All posts by Peter Holland

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Don’t Let Mental Fog Ruin Your Results. Get Working with Clarity & Confidence

It’s long been recognised that sales is almost entirely a mental game.

As I look out across London this morning we are shrouded in a layer of thick fog. Which reminds me of the feeling that can easily develop mentally if you don’t have a clear and structured approach to your sales process.

As sales leaders and sales professionals, we owe it to ourselves to stick to the processes and structures that bring us consistent success.

The challenge is that unlike other professions such as accountancy or production who have strict guidelines to work to, it’s easy for the sales team to deviate.

Here are 3 areas to use consistently to clear any mental fog!

  1. Plan you Territory Management.
    By clearly identifying an A, B & C status for your customers you ensure you dedicate time efficiently based on their potential rather than who is shouting loudest for your time and attention! Planning strategically the frequency of your visits will ensure you have a clear focus on where and when you will invest your valuable time.
  1. Plan your Account Management.
    Create a clear set of objectives for protecting and developing your key A – Accounts. Focusing on where you can add real value to their organisation. Next create an annual plan of events in advance that allow you to develop these key relationships in a meaningful way.
  1. Plan your Sales Opportunity Management.
    Ensure you invest enough time to really manage the key sales opportunities in your pipeline. If you try to take on too many opportunities, you will end up a busy fool with lower conversion rates. Identify your ‘Must Win’ projects and use smart tools to ensure you have systematically covered all the bases.

    Working in this way is refreshing both as a sales manager or a top sales person, it removes doubt and fear replacing them with clarity and confidence!

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Are You Productive or Busy?

Of course you’re productive!

But tell me what’s the biggest challenge to executing all the great plans and goals you have?

Very often isn’t it all the minor everyday interruptions that distract your thoughts, rob your focus and soak up your valuable time?

If you can relate, here are 3 keys to overcoming the Busy vs Productive trap.

Focus – Don’t set more than 1 or 2 major accomplishments at a time. Multitasking sounds great but it just wastes your energy and divides your focused attention.

The human mind is designed to respond better to quick sprints rather than long mental marathons. So split up larger projects into smaller slices and tackle them individually. As a suggestion why not block 60-90mins in the calendar every other day. In this way you can complete big projects whilst dealing with all the regular day to day activities.

Consistency – In many complex and technical environments like hospital operating theatres or flying hi-spec fighter jets these highly trained professionals are required to use checklists!

Why?  It dramatically reduces errors. How much time and money does your company lose when mistakes are made? What impact does inconsistent service have on customer loyalty?

Why not make a checklist of all the critical daily, weekly and monthly actions to ensure you minimise mistakes personally and across your team. It will save you hours in fire fighting and resolving complaints.

Codification – Do you find it difficult to delegate tasks to others in the team? Or do you find yourself spending time reinventing the wheel on tasks you do regularly?

Classic examples are hours spent writing client proposals or creating sales presentations.

If so, why not think about codifying your method and process? By mapping out a clear step by step process you can delegate effectively, enabling you to reinvested that time on more vital tasks.

In creating sales presentations and proposals, often there are elements that will be included every time. Therefore these can be prepared and stored centrally for use by the entire team, saving hours of individual time and effort. Additionally you will also improve the quality and consistency of your communication to prospective clients.

A few small daily adjustments you can see your productivity soar.

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Are You Harnessing The Power Of Commendation?

3 Keys to motivating a high-performance team.

As a sales leader, you constantly work to set the pace and direction for your  organisation. As we head back to work after the Winter holidays getting this year’s sales strategy implemented and the team fully motivated can be a challenge!

So how can you GIVE EFFECTIVE ENCOURAGEMENT that will motivate your team to implement your sales strategy in 2017?

Successful managers understand that commendation and encouragement are effective in helping to improve the level of engagement from their teams. People need commendation for applying the direction, they have been given. And this encouragement boosts their enthusiasm to continue doing the right actions day in day out. We all need encouragement whether we are fresh to sales or seasoned pros; encouragement helps us to develop both professionally and emotionally.

You might think this approach is a bit soft and unnecessary but there is pragmatic value here.

You nail down strategy and tactics by giving encouragement.

Why do most strategies fail? Normally it’s due to a lack of proper implementation. So this is not some tacky management technique to influence people. Rather it’s investing your time and energy wisely in developing your personal relationships with others. Which if you want to achieve any meaningful long-term results will depend on the support and contribution from everyone in your team.

Though people know what is right, doing the right thing becomes their way of working through our constant encouragement.

Here are 3 keys to making this impactful.

1. Show appreciation for the fine efforts and positive qualities of fellow workers.

Look out for the specific qualities you want the team to develop . The ones you always look for when recruiting. As a reminder why not see the special report;

https://www.linearstructure.com/insights/special-reports/recruiting-an-all-star-sales-team/

2. Seize opportunities to encourage others.

If we see something that merits commendation, why hold back? If we can offer a word of encouragement, why not speak up? We will very likely find that if we make it a habit to be encouraging, people will encourage us in return. Which creates a positive sales environment where people are truly engaged and motivated.

3. Be sincere and specific.

General words of encouragement and commendation are helpful, but being specific is better. For example, we could tell our team individually what we appreciate about the progress they are making. For example, We might tell an experienced sales person what impresses us about their efforts to keep refreshing their approach and presentations. Or their continual efforts to widen their network by adding new contacts, rather than relying on their same old favourites. Perhaps commending a sales person for the diligent time and effort she has put into maintaining excellent project information in the CRM. Such commendation and encouragement can do so much good!

I encourage you to get 2017 off to a flying start by focusing on all the good work being done and letting people know!

Let me take this opportunity to thank all of my clients for their efforts in working together to create great results!