change

Dealing with frustration in sales

kirk_wakefield 2013, Integrity, Lead, Learn, Sales Management, Sales Training , , , , , , 0 Comment
Dealing with frustration in sales
by Dan Rockwell – August 2013

The way you deal with today’s frustration reflects the leader or the salesperson you’ll become tomorrow.

Frustration is an alarm clock; a spotlight pointing: a match burned too long.

Frustration is a gift that says pay attention.

Don’t get frustrated with frustration. Frustration is feedback on decisions and relationships.

Frustration’s goal

The singular message of frustration is change.

  1. Usually it’s you.
  2. Sometimes it’s others.
  3. Perhaps it’s processes and procedures.

Repeated frustration

Frustrations that return want attention like neglected children.

Ignoring frustration makes frustration mad.

Successful people choose responses. The weak react.

Choose

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Ben Milsom
Ben Milsom

“Frustration, like nerves, can either benefit or tear down. I tell our salespeople that the only person frustration hurts is yourself–it’s all internal, not external. The opportunity is still there to find out what others need or want and to find solutions.”tampa_bay_buccaneers[/dropshadowbox]Choose who to be:

  1. Welcoming. Open up don’t close down. “Come in, let’s talk.”
  2. Calm. Cool down don’t heat up. Nothing says confidence more than calmness during frustration.
  3. Able. Assume a do-something posture.

Bonus: Optimistic. Express optimism while acknowledging realities.

Choose what to do:

  1. Acknowledge don’t ignore. “That’s frustrating,” is better than, “It’s not that bad.”
  2. Run toward not away. Deal with it now or you’ll deal with it later. Curiosity coupled with courage expands leadership and productivity.
  3. Stay focused not distracted. Frustrations that distract from the big picture grow larger than they are.

Bonus: Involve others. Don’t act alone. “What can ‘we’ do,” is better than, “What can ‘I’ do.”

Three warnings

  1. Frustration in one area tends to bleed into others.
  2. Don’t let short-term frustrations make long-term decisions.
  3. Frustration’s biggest danger is its ability to create imbalance.

Rudyard Kipling wrote:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
…
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it …

How do you deal with frustration?

 

Which comes first: Happiness or success?

kirk_wakefield 2013, Careers, Lead, Learn, Personal Development, Research, Sales Training, Sell, Sponsorships, Tickets , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Which comes first: Happiness or success?
by Shawn Achor – June 2013

What is the connection between happiness and sales?  Most salespeople tell me it’s an easy question:  “When I’m selling then I’m happy.”

How could so many salespeople possibly be wrong?

Undeniably, we feel happier after a sale, but that common answer is actually holding down our happiness and lowering our sales.

Researchers at Harvard, Yale and UPenn have been studying this issue now for two decades. We found predicting who will be a good salesperson is relatively easy.  We just look for optimism.

Optimists beat pessimists

When we ran the numbers, optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 37% cross-industry.  At MetLife, the top 10% of optimists were outselling the other 90% by another 90%! That’s huge, and here’s why.

Most professionals face daily setbacks, but the life of a salesman is, almost by definition, fraught with failure and rejection. In many businesses, only one in ten pitches leads to a sale, meaning that those salesmen experience rejection 90 percent of the time.  (That was also my dating rejection rate in high school.) This can get pretty demoralizing after a while, which helps to explain why there is such high turnover, stress, and depression.

But here’s where it gets interesting: it turns out if you wait until a sale to be happy, you’re following a broken formula for happiness and success.  We think:

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Wrong thinking

I will work hard, then I’ll be successful, then I’ll be happy. [/dropshadowbox]

But every time you were successful in the past, what happened? Your brain changed the goalpost of what success looks like.  If you hit your sales target last year, what did you do this year?  Raised it.  Happiness after a success (like a sale) is very short-lived.

But flip around the formula and try to create happiness before the sale, and our success rates rise dramatically. (Want to know more about the effects? Watch this video on TED.com.)

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Right thinking

If I create happiness before the sale, then I’ll be more successful selling. [/dropshadowbox]

The Happiness Advantage

In The Happiness Advantage, I describe how positive brains have an unfair advantage over negative or neutral ones.   Positive employees:

  • have higher levels of productivity,
  • produce higher sales,
  • perform better in leadership positions, and
  • receive higher performance ratings and higher pay.

So how do we create happiness before success?

  1. Realize happiness only exists in the present, otherwise it will always be off in the future (never).
  2. Train your brain to become happier.
  3. Happiness is not only a choice, it is a work ethic:
    1. Write down 3 new things you’re grateful for each day for 21 days. This rewires your brain for optimism.
    2. Journal for 2 minutes each day about a positive experience. This is the fastest intervention for seeing the meaning embedded in your work.
    3. Write a 2 minute positive email or handwritten note to someone. This deepens social support, the greatest predictor of long term happiness. 

Evidence

One way to train your brain to become happier is to smile more.

At a group of hospitals in  post-Katrina Louisiana, we trained 11,000 employees to just smile and make eye contact in the hospital hallways.  Within 6 months, the number of unique patients rose and their likelihood to refer the hospital based on good care skyrocketed. 

At KPMG, I found that just teaching this concept (happiness first; success second) and practicing a positive habit can create greater happiness and job effectiveness 4 months later, in the middle of the worst tax season in recent history.

Happiness is a choice, but also an incredible advantage.  Do you want to see your true sales potential? See what you can do when your brain is set on positive!

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”650px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Chip MaxsonI can’t help but think back to some of the best sales people I’ve worked with and their attitude – pretty positive. I also can’t help but think of the people I’ve let go in the past year, all very pessimistic. Another interesting angle to look at would be the affect an optimistic person has on a potential client. Essentially, people like to buy from people they like and people like positive and friendly people. ~ Chip Maxon, Sr. Vice President, Business Operations, Sacramento RiverCats[/dropshadowbox]

Just trust me

kirk_wakefield 2013, Integrity, Lead , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Just trust me
by Lolly Daskal – May 2013

Imagine

Imagine telling someone: “I’m going to be taking you on a long, dangerous, and difficult trip. There will be times you are likely to be very uncomfortable, and there may be terrible storms. I’m not going to tell you where we are going, why we are going, when we are going, or how we will get there. Just TRUST ME.”

How do you think that would make anyone feel?

When a leader implements organizational change – when a boss makes major decisions affecting employees – it doesn’t work to say “just trust me.”

Like frightened children, people will come up with all kinds of reasons to resist and refuse why they do not want to come along on the trip – even if it’s a good one![dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

The CMO’s View

Sales managers develop trust based on this basic formula:

Trust = Rapport X Credibility
Risk

Alan See
Alan See

The manager, or anyone in a relationship, does things to develop and build rapport and credibility, while also doing things to reduce perceived risks for the other. The relationship won’t move forward without trust. [/dropshadowbox]

Most of us do not want to take trips into the unknown and without a destination.

Telling people “just trust me” is naiveté at its worst.

It shows an enormous amount of disrespect, sometimes dishonesty, and maybe just delusional!

In the sports business today, trust has to be earned. In leadership today, trust has to be gained.

What is trust?

  1. Trust is  being congruent. Match your words with your actions; what you say you will do you do.  Being trusted is being dependable.
  2. Trust is embracing transparency. When it comes to trust, the more you reveal the more you can see. When trust is transparent it can be embraced.
  3. Trust is  honoring promises. Keep what you promised. Better yet, go the extra mile and deliver more than you promised.
  4. Trust is a two-way street. To make someone trustworthy, you need to trust them first. The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
  5. Trust is risk. Trust lies between faith and probability. To risk is to put yourself out of your comfort zone. Take the risk and have the faith and trust to pull you through.
  6. Trust is a relationship. Trust begins with the self in relationship with another.  Trust others as you would wish to be trusted.
  7. Trust is the glue helping us stick through organizational change. Trust is foundational to holding us together.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”450px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ] How am I going to lead today? 

  • Trust my people so they can engage and be part of the change.
  • Trust my people so they can enroll and add value to the change.
  • Trust my people so they can embrace and understand and respect the change.[/dropshadowbox]

Lead from within: Any leader who says “just trust me”  expecting loyalty will get a group of employees resenting the journey instead of enjoying the adventure.

Trust  grasps others on your team at their innermost core of loyalty.

How to change behaviors of salespeople

kirk_wakefield Integrity, Lead, Work ethic , , , , , , , 0 Comment
by Dan Rockwell – January 2013

As manager, your job is bringing out the best in others by the way you interact with them. Well timed, well executed conversations change people’s lives. Poorly timed, unprepared conversations damage the individual salesperson and the team who interacts with him or her.

First: Determine and affirm aspirations and goals.

Never have conversations about an individual’s life, strengths, weaknesses, or potential until you understand their hopes and dreams.

People open their hearts to people who understand their hearts.

Second: Explore strengths and weaknesses in the context of aspirations.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Top Three Takeaways

  1. Well timed, well executed conversations change people’s lives.
  2. If people see you as being too critical it’s because you press on the negatives and don’t express the positives.
  3. Craft strategies with them not for them.

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Ask:

What strengths propel you toward fulfilling your dream? What weaknesses hinder progress?
Which strengths are most useful to taking the next step?
Which weaknesses are most detrimental to forward movement?

Third:  Address negatives without being a downer.

If you’re addressing weaknesses, try two questions at once. “What behaviors and qualities will enhance your progress and what qualities and behaviors will hinder your success?” Always address negatives in the context of positives.

If people see you as being too critical it’s because you press on the negatives and don’t express the positives.

Affirm strengths by explaining practical benefit and positive potential. Address weakness by exploring how they hinder aspirations.

Use positive qualities as foundations to discuss behaviors that need improvement. For example, if you’re having conversations with a goal oriented person. Open the “you need improvement” part of the conversation by asking, “A goal oriented person may walk on others, how might that be true of you?”

Jay Miller

Fourth: Craft strategies with them not for them.

After they identify strengths and weaknesses, craft strategies that better move them forward with them. You may feel you know the best answer but they must find their own. Embrace their journey.

Fifth: Focus more on positives than negatives.

If you bring something up that creates frustration or anger, pull back. But, know that anger indicates it matters. Touch the topic at another time. They just aren’t ready to deal with it yet.

Discuss with your sales team

Jay Miller, Executive Vice President for the Texas Rangers, says, “People buy from people they like and trust. The way I show salespeople how that works is take them with me on sales calls. Then the salesperson is open to listening and wants to learn. That’s when I have the chance to have the kinds of conversations to change people’s lives, to really help them. Now  they like and trust me—and they’ll buy what I’m saying to them.”

If  managers only criticize, will anybody be buying what they’re selling?

How do you have conversations that move people forward?

What types of conversations haven’t worked for you in the past?