Sometimes the best lessons are the ones that simply represent a profound articulation of something we already knew inside. The "Aha" was not in the newness of the lesson, it was in the "ownership" of the lesson.
I had a discussion with someone a few years back who pointed out one of these painfully obvious lessons. He mentioned that our work life represents one of the highest ranking relationships in our lives. Yep, I know Duh! But if we can create a better culture in our organizations, our division, our little corner of the sales bullpen, it certainly can't hurt. In fact, I would argue that it can inspire greater performance.
I've included no cost/low cost tips that either have served me well or that I have observed on my aspiring rock star journey!
1) Music: When you go to sports games & concerts they know that good music, before the event, gets you into "state". If you worked for me on one of my sales teams, you'd enter the sales wing to the sounds of the most kick ass, I want to rip bumpers off of cars music.
2) Acknowledge ALL Wins! Another whacky trademark of a Castain managed team was the emails we'd send out to our sales and sales support team when we scored a sale. I did this for two main reasons: a) to show gratitude (and who doesn't dig a little public acknowledgment which costs me nothing by the way) b) to inspire competition. I'd usually say something short and sweet such as "Another $20,000 in the house compliments of Carmen . . . rock on with your bad self Carmen!" I never realized how important these emails were to my reps until I got mad busy one week and fell behind. Several of them made it a point to remind me that I forgot "the love".
3) Cowbell Please! As part of my Acknowledge ALL Wins culture, I bought a bell at a Marine Supply store and instructed my team to ring it once when they made an appt, twice when they made a sale. My reason for this was to create energy and buzz and yes, inspire competition. Oh, and one of the rules for the team was to acknowledge the person who scored the win whether it was with applause, a high 5 etc. Try putting a price tag on acknowledgement from the rest of the team!
4) The "Dwight Award" Laura Klebek is the President (and kick ass sales rep) at The Graphics Group in Dallas. She had a Dwight (from the show The Office) Bobble Head that she presented at each meeting to the sales rep who had the highest numbers. The Dwight Award remained on your desk until the next winner was announced. I was there when she presented it to one of her reps and it added some fun to the sales meeting and inspired competition.
5) Breaking Bread: I know of a company in Memphis who has team tailgait parties every now and again. The sales team puts on their chef's hats and does the cooking as a thank you to all the best supporting actors and actresses that make them look like stars. Lancer Insurance has "Ice Cream Fridays" during the summer where senior management serves up your favorite flavors. I've had team events where we all brought a dish to the office and simply broke bread! Note: when people slow down and share a meal together, good communication usually follows. Oh and if you were on my team, bread wasn't the only thing that was getting broken!
6) "Gung Ho" Mckay Press in Michigan has a monthly "Gung Ho" award. Throughout the month, employees are encouraged to "catch each other doing something right". When they do, they tell the other person and nominate them for the award. At the end of the month, they pick 2-3 people and present them with a token of appreciation in front of the entire team at the monthly plant meeting.
7) War Games: Twice a year, I would gather my team together for a full day of training and strategy. I'd have my top reps prepare specific presentations, other reps educate us on verticals. I'd facilitate discussions created to make my reps think. We'd review our battle plan, turn it upside down and make necessary changes where needed. I'd have guests from other departments make relevant presentations and I made sure that my reps knew I appreciated them. We'd have some fun too. At the end of the day, I would host a game of Jeopardy and ask questions based on either things they should know about our company, products and even things they should have been paying attention to during the meeting. Then it was off to an evening at "Casa De Castain" for steaks and margaritas (actually a lot of margaritas)
8) Getting To Know You: Feel free to file this one under "Corny" but its freakin spot on if you ask me. Rick Pitino in his Success Is A Choice book told a story of one of the teams he managed. The team hadn't gotten the proverbial crap beaten out them on the court and returned to the locker room hoping to hear some encouraging words from Coach Pitino. Coach told them that they pretty much deserved to get beaten and that he wasn't surprised. They looked at him confused (probably pissed) He told them they deserved the loss because they weren't a team. To illustrate this he asked one of the players something along the lines of "What's Joe's wife name?" "Where is Bobby from?" etc. The point was, that its hard to trust and act like a team when you don't really know your teammates. Note to the cynical: I'm not proposing that we all gather round the campfire and sing Kumbaya nor am I stating that this is the one thing that makes great sales teams great. I am saying that teams that know and trust each other remove the BS, the infighting, backstabbing and other elements of implosion . . . and thus create more of a straight line to success!
I'll leave you with a final thought from a former mentor of mine John Covilli. He came to visit me one day and was really impressed with the culture I had created. He told me that as a leader, one of my primary responsibilities is to protect that culture. I thought about what he said and added that as a leader, I can't always be there to protect the culture, but I could certainly create a culture where we'd all sooner die than allow anyone or anything to destroy what we worked so hard to create.
Today you are cordially invited to jumpstart your performance culture!
