Open For Business?
The state of the economy continues to be an ongoing topic and debate. Comments like double dip recession, a continuance of the original recession and slow recovery are just some of the phrases one hears wherever one goes.
This begs the question: “Are you open for business?”
My typical week has me speaking in front of hundreds if not thousands of business owners, sales managers and sales professionals. My sessions are often meeting places where many different companies and industries are represented, as well as industry conferences where all attendees are from the same industry. To my way of thinking, all of these are breeding grounds for building relationships, generating business referrals and generating new business directly.
This begs the question: “Are you open for business?”
Its difficult for me to conceive that people would not be carrying their business cards to such gatherings. Yet, the percentage of people not carrying a card seems to be growing almost monthly! If you are a leader in your company, are you prepared with an adequate supply of cards at such times? When is it that you would deem it appropriate to not have your cards? What tone are you currently setting?
As for the sales professionals, they surely should have sufficient business cards with them at all times. I think it’s time to “inspect what you expect”. Business leaders should make it a regular practice to ask to see the business cards their sales people are carrying. Are there enough? What condidtion are they in? I’m frustrated with so many folks harping about a tough economy yet not even carrying their cards!
Are you and your Company open for business?
Daly News August 2010 Volume 40
Saturday, August 7th, 2010
MAKING MORE SALES & PROFITS HAPPEN
Here’s a lot of what I’m seeing and hearing: people complaining about a shortage in sales and growing tired of ‘when they will arrive’; people calling on more people in hopes that that will ‘fix it’; people dropping price to win deals; people talking about a tough economy; people rationalizing that others are struggling so I’m ok; people hunkering down and protecting what they’ve got; people staying ‘ in the box’ for fear that this is not the time to make changes; people cutting expenses further, now ‘nicking the bone’.
Whether you are a sales person, sales manager or business owner, re-read the above paragraph and see if you and/or your company is ‘in there’. Do the above statements point to a solution for improvement? Regardless of whether your business is up, down or flat, here is a suggested set of actions to take to generate more profitable business. Remember that tried and true axiom, “If you want different results, change your activities”.
While this can be done solo, better results will be produced if this is done as a group. Take a blank flip chart and challenge yourself/the group to identify all the things you/the company are presently doing that each/any of you think are no longer worth doing. Are they adding to efficiency? Are they adding to profitability? Are they producing desired sales results? Why are they currently being done? These are the type of brainstorming questions to be asked re items on the list.
Next, on a separate sheet of paper, identify all the things you feel you/the company should be doing and currently are not. New markets? New processes? New business developments? New products/services? Maybe something that others are doing successfully and you/the company are not?
Here’s your next sheet: pretend you were newly entering your market/business. What would the company/you look like to optimize that business? Draw/detail it out here on this sheet. Describe and design the ‘winning company’ for your business. On a separate sheet, detail out what you/the company currently ‘look like’.
Given all of the above, have the team identify what stands in the way of going from where you are to what you identified as the ideal. Recognize there may need to be some compromises. However, you should be able to identify some proactive action steps for the individual and the firm to move forward and stop waiting for things to happen and start making things happen!
I’ve performed this activity on several occasions with my prior companies and with several clients over the years, and it has always paid big dividends. In fact, I’d recommend it be done twice a year, in good and bad times both. I am far from an insider at APPLE, but watching from the outside it sure appears they are doing something similar with their business…and it sure isn’t letting a challenging economy get in its way of record sales, record profits and record share price. TAKE ACTION!
When it comes to compensation and rewards for sales people, owners and managers often ask questions like these
- Our sales team is not achieving our company sales goals. What should be our top priority to turn this around?
- Our sales people need to make more money but we can’t afford it. What can we do to drive the results we need?
- Our sales team is less than 100% motivated. How can we change this?
- We can’t afford to hire top sales talent but we need them. How can we do it?
If you want proven ideas to motivate your team to higher productivity, join me forCompensation, Recognition & Rewards for Sales People on Tuesday, August 17 at 1:00 pm Pacific time.
Jack speaks from experience growing productive sales teams. What could you learn from his successes?
- Proven CEO/Entrepreneur, having built 6 companies into national firms.
- Co-owner/senior exec, of INC #10 and Entrepreneur of the Year award winner.
- Led sales forces numbering in the thousands.
- History of proven growth of clients’ businesses from individual success stories to international size firms.
I’ll show you proven ways to attract and retain a high performing sales team and achieve your sales objectives while controlling your costs.
Let me teach you the 7 key areas that every sales leader should know to create an effective sales comp plan, recognition and rewards system. Join us for my webcast Compensation, Recognition & Rewards for Sales People. It’s loaded with ideas that will increase your sales team’s productivity…
How to create effective “alignment” in a win-win comp plan Seven JPEGS
- Four keys that produce a motivating and profitable comp plan.
2. Seven elements of an effective comp plan formula.
3. Seven comp plan components that drive your sales results AND what top performers look for.
4. How to replace the old selling role for sales reps with new roles that improve results.
5. Five important steps how to design a quality sales comp plan.
6. Ideas to construct winning rewards and recognition systems that ensure consistent motivation and results.
7. Join us for Compensation, Recognition & Rewards for Sales People Tuesday, Aug 17 1:00 pm Pacific time.
Includes 5 Training Support Tools to Increase Learning
This webcast includes useful support tools to increase your understanding and implementation:
- Handout: Convenient to help you take notes and follow along
- Summary Sheet: A valuable learning and reinforcement tool
- Discussion Guide: Great for individuals & team leaders to discuss key ideas and take action
- Quiz & Best Answers: A simple tool to better understand and retain key points
Learn these comp plan ideas that drive results. Click here to sign up for this session and any of the sessions below. All 2010 webcast events are at 1:00 pm Pacific time.
* Recorded: Available for your replay up to 2 times for a minimum of 60 days
WEBCAST MEMBERSHIP- Great! So what’s my investment?
The cost for a single Jack Daly webcast membership is $399 for the entire year. If you buy 2 or more memberships, your investment drops to just $249 each for the year. Your membership includes all 5 training tools for each session. You get six live Jack Daly webcasts each year (plus the archived recorded training for your repeat access) and all the support materials for just $399… or just $249 each when you buy 2 memberships or more. Obviously this is a great deal!
Includes 5 Training Support Tools to Increase Learning
Each webcast includes useful support tools to increase your understanding and implementation:
- Handout: Convenient to help you take notes and follow along
- Summary Sheet: A valuable learning and reinforcement tool
- Discussion Guide: Great for individuals & team leaders to discuss key ideas and take action
- Quiz & Best Answers: A simple tool to better understand and retain key points
- Recorded: Available for your replay up to 2 times for a minimum of 60 days
Click here to register and get instant access. Raise your Sales IQ! Whether you run the company, lead a team or are on the frontline making it happen, join me for this! Sign up for this important webcast training series NOW to commit yourself to build your sales results! Act now, I guarantee you’ll learn proven ideas to boost your sales productivity!
IN THE NEWS
A few months ago INC. magazine had a terrific article titled “Lessons from a Blue-Collar Millionaire“, about a pizza and pub owner installing a sales & service model for anyone interested in bigger profits, happy customers and employees that go the extra mile. When all was said and done, Nick Sarillo built his company’s success on the back of that word you here frequently from me- CULTURE . I think he may have stolen a few chapters from Ronald Reagan’s playbook, the old “trust but verify”, as his management process is all about “trust and track”. Here’s the foundation in Nick’s words: “Everyone I knew who’d had a business told me, No one cares like an owner. No one works as hard as an owner. They said, watch out. People are going to steal. I set out to prove them wrong. I wanted a place where everyone worked hard and cared a lot; where people enjoyed coming to work, felt good afterward, and weren’t motivated to steal. If I couldn’t have that kind of business, I didn’t want to have a business.”
Here are a few of the ingredients to Nick’s winning recipe:
- Feel your community’s pain; share its joy. Fundraisers, benefits and unique discounts to the community on “less busy” days.
- Hire only A+ players. Just one of every 12 applicants gets hired, and it takes a minimum of 2 interviews and a personality test (for work in a pizza pub!).
- Ongoing training. An elaborate, rigorous and ongoing training program exists for all. Compensation increases, profit sharing, preference in scheduling are tied to the courses and your growth in the structured program, which as an employee you choose if you want to advance (and work for it!).
- Systems & Processes. Nick’s is a business doing a bit over $7 million in sales yet has systems built throughout, right down to the best method to greet a customer.
- Coach in the moment, not after the fact. There are three forms of feedback: a feedback loop, a performance feedback and direct feedback, which happens in the moment. This includes lots of role playing as well.
- A consultant can be more helpful than you think. Nick invested $200k for an outsider to design and implement systems, which in just one area reduced cost of turnover annually by over $250k. Be sure to differentiate an expense from an investment. Nick’s competition would have viewed the consultants fee as an expense!
- Make talking safe, so issues get raised by anyone at any level.
- “Why” is more important than “What” or “How”.
- “Trust” without “Track” is an invitation to trouble.
- Beware of growing before you-and the company-are ready.
We can all learn a lot from Nick and his Culture and Systems & Processes. How are yours doing?
TAKING ACTION
The frustrating part of what I do as a speaker/teacher is relying on others to “take action”. Frustrating especially when you hear about the challenges of a tightened economy, and yet too many folks not taking the actions needed to WIN.
Check these examples of others, and then ask yourself why you aren’t “making things happen”..
Hi Jack
114% of Budget!!
We have implemented the following with great success in the last week since you training;
- Money bag- each call
- Voice mail- changed daily = making a point of difference with our clients, many have commented on the changed message
- Touch system underway = for A>B>C
Look forward to keeping you posted!!
Kind regards
Kelvin Marks
GoGetta Equipment Funding
Hi Jack,
REALLY ENJOYED THE JOURNEY!!!
I did your session last week in Brisbane. Some feedback from the July 22nd session….
I went to a customer meeting the next day and used some of the skills you taught me on this course.
Particularly in relation to the profiling, listening and the main one was the VALUE proposition info.
I saw this customer firmly in the “Premium” end of the market with their products. So I put it to them that it’s definitely not always about price. Since they charge THEIR customers a premium for the luxury of buying their blue ribbon icecream.
I also saw the benefit for me being passionate about the product since I LOVE their icecream and always have.
To cut a long story short, I am well on the way to completing a contract to supply them with my packaging. In the long term will run into the millions in sales.
Once again thanks for these very powerful tools.
Best Regards,
Des
CONTINUOUS SELF DEVELOPMENT
“Everything Counts: 52 remarkable ways to inspire excellence and drive results by Gary Ryan Blair . Gary is known in the business world as The Goals Guy and earlier this year I had the opportunity to hear him speak and he rocked the house. This prompted me to buy his book and my Kindle is now footnoted with an incredible amount of notes and takeaways. Warning: This is not a Malcolm Gladwell type book with first time revealed eye-popping stuff. Gary isn’t bringing anything necessarily new to the front here, but its one of the best resources of the things we should be doing in our personal and business lives to be better and in fact to be the best we can be. Really solid stuff here gang. Witness-
- Very small differences, consistently practiced, produce superior results.
- If you make a commitment, honor it. If you make a promise, keep it. If you set a goal, achieve it.
- Fantastic things can be accomplished once you move beyond merely being interested to a state of passionate commitment.
- Focus serves as an absolute precondition for every success you will experience.
- Any kind of positive outcome requires that you concentrate your efforts on the smallest number of activities that will produce the largest amount of productivity.
- Every act of boldness accelerates the pace with which you enjoy success.
- Life will not go according to plan if you do not have a plan.
- Vision is the capacity to see the invisible that inspires us to do the impossible-a guiding image of success.
- If you want to get better outcomes, you must prioritize every action and activity you undertake.
Well, trust me, I could go on and on with pearls from Gary. So, pick up his book and sign up for his newsletter at www.goalsguy.com.
GPS gives you the sales systems, processes and tools you need to keep your sales team on track. GPS can get your entire sales team at top performer levels, not just your top 20%. Sales systems and processes powered by Jack Daly for as little as $69/Month.
GPS puts into action the specific, unique sales systems and processes that Jack Daly has personally used to grow six companies from start-up to remarkable national (large-scale) success… and is currently teaching and using successfully with clients around the world for more than a decade.
GPS focuses high payoff sales actions on results. Goal setting, tracking key activities, proactive pipeline management, building perception of value, prospect preparation, best question & objections, sales success tools and more. Its professional sales systems, processes and tools that grow sales and profits
- Focus on Results
More focused, less fragmented. Keep your eye on the ball… how to focus your sales team on their goals and key activities needed, backed with productive accountability.
- Proven Sales Plan
Effective systems and processes using simple tools to build a solid sales management action plan. Get everyone performing at a much higher level.
- Sales Leadership
Get it right. Evaluations, inspection, 1-on-1 and team communications to raise the bar for your team to consistently higher results.
- Competitive Advantage
You’ll learn how to create a real, distinct advantage over your competitors to win more sales.
Interested? Check out our demos, http://gps.jackdaly.net/demos.Here’s the schedule of cities I will be conducting programs in over the next 3 months (some for clients, others are open seat workshops). I may have flexibility in my scheduling for lunch, dinner or more should someone have an interest. If you see I’m headed to your part of the world, feel free to email [email protected] with your interest and Jen will do her best to accommodate any requests.
- August- New Orleans, Austin, Denver, Chicago, Green Bay
- September- Montreal, Green Bay, Hartford, DC, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Denver, Austin
- October- Boston, Philly, New Jersey, Chicago, DC, Toronto, Denver, Vancouver.
- November- Chicago, Cleveland, Austin, Birmingham, Toronto, Vancouver, Detroit
What’s a Salesperson Worth?
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
We think this is a terrific question that every company should not only ask but actually calculate. One of the more frequent “needs/wants” of Sales managers is a solid sales professional for their team. One of the keys to finding top performers is to always be recruiting. Another is to enlist others help-in fact, to pay them for helping you! Take a look.
As many of you know, I’ve owned several mortgage companies over the years. Let’s say a solid salesperson in that business brings in 10 loans a month and on each loan the Company makes $1500, making it $15,000 per month or $180,000 for the year in profit/value. Now, let’s say we retain this salesperson for a conservative 2 years, that would make it $360,000 of total contribution. Given such, if your company were to consider offering a “Finders Fee Program” for employees to help find such a performer, how much would you be willing to pay? Would $5,000 be reasonable? How about $10,000? Do you think we could get all of our staff excited to bring us some candidates of worth?
Let’s take it a step further. Suppose we agree on $5,000. Now, how about paying it on a “pay for performance” basis? For example, here we could state we would pay $1,000 on the 10th loan closed, another $1,000 on the 20th loan, and the final $3,000 on the 30th loan funded. This way, we are paying for something we know is of value, and we are paying the reward out of the cash flow generated from the new business!
Run the numbers for your company and give serious consideration to implementing a “Finders Fee Program”.
We wish you good hunting!
