Low Sales Again??? I wonder why??

I was having a conversation with one of my friends last night and she was telling me that her sales are so low.  As she continued to explain her predicament to me I began to slowly and unnoticeably (I hope) wander off into the mind of a sales person when they wake in the morning. Are they scared that they are waking up to the same funnel they had last week, are they worried that they are the last on their team performance wise or are they more scared at the amount of tongue lashing they will get from their direct line manager.

What was then apparent to me was that they must be scared shitless, constantly. As in totally living in fear that either they won’t make their quota, hit their targets, please their boss, and rank higher that another sales executive, that they will lose business or even their jobs. Fear.

I think if you really want your sales team to perform, you have to really make them happy.

Comfortable. 

Fearless.

Fear can curb creativity, creativity that you probably need to get out of that sales rut you are in. Fear also makes you not sleep well at night, drink too much, easily irritable, blame others and ultimately not focus/concentrate effectively on the tasks at hand.

My advice for my friend mentioned in the first paragraph is...It’s not too late to come back strong. You just need to follow 5 simple steps. 

Relax. Identify. Plan. Act. Smile.

Relax- there is nothing to worry about. It’s just sales.

Identify-You cannot sell if you are distracted, when you are worried/stressed about something. All this is seen by your customers and prospects and they lose confidence in you or the product. Before you get rid of the worry you must identify what is making you worried, afraid or even stressed. Look at the other aspects of your life as see what else could be bothering you other than your lack of sales. Find the root and you will find a way out.

Plan- Once you identify the worry or causes of worry turn these into action plans for success. Try turning that situation around by attacking it head on. If you cannot change that situation then adopt a new or different way of looking at it.

Act- From the action plan you know what you need to do so START.

When I started to write this article I was writing it for the demoralized, de-motivated, down trodden sales guys but just now realized that these people had a lot of help getting there. So this question is for the guys who give them hell...so they bring in sales...what do u do??

It’s very easy to point at sales people and see fault because their deliverables are very obvious i.e. revenue but what are you doing to ensure that the same people keep doing the same every month or even raise the bar all together?

Managers need to be aware of certain things:

•        Adding negative motives will ruin the process.

Negative motives are things like quotas, minimum number of calls, fears, threats, etc.

•        Negative energy

If you can convert that negative energy into a positive motivator, you will create the internal atmosphere where success will thrive

• Use of threats

Some bosses try to use threats or impose minimum quotas to get sales numbers. Big mistake. Convert that negative energy to encouragement, training, education and supportive sales tools and you will win big.

•        Positive actions

To succeed, one positive action will not be enough. A repetitive culture needs to be established so that this behavior becomes a norm.

•       Taking it too seriously

Taking things too seriously can also be a demotivator because it causes stress and takes the fun out of selling.

•        Celebrate

Celebration of achievements even premature ones can be a good ego boost for sales people.

Speaking of motivating factors, I’d like to end this note by listing down some positive motivators that can help drive human beings in general. Maybe you can start to do some things a bit differently wherever you are.

· Money –– The greatest self motivating force in the world.

· Contest or Prize –– A chance to win, and be seen as "best."

· Desire to win –– The inbred instinct to finish first.

· Award –– A plaque that says "I’m great."

· Recognition –– Telling others "I’m great."

· Ego stroke –– Wanting to feel good inside, or be the center of attention.

· Helping others –– The need to be or feel needed.

· Opportunity – the dangling carrot to get more.

· Desire to succeed –– The inside fire that burns.

· Family –– The will to secure the people you love.

· Achievement –– The personal drive to accomplish.

· Advancement –– The desire to "get ahead" personally.

· Independence –– The want to "be my own boss."

· Challenge –– The desire to achieve a goal (or gold).

· Exercise –– Positive physical stimulation. (Buy everyone on your team a health club membership.)

· Fun and recreation –– The desire to have a beer at the beach. The desire to play golf.

· Someone inspirational –– Someone who by their words or action inspires you to "do it."

· New knowledge (learning a new or better way) –– Sales tapes, seminars and books provide some of the best sources of inspiration and motivation. The key is to take action after you learn. (Record your notes and action items on a cassette tape as soon as you learn them. Listen everyday.)

· Making a sale –– As soon as you make one, you want to make another (and the best part is that it’s the easiest time to do so. (You’re on a mental high and an emotional self–confident roll – go go.)

· The thrill of (repetitive) victory –– The desire to keep on (re)winning. Making a sale right after you just made one.

· Belief in product. –– The conviction that your product is the best gives motivation to self–confidence.

· Love of job –– The thrill of loving what you do creates a stronger belief in what you sell.

· Encouragement – "You can do it" goes a long way to achieve. Encouragement is the biggest (and least used) outside positive motivator.

VISION TOMORROW

A team as efficient and effective as Kenya’s Vision 2030 Contractors…I’m actually convinced they have the capability of building Rome Overnight! I mean, how many times have you passed your daily route in the morning only to find new developments on the road like a new fly over? You swear that you didn’t see it on your way home the previous day but today morning, barely 10hours later there it is in front of you… a whole new fly over with 6 lanes! How did they do that yet they are just above the number of a football team??? A few years back when they first laid out the plan to the public, one would think the government would have to employ a workforce at least the size of two counties. However that’s not the case because on the real they are actually at most, the maximum number of football players in the pitch during a match, that’s 22. How do they do that? They are so few yet they do so much?

Only one thing is clear, they are the epitome example of a human ant’s team work ethics. The ants’ work ethics is professional, it is an art. They have a clearly defined and funnily, an unwritten code of who plays which role and how each is supposed to carry out their duties with one clear goal, Survival and Longevity for their generation and generations to come. The same applies for the vision 2030 workforce. They work hard towards building infrastructure that will be of help today and also survive and last for generations to come. This will in turn benefit the country’s overall economic status in the long run by eradicating several limiting factors…though I won’t venture into that topic, it is too broad and I’m not out to creating a thesis. Anyway question is, if your company was to be contracted to build just one, either a roundabout or flyover, how efficient and effective do you think your team would be in delivering?

                                                                                                                         

Efficiency and effectiveness are directly related to productivity which forms the base for a performance appraisal to any job. In the dictionary productivity is defined as a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input; effectiveness refers to the adequacy to accomplish a purpose while efficiency refers to performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort. In other words, “Being effective is about doing the right things, while being efficient is about doing the things in the right manner.” Therefore, to answer the question of whether your team can deliver one vision 2030 municipal flyover or roundabout, the efficiency and effectiveness of your team will be the determining factor on the overall productivity or success of the project.

Now whether or not you think your team can deliver, there are still a few tips you could deploy in making them master the art of organization in productivity, that is what team work is…

1. Go to the drawing board and map out goals and plans for each member and the team as a whole. You only know where you are going if you understand where you are from and where you are now.
2. Communicate. Do not encourage the culture of assumptions where you do not need to communicate some things as they are “obvious”. When you ASSUME you are only making an ASS out of U and Me.
3. Build relationships. Know each other so that you gain respect, support, cooperation and trust with each other
4. Be timely in resolving issues and making decisions. The sooner you get this done, the sooner you get the ball rolling, the more progressive you are as a team…its all about progression and the excuse department should remain closed!
5. Frequently facilitate productive meetings. What, Why and How should be the basis of any agenda of the meeting.
6. Give a purpose to the team members. Spell out their roles just like any other country’s constitution spells out its laws. This will answer the questions that each team member reflects on from time to time in regards to your organization, that is, ‘who am I?’, ‘why am I here?’ and ‘what should I do to get to where I am supposed to be going?’
7. Illuminate effective team leadership. Effective leadership does not entail solely taking pride in your title as the Head, Leader and Commander in Chief of a team! Rather it entails supporting your team members in a way that you can positively influence their actions towards any accomplishment, being the steeping stone for your team members so that they can all reach greater heights.

Remember numbers never lie, you are either working hard or hardly working. I hope these tips will help you as you roll out into the second quarter of the year. Vision tomorrow Team Work