The Down Side of Being Top Dog

(& Why We All Need Mentors & Role Models)

There aren’t many businessmen (or women) in the world that would cause me to feel a “nervous energy” when being around them. In fact, there are only three that I can think of:

1. Donald Trump (Love em or Hate em, the guy is on top)
2. Jeff Vinik (The Owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning) And...
3. One of my previous bosses (who for his privacy, I will keep confidential)

I have yet to of have the pleasure of meeting Donald Trump (But I do watch Celebrity Apprentice like a hawk simply to learn how he makes business decisions – and to learn from other peoples fatal business mistakes) Nor have I met Jeff Vinik yet but respect what both have accomplished in their lifetime as well as all the good they do for others and their families.

While at a wedding this past weekend, my wife and I were seated at the same table as #3 on the list above.

I expected #3 to be at the wedding but certainly did not expect to be seated at the same table together. I was both honored and slightly horrified at the same time. Success isn’t all about money – but when someone can live the lifestyle of their dreams because of the success they have from their business making decisions, I want to learn everything I can from them.

Self-Awareness

Recognizing this “nervous energy” made me realize that I haven’t felt this way in a long time. That’s because when I stopped working for #3 it was to start my first company… and I quickly became top dog. Others in my company looked up to me in some of the same ways as I looked up to those I mentioned earlier (albeit a much smaller scale)

After being fortunate enough to have sold my first business, I did some consulting / sales help for another company while getting SalesBuzz created. Again, I was top dog in my own circle.

There’s a certain sense of responsibility you get when others are looking up to you for advice but what this weekend reminded me was that when we have no one to look up to ourselves, we tend to vacation in our own (success) comfort zone longer than we should. We can easily go into a “cruise-control” mode - but what often gets us to our peak performance is “stepping on the gas” mode.

Rising to that next level only stops when we stop reaching for it. Like numbers, there’s never an end. We can always go up one more. And even when you are a self-motivated success-driven individual, if you’ve reached the top in your circle and are no longer looking “up”, you can lose that great gift of “nervous energy”. And that gift is usually the difference between being “good” and being “great”.

Where did your "nervous energy" come from? When was the last time you met with that person or revisted their teachings? What would they say if they saw you now? If they were with you everyday this week, watching your every move, what would you be doing differently?

I don't know about you, but there's a little extra pep in my step this week.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

There are many proven, effective ways to increase sales results.

Doing nothing is not one of them.

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. Improve your Qualifying Skills
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Dates / Times / Pricing Here!

Sales Question:

"I’m doing OK at sales, but I want to be doing BETTER… what else should I do?"

Answer:

A key ingredient to accelerated success is something we all have the power to do. A simple tool that takes just a few minutes to use and is so powerful; consider it rocket fuel for your career. The challenge however will be having enough discipline and drive to use it consistently.

The Problem

Everyday we all have two choices:

1. Have "life" dictate to us what we are going to do; or...
2. Take control and steer our own ship.

If we allow “life” to dictate our every action, we simply end up going through the motions, handling what ever fire happens to pop up at any given moment, and at the end of the day, we’ve done a lot, yet have accomplished very little at moving closer to achieving our own personal and professional goals.

The Solution

Grab the wheel and map your own course.

Taking control and steering your own ship is as simple as this:

Everyday, make a list of 5 goals / objectives that you want to complete / accomplish before the end of that day – and then come Hell or High Water, make it happen.

These types of goals are called “process” goals… these are steps / activities etc that you can control and if done consistently over time, will help you achieve your results or “outcome” goals and at a much faster pace and will help you go from “good” to “great”.

Here’s an example of what these daily goals / tasks might look like for a B2B inside sales person:

1. Listen to 10 minutes of a motivational audio-book on way to work (it doesn’t matter which one, just start with one and go from there);
2. Get to work 20-minutes early and role-play
3. Make 40 sales calls before noon
4. Prospect 20 new accounts between 3 pm and 4 pm (just build the list; don’t make the calls yet)
5. Prepare tomorrows “prospecting hit list” before 5 pm (this way when you come in the next morning, you already have your “hit-list” ready to call.

These are just examples for you to consider and they are ones that I’ve personally used and still use. But feel free to make up your own as you see fit. 

Some can be daily repeats and others may only be needed once in a while. But always have at least five.

The Benefit

When we map out what it is we want to achieve and why, and we focus on doing what it is that we need to do to get there, you will notice how quickly you start to get closer to achieving your goals / objectives / desires.

When we start making progress, we feel better about ourselves. When we feel better about ourselves, we have more power to overcome the “rough seas” that would normally capsize our goals and knock us off course.

Most importantly, it swings the odds heavily in our favor that we will reach what we are all individually chasing. Whatever that may be.

One of my favorite quotes is:

"The longest journey begins with a single step"

Take five of those steps today.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

How to Hold Yourself Accountable (And Make Bank Doing It)

Top salespeople are self-starters. But even self-motivated sales reps run into times where it’s hard to kick-start their own engines.

If you know what you want but are having a hard time staying committed to the game plan for achieving your goal, the answer is simple: You need to implement a system that will hold yourself accountable. I know, it doesn't sound fun but read on. It's not as bad as you think.

ac·count·a·ble

Required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible.

The keyword here is “justify”. That means you have to explain yourself to someone.

So how does this work in a sales environment?

Simple. Let’s say it’s your sales quota that’s the issue. You want to increase your odds of reaching it on a more consistent basis but you’re having a hard time staying motivated to do everything that’s necessary to achieve that goal.

Here’s what you do…

Step 1: Break up all the “selling activities” that you must do in order to hit your goal into specific categories such as:

• Prospecting
• Qualifying
• Presentation
• Objection Handling / Closing etc

And then be specific on what you must do / what your goals are on a daily / weekly basis for each category.

Example:

Prospecting

• Minimum of X amount of new prospects per day
• Minimum of X amount of first time calls per day
• Minimum of X amount of follow-up calls per day

Step 2: Pick an authority figure above you that you will have to answer to (Think Sales Manager, VP of Sales or a Business Mentor)

Step 3: Meet once a week, preferable early Monday to go over each category.

The first time you meet you will want to go over what your goals are for each category for that week.

The second time you meet (and every time there after) you will first go over your previous week’s goals before moving on to what you hope to accomplish in the current week.

This is where the “justify” comes in. When you know you’re going to have a meeting to explain why or why you didn’t achieve your clearly defined goals & tasks, you will find that extra motivation to make sure you hit the mark. Plus having clearly defined objectives on a daily & weekly basis will act as a motivator in and of itself. We tend to do better when we see a clear step-by-step action plan laid out before us.

Extra Bonus:

Having clearly defined goals and tasks for each category that are key elements to you achieving your goals will also help you spot any weak areas that you will need to improve upon in order to increase your odds of winning.

One last thing…

In the prospecting example I gave above, it’s not just about “doing more” as in calls per day… that’s just a small piece of it.

But let’s say through these weekly accountability meetings we discover a problem in the objection-handling category… we can now put in a resolution to solving that problem. Think of it has fine tuning your engine in order to run at top performance.

Hope you found this helpful.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!

No One Makes Excuses When Winning

When a sales team (or salesperson) is making quota, you don't hear excuses like:

• “Cold calling doesn’t work”
• “Prospects don’t respond to voicemails”
• “Gatekeepers won’t let me speak to the decision maker”
• “No one has any money right now. Budgets are frozen”
• “Our pricing is too high / our competitors pricing is better”
• “The leads are old and have been called 100’s of times” etc.

But when we are failing to reach our goals, and the pressure to identify and correct the situation get’s turned up, its often all too easy to start making (and believing) excuses. And that is an unhealthy environment for everyone involved.

Excuses Keep You Where You Are. Solutions MOVE You to Where You Want to Be.

There are two options when dealing with failure:

1. We can make excuses to justify the reason for failure... Or...
2. We can look at the problem and use it as a "map" that will help lead us to the resolution for solving the roadblock that is keeping us from reaching our goals.

Example: Problem > Not Making Quota

Question: Why aren’t we hitting our numbers?

Answer: Well, for one, we leave lots of voicemails and get very few callbacks. It's hard close deals when no one calls you back!

Choice:

Option 1: Excuse: "No one listens to or returns cold call messages anymore"

Option 2: Ask yourself "why aren't my voicemails being returned and how can I solve that?"

Going with option 1 keeps us where we are: Unsatisfactory number of callbacks with no hope of improvement.

Where as option 2 would allow us to investigate how to solve the problem, which would help us get to where we want to go.

Example:

• Do I have a consistent message, designed to pique interest and entice a callback with a valid reason, prepared well in advance? Or do I put on the “Captain Wing It” cape and say whatever comes to mind or feels right at the moment?
• When was the last time I recorded my voicemail message and played it back?
• How can I change my message to improve my callback %?
• When was the last time I role-played with my peers in order to get constructive criticism?

Excuses rob us of happiness, pride and the ability to reach our potential. They also take away our accountability. And without accountability, destructive behaviors run rampant.

Definition of ex·cuse

VERB: Attempt to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense); seek to defend or justify.

If we continue to justify our failings, how will we ever achieve our goals?

Don’t accept excuses from yourself (or anyone else for that matter). Only accept solutions and watch how quickly your situation goes from “failing” to “winning”.

Hope this helps.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!

Sales Question:

“Every year I set lofty sales goals for myself and always seem to fizzle out… What am I doing wrong?”

Answer:

Goal setting has a lot of moving parts and even with the best-laid plans, you can still come up short. And when we set big goals and start failing at them, motivation can be lost real quick. Once that happens, we fall back into whatever routines and habits we had that led us to our previous results.

What I’ve found to be very successful is making a list of small, easy changes that if done on a consistent basis, will lead to big results.

Here are a few examples:

• Get to work 20-minutes early every day
• Make 5 more sales calls a day, every day
• Listen to a new motivational audio book every quarter
• Read one sales / business book per quarter
• Record and listen to your own sales calls and ask others to listen and give feedback as well

These are just examples and suggestions to help you kick start your own creative thinking to see what areas you can easily make small adjustments to your daily routine in order to get the sales goals and achievements you desire.

The key to making gains will be “consistency”

Getting to work early once in a while won’t have an impact.

Making 5 more calls than normal only a few times a month won’t make much of a difference.

Little changes to our daily routine when done consistently over time leads to better results and since the changes are small and easier to self manage and implement, there’s a greater likelihood you’ll stick with them and achieve the results you are after.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)

8-Week B2B Sales Improvement Program

Learn How To:

1. Eliminate "No, Thanks", "Not Interested" & "We're All Set" Responses from Cold and Warm Calls
2. Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
3. Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
4. How to Really Qualify (I'll show you a better way)
5. Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
6. Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
7. How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
8. Improve Your Time Management Skills

Duration: 1 hour per week for 8 weeks
Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
Presenters: Michael Pedone

Get Next Available Workshop Dates / Times / Registration Information Now!