prospects, move them through the sales cycle, and communicate with them the way they preferred. “Our [old CRM system] did it in a more manual way, but I was looking for something more automated so each client got the exact same experience,” Keller says. “There are a lot of moving parts that go into the process, and we needed to be able to handle all the intricacies.”

5. Encourage—or Enforce—Usage
Now that you’ve laid out your business goals, picked internal champions and designed the software of your dreams, here comes the hard part: Getting your staffers to use the system. Managers can take a carrot or a stick approach, Smith says, but the key is “reinforcing that there is one version of the truth: The report that gets driven out of CRM. If managers start letting the best sales reps submit numbers in Excel, it breaks the model.”

The carrot approach is to show salespeople the value of using a system, and your CRM evangelists are essential to this. Sometimes this takes more patient training or one-on-one coaching to prove the system’s benefits to your reps. But don’t be afraid to enforce a hard deadline by which data must be in, call out folks who aren’t following the rules and recognize big wins that get plugged into the system. “People don’t want to be shamed, and if they know they’ve closed a big deal and the forecast always goes out noon on Friday” they’ll be more inclined to become CRM converts, Smith says.

And then there’s always the biggest stick: No CRM use, no commission. “Everybody suddenly gets clear on things when there is only one way to get data into the accounting system,” Hable says. “I’ve seen guys who hate computers, but if [using CRM software] is how they get their commission check, they are experts in two weeks.”

Sidebar: What Customers Want

According to the Forrester Research survey “How to Select a CRM Software Vendor” of 19 large North American and European organizations, the following CRM software criteria are considered the most important:

1. Companies expect CRM software to make its users more productive. High usability encourages adoption.

2. Analytics tools are needed to better understand customer behavior and inform decisions based on customer data.

3. The ability to support a centralized customer master data management system is critical to getting a 360-degree view of the customer.

4. Many companies reported they had started working to improve their contact center, but then moved on to focus on sales and marketing. They have stated that “CRM is never done,” and work continuously on ways to improve customer interactions.

5. Companies wanted software with applications that encourage strong and flexible workflow capabilities.

6. Technologies that can be easily adapted and customized to the business environment achieve results more quickly.

7. Any software must accommodate large numbers of users and support global business.

8. Vendors without industry-relevant capabilities likely won’t make it to many companies’ shortlists for consideration.

Work To The Best Of Your Ability

SOCOM Sales — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:31:32 +0000

Whatever you do in this life, do it to the best of your ability. Whether you are in school, running for president, playing a game, or working on something, do it in a quality way. Don’t be someone who just does something to get by, or is waiting to clock out. Be at the top of your game, because even if nobody knows, you will know, and the universe will know, and usually someone higher up in your organization is noticing.

Photo credit: Vedia

If something is challenging for you and you still do it well, the universe will promote you according to your ability. Time and time again, if you are pressing your boundaries and excelling at what you are doing, the universe is going to arrange a super opportunity to be presented to you. Whether you hold onto it, or let it slip through your fingers, is all up to you. If you are a mediocre worker, it is almost certain that you will not be able to perform to the level that is needed; but if all along you have been working to the best of your ability, and pushing your limits, you will quickly acclimate and excel at your new position.

Don’t take a promotion or opportunity for granted. Be like Michael Jordan, who was at the top of his game in basketball, even though he held numerous NBA titles, and MVP status, he was the ball player that spent the longest time on the court practicing his free throws and his lay-ups. He was the first on the court for practice and the last to leave. He has played at the best of his game for a very long time, and yet he didn’t take any of it for granted. He never tired of trying to excel, to challenge himself and his team members. He was always practicing his maneuvers, his passes and his ball handling, and even though he is the best, he is man without arrogance, and maintains himself as a gentleman.

Do not be like Bill Clinton, who became the president of the United States and then had an affair with an intern and afterwards said of it, “I did it because I could.” Every man can cheat on his wife, and every man can be in a position of power and abuse that power. But this is not working to the best of his ability. Bill Clinton is a mediocre person, because since he could abuse his position of power, he did.

Certainly you are learning what is right and wrong. You know that many people who are mediocre can become people of power and prestige, but just because they are there does not mean that they worked to the best of their ability to get there. Work where you are to your highest level of integrity and your talent, because God and the universe see you. When you are working to the highest level for which you are capable, you are like a shining bright star in this dark world. You become a clear example, a delight and inspiration to those that are around you, to your children and your friends, and even globally. You don’t know what door is being opened for you because of your work, your attention, the dedication of your time and energy.

Even if no one notices how you work, or your level of focus, at the end of the day you will know. You can sleep easily knowing that you did it well. If this is the last day on this planet for you or me, we will be satisfied, and we will hear these words from God: “This is my daughter, or my son in whom I am well pleased. Come on home for your party.”

Every one of us gets lazy sometimes and just wants to take it easy for a while, but consistently we have to strive to work to our utmost talent, energy and dedication. If you are working to the best of your ability, don’t belittle what you are doing, don’t pressure yourself to be perfect. Recognize that you are doing your very best. Remember you still have to live this life with balance. Your family, your relationships, your work, your school, and special events all need balance. You need to maintain your balance too. Deep within you will know if you are working to the best of your ability or not. You will know if you need to make adjustments in your attitude, your work ethics, your behavior, etc. If you are working to the highest level of your ability, then let the negative thoughts go. If you did the best you could for someone or something, and it doesn’t work out, don’t put all the burden on yourself. H/she has responsible for his/her life just as you have for yours. Just remind yourself, “I did the best that I could,” and then move on. Be yourself, and be incredibly kind to yourself and others.

This article is brought to you by-www.thecircleofpeace.com

After Action Reviews

SOCOM Sales — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:39:12 +0000

I grabbed some information on a fundamental event for success. It surprised me that Wikipedia actually makes the correlation between the military and business use of this process. I have yet to work for a company that puts these into place on any regular basis. As a sales professional you should put this to use after deals won and deals lost. Learning from your mistakes as well as your successes will make your sales more effective.

An After Action Review (AAR) is an assessment conducted after a project or major activity that allows employees and leaders to discover (learn) what happened and why. It may be thought of as a professional discussion of an event that enable employees to understand why things happened during the progression of the process and to learn from that experience. Examples of when to use it are: introduction of a new product line in a production facility, after a busy holiday season in a retail store, introduction of a new computer system upgrade, after a major training activity, a change in procedures, etc.

Also, the AAR does not have to be performed at the end of a project or activity. Rather, it can be performed after each identifiable event within a project or major activity, thus becoming a live learning process (the learning organization).

“The Army’s After Action Review (AAR) is arguably one of the most successful organizational learning methods yet devised. Yet, most every corporate effort to graft this truly innovative practices into their culture has failed because, again and again, people reduce the living practice of AAR’s to a sterile technique.” — Peter Senge

The AAR is a professional discussion that includes the participants and focuses directly on the tasks and goals. It is not a critique. In fact, it has several advantages over a critique:

It does not judge success or failure.
It attempts to discover why things happened.
It focuses directly on the tasks and goals that were to be accomplished.
It encourages employees to surface important lessons in the discussion.
More employees participate so that more of the project or activity can be recalled and more lessons can be learned and shared.

As a leader, you are responsible for training your workforce. The AAR is a tool that can assist you with developing your employees. It does this by providing feedback. Normally, feedback should be direct and on-the-spot. Each time an incorrect performance is observed, it should be immediately corrected so that it will not interfere with future tasks. During major projects or activities, it is not always easy to notice incorrect performances. Indeed, in many cases, the correct performances will be unknown for these projects or activities as they are learning activities for all the participants. That is why the AAR should be planned at the end of each activity or event…so that feedback can be provided, lessons can be learned, and ideas and suggestions can be generated so that the next project or activity will be an improved one.An AAR is both an art and science. The art of an AAR is in the obtainment of mutual trust so that people will speak freely. Innovative behavior should be the norm. Problem solving should be pragmatic and employees should NOT be preoccupied with status, territory, or second guessing “what the leader will think.” There is a fine line between keeping the meeting from falling into chaos where nothing real gets accomplished, to people treating each other in a formal and polite manner that masks issues (especially with the boss) where again, nothing real gets accomplished.

Steps for Conducting the AAR

An AAR may be formal or informal. Both follow the same format and involve the exchange of observations and ideas. However, formal ones are normally more structured and require planning. While informal ones are conducted anywhere, anytime in order to provide quick learning lessons.

Gather all the players.
Introduction and rules.
Review events leading to the activity (what was supposed to happen).
Give a brief statement of the specific activity.
Summarize the key events. Encourage participation.
Have junior leaders restate portions of their part of the activity.
Do not turn it into a critique or lecture. The following will help:
- Ask why certain actions were taken.
- Ask how they reacted to certain situations.
- Ask when actions were initiated.
- Ask leading and thought provoking questions.
- Exchange “war stories” (lessons learned).
- Ask employees what happened in their own point of view.
- Relate events to subsequent results.
- Explore alternative courses of actions that might have been more effective.
- Complaints are handled positively.
- When the discussion turns to errors made, emphasize the positive and point out the difficulties of making tough decisions.
- Summarize.
- Allow junior leaders to discuss the events with their people in private.
- Follow-up on needed actions.

If you become an AAR facilitator, which every leader needs to do:

Remain unbiased throughout the review.
Try to speak to draw out comments from all.
Do NOT allow personal attacks.
The focus should be on learning and continuous improvement.
Strive to allow others to offer solutions, rather than you offering them.

A properly conducted AAR can have a powerful influence on the climate of your organization. It is part of the communication process that educates and motivates people on to greatness by sensitizing them to do the right thing. It can prevents future confusion on organizational priorities and philosophies and drive home the point that we learn from our mistakes.

Any question?

The 10 R’s of Success

SOCOM Sales — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:42:04 +0000

Dave Cheong is another blogger that is working his was to entrepreneurship I was surfing through his past posts and I came across a headline that caught my eye and wanted to share it with all of you. I saw 10 R’s to Apply if you want to Succeed and thought ‘WTF’ and had to read the entire post.

In his post he give a great framework for people that want to succeed to follow. Being that I am an entrepreneur at heart I thought that all of the 10 R’s are on the money.

1. Realistic

2. Realise

3. Recognise

4. Reframe

5. Respond

6. Review

7. Repeat

8. Reflect

9. Reward

10. Renew

His post goes into a lot of detail on these and none of them seem like they are hard to follow.

Life is a continuous process of discovery and learning. We only stop doing either of these when we die. At this very moment, you are discovering new things, experiencing interesting events, learning and growing constantly.

How to Retain Your Gen-Y Workforce

SOCOM Sales — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:38:28 +0000

You’ve hired them. Now how can you keep them around?

By Cam Marston

Things aren’t always what they seem. If I could give you one bit of advice on dealing with the latest generation of employees to come under your management, it would be to remember those words…things aren’t always what they seem.

If you are like most business leaders, you’ve no doubt noticed a trend in the way employees behave in recent years. Most likely you consider it a negative trend—too much entitlement, not enough loyalty, no work ethic, only interested in themselves, and on and on. But I challenge you to consider that perhaps these are not negative trends, just different ones.

To better understand who your employees are and what drives them to succeed, perhaps it’s easiest to understand who they are not—you. That’s right. They may even be your offspring but in the workplace they bear little resemblance to the “you” of yesteryear. Gen Xers (born 1965-1979) and Millenials (born after 1980) are operating in this world with a completely different perspective. Their definitions of loyalty, time and success are often quite different from yours. Rest assured they do recognize all of these concepts and value them in very important ways. The key to your organization’s future success is understanding how the Millenials view the world and using that knowledge to motivate them in a way that works. Here’s a hint: meet them where they are and they will achieve your underlying goals; try to force them to fit your definitions and they will run for the door every time.

So let’s take a look at some of the pervasive myths about our youngest generation in the workforce and discuss why these changes are happening and how you can tailor your workplace to meet the needs of you, your employees and the company.

Myth: Younger generations have no work ethic.

Read entire article here

No Related Post

The Top 12 Presentation Mistakes

SOCOM Sales — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:03:00 +0000

The Top 12 Presentation Mistakes

Mistake #1: Overlooking “Murphy”
If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. This mistake basically means that you walk into the room where you’re going to present and something is wrong. LeRoux tells a story about a multimillion-dollar sales presentation to which “Murphy” paid a visit—in the form of missing curtains and a boardroom window overlooking a huge pool surrounded by bikini-clad swimmers (you can guess what the attendees looked at instead of the presenter).

Remedy: Visit important presentation rooms at least a day in advance. If that’s not possible, have someone take pictures from different angles and email them to you.

Mistake #2: Delivering Split Presentations
It’s difficult to read the subtitles of a foreign movie and follow the action. When sellers stand at a distance from the screen, they create a similar problem. You probably won’t build rapport with someone whose focus is repeatedly divided.
Mistake #3: Positioning Yourself Incorrectly
Right-handed sellers usually stand with the screen to their right. This allows them to point more easily. However, people read left to right. Salespeople are unable to capitalize on this fact when the screen is to their right.

Remedy: Position a screen, flip chart, or easel stand to your left. Then people will naturally start with their eyes on you and return to you after glancing at the screen.

Mistake #4: Choosing the Wrong Screen Size and Position
In most meeting rooms, screens are two to three times bigger than necessary. The bigger the screen, the more it overshadows the presenter. Recessed ceiling screens are typically centered. This provides nice room symmetry, but it also diminishes the seller.

Remedy: Bring a portable screen. For two to fifteen people, a 4-foot by 4-foot screen is fine. Place yourself in the room’s center or key focal spot, and then angle the screen about 25 degrees toward yourself.

Mistake #5: Seating Decision Makers in the Wrong Chairs
In important sales presentations, seating arrangements matter. The first chair to the presenter’s left is the best viewing point for a decision maker and the first chair to the presenter’s right is the least desirable.

Remedy: Obviously, place the decision maker in the first chair to your left. Plant your feet firmly perpendicular to your group and be conscious that your body will continuously try to rotate toward the screen. Don’t let it, or you’ll give more eye contact to the non-decision makers.

Mistake #6: Dimming the Lights
Darkness induces drowsiness and mental wandering. Plus it eliminates the best part of a resentation—you.

Remedy: Keep the room lights on or dim them slightly. If multiple light switches are available, turn the lights off directly above the screen. (Of course, since the lights are on, you will need to design slides that are visible at higher light levels.)

Mistake #7: Promoting the Screen
Too many presenters feel that the information on the screen is the real “star.” But the audience needs to see you as well—you pull them into the story unfolding on the screen and bring the message to life. As an American Indian proverb goes, “Move closer to the campfire, so I can see your words.”

Remedy: Bring the lights up enough so that both you and your visuals are clearly seen.

Mistake #8: Playing with Pointers and Other Toys
Anything you hold in your hands becomes a plaything with which you’ll fidget. You might as well twirl a baton, since your hands gripping some object will distract people just as much.

Remedy: Keep your hands free to gesture by not holding a pointer, marker, or remote.

Mistake #9: Blocking the Screen
Do not turn toward the visual and point with your right arm. This causes you to partially block the screen from viewers to your right.

Remedy: Point at the screen with your fingers together, palm down and parallel to the floor. Point to the screen with only your left arm, but when you gesture, use both arms.

Mistake #10: Holding Remotes or Clickers Remember, it’s human nature to play with objects in your hands. If you’re nervous, you’ll speed up and change the slides faster than you should. Besides, holding a remote causes you to gesture less. You’ll settle into the easier, boring role of a talking head instead of selling your ideas with your upper body.

Remedy: Place your laptop or remote on the lectern or a table under the screen.

Mistake #11: Positioning the Lectern to the Side
Usually, in high-dollar presentations, two items dominate the room—the screen and the lectern. Too many presenters place the lectern well away from the screen (causing the aforementioned split presentation), and then they hide behind the “box.” To “take cover” defeats the whole idea of selling visually.

Remedy: Position the lectern, screen, and presenter together, so the presenter can interact closely with the screen and use the nearby lectern to hold content cue cards or the remote to change slides. If you’re the presenter, stand in the center of the room or stage with the screen to the left and the lectern to the right.

Mistake #12: Reading Someone Else’s Text Slides
If you take over someone else’s text-heavy presentation at the last minute, you face an uphill battle. By just reading the text slides, you’ll put your audience to sleep.

Remedy: Use different words from what appears on the screen. Be very enthusiastic. That will help viewers overlook the boring slides.

No Related Post

E-Advice: E-mail Know-How

SOCOM Sales — Fri, 18 May 2007 05:05:00 +0000

We use e-mail every day, but how many of us really know how to write a good e-mail? You’ll lose a lot in translation if you aren’t careful. The new book Send is the Elements of Style for e-mail. Here are some tips to keep your e-mail communication accurate.

1. Subject lines
Don’t leave them blank, and don’t let them be ambiguous. A subject line is like a headline, and should act as a summary to the body of the e-mail. If the subject of the e-mail changes, update the subject line accordingly. This will help the recipient determine whether the e-mail needs immediate attention.

2. Attachments
No one likes opening an attachment when they have ten other things on their agenda. When possible, paste the information to the body of the e-mail instead.

3. Urgent
Tagging your e-mail as urgent is a nuisance to the sender. The importance of your e-mail should be made clear without such tags. Save the “high importance” tags for very rare occasions. You don’t want to cry wolf.

4. Introductions
When addressing e-mails to people you don’t know, use Mr. and Ms. (never Mrs.). But don’t include their first name, as it comes off as awkward and forced. This way you stay professional and avoid offending anyone. If they use their first name in their replies, you can then switch to a more informal greeting.

5. Mirror:
Write back in the style of the sender. If someone sends you a formal e-mail that ends with a question, it’s best not to reply with “cool, that works for me.” E-mails should be brief but make sure you cover all the information the sender is asking for.

6. Style
Don’t annoy your recipient with an e-mail in all caps or he may think you are yelling or are angry. Also make sure you e-mails always look professional and avoid crazy fonts.

From the E-Business Newsletter

By Rebecca Aronauer

Better Sales Lead Generation

SOCOM Sales — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:56:00 +0000

Building lasting business relationships and effectively marketing your brand is important to maintaining a loyal client base. But with so many new communication media out there, your company will never reach its full growth potential if you rely on a single lead-generation technique. That’s why most of today’s fastest growing b-to-b companies have a complete arsenal of tools at their fingertips to use at any given time.

Here are eight proven b-to-b lead-generation techniques gleaned from the strategies of more than 170 successful companies:

1. Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing underlies all the “sales-lead-generation-success” methods. It specifically refers to cultivating a personal, sales-winning relationship with your prospects. By creating a personalized relationship with your clients from the onset, you can develop long-term relationships rather than individual transactions. Make sure to always keep in touch with your prospects via a series of ongoing communications throughout your prospective customers’ consideration process. It will help you win sales on the first try—and you’ll also pick up the leads the competition dropped on the table.

2. Complementary Partner Referrals
Seek out non-competing companies who interact with the same target clients and join forces with them. Teaming up with complementary partners will instantly increase your lead-generation pool with the best qualified leads, meaning your team won’t be wasting time and effort on disinterested prospects. Of all the lead-generation programs available to you, complementary partner referral programs can generate the highest qualified b-to-b sales leads.

3. Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Strategies
Business buyers are more sophisticated and harder to reach than ever. In addition to, or perhaps instead of, launching print or radio campaigns, consider the Web for your marketing efforts. Studies show that about 90 percent of business buyers prefer to find solutions for their service and product needs on the Web. Therefore it’s critical to have a well-tuned lead-generation program that includes search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet marketing strategies to attract prospects at the beginning of their buying cycle. The sooner they see your company’s presence in the market, the more likely they’ll be to remember you.

4. Telemarketing
Although many people despise the thought of telemarketing, it can be a very effective lead-generation tool—when executed properly. Telemarketing is a very personal marketing technique that is not only cost-effective, but efficient, especially when compared to field selling. When you use field sales, you can reach about four or five decision-makers a day. By including telemarketing in your lead-generation plan, you can reach up to 30 decision-makers a day.

5. E-mail Publications
The best way to establish your company as an industry leader and legitimize your professional expertise is to create your own company e-mail newsletter. By sending industry news and tips to prospects in your market, you will be on their minds more often than your competition, especially if you ensure the material in the newsletters is actually objective and useful. Eventually this added exposure will be key to transforming leads into sales.

6. Direct Mail
While there is an entire industry of people who are dedicated to b-to-b selling through direct marketing, most sales and business professionals do not know how to effectively and efficiently use this technique. To avoid a common complaint—that salespeople receive very little response after spending thousands on full-color marketing materials—do a little tweaking to make a big difference. The best place to start revamping your direct response marketing is by determining who your best customers are and then targeting your efforts at companies and individuals who are similar in nature.

7. Print Advertising
Print is far from dead—in fact it can be a highly effective lead generation medium. The key is to remember that you need to focus your message on the benefits and applications of your products or services. Make sure the layout and design of your ads enhance your company’s image effectively, and be selective when it comes to choosing the publications that deliver directly to your target audience.

8. Event Marketing
Whether you do it live, through the telephone or via the Web, seminars and workshops are a great marketing tool. The majority of people who attend your seminar will already have an interest in the information you are presenting, and there’s a good percentage that are in need of your product or service. It’s the perfect way to demonstrate your company’s knowledge and expertise as well as market to a highly targeted group of individuals.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is a leading business-to-business marketing consultant with more than 20 years of advertising, marketing and sales experience. Get his “Free Sales Lead Report” newsletter at www.sales-lead-experts.com.

Lead Generator: Making Lists Effective

SOCOM Sales — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:14:00 +0000

Got a prospect list a mile long? That’s great, unless 80 percent of them are duds. Mike Schultz, principal at Wellesley Hills Group, a management and marketing consultancy in Framingham, Mass., offers tips on making tired lists more effective:

Consider Contacts

For starters, Schultz says, you should ask yourself if a prospect is even likely to buy right now and if you have the right contacts to get to a decision maker. If not, move on.

Boot the Blow-Offs

Got a contact that’s kept you on a string for nine months or hasn’t returned your calls after you’ve left messages three times? Kick them to the curb, Schultz says.

Focus on Margins

Focus on the top 25 percent of prospects who are likely to deliver the highest margins for your company—even if it’s a smaller firm.

Burn Your Boat!

SOCOM Sales — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:05:00 +0000

By John Boe

I believe that the great NFL Hall of Fame coach, Vince Lombardi, had it right when he said, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

Do you agree with Lombardi or are you the type of person who has difficulty staying focused and keeping commitments? Do you allow the negative influences of fear, anxiety, self-doubt and worry to dominate your thinking and sabotage your results?

Sadly, most people fail to achieve their goals, not because they’re lazy or lack self-motivation, but because they were never “fully committed” to succeed. I can’t think of a single great achievement that has ever been attained without first a plan of action and then an unshakable commitment to its accomplishment.

Walt Disney was arguably one of the most creative dreamers and determined men of the 20th century. He understood the power of commitment and would frequently tell those around him, “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.”

The ancient Greek warriors were both feared and respected by their enemies. In battle, the Greeks established a well-deserved reputation for their unsurpassed bravery and unshakable commitment to victory. The key to their overwhelming success on the battlefield had far more to do with how the Greek commanders motivated the warriors than it did with issues of tactics or training. The Greeks were master motivators who understood how to use a “dramatic demonstration” to infuse a spirit of commitment into the heart of every warrior.

Once the warriors had been offloaded from their boats onto their enemy’s shore, the Greek commanders would shout out their first order, “Burn the boats!” The sight of burning boats removed any notion of retreat from their hearts and any thoughts of surrender from
their heads. Imagine the tremendous psychological impact on the
soldiers as they watched their boats being set to the torch. As the boats turned to ash and slipped quietly out of sight into the water, each man understood there was no turning back and the only way home was through victory.

In your sales career, your battles are not fought with weapons on foreign shores, but within the confines of your own mind. A truly committed salesperson does not have the luxury or the time for the self-indulgence of negative thinking. The true underlying motivation for all success is a deep and unwavering commitment to the task at hand. The sales profession is a demanding and challenging career, but it is also personally rewarding and financially lucrative for those who are fully committed to becoming successful.

If you are being pushed around mentally by thoughts of fear, anxiety, self-doubt and worry, it’s time to “burn your boat” and become fully committed to your sales career!

John Boe presents a wide variety of motivational and sales-oriented keynotes and seminar programs for sales meetings and conventions. John is a nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry. To have Boe speak at your next event, visit www.johnboe.com

Study: Users Sabatoge Presentations with PowerPoint

SOCOM Sales — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:03:00 +0000

By Holly Dolezalek

Is PowerPoint evil? The jury’s still out on that. But an Australian study suggests that it is being used in the most ineffective way possible.

A study at the University of New South Wales in Australia has revealed that the common practice of showing the same words on-screen that are being spoken out loud actually makes it harder to learn and retain the information. Since the typical use of PowerPoint involves this very practice, Professor John Sweller, an education professor at the university, told the Sydney Morning Herald that “the use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster.”

The researchers found that the human brain processes information better when it is presented in verbal or printed form than when it is presented in both forms at the same time. So when you put up a list of bullet points on a slide and then go through them verbally, you’d be better off if your audience either ignored your slide or you.

Sweller developed his cognitive load theory in the 1980s. According to the theory, people learn best when the strain on their working memory (a collective term for the processes that temporarily store and manipulate information) is kept to a minimum. This allows them to move information from working memory into long-term memory. When cognitive load (the load on working memory) is too high, learning is more difficult.

Sweller notes that using a visual aid such as a chart is not the same kind of load, and that this is actually the best way to use PowerPoint. “It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form,” Sweller says. “But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.”

Why Sales Managers Fail and What You Can Do About It

SOCOM Sales — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:03:00 +0000

By Jacques Werth

Sales managers fail for two primary reasons:

1. They don’t know how to manage their people

2. They don’t rigorously implement effective selling processes.

Just as an engineering manager needs to be a pretty competent engineer, a sales manager needs to be a pretty competent salesperson. In both cases, however, their essential responsibility is to manage staff performance. Understanding modern management principles beyond a few readings of The One Minute Manager is critical.

Most engineering managers know that technology is evolving too quickly for them to keep up at the level of a functioning engineer. However, they do know enough about the latest technology to effectively manage the engineers deploying it.

In contrast to engineers, most sales managers believe that very little has changed in the selling since they became a manager. Therefore, they tend to manage their people in the same way that they used to sell. However, in the last 20 years, the markets for every product and service have changed dramatically. Information overload, the Internet, massive communications, increased competition, more well-informed prospects, brain science and new sales channels have affected all businesses.

Top salespeople have developed new sales processes to address and take advantage of those changing market conditions. Most other reasonably successful salespeople have not.

The key is developing a sales process that is very different from the one that you are now using. Talk to sales training companies, and look for a company that will customize and optimize the selling process for your company and industry. If you find one that fits your current sales beliefs, one that you are instantly comfortable with, keep on looking. Heed the title of Marshall Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

Here are 10 reasons salespeople fail, and what you can do about it.

1. Most sales managers don’t know how to use highly effective tools to recruit and train salespeople that will perform well in their organization. Therefore, they often hire salespeople who are incompatible with their company’s culture and lack the appropriate sales aptitudes for their industry.

How to hire the right people: Contract with a service agency that will benchmark you and your best salespeople, find candidates with similar aptitudes, and select salespeople most compatible with your management style. For about one weeks pay, you can greatly decrease costly hiring mistakes.

2. Most sales managers don’t have a highly effective, uniform sales process for their company’s products and services. They advocate “best selling practices” based upon past market conditions and obsolete sales strategies. Therefore, they focus on the wrong metrics, which are inevitably flawed.

What to do: Adapt a step-by-step, sales process that is customized for your products, services and markets. It must include exactly what to do when and how to do it. That kind of sales process makes tracking, coaching and realistic quantification easy. Thus, it enables continuous improvement of every step of the sales process.

3. Most sales managers don’t know how to train, supervise and track their salespeople’s performance to optimize their sales effectiveness.

How to keep salespeople on track: Maintain a uniform and consistent process, monitoring and benchmarking all sales activity throughout the sales process.

4. Most sales managers lack skills in target marketing and prospecting. Therefore, their salespeople waste most of their time with prospects who will not buy.

How to focus on likely buyers: Set demographic, situational and attitude standards for the type of prospects that are most likely to buy. Develop criteria based upon booked business.

5. Most sales managers believe that, “You can’t close if you don’t get in front of prospects.” Their salespeople go on as many appointments as possible, spending far more time with prospects who will not buy than with those that will buy.

How to stop wasting time with the wrong prospects: Insist that salespeople find and make appointments only with highly qualified prospects.

6. Most sales managers believe that salespeople should be able to convince prospects to buy. Therefore, they have their salespeople try to persuade prospects to buy when they are merely “interested.” It doesn’t seem to occur to them that their salespeople cannot consistently convince people to do anything they don’t already want to do.

How to stop losing at the “persuasion game”: Abandon the game altogether—there is no way to consistently win. Insist that your salespeople treat prospects with trust and respect, utilize an effective sales process, and abandon all forms of persuasion, false urgency and manipulation.

7. Most sales managers don’t know the difference between qualification and disqualification. Therefore, their salespeople, who are great at qualifying, create sales resistance by attempting to sell to prospects when they are not ready to buy. That lengthens the sales cycle and decreases their closing rates.

How to shorten the sales cycle: Insist that salespeople only make appointments with prospects that are ready to buy or specify. They should temporarily disqualify all others. Closing rates will increase dramatically.

8. Most sales managers do not understand how the human mind works, and how it accepts or rejects information. Salespeople typically spew features and benefits in terms of industry jargon.

How to communicate with prospects: Use words that prospects can readily understand. Provide only the most pertinent information. Prospects will feel more motivated to keep listening, they will absorb and retain more information, and they will be more actively engaged in the sales process.

9. Most sales managers believe that most prospects make logical buying decisions. If that were true, enrolling in logic courses would be the path to success in sales.

How to really get through to prospects: Engage prospects emotionally. Recent studies in brain science have revealed that most important decisions are made in the part of the brain that deals with emotions. Incorporate that knowledge into the selling process. That results in higher closing rates.

10. Most sales managers don’t know how to get salespeople past their fears. Therefore, most of their salespeople stay in their comfort zones by avoiding changes that will provide improvements.

How to get salespeople to embrace change: Teach them to accept the reality that change causes fear and discomfort; that acceptance will enable them to do what is uncomfortable and get over it quickly.

Jacques Werth studies the sales performance processes of the top 1 percent of salespeople in many different industries. He knows what they do that most “reasonably successful” salespeople don’t do. That resulted in the High Probability Selling process. The book High Probability Selling has been a best seller since 1999. Visit www.highprobsell.com.

No Related Post