At the end of the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy learned that she had the power to return home all along. All she had to do was click her heels three times and say, “There’s no place like home” and just like that she was back on the farm in Kansas.
If only it were that easy to improve your company’s Onboarding strategy.
Well, my little CEO . . . get clicking! It can be easy.
At the end of a 3-hour workshop I led recently for a group of CEOs on the topic of improving Onboarding processes, I asked each participant to share the one big “Aha!” of the day. When more than a few of them mentioned that their big epiphany of the entire session was to ask their current employees the four specific questions I shared, I had my own epiphany.
What seems obvious, sometimes isn’t.
In preparing the content for the workshop, I was advised not to share the magical four questions because they seemed too basic. However, when a CEO asked, “How do I know what’s broken with my current Onboarding program?” I decided the questions may be basic, but basic is sometimes exactly what the doctor ordered. I told the group that one way you can begin to discover what’s broken is by asking four simple questions of current employees. It turned out that getting back to basics was exactly what was most valuable, even to seasoned CEOs.
You may have watched the CBS hit TV show “Undercover Boss.” If you aren’t familiar with the show, each week the cameras follow around a corporate executive who goes “undercover” to participate in various jobs. They get a first-hand look at how their decisions impact the employees and their morale – and much more.
Yes, it a bit of “Hollywood,” but don’t miss the incredible lesson it can teach us. I read an article in the Detroit Free Press (www.Freep.com) that featured David Dillon, the chairman and CEO of Kroger, one of the largest grocery store chains in the world. Dillon gets out from behind his desk and spends time in the stores, standing in lines with customers and listening to their comments. He gets a view from his customers’ perspectives with the intention of learning how to make their experience even better.
According to the article in Freep.com, Dillon tells Wall Street analysts that Kroger gets sophisticated data from Dunnhumby, a marketing company based in London. However, the data can only tell part of the story, which is why Dillon chooses to “go undercover” to mingle with his customers and get first hand consumer experience.
Do Your Homework!
Sorry for yelling but I just got off a very annoying call with a sales rep who was following up with me from a Sales 2.0 conference I went to recently and it reminded me how little prep/homework many of us do before we call our clients and prospects. I won’t name names this guy was selling a service that automates/aggregates information on prospects (quotes, events, press releases, etc) and helps you do research on them before calling or e-mailing them.
I think you see where this is going but I’ll continue. To add to this, for those of you who don’t know, we (Kensei) train sales professionals how to use compelling information when reaching out to executives that will get them to respond to our e-mails and calls. So, you’d think the rep who called me would at least know what the hell we do right? WRONG!
As he dove right into his ‘pitch’ and started asking me all the basic questions I realized he had no idea what we did. So, I let him go for a while and answered a few of his questions before I stopped him and asked “do you even know what my company does?” He had no answer for me. At that point I stopped the conversation and told him (in so many words) that he is the type of sales rep that gives the rest of us a bad name.
Social Loafing May Be Lowering Your Sales and Marketing Effectiveness
Sure, some of your employees may spend too many work hours on their favorite social media sites, but this productivity drag pales in comparison to the rising problem of social loafing that occurs in almost every firm. Social loafing is a widely researched phenomenon that suggests people exert less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone.
What are the two primary causes of social loafing?
Selling in teams does not guarantee success. As a matter of fact, sales teams are frequently misused and ineffective. On the other hand, some organizations have cracked the code and consistently use them successfully.
Let’s take a look at the ten laws behind successful sales teams.
1. Have A Shared Purpose. Successful sales teams have a compelling, clear vision of their purpose that is shared by everyone on the team. A shared purpose provides direction for the team’s performance.
Without it team members often will pursue their own agendas, either by intent or through confusion.
In addition to agreement about the team’s direction, a shared purpose exists when every member of the team: http://www.soldsm.com/cracking-the-code-to-successful-sales-teams/
As any seasoned sale force representative can tell you, too many sales are lost in the closing moments. While experience is the best teacher, it is important to take advantage of sales training that specifically targets the art of the close. While securing a great sales technique through your experience and sales education is important, setting up the sale properly can save you time and money in the long run. While every “no” may bring you closer to a “yes,” too many negative experiences in a row is quite discouraging. Here are some tips from the pros to be sure your sale is set up for success from the moment you contact a prospect:
Make sure Your Prospect is Qualified
We’ve all read sales articles about a stellar performance and wonder how the rep pulled it off. The articles make the accomplishment seem like magic, but in sales the magic is made. If you want to be sure those sales don’t slip through your fingers be sure that your prospect is qualified. Specifically make sure that:
How to Tactfully Discuss Customer Complaints with Employees
We all want our customers to be happy and to let us know when something has gone awry, but do you know how to successfully handle situations where multiple customers complain about a long-term employee?
This can put you in a difficult position, but if you do not handle the problem correctly, it will just keep happening. If you don’t confront the behaviors that lead to customer complaints, you will lose respect as a leader from not only the employee we are discussing, but your other team members as well. The bottom line is you need people on the front line that every customer views as courteous, knowledgeable and dependable. Following the steps below will help you in dealing with this difficult situation.
Some people have Self confidence while others need to develop it. Self Confidence is the inner force that leads a person doing something independently. Self Confidence is a quality that is there without the intervention of the parents, spouse, teacher and it is force that pushes one along. At any place whether the workplace or in personal lives, having self confidence or personal motivation is very important. Lacking self confidence would lead to set backs in our lives but there are reasons why some lack motivation and there are ways to develop it.
Though many of us have in born self confidence and it gets shown since our childhood. Development of self confidence has to be there at an early age when the child is in preschool or school going stage. It so happens that those who do not have self confidence and have been pushed by their parents throughout their school days for studies and finishing other activities of school fail miserably when they reach to the college days as they do not have teachers pushing them for studies and ultimately they become a failure in their work places.
“Most slide presentations suck rotten eggs.”
Seth Godin knew this years ago, and if there’s one community on Earth who still knows this today better than any other, it’s buyers. Buyers generally have a healthy (or occasionally unhealthy) disrespect and even dislike for salespeople, but if there’s one thing a buyer dislikes even more, it’s a salesperson with slides.
Yet visual aids, when properly used, can make your messages much more memorable. Research quoted by Dr John Medina in his excellent book Brain Rules demonstrates that while people tend to remember only 10% of what they hear after three days, with strong visual images associated with key words, that can rise to 65%.
So every salesperson needs to know what makes a great, effective visual aid – and what doesn’t. You don’t need to be an expert in design or in PowerPoint. The best slides are simple, don’t take long to create, and don’t use any fancy features. If you learn a few basics, you can rise above 95% of sales presentations, and transform a typically mind-numbing ordeal for your customer into a positive and memorable experience.
To begin, let’s take a look at what not to do.