Carson V. Heady's Blog, page 71

Consult Carson 8/12: “Rumor has it, I’m cheating on my sales. How do I prove otherwise?”

From today’s mailbag: “I’m doing very well at my job. Rumor has it, I’m cheating to achieve my sales. These rumors drive me nuts! How do I prove that I’m not? Thank you!”

Carson: Lots of people in history have been falsely accused of worse, but this never seems to quell the pain we feel when our hard-earned recognition and results come into question.

1) Do the claims have any basis in reality? If not, first off, be very proud of your accomplishments. Whether your fan club is limited to one (you) or the masses, the most important things are to stick to your principles and processes. Don’t change your approach and don’t be ashamed of any facet of what you’re doing.

2) Talk to your boss. Don’t feel the need to respond or reach out to the haters. Trust me when I tell you that they will always be there. No matter what you do, if you’re good at it, you’ll attract the negative attention from people who are jealous and would love to see you not set the example of what they could do if they didn’t make excuses. Make sure the people who matter know that there is no validity to these statements, that you do care about public perception and that you are affected. Your boss is paid to serve and protect you; they should be able to ensure these vicious attacks never hurt you in any attempts at getting ahead.

3) Offer to let others be along for the ride. You have nothing to hide, so let anyone who doubts you come along for your sales calls, listen in and observe. The best way to show anyone anything is to do just that: show there is literally no reason to doubt your abilities and results. Just as negative rumors can spread, so can positive ones and you can fight falsehoods with fantastic displays of your process.

4) Move forward! So many detractors will try to debilitate you on your journey – in your life and career. As you no doubt have realized, you cannot let any of them deter you from doing what you know is right, what is best and what is your responsibility. You’re paid to execute on your job exceptionally. You’re doing it. Others want to convince themselves or others why you are achieving results that they either don’t have the talent or are making excuses why they won’t put forth the effort to achieve. That’s their problem. They are trying to drag you down. Don’t let them have the satisfaction. This too will pass. Let the people that matter sing your praises. Let anyone who doubts see the truth. And remember that you cannot control the thoughts and actions of others: you can only control how you react and respond. Respond with class.

And kudos to you for your job performance – I hope many people tell you that!

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail atcvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page:https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G

Consult Carson 8/7: “Factors outside my control negatively impact my customers. What do I do?”

From today’s mailbag: “Things completely outside my control are negatively impacting my customer relationships – I cannot control much beyond my sales process, like the execution of the solution.  What can I do to prevent losing these customers forever?”

Carson: Many times, we on the front lines of the selling relationship can control only so much: we can sell the earth, moon and stars, we can promise and commit and spout the corporate talking points.  Beyond that, we very often rely on others for administrative responsibilities, for the delivery of the solution or product or service, and we can only inspect the progress on the assembly line so far.  However, because we are on the front lines – we are the face of the company to our customers! – they will most certainly reach out to you when things go wrong, promises are broken and commitments you made go unkept on the “back end.”

1. Level-set expectations.  If you know that processes are ambiguous or still being ironed out, if you are in a transformational or incubation environment, or you are aware of a current issue facing potential customer satisfaction at the end result, be sure to inform your customer up front of the issue.  You are often a liaison between your company and its processes and the end user: your customer.  Being open about potential issues that will be faced during the process can temper the pain points down the road.  It also can cost you the business, but this does accomplish a few things: you can provide this feedback to your organization as a pain point that must be overcome, you further gain your potential customer’s respect because you were honest, and once you are able to iron out these deficiencies it is more likely you can earn their repeat business down the road.

2. Be incredible at what you can control.  No matter how many links there are in the chain to the solution, it’s always possible hitches can present themselves.  What you can control are the quantity of customers you target, the effectiveness of your pitch and message, the tenacity with which you provide efficient and consistent communication, how and how often you follow up, and the support you provide throughout all layers of the sales relationship.  You won’t win every relationship, and sometimes things outside of your control will hamper your success, but no one but you can control how you react and respond to that.  You choose to play the numbers’ game – if 1 out of 10 customers won’t do business with you solely because of process hang-up’s, you can control providing this feedback to your organization and you can control calling the necessary additional decision-makers to reach your goals.

3. Own it.  There are many sales professionals who will distance themselves from the process, but your customers see only your company.  Take ownership of the totality of the relationship – acknowledge that there are issues at certain stages of the game, that you take your customers’ needs and feedback very seriously, that you are getting the information into the right hands, and that you are doing everything you can to expedite the situation.  The sales food chain is very similar across all links; just like a sales team does not expect a manager to literally fix everything that ails them, they just want to see that their voice is heard, they want to see the manager communicating their issues elsewhere and they want to see the concerns addressed.  We win some, we lose some, and customers can accept that.  But give them a forum for process improvement!  If you have the chance to get them in touch with others who impact the business and the links in the chain that are currently faltering, do just that!  Your customers will be part of the solution, which gets them more involved in your operation and relationship and it strengthens that bond and enhances your chances of doing future business.  They’re invested.  You invested in their solution and they’ll be invested in the potential for a positive outcome.

4. Exercise patience and revisit the big picture.  We will sometimes lose customers for one of a variety of factors.  Sometimes, our organization will roll something out before it’s ready because it’s imperative to have something in the marketplace so they don’t fall too far behind.  The more plugged in you are to the overall big picture reasons why things are the way they are, the more you are taking it upon yourself to get the necessary problems with potential solutions to powers that be, the more you are positively impacting your business and the potential customer relationships to come.  You’ve no doubt heard that to make an omelet, you have to crack a few eggs.  Customer relationships can be fragile, and many times they are looking at you amongst a rather large field when making a decision.  It’s possible you will not lead in every single facet when it comes to price, efficiency, productivity and capabilities, but where you can lead is in communication, honesty, building and gaining respect, and doing everything you can to provide value.

No sales product or solution is completely perfect in every way; if it was, there would be no room or need for competition!  You provide a product or solution that is unique, and you are a unique additive to the solution.  Be honest, be receptive to feedback, relay the feedback and needs of your customers to those who are paid to make the process enhancements and changes necessary and be effective in your outreach and support.  Always remember to control what you can; don’t sell yourself short on what you think you can’t control, don’t just accept what you view now as a failure – own the customer’s experience, get them involved as you can in solutions and keep working toward an optimum experience for all.  For that is the plight of all sales professionals and organizations after all.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail atcvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page:https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G2

Consult Carson 8/6: “In sales, it’s never enough!”

From today’s mailbag: “I’ve exceeded goals, grown year over year and done literally everything asked of me… and while it led to good early bonuses, now my goals are so high I cannot reach them. It feels like in sales, it’s never enough. Any advice?”

Carson: Right or wrong, in sales, you are often only as good as your most recent win.  Like being a superstar athlete, you are cheered in the moment and celebrated while you are the story of the hour, but once that moment of glory passes, everyone wants to know what you’re going to do next.

From someone who has chased metrics at multiple levels of leadership my entire career, I can certainly understand your plight.  While this mentality can certainly be a mix of being a product of management that doesn’t really know what it wants or how to get it along with a testament to how difficult some divisions or companies find it to make goals that are not arbitrary, when you are on the front lines there is little consolation.

Know this: what you are feeling is common.  It’s also why many people choose to just do enough and not seek the accolades – because often more headache and heartache come with over-achievement.  There are inevitable repercussions of sales excellence – the mold isn’t made for you.  Typically, rules and parameters and guidelines and processes are created to manage the masses.  You’re the exception to the rule, but there’s no exception made for you.

The status quo will not share your pain, because it isn’t their goal to be the top of the heap.  They may hit a goal one month, miss the next, but see a gradual, manageable increase to their expectations which makes it less complicated to achieve.  If you are blasting through the stratosphere, the existing processes will buckle and be baffled and will strain to contain you.  If everyone across the board is expected to have a 50% increase in productivity, the worker who had 500 widgets last year now has to do 750 while the person who did 100 only needs 150.  It gets to a point where it extrapolates beyond common sense and few leaders will acknowledge fault in the logic.

My advice is persevere.  Latch on with the people who are influencers in your business and get advice on how to get what you want.  Sometimes, it’s about accepting that you broke the bank to start and that it will take a bit of time for the compensation structure to catch back up to you.  However, once you have reached the top there will always be others just waiting for you to fall, which – for some of us – makes it even more imperative we don’t lest we be cast as a flash in the pan.  The long and short of it is that if you are a true achiever and believer in your ability to win at all costs, you keep your head down, take one day at a time, battle through the storm of uncertainty and do the best you can.  Every sales role is going to present some semblance of this challenge – it’s not unique.

Ideally, you will have a manager who understands your frustration and supports you in your role.  There are many managers out there who have not been trained how to lead or motivate and they are the ones fueling this “More, more, more!” mentality.  In the end, you have to evaluate the big picture.  It isn’t always the best performers who get paid the most, get the most recognition or get the promotion.  There are so many facets to whatever you are seeking, so perform as best you can, work to adapt your process to contain all key metrics your customer benefits from and your company endorses, and liaise with the right people on all sides of your sales food chain.  It’s very likely you have peers that feel the same.  It’s very likely that somewhere there are leaders who understand your mission and frustration.  And, if you do right by customer, company, and you on each and every transaction, you leave each transaction either closing the business or knowing the specific reason why you didn’t, and you support everyone subordinate to you on the sales food chain – employees, customers, etc. – you’ve done your job.  Sometimes, it’s just about celebrating a job well done, even if right now you’re the only one celebrating.  Everything comes back around.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail atcvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page:https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G2

Consult Carson 8/1: “How do I market an event?”

From today’s mailbag: “I have been charged with marketing for an event we are putting on.  How should I go about it?”

Carson: Marketing fundamentals, while they vary in scale of execution, typically remain revolved around target audience, geography and message content.

The marketing process for an event starts long before the event takes place, as you must ensure there is a mechanism in place to capture leads and allow your customers to opt-in to a lead capturing device.  For some, this happens on the website you maintain; a visitor has the opportunity to opt-in to newsletters and notifications and stay abreast of the goings-on of your business.  For others, you may utilize a CRM tool to store customer information and export data for such a task.  No matter what you are using to secure leads, this segment will be imperative when it comes time to market for an event.

1. Consider your target audience.  Who do you want to attract for this event?  What topics will be the most well-attended or be of most value to the target audience?  In essence, you are forming a commercial – a call-to-action – for this target demographic you seek.  Put yourself in their shoes and contemplate what wording and event content would prompt you to make this a must-see!  Current methodology of lead storage and social media will give you the capability to geo-target, find groups and meet-up organizations whose interests are closely aligned with yours and will also give you a platform with which to submit your information.  Furthermore, everything you need to know as you market this event is centered around adding value to your target audience.

2. Examine your methods of outreach.  Sending a newsletter that can be personalized, utilizing social media groups, using meet-up organizations that are available in your location, liaising with local networking groups like Chambers or BNI or affiliations that are in line with you or your company’s goals – there are a litany of different ways to get your branding and message in front of the right eyes.  Success can certainly be found a number of different ways by not discriminating against any of the potential portals of participants.  Think about where your target audience is viewing information and where your desired customers are looking for events and plant yourself there.  You have also accumulated a number of leads and will continue to do so; having a newsletter that goes out to them can spread the word, but many of these will also provide analytics so you can see what topics are highly regarded and where your customers are engaging the newsletter – this assists you in the future as you continue to market more events and solutions.

3. Invest in your message.  You want to make your message really speak to your audience.  Is it something very specific and niche to a select group of people, an industry or an area of specialization?  Then your messaging will reflect that – spelling out and fine-tuning the verbiage specific to that group.  Are you trying to cast a wide net to attract a larger audience?  Utilize appropriate wording to entice large groups to take interest; be relatively broad about the topic – feel free to spell out any specific items that will be covered, but give a more general message so that the curiosity of your recipients will be piqued.

Continue to evolve this process as well.  Often, it takes time to build a following – just like building a sales funnel.  In reality, you are building a community around your brand.  Depending on where the recognition currently lies of you, your brand and your events, you can be at a starting point that will require consistent application of the aforementioned principles in order to thrive.  As word spreads of your events, you continue to add leads who are on the receiving end of your newsletter, and you figure out what really works and what doesn’t in these events and your outreach, the momentum will grow and you can reach optimum levels in effectiveness and productivity – and value for all!

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page:https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF

Consult Carson 7/31: “Nobody’s hitting goal! What gives?”

From today’s mailbag: “Despite growing my results year over year, I’m in an organization where next to no one is hitting goal.  I have over 100 peers and only a few of us are hitting.  What gives?”

Carson: Let me preface this by saying that no matter how a company derives goals, it often comes down to guesswork and a group of people who are not in the field and may have never been in the field coming up with goals that the feet on the street have to hit.

Every company wants to achieve a lift in results.  They can take their budgets and their expenses and growing headcount costs and equipment costs associated with their internal growth and those costs will be assigned to salespeople to achieve so they can “make their number.”  High above us all, many equations and figures factor in to what numbers we have to hit – if a division wants to achieve 25% growth this year, guess what?  Your goal is going to be 125% of what it was the year prior – across the board, no matter what’s possible or feasible or changing in the environment.  We can be rockstars crushing goal one year and do more the following year, miss goal, and be the goat.

Once upon a time, I worked in an environment with 121 peers.  We went from over half of us hitting goal to only 2 of us at one point (yes, I was one).  The reason for these drastic swings fully illustrates the guesswork that often goes into goal-setting.  No one wants to severely under-cut setting goal, because they pay out far more than they desire in bonuses.  I also believe that no one wants to drastically misfire the opposite way either, because it is excruciatingly depressing to top performers to suddenly be told they are failing, to take pay cuts and be scolded despite selling more than they did when they were “great.”

Realize that like the House always winning, your bonuses and goals will often be offset – feast with famine.  Equilibrium can be difficult to attain, specifically in newer sales channels, because no one truly knows the potential, a few huge wins can really change the curve and the dynamic dramatically, and you may break the bank one month, quarter or year only to have your goal jacked up so high that no matter how you perform you’ll never get paid like that again.  Or, after a period of famine, if you can survive the drought, you may get to the point where your goals are reasonably adjusted again.

It can often be an inexact science, causing the result – our performance, our recognition, our payout – to be difficult to foresee.  Frustrating and perplexing, to say the least, but it’s important to handle such issues similarly to other obstacles in your workplace.

1. Communicate with leadership!  As always, develop a good rapport with the supervisor who is paid to protect and serve you and your peers.  It’s vital you are tactfully and respectfully explaining the situation.  The job of everyone above you on the sales food chain is to stay at the pulse of your team, so it is important you are explaining the drastic swing from everyone crushing goal to everyone missing goal is having its effect.

2. Stay the course.  Be patient.  As I alluded to, and let’s face facts, there are times when goals are severely under-set!  If this happens, you are making a ton of money during these times.  Be smart, don’t spend all of your bonus because a famine may follow the feast!  If you spent all of the bonus money you made, this can make it increasingly difficult to keep a cool head when these swings hit.  Make a living on your earnings and put extra earnings away if possible so you can find a consistent flow to managing the money.

3. See the bigger picture.  Trust me – from a person who has had to set goals for brand new divisions, it is very difficult to do.  Malice is not necessarily intended when goals are played with.  Sure, there are companies who will make more and more profit and will find more and more ways to pay employees less – that’s a completely different story and those companies certainly warrant their terrible Glassdoor reviews and low morale.  But I do believe that for the most part, you have a leadership team who is making their best prognosis on what salespeople need to achieve to make the business profitable.  If they under-cut those goals, they will attempt to right the ship.  Be cognizant that sometimes that’s going to result in drastic highs and lows on our bonus structures.  As for how you are managed based on performance next to sometimes arbitrary goals, that’s a whole other issue – that all comes down to the quality of your management.

You’re not alone in dealing with sometimes drastically moving targets on goals and bonus structures.  That said, if you have a consistent way of dealing with the inconsistency, it can certainly make it easier to bear.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page:https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF

Consult Carson 7/30: “My training is insufficient. What should I do?”

From today’s mailbag: “My training at my job has been insufficient; borderline non-existent.  What should I do to make sure I am adequately trained?”

Carson: The discussion of training begins even before the job offer is accepted; in the interview, one of the best questions to ask is what the training will look like.  It is my firm belief that when a company and candidate enter into a job offer and acceptance, a contract is negotiated.  You are pledging to be the person you committed to being on interview day – that plucky, proactive, productive protagonist who will bring your talent into this new arena and deliver results.  Your new company has committed to giving you the training and resources and support necessary to succeed.  From that moment, you have entered into negotiations on how this relationship will go and it is incumbent upon both of you to continually revisit the agreement to ensure the promises are kept and the relationship sound.

It is quite often that one or both of the parties may falter a bit in their commitments.  Like any relationship, it is key that we work together to address concerns that exist and provide solutions to any and all problems that ail us.

When it comes to training, the onboarding experience is one that sets our early foundation for success; like the formative years of youngsters, it is the experiences we have early that will profoundly impact how we handle and work through future encounters in this role.

1. What resources are available to you for continuous growth?  Even if your training was paltry, surely there are some types of materials available to outline your proposed process, there are plans on which you must execute and there are various sources of reading material or job aids that can assist you in formulating a plan.  Surely, we may not all get the quarter-long classroom training that meticulously spells out every possible outlook and outcome of our role, but even if we just get handed stuff to read we have something to start with.

2. What are your peers doing?  If your experience in a role is that you feel you do not have enough training, what has been the experience of your peers?  What have they done to address any shortcomings in their experience?  What are the best of your peers doing to overcome this obstacle?  Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and if people are achieving despite the obstacle of little direction, you can too.  Don’t let lack of training or support or guidance keep you from being successful.

3. What have you done to address the situation with your leadership?  How often do you have a touch base with your supervisor?  Like the fire and police forces, they are paid to serve and protect – if you are having an underwhelming training experience and do not feel you have the support and resources necessary to be effective and productive, your boss must know about it.  However, it’s all in the delivery – rather than chastising your training or lack thereof, find constructive ways to come to a solution.  Ask them if you can partner with a top performer.  Ask them if they will ride along with you on your sales calls or show you how it’s done.  Ask them what additional materials you should seek out in order to bridge any gaps in your process and understanding.  Get their feedback on how you are performing and ensure that you are coming up with an agreed-upon plan together on how to combat any shortcomings in your experience.

4. Follow up, and re-visit.  The most important facet of any training is continuous training that adapts to the changing environment.  What you were once trained on can become obsolete.  Even the fundamental training you receive needs refreshing and revisiting to ensure that process and basics are always top of mind.  Training also must broach modifications in your environment – if new variables have introduced themselves, new competitors, changing situations – all of these require being addressed by leadership so you can cohesively move forward in the most effective way possible as a unit.

Even if your company lets you down, don’t lay down – a lot of the issues of faulty or fruitless training can be overcome with how you accept and adapt.  Take it upon yourself to seek out the people and resources that can make a difference in your learning experience and your success.  If they have a vested interest in how you perform, it’s likely they will do what they can to help.  No matter what, there’s always something you can do to better yourself, your knowledge of process and your execution and results.  Do everything you can to make that happen!

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page:https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF

Consult Carson 7/28: “I lost their business. How do I re-earn it?”

From today’s mailbag: “Due to a variety of factors, I lost a customer’s business. How do I earn it back?”

Carson: You’ve been broken up with, or the relationship is on hiatus.  How do you re-capture the old magic from someone who once believed?

1. Determine the reason for the split.  If you earned the business once and if you did your due diligence of keeping your hand at the pulse of what mattered to your customer in the business relationship, you should either know why they drifted and someone caught their potentially wandering eye or you should have the rapport to be able to broach the topic.  Did they find a cheaper competitor?  Did they find better options elsewhere?  Were they not seeing the results from your solution?  Whatever it is, you need to have the conversation and be able to take that truth.  Sometimes, you have some control over a counter-solution and sometimes you do not, but your initial step here is to find out the culprit.

2. Commit to addressing their concerns.  You may not be able to provide the necessary options and discounts to earn back their hearts right now; it may be imperative that you visit with leadership or crunch the numbers again or introduce some new elements to the equation to formally formulate a plan.  Do not be hasty in this step; sure, there may be some quick remedies you can address during your fact-finding conversation that could quell the pain and lessen their resistance toward you, but depending on the duration and quality of your relationship the decision to move on may not have come easily.  Don’t hastily try to apply Band-Aid’s to their wounds; show them you are serious by committing to the action of a better plan to win their hearts by putting some serious thought into it.

3. Propose positive change.  This is the part where you stand in their lawn with a jambox over your head blaring Peter Gabriel.  While addressing their important concerns, you take ownership of past missteps, be accountable for what went wrong before and lay out the new plan for how things will be different if they give you another chance.  Literally, you have a customer who believed in you at one point.  It’s vital to revisit why you were the right selection then and reiterate why you are now as you also present how things will differ this time to address their concerns.  In some instances, as you work with leadership or other teams and resources at your disposal you have the capability to tweak processes to their satisfaction, to find different ways of delivery that eradicate their objections and you can make a more succinct, efficient, effective program for them.  Can you make a business case to your powers that be for better discounting and more options and special treatment?  Great!  Your customers want to feel and know they can depend on you to answer the phone, that you care about their needs and that you will deliver, take care of them and always have their best interests at heart.  Much of keeping business is being consistent in these items and making them feel like they’re your only customer; much of getting them back is focusing on the strengths of your prior relationship but committing to change, really meaning it and sticking to it.

4. Respond accordingly.  From here, you have said your peace; they will either accept the new deal or you will have to be patient.  In some instances, you cannot meet all of their expectations right this minute; they’ll likely respect the attempt, and you can continue to keep in contact as your offerings evolve to their satisfaction.  If you are the one who is continually trying to woo them and make overtures for their affections, it will really come down to what love and respect they are getting from your rival.  If you show how important their business is to you, your willingness to respond and go to bat and change for them, the likelihood of re-earning the business of someone who obviously once believed in you will increase by leaps and bounds.

5. Learn from the experience.  If your customers are having similar issues when you communicate with them around their experiences, you can modify your approach going forward for all customers.  This can teach you to preface things differently, it can teach you to approach situations differently and will certainly prepare you to handle missteps along the way – both when they happen or to avoid them altogether by proposing process changes to your leadership team that will be in the best interests of all.  Sometimes, you will lose a relationship or two, but that will be the driving force in getting change to take place that will earn and retain more business in the long run!

Customers – like all of us – need and desire and deserve attention and to have us genuinely at the heart of their concerns in the solutions we present, in the ways we service them and in the ways we retain them.  If you’ve lost their love, you’ll need more than candles and wine – you’ll need a real plan on how you can tend to their needs, repair any damages from situations past and truly commit to positive change that can endure and stand the test of time.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page:https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF

Consult Carson 7/20: “How can I spice up my team sales meetings?”

From today’s mailbag: “How can I spice up my team’s sales meetings? They seem boring and redundant with the same flow and information and action items covered over and over.  Any advice?”

Carson: Each and every sales meeting, like a sales call, like a salesperson, like any meeting at all, needs a unique, fresh approach.  The reason people tune out at sales meetings is the same reason your cold call recipient treats you like a telemarketer – because it’s just like everything else they’ve ever experienced.  There’s nothing compelling and original to grab their interest.  There’s not enough recognition or honesty or respect or buy-in.

(1) Grab their attention.  How many times have you conducted or been to a meeting that literally just starts out with the same, boring reading of a piece of paper or “how’s it going?” type of question posed to the team, followed by venting?  Reading off talking points and making awkward introductions that nobody cares about is not going to energize your team.  Lead off with a joke!  Lead off with recognition!  Lead off with passionate dialogue about things they care about!  Lead off with good news!  Each time out, you want a totally different attention-grabber, but use methods that will make them perk up.

(2) Stick to your program!  Control the venting.  Far too many team meetings get out of hand because a manager will allow the team to control the meeting.  You can even say, “We’re going to talk briefly about XYZ.  I want to get organized, quick feedback about these items.  If you have some additional feedback, we can discuss offline, one-on-one.”  It is up to you to control the tempo and have a solution for every problem presented.  Managing a team is always about earning and maintaining respect, making the tough decisions and leading in the best interests of the team as a whole.  Just like a sales call, ensure that no objection, no matter how small, goes unaddressed.  If a concern or question comes up that you don’t have the answer to, “With things changing, I want to get you the most up to date answer.  I’ll commit to finding that out today.”  And do it.  Your team relies on you for support.  You don’t have to know everything and you don’t have to be better at their job than they are.  You have to deliver answers, support and remove obstacles to their success.

(3) Even if you’ve already made up your mind or are leaning in a direction on a decision that impacts them, get their feedback.  It’s important that the team feels like you buy in to them, value their opinion and do use it in the decision-making process.  You won’t always be able to allow this to be a democracy; in fact, you often cannot, however it does not mean you cannot glean their thoughts on key issues.  They will buy in more to a team and team meeting where their voice is heard.

(4) Challenge them to present solutions!  Remember that no problem should be introduced without a proposed solution, and you should hold your team to that as well.  It’s yet another way their voices can be heard, as people who are proposing solutions that will change their environment, enhance their roles and make the experience of working there better.

(5) Be a human being.  Don’t talk at your team, talk with your team.  When you are delivering bad news, do everything you can to explain the company stance, acknowledge the impact the change has and deliver your gameplan to move forward, all while allowing their feedback and controlling any venting and offering to meet offline – see how it all ties together?  First and foremost, as a leader, you are paid to serve and protect your team, like our police force and fire department.  Take the responsibility seriously!  You can’t always just focus on the positives (another common mistake).  You also cannot celebrate empty victories – I’ve seen too many managers try to find too much silver lining in a day when they hit 25% to goal.  It’s important to point out that your team has minimum expectations and you aren’t hitting them, and to examine as a team what gaps exist in process and what you’re going to do about them.

Each team meeting needs an attention-grabber, organization and a plan to execute walking out of the meeting – whether you’re kicking off a day, week, month or year.  You spice it up by not doing exactly what’s expected.  You spice it up by gaining their respect buy valuing their opinion.  You spice it up by making them an active part of the process – identifying where we are failing and why so you can work as a team together to eliminate those obstacles.  You spice it up by empowering your team to share best practices of how they are overcoming issues so that everyone else can learn from your leaders.  You spice it up by focusing on where you were, where you are now, and what you need to do as a team to move to where you all want to be.

Approach every sales opportunity for what it is: a unique opportunity to celebrate wins, focus on areas of opportunity together, answer questions, provide support, keep at the pulse of your team, and take a unified approach into the future – whatever your joint goals happen to be.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page: https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF

Consult Carson 7/19: “How do I navigate office politics?”

From today’s mailbag: “My department is strife with politics.  I’m not a butt-kisser, and I’m tired of seeing them get praised and ahead.  It just seems like if I don’t, I’m never going to go anywhere.  Any suggestions?”

Carson: Try as you might, you will likely never escape a scenario where you are affected by politics.  Even the adage of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” governs such a large landscape in our working world.  This is why we must learn how to balance our business relationships with biting our tongue and being very selective about burning our bridges.  Sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to emerge unscathed.

(1) Observe.  Figure out who the people are that can help and hurt your career.  You do need to at least know who you don’t want to have as an enemy!  Sometimes, you may be recruited for causes you really don’t agree with or you can see groups of people who all ascend together in companies that have no business even being there – all because they look out for one another, stick together and promote each other.  In business, trust – even honor among thieves – goes a long way.  Be very careful about anything you ever do or say that can be construed as a statement against someone who carries a lot of influence.  Figure out what these people want that falls within your ethical guidelines and deliver as best you can.

(2) Stay clean.  Just as staying on the good side of those who carry influence – both good and bad – is paramount, you never want to give anyone ammunition they can use against you.  Standing with a group of dissenters, speaking out either privately or publicly about things you disagree with and even standing up to superiors can severely damage your future chances.

(3) Pick your battles.  I’m all for having strong principles and having lines you refuse to cross.  That said, if you fight every time there’s injustice or you make a large issue or grandstand about even the largest of issues, you run risk of damaging your career.  Remember that perception is reality: if those who are influencers can paint you as a problem, that reputation can follow you for the rest of your days.  People know people, in other departments and other companies, and a reputation like that can seriously hamper your prospects.  When directly asked by a superior how you feel about something, you can tactfully state your case.  However, remember that you are paid by the company to carry out their orders.  If you disagree with those orders you either have to grin and bear it, or risk your bills and family and livelihood to put it all on the line and stand up for your beliefs.  That’s not an easy choice sometimes.

(4) If you have to drastically change who you are, lie or do anything remotely dishonest to get something you want, it’s not worth having.  There will always be a variety of reasons we don’t necessarily get ahead or get picked for the project or get the promotion we think we want in the moment.  Politics can very well factor in.  And, of course, there are the folks who are just “yes” men and women, those who always spout the company mantra and drink the Kool-Aid regardless of what is best for the people.  You cannot control anyone but yourself.  It’s one thing to follow your marching orders, keep your head down and live an honest life and it’s quite another to sell your soul for the almighty dollar.

(5) Have faith in the system.  In the moment when you are passed over in favor for the butt-kisser, it is certainly difficult to see your choices and honesty and ethics paying off.  But regimes change.  Managers come and go and there are good ones out there who may eventually be the influencers you are trying to impress.  There are many office and department and company dynamics that are less than ideal – sometimes even for long periods of time!  But you cannot lose heart.  These types of situations happen everywhere, so the last thing you want to do is something drastic in the moment that will have far-reaching, dramatic negative repercussions.

No matter what, I’m still a firm believer that if you apply consistent, effective process, continue to adapt in the face of your customers’ and employees’ needs, and always abide by the holy sales trinity on every transaction and with every decision – customer, company and you (never sacrifice any of them in your process!) that – in the long run, over the long haul, everything will turn out as it should be.  Politics is a part of life and business, but just as it can hamper you in certain situations or make you lose heart, it can benefit you if you do the right things, align with the proper people and build and nurture relationships with the influencers who stand for what you do.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page: https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF

Consult Carson 7/17: “My compensation plan makes no sense!”

From today’s mailbag: “My bonus and compensation plan makes no sense.  I’m performing exceptionally well, but being paid less than peers who are on final warnings and I’m becoming very frustrated.  What can I do?”

Carson: From the dawn of sales time, we have been paid on varying scales – sometimes high, sometimes low and sometimes we don’t even know.

When imperfect people use imperfect math to predict budgets and sales numbers with less accuracy than the already tough to peg stock market, you’re bound to come up with some oddities.  Bonus and compensation are often created around initial expectations, but when they are eclipsed they rise.  Let’s call it what it is: in sales, we are always chasing numbers.  When we catch them, they are lifted higher and higher until we eventually cannot catch them.  Once we fail a few times, we either lose heart or they are lowered until we hit them again and the cycle continues.

I’ve worked in situations where initial goals were low – we annihilated the goals and broke the bank for quite a while until that plug was pulled.  I’ve worked in situations where my team did so well that with smaller territory than a peer I had nearly three times their objective… and my team was still hitting it and they weren’t.

In essence, there is no rhyme or reason, but you are rarely going to encounter a supervisor or leader who is going to admit that.  Even applying the most methodical of systems to set targets is still going to meet its exceptions.  I’ve also been a top performer who was compensated less than under-performing peers for that very reason – because the compensation structure just didn’t make sense.

The real trick of this trade is patience.  I’ve found it almost best in some of these situations to go in with minimal expectations for bonus and be pleasantly surprised when you perform well on their scale.  You will be confounded and frustrated if you try too hard to comprehend the incomprehensible.  It’s like a case that even Sherlock Holmes cannot crack; you’re up against fuzzy math and attempts to apply rules to unequal peers.

See, that’s where the real trouble lies.  When different geographies and customer bases and situations come into play, the number of variables make it literally impossible to truly predict your proposed performance.  Sure, it’s good to have goals, but if I’m not getting the same exact lot as my peer it’s instantaneously not an even playing field.  Sure, the margin of error can be minimized, and odds and probability and some luck come into it, but the thing of the matter is bonus structures can be manipulated and milked and they can be made nearly impossible – seldom in the sweet spot in between.

(1) Learn the different buckets that you are accountable for.  What are the items that you are paid out on?  What are the ways you can perfect your process in each of these metrics?  Like any facet of selling, it all comes down to your comprehensive effort in all areas – not just revenue, but attachment and any other metrics that matter.

(2) Be consistent with your process, no matter what.  You are going to have months or quarters or years where everything is going your way and you crush goal.  You may break the bank and make an incredible bonus.  But realize that you will likely pay dearly for that with a month or quarter or year without making near the same bonus – they will level you out.  Keep approaching your role the same way because only if you are doing the proper process can you maintain a good chance at some semblance of a bonus and average out in an acceptable fashion.  We may not achieve the same percent to goal month to month, but over the long haul we are compared to others who are up against similarly imperfect goal structures.  We often compete quarterly and annually, so keep aiming as high as possible.

(3) Be patient.  Often in situations where the compensation structure is tough to decipher, given additional time, more historical data can be accumulated and more accurate goals can be fleshed out.  Companies and divisions realize metrics that matter and some that don’t matter so much, and they will tinker with what pays out.  Play the game long enough, become strong enough at what you do and you can beat the house.  You’ll lose your fair share of months, you’ll appear on paper and get paid less sometimes than those you dwarf in results, but – over the long haul – you do come out ahead.  Don’t lose heart.

Remember that the only reason your compensation structure isn’t perfect is because it’s compounded by imperfect processes created by imperfect humans using imperfect extrapolations and imperfect amounts of data.  Given time, given patience and given your continued striving for excellence, you’ll break the bank more often than you’re busted by it.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page: https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF