Half time: time to gear up for the rest of the game

From Coach Kristen:

July brings picnics, trips to the beach, and family vacations where siblings are stuffed in the backseat like sardines. For most people, summer is simply a time to coast into fall. This is a poor choice.

We're more than half way through 2009. In sports, half time is a break in the action where the team huddles together to reflect on the first half of the game. Mistakes are analyzed, great plays are revisited, words of encouragement are exchanged. Most importantly, the coach reviews the goals set for the team and readjusts strategy to ensure these goals are met. Then, he rallies the team around this new strategy and cheers them onto victory.

In your "game" with your team, this half-way point should also be a time to reflect on the first half of the year. Set aside your half time and plan to discuss the following:

• What were the original goals for 2009?
• What goals (if any) have we completed thus far?
• How have our goals changed?
• What steps are outstanding to meet these goals?
• Do we need to readjust our priorities?
• Do we need to readjust our timeline?
• What new goals do we need to craft?
• Who else do we need to involve (draft) on our team to ensure our goals are met?
• Are there any goals we need to delete that are no longer relevant to our overall mission?
• What other resources are we lacking?

When you've had the chance to huddle up, take more time to re-set goals for the remainder of the year. This is also a great time to set one-on-one mid-year performance appraisals. As you are discussing the overall big team goals, you must also spend time with each individual team member to discuss their goals as they fit in the overall big picture. If you find you don't have the resources to do all this on your own, consider hiring a business coach to help you. Be sure to find someone with experience and credentials-don't simply hire a "consultant".

When the process is complete, your team will be refocused and recommitted to the game. When the whistle blows, everyone will be working from the same playbook; focused to win.

Motivate and Incentivize Your Team the Right Way

From Coach Ty Bello:

Motivation is the key when spending time and measuring the performance of your sales people. It is paramount to the overall success of your business. As coaches and managers, we should have ways of showing them where they are at each week, month, quarter and year.
Incentives and commissions must be tied to a behavior. The behavior is simple: we want them to make sales calls. It may seem that you are simply double-paying them to do their job. Look at it another way-this behavior is a precursor to the commission or incentive. The behavior (making sales calls) is tied directly to commission and incentive dollars.
Waving that carrot will motivate sales people to make sales calls-and you can determine the type of call needed. There are two essential types of calls needed-sales calls on the referral base (established customers) and prospect calls (new customers or those not giving the business).
There are three areas for consideration when implementing a salary plan for a sales professional.

• Skill set-including previous experience and past performance
• "Book of business"-what relationships, alliances, and customer base will they bring?
• Geography- what is the MRP (Market Reference Point) for the territory? What are other professionals in your area being paid for that type of sales position?

Reference our article in the March 2009 issue of HME News titled, Move away from Pulse Hiring in Downturn. The market is flooded with solid sales candidates for HME and we need to take this opportunity to perfect our team. I would encourage you all to read this article to identify how you can do this and why the timing could not be better.

Lightening is just light, Thunder is just noise

From Coach Kristen:

My kids are small: 5, 3, 20 months and a newborn. The older two have recently become more frightened of big storms. If they hear "thunderstorm" in the forecast, they immediately begin plans to head to the basement. Each time, I have to explain that thunderstorms aren't cause for worry. Lightening is just a bright light; thunder is just a loud noise. When I can take something unknown and scary and put it in simpler terms, they grasp it. It is no longer an issue. We can curl up on the couch and read a book as the storm brews outside.

Your team may be facing some serious "unknowns" in their lives: job security, work performance, new prospects, promotions, internal conflicts, and so on. Worry crops up if issues aren't addressed and discussed. As a Coach, your job is to take those scary things and help the coachee see them from an unemotional, informed perspective.

Taking from Dale Carnegie's book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, he advises the following:

• Ask the coachee, "What is the worst that can possibly happen?"
• Work with them to prepare to accept the worst
• Help them try to improve on the worst

Coaching means taking an objective look at the situation and helping the coachee see what part in a situation they have (or can) play. A good Coach is also able to help the coachee identify the elements over which they have control. Last, coaching means taking big goals, situations, or "unknowns" and breaking them down into more simple, manageable pieces.

Honest discussions about "the worst" often bring worry to a manageable level; especially when the coachee realizes they can handle the worst. Feeling that you have no control brings stress and worry. Coaching may mean helping a team member formulate a "plan B" (even if it is never employed). Doing this allows a person to feel in control. Alleviating the unknowns and lessening stress is beneficial to everyone because we pay an exorbitant price for worry in terms of our physical and mental health.

SalesPoint: Being tactful under fire

Sales people need to practice a fine balance of offense and defense. The job, obviously, is to sell the products or services developed by your company. You don't get paid unless the company makes money. Sometimes, you can find your product or service pitted against a competitor's-and the prospect likes the competition better than you.

Your basic inclination is to go on the offense, defend the merits of your offerings, and attack the competition by exposing their weaknesses. This may not always be the best strategy. In Dale Carnegie's famous work, "How to Win Friends and Influence People", he advocates avoidance.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

Instead of focusing on the specifics of the competitor, try instead to find the reasons behind the choice. Asking good probing questions like, "When deciding which DME provider you'll call, what do you look for?" or "What made you choose this specific brand of (fill in the blank)?" In uncovering preferences, experience, or habits you can craft your conversation to highlight the features or benefits of your specific product. Always show respect for the choice or opinion the referral source has-regardless of why. Never say, "You're wrong." Customers will shut down if they feel attacked. Representatives find themselves banned from offices when they become aggressive.

Arguments are more than just a difference in opinion. Civil individuals can discuss differences with calm tones and polite words. Arguments escalate when one or both sides cease to listen to the other person. Exercising good listening skills can help avoid an argument. This means actually hearing what the other person says, reflecting back to show you understood the speaker, and engaging them in the conversation. (Versus just waiting for them to finish their thought so you can launch into yours!)

Last, learn to not take issues personally. All of us have an inherent need to feel liked. If a customer or referral source doesn't like or use what you represent, it doesn't mean they don't like YOU. When you personalize their preferences, you are more likely to feel the need to attack. Attacks lead to arguments and arguments lead to walls being put up. No selling can be done with walls between you and the customer.

Selling takes time; trust comes from a forged relationship. When you work to be civil and avoid arguments, you find that selling is simply an extension of the conversation between you and the referral source.