How to Increase the Sales and Profitability of Your Sales Organization

A Measuring Stick to Define Your Talent

Historically, most executives who have a sales organization under their control through a VP of Sales believe that the key to increasing sales from the organization normally comes from the list below. Often, these approaches are done with little to no effect.
•    Developing their soft skills to sell
•    Adding new products or services
•    Providing additional technical training on products or services sold
•    Changing the compensation structure to provide better motivation to sell
•    Setting Sales Goals & Profit Objectives

When one of the above approaches is deployed, it is often a puzzle to management why sales and profits hardly improved, if at all. You thought these were great to increase sales right? 
The core sales problem may not have been properly addressed and the real issue may be that the salespeople may have not been the best choice due to lack of aptitudes and behaviors needed for success in sales. Further, the sales trainer/manager, who believes that he or she can teach anyone to be highly successful in sales, may be proven to be seriously mistaken.

Executives, managers, HR people, and recruiters think they have the skills, knowledge, and ability to identify the traits in a sales candidate.  In reality, there are certain critical mental aptitudes and behavioral traits which simply aren’t accurately identifiable and measurable from an application, resume, or interview.
To make matters worse, many hiring decision makers take prior sales experience often times far too seriously. Experience could mean the sales candidate as moving up or forward with more responsibility, when in fact the employer(s) concluding this particular salesperson was never going to make it with them. Thus, prior experience must be more thoroughly investigated than most interviewers are prepared to explore.

Consider the importance of the following critical sales aptitudes and behavioral traits as a requirement for successful sales people vs. prior experience including which ones can be accurately measured in an application, resume, or interview and which ones cannot.

The following are critical sales oriented traits:

The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How To Recognize The Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late,

The following information is taken from the book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How To Recognize The Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late, by Leigh Branham, 2005, AMACOM publishers.

The Saratoga Institute conducted a survey and it revealed that 89% of managers believe employees leave for more money. But, in fact, the survey found that 88% of employees leave for reasons other than money. What a disconnect!

Maybe it is easier for managers to think that money is the real issue, rather than hear that there are things that need to be fixed. But, the truth is, there are things that can be done to keep employees happy and productive, and on the job.

The 10 most frequently mentioned issues that employees say companies do poorly are:

• Poor management—uncaring and unprofessional managers; overworking staff; no respect, not listening, putting people in wrong jobs; speed over quality; poor manager selection processes.
• Lack of career growth and advancement opportunities—no perceivable career paths; not posting job openings or filling from within; favoritism or unfair promotions.
• Poor communications—problems communicating top-down and between departments; after mergers; between facilities.
• Pay—paid under-market or less than contributions warrant; pay inequities; slow raises; favoritism for bonuses/raises; ineffective appraisals.
• Lack of recognition—that says it all.
• Poor senior leadership—not listening, asking, or investing in employees; unresponsiveness and isolation; mixed messages.
• Lack of training—nonexistent or superficial training; nothing for new hires, managers, or to move up.
• Excessive workload—doing more with less; sacrificing quality and customer service for numbers.
• Lack of tools and resources—insufficient, malfunctioning, outdated, equipment/supplies; overwork without relief.
• Lack of teamwork—poor coworker cooperation/commitment; lack of interdepartmental coordination.

If you see that these are problems in your workplace, actively work to get them corrected through work team initiatives, discussions with your manager, or sharing corporate models where things are done right. Sometimes it is easier to fix the problem then move on and start anew.

This article was originally found here

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4 of 33 Tips for Productivity on the Job

1. Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it. If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.
2. Daily goals. Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions. Set targets for each day in advance. Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
3. Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day. This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.
4. Peak times. Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and schedule your most important tasks for those times. Work on minor tasks during your non-peak times.
   
   
   

Communicate Clearly

As a leader, you enjoy the keen satisfaction of knowing you help others to achieve their goals while you reach your own goals. Effective communication binds all the individuals of this complex business relationships together and enables you, both as individuals and as a team, to achieve organizational goals. Several constructive attitudes form the foundation for successful communication:

▲ Good relationships. Getting along well with people is essential to effective leadership. Constructive communication – written or verbal – takes into account the principles of good human relationships. Respect and consideration for others, for example, are paramount to good human relationships. “Treat others as you would have them treat you” is a reliable guideline at all levels of human interaction. If you want others to listen to you, for example, you must listen to them. If you want to be treated courteously, you must exhibit courtesy.

▲ Mutual understanding. Achieving results through communication and persuasion requires mutual understanding. Understanding, in turn, requires a genuine effort to see things from the point of view of others. This empathetic effort earns the confidence of other people, paves the way for acceptance of your message, and increases the likelihood of a positive response.

4 Lessons Learned from Putting Leadership Development at the Heart of a Major Operations-Improvement Effort

1.  Leadership and Management Development Training must be tied to the business strategy of the organization.

2.  Leadership Training must build on the behavioral strengths needed for the overall transformation while focusing on the existing interpersonal strengths and managerial optimism of your management team to help them broadly engage the employees in the organization.

3.  Provide the training participants access to senior level executives so they can tell them the hard truths or the “why’s” for the change.

4.  Create a network or forum for communicating ideas, best practices, and even pitfalls to avoid among managers.  Managers need to know that they are not alone in this transformation.

Putting leadership development at the heart of a major operations-improvement effort paid big dividends for a global industrial company.(Free Report Below) Far too often, leaders ask everyone else to change but fail to do so themselves. In reality,  this philosophy doesn’t work until they first change themselves.

 

6 Tips for Managers on Employee Relations

1.     Establish a Framework of Trust – it is imperative that the leadership exhibit behaviors and actions in the workplace that are consistent and fair.  It is important that you address their needs in a candid, reliable and consistent manner. 

2.     Clarify your Expectations – Define your expectations in a manner in which people can understand and be willing to compromise if found to be overzealous with your projections.  People know that they are being asked to do more with less but be reasonable in your expectations of them and they will be fair in their evaluation of you.

3.     Focus on your People’s Strengths – contrary to popular belief, the most valuable asset of your organization is not your people; it is the strengths of your people.  Making sure that the talents of your people are maximized to reach their potential in an integral component of a high achieving organization.

4.     Communication Channels must be Open – focus on all aspects of your communication including your non-verbal skills and make sure all your vehicles for communicating with the workforce reflect a positive yet realistic design for success.

5.     Use Delegation as a learning Experience – delegate the workload to the people that want to learn and develop.  Provide the instructions and demonstrate the skill-sets that will make them successful with the assignment and monitor their progress while being in a supportive role from start to finish.

6.     Invest in Development – People development should be the primary responsibility of anyone in a leadership role.  Managers must make sure that the work environment is conducive for growth and development.  An employee relation is helping people reach their potential enabling them to be satisfied with their career pathway.

At Innovative Leadership, we believe that the growth and development of people can make a difference with the success of your organization.  Click Here or Call 609.390.2830 for more information on our Training and Development Courses

Succession Planning, Why Bother?

by Richard Hohmann
Since I don’t have a enough time to plan on a daily basis, how would you ever expect me to plan my succession? With the economy going south and the real estate market at its lowest ebb in years, how can I ever retire and make sure the business continues demonstrating sustained growth? These questions may be going through your mind but it is certainly the time and the climate to make sure a succession plan is in place and is viable.

Most people wait too long before developing a succession plan, but most agree late is better than never. Many business owners feel that succession planning ends with an estate plan and enough life insurance in place to handle most situations. It is true that they need to be addressed but there is more to succession planning than insurance and estate taxes. There is no question that the tax liability placed on the business following the owner’s death may put the business in the ground with the owner. There may be the need to use the monies from the insurance policy to sustain the company during this transition period. It is best to work out the financial concerns before they happen. It is important that the methods to pay taxes, buy-out the deceased partner’s share, etc. are finalized before the event actually happens.

Let’s look at the intangibles. Things like good will, trust, and respect for the new management team must be established over time. Even if it is a family member or key employee that takes over the company, trust development takes time…and time is money. Clients will have concerns about receiving the same quality of service and attention. The best way to eliminate these concerns is to develop customer loyalty to the new regime before the person retires or becomes deceased. It is imperative that you transition in the new management team prior to the old guard riding off into the sunset. Take the time to introduce your clients to the next generation of ownership while exceeding their service expectations. A Win-Win combination!

It is imperative that the new management team or generation of ownership is ready to assume the role. Many newly anointed family members have no real business experience or have never experienced any other work environment and tend to be rather poor in “street smarts”. Many times we revert back to the “let’em sink or swim, no one taught me how to do it!” or “let them gain the experience through failure”. I guess we now know why most businesses don’t last past two generations.

Here are a few steps to help Succession Planning work for you:

1. Evaluate the stage that your business is currently in.
2. Evaluate the stage where the business needs to be to sustain the opportunity for the next generation
3. Evaluate the people in place to ensure sustained growth and development
4. Recruit and train the next generation in ownership
5. Select the leader for the company; don’t divide equally.
6. Prepare the company for the transition; communicate the plan
7. Design an implementation plan for succession and stick to the timeline

Succession planning is not an easy task. It is time consuming and needs the input from your most trusted advisors; your spouse, other family members, your lawyer, your accountant, your financial planner and your business consultant and maybe some others. It takes time and money to create an effective plan of succession but I guarantee you one thing, if you don’t, it will cost you and your loved ones a lot more.

Call me at 609.390.2830 for a complimentary consultation on the development of Your Succession Plan or click here to get started now!