I interviewed a couple of salespeople whom Roland had been unable to hire. Their image of Roland was not that of a leader, so they each opted to take jobs with more progressive businesses in the area. They told me that they didn't want to work for a man like Roland, and referred to his lack of sophistication and his abrupt communication style. At the end of my visit, I suggested that Roland hire a general manager who had the talent to perform the essential business functions that Roland hated so much. To my surprise, he didn't resist the idea.

An essential step in managing the performance of salespeople is that of establishing a sound and agreed contract between manager and the salesperson. The chances are also high that the salesperson will sit back and listen as opposed to being pro-active and outlining exactly what they need to know and whatever else is going on in their head. Our culture is still very based on the hierarchy where a manager tells the salesperson what to do. As a result there is always the danger of not getting the best out of the salesperson by taking this approach. This is the basis for a productive relationship.

For example, customers usually see problems that salespeople do not. Salespeople see problems that designers do not. These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http. The best ideas occur way after the 20, 50 or 100 mark, when blocks have been removed, competencies learned and the experience curve climbed. The single best creative product tends to appear when the creator is being most prolific.

They say that their industry is different from all the others and the only effective way for their salespeople to sell is to build buddy-buddy relationships with their prospects and customers. The problem is that most salespeople spend 80% of their time managing leads and trying to build relationships. Like a fruit tree, sales prospects must be cultivated in a certain way if they are to bear fruit. The cherry tree is a useful sales analogy. Usually, about 80% of a given target market will have the same needs, the same problems they want solved, and the same attitudes about buying.

Most of the company's underachieving salespeople worked in sales, also. Interestingly, the same company also discovered most of its superstar salespeople worked at McDonald's for six months or longer in high school or college. For example, one company I consulted to wanted to hire salespeople to sell a service (not a product. Upon examining bio-data of the company's superstar salespeople, we found the high-achieving salespeople had worked selling services. For example, I consulted to a tire company.

For instance, to hire profitable salespeople, first have your superstar salespeople take the tests. If you are hiring salespeople, customize the interview guide form for your company's salesperson job. For example, one company desired to hire better salespeople. Using my checklist, the sales executives chose crucial seven talents their salespeople need to succeed. In contrast, skilled interviewers ask open-ended questions.

If salespeople are passionate about new business, they bring a lot of new accounts. When executives and salespeople are passionate about golf, skiing, tennis, travel, community or church-related activities, then they tend to excel in those areas, and sometimes to the detriment of their accountabilities on the job. An observation I have made from performing over a hundred consulting assignments is that most owners, managers and salespeople are quite good at the things that they're the most passionate about. He allocates one day each month to meet with his TEC group. A couple of years ago, he invested in a right hand man to take over the operations end of his business so he could concentrate on another of his passions - sales.

All employees (receiving clerk, salespeople, buyers, office personnel) must be properly trained. Alert, courteous salespeople can deter many would-be shoplifters by their presence. Neat displays make it easier for alert salespeople to spot missing merchandise. This is done by setting up procedures containing good internal controls and by seeing that these procedures are followed without exception. This can be done through interviewing techniques, by carefully checking references and by the use of carefully developed written honesty tests.

Only on rare occasions are employees (except for salespeople) able to answer these questions since many owners and managers are still prone to give their people discretionary raises and in many cases discretionary year-end bonuses. But would such naysayers want to work for a company that paid them a salary and kept them in the dark as to how they are measured or how their bonus is calculated. Discretionary bonuses would be like the tournament committee at the U. Open deciding how much to pay the golfers after play had stopped and the tournament was over. It could even be a trip for two to a nice resort.

When you miss your target, dock your pay and when you exceed it, pay yourself a bonus. Each month that your business meets its profitability goal, pay yourself the full amount. Writing yourself a monthly paycheck will give you a strong incentive to keep your business profitable. It doesn't matter how many thousands of dollars you are bringing in each month if your expenses are almost as high, or higher. Evaluate the success of your business based on profit, not revenue.

Because so many of your industry's less professional salespeople will employ low-ball pricing tactics as bait, more attention than ever must be paid to how well your company is treating its customer base. A manager should visit each top customer at least on a quarterly basis, showing genuine and sincere interest in their business and asking what the company can do to improve the efficiency of their operations. Invite customers and prospects onto your turf. Organize customer seminars, hold an open house, invite vendors to conduct new product demonstrations, launch a customer newsletter, etc. The owner or general manager should be on a first-name basis with each of the customers that make up the top 80% of your sales.

If you are selling wingnuts, do not leave a message because we are not buying them. For example, your message could state, Hi this is Pat Smith. Leave a message if you have an work related issue. Strategic voice mail can protect your time. Most good business people appreciate candor and understand the word, No.

Consultants and salespeople alike tout them for their objectivity and accuracy. Highly targeted and personalized executive coaching can be far more cost-effective in developing leadership competence. Today's organization can't afford to lose quality people due to managerial incompetence. This is clearly a waste of time and money. However, many organizations indiscriminately assign rising managers to executive development programs regardless of the specific needs of the individual.

I have been to car dealerships where salespeople were in a meeting when I tried to purchase a vehicle. Unlike most of us, she comes from an older generation that actually expects salespeople and store employees to think of customers as valued visitors that represent their primary source of income. From the time we entered the store, we noticed that the salespeople and employees were not attentive to the needs of customers. If you really want to see someone get hot under the collar, just go to most any large chain store and watch how long it takes for a customer who has been left standing at a counter by themselves to get really angry or extremely annoyed. If that employee had been trained properly and empowered to handle situations within reason of their position, the customer would not be left to sizzle.

After all, leaders (salespeople included) should be motivated. I'm talking motivation, motivating people to get more results faster on a continual basis. Mind you, I'm not talking about pandering to people's whims. Make the Way of the Question Mark your way. And it's a world predicated on their choices.