Your Sales Management Guru

Your July Sales Training Tip: YouTube.com

Normally at this time of the year, I am reminding my clients that it’s time to begin building their 3^rd Quarter sales training plans.  Those of you that are regular readers know that Acumen Sales Mangers plan their entire quarter sales training plans at the beginning of each quarter. Each sales meeting schedule is defined by date/time, topics and assignments-as to who is training on what topics.  Topics should include: sales skills, product/services knowledge, competition and sales operations (CRM, contracts, etc…)  BTW:  During the first six months of 2013, I have  used: Question Based Selling and Demonstration to Win books for many of my clients “book club” study groups.

But what about July!  With the 4^th of July and Summer time upon us, here’s a fun idea to launch your summer sales training plans.

1. Set your date for your July sales training date.
2. Assign each salesperson to review YouTube.com to find what they consider their best sales training video lesson
3. At your sales meeting, each salesperson would introduce the You Tube video and discuss why they felt it was pertinent to your sales organization.
4. Then watch the YouTube video as a team and discuss it.

It will be a fun meeting, but also, each salespeople may end up watching 4-6 YouTube videos on sales training as they evaluate their recommendation and they will learn to use You Tube as a resource for idea’s and as a sales resource.

Simply have them go to www.YouTube.com and in the search bar enter: sales training.

Make July a jubilant month.  Focus on sales pipeline building, sales strategies on individual opportunities and sales training.

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 14 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.  Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Exceeding your Summer Quotas

Now is the time to act.  In this blog I wanted to give you some specific tactics to deploy immediately to assist you during the typical summer slow times, while I always  consider that an excuse, there  are proven sales leadership actions you can  take  now that will make a difference in your cash flow this summer.  Not only will it pay off this summer, but your third and fourth quarters will amaze you.

First: if you have not performed an A, B, C analysis of your customer base do it.  Essentially this entails analyzing your customers over three years as to the total revenue or margin they would have generated for you. In my blog (www.SalesManagementGuru.com) I have discussed this in great detail, but as a reminder, a list of all your customers is generated by total revenue or margin then you will classify A= top 15% of your clients that make up 65% of your revenues, B= 20% that make up 20% of your sales and 65% of your clients that generate just 15% of your revenue.  Drop those lines.

Second: Develop a plan of attack.  Based upon the size of your customer base, break out your A’s and B’s into equal groups of a certain number and assign them to the sales team or key individuals.  Then based upon your existing line of Microsoft, Citrix or other products and services you offer, review each customer.  This meeting should include your entire sales team along with key representatives of your technical team.  What you are looking for are the typical “cross sell and up sell” patterns that naturally occur but also what solutions you already sold to each customer, but more important what products/services that you have that have not been introduced to the customer or that are new to your organization. This proactive approach of analyzing each customer, looking for   potential new opportunities will turn your sale team into problem solvers. It will train them not to simply find out what the customer wants to buy, but assist the customer in what would be important. Where we have instituted our Cross Sell/Up Sell Account Planning program the dividends have been huge.

Third, for every A client, the salesperson must arrange a lunch meeting between the customers executives and the Microsoft partners executive to discuss the overall relationship.  Often when two executives meet to discuss business topics and get to better understand each other strategic topics come out that normally a salesperson working with IT teams are not aware of or are made available to them. The partner executive must be well briefed for this meeting. Hint:  every partner executive must meet every A client once a year.

Fourth, ask for referrals. During a recent meeting with a consulting client where it was uncovered that the salespeople were only working a select number of accounts and not working net new opportunities; we changed the plan to institute a referral program. Each salesperson was trained and then expected to connect with a certain number of customers per week to “inquire” as to their satisfaction level with our services and during that conversation the salesperson was to ask about other potential friends or organizations the customer might know that could use “our service”. If no names were offered, the salesperson would then ask if they could “at least” use the customer’s name as a reference.  If a yes was received, then all the surrounding firms in the customers geographic area were called on as well as all related companies within that customers general line of business or vertical market were contacted.

Fifth, host a Spring Party.  It’s a great time to bring everyone together to not only say thank you, but to educate on new offerings. Execute this in early in order to build activity levels, pipeline values and position summer sales.  This does not have to be an expensive event, but it should be fun and unique. Some partners have rented boats on the lake, suites at baseball games and others have used hotel facilities with built in themes.  Hint: invite your best prospects to these events as well.

Sixth, manage the process.  As a sales leader, each week track the results of the activities, did the salespeople execute what was expected? What were the results? Do you need to alter the tactics?  What have you learned?

Planning a well thought out summer campaign now, can pay great dividends later. Imagine lying in you hammock, sipping an ice drink, knowing your quota is already achieved.  Hint: don’t forget the suntan lotion.

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

His latest book is: Leading High Performance Sales Teams.  Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.

Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   or is website is: www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Sales On-Boarding:  New Hire Success or Failure

It was proven again on Friday.  One of the most important  tools I have created is a 3 –week New Salesperson On-Boarding Plan, it contains what I believe are the necessary skills/knowledge that any new salesperson needs prior to selling a product/services.  We make sure they know how to use the telephone, CRM, Contracts, marketing tools as well training to clearly sell your organization and understand your products/services. Each item must be signed off/dated by the appropriate person “inspected what is expected”.

On Friday it failed. Normally each new hire must listen to the president sell the company, listen to other salespeople sell the company, make a few “ride along” sales calls, practice selling the company to  other salespeople before having to make a formal presentation during the third week to the president. This would be the graduation point-if properly and professionally presented.  In normal situations, the salesperson does a fine job, but the president normally would recommend doing it one more time, the following week.  It is one of the most popular tools in my Sales Management Tool Kit: http://www.acumenmgmt.com/DVDSalesMgmtToolKit

Last week the salesperson thought he could fluff his way through his training period, I have seen this often with experienced salespeople who believe their past work will carry them through the sales process and then they begin to struggle because they cannot sell the company they work for or understand how their products/services can serve their prospects.  The red flag popped up last week during the weekly review when we noticed that some of the “sign off boxes” were open or uncompleted for that week and his appointment to sell the President went poorly.  My client recorded the presentation so both the salesperson and others could listen to it. It was tough to listen too.

The lessons: 

1. 1.       We failed to manage his training during week one or week two
2. 2.       We may have mis-hired.
3. 3.       He now knows my client is serious about professionalism

He is on a very short leash this week but the learning curve of the client and the salesperson has improved-now both better understand that on-boarding is a critical success factor in building a high performance sales team.

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 14 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for organizations throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is: Recruiting High Performance Sales Teams.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

The Renaissance Society

How the shift from dream society to the age of individual control will change the way you do business.

I had the opportunity to read this book during a long flight to the West Coast, written by Rolf Jensen and Mika Aaltonen and published by McGraw-Hill I was expecting a futuristic perspective on how our society will evolve, this book delivered much more.

The authors build their business case for predicting the future by reviewing the past and our existing economic conditions and comparing them to emerging markets (East). They do this convincingly, creating 3 clear, distinct and interconnected scenarios:

1)      The Renaissance Society; where a new society renounces the existing organizing principles and begins to reorganize themselves from the bottom-up in daily practices and communities.

2)      The Green Society: a must scenario as societies that destroy their environments, destroy themselves.

3)      The Risk Society; changes in technology will push our knowledge further, but we will take advantage of them for industrial use.

Throughout the book they take into consideration looking at the US market, but also all of the Western economies as compared to developing countries and Eastern markets and the trends that will drive change.  Increasing wealth, GDP and the rise of the middle class in non-Western markets will cause major shifts and as the Western economies mature they must and will re-invent themselves.  This will drive the “happiness factor” that rising GDP brings, but with the wealth of the West a new focus on positive emotional well-being in increase.

The greatest three sentences in the book, especially for our sales/marketing readers is: “My advice is to ask what kind of emotional appeal your product has. If the answer is none, you are in a commodity market; you are most likely engaged in fierce price competition. Add emotions, add a story, and make your product unique.”

Chapter 7 is where the author’s summarize their findings and their conclusions are reasoned and concise.  Fact: World Bank estimates that by 2025 six emerging economies alone will account for half of the global economy.  The East is catching up because economies are driven by “dream’s, not by governments (a constant theme in the book). The East is now going through an extremely materialistic era, and the West is mature.

Anyone working in business and driving a global business must read/ understand this chapter as you plot your long term strategies. To those of us in today’s business the authors define the 5 changes for the West:

1)      Emotionalize: companies must have values and employee’s must connect to them

2)      Personalize: customers must be treated uniquely

3)      Decentralize: all units should be smaller, more innovative

4)      Innovate: focus on being bold

5)      Feminize; good relations are seen as more important for results

All good topics to review during your mid-year business assessment: Where are we heading? What is working? What hasn’t worked? What needs to be changed?  Reading this book has opened many new thoughts to consider while working with my clients, read it and see what it does for your organization.

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. His latest book is titled: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken Thoreson provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com, www.SalesManagementGuru.com

Leadership and Teamwork – Pull the Oars … Count the Beats

Another guest blog today, from Patti Grimm.  Great message on working together for everyone’s benefit.

Analogies and stories are powerful ways to communicate a message which people remember.  A lot of business writers, professors and business consultants use a number of different analogies to illustrate the value and power of working in High Performance Teams in order to deliver sustainable business results.  The most common analogies today center around “Getting Everyone on the Bus” or “Getting Everyone on the Same Page” or “Getting Everyone Singing From the Same Sheet of Music.”  The challenge with these analogies is people can be a massive or passive rider on a bus. People can all be on the same page but be reading different stories. People can be singing from the same sheet of music and still be out of tune with each other.

One of my favorite things to do where I lived in the beautiful Pacific Northwest is to drive over the I-520 floating bridge (and yes the bridge does actually float on Lake Washington) and watch the University of Washington men’s or women’s rowing team practice in perfect formation and be the true example of the value and power of teamwork. I am always amazed by the teams of 2 to 16 people rowing in perfect sync and listening to the coxswain coach the team across the beautiful crystal clear blue water.

Based on my love of rowing here is the analogy I‘ve  used with clients in one on one executive coaching sessions, in change leadership and team development sessions.  When an organization is fully aligned with a shared vision, a common goal and a set of operating principles for which they hold each other accountable and use to make business decisions, you’ll see a fully engaged team.   You see everyone in the same boat … facing the same direction … with the same sized oars … pulling the oars in perfect synchronization and all the leader needs to do is count the beats to achieve perfect precision, teamwork and business results.  

In too many organizations today you find a variety of people working together and still not reaching their full potential as a high performance team.  Here is what is happening in many organizations – You have some people in the boat with very short oars rowing very fast but not fully contributing.  You have another group of people in the boat with very long oars, pulling deep in the water and feeling like they are the ones “holding up the team.”  You see some people in the boat facing the wrong direction and actually working against the team.  And you have a few people standing on the dock and wondering where the boat is going. 

The power of teams and teamwork is having everyone in the boat, facing in the same direction with the same sized oars.  It is pure beauty in motion to see a high performance a rowing team, sports team, orchestra or a work team pulling together to achieve their shared vision and fulfill their mission.  When the team is in complete alignment, all the leaders need to do in “count the beats” to sustain long term business results and win the race against the competition. Here is a great quote which tells the story that in order to have a team, it takes work to make it happen. 

Coming together is a beginning …

Working together is progress …

Staying together is success!

Contact us @ www.advantage-performance.net or call Pattie Grimm @ 425.289.6619 for more information on how we can help you, your leaders and teams build your organization’s capacity, capability, commitment which delivers sustainable business results today.

Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Group, www.AcumenManagement.com, Ken@AcumenMgmt.com

Just How Important Is Proper Grammar When it Comes to Business Presentations?

Ken; We have a guest blog this week, a topic that is absolutely key in emails, presentations and meetings. Hope you enjoy!

It takes more than just good speaking skills to give a top-notch business presentation. Good writing speaks volumes about the person and company behind the presentation. No matter how strong the content being presented, if it’s littered with grammatical or spelling errors, it will come off as amateurish and unprofessional.

Your presentation is the blueprint to the work you’ll be doing if you’re hired, and they’re not just judging it. They’re judging you. Follow this guide to achieve perfection in the language that you use.

Always Revise

Your first draft is never your best work. There are no exceptions to this rule. No matter what it is you’re writing, and no matter how much time you invested in writing it, a second draft will always improve your document.

It’s easy — even beneficial — to get lost in the flow of writing. But it’s also easy to gloss over grammatical errors while you’re in the zone. Write until you’re finished, step away to eat or work out or whatever it is you do, then take a long, objective second look.

Sleep on It

Put some space between your first and second drafts — preferably a good night’s sleep. A new day gives you a truly fresh perspective on not only grammar and spelling, but content. It’s common and admirable for the ambitious to burn the midnight oil, but what seemed like a brilliant stroke of genius at 3 a.m. might present itself in a whole new light in the morning.

Don’t Rely on Spell Check

Spell check is a valuable crutch, but like any crutch, it can make you weak if you rely on it too often. While spell-check programs are excellent for catching egregious errors, grammatical slip-ups can and do slip through. Software is especially susceptible to missing homophones like “sea vs. see” and “reign vs. rein.” Use spell check, but rely on your intellect.

Hire a Proofreader

If you know that grammar isn’t your strong suit, be honest about your flaws and put a second pair of eyes on it. Ask your office’s wordsmith to give it a read and — if it’s really important — hire a proofreader on eLance or Craigslist or any other number of venues that pair editors with people who must have clean copy.

Take it Slow

Perhaps the most obvious yet overlooked trick to writing well is to leave yourself enough time. Whether you’re writing a business plan or chopping down a tree with a chainsaw, you’re much more prone to make mistakes if you’re rushing. Don’t leave it until the last moment, and plan your project in chunks to leave time for revisions, reworking, and the inevitable writer’s block.

Bad grammar is never OK in business. Unless you’re purposely trying to be folksy in your vernacular with a “say it ain’t so” or some similar casual parlance, the way you speak and the way you write speak volumes about who you are. If you can’t even get your ideas across without making mistakes, then why should anyone expect perfection when it’s time to put those ideas into practice?

Your presentation represents you and your company. Take the time to write it right.

Andrew Lisa is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. He writes on a wide range of topics, including handling negative Google reviews.

Programs to Increase Your Professionalism

This week I thought I would use this forum to let my readers know of Two Sales Leadership training programs in May that you should plan to attend.

1.        The first is Friday May 10^th, Building Predictable Revenue: Sales Management Systems
2.       The second is May 28^th, 1pm EST: Creating Sales Compensation Plans for High Performance

This is one of 10 Sales Management Training programs from Top Sales Management: read below

Building Predictable Revenue: Sales Management Systems, Forecasting and Building a Self-Managed Sales Force

Friday, May 10, 2013 12:00pm Noon EST

The purpose of this interactive workshop will be to review techniques that all executives, sales leaders and sales professionals can use and to introduce a sales management process that ensures you are positioned for success. Learn to build predictable revenue. This session is designed for Owners and Sales Managers. As partner organizations have had to fight to survive, this session is designed to “tighten the ship”, and put into place the systems and controls to fine tune the organization and prepare for growth.  As other organizations shrink or cut back learn to take advantage of the opportunity of the lifetime, during the lifetime of the opportunity!

Acumen’s 14 years of consulting Ken has determined that the vast number of organizations can quickly improve discipline, accountability, and control by implementing the concepts and tools during this session. This tactical program will provide insights and tools to help the Executive or Sales Manager easily increase the productively of their management meetings, sales meetings and sales training events.

This session will:

• Review the importance of forecasting tools, their design, how effective sales managers use them to ensure monthly revenues are attained and appropriate content. 

• Assist attendees in developing sales management measurement success indicators, their use in building a predictive forecasting stream and there use in salesperson coaching.

• Cover the development of a Salesperson’s Business Plan – development techniques, their use in account development, pipeline and quota attainment, influencer/consultant focus, new account creation, market and territory coverage, and personal and sales skill development. 

• We would cover long-term forecasting plans that ensure building a strong revenue plan.

Attendees will learn:

1) sample forecasting formats

2) a discussion of pertinent sales success indictors and how to use them for coaching

3) they will leave with a document on how to “how to coach for success hints”

4) Learn to design:

• management systems that increase team productivity

• Develop success factors or leading indicators that will accelerate sales

• Sales management tools to increase market/account penetration

• Sales meetings/ sales training programs to ensure high performance

• The 5 Measurements/Metrics of Sales, Marketing, Management Effectiveness

REGISTER: https://m360.salesassociation.org/event.aspx?eventID=74422

____________________________________________________________________________________                                       

 Creating Sales Compensation Plans for High Performance

• ·         May 28^th, 2013    1pm EST

“There is a difference between leadership and management. Leadership is of the spirit, management is of the mind. Managers are necessary, but leaders are essential. We must find managers who are not only skilled organizers, but inspired and inspiring leaders.” – Field Marshall Slim

The most successful sales teams in the world are led not managed, but if only 20% of today’s sales managers can claim to be genuine leaders, we need to help and encourage the remaining 80% make that giant leap. During this 45 minute presentation, Jonathan Farrington identifies the traits and characteristics of the very best sales managers and provides a blue-print which every delegate can take away to begin implementing immediately.

This is one of 10 Sales Management training programs from Top Sales Management Academy

This program is based upon a book by Ken Thoreson, Creating Sales Compensation Plans for high Performance. Sales compensation plans that worked last year-may not be appropriate for next year. Compensation planning must be designed to pay for performance and attract top talent. Compensation programs must be strategic and aligned with corporate objectives. Are yours?

• ·         Learn to create programs that:
  • ·         are in alignment with your strategic objectives
  • ·          are cost justifiable and measurable
  • ·          take into consideration professional services, products
  • ·          are blended to create individual or team incentives
  • ·          are blended for practice, vendor and market demands
  • ·         increase the effectiveness of sales contests
  • ·         are successfully rolled out and measured

REGISTER: http://topsalesworld.com/topsalesacademy/

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”. 

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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Old Ways of Doing Business No Longer Work

I am honored to have this week’s blog prepared by Jonathan Farrington, he  is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author and sales thought leader. He is the Senior Partner of Jonathan Farrington & Associates, and CEO of Top Sales World, based in London & Paris.

I believe that most of us accept that the old ways of doing business no longer work: the increasingly intense competitive challenges of the world economy, post the recent financial meltdown, challenge everyone, everywhere to adapt in order to prosper under new rules. Those who cannot - or will not - change are withering.

For example, in the old economy, hierarchies pitted labour against management, with workers paid wages depending on their skills, but that is eroding as the rate of change accelerates. Those same hierarchies are being replaced by networks; labour and management are uniting into teams; wages are coming in new mixtures of options, incentives and ownership; fixed jobs melt into fluid careers.

As business changes, so do the traits needed to survive, let alone excel, and all these transitions put increased value on emotional intelligence.

Competitive pressures put a new value on people who are self-motivated, show initiative, have the inner drive for outdoing themselves, and are optimistic enough to take reversals and setbacks in their stride. The ever-pressing need to serve customers and clients well and to work smoothly and creatively with an ever more diverse range of people makes the ability to empathize all the more essential.

At the same time, the meltdown of those old hierarchies increases the importance of traditional people skills such as building bonds, influence and collaboration. And that is as true for employers as it is for employees.

The task of the leader draws on a wide range of personal skills. Research has shown that emotional competence makes the crucial difference between mediocre leaders and the best. Indeed, emotional competence makes up about two thirds of the ingredients of star performance in general, but for outstanding leaders emotional competencies – as opposed to technical or cognitive cues – make up 80 to 100% of those listed by companies as crucial for success.

Star performers show significantly greater strengths in a range of emotional competencies, such as the skills of persuasion, team leadership, political awareness, self-confidence, and achievement drive.

Empathy, one of the key elements of emotional intelligence, is central to good management; it is difficult to have a positive impact on others without first sensing how they feel and understanding their position.

People who are poor at reading emotional cues and inept at social interactions are very poor at influencing others in the workplace, and empathy has become more relevant as the whole world of work changes.

Virtually everyone who has a superior is part of at least one vertical ‘couple’ in the workplace; every boss forms such a bond with each subordinate. Such vertical couples are a basic unit of organisational life. Therein lays the blessing or the curse: This interdependence ties a subordinate and superior together in a way that can become highly charged. If both do well emotionally – if they form a relationship of trust and rapport, understanding and inspired effort – their performance will shine. But if things go emotionally awry, the relationship can become a nightmare and their performance a series of minor and major disasters.

While vertical couples have the entire emotional overlay that power and compliance bring to a relationship, peer couples – our relationships with co-workers – have a parallel emotional component, something akin to the pleasures, jealousies and rivalries of siblings.

If there is anywhere emotional intelligence needs to enter an organisation, it is at this most basic level.

Building collaborative and fruitful relationships begins with the couples we are a part of at work.

Bringing emotional intelligence to a working relationship can pitch it towards the evolving, creative, mutually engaging end of the continuum; failing to do so heightens the risk of a downward drift towards rigidity, stalemate and failure.

Emotional intelligence is that important …. 

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author and sales thought leader. He is the Senior Partner of Jonathan Farrington & Associates, and CEO of Top Sales World, based in London & Paris.

YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com, www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Earn Your Success   Pay the Price

A good friend of mine always told me that you “earned success” and you had to accept the fact that their normally was price to pay for that success.   When I work with my client’s sales teams I always inquire about their goals, actions and commitments to achieving their objectives-and what doesn’t surprises me anymore is this lack of fully understanding of the “price to pay”.

I am not suggesting that our lives are so consumed with achieving success that all other facets of life are out of balance.  Those of you who have taken my “Personal & Professional Pizza” assessment understand my focus on life balance, if you haven’t take the assessment, view my Gourmet Life video:  http://www.acumenmgmt.com/KeninAction123

However, if you are leading a sales organization or if you are a professional salesperson understanding that there is a price to be paid to achieve success must be clearly understood and accepted.  I see salespeople showing up Monday and simply coming to work-sales leadership and sales roles demand more.

First; it’s creative time.  Taking time on a quiet evening or on a Saturday to review each active sales opportunity and thinking through your sales tactics/strategies demands extra time.  What else can you do to win?

Second; it’s professional. Are you actively taking the extra time to review LinkedIn groups within your market to better understand what issues are being discussed?  The Sales Association group in LinkedIn and their VP Sales Group are good groups to join.  I am actually leading a series of monthly sales leadership web casts for the VP Sales Group.https://m360.salesassociation.org/event.aspx?eventID=74422

Third; it’s your network. Paying the price to develop, nurture and expand your network pays results. This takes time to find the right individuals and your effort to create an active campaign to build the network.  As a professional this time will bring you additional levels of revenue-at unexpected times.

Fourth; it’s mental toughness.  Just last week a salesperson was 90% confident he was closing an opportunity and then he got hit with an objection and was flattened.  He wasn’t strong enough to counter sell the objection, but at least he was strong enough to ask his fellow sales team members for advice.  We will now see if he and his manager go in to win.

I always enjoy the comments everyone makes on my various blogs, but reading your thoughts on this blog would be important.  What are the actions or efforts you believe are necessary to achieve success?

 Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. His latest book is: “Recruiting High Performance Sales Teams’.

Ken Thoreson provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Achieving the Balance Between Having Your Sales Team Respect You But Not Fear You

Ken: This week we have a guest blog. The topic is extremely important for all levels of sales leadership, especially in challenging situations/times.

Every good sales team manager knows that a delicate balance must be maintained between having your team respect you without having them fear you. We’re going to address why this balance is so important to maintain, and how to achieve and maintain it. 

Fear breads contempt. If your team is living in fear of you, or in fear of making a misstep, this can easily breed resentment. No one likes to feel as though they have someone on their shoulder watching their every move or waiting for them to fail.

Additionally, when your team fears you, they may make more missteps because they aren’t acting naturally and instinctively, but are trying too hard to please you. Trust them to do what they were hired to do. 

You want your employees to have a healthy respect for you, and not to fear you.

Be stern but relatable. Don’t be a frosty manager. This can create a bit of fear, as people always wonder what the cold manager is thinking about them. It’s okay to be human and to have a laugh with your team to put them at ease a bit.

The trick is not letting the team in too close. When they start to feel as though they are your good friends, they start to feel as though maybe they can get away with a bit more than they would if they weren’t. 

Reward success—employees appreciate the acknowledgement.

Incent and reward success. Everyone likes to have something to motivate them. Your team will appreciate and respect that you reward their success.

Don’t reward every single thing, because then rewards become less meaningful. Reward the really important wins, and show your team that these are not given out easily. Those who do get the awards appreciate and respect that you noticed their success and that you are calling it out to others.

Have very clear measures for success. Be clear regarding what it takes to get promoted and to be seen as successful on your team. Those who aren’t performing will stand out if you have metrics against which you can measure them. Don’t keep them on board for long if they continue to underachieve. Consider perhaps how you could route them elsewhere in the organization if they might be a better fit in another department, or let them go after a couple of warnings with no improvement.

If others feel they have to meet their own numbers but an underperformer is allowed to stay, this can breed resentment and disrespect. Taking expected and swift action with underperformers will go a long way in maintaining your team’s respect for you.

Have annual 360-degree reviews. Know what your team thinks of you and let them know what you think of them—get honest feedback by doing 360-degree reviews, and get a sense for whether there is any feeling of fear for you. Work to then change that if it is the case, and always look to improve yourself.

A good manager does not lead with fear, but earns the respect of his or her team and keeps it by being consistent, relatable, and someone who takes action both when things are going well on the team, and when they are not. Leading with fear can only breed contempt and frustration among a team, and is a good way to lose good people. Finding the balance can for some personalities be difficult, but with practice, you can get there. It’s well worth the effort.

Cara Aley is a freelance writer who writes about everything from matters relating to managing your business reputation to those of health and wellness.  

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”. 

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com