(By Loyd Ford) If you are a sales manager or market manager, maybe you hope for a miracle cure in these headlines every Monday. The advice that makes us all millionaires and has our salespeople fired up and ready to win every single day. Of course, in real life there’s no glitter from the sales gods, no Magic 8 Ball, no silver bullet. The best leaders know the truth. It’s what military generals have known for centuries – nothing beats boots on the ground.
If you are a sales manager or market manager: congratulations, you have a great job. It’s also a job where the responsibilities of leadership sometimes outweigh the privileges. What do we do to help supercharge our team?
- Clear their path. Your job in many ways is to make their job easier. Everything gets in the way. Corporate policies or challenging paperwork. You see a challenge for them, knock it down. You do this and your revenue will go up, it will be easier for customers to do business with you and your staff will appreciate you because they will see you care about them.
- Make it okay for them to talk openly with you. If you create an open, trusting environment where you regularly get feedback and catch your individual team members doing something right, you are much more likely to get timely information sooner than your competitors and this will turn into more revenue. Just remember: If you want to create an open, honest environment, they shouldn’t get in trouble for sharing anything with you.
- Hold your people accountable. It’s tempting to go easy sometimes, but the truth is that high performers want to be held accountable. You do no one any favors if you let things slide. To hold someone accountable, please know that accountability should always travel with respect for that person.
Now, let’s talk about individual sellers. Keep in mind our warning about silver bullets (no one has one). The best sellers know that they have to consistently develop their skill sets at active listening, problem-solving and closing to be effective tomorrow. So, how do you positively improve your business?
- Understand that things are overrated. People love experiences. Think about how you can create experiences for your potential clients that result in solving their problems. Do this well and you will be consistently welcomed in their business discussions and they will buy more often from you than others.
- Develop and use creativity in your selling. Nobody gets excited about buying “spots.” Boo. Give them a rich story about how they can attract more customers like their most profitable customers. Find a unique way to share strategy that will excite your potential client. This is the real path forward in the crowded field of choices today.
- Stay in motion. Look! Everyone on Earth has setbacks, disappointments. So what? Do you know the secret of overcoming a setback? Keep moving. When my dog gets turned down for a treat from me, does he frown and get caught up in all the drama? No, he moves to my wife immediately where he will surely have success. If that doesn’t work, what does he do? He stays in motion until he is successful.
The only thing you get in this life from being negative or getting caught up in negativity is poor results. They don’t reward poor results in sales.
Be the exception. Lace up your boots every single day, bring your A game, and understand there will be setbacks and find a way to be more creative and experience-driven than other distractions that can catch your customers.
Loyd Ford is a Multiplier who works with local radio to expose them to more revenue and higher ratings with his company RPC. Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected]. Read Loyd’s Radio Ink archives here.
