In explaining the near infinite growth opportunities  for the Coca-Cola company, the late great former CEO of Coca-Cola Robert Goizueta would oftentimes tell his troops:

“Each of the world’s six billion people drink on average SIXTY-FOUR ounces of fluids a day…of which TWO ounces is Coca-Cola”

This “sixty-two ounce upside” captured the essence of his message and reinforced the core belief that Coca-Cola had a near limitless growth potential. Goizueta was especially skilled at capturing a complex idea and communicating it in a clear visual, yet inspiring way.

He was a true “visual sales leader“.

Do you do the same with your sales team?

Visual sales leaders use memorable simple concepts to make it perfectly clear what needs to get done. They do it in easily understandable terms. The simpler…the better. But they make it unforgettable.

If you can distill your entire market down to its essential visual elements, and then MONETIZE it so your salespeople understand it without question…then, watch out.

Let me give you an example:

*You sell a specific kind of women’s dress

*The total market did $24 million for your sales district
in 2008.

*Your total 2008 sales were $4 million.

*Your market opportunity = $20 million

*Each of your ten salespeople has a $100,000 quota to achieve
their sales goal.

(Although I have never sold dresses in my life), a visual sales leader might say something like:

“When you place one of our dresses in the hands of ONLY one out of every 200 women dress shoppers in your entire geography then, congratulations…you hit quota”

“But…if you put one of our dresses in the hands of one out of every 100 women dress shoppers in your entire geography, then congratulations…you hit sales stardom”

Basic?

Yes.

Effective.

Most definitely.

In this example, you are simultaneously “leading visually”, while simultaneously “Setting the Bar Higher” (Course 2 in
the Sales Management Mastery online program – coming soon). Visual leading cuts through the crap…while reinforcing the predominant sales messages so your reps keep their eyes focused on the prize.

And the prize is the “sixty-two ounce upside”…

To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.

After you do that, post a comment to this post as to how you lead your salespeople to get the best from them?

Have you ordered your FREE Video and Audio on How to Motivate Your Sales Team - “The Trust Account” yet?

Well…what are you waiting for?

When you do get them, you may ask yourself: “What exactly will all these “Trust Account” deposits do for me anyway?”

I’m glad you asked (well, I actually asked myself)…because all you really want is for your salespeople to start really producing big time results, both for you and for themselves, right?

Lets not forget however (as a wise swami once said):

“Trust is the glue that binds people together in groups”

And when you are candid, open, consistent and predictable, there will be trust…it’s a logical consequence of honesty and truth telling.

That’s great, you may say, but what does all this “trust-building” really do for me?

What it does is it allows your sales consultants to act so that the rules of the game aren’t constantly changing. This gives them peace of mind. And when your salespeople have peace of mind, then and only then, they become willing to make the extra effort and place themselves on the line for both themselves and you.

No sales person can produce peak performance if they don’t do those things on a regular basis.

First establishing, then reinforcing that trust every day is one of the MANY ways you can motivate them to peak performance.

So make deposits in “The Trust Account” for what it gets both of you. Find out HOW to do this by reading the tips.

Get your Free Video and Audio on How to Motivate Your Sales Team and learn the first step to Sales Management Mastery by simply clicking here

What you get is a sales consultant who always feels supported and comfortable in putting forth maximum effort.

The key is this…always treat your sales consultant the END unto themselves. Great sales managers never treat their reps as a means to which they can achieve their own ends. If your sales execs feel that you have their back and they feel they can trust you, you have laid the ground work for them producing superior sales performance.

Trust is:

• Hard to earn
• Easy to lose
• When lost, nearly impossible to regain.

So don’t screw this up by making stupid mistakes that sacrifice all you have built!

Rather, work daily to establish trust, place those deposits in the “Trust Account” so your account is OVERFLOWING.

When this is done, you’ll have taken the very first step towards Sales Management Mastery.

To learn even more about sales management training, get our free ebook.

It may not always be the right thing to do, but poking fun at the “corporate circus” that inevitably envelops most companies does wonders to keep your salespeople motivated.

It earns you credibility and allows them to see you as real – not as just some corporate stooge.

All companies have it -  the sales contests that demotivate instead of motivate, the disjointed initiatives that sends the department into a frenzy, the company initiatives that actually impair your sales people’s ability to increase sales while decreasing selling time…you know the ones I’m talking about!

Use these situations to your advantage.

When you rise above them and poke fun at them, it keeps you real and transparent – it makes you into someone your salespeople can identify with.

In fact, the more bureaucracy that exists in your organization, the more opportunity there is to gently poke fun at the company while keeping your mission, as well as the mission of the organization, foremost.

The key is knowing when to do it, because once you rake the organization over the coals, you must immediately get them back on track and explain the “why” behind it…from the corporate perspective.

Keep it real.  Get them back on board with the mission, but sift through the corporate “box-checking”.

If you get an overwhelming amount of resistance to any particular policy, make sure you frame it in reality.  Whether you’re selling boxes or biologicals, the company you work for has dozens of standard operating procedures that make little, if any sense.  If you can’t change the policy (worth a try), then you can always poke fun at it.

Be careful though…you don’t want your attitude to sour them even further. Just as quickly as you “poke fun”; you need to as quickly, get your sales reps all back on track.

What if your salespeople still don’t get it?  Then you may need to give them a little dose of reality: the only place where they can make all the decisions and assure themselves that they are all sensible, is if they run the show.

If they run the business, they can then make the rules.

Running your own business has a long list of detractors as well – maybe even more than their current roles.  Dealing with bureaucracy and idiotic corporate initiatives is part of the contract you sign on for when you work for someone else – so get them full on board so you both can deal with it as best as you can.

Post a response to this blog and tell me how you keep your salespeople on track when company initiatives make no sense…

To learn even more about sales training, get our free ebook.

I’m not sure if George Washington had to screen an avalanche of resumes first in order to hire his first cabinet back in 1789…but I do know that you have to.

Just in case you missed that  post on GW, click here

Enclosed are five proven methods to help you to screen out resumes for your open sales positions, so that you can first interview (or phone screen) the best people, then eventually hire the best people…just like George did.

1. How’s the layout?

The first and most important part of the resume is the layout.

This can give you good insights into broad characteristics of the candidate.

Every resume is a reflection of the candidate, so scrutinize the layout for how the descriptions, achievements, dates, descriptions and accolades flow together.

2. Accolades?

The presence of specific accolades in a candidate are about the closest thing you can get to guaranteeing they will succeed at a high level. Unike the mutual fund industry, when it comes to sales reps “past performance is indicative of future performance”.

3. Where are the accolades?

When screening a resume the big thing to look for is not only do they have accolades, but almost as importantly, where are they placed in the resume?

Are they at the bottom of each paragraph? Are they at the top?

The closer to the top usually means the more important they are to the candidate…you want that candidate.

4. Are the accolades consistent in each job they have had?

You need someone to produce consistent results.

Anyone can catch “lightning in a bottle” once and have one really good year…but can they perform at a consistently high level for you year in and year out?

As the saying goes; “One warm day in April does not make a summer”…and one lone Pinnacle Award from 1998 does not make a great salesperson.

5. Typographical Errors

Any typos really means the person does not have the attention to detail that you absolutely require as a top-performing sales manager.

It also means they can’t write!

How can the candidate close sales, write up sales proposals and complete the necessary customer follow up when they cant even hit the “spellcheck” button prior to sending their resume to you?

Needless to say, typos are a big no no.

Post a comment to this post and tell me what methods work best for you in screening top sales candidates?

To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.