Pick up a typical company report today and what words do you find? Verbs like analyse, forecast, plan, assess, and schedule, are used in pursuit of organisations that are efficient, productive, and predictable.
What set of people are required? Obviously, people who are efficient, effective, proficient, competent, productive, and co-operative.
I believe we need to go beyond - we need to be inspired, motivated, creators, who are enthusiastic and able to consistently deliver against our key objectives.
We should be developing individuals who are not afraid to challenge paradigms, who are prepared to go that extra yard in search of excellence and who understand that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.
For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.
The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
"To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual."
The Acid Test: When thinking about your own sales force:
- Do you understand their motivators - what is driving them?
- Do you have visibility of their numbers - year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
- Activity levels - are they working hard and smart enough?
- Engagement - are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
- Messaging - are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
- Qualification - are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
- Closing - are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?
Summary:
Top performing Sales Directors and Managers understand instinctively when a situation requires them to Direct, Coach, Support, or Delegate but learning these skills takes time and practice and underpinning this advanced approach to management must be a range of core competencies...
Today's News: I am convinced of the value of "social media" of course. I am a big fan of LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo et al, but I am still not getting the most out of the experience, and I have written myself a "must try harder" note. If you are like me, you will enjoy this excellent post from Brian Carroll, over at The Customer Collective: "Can a social media like Twitter boost your lead generation results?"
Earlier in the week, Jill Konrath asked this question: "Are you still trying to figure on how to get LinkedIn to work for you?"
"If so, then you need to meet Patrick O'Malley. He's a true LinkedIn Wizard who has helped me take my profile to the next level. Check out this video."
Click here to learn more about Patrick O'Malley, his LinkedIn expertise, coaching & training programs. He has more great articles, videos and tips on his website.
Tomorrow: I am travelling, and writing next week's blog posts on the hoof - as ever, wherever you are, have a great weekend - JF
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