I used to work for a company that tried to change me into someone I just was not. In an interview, the HR manager said, “This company will help you overcome your weaknesses by thrusting you into different kinds of situations. We will help you grow to become a completely different person.”

Here is the thing. There’s nothing wrong with “overcoming your weaknesses“. But to turn me into a “completely different person,” that’s something else.

Back then I didn’t realize the repercussions of that statement. Now that I’ve got years of experience as a sales manager, I know better than to try and change my sales reps into something they’re not.

My sales reps are themselves. They are not their colleagues. They are not their friends. They are not me. (more…)

What is the highest performing stock in terms of total return over the course of the past 40 years?

Its not Microsoft. No, its not Cisco Systems. Its not GE. It’s not even Intel.

You ready?

Its Walgreens Drug Stores.

Walgreens? You gotta be kidding me! The drugstore chain? Yep, its true. How they did it is even cooler than that fact that they did it in the first place.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins investigates how they actually did it. And the answer is very simple. All that Cork Walgreen, the founder of Walgreens did is that he took a long hard look at what his business did really well and then channeled all his energies into that one thing. In essence, he figured out exactly what Walgreens could be the best in the world at and channeled all of their efforts into achieving that one thing. (more…)

Richard Branson, the eccentric founder of Virgin Airlines and multiple other businesses is the epitome of  “unconventional” businessman. He does things HIS way, he does things the way he feels are right…and with a billion or so in the bank, he’s been more right than wrong.

How he lives and manages his businesses are by making massive goals, taking massive action and doing things “unconventionally” to achieve those goals. When everyone zigging…he’s zagging.  One of his famous quotes:

“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unconventional challenges and trying to rise above them…from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it.”

This unconventional style is how you need to think and act as a manager who craves top sales results. The truth is that there are so many management gurus who have written tomes and dissertations on exactly how to motivate people, all in search of the “one thing” that does it all with minimal effort. The real truth is that there is no ONE way to do it. Motivating to trigger explosive sales growth is the sum of hundreds, if not thousands of decisions that you make on a daily basis. (more…)

So what exactly is excellence to a salesperson?

Not an easy question to answer.

“Excellence” probably means different things to everyone.

Because every salesperson has different potential and differing talents (some better, some worse), each salesperson’s level of excellence varies widely.

In “The Secret of Setting the Bar High” we discussed that a sales manager sometimes needs to be a dictator.

And when it comes to sales performance, the top-performing sales manager is positivey “Stalin-esque”.   He is completely INFLEXIBLE on what he wants from his sales reps. However, he is completely FLEXIBLE on how each rep will go about getting it.

Even though the potential of each salesperson is varied, the level of excellence in sales is very clear, quota is the only true measuring stick. So, here it is:

1. If a salesperson has never achieved quota, excellence is hitting quota, period.

a. However, after the sales rep hits quota two or three times, the goal of excellence then becomes #2.

2. Any goal that both exceeds quota and is also a stretch for the salesperson, while at the same time being realistic.

What is far exceeds? Let your salespeople tell you this one. Your job is to play editor-in-chief when they tell you.

Reel them in if they shoot too high and crank them up if they shoot too low.

My experience has been that most salespeople, somewhat eager to “impress the boss”, set their goals way too high. With unrealistically high goals, these salespeople end up just getting frustrated while simultaneously engendering skepticism and losing interest in your message.

They soon become discouraged and disengaged. Safeguard against that by being extremely critical of their direction.

Learn more valuable sales management tips by clicking on the form to the right of this post – Ill send you the FREE Video and Audio on How to Motivate Your Sales Team.

Add a comment to this post and tell me what you do to prompt your salespeople to achieve excellence.

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Back when the idea of a “virtual office” or a “paperless office” was all the corporate world could think about, for many of us, the concept sounded very appealing. Everything was to be done and stored in computers. You could do it all in the flick of  switch, the click of a mouse. You wouldn’t even need to talk to your co-workers anymore.

In 2007, a study showed that by the year 2009 (this year), 41% of the time employees spend in the office would be used for responding to emails.

Forty-one percent! In case you haven’t noticed, that’s a pretty big number. But who could blame anyone? Emails are quick and easy to use. No wonder the people in your office would rather just send emails than have to talk to anyone face-to-face.

That’s the problem. Sending emails is safer, more convenient, and to a sales person, its so darn ineffective. (more…)