What’s one of the highest compliments you can pay to someone you know?

There are a lot of nice things you could say…

“He’s a real nice guy”
“She’s very kind”
“He’s really funny”

The list goes on and on.

But when you (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…)

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?

I was thinking the other day…it seems like there are a lot of struggling sales managers out there right now.

With the economy the way it is, it doesn’t really matter what industry you’re in – chances are that you and your sales team are feeling the pinch.

So I was thinking…what if I could just write out five big concepts that really helped to shape my success as a sales leader?

I figured if I could do it using these concepts, then a lot of other people could do it as well…

The truth is…I didn’t start off my sales management career doing too well…in fact, I really didn’t know what I was doing until my first full year.

But I think I was smart enough to realize that I didn’t know much…so I studied how to be great almost non-stop for an entire year.

Also, I was lucky enough to have a really good boss and access to other leadership mentors…their ideas really shaped my thought process as a sales leader.

In my first full year as a sales manager, I began to use some of these ideas and to my suprise, I had my best money year ever, up to that point in time.

I included those five things here.

Here they are:

1. Trust: Get your salespeople to trust you so that they can in turn, produce great results for both themselves and for you.
2. Empowerment: Learn how to empower your salespeople so they don’t have to come to you for every little thing. Learn the key concepts that train your reps to take responsible, correct, consistent action without your intervention needed.
3. Accountability: Set the bar higher and keep raising it! Bring your sales team along by making them fully accountable (this means no excuses, by the way) for their actions and results…whether those results are stupid or stellar.
4. Release of Control: Release your own self limiting/time intensive/hours-sucking control complex, while pushing your sales reps to produce even bigger sales when you’re not with them!
5. Hire great (not just merely good) sales people, coach them, support them then unleash them…and let them be themselves.

These five concepts have made all the difference…and still do to this day.

Ill keep passing on what has helped me so that maybe it’ll help you too.

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

Then, post a comment below and tell me what great secrets you learned form some of your mentors in the past that have helped you to trigger explosive sales results with your sales reps?

Washington succeeded not because he was so brilliant (some would even say he was not all that bright), but rather because of the collaborative brilliance of the people he attracted to work in his organization.

Simply put…he hired and retained the right kind of people who complemented his own deficiencies.

What Washington did do exceedingly well is bring an enormous level of self-confidence – the confidence that allowed him to lead individuals who were in most cases, brighter, more articulate and some may argue…even better qualified for the job than he.

He didn’t care though…and he didn’t feel threatened (maybe he did sometimes but the history books are unclear on this point).

My point is this: by hiring people better than he, his team made him look great.

He created an environment where they could flourish…and he was far more successful had he appointed non-threatening candidates.

As a top-performing sales leader, you need to do the same.

He possessed one the key character traits of the superior sales leader:

He had an absence of ego.

In doing so, he drew heavily on the talents of others.

When you have an absence of ego, you can release control.

And when you realese control and allow your reps to flourish, you wont be worried about stealing their thunder. They become the stars!

When they become stars (and they will), the real credit for their success goes to you…because of your brilliance in hiring them!

In fact Washington did so well at hiring the right people…it secured him a spot of Mount Rushmore.

You’ll take your first step to securing your spot on Mount Rushmore if you take ol’ GW’s advice and release your own ego…and hire people smarter and better than you.

Take the first step and order the free tips from the signup on the right side of this blog post.

Then, tell me how you go about hiring top sales people, what strategies work well for you?

Post a comment below.

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