Why Salespeople Lie

The world of business is currently mired in platform development, entrepreneurial risk taking, and cutting edge business planning. The most profitable companies are the best places to work because the culture is relaxed but the players are putting in long hours. Technology has streamlined the way we work. The politics and formalities are breaking down in favor of collaborative business improvement planning. It is as it should be.

Ties are not comfortable, meetings that tip toe around issues are not productive, and people who pretend to be experts are anything but. We are becoming more honest with one another because we have learned from the mistake of trusting the wrong people. Business partnerships are built on personal relationships. Mistakes are forgotten when the intent is right and partnerships are destroyed when the expert is revealed as a court jester.

In simplest terms, a lot of the things that used to be characterized as "professional" were a smoke screen. So how do we see through the smoke...?

Stop Lying
I have been in sales consulting and sales training for 15 years and I can tell you this....sales people are liars. It's the thing that makes people hate salespeople. So the process for success is incredibly simple:
Tell the truth!

In the movie, "In Good Company", the great Carter Duryea convinces a bunch of industry veterans that his education and youthful motivation have applicable relevance in the marketplace. It works for a while. But when he meets the boss' daughter in the elevator he admits to her that he has no idea what he is doing. It is a refreshingly human moment. While it is probably not best to completely reveal your cards, I can tell you that in time the pretenders are always revealed for their true selves. Why fake it?

As a salesperson, your target buyer will often ask you leading questions in an effort to measure your BS meter. Many salespeople see this as an opportunity to showcase their expertise (and it often might be). But if you talk yourself in circles, you destroy your credibility. Let me advise you are 3 simple things:
Allow silence to linger.....don't believe you have to keep talking
Address questions directly
Don't allow the past to sidetrack your strategy

We Weren't There
Have you ever asked a salesperson a yes/no question and gotten a 20 minute answer? Did the answer even address your question? In sales anticipating pitfalls is critical. If one knows their product cannot perform a certain function, they might seek to disguise that. In fact, they may overexpose their fact masking because they are so afraid that their past product failures will resurface. Often times, the aforementioned paranoia exposes an inefficiency that does not even apply to the situation. Then, you lose because you lied.

Quick tip: don't buy from someone who does not directly address your questions, they are hiding something.

So Then...
Be honest but don't reveal your hand. Sound contradictory? Not really.

The process is simple: Someone needs something and you have something to give.

Why complicate the issue?:
You do not want to leave any stones unturned...so ask good questions!
You do not want to miss a buying signal...so do your research!
You do not want to validate your buyers stereotypes....so be honest!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Trustworthy

Last week we pondered the question:
What if you didn't need to be validated?

Today we will take this concept a step further:
What is the purpose behind your effort?

Do you perform on the job for the sake of promotion, to be granted more responsibility, or just to make more money?

Is your intent genuine? Are your motives transparent?

Leadership has transformed in recent years....no longer is it about what you make but how much you can give away. Marc Benioff, Tony Hsieh, Keith Ferazzi, and Blake Mycoskie have lead a philanthropic charge to share their wealth.

Last week we also talked about the assumptive characteristics of a leader: direct, out-spoken, and always in the public eye. These characteristics are changing as well. I was shocked to see the principle of 'vulnerability' listed in Keith Ferrazzi's book, 'Whose Got Your Back'. Keith explains that in order to have a genuine path for improvement we have to be willing to divulge our human propensity to make mistakes from time to time. The Jack Welsh 'keep your guard up' leadership ethos replaced by Keith's 'let your guard down' pathos.

First thing I hear this Monday morning is a 'manager' confronting her employee about the metrics of her job description. What a way to start the week. Another example of how the system has trumped the need for thought leadership. Without trust there can be no leadership and default managers cannot trust because they fear their vulnerability will be exposed....they choose to keep their guard up.

Last week I issued the challenge to endure a whole day without complaining. Today, I ask that you try to take on your professional relationships without criticism. Try to see your employees, co-workers, and customers as people...to trust them and to be empathetic of their life's challenges.

Here is a pretty good certainty: The challenges you face at work this week will not mean a thing a year from now. So why allow them to hang you up.

Live, Trust and Thrive!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Purposeful Intent

Last week we introduced The Employee Purpose Perspective (EPP). Today's Second Installment of the EPP examines Purposeful Intent. You may ask yourself, "are not purpose and intent of the same ideology?". They are exactly not....which introduces our problem. Too often we are given a directive, which formulates our purpose, and we perform said directive...without intent.

This makes our lives a collection of meaningless tasks between clock punches. This is a waste!

What's Your Purpose?

Next week we will examine the inability of most organizations to bring meaning to the never ending task list. Today, I am going to ask you to define purpose for yourself. You cannot rely on your organization to assign Purposeful Intent, so you have to create it.

When you develop the ability to find personal meaning in every chore you free yourself to choose the life you wish to have.

It is a fairly simple process: When assigned a task ask yourself is what it means to you...and prioritize accordingly.

We have seen studies that convey that 70% of all workers are actively disengaged. That's probably a low estimate and the premise could be flawed. If we are honest with ourselves we have to admit that our company will open the doors, turn on the computers and supply some coffee. The rest is up to you. I repeat...

The Rest Is Up To You!

There is no such thing as the perfect job. Every company has people who have become irrelevant and seek to destroy the ambition of the optimistic. But, we don't need to sell our belongings and journey to Alaska to find our purpose.

We find ourselves caught up in the myth of work hard, play hard. That we have the determination at work to win and then we take off our tie and escape to lunacy. This creates a double life: stress out and decompress. Make money, spend it and hide in your cubicle until the hangover subsides.

There is one absolute in every day: If you think today will suck, it will! If you find the ability to put your energy into that which matters you will be 100 times happier at work.

Here's how you can develop Purposeful Intent:
Avert Your Ego
Set Sensible Priorities
Have a Back Up Plan

Leave it!
Every task will take twice as long if you are intent on having your way. How our egos drive our goals and how silly that is. We have calls about calls, meetings about meetings and the only reason for this is so someone can receive confirmation that their opinion is valued....who gives a shit!

You will be amazed how much less stress exists in your day when you stop caring about having your name on the slide show. Let the insecure fisherman cast their dwindling line...and keep feeding them bait.

Your opinions will not be missed, you will spend less time doing things you wish not to, and you can get on with what actually matters.

Get Over It!
"I just want to get it over with" - this premise means you don't want to do it, so why do it? When someone tells you they are too busy it means they are willing to do a bunch of things that are not applicable to their grandiose intent. More precious living moments wasted!

...at some point you have to push back and just not do it!

Playing With the House's Money
Fact: if you have 100 prospects in your pipeline you will not care if one of them goes in another direction.
Fact: the mundane tasks of your job are avoidable if you don't care about losing your job.

I mean not to inspire a careless attitude...in fact, the opposite.

You can perform your job the way you want based on what is important to you. If you are genuinely great at what you do, your company will value your personal intent to empower organizational success. And if they don't, someone else will.

Our problem is that we forget our awesomeness...and we let others pretend to determine it for us.

Don't Undervalue Your Existence...Determine YOUR Worth...and Let That Drive You!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Gen Why?

The shelves are filled with books about Millennials (written by people born in the 50's). Internet sites have case studies on managing Gen Y. Every publication has a benefits strategy for 'a new generation of workers'.

The characteristics of Generation Y listed as:
Impatient
Entitled
Opinionated

Have we become that simple in business management that we have to categorize everyone and put an according label on them?

I have news for you: the aforementioned characteristics are not unique to Gen Y. The people who write books about Millennials possess these seemingly frowned upon points of motivation. Everyone gets impatient when company goals do not fit their pace for advancement. The best companies are able to foster a purpose driven culture that encourages people (of all generations) to carve a career path that fits their level of commitment.

So instead of criticising the young, let's focus on what companies can do to encourage them (and everyone else):
Say Thank You!
Don't Mask Your Insecurity by Regulating Others
Stop Micro Managing
Foster a Purpose Driven Environment

The Validation of Thanks
You can pay more, afford annual sabbaticals and offer free gym memberships; but if you suck the rest of the time, I am out of here. Fact: I will not need a vacation if I love my work. There is only one thing I need to love my work....to hear Thank You for my effort; every day!

We all need validation to keep us moving. We don't need our balls busted to remind us to work harder. When the purpose of motivation is positive we all strive for a common goals. When staying employed is a daily battle we compete internally, screw one another over, politic and create an environment of self-preservation.

Just a Little Patience
Let's look at the time line for High School Sports -
Year 1 - Freshman team
Year 2 - Junior Varsity
Year 3 - Varsity
Year 4 - Team Captain

With a clear cut 4 year scale, evolving into another 4 year scale (college), can you blame Millennials for being impatient when they achieve their quota their first 2 years at your company and receive no extended career track to encourage their results?

Take time to understand the scale mentioned above when managing Gen Y-ers. Help them navigate a 30 year career scale as opposed to dismissing their frustration as malcontent. Allow young people greater opportunities, allow them to fail and be willing to put YOUR butt on the line accordingly.

Leadership vs. Management
Let's look at the numbers......let's not!

If as a professional you have a system based on checks and balances that you plug people into, you serve no purpose. Anyone can look at salesforce.com to measure activity, anyone can look at a call log to see in-office time utilization and anyone can collect business cards from the fishbowl at Chilis.

Leaders take the necessary metrics for success and translate them into a personal strategy for every worker based on his/her goals. Take the activity report and help your people tell a story beyond the numbers. When asked what the purpose of filling out TPS reports might be....have an answer.....that makes sense!

I'm not frustrated..I'm just more motivated than you are
Don't tell your employees to slow down, keep up with them!

Embrace the energy of the young professionals that surround you and put a system in place that moves with them:
* Tell them the 'Why' behind directives
* Recognize their effort and help them turn time spent into results
* Let them know it is OK to laugh
* With Purpose and Intent comes Results...with results comes happiness in the workplace.

Our age matters not. We all want to see something at the end of a 12 hour shift. We all want to know that the countless hours spent in the office mean something to the world in which we live. We want to win and to be celebrated. We want to be encouraged to try, not discouraged from volunteering. We want to know you know who we are and that that is part of our company culture.

Within 7 years the people you are managing will be managing you. Think about that now and Lead accordingly.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

The Crest

On July 1st, we talked about putting a strategy together for the second half of the year. Now we are staring down the barrel the final quarter of the 2010.

It's Go Time!
* Are you @ your quota?
* Have you gotten closer to securing your dream job?
* Are you prepared for the season ahead?

It is in these moments that a person's character is defined:
Do you thrive under pressure or cower in indecision?

You are at the crest of a wave...you can either drop in and surf it or let it swallow you up. It is in the critical moments that decisions are made, hard work is rewarded and coulda/shouldas start to rear their head. The next four months can catapult you into success or drop you into the unemployment line...what are you gonna do?

Here are a few tips that will help you 'drop in':
1. Confidence matters most
2. The key to time management is knowing what not to do
3. Get rid of categories

Dry and Secure
How do you carry yourself? With chest out and quick steps or with eyes down?
People can smell indecision from a mile away. If you don't have answers to questions, opinions to differentiate a strategy and evidence to back it up; you are not ready to advise anyone.
* Study Every Day
* Know what your product means to a prospect's strategy
* Articulate it

Don't Do It
When I hear someone say, "I'm too busy". It means they are doing a lot of unnecessary work. We get entrenched by a task list and perform said tasks out of habit. We fail to ask what these mundane nuances of the work day mean to our organizational strategy. As such, we are cast in a supporting role forever.
* Have a Personal Strategy
* Let Business Critical Initiatives Drive Your Behavior
* Don't Be Afraid to Question the Business Relevance of your Task List

The Past is Past
Often our motivation is driven by our precept ion of what is possible. Our metrics for possibility being the actions of those who came before us. Don't let that which has been deemed impossible be a deterrent to your goals for extraordinary achievement. Do Better!

You are at the crest of a wave...when you feel doubt creeping in, punch it in the face...allow not your insecurity to surface. Remember your achievements and let them empower you. Understand where you have fallen short and learn from your mistakes. The past is past, no one can determine your results today. You can achieve ANYTHING! Listen to no one who tries to curtail your effort because they were afraid to 'drop in'. Listen to everyone who tells you, you are capable of anything!

We Can Do This!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave

Difficult People are People Too

I work as a Consultant, Corporate Trainer and Mentor to many. The most popular question that comes up in our one-to-one sessions is...

How Do I Use Empathy in Communicating With Someone who refuses to Meet Me Half Way?

In essence, why would you want to waste time building bridges to someone who has a gas can in their hand?

Great Question....No Simple Answer!

But, then if Human Relations were simple why would we wake up every day. Human Beings are infinitely complex and undefinable but here are two tips that might help you "be the bigger person":
* Questions not Instructions
* Action Items not Complaints

Our temper knows not rules of engagement. It rises in us like a phoenix on crystal meth. You have done everything you should: put in extra hours, researched, gathered resources and woke up 3 hours early to complete the task. Now, your progress has been halted by someone who had one simple task and fouled it up. Your temper will drive you to attack. Take a breath, think to yourself of a personal issue that derailed your professional progress in the past and put yourself in the other person's shoes.

Instead of telling said person how they f-ed up and what needs to be done immediately...ease in with patience and ask a few questions. People just want to be heard and understood, not criticised and instructed.

The easiest question to ask would be: Why didn't you have your portion of the project to me by the deadline? This will put the already paranoid malcontent on the defensive and bring greater distance between you. Try to get past the obvious question and dig a little deeper:
Jim, it's been a heck of a week, you must have a lot on your plate. Let's review your task list and I will see what I can delegate on your behalf.
* Jim is off the defensive, ready to open up and willing to ask for help!

In this day and age of struggle and strife one thing rings true in every area of social intercourse: COMPLAINING.....there is no single human element I have less tolerance for than complaining.
* FACT: Never in the history of humanity has a complaint produced a result!

We have learned to redirect our instructions into questions. Now let's use the same measure of patience in redirecting our complaints into action items.
Complaint: These TPS reports suck!
Supplemental Action Item: Ms. VP - it seems these TPS reports are taking up a lot of time that is distracting us from revenue producing opportunities. I have run some preliminary numbers and it appears the time put into reporting is costing us about $1,200 in weekly labor hours. Can this time be better spent? I wondered if we might entertain the option of implementing a new software system that would streamline our reporting process. The front end implementation would be costly but based on the numbers provided above we would see a Return on Investment in just 7 months.

Here are two ways to put patience to work, gain results by winning people to your way of thinking and eliminating the unnecessary stress of internal conflict.

People just want to be loved! They want to know that we understand and empathise with their struggle. Let them speak, make suggestions for progress and help them develop your instructions for themselves.

In the next installment of this blog series we will learn:
* How to build rules of engagement for every relationship
* How to win one little battle at a time (without being transparent)

Don't Forget to Remember!

- Dave

References:
http://twitter.com/davidkovacovich
www.linkedin.com/in/davidkovacovich

In the Elevator

In these trying times, companies are making adjustments to maximize output. As such, some people are losing their jobs while others are afforded greater opportunities.

For those of you who have found yourself a promotion (for better or for worse) in the 'more with less' era, here are a few tips:
* Lead By Example
* Don't try to be a Sheriff without earning the Badge
* Listen, Empathize and Redirect
* Let them know it will be OK
* Be Confident

I have too commonly seen people who excel as individual contributors miscast as Leaders. Traditionally, they fall back on force fed (proven..?) management structure to implement systems of efficiency and micro-mange to a process. Most commonly, the once teammate turned corporate 'yes (wo)man' loses the respect of his or her team and thus is unable to make an impact. It is better to get creative, try something new that is not transparent in the intent to be 'new for the sake of new', and to be able to differentiate the intent.

You do not need to prove yourself! Your team worked at your same level yesterday, was passed up for the promotion and now begrudgingly report to you. If you assume a 'new sheriff in town' style of management; your transparency will back you into a corner....and the 'told you so' ropes will be your only escape.

While you cannot please everyone on your team, pleasing members of management will be even more difficult. You are stepping into a world of advice....many of those advising have been in the position for many years (and that's not a good thing). Accept advice, take a few points from each uncommissioned advisor and appeal to nobler motives.

Go Outside: Now more than ever, you can learn how to be a manager in one day through the Internet. Fresh Ideas with Applicable Intent are the easily accessible toolbox for success to any new leader. Social networking tools, case studies and a plethora of books are at your disposal. Understand the format of ideas in every philosophy, apply them to your organizational cause and empower your team to perform through trusted fueled education.

Introducing the Middle 80. In every organization there will be 10% of people who love every concept you (or anyone else) throw their way. In contrast, there will be 10% of the people who never had the opportunity you do, now hate their job and work against all new organizational directives (in this case: you). The group of influence is the 80% in between that can go either way based on your approach, your ability to convey it and the empowerment to follow it.

The Middle 80 Hierarchy of Needs:
1. Stay Employed
2. Perform without Someone looking over your shoulder
3. Achieve Results
4. Develop a Path
5. Live a Bigger Organizational Intent

People mostly want some levity in their process, a cause they can believe in and some light at the end of the tunnel. Lead Accordingly.

All eyes will be on you. There is a reason why there are 10 people on the diamond and 60,000 in the stands. It is much easier to sit back with arms crossed and judge than to step forward and lead. You are in your position because you are of a high skill set, are level headed in your approach and strategic in your business management style. Lead Accordingly.

Take advice, be firm when data does not support emotion, but more than anything: Create Your Leadership Persona based on a genuinely motivated intent......if you don't have to fake it you don't have to remember who to be.

Don't Forget to Remember!

- Dave

References:
www.linkedin.com/in/davidkovacovich