5 Ways to Prevent Sales Reps From Saying I Quit!
There is nothing more frustrating for a sales manager than to have a senior-tenured sales rep resign.
Many companies are coming to realize that the #1 reason why productive salespeople leave is because of their relationship with their sales manager. The decision a sales rep makes to quit your company doesn’t occur in an instant. When there is too little coaching from the sales manager and very little feedback (other than negative), a salesperson becomes gradually disengaged with what is going on. He or she perceives they are not growing and they begin to wonder if the grass might be greener somewhere else.
Here are five things sales managers can do to prevent sales rep attrition.
1. Adopt a teaching mindset
How do you do that? Simple: you just do it. Decide that, going forward, you will coach at least one rep every day before lunchtime. Make it a priority and do it now! To make time for more coaching, limit the amount of time you spend on your email. Or, better yet, delay looking at your email until after you have coached somebody.
2. Provide more accurate feedback
Nothing can be more destructive to a relationship than to make vague generalizations or judgments during a one-on-one. Be specific in your comments. If a salesperson is not updating CRM on a daily basis then that is what you need to say to him or her-not something like, “You are not supportive of company management.” Stick to the facts and you will be a better sales coach.
An effective coaching conversation is based on what you actually observed, not on generalizations. If you make general statements, you sound judgmental, which will tend to make people defensive.
3. Instruct your new hires to ask you for coaching when they need it
Since your goal is to speed up the development of each salesperson, you want more coaching moments. That means don’t limit coaching to only when you want to provide it. Teach your salespeople, and especially new hires, that they should be comfortable asking for coaching whenever they are unsure or simply want help thinking through their strategies.
4. Support your “B” players
Think about a salesperson you would consider a solid “B” player on your team. Can you remember the most recent occasion in which you provided this rep with one-on-one developmental coaching?
Your B players have the energy and skill-set to be selling enough so many sales managers don’t consider them performance problems, so it’s likely you don’t work with them as much as the poorest performers (who need the most help) or perhaps even the best performers (who are working the biggest sales opportunities). But B players are the hungriest for coaching and development, and can become disengaged if they don’t get it. Not good.
5. Teach your admin people to be very careful about the information they share with callers
Here is how a headhunter/recruiter once obtained the names of the top salespeople in my sales office:
He called my receptionist and said to her, “I’m a lawyer downtown and one of your salespeople was out here a few months ago to demonstrate your copier to me. Now, I think we’re finally ready to do something. Trouble is, I misplaced your salesperson’s card and can’t remember his name. But I do recall that he told me he was the #1 producing rep in your office. Do you know who that is?”
Receptionist: “Does the name Ed Jones ring a bell?”
Recruiter: “No, it doesn’t. Perhaps the person I met with was your #2 rep. Any suggestions?”
Thereafter, every time a new receptionist started for us (which for many businesses is quite often) we made sure to share the above story, and emphasize the importance of keeping information regarding the sales team secret.
Losing good performers is bad for any business. Use these five strategies to help prevent it in your company. And think like a leader: As Jack Welch (former CEO of GE) described in Jack: Straight From the Gut, “In GE every day, there’s an informal, unspoken personnel review – in the lunchroom, the hallway, and in every business meeting.” That’s because GE wants to make sure that their employees have the feedback they need in time to use it for the customers’ benefit.
Contact us about our sales coaching and leadership courses and training: http://www.toplineleadership.com/our-team/contact-us/
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kevin_Davis/2019818
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8791760
Real World Leadership and Real World Leaders
What Is Leadership?
There are few questions that have had as many attempts at being answered as that of what is leadership?
For as long as I have been interested in leadership, it has always seemed to me that much (the overwhelming majority, no doubt) of the literature on leadership concentrates on the exceptions (Shackleton, Churchill, Napoleon, choose whoever are your favourites to expand the list). Just one example must suffice. A book by John Adair entitled Inspiring Leadership has the subtitle Learning from Great Leaders. As the title and subtitle suggest, the book is a roll call of a plethora of historic leadership figures.
I do not for a moment suggest that this is wrong nor that we cannot learn from such leadership studies. However, the leadership that happens day in day out in colleges, schools, offices, factories and other organizations, at all levels, I should suggest, is carried out by very ordinary people whose names will never enter the history books. People who have not been born great; will never achieve greatness, nor have it thrust upon them.
Leadership In The Real World
In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio reads out aloud a letter that had been written with the design of tricking him into making a fool of himself with Olivia. If the comedic effect of the letter is put to one side, as so often with Shakespeare, the words offer an acute observation of human nature, albeit a minute section of it. A few leaders are born great (perhaps, Winston Churchill, William Gladstone), some are driven to achieve greatness (Napoleon Bonaparte, perhaps) and others have it thrust upon them (Ernest Shackleton, for example). No doubt the three categories overlap.
It is my contention that the overwhelming majority of leaders do not fall into any of those three categories. Some are born highly talented, some are driven to succeed and no doubt some find themselves in the right place at the right time to achieve something special. However, leadership, says Hasib Muhammad, writing for the Huffington Post, is not reserved for extraordinary people:
“Everyone, regardless of talent or caliber, has leadership. Leadership is about leading yourself and others. In today’s society, those who lead others are celebrated because the results of their choices are easily seen. What about the man who has worked long, silent nights to provide for his family?”
I think the point in the above quotation is one that is well made. We are tempted always to equate leadership with greatness. But why should that be. There will always be acts of great leadership and there will always be great leaders who are defined by their leadership. On the other hand, there will always be, there always has to be, a whole army of very ordinary people who day in day out exercise leadership in a way that is nothing more than competent.
Referring to these acts of leadership as nothing more than competent is no insult. Indeed, it is quite the reverse. Modern society could not function unless there are people who are prepared to take on the tasks of real world leadership. They will never be honored; they will hardly be known outside of their communities; they will never be written about. But without them, our lives would be far more burdensome.
In short, it is my contention that day-to-day leadership is exercised not by people who fall into one of Shakespeare’s elite triad but by people who are born competent, achieve competence or have competence thrust upon them.
Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry writes blogs on all matters to do with care and business. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet’s website at http://www.caremark.co.uk/thanet
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Garry_Costain/1718866
Workplace Mental Health – A Series – An Overview Of The Issue (This Is Important!)
The mind and the body are inseparable. And you do want to engage the whole employee in your worksite wellness program, right?
- Most worksite wellness programs today are not really wellness programs at all – they are employee health status management programs. Why do I say this? Most worksite wellness programs focus solely on employee physical health, to the exclusion of all the other dimensions of wellness.
Keys to Effective Faith
Faith reaches into the realm of the spirit, grasps the promise of God and brings forth a tangible, physical fulfillment of that promise. ~ Gloria Copeland
Let’s talk about faith – the God kind of faith. He defines it as effective faith – faith that moves mountains.
The Apostle Paul knew a lot about faith. He wrote most of the New Testament letters and talks about faith in those Epistles more than 200 times. I’m guessing he has a lot for us to learn about the keys to effective faith.
You might remember that Paul (Saul) persecuted Christians, sanctioning their scourging and execution or imprisonment, prior to his spiritual transformation on the road to Damascus. When he discovered the truth of Jesus Christ, he also discovered the power of effective faith – absolute trust in the integrity and surety of God’s power, grace and mercy. He is the one who declared that God meets ALL your need; that God’s promises are sure, and faith is your connection to the manifestation of every promise.
In Philemon, Paul prayed that the communication of your faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus (v. 6). Let’s take a deeper look into the wisdom of that scripture.
… the communication: Communication is a means of exchange or expression. Faith communicates. It is not stagnant or ineffective. It connects with, reveals, or causes a transfer of something.
We talk about communicating disease from one person to another. We are aware that our emotions communicate themselves to others. And we communicate verbally by sharing stories, ideas and concepts, warnings and information. You get the idea.
Faith communicates. On a physical level, you place your faith in people and circumstances. “I believe my mom is picking me up after school.” Or… “I trust my boss to pay me on Friday.”
On a spiritual level, faith communicates your trust in God and His Word. In Hebrews, Paul says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not [yet] seen (v. 11:1). Be assured, God wants to meet your needs, provide everything you require, and give you the desires of your heart (Ps. 34:7). Faith is the key that connects you to God’s heavenly supply.
… of your faith: Paul said in Romans that God gave every man the measure of faith (v. 12:3). That means if you’re here on this earth, faith is in you and available, ready to be put to work. Later, in Ephesians, he noted that we should all come into the unity of the faith and… the measure of the fullness of Christ (v. 4:13). If you’re going to ‘come’ to something, you must not be there yet. In other words, you’re going to have to grow and develop your faith until it is strong and unshakeable – just like Jesus’.
Jesus never met a disease or situation that He couldn’t heal or change. He fed thousands, healed lepers, calmed storms and raised the dead. After He defeated Satan, He affirmed His resurrection to His disciples and sent the Holy Spirit to live in every born-again believer.
Why? So that we would have access to the same kind of faith-power that He did. He explained it this way: Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believes in Me, the works that I do he [you] shall do also; and greater works than these shall he [you] do, because I go unto My Father (John 14:12). He expects us – you and me – to develop our faith to the point where we expect miracles to happen as a result of our prayers.
… may become effectual: Effectual – effective, producing the desired result. If you’re not seeing the results you want, something’s not working right. Face the fact that God is not the problem. He’s already provided everything, every promise and every instruction that you need. Somewhere along the line, your faith is being hindered. It’s not making a clear, strong connection.
If you’ve ever tried to make a cell phone call in the mountains or some rural area, you know the chances are pretty good that the trees and hills are going to block your reception. You need to find out what’s blocking your faith-connection – and fix it.
Often, faith is weakened by a lack of faith-food. You may not be spending enough time studying and meditating in The Word of God. It’s easy to let the cares and responsibilities of daily life crowd out time with God. Jesus taught as much in the parable of the sower. He said they choke the Word, and [faith] becomes unfruitful (Matt. 13:22). Faith needs nurtured and fed, watered by The Word, to become strong and effective.
Sadly, most people won’t do that. They’d rather hope that God will just ‘fix it’ – wave a magic wand, so to speak, and make it all better. Miracles do happen, but they are usually triggered by someone’s faith. Everything God does on this earth is a result of faith and grace. Paul explained in Romans that it [whatever ‘it’ you are believing or hoping for] is of faith, that it might be given by grace [why?] so that the promise might be sure to all the seed (v. 4:16). The promise is ‘sure’, confirmed, absolute from God’s side. Are you willing to do what it takes to develop your faith to make a strong connection?
… by the acknowledging of every good thing: One way to develop your faith is to recognize and acknowledge the good that is already present in your life. You need to know and admit that whatever good comes your way, it’s from God. He’s the Master behind it all! His good plan incorporates every good and perfect gift (James 1:17) – from the smallest to the greatest.
The question is: how grateful are you? Do you take time throughout the day to say ‘thank you’ to your Heavenly Father, to acknowledge His hand in your life? Are you grateful for running water… or the fact that you can get out of bed in the morning. If you don’t have those particular blessings, what else can you be grateful for?
It’s easy to get your thoughts tangled up in the negatives. Your whole body might feel just fine, but if you have a hangnail, the only thing you notice is the pain in your fingertip. For your faith to be effective, however, you need to focus on the positives and be ‘eternally’ grateful. In every thing give thanks… (I Thess. 5:18). No matter what you’re going through, find the ‘good thing’ you can be thankful for. Keeping your mind on things which are above (Col. 3:2)is key to developing effective faith.
… which is in you in Christ Jesus: Here’s the bottom line. Whatever you need or desire, as long as it’s in line with God’s Word (I assume you’re not praying for an infinite supply of drugs, or for God to hurt someone), the promise is accessible in you! The Bible says that Christ is in you. You carry the seed of faith, love, peace, abundance and every good thing. Now, you need to grow that seed!
Just before He died on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished.” (John 10:30)What was? Everything He came to earth to do: to bring healing, deliverance, abundance, grace and mercy to every person. All He did during His earthly ministry would now carry forward into eternity. Old Testament verses that say ‘shall’ or ‘will’ became past tense with the death and resurrection of Christ! It is already done, as far as God is concerned.
You can have it all – every promise. Actually, you already have it- it is already in you! Jesus made the connection from heaven to earth. Now you need to use your faith to finish the connection.
Think of it this way. Electricity (power) is readily available at any outlet. But if you don’t plug in the toaster or laptop, you won’t have any power for your situation. No toast. No email.
Your faith ‘communicates’ with God, plugging in to the power of heaven. Study and meditate, then communicate your faith through prayer, praise, thanksgiving and affirmation. Stay with it until your faith overpowers every faith blocker, every doubt and fear. Then you will experience the results of effective faith and the fulfillment of every prayer.
For more information on developing life skills, better relationships, and becoming the best YOU possible, visit [http://seebecksolutions.com] and sign up to receive your FREE subscription to “Solutions For Success”, a weekly ezine of inspiration, motivation and humor from a Christian perspective.
Ruth Seebeck has built a reputation over the last three decades as a life-skills coach, mentor, Christian counselor and friend. She is a business owner, author, community volunteer and event coordinator whose passion is helping others overcome life’s challenges. Seebeck Solutions: Helping you make the most of What Matters Most!