1.  The root causes of the “Growth Trap” that severely restrict profitable growth
2.  How to eliminate Sales Ghosts permanently from your organization
3.  How to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your sales hiring process
4.  How to get a free tool to calculate the cost of your organization’s Sales Ghosts

[Click Here to Listen]

The first is FEAR. Fear is internal; it’s in our head, however it is the great crippler of human potential. Fear can be divided into three basic categories:

• Fear of Failure – Not trying ensures failure.  A better perspective on failure is to equate it with learning.  When we stop failing, we stop learning.  No mistakes = no action.
• Fear of Criticism or Rejection – When you don’t get the sales order, it means you didn’t get the order, not that you or your product was rejected.  This can lead to feelings of “I’m not worthy.”  Your worth as an individual isn’t on the line – a business transaction is.
• Fear of Non-Conformity – This can rob you of your uniqueness.

Ask yourself: What are my fears and how might they be holding me back?

The second reason people resist change is because of EGO. The need to be right is a powerful human need. It’s a common problem with leaders, managers, and business owners who have had a taste of success.

Ask yourself: Is it possible that my need to be right is an obstacle?

The third reason why people resist change is to avoid CONFLICT. Because when you try to do something different and create change, you’ll create and get some conflict. And conflict isn’t fun, so many people just avoid it all together.

Ask yourself: How comfortable am I with conflict?

The fourth reason that people resist change is LACK OF PURPOSE. Without a sense of purpose, people become stagnant and complacent. They also tend to get burnt out.

Ask yourself: Have I created a compelling vision for my business?

The fifth reason people resist change is LACK OF INFORMATION or poor communication.  People deal better with change equipped with information, even if the information is negative.  You cannot lead unless you have a sense of purpose – for yourself and for your team. What’s your vision? Is it something that everyone understands and has a stake in?  How do you continually communicate and reinforce your vision?

Ask yourself: How would my team rate me as a communicator of my vision?

In today’s world, we face more change in a year then our grandparents may have faced in their lifetime.  It can be overwhelming; it can be scary; it can be frustrating, or it can be exhilarating. Regardless of how you view change, the fact remains that it is very real, it won’t go away, and your business’ growth depends on it.  In his book, The Renewal Factor, Robert Waterman says, our “willingness to understand and exploit change is a powerful competitive weapon.”

Ask yourself: How well do I actively seek and exploit change?

The first step is always the most painful. To get your employees to accept and embrace change, you must first lead by example. That means that you must demonstrate your willingness and ability to change before you can expect them to change!

A simple, yet powerful way to accomplish this is to do the following:

1. Ask your direct reports (and, if applicable, your boss) to list the top three things that you could change to make you a more effective leader. Don’t accept any fewer than three answers, because the third is usually the most important one.
2. Compile the list of suggestions and share it with your team, then pick 2 or 3 items from the list and make a commitment to change.
3. Share your progress with your team and ask them to help you hold yourself accountable.
4. As you progress, it’s time to ask your team to follow in your path and complete the same exercise for themselves.

The fundamental truth is this: As goes the leadership team goes the rest of the firm.  Whatever strengths or weaknesses exist within the organization can be traced right back to the executive team and their levels of cohesion, trust, competence, discipline, and willingness to change and adapt.

Ask yourself:  Am I modeling the thoughts and behaviors I expect from my team?

Your answer to that question might not be comfortable, but it will explain precisely why your organization either is or isn’t performing the way you want.

In the current issue of The Harvard Business Review, authors Heike Bruch and Jochen Menges explore the root causes of “The Acceleration Trap” – never-ending, hard-charging activity and change inside an organization – and offer practical solutions to avoid it.

Although their change and growth strategies often succeed brilliantly for a while, CEOs often try to make frenetic change the new normal. Symptoms of over-accelerated companies, ironically, often yield poor performance: lack of employee motivation, scattershot focus, and deteriorating customer service.

Does your company have an acceleration culture?  Take this quick, 16 question quiz to find out.

Over-accelerated companies exhibit at least one of three distinct patterns of destructive activity:

• Activity Overload – Employees are overloaded with too many activities and don’t have the time or the resources required to do their jobs.
• Multiloading – Employees are asked to do too many different kinds of activities, leaving them and the company unfocused, and activities misaligned.
• Perpetual Loading – Management gets into the habit of creating constant change, depriving workers of any hope to recharge and refresh themselves on the heels of an intense period of work.

In a survey of employees from 600 firms, Bruch and Menges found significant distinctions between trapped and non-trapped businesses.  Here’s what the employees had to say:

• “I lack resources to get my work done” (60% trapped vs 2% non-trapped)
• “I work under constantly elevated time pressure” (80% trapped vs. 4% non-trapped)
• “My company’s priorities frequently change” (75% trapped vs 1% non-trapped)
• “I see a light at the end of the tunnel” (3% trapped vs. 83% non-trapped)
• “I regularly get a chance to regenerate” (6% trapped vs. 86% non-trapped)

Ever been there as a staffer?  No, it’s not much fun at all.

If your organization is caught in the acceleration trap, there are four ways to break free: clarify your strategy, stop less important work, create a system to select projects, and declare an end to the current mode of hyper energy operation.  The bottom line: don’t drive your company constantly to its limits.

Over-acceleration – often in the form of aggressive growth and change – leads to loss of focus, too many activities, organizational fatigue, and employee burnout.  To combat it, strive to be aware of the exertion that underlies progress toward your goals, and work on making sure the firm’s energy level is sustainable.  This means being vigilant, even when things are going smoothly, for signs that the company is slipping into the acceleration trap.

Are you wondering if your company has an acceleration culture?  Click here to take our brief, 16 question quiz!

As we approach the end of of Q1 2010 it’s time once again to look at the scoreboard to see how your sales team is tracking toward your revenue goal. How are they doing? And how are you doing holding them accountable to deliver?

Here are some thoughts about improving accountability from Dave Kurlan, thought leader in sales effectiveness and salesforce development, and author of Baseline Selling (www.baselineselling.com).

A priest was sharing his frustration over parishioners who took shortcuts and left church early. At a parish he was assigned to earlier in his career, parishioners received the host and exited via the side door without returning to their seats for the remainder of the service. He wondered how many of them had simply developed a bad habit and challenged them by saying, “The next time you find yourself leaving early, ask yourself, ‘why am I doing this?’” A lady approached him after the service and felt terrible about all of this. She said that she had been leaving early to tend to her sick husband. The Priest said that this didn’t apply to her, she was already making a sacrifice by attending, and she should care for her husband. She paused and finally said, “but he passed away three years ago!”

This story got me wondering about the widespread misuse of the sales process. There are certain steps that must be executed at specific times to assure a successful outcome. However, undisciplined salespeople are often tempted to skip steps when prospects ask for prices, quotes, proposals, demos, references, and presentations much earlier than the process allows for. Once in a while these salespeople get lucky and get the business. And then they start skipping the steps they’ve been trained to follow because, after all, they are more comfortable and confident at presenting, proposing, quoting and demoing, than they are with listening, questioning, probing and identifying compelling reasons to buy. Like the lady with the sick husband, they take steps that aren’t necessary or desirable, simply out of habit.

Sales Management’s number one priority is to assure that salespeople don’t fall into old habits, take shortcuts, get lazy, or avoid steps in the sales process where they aren’t as skilled or comfortable. Once your customized, optimized, integrated sales process is in place and introduced, my top 10 rules for all sales processes, strategies and tactics are:

1. This isn’t voluntary
2. There are no exceptions
3. We live it and breathe it
4. Hold them (and yourself) accountable to it
5. Coach to it daily
6. Reinforce it
7. Point out what happens when they skip steps
8. Show them what happens when they execute
9. Non compliance has consequences
10. Practice daily

What bad habits have taken hold with your salespeople?  Follow Dave’s 10 steps to strengthen your sales leadership, to reinforce the fundamentals, and to bring out the best in your team.

This question is painfully simple, yet it plays a major role in the execution of your firm’s vision and priorities. Sadly, many leaders cannot accurately answer it. You may be surprised to find a sizable disconnect between your top priorities and how you actually spend your time.

People take their cues from the leader when it comes to time management. How time is allocated must match both your business priorities and your team’s actual day-to-day activities.  If they don’t match, have a look at your goals and priorities (you DO have goals and priorities, right?).  I’ve found that in most cases, time management issues are merely symptoms of underlying goal and priority issues.

Although time allocations may vary depending on time of year, staffing changes and external factors, time management must become a conscious decision that fits your vision and priorities. In fact, a periodic review of how you invest your time is a vital business habit.

Give yourself the gift of time for the new decade: track your time for 3-5 days.  Have your management team do it too, then review the results together.  Once you see the reality of how your spend your day, you can more realistically and honestly evaluate what needs to change to bring your time allocations back into alignment with your goals and priorities.  Like a fleet small boats bobbing in the ocean – they are bound to drift over time.

Back in the 1920’s, a PR man named Ivy Lee was hired by Charles Schwab – the President of Bethlehem Steel.  Lee gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He told Schwab “I can increase your efficiency. Pay me in 3 months whatever you think it’s worth.”

Lee met with Schwab and with each member of the executive team individually for exactly 10 minutes.  In the meeting he told them “Promise me that for the next 90 days, at the end of each day you’ll list the 6 most important priorities you need to accomplish the next day, and number them according to importance.  Then when you come to work the next day, work on them sequentially until they are all completed. Any leftover items get transferred to the next day’s list.”

They all said: “That’s it?”  And then they all agreed to Lee’s rules.

Schwab wrote Ivy Lee a $25,000 check 90 days later and said “This is the best investment I’ve ever made.”  Remember that this was in the 1920’s!

Whether you realize it or not, all your staff’s eyes are trained on you – looking for cues and norms to help them define how they should behave.  If you need THEM to make better choices around how they spend THEIR time, start by setting an example for them to model and follow.

Track your time, analyze the results, and make changes to your allocations. You might also consider taking Ivy Lee’s $25,000 advice to Charles Schwab – often it’s the simplest things that can make the biggest differences.

Here’s the answer.

Take 4 minutes to watch this video. You’ll see numerous Social Media ROI examples and a number of effective Social Media strategies. I promise it will impact your thinking about social media as a tool of business. In fact, the statistics alone will blow your mind.

Welcome to the world of Socialnomics!  Are you swimming with the current?

Here are 5 (invisible) reasons why your salespeople will underperform in 2010:

1. They have a need for approval
Many people choose sales after being told they have a perfect personality for selling. While that could be true, many of those same people feel complete only when other people like them. Salespeople who are easily liked have a great advantage, but salespeople who need their prospects to like them often make that a priority over getting the business. Salespeople with need for approval have difficulty asking tough questions, have a fear of rejection, and avoid confrontation.

2. They become emotionally involved
Salespeople who think, analyze, create, strategize or otherwise talk to themselves when prospects catch them by surprise become emotionally involved instead of remaining in the moment. When they are emotionally involved, their listening skills tend to be self-focused rather than prospect focused, causing them to miss important points and lose control of their meetings.

3. They rehearse self-limiting beliefs
Every salesperson has as many as 60 beliefs that either support the selling process (“I have the ability to be effective with company presidents”) or sabotage it (”I don’t like making cold calls”). Ineffective salespeople often have 10 or more of these self-limiting records playing over and over in their heads while more effective salespeople have very few.

4. They have a non-supportive buy cycle
The buy cycle refers to the salesperson’s own personal buying habits and how they make major purchases for themselves. Most ineffective salespeople have non-supportive buy cycles: they think it over before making a decision, they comparison shop, they shop for the lowest price, they perform research or perceive that a relatively small amount of money is a lot. When their prospects engage in this very same behavior, the salesperson unconsciously understands (has empathy), and their techniques for handling stalls and put-offs of this kind are either not used at all or are used ineffectively.

5. They are uncomfortable with issues involving money
Many salespeople are uncomfortable escalating a question about budget or whether a prospect can afford the product or service being offered to the next level. Their discomfort prevents them from helping a prospect figure out how to pay or even (more creatively) where the money could possibly come from. When prospects don’t have the budget, can’t envision increasing the budget or don’t know how they can find the money, the salesperson empathizes as opposed to digging deeper, asking questions, and making suggestions to resolve the monetary shortage.

Of the 21 dimensions we use to assess sales effectiveness and develop salespeople, these 5 are the most common and significant inhibitors to sales success. They are also the most challenging to detect and remedy.

You can stack the deck for 2010 in your favor by proactively developing current sales staff in each of these 5 dimensions and by modifying your sales recruiting process to screen for them before you hire. And by the way, if you don’t, the costs associated with an endless recruiting, training, and turnover cycle for your sales team could hurt you even more than the lost revenue!

Want more sales in 2010 and a stable, productive sales team? Then eliminate the 5 (invisible) reasons why your salespeople underperform!

In other words, he’s worth your time!  Take just over 2 minutes (2:04) and get a dose of Tom Peters to spark your thinking.

I recently heard from my colleague Vern Harnish – author of “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” – that in his 27+ years of educating executives of growth firms the best predictors of success are a voracious thirst for learning and a bias for action – that is, “learn fast, act fast.” It’s why Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, has created a habit of shutting off his Blackberry over the weekend and reading a book or two.

Happy reading!

Choose the best answer from the options to discover your Influence Quotient. Dr Robert Cialdini, the leading expert on Influence and Persuasion presents a simple quiz that can help you (and your team) understand your ability to recognize influence and persuasion techniques.

If you don’t have time to take the quiz, but want to learn about the answers, click here.

1. Upon first entering the office of the purchasing manager of a company with whom you would like to do business, you notice a picture of the team mascot of your alma mater on the wall. You should:

1. Mention that you went to the same university prior to discussing business.
2. Mention that you went to the same university after discussing business.
3. Not mention this personal similarity in a business meeting.
4. Discuss that you went to the same university only if the client brings up the topic.

2. You are attempting to persuade the Board of Directors of your company that it is in your company’s best interest to implement a costly revision to your back-office functions. You know that the Board is very concerned about costs, so you have also formulated two alternate plans that are less costly and less comprehensive. When it comes time for your presentation, which of the following strategies should you use to obtain the optimal results (the greatest degree of change the Board will support)?

1. Describe the least expensive revision first.
2. Describe the mid-range revision first, and then ask the Chair if s/he would like to hear the alternate plans.
3. Describe the most expensive revision first, then the mid-range, and then the least costly plan.
4. Ask the Chair which plan s/he is most interested in and then describe that plan only.

3. Your company is launching a new product and your boss asks you to make a marketing decision. Your boss is considering two options to generate initial interest from the public: offering a price reduction on the product for a “limited-time” or offering a price reduction for a “limited number” of the product. Which approach should you recommend to get the greatest interest from the public?

1. “limited-time”
2. “limited-number”
3. Either option will produce the same positive results.
4. Neither option will produce positive results.

4. You have an important meeting with a prospective client later today. You know from your previous discussions that the prospect is impressed with your proposal, but does not believe that implementing your ideas at this particular time is a top priority. Which of the following approaches to the meeting would provide you with the greatest chance of persuading the prospect to approve your proposal in the shortest period of time?

1. Emphasize what the prospect will lose if he does not implement your ideas at the present time.
2. Emphasize the positive features and benefits of your proposal.
3. Ask the prospect to outline his objections to your proposal.
4. Begin with a request for a commitment and then try to close the sale.

5. Imagine you are the (unlucky) campaign manager of a political candidate who has recently lost the public’s trust. Now imagine that the candidate wants to rebuild his reputation through profiling himself as a touch crime fighter. Even though his opponent has a credible track record in his regard. Of the following choices, which represents the best way for your candidate to start his next ad?

1. “My opponent has not gone far enough in fighting crime…”
2. “Many have supported my ability and willingness to fight crime…”
3. “Although my opponent has a good record of fighting crime…”
4. “Fighting crime is a critical issue…”

6. Imagine you are a financial advisor, and you believe that a young client of yours is invested too conservatively. In order to persuade her to invest in riskier, high-return investments, you should concentrate on describing:

1. How others like her have made similar mistakes. (appeal to consensus)
2. What she stands to gain if she invests in riskier options. (appeal to greed)
3. What she stands to lose if she does not invest in riskier options. (appeal to loss)
4. The importance of the two of you working as a team on this issue.

7. You are attempting to sell your professional services to a medium-sized software company. They have never done business with you before and are uncertain as to whether they should select your company. You will increase your persuasiveness the most by:

1. Providing them with a testimonial from Microsoft, who utilizes your services currently
2. Providing them with a master list of all your clients
3. Talking about other clients’ experiences with your company in general ways, without providing any specific testimonials.
4. Providing them with several testimonials from other medium-sized software companies who are your current clients.

8. If you have a new piece of information, when should you mention that it is new?

1. Before you present the information.
2. In the middle of the presentation of the information.
3. After the presentation of the information.
4. You should not mention that it is new information.

9. You have responsibility for motivating your company’s sales force to increase its annual performance. You were told by your supervisor to set goals for the sales people and hold them accountable. Which of the following strategies would be the most effective?

1. Set a goal for each employee based on his or her prior year’s performance and inform each of the goal.
2. Have each employee set a reasonable private goal for themselves.
3. Have each employee publicly state a reasonable goal for the year.
4. Have each employee set an unrealistically high personal goal, and keep it private.

10. You are having difficulty with employee attrition, so you organize a retreat for your office to energize your employees. You want to give each a gift for attending that will enhance the employee’s commitment to give back to the organization. Which one of the following strategies is likely to produce the best results?

1. Give them all the same, expensive gift with your company’s name engraved on it.
2. Give them no gifts, but thank them for attending.
3. Give each employee a personalized gift that is meaningful, even if it is not expensive
4. Give gifts only to those employees who complete the evaluation forms for the retreat.

Click here for the answers!

Want to learn more?  Dr. Robert Cialdini will be leading his first ever 90 minute LIVE video webcast November 17th from 12:00 — 1:30 pm ET.  As author of one of the Top 100 business books of all time — considered by most critics in the Top 10 — his principles are timeless and continue to drive important decisions around the globe. The webcast is just $199/individual; $495/company license (unlimited computers) — and includes access to the archived program for three months after the live event. Register here.

Stony was working in the New York area for 9 days replacing all of the hydraulic lines on the largest dredge on the planet, which was temporarily dry-docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Its next assignment: hitch a tow to Central America and then deepen and widen the Panama Canal.

His employer is the largest hydraulic maintenance contractor in the US.  As we conversed during our flight, it became clear to me that Stony was highly experienced, well trained, motivated, and clearly proud of and very good at what he does.  For his organization, Stony represents the “tip of the spear,” or the front line – where the heavy lifting, blocking and tackling, and money of the business is made.

I asked if he had time during his stay to visit Manhattan.  He answered, “No – and it’s too bad, because I’ve never been in the city and I’d really like to see it.  We worked 12-15 hour days, so there wasn’t any time.”

When I followed up and inquired where he stayed while working in Brooklyn, he told me that his team stayed in a hotel in New Jersey approximately 50-60 minutes from the work site.

“Wow,” I said. “You were working 12-15 hour days and had to commute an hour each way? I’m sure there are plenty of reasonable accommodations much closer to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”

Upon hearing this, Stony paused, thought for a moment, and then through a frustrated smile said: “Well, you know how Corporate works.”

The truth of Stony’s situation is his belief that “Corporate” doesn’t care.  Unfortunately, there is ample evidence to support him.  After all, who in their right mind would put a work crew in a hotel an hour away from a 12-15 hour per day job when there are plenty of closer (and affordable) alternatives?  To his credit, he never complained to me about it; he just shrugged it off as if resigned to his fate.

As our flight touched down smoothly in Houston, I knew that there had to be much more to the story.  I wondered what else Stony knew that none of the people at “Corporate” cared to ask him about – and I wondered what that lack of open communication was costing all of them.

Who are the “Stonys” – the most experienced, most valuable, most dedicated front line employees – in your organization or department?  What can you learn from them?  Do you have mechanisms in place to regularly solicit their input and feedback or does communication in your organization tend to flow only 1-way – from top to bottom?

High performing organizations have deliberate 2-way communication and feedback mechanisms in place to tap the collective wisdom of their front line staff.  Find the Stonys!  Then start asking the right questions to further engage them and learn from them.