Cultivating and Developing Your Leaders

In business, there is a lot to learn from professional sports organizations who draft and develop talent as opposed to the free agency way.  It's about a commitment to a specific culture, strategy and execution, it's about commitment to the future and sustainability, about passing on and cultivating and developing others.  At this moment, you might be saying to yourself:  I am just too busy to deal with this and clearly don't have the time to build leaders for the future.  You're right!  Why should it even be worth your attention? The people you have in place seem to be performing adequately, aren’t they?

Why build leaders for the future? Can’t you just hire leaders from the outside? Sure, that’s a strategy.  And I bet that is what you will do if you don’t start developing a plan to develop your future leaders now.

Is the "free agency" strategy wrong? Certainly, there are many professional teams who have adopted this approach and have been successful; others have failed measurably.  Still, is approach wrong? Is it right for your business and long term outlook?  What are the ramifications? From conversations with business owners, executives, employees and to observations, there are two very significant drawbacks to this "free agency" strategy.

First, what kind of signal does hiring leaders from the outside give to the loyal individuals who have served your organization for many years? They spent their developmental lives helping you be successful, and you reward them by going to the outside and bringing in hotshots who they will have to train.  Is that an effective way to keep valuable people loyally enthusiastic and engaged?

Second, the skilled outsiders you hire will bring along their existing perspectives, prejudices, and expectations. It’s unlikely that their values will align well with the culture you’ve worked so hard to establish. Not knowing and appreciating your existing organization will probably create disruption, conflict and a boat load of stress. 

You might ask, “Oh, but what about them contributing creative new ideas?” If you need an injection of imagination, hire an effective consultant. Consultants are great at providing their ideas and you decide what to use or not use.  However, these ideas are not coming from you or your team members.  So then are you really taking full accountability and ownership of these ideas?  Is your team taking full ownership and commitment?  Better yet, go hire a leadership coach to find out what is really holding you back from cultivating and developing your leaders.

Let me ask you this question, how have your current leaders moved into their existing positions?  Probably due to their technical skills. You rewarded them for their past performance and were the best of who you had at the time. Functional mastery doesn’t automatically transform into leadership skills. So, how do you prepare leaders for the future of your company?  Simply and briefly:

1. Look for leaders within your company ranks.
2. Assess their motives and strengths for deeper personal and interpersonal awareness.
3. Create a culture of accountability where your leaders and team members understand that by taking ownership and initiative for their behavioral choices is a key to driving the best outcomes.
4. Get a clear focus on what strengths or behaviors are best used in the right situation that yields the most effective results for all involved.
5. Develop written action plan around learning objectives. 
6. Assess constantly and hire an effective coach to keep you and your team accountable.

I would speculate that most of you have you poured your life into an organization?  Your single biggest legacy will be having prepared individuals to excel in carrying your organization forward. If you don’t work to build the leadership skills of your existing colleagues, who will carry on the legacy that you are working so hard to establish?

Here is a final perspective. You’ve probably had the experience of teaching a course of some kind. Surely you’ve found that you learn so much more by preparing the material than you would have learned if you had been a student in that same subject matter. So it is with building leadership skills. Intentionally building future leaders in your organization will do more for building your capabilities than almost anything you can do. The same concept applies to your direct reports. Imagine how knowledgeable your leaders will become when every one of them is intentionally building a future leader!

What are your thoughts on developing and cultivating leadership talent in your team or organization?  We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

Qualities Of Truly Confident Leaders!

What does confidence mean to you?  How are you exhibiting your confidence? What are others reactions?  Through my filters, I see confidence as not bravado or some bold or brash air of self-belief directed at others.  I look at confidence as a natural expression of expertise, self-regard and ability.

I’m fortunate to know a number of truly confident men and woman. It comes as no surprise they all share a number of qualities.  By no means is this the end all list.  Let's explore what I've seen they have and what is worthy.

1. They take a stand not because they think they are always right… but because they are not afraid to be wrong.

Cocky and conceited people tend to take a position and then proclaim, bluster, and totally disregard differing opinions or points of view. They know they’re right – and they want (actually they need) you to know it too (see Narcissism). Their behavior isn’t a sign of confidence, though; it’s the hallmark of an intellectual bully.  Intellectual bullies never admit they are wrong or don't have the answers, ever!

Truly confident people don’t mind being proven wrong. They feel finding out what is right is a lot more important than being right. And when they’re wrong, they’re secure enough to admit it and take responsibility. 

2. They listen more than they speak.

Truly confident people are quiet and unassuming. They already know what they think; they want to know what you think. So they ask great questions that give other people the freedom to be thoughtful and introspective.  Further, they listen with great intent and purpose.  To find out more, you have to ask questions and listen more often than opening your mouth.

3. They duck the spotlight so it shines on others.

Perhaps it’s true they did the bulk of the work. Perhaps they really did overcome the major obstacles. Perhaps it’s true they turned a collection of diverse individuals into an incredibly high performance team. Truly confident people don’t care – at least they don’t show it. Truly confident people don’t need the glory; they know what they’ve achieved. They don’t need the validation of others, because true validation comes from within.

So they stand back and celebrate their accomplishments through others. They let others shine – a confidence boost that helps those people become truly confident, too.

4. They freely ask for help.

Many people feel asking for help is a sign of weakness; possibly exposing a lack of knowledge, skill, or experience.  Confident people are secure enough to admit a weakness. So they often ask others for help, not only because they are secure enough to admit they need help but also because they know that when they seek help they pay the person they ask a huge compliment.

5. They don't put down other people.

Generally speaking, the people who like to gossip, who like to speak badly of others, do so because they hope by comparison to make themselves look better.The only comparison a truly confident person makes is to the person she was yesterday – and to the person she hopes to someday become.

6. They own their mistakes.

Insecurity tends to breed artificiality; confidence breeds sincerity and honesty. That’s why truly confident people admit their mistakes. When you’re truly confident, you don’t mind occasionally “looking bad.” You realize that that when you’re genuine and unpretentious, people don’t laugh at you. They laugh with you.

7. They only seek approval from the people who really matter.

Very confident people look to earn the trust and respect of the few people in their life that truly matter. When we earn their trust and respect, no matter where we go or what we try, we do it with true confidence – because we know the people who truly matter the most are truly behind us.

What are your thoughts on confidence and leadership?  We would love to hear from you with comments or questions.  Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

Why Do Professional Relationships Go Sour?

As a leader, creating effective, respectful, and proper connections is a critical ingredient for success.  Success at every level.  From personal reasons, team success to organizational outcomes.  We've all seen and experienced where unproductive and ineffective connections will drive poor results, lack of accountability and collaboration, incredible frustration and worry, finger pointing and conflict, dis-engagement, and turnover to name a few.

Unfortunately, leaders can easily and unknowingly contribute to a team member failing to meet expectations.  How? By failing to understand their motives and how they choose their strengths in achieving the most effective results successfully and consistently for themselves, the team, the organization.

Leaders must first understand how their team members work and really who they are at their core.  This is where communication and connecting as a leader is crucial, as leaders often have a better view of all the factors at play and the larger goals of the organization. Helping team members understand - and even more importantly, making them feel like they are a part of things - is a vital component to creating a trusting connection and a great working relationship.

In creating positive relationships and overcoming conflict, it’s important too to understand that in the decisions employees make, they may be seeking to protect their own interests, and simply acting in a way that feels best in the moment. And after conflict has occurred, once the initial anxiety passes, team members may find themselves avoiding the person with whom they did not see eye-to-eye, or retreating into silence, or getting defensive. All of these are natural behaviors, and leaders need to understand and look for the signs of conflict and relationships going sour before these things affect the output of the team.

Deloitte recently found that three specific items correlated best with high performance teams: "My co-workers are committed to doing quality work," "The mission of our company inspires me," and "I have the chance to use my strengths every day."  Of these, the third was the most powerful across the organization.  So, the defining characteristics of the very best teams is that they are strengths oriented where their members feel that they are called upon to do their best work everyday.

That begs an important question. How is your organization spending more time helping your people use their strengths in teams characterized by great clarity of purpose and expectations?

Connecting with people professionally is not separate from how leaders react in the rest of life or relationships. Managing and leading effectively requires leaders to communicate, to engage in dialogue, to listen and pay good attention, to behave with the express intent that helps the other person feel valued and understood, respected, and safe in all their engagements with you. To secure agreement, acceptance and understanding of what is involved, what’s expected, by whom and by when. So when relationships do sour, the cause is often very simple: ambiguity and in-authenticity.

Team members will do what they say they will if they feel safe in their decisions - leaders cannot make the mistake of trying to forcing those decisions. Similarly, leaders must make an effort to not force information or viewpoints that won’t work or serve the goals of the team well; at this point, leaders must step back and stop trying to be the smartest person in the room. This show of trust allows the team to respect and rely on their leader, fostering a relationship of mutual collaboration toward the goals everyone has agreed upon.

If team members are not comfortable with their leaders, they’ll not be comfortable with decisions made for them, and goals may become obscured by the relationships. People have trouble accepting terms and measures of success if they never bought in to the framework from the beginning. At this point, leaders that try to prove that what they have is better for the team, risk everyone else avoiding any kind of commitment, or even backing out completely.

Leaders must learn be authentic enough to admit when they are not happy with the results they’re getting and look at their own communication and leadership style to address these relationships and issues.

What are your thoughts on leadership and team success?  How is Deloitte on to something very powerful about teams and strengths? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

Creating a Culture of Accountability

Can organizations elevate their performance by creating a proactive culture of accountability using a proven behavior-change method that integrates people, performance, and process?  Absolutely they can and so can YOU!

True and sustainable accountability cannot be imposed on others through regulations, protocols, or management edicts. Real accountability comes from within each person and reflects individual values and purpose. It’s a choice.

Creating a culture where this kind of accountability is the norm doesn’t happen by chance. It requires intentional effort to develop the skill of accountability in each of your employees. They need to be able to:

• Take ownership of their responsibilities.
• Show initiative to produce key results.
• Tackle high-stakes situations by using all of their 28 relational strengths.

In the end, you’ll see what it takes to get people to want to be accountable and create sweeping changes in your culture.

What are your thoughts on accountability?  How would you begin to break through your filters to begin your accountability shift and focus? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

Winning the Employee Engagement Battle

The state of worldwide workplace environments and company culture is not a healthy picture.  In fact, it is downright dreadful.

The way we’re working is not working. Even if you are lucky enough to have a job, you’re probably not very excited to get to the office in the morning, you don’t feel much appreciated while you’re there, you find it difficult to get your most important work accomplished, amid all the distractions, and you don’t believe that what you’re doing make much of a difference anyway. By the time you get home, you’re pretty much running on empty, and yet you’re still answering emails until you fall asleep.

Increasingly, this experience is more becoming commonplace. It's not just with larger organizations or even middle mangers, but also to with top executives. This is a huge issue facing many organizations today.  That problem is the lack of engagement. Just 30 percent of employees in America feel engaged at work, according to a 2013 Gallup report. Around the world, across 142 countries, the proportion of employees who feel engaged at work is just 13 percent.  Additional studies reveal that two-thirds of workers do not feel that they have a strong work culture, while 66% of all employees do not see opportunities for professional growth.  Only 21% of workers feel valued in their workplace.  These are indeed very sobering trends!  Is it a wonder that Gallup found that 87% of the global workforce disengaged?

For most of us,  work is a depleting, dispiriting experience, and it’s getting worse.  Organizations are spending huge amounts of money to support employees who are going through the motions biding their time or who just want to quit.  That equates to lost individuals, lost opportunities, lost productivity and lost revenue. Money does not buy engagement, people who care and commit to listening, sharing and taking action do.

Demand for our time is increasing exceeding our capacity – draining us of the energy we need to bring our skill and talents fully to life. Increased competitiveness and a leaner, post-recession work force add to the pressures. The rise of digital technology is perhaps the biggest influence, exposing us to an unprecedented flood of information and requests that we feel compelled to read and respond to at all hours of the day and night.  The problem also stems from managers who are diffused and have no idea on how to engage their teams, as well as top leadership who are consumed with quarterly returns and not the success and livelihood of their most valued asset their people.

I understand these problems are not simple to solve.  Let me offer some thoughts on ways to begin to move forward.  The organization's CEO needs to become the Chief Engagement Officer daily, being authentic and true to their values, setting the vision and the culture that moves the company to an employee centric organization.  Middle managers need to be trained with new skill sets to assist this movement down into the company. In fact, we all need to take responsibility to learn new skills and lead.

The battle for employee engagement can also begin with these 3 steps: A commitment to listening, followed by a commitment to sharing and then committing to taking action.  Let's  look at these briefly.

• Commitment to listening ~ companies invest in annual employee survey's to get feedback.  Frankly, this is not enough.  To offer more rapid and actionable feedback survey's need to be weekly or bi-weekly.  How can that be done? Leaders taking the necessary time to ask their employees what's affecting them and regularly having these conversations while effectively clarifying and listening to gather information that really makes a difference.

• Commitment to sharing ~ How often does collected employee survey data go into a black hole? Whether the information is good or bad letting people know that they have been heard shows that you are absorbing their feedback.  Keep sharing regularly.  Repeat and refine step 1.

• Commitment to taking action ~ It is not enough to know your employee's pain points, you need to take action.  Leaders can easily create an action plan with quick, easy wins and harder more substantive wins.  Quick wins begin to build momentum while buying time, energy and other resources to tackle the harder issues that will really pay dividends. Celebrate the wins by repeating steps 1 and 2.   Think of it this way: Enable, Engage, Empower, Enhance.

Finally, here might be another starting point. In First Break All The Rules, business consultants Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman drew from Gallup Organization interviews with more than a million employees over a 25 year period to come up with 12 questions that “measure the core elements needed to attract, focus and keep the most talented employees.”  These questions are:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? 2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right? 3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day? 4. In the last 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work? 5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person? 6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development? 7. At work, do my opinions seem to count? 8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important? 9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work? 10. Do I have a best friend at work? 11. In the last 6 months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress? 12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

By paying attention to questions such as these, astute managers and leaders can look through their performers’ window and better help them improve engagement and performance.  As Buckingham and Coffman discovered, “those employees who responded more positively to the 12 questions also worked in business units with higher levels of productivity, profit, retention and customer satisfaction.”

What do you think of these questions? What one step can you take or how would you begin to break through your behaviors to begin addressing your team and individuals with intention, purpose and determined emotion? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

Leadership ~ Credibility Still Matters

In studying leadership and leaders, one of the fundamental beliefs about leadership is that leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. Over the past 30 years, there has been plenty of research that consistently shows that the attributes people seek in leaders they are willing to follow are: honesty, trustworthiness, competence, inspiration and the ability to be forward-looking. When viewed on a larger scale, these five traits create a richer meaning as the foundation for leadership.

"Credibility" come from the same root word: credo, meaning "I trust or believe." Credibility is not inherent; it must be earned over time. Some leaders earn it sooner than others dependently on the quality of their relationships and their actions.

Credible leaders possess the ability to leave a long-lasting and positive impacts on people's lives. How about you and your leadership?  What kind of impact are you having on others? 

Read the words of Irwin Federman, venture capitalist and former CEO, when speaking to students at Santa Clara University.  His words surely puts credibility in context:

"You don't love someone because of who they are, you love them because of the way they make you feel. This axiom applies equally to a company setting. It may seem inappropriate to use words such as love and affection in relation to business. Conventional wisdom has it that management is not a popularity contest... I contend, however, that all things being equal, we will work harder and more effectively for people we like. And we will like them in direct proportion to how they make us feel."

And just how do credible leaders make people feel? Research shows 10 descriptors used most often:

• Trusted
• Valued
• Respected
• Motivated
• Enthusiastic
• Challenged
• Inspired
• Capable
• Supported
• Powerful
• Proud

When you think about your leadership and your relationships, how many of them would use these descriptors when sharing how you make them feel? What can you do to increase the frequency of leaving people feeling this way as a result of your leadership?

Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to break through and better understand the behaviors and actions you need to become a better leader? As a Leader what are your beliefs? What do you focus on? What outcomes do you want to achieve?

We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

Eleven Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make & What To Do About Them - Part 2

In part one we covered the first six mistakes.  Here we will conclude on the remaining five.  I am repeating my opening paragraphs from Part 1 as they help set the table on this topic.

Over the years, I have observed the mistakes of many professionals, including myself, in sales, in all industries in what I call “selling situations;” that is, where they are trying to acquire a new client or account. Although the actual approach may vary, there are many common pitfalls that trap professionals.

Please note these are not in any order and are equally important when considering your techniques, behaviors and attitudes towards selling and creating demand for your products and services that match your qualified prospects challenges, budget and decision making process.

Mistake Seven: They Chat About Everything and AVOID STARTING the Sale Before Doing a Proposal

Situation: Building rapport is necessary and desirable, but all too often the small talk does not end and the "sale qualification" process does not begin.

Result: Unfortunately, the prospect usually recognizes this before the professional and, as such, are in complete control of the conversation.  The sales person is so focused on the chatter that the meeting time is over and are back on the street wondering how he or she did with that prospective client.

Solution: Start acting differently.  If you act and sound like every others sales person, you will be treated like one.  In order to build comfort and rapport with the prospect, face to face communications are the most effective.  Why? Because 93% of effective communications comes from body language and matching the prospects tonality.  Only 7% comes from the words you use.  In phone selling, 83% of effective communication comes from matching the prospects tonality and 17% are the words said.   With E-Mail or texting, a sales person is missing out on 93% of effective communication.  Sure e-mails are necessary to document communication and/or send a document to one or multiple people.  However, don't use it for selling. Stop selling via e-mail, period!

A sales person begins to build trust from their first interaction.  Have the guts to be different from everyone else and remain professional and in control.  Remember, with trust, all things being equal, people buy from people they trust.  All things not being equal, people still buy from people they trust.  Build trust and rapport first.   As one of my friends, Tom Frost said from my first post,

Mistake Eight: They Prefer "MAYBE" Instead of Getting to "NO"

Situation: Prospects are constantly ending the engagement interview with the ever so prevalent "think it over" line, or "we'll be in touch and "you're at the top of our list."

Result: The professional accepts this indecision and even sympathizes with the prospect.  It is easier to bring back the message that the prospective client might use the firm's services "sometime in the future," rather than saying this prospect is not a candidate for the firm's services.  After all, wasn't it the professional's responsibility  to got out and get the prospect to say, "yes?"  Getting a prospect to say "no" can also produce feelings of personal rejection or failure.

Solution: Get a backbone!  Go for the NO early!  You might be saying about now, "if I go for the No, then I won't have sales?  No, that's not what I am saying.  Find out if your prospect qualifies to get your intellectual property by specifically understanding their emotional challenges or pains, budget and decision making process.  Remember how to do that from part 1? Ask great clarifying questions to get to emotional level of the prospect (ask what is going on, how long it has been going on, what have they tried to do about it and did it work?  Have they given up on finding a solution? How does that make them feel, really feel?), next find out about budget and then decision making process.  Each step along the way is a mutual qualifying or disqualifying event and gives both of you an opportunity to bow out if there is not a fit.  Find out if they don't qualify or if you don't qualify then you will have your answer and direction on what to do next.   As from part 1, remember to find out the intent of their wishy-washy statements.  You'd rather know now than waste precious time, energy and other company resources chasing  phantom opportunities.

Mistake Nine: They See Themselves as BEGGARS instead of DOCTORS

Situation: Professionals don't view their time with a prospective client as being spent conducting an interview to see if the prospect qualifies to do business with their organization.

Result: All too often a "prospect" really remains a "suspect" and never gets to the more qualified level of a prospective client or customer.  Professionals often find themselves hoping, wishing and even begging for the opportunity to "just show their expertise" and then maybe a sales will be made.  Many of us do this by offering free consulting engagements.  This is unlike a physician who examines the patient thoroughly before making a recommendation.  A Doctor uses various instruments and questions to conduct an examination of the patient.

Solution: The professional should view questions as the equivalent to the Doctor's instruments and conduct his or her examination of the prospective client.  See yourself as a surgeon!  Probe, dig, clarify, understand.

Mistake Ten: They Work Without a SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to Selling

Situation:  Professionals find themselves "going with the flow" to make the sale.  Their approach has worked in the past, why not now?  What happens is that they allow the prospect to control the selling process.

Result: Professionals often leave the sales interview without knowing where they are because they do not know where they have been and what the next step is to qualify the prospect and get to the engagement.

Solution: The need to follow a specific systematic sequence and control the steps through the discovery process is vital to the professional's success in acquiring new clients and getting more business from existing ones.  There are a number of excellent selling systems and sequences in the market as well as books.  Sandler Sales training ~ find a local office in your market, read up: "Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play" by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig are a few golden nuggets.

Mistake Eleven: THEY LOOK, ACT and SOUND LIKE THEIR COMPETITION

Situation: What happens when the prospective client is faced with professionals who  look, act and sound alike in a multiple selection process?  How might the prospect make a decision in that situation? By who has the lowest price?  Personality? Who knows?

Result: If you act, sound and be like every other sales person trying to get someone's business, you will be treated like everyone else.  Prospects will shut you out, they will bend the truth, lie and keep you at arm's length.  They also will avoid your questions and they will seek all of your information about your company.  They also will keep the conversation intellectual and will remain in complete control of the sales conversation.

Solution: In order to outsell the competition and avoid losing prospects and clients, the professional needs to develop an approach to selling their firm's services that differentiates from the competition and that is more effective in overcoming the prospects situation.  Developing a questioning strategy looking for a prospects "pain" is the most effective approach rather than playing some form of "show and tell".  Pain is the underlying emotional reason people do things.  People make buying decisions emotionally and justify those decisions intellectually.  Get your prospects to pick up their paint brush and paint their picture for you.  That way they own it!

Most sales people are taught the QPC strategy to sales.  Q=Qualify, P=Present your Solution, C=Close the sale.  It is out dated and puts too much pressure on both you and the prospect.  With a small, yet dramatic change to this formula to: QCP, you'll close more opportunities.  It is a profound shift in thinking and in your strategic selling approach.

There is one more to add to this list that most people miss completely.

Mistake Twelve: They do not FEEL Comfortable or Know How to Properly Ask for Referrals and Personal Introductions

Situation: Most professionals either do not ask for referrals or who completely stumble through the process of asking for referrals and personal introductions.  They have all this head trash about sticking their necks out and asking.  This is because they have burned before, the people they have asked before are either not comfortable with this or have also been burned before by bad sales people who don't know how to do this well.  Whatever the reason, it is leaving money on the table.

Result: People are hesitant to provide referrals or personal introductions because you are either acting differently and/or totally focused on your gain.  Therefore, you are making them uncomfortable and when that happens usually prospects and clients shut down.  At most, they will give you a name and number and tell you that you cannot use their name.  What kind of referral is that?

Situation: In order to win more clients and prospects into providing personal introductions you have to manage the process really really well.  First of all, begin this process with a servant's mentality.  This shifts the focus away from you to where it should be, on your prospect or client.  Remember this: "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."  Help them first and follow through on our commitment.  Set the example all the time ~ not just one, but all the time!  Then get their agreement up front to share a future conversation with you about these personal introductions.

Once your ready for those personal introductions help them focus on their networks and find out why they might be a good introduction.  Get your clients to think about ways in which your products or services helped them overcome specific challenges and coach them through this conversation before they actually make that introduction. Coaching them through this conversation helps them become more comfortable and provides a workable framework that makes these introductions easy to execute.  Got it!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, as well as Part 1.  How would you begin to break through and better understand the selling behaviors and actions you need to become a better sales leader? As a sales professional what are your beliefs? What do you focus on? What outcomes do you want to achieve?  How are you controlling the discovery conversations and how are you looking very different from everyone else out there trying to get your buyer's business?

We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@corestrengths.com or on Twitter @bparcells.

Eleven Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make & What To Do About Them – Part 1

Over the years, I have observed the mistakes of many professionals, including myself, in sales, in all industries in what I call “selling situations;” that is, where they are trying to acquire a new client or account. Although the actual approach may vary, there are many common pitfalls that trap professionals.

Please note these are not in any order and are equally important when considering your techniques, behaviors and attitudes towards selling and creating demand for your products and services that match your qualified prospects challenges, budget and decision making process.

Mistake One: They Talk Instead of LISTEN!

Situation: Too many professionals monopolize the time they have in front of prospective clients with their talk, only allowing the prospect to listen. For every hour in front of a prospect, they spend five minutes selling their services and 55 minutes buying them back.

Result: Sales people are a proud bunch. So proud of their knowledge that they want to share it with everyone. Therefore, they come into the call “showing up and throwing up” this knowledge, desperately wanting their important points to be heard.  The prospect hears, "Blah, blah, blah!"  The result is no engagement, too much unpaid consulting, no rapport, no trust and no sale. Here’s a dirty little secret about buyers, “ they really don’t care about your knowledge.”

Solution: The prospect should do most of the talking, as much as 70%. The sales professional only 30%, with 85% of that total asking qualifying questions to determine if the prospect really has challenges, budget and qualifies to get your intellectual property. This is not easy to do because prospects do everything in their power to keep sales people at arm’s length and remain in control of the selling conversation.  Why? Because they have been burned by bad sales people in the past, they don’t trust you and they definitely do not want to be sold.  So, a strong remedy is to ask great questions, listen, probe and clarify everything. Don’t assume anything because often times your buyer means something else based on their filters and intentions.

Mistake Two: They Presume Instead of ASKING QUESTIONS!

Situation: Some professionals seem to have all the solutions. In fact, companies no longer offer services, but are in the business of “providing solutions.” Since they have been faced with these situations before with others prospects and believe that their product or service is right for the prospect, they are not seeing things through the prospect’s perspective.

Result: They know and believe their solutions will work because they are proven and they honestly believe each prospect “needs me.” This triggers immediate features and benefits selling.  Go back to "blah, blah, blah" in the first mistake.  The only thing wrong with this approach is that too many professionals try to sell solutions without knowing what the problem is or what the problems are.

Solution: The professional must ask great questions “up front” to insure a complete understanding of the prospect’s perspective. It is important to find out “what” is happening, “why” it is happening, “how” long has it been happening, “what” have they done to try to solve the issue, and the real impacts those issues are having on the organization and the individual (and other decision makers) they are interviewing.  Get out of the intellectual conversation by digging deep to the emotional levels of a buyer.  Remember, people buy emotionally and justify their decisions intellectually.

Mistake Three: They ANSWER Unasked Questions

Situation: As children we are brought up to answer our parents/teachers and other authority figures questions. This behavior stays with us as we age and therefore when a prospect makes a statement like, “Your fees are too high” most professionals automatically go into a defensive mode and respond.

Result: Often sales professionals begin a speech on quality, value or experience. Sometimes they respond with a concession or a fee reduction. If a prospect can get a discount just by making a statement, then maybe the prospect should not buy until he or she tries something more powerful to get an even better price or discount. “Your prices are too high” is not a question. It does not require an answer!

Solution: Rather, understand the intent of the prospects statement (or question). Ask the prospect, “why do you think some companies charge higher prices than others?” Get them to explain! The statement that your fees are too high is not your problem, it is theirs. Get them to explain! Sell today and educate tomorrow is a great phrase to remember here. The amount of money sales people make is in direct proportion with the amount of information gathered rather than the information given up. Always find out the intent of their statements or questions. Always!

Mistake Four: They Fail to Get The Prospect to REVEAL BUDGET Up Front

Situation: Again, as children, we are taught by our parents that it is not polite to talk about money. This is wired into us (becomes our head trash) and can keep a sales people from discussing budget issues until the very end of the discussion. Then, all the unintended consequences begin to appear: throat tightens, voice cracks, bodies heat up and become clammy and confidence begins to fall. It’s not pleasant at all for both the sales person and prospect because there exists too much pressure.

Result: How can you propose a solution without knowing the prospect’s priority on a problem? Knowing whether there is money and other resources planned for a project will help the sales professional to distinguish between the prospect who is ready to solve the problem and the one who may not be serious at all. The amount of money that the prospect sees investing to solve a problem will help to determine whether a solution is feasible, and if so, what approach will match the prospect’s ability to pay.

Solution: Sales people must find out early in the mutual qualifying conversation if their prospect is both willing and able to make the investment in overcoming their problem and where the resources are coming from and when and how are they released.

Mistake Five: They Make TOO MANY FOLLOW UP CALLS When the Engagement is Actually Dead

Situation: Whether it is a stubborn attitude to turn every prospect into a client or ignorance of the fact that the engagement is truly dead, too much time is spent chasing prospective clients that don’t qualify for our products and services.

Result: Pride gets in the way of seeing clearly the situation and most believe the prospects “interest” is a huge buying signal that they have a “hot one.” The result is sales professionals are back on the proverbial hamster wheel to nowhere. Hoping, hoping, hoping. Wishing, wishing, wishing.

Solution: This should have been detected far earlier in the process. How? By asking great questions, staying in the moment and in control of the conversation, keeping your prospect comfortable and OK with your questions and testing for their commitment or decision early on. Have the guts not accept and clarify wishy-washy statements prospects make, "Your proposal hits our sweet spot," "We are definitely going with you,"  What do these statements mean exactly?  Find out because the buyer's intent is to make you feel good so you'll   give up more information and intellectual property when they have no intention of buying from you. 

Mistake Six: They Fail to Get a COMMITMENT TO BUY Before Doing A Proposal or Demonstration/Quote

Situation: Professionals are too willing to jump at the opportunity to do proposals and often end up wasting their most precious commodities: TIME, ENERGY, MONEY & other RESOURCES.

Result: They miss their true goal in acquiring a client and become free educators, many times merely teaching their prospects enough to help them buy from their competition or use the information to keep an incumbent supplier. How many proposals has your firm done where thousands of dollars of un-billed time and effort were spent chasing phantom opportunities because there was a poor job of qualifying the prospect early on in the screening process?

Solution: Qualify first, sell today and educate tomorrow!

Look for Part 2 really soon.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to break through and better understand the selling behaviors and actions you need to become a better sales leader? As a sales professional what are your beliefs? What do you focus on? What outcomes do you want to achieve?  How are you controlling the discovery conversations and how are you looking very different from everyone else out there trying to get your buyer's business?

We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

Leaders Must Delegate

Most professionals reach a point in their careers when they are told to "do less and lead more." Translation: Delegate more to your people, so your time is freed up to be more strategic and to drive the organization, team, unit or yourself forward.

Truly great leaders understand delegation is not an across-the-board management tactic designed to get unwanted tasks off their plate. Effective delegation is much more strategic and should not be taken lightly. Before jumping into delegation mode, put deliberate thought into it, so the practice works for you, not against you.

Here are a few pointers on When to, What to and When Not to delegate that should get you in the right direction.

When To Delegate

• Delegate when you need to improve as a leader. Sometimes you are the one who needs to grow. You can do this by trusting your people to get the tasks done without you.  They are accountable, responsible, take ownership and initiative, right?  If not, why not and focus on the second point below. Managers who want to be great leaders will force themselves to delegate, so they can learn what their teams are made of and see how effective they are at managing the inevitable mistakes and failures.
• Delegate when you need to provide a growth opportunity for a direct report. If you have a direct report who is bored and unchallenged, then you need to delegate something that will challenge him or her.  Find out their motives and behaviors behind their motives.  A bored and talented employee is a risk you need to manage, or else the individual will find a place where he or she won't be so bored
• Delegate when someone else can do the work as well as or better than you. You may think that no one can do something as well as you can (and it may be true); however, ask yourself if someone else can do it well enough. The other person may even have a different way of doing things that could be better. Allow your ego to consider this. You should be spending most of your time on things others can't do. That is what makes you valuable.
• Delegate when your calendar is so full you can't get higher-level work done. If you are in constant reactionary mode — where most of your day is filled with meetings, calls and administrative work — then you need to delegate. You have little chance of being perceived as more senior if you are doing the work your team should be doing or if you are wasting your time on low-value meetings and calls.

What To Delegate

• This is a tough one from most people. Delegate things you love to do. It's easy to delegate what you don't like, but it's inevitably more powerful to delegate what you do like. Your team will recognize that you are delegating the important, good stuff, rather than just the undesirable stuff. It sends a message that you are not above doing some of the "grunt" work, so they can take a turn at the more interesting work.
• Delegate meetings that a direct report can own. Ask the individual to own the meeting and represent the team from this point forward. Remember to ask for updates as necessary. Caution! Don't cite your full calendar as a reason you need a direct report to attend a meeting for you. That person will resent "the ask.
• Delegate projects, rather than tasks. It is much less motivating for a direct report to be asked to put some talking points together for you to present about a new project than it is for that person to be able to prepare and present the points and project proposal on your behalf.

When Not To Delegate

• Don't delegate something and say it's for the direct report's growth, if it isn't. The individual will see through this and resent you for it. If you are too busy to do something and need the help, simply say that. This is better for the relationship in the long run.
• Don't delegate when people aren't ready. Don't get fed up with your calendar on a random Tuesday and start delegating tasks or projects before knowing if the person or team can handle it. The risk of failure is too great. Delegate to those who are ready for the opportunity.
• Don't delegate something and then forget to recognize people for their efforts.
• Don't take credit for what you delegate. Let those who did the work own the glory. This seems like a no-brainer, but I see it happen all the time.
• Don't delegate decisions initially, but then change your mind when you don't like the decision. This is akin to giving someone "busy work."

Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to break through and better understand the behaviors and actions you need to become a better leader? As a Leader what are your beliefs? What do you focus on? What outcomes do you want to achieve?

What are your thoughts on this topic?  How would you begin to break through your filters to begin shifting your focus on becoming a more intentional delegator and engage your leadership? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

A Leader Must Focus and Believe in Positive Possibilities

Leaders come from all walks of life, ages, cultures and backgrounds. Everyone has the capacity to lead. Will they chose to lead is a topic for another time. Some leaders have natural capabilities and further develop their skills, while others are thrust into roles or situations that bring out leadership elements they never thought they had or could possibly execute. Successful leadership hinges on many factors from heightened self-awareness, developed emotional intelligence, high anabolic energy, constant reflection and improvement, leading by example, authenticity, trust, strong belief systems tied to their values and purposes, confidence to name a few.

Let’s look at beliefs. Beliefs shape one’s thoughts and emotions, which then lead to action. From those actions come results. A leaders success is empowered by their beliefs because it produces positive results for their life’s purpose. Tony Robbins, the author and motivational speaker says, “if your beliefs don’t support your outcome, you have to throw them and start something new.”   What’s going on here?

Successful leaders share a sense of optimism toward their purpose. They believe in the power of possibilities even when things seem too daunting or challenging. Why, because they always focus on the positive and believe that successful outcomes will come from their efforts. Negative energy, being a victim, “I win, you lose” is not in their vocabulary. In getting my coaching certificate, we studied a lot about energy leadership and Napoleon Hill, who said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.”

In anything in life, as well as in leading and leading well, it takes a lot of courage and optimism to learn from mistakes and overcome challenges. When you believe in the possibilities you then put yourself in position to achieve them. Successful leaders know how to block out the negative talk and focus on the possibilities for successful outcomes for themselves and well as for others. Successful leaders understand the positive power of people and know that it is all about the collective power of “we” versus “I.”

Successful leaders work at being successful. They take risks every day. It takes courage to take action without knowing the outcome. Courage is focused on possibilities and faith in others.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to break through and better understand the behaviors and actions you need to become a better leader? As a Leader what are your beliefs? What do you focus on? What outcomes do you want to achieve?

What are your thoughts on this topic?  How would you begin to break through your filters to begin shifting your focus on achieving your vision for your success? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

As A Leader, Does Time Manage You?

How are you managing your time? What does your calendar look like? If you are like most leaders your calendar looks awful. Everyone and I mean everyone wants a piece of you. Your boss, peers, direct reports, clients, vendors and other stakeholders are requesting your time to attend meetings and conference calls. You are constantly bombarded with emails, phone calls, text messages through out the day. We have not even mentioned the demands of your partner, family and others outside of work.

The noise is constant, ever present and can get very overwhelming. No wonder many of us burn the midnight oil, look tired and are exhausted at the end of the five-day workweek. What's that you say? Five day work week, right! So, what can you do to take more control of your time?  I have found these 7 work quite well:

1. Focus on your top 3 urgent and important priorities! ~ Your priorities will demand you attention, enable you to take action and produce results. What is your top 3? If you don’t know, perhaps that is why your calendar looks the way it does and you feel the way you do. Figure out your top three urgent and important priorities and put them in writing. Share them with your stakeholders and revisit them and revise them frequently. 

2. Understand your behaviors and recruit an accountability partner ~ Don't go at this alone! Find an accountability partner; one who you can share your time management and others goals and then who will hold you to them. By all means you don't want a sycophant. Get someone who will keep you on track. Meet often, talk straight and analyze what is working and what is not.  It is also important to understand your behaviors. Determine those behaviors that will help you reach those goals and then your attitude will follow. Behavior drives attitude!

3. Track how you are spending your time on your top 3 priorities! ~ That’s right, track your time. If you don't know where your using your time, you'll never know what to change.  Use a journal or some other source to track your activities and behaviors each hour of your working day.  I highly recommend you do this exercise for two weeks and assess how much time you are spending on your top 3 priorities. If you not spending 75% of your time on these 3 issues then you will need to evaluate what, where, and how you are spending your time. Tracking can be a real eye opener and can help you change the way you manage your time.

4. Delegate ~ Spend time on only those things that you can do. Delegate everything else. Delegating is a great way to develop your team, assess their capabilities and allow them to feel they are contributing.

5. Learn To Say No ~ If you are not setting boundaries, you're buried. Say no to the meeting or conference call that you really do not need to attend. Make your team responsible. Distinguish between what is urgent and what is important.  See #4.

6. Communicate To Your Team What You Need ~ Tell your team what your priorities are, how bet to communicate with you, what your expectations are, when to CC you on correspondence, etc. Be specific and clear. Customize your communication to your audience.

7. Read Your Emails During Certain Periods Of The Day ~ Read them once and do something with each message. Respond, forward with instructions, file or delete.

Your time is a precious commodity. Stop giving it away. Use your time efficiently and effectively by implementing these seven steps. By doing so, you will begin to manage your time instead of time managing you!

Thank you for taking the time to read this. How would you begin to break through and better understand the behaviors and actions you need to take to control your schedule and time? We would love to hear from you with comments or questions. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.