Keep It SIMPLE

While listening to news radio the other day, a Sales Guru serving as a guest of a talk show was asked to offer his advice given the current economic environment. He stated he has some VERY valuable advice for business owners to assist them through the crises - the show then went to a commercial break - as they often do when some good information is to follow.

During the commercial break you could feel the anticipation build. Listeners were gearing up to receive the magic bullet - the solution they needed to manage through the economic peril. After the commercial break and a pregnant pause, the Sales Guru proceeded to share his infinite wisdom...

"You business owners need to lighten up on the sales reps because it's hard out here. We're in some very challenging times and you need to tone it down a bit."

Afterwards, I could sense the deflation and disappointment from the radio audience. The Guru had just confessed that he too had become a victim of the PAIN CHAIN. But was he onto something???

In challenging times sales leaders in organizations tend to fire up the Pain Chain - when sales results are not realized the pressure gets cranked up in hopes of improving results. The Pain Chain can cause frustration, stress, anxiety, etc…sound familiar? Most importantly, the Pain Chain, if not addressed properly can cause failure. As a Sales Consultant and founder of The McKinnis Consulting Group, I see this far too often and it really is a symptom of a bigger problem – the lack of a sound sales process.
My team and I grew a multi-billion dollar sales organization 50% in just 18 months - we could not have done it through Pain Chain pressure. The key was having an efficient and effective sales process. The cornerstone of a highly effective sales process is simply – Managing Relevant Sales Activity...Not Results. Many companies fall into the trap of trying to manage results when it is actually the underlying relevant sales activity that should be managed. This concept is so important that I dedicated an entire chapter to the concept in my new book Sales is Simple From Luck to Leverage (available on Amazon.com). Here’s an excerpt…

As a salesperson, how many times have you heard the “pick it up” phrase from a Sales Manager or a C – level (CEO, CFO, etc) Executive? What does it mean exactly? Do more calls need to be made? Do more hours need to be worked?

It is the “pick it up” phrases that get thrown around and scramble afterwards that will suck the energy and life from a sales force if they are not clear on what to do. It’s like being given a map of London when you are trying driving from Chicago to New York – it’s frustrating.

Managing your sales activities is not only the key to achieving high performance sales success it also the key to achieving sustainable success.

What good is making high levels of cold calls if you are not achieving the desired results?

To effectively manage sales results the focus has to be on the relevant sales activities. In the simplest terms, relevant sales activity can be described in 3 categories:

Inconsistent sales results are a function of inconsistent or unmanaged sales activity. Some examples of relevant sales activity are Attempts, Contacts, Appointments and Conversions. The most important of these activities are the Contacts. Contacts are defined as opportunities to initiate the sales process i.e. phone conversations with decision makers, presentations, etc. Experience has proven, increased Contacts lead to increased Results - it's that simple.

An effective sales process should deliver desired results, if not, the process should be evaluated and modified.

Discovering how to ramp up contacts consistently can lead your sales efforts to sustainable high performance levels and a recession proof sales process. Marketing and Advertising are essential for driving contacts. However, if you are strapped with cutbacks and shrinking budgets there are 3 simple things to incorporate into your sales process for your Sales Reps:

1) Reduce the Pain - Create a “Contacts” Goal - determine the goal based upon the desired sales results a.

2) Manage Contact Levels Weekly – It’s a simple fact, what gets measured get done -accountability is everything!

3) Reward Behavior, Celebrate the Sense of Accomplishment – If the contact goals are accomplished, acknowledge them with your team. Some ideas are lunches, dinners, unannounced prizes, etc. Use what’s best to motivate your team. If you’re and entrepreneur – celebrate your own accomplishment the best way you know how.

During these times, be encouraged to maintain your Contacts at high levels. Sales teams we currently work with are operating at very high activity levels, under normal conditions their efforts would place them at 200% of goal. However they are still achieving desired results. Are you?

Reducing the Pain, evaluating your sales process and holding your sales staff accountable are the keys to managing through this economic climate. Please understand, your prospects and clients are still doing business, the question is, are they doing business with you.

--By Rod McKinnis

Achieving your own happiness is the best measure of how well you are living your life and enjoying your relationships. You can learn how to be happier and more fulfilled in everything you do.

Everyone is Different
Happiness in life is like a smorgasbord. If 100 people went to a smorgasbord and each put food on their plate in the quantity and mix that each felt would be most pleasing to him, every plate would be different. Even a husband and wife would go up to the smorgasbord and come back with plates that looked completely different. Happiness is the same way. Each person requires a particular combination of those ingredients to feel the very best about himself or herself.

Listen to Your Heart
And your mix is changing continually. If you went to the same smorgasbord every day for a year, you probably would come back with a different plateful of food each time. Each day-sometimes each hour-only you can tell what it takes to make you happy. Therefore, the only way to judge whether a job, a relationship, an investment, or any decision, is right for you is to get in touch with your feelings and listen to your heart.

Be True to Yourself
You´re true to yourself only when you follow your inner light, when you listen to what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the “still, small voice within.’ You´re being the very best person you can be only when you have the courage and the fortitude to allow your definition of happiness, whatever it may be, to be the guiding light of every part of your life.

There Are No Limits
A very important point on the subject of happiness is whether or not you feel that you “deserve’ to be happy. Accept the notion that you deserve all the happiness you can honestly attain through the application of your talents and abilities. The more you like and respect yourself, the more deserving you will feel of the good things in life. And the more deserving you feel, the more likely you will attain and hold on to the happiness you are working toward.

Make Happiness Your Key Measure
You should make happiness the organizing principle of your life. Compare every possible action and decision you make against your standard of happiness to see whether that action would make you happier or unhappier. Soon, you will discover that almost all of the problems in your life come from choices that you have made - or are currently making - that do not contribute to your happiness.

Pay the Price
Of course, there are countless times when you will have to do little things that don´t make you happy along the way toward those larger things that make you very happy indeed. We call this paying the price of success in advance. You must pay your dues.
Sometimes these interim steps don´t make you happy directly, but the happiness you achieve from attaining your goal will be so great that it totally overwhelms the temporary inconveniences and dissatisfactions you have to endure in order to get there.

Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, accept that you deserve all the joy and happiness you can possibly achieve through your own efforts.

Second, make your own happiness the chief organizing principle of your life and judge everything against that standard.

Third, be willing to work hard and pay the price for the satisfaction and rewards you desire. Always go the extra mile and your success will be assured.

-- Brian Tracy

Many individuals have "faulty evaluation systems." They are rarely satisfied when successful and are overly critical of their performance, even if they win, and win big. This can become a rigid pattern. In the past it may have driven them to great successes, but over time it can become a burden and an anchor from being more successful.

These individuals tend to continually try harder and often fall short in their own eyes. They will readily admit that they are hard on themselves, but they believe it is the only way to push themselves to their best performance. It is as if they have a calculator that is defective, but they do not realize it is always off one digit. When evaluating themselves, the calculator should read 1,000, but instead, it reads 100, or it should read 100 but instead reads 10. They get upset about the reading but don't realize their evaluation system is faulty or broken. Instead of "being on their side," they are always "on their case."

There are three major, unintended consequences of being on your case rather than being on your side.

1. These people are never satisfied with their performance, and their self-confidence is affected.

2. Because everything seems to be less than they had hoped, they are miserable, tense, and unhappy.

3. Unconsciously, they treat others the same way they treat themselves -- overly critical, picky, negative, and never satisfied.

Most individuals who are hard on themselves are blindsided to the problems inherent in their personal leadership style. Sometimes they require a wake-up call to alert them to the serious impact this kind of pattern has on their ultimate performance and well-being. If you recognize yourself in the above profile, answer a simple question: What percentage of the time are you on your case instead of on your side? Use a scale of 1 to 100. You can tell if you or others have a faulty evaluation system if after every performance you establish that you should have had:

better effort

higher quality

faster delivery

The manifestation of this kind of attitude is typically feeling scolded by yourself for failing to live up to your abilities. It's almost like you take out your whip and begin snapping yourself into shape. You may even say or think, "How could I be so stupid? When am I going to finally learn? What is wrong with me?" More, better, faster, more, better, faster: this becomes an automatic, negative self-evaluation system.

Andrea's Story

Andrea was an executive in an agency and constantly felt she was behind in everything -- e-mails went unanswered, voice mails were not returned, one-on-ones with staff were cancelled or rescheduled. Her self-evaluation system was harsh and unforgiving in spite of many of the positive things she was initiating at the agency. Andrea often spent her first moments with an employee apologizing for something she had failed to get around to. Her confidence was affected, and her negative self-evaluation started to influence others. Perhaps she wasn't as competent as they had thought she was...

In one of our coaching sessions, Andrea achieved a breakthrough when I pointed out that she had apologized three times in 30 minutes. It was obvious she was overly critical of herself. She became painfully aware of how automatic this self-evaluation system was, and more importantly, recognized that it was quite possibly inaccurate. Andrea also became aware of how pervasive this pattern was in all her interactions and that it undermined her leadership abilities as well.

Andrea started out saying she was on her own case 80 percent of the time. Through talking about this pattern's impact and building awareness, she was able to get it down to about 40 percent. It was important for her to understand that she was not trying to eliminate being on her case, but rather reframing it into being on her side. With some real commitment and practice, she developed the ability to catch the pattern faster and redirect it from the former to the latter. Andrea became more on her side, and as a result, was less demanding of her staff and more on their side as well.

Changing our self-evaluation greatly improves how confident we feel and allows us greater awareness of how we evaluate others.

Redirecting Questions

The best way to change from being on your case to being on your side is first to notice how you behave and then turn the evaluation into a learning and action plan. Below are some examples of whipping statements and statements that will help you redirect yourself to being on your side.

"On Your Case" Whipping

How could I be so lame?

Don't I know better than this?

I'm an idiot for doing this!

Why didn't I start this sooner?

I could have done a much better job!

What is wrong with me?

I should have known better!

"On Your Side" (Phrases That Redirect Your Habit)

Which parts of this performance went well?

What didn't turn out the way I wanted it to?

What exactly didn't work out here?

Which part is under my influence?

Is there anything I could have done differently?

What will I have to do to accept this performance and not beat myself up?

What can I learn from this performance?

What will I have to improve next time?

Is there any learning, training, or help I need to improve my performance?

What will be my next step?

How will I make sure I stay on track?

What was your reaction in hearing these questions? It is important to first acknowledge what went well in order to establish the proper perspective in your evaluation and to curtail the "more, better, faster" pattern. This chart shows the difference between the two self-evaluations.

Questions and Actions to Be More on Your Side:

* Circle the terms above you have experienced the most.

* How accurate is your evaluation system?

* On a scale of 1 to 100, what percentage of the time are you on your case?

* How do you feel after you've been on your case?

* What are the consequences for you and others for being on your case?

* Do you treat others as harshly as you do yourself?

* If you don't change this, what do you stand to lose or miss out on?

* Keep track of the times you have stopped being on your case and then redirected to being on your side. How did you do it?

* What is most difficult about being on your side?

* What helps you to be on your side?

* Record in your planner the percentage of time you are on your side each day, from 1 to 100, and reward yourself.

Your calculator can be fixed, and you will subsequently feel more confident and ready for new risks.

--By Dr. Relly Nadler

"You must learn to translate wisdom and strong feelings into labor." -- Jim Rohn

"The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never gets far from shore." -- Dale Carnegie

"I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely." -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day, he can sleep at night and do it again the next day." -- Albert Schweitzer

"You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered-down, occasional hope that you'll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless." -- Caroline Myss

"People who want to retire so they can sit under a coconut tree watching the grass grow baffle me. We were created for meaningful work, and one of life's greatest pleasures is the satisfaction of a job well done." -- John Maxwell

"The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never does anything." -- Denis Waitley

"Get Real is about you and the things you do and the things you think about." -- Jeffrey Gitomer