Increase Sales Blog

Posts Tagged ‘performance appraisal’

Yesterday as I eating lunch, I heard this dreaded comment coming from the table next to me I am not a salesperson. During the last 30 years, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard this or read this statement. Talk about setting yourself for failure!

What is even more astounding, as I heard even more as the tables were quite close together, this was an independent businessman who was responsible for earning all revenue.

If you have the belief that you are not in sales or not a salesperson, then now is the time to either:

• Change that belief
• Find another job

Our beliefs drive our actions creating our results.  To raise the bar, you must begin my changing your beliefs.  In selling, this means you must truly believe you are a salesperson and even better a great one especially if you wish to increase sales and make more money.

Now for some changing this belief might be scary because it is far easier to hide behind existing thoughts or attitudes than by moving forward.  Change is not easy. As human beings our bodies are designed to embrace conditioning in order to save energy for those times when we must fight or flight.

So this leads to the question: Why do you believe you are not a salesperson?  If you take the time to be honest and truly answer this simple question, is that you may find a negative belief about selling or sales. This belief is quite evident by the number of people who list their roles as:

• Marketing Representative
• Relations Representative
• Customer Relations Specialist
• Business Development Specialist

Yet, whey you analyze their job functions, they are engaged in selling.  But, please do not put the word “sales” on their business card since people do not like who sell them.  Sales Coaching Tip: Think buy from you instead of you selling to them.

What I share with my clients is this simple statement: “You receive what you believe.”  If you are responsible for securing new revenue and do not believe that you are in sales, then what you will receive will mirror those beliefs.  Believe it or not! With many salespersons missing their goals, some in sales management are seeking new solutions to this continued problem.

Until sales professionals truly believe selling is a great profession, their targets will be missed and will only increase their stress levels as well as their sales manager. (The Achilles Heel) This is the time to look at attitudes and habits and put the knowledge and the skills on the back burner.  Again, beliefs drive actions creating results.  Look to change that negative belief I am not a salesperson and you will experience improved results.

P.S. You may also wish to know how much stress you can handle along with your other talents. Using a performance appraisal tool may be another solution.

Talent management, having the right people in the right seats (Good to Great), does provide businesses a competitive advantage. Yet there has been a missing piece in this equation and that is alignment.

To determine if alignment or misalignment is present in your business does require a performance assessment specific to talent intelligence much like assessing whether the wheels of your car are aligned and balanced. Then this information regarding talents needs to be further aligned into the actual job descriptions, performance appraisal process, recruiting, hiring and on-boarding processes. After these alignment checks are taken, then specific behaviors can be clearly articulated so employees know the expectations behind all those major responsibilities and can leverage their talent intelligence within their daily behaviors.

Talent management for businesses is difficult because all human beings (employees) are unique due to the plethora of experiences each has received. All of these experiences affect how individuals determine the value and the impact of these values within the decision making process.  Read Montaque in his book – Why Choose This Book – examines this concept of value in far greater detail.

However difficult does not mean impossible.  By making a commitment to take that first step – assessing talent intelligence – can help you secure the right people in the right seat as well as increase profitability.

With information doubling at the speed of light (at least it seems that way when reading all the alerts and ezines that hit my In Box each week), it does appear staying ahead of the flow is require for those engaged in business innovation.  Those who understand the words of Marcel Proust “The true voyage of discovery is not seeing new landscapes, but seeing the same landscape with new eyes.” are ahead of the game.

And the game is always changing. For the last decade, talent management has become a mantra for many.  Terms within this area of performance improvement include human capital, business intelligence and employee retention.

This is why this recent article at ERE intrigued me. The discussion by author John Zappe looks at this new term: Talent Intelligence.

For the last 20 plus years, I have observed how talent is misused. The wrong people in the wrong seats on the bus so to speak to paraphrase Jim Collins in Good to Great.

My observation and that of one of my colleagues, Jay Niblick president of Innermetrix, is that people focus far too much on what they do wrong and thus their weaker talents than focus on what they do well there stronger talents.  And in some cases they will turn non-talents (not necessary for their current roles) into weaknesses.

Part of this is due to negative conditioning from early childhood.  The other part is the focus on improving our weaknesses from our school education.

Just imagine what would happen if all this misdirected money, emotions and energies were redirected to knowing what we do well?  Then we could choose exactly what talents could take us from where we are to where we want to be.  Finally, we could create a plan of action to Make it so as Captain Picard from Star Trek Enterprise said so often. (I really miss that series.)

Where would business innovation be if these actions were taken? Hmmm…

Unfortunately, most people do not know their talents or lack talent intelligence.  To correct this situation begins by assessing where individual are now so they can know their talents and how those talents affect their decision making styles as well as their levels of optimism and pessimism.  There are several instruments out there than can assist in what is really a performance appraisal of talent intelligence.

Possibly in the future, talent intelligence quotient (TIQ) will be more important than IQ or emotional intelligence (EQ).  However right now, the first step is to identify the talent intelligence within your business and then use that information to improve business innovation.

When reading one of my morning newspapers, I saw information about the Roy Rogers’ auction including the stuffed horse Trigger and many other memorabilia items. In the copy was a comment about how Roy Rogers’ watch would never go for $400.

The three questions that immediately popped up in my brain were:

1 – If  it was John Dillinger’s watch, Bernie Madoff’s or some other individual with known negative behaviors would the value be higher?

2 – Why do human beings appear to value the leavings (material possessions) of negative individuals far more than positive ones?
3 – How does this relate to business ethics practices (behaviors)

Part of the answers to all of these questions lie in the book – Why Choose This Book – by Read Montaque.  The human brain has its own criteria for determining value based upon each individual’s experience. Executive business coaching tip:  Reading this book will help you to better understand why your customers make the decisions they do.

Another part of the answer is due to negative conditioning.  What are the first three words most babies speak?

• Mom
• Dad
• No

This early childhood negative conditioning, in my opinion and from my observations, has an extended reach into adulthood.

As to the last question, when adults are continually exposed to negative events, this creates a negative self-fulling prophecy.  Many people actually feed off this negativity. Then when others fail to join in this negative feeding frenzy, they are viewed by those who are negative  as fearful, scared and non-supportive.

To turn all of this negativity does require awareness and clarity.  This solution may begin during the training and development or onboarding activities with a performance appraisal assessment that helps people to understand their own talents or what may be called the What.  Additional assessments may help to provide additional clarification as to the Why of what they value and the How of their behaviors.

Also this may require further alignment within the entire organization between current strategy, structure, processes and systems, incentives and rewards and people development.  In some cases the gaps between these areas support unintended unethical behaviors.

Business ethics practices are really the demonstration of ethical behavior in and outside of the workplace environment.  By understanding the decision making process behind their behaviors may assist you to furthering your desire to create and sustain a high performance workplace cultural driven by positive core values.

Several recent posts within LinkedIn groups discussed various aspects of what makes a great sales person including:

• Sales Skills
• Cold calling mistakes
• Best selling books

A plethora of wisdom and knowledge was shared. As I reflected upon many of the responses, I realized that those engaged in selling their products or services be them small business owners, independent sales professionals, realtors, financial advisors, insurance agents, corporate salespersons to even C Suite level executives have truly failed to assess and determine what makes a top sales performer in today’s relationship selling marketplace.

Today more than ever before, to successfully be a top sales performer demands that you understand education based marketing and relationship selling within the sales process.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Marketing is getting attention and developing the relationship. Selling is uncovering needs, presenting the case, earning the and delivering the sale. Do not confuse these two terms because to do so will keep you from earning the sales or what some call closing the deal.

Take a moment to think what talents are necessary to be successful so that someone will trust you enough to exchange their profits (hard cold cash) or disposable income for your products or services.  From my experience, there are probably 3 general categories or what I  prefer to call buckets.

• Goal setting, planning & achievement – How well do you manage your sales actions both short and long terms?
• Sales skills – How well do you know and then leverage your talents to further achieve your goals
• Time management – How well do you utilize this limited, non-renewable resource?

Beyond the missing knowledge about talents,  another missing piece is the lack of knowledge about how we as individuals make decisions both externally and internally.  Dr. Robert Hartman did extensive work specific to this field of study (science of Axiology). Hartman supported this field of research through the creation of a mathematical assessment to further validate that people made decisions using three (3) filters:

1. Head – Systems – Thinker
2. Heart – Intrinsic – Feeler
3. Hands – Extrinsic – Doer

Additionally, he assigned biases connected to each of these filters.

By having metrics that are deductive and objective with a validity coefficient around .92 versus inductive, subjective with a validity co-efficient around .85 provides the foundation for a solid performance appraisal to that those in sales can work more efficiently (doing things right) and effectively (doing the right things). Additionally, a solid assessment instrument can help you navigate the Law of Process or what is also called Gordon’s Learning Ladder.

If you truly wish to be the Red jacket, stand out in the crowd, then invest the time to:

• Know who you are
• Choose who you want to be
• Create what you wish to become

P.S. During the next week, additional postings will further explore this topic of sales skills and what is missing in sales training coaching.

During good and bad times, many business owners (based upon my years of experience and observations) believe that by increasing sales they can improve their bottom line.  Big misconception.  In the book, Corporate Canaries, (a real gem of a book), the author Gary Sutton devotes one entire chapter to this concept that you cannot outgrow losses.  The ability to increase sales are a must but only one size of the business equation.

To help understand what else needs to be done to work both sides of the business equation, I have joined with my strategic partner, Theresa Valade of Success Trek to co-sponsor a series of free business building Webinar.  The topics and dates are as follows:

• Performance Appraisal – You Want Me to Do What?
• July 15, 2010 – Thursday – 7:0o pm-8:00 pm CDT
• July 16, 2010 – Friday – 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CDT

• Productivity – I’m Working as Hard as I Can!
• August 12, 2010 – Thursday – 7:0o pm-8:00 pm CDT
• August 13, 2010 – Friday – 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CDT

• Marketing – Zero Cost Marketing for Sales & Employee Recruitment
• August 19, 2010 – Thursday – 7:0o pm-8:00 pm CDT
• August 29, 2010 – Friday – 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CDT

• Sales Training – You Hate to Sell, but You Need to Pay Your Bills
• September 23, 2010 – Thursday – 7:0o pm-8:00 pm CDT
• September 24, 2010 – Friday – 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CDT

• People – Exceptional Customer Experience Accelerates Profits
• October 14, 2010 – Thursday – 7:0o pm-8:00 pm CDT
• October 15, 2010 – Friday – 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CDT

• Productivity – Jump Start the New Years
• November 11, 2010 – Thursday – 7:0o pm-8:00 pm CDT
• November 12, 2010 – Friday – 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CDT

• People – Turn Resolutions into Results
• December 9, 2010 – Thursday – 7:0o pm-8:00 pm CDT
• December 10, 2010 – Friday – 12:00 pm-1:00 pm CDT

If you are interested in any of these, you can sign up on the right hand side in the second box entitled: Free Webinars. This will take you a page on my main website, ADVANCED SYSTEMS, from which you may enter your contact information to receive notice along with all the pertinent how to information.

Remember, that the goal to increase sales along will not make you profitable especially if you are bleeding dollars in the other operational aspects of your business.

Credit: Nowpublic.com

According to Dr. Hartman and the science of Axiology, people make buying decisions with their heads, their hearts and their hands. To leverage (think influence) how people make these decisions requires a convincing message with these four elements:

• Powerful Story
• Cohesive Message
• Emotional Exploitation
• Targeted Audience

Your message is the first and most crucial step within the overall sales process. A weak message delivers equally weak results.  However, a message that fails to emotionally connect with your potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) will also deliver poor results.

Take a few moments to think about your existing marketing message and how it attracts your potential customers.  Are you sounding like all those other businesses when you begin speaking?  Have you ever considered you are playing a very worn record that drones on and on and one instead of one that literally stops your targeted audience in their tracks?

Since people hear words and think in pictures, you have far more control of the picture they are painting in their brains than you probably realize. When you begin to observe what words trigger an emotional response, you can weave those very same words into your story. Then all you need to do is to ensure your overall message is cohesive in that is has a beginning, a middle, an end and makes sense specific to what you do.

By remembering this axiom, will help you with Axiom 2 and eventually lead to more sales.

P.S. If you are not sure of your own decision making styles and talents, you may find this performance appraisal instrument of interest.

The 20/80 rule (Pareto’s Principle) abounds in life and in sales. A posting by Tom Stein provides 5 steps to build a powerful and effective sales team where the goal to increase sales is realized.

Credit: LifeHack.org

Today it is critical to have the right people in the right seats in the right bus. When you understand their decision making styles to their talents (strengths)  you can not only achieve great performance appraisals, but have a cohesive team where all members are rowing with the same energy. In other words, you have removed the slackers from your team.

Additionally, by using the same metrics and tools to ensure sales goals are achieved is also necessary. One way is to adopt a proven goal setting worksheet or tool.

When organizations invest the time to truly develop their sales teams including providing effective sales training, then they can move away from the 20/80 principle and achieve a more realistic 50/50 or even better yet 100/100 sales effort.

Does your organization suffer from the 20/80 rule? How do you feel about it? Please feel free to leave your thoughts below.

The goal of sales training is to improve sales behavior leading to the completing the “Increase Sales Puzzle.” Yet in many cases, this professional development goal is never realized to its potential.  I was reminded of this when reading Kevin Eikenberry’s blog on Seven Key Actions to Greater  Personal and Professional Development.

Credit: Clipartof.com

Until newly acquired knowledge or information is taken in and then matched to existing schema (see Piaget’s Theory on Learning) behavior change cannot happen. One of the best questions to ask beyond “What I have learned?” is “What am I doing differently today than yesterday or last week?” This question also places responsibility back on the salesperson.

Individuals must have awareness about their behaviors. By asking this question of what are you doing differently helps for those within the sales training program to begin to make connections.

Then the next question is “What results have you seen or experienced from those changes?” Through this question, you have taken performance to the 4th level of evaluation as identified in Don Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation.

When sales training programs are constructed with a understanding of how individuals learn (and there truly is not that much difference between the learning styles of children and adults no matter what the experts say), then sustainability (behavior change) and a positive return on investment can be secured. Also any learning environment must be engaging and relevant to those attending the event.

Remember this Sales Training Coaching Tip:  One time learning events are the quickest way to drain your T&D budget without any positive return especially if you have not invested the time learning the talents of each sales team member through a thorough performance appraisal process.

You can complete the “Increase Sales Puzzle” when you invest the time to do it (sales training) right and not to do it quick (looking for the quick fix).

To win more sales means you must begin to change some of your existing behaviors that generate the most bang for your buck (think resources beyond money including time, energy and emotions). A recent post at the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur listed over 50 tips in how to increase productivity just by using technology better.

A good friend and colleague Doug Brown of Paradigm Associates has often said: People confuse motion with progress and activity with results. What Doug is talking about is how a lot of individuals including small business owners, C-Suite executives, single office/home office (SOHO) salespersons, sales management along with other department heads tread water while far fewer actually make it to the beach or the finish line.

Back in the dark ages before cell phones, faxes and computers, my father monitored his daily activity by giving himself points for leads received, appointments scheduled, actually meetings made to sales earned. His goal was to maintain 3 points per work day or 15 points per week. The prior week’s points never transferred to the current week. This sales productivity tool (which I turned into an Excel file) has worked for me. My goal is for 30 points per week since I have advantages Dad never had.

Additionally, you may wish to consider examining yourself by informally assessing your own sales skills or engaging in a more formal sales talent performance appraisal process.   How to increase productivity is up to you and the daily choices you make.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  The choices you make are directly connected to your ability to increase sales and make more money.

With 80% of all sales being made between the 5th and 12th contacts and with over 50% of all sales leads never acted upon, there is a lot of wasted productivity for those who are engaged in selling products or services.  By taking the time to reflect and determine exactly what you need to do to improve your sales productivity and win more sales will be a worthwhile investment.