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LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

by Keith Rosen on May 12, 2020 with Comments Off on LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

Based on Keith Rosen’s Award-Winning Books: CURRENT COURSES AVAILABLE ONLINE Play like the Pros – Coach Like a Leader Keith’s SALES LEADERSHIP Coach Training Program is Available for Remote …

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Shattering the 8 Myths of the Remote Workforce and How to Develop a Champion Team – Part 1Sales Coaching

by Keith Rosen on May 12, 2020 with 0 comment

Before this pandemic, 44% of the global companies that didn’t allow remote work are now forced to make radical changes. Managers and their teams who have been trained on how to make a successful transition to working remotely are experiencing breakthrough results, improved productivity, and a happier team. Here’s what you can do to dispel …

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Don’t Be a Sales TERMINATOR – Qualify Rather Than Judge Your ProspectsSales Coaching

by Keith Rosen on May 12, 2020 with 0 comment

Boxers can lose a fight before they even get in the ring. So can salespeople. A sale can be lost before you even step into the selling ring. It all starts with your perception of your prospects. Are You Destroying Your Own Sales? Knowing the difference between Qualifying and Judging prospects is critical. And …

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LEADERSHIP COACH ACADEMY

by Keith Rosen on May 11, 2020 with Comments Off on LEADERSHIP COACH ACADEMY

CURRENT ONLINE COURSES AVAILABLE COACHING SALESPEOPLE INTO SALES CHAMPIONS –Transform From Manager To Coach To Develop a Top Performing Coaching Culture and Sales Champions What you’ll learn: Why coaching is the ONLY way to drive more sales, build your team’s skills, confidence, and provide them with the support motivation and accountability that will achieve your …

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Why I Called BS On My Client – The Epidemic of Corporate Hypocrisy and the Reality of Creating a Coaching CultureSales Coaching

by Keith Rosen on May 4, 2020 with 0 comment

What started out as a discovery call with a prospect became a lesson in company blind spots. While many companies believe they have a healthy, coaching culture, then why is there 72% employee disengagement in the workforce, which is climbing due to this continued shift to a remote workplace? If companies aren’t honoring their vision …

Tags: Accountability, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, goals, leadership, Sales Coaching, sales leadership, Sales Management, selling, time management

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Sales Management Fireside Chat – Interview – How to Create a Coaching CultureInterviews, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, seminars, Videos, webinar

by Keith Rosen on April 30, 2020 with 0 comment

Tune into this interview as Steven and I ponder the future of sales organizations, how coaching fits into this equation, why less than 1% of global companies have a healthy, thriving coaching culture, and the missing link to leadership success that’s guaranteed to develop a team of top producers. And of course, the meaning of …

Tags: career coaching, coaching, coaching for managers, coaching salespeople, Communication, confidence, Executive Coaching, Goal Setting, leadership, management coach training, sales, Sales Coaching, sales leadership, Sales Management

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Why 78% of All Prospecting Efforts Fail and How to Get People to Want to Talk to Youcold calling, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, sales articles, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, sales tips, Sales Training, selling

by Keith Rosen on April 21, 2020 with 5 comments

Do you know exactly what to say in the first 30 seconds that captures someone’s attention so succinctly and effectively that they want to talk with you and are actually asking for more? If you’re like most salespeople, the answer is probably, “No.” Managers, Learn How to Coach and Manage a Remote Team and Win …

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The Eight Prospecting Paradoxes that Cause Selling SchizophreniaProspecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Management

by Keith Rosen on April 15, 2020 with 0 comment

As sales teams rapidly reinvent themselves, their skills, activities and the way they sell, the real transformation needed to achieve your goals starts with not just changing, but expanding your thinking. There’s always more than one perception. Here are eight paradoxes that will widen your peripheral view around how the top sales gurus think around …

Tags: clients, cold calling, corona, corona virus, coronavirus, customers, facebook, growing pipeline, increasing sales, linkedin, networking, new business, prospecting, sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training, social media, twitter

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Based on Keith Rosen’s Award-Winning Books:

CURRENT COURSES AVAILABLE ONLINE

Play like the Pros – Coach Like a Leader

Keith’s SALES LEADERSHIP Coach Training Program is Available for Remote Delivery!

*****************************************************

FOR ALL MY FRIENDS AT THE NBA!

HERE’S THE HIDDEN LINK TO MY ONLINE COURSE –

OWN YOUR DAY – HOW TO MASTER TIME MANAGEMENT AND CREATE YOUR IDEAL LIFE

– FREE FOR 72 HOURS!

And Make Sure We’re Connected on LinkedIn and follow me on Twitter!

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COURSE TOPIC: SALES LEADERSHIP COACH TRAINING

COURSE: COACHING SALESPEOPLE INTO SALES CHAMPIONS –Transform From Manager To Coach To Develop a Top Performing Coaching Culture and Sales Champions

COURSE: OWN YOUR DAY. – Master Time Management, Develop a Healthy, Productive Remote Workplace & Your Ideal Life.

What you’ll learn:

Develop a Hyper-Productive, Balanced Remote Workplace, Achieve Bigger Goals Faster, Excel at Your Career, and Create Your Ideal Life.
Develop your personal vision, goals, and identify your core values and priorities so you can honor them every day.
Make time your ally rather than your adversary by mastering the inner game of self-management.
Protect Your Time! Reduce your workload and save over 20 hours every week on unproductive, wasteful activities.
Identify and manage the unplanned events that distract you from your priorities, cause stress, and waste time.
Stop reacting to problems and become hyper-responsive so that you can take charge of your day.
Obliterate your never-ending to-do list and get more done in less time
Coach others on how they can improve their daily productivity, performance, and personal accountability.

2.5 hours on-demand video
1 article
1 Practice Test
7 Quizzes
Full lifetime access
Access on mobile and TV
Assignments
Certificate of Completion

*100% GUARANTEE or money back!

Remote Coaching Packages For Personal Coaching And Team Coaching Delivered By Keith Rosen Are Available!

Before this pandemic, 44% of the global companies that didn’t allow remote work are now forced to make radical changes. Managers and their teams who have been trained on how to make a successful transition to working remotely are experiencing breakthrough results, improved productivity, and a happier team. Here’s what you can do to dispel the eight myths of the remote workplace so you can leverage the power of remote coaching and make it your competitive edge.

PLAY LIKE THE PROS – COACH LIKE A LEADER – ONLINE COURSE

There’s No Going Back – Only Forward

With the massive and sudden shift around how companies, teams, and customers operate, sell, communicate and collaborate, especially when it comes to managing your team remotely, many managers question how proficient they can be at managing, motivating, coaching, connecting with, and holding their team accountable at a distance, especially if the manager has never managed a virtual team. It seems the facts support this. According to Owl Labs, only 84% of executives never worked remotely.

To compound this, unless already woven into your company’s current culture, employees who are suddenly being pushed into becoming a virtual employee have never worked remotely in their career! Here’s one reason that supports this. Before this pandemic, 44% of global companies didn’t allow remote work.

In fact, owl labs also reported that 58% of remote workers and 67% of remote managers received no training on how to work remotely.

Herein lies a massive opportunity to fill this change management gap, or you will find people feeling that their remote office is now their remote prison, disconnected from the “outside world.”

Isolation breeds negativity and costly assumptions about what’s going on “out there” or in the office. Uncertainty and the unknown breeds fear, disengagement, and a decrease in productivity.

According to Buffer’s annual report – The biggest struggle working remotely is unplugging after work, loneliness, communication, distractions, time zone differences, staying motivated, and taking vacation time.

While working remotely has many benefits, like anything else in life, there are drawbacks. Inc. found in a recent study that 47% of remote workers struggled with work-life balance. Personally, I think it’s much higher than that.

If managers aren’t coaching and consistently communicating effectively with their team, they’ll lose touch of where their people are, who they are and what their needs are to work effectively from home or wherever they choose to work remotely. That’s why I wrote this article, which is a templated coaching conversation every manager needs to have with their team, and themselves about how to create a happy, healthy lifestyle in a remote workplace.

And not only from a performance perspective, but where they are, mentally, in terms of their attitude, focus, career fulfillment, fears, concerns, health, homelife, and motivation.

If employee disengagement in the workforce is currently at 72%, imagine the exponential impact of not changing the way managers work with their team in their new virtual office space.

There’s no denying that the remote workplace is the new reality that impacts how we run our business, careers, and home.

While the frequency of having face to face conversations will continue to diminish, you can still schedule regular meetings, and coaching sessions over the telephone or, more effectively, via videoconferencing. You’ll soon find that managing and coaching a virtual team can be just – if not more effective than face to face!

The Benefits of Remote Coaching

Since 1989, and after coaching tens of thousands of managers and salespeople in 75 countries on 6 continents, at least 98% of all the one on one and team coaching I have done has been over the telephone, before video conferencing was even an option.

Not only has remote coaching via the telephone been proven to be incredibly effective but it is also highly efficient.

If delivered effectively and consistently, both individual and team coaching at a distance can save you a considerable amount of time and money, as it relates to scheduling limitations, travel restrictions and expenses, and uncertainty around how managers, teams, other departments, and their customers will be working together in this rapidly shifting and ever-evolving remote workplace.

Managers also have the opportunity to do more impromptu coaching and have check-in calls with their team, whether it’s to build accountability, reinforce a message, support them around creating a healthy and productive balance between work and home, handle a timely challenge or even to celebrate a win. This ‘just in time’ coaching can be delivered when your people need it most.

Of course, there’s the environmental benefit as well. Not to mention the reduced carbon emissions from fewer autos clogging up the morning commute. Every year, U.S. remote workers prevent 3.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere by not commuting. (Global Workplace Analytics)

Now that we’ve identified the benefits and challenges you will face when developing a remote organization, in part two of this four-part series, we will begin to shatter the first four myths of managing, building and coaching a remote team, and what you can do to thrive!

MYTH #1 – Employee Productivity Will Drop

MYTH #2 – Employee Engagement Will Decrease

MYTH #3 – You Can’t Maintain the Same Team Dynamic

MYTH #4 – Working From Home Will Make You Feel Isolated and Want to Get Back in the Office

MYTH #5 – I Can’t Observe My Team Work and Won’t Know What They’re Doing

MYTH #6 – I Don’t Speak Their Language So I Can’t Observe Them

MYTH #7 – You Can’t Set Boundaries and Create a Balanced Life Working from Home

MYTH #8 – My Team Won’t Embrace this Change

Boxers can lose a fight before they even get in the ring. So can salespeople. A sale can be lost before you even step into the selling ring. It all starts with your perception of your prospects.

Are You Destroying Your Own Sales?

Knowing the difference between Qualifying and Judging prospects is critical. And if you’re pre-judging prospects before having a conversation with them, you’ve already lost that sale before you even spoke to them. Here’s a distinction each salesperson needs to be acutely mindful whether you’re JUDGING your prospects or QUALIFYING them to ensure you’re not selling yourself out of a sale.

When You JUGE Prospects:

1. Your decision will always be based on costly assumptions and prior experiences, without asking the questions that uncover the facts, their needs and objectives, and if they’re truly a fit. This will immediately create the self-imposed objections and barriers to more sales.

You are relying on your faulty and costly assumptions, beliefs, and experiences to determine their needs and whether or not this prospect is someone who will potentially buy from you.

2. It prevents proactive, intentional listening because of the filter or barrier you have placed in your listening.

Because you’ve pre-judged them, you’ve already had the qualifying conversation in your own mind, rather than with the prospect and have formulated your own conclusion! (“They’re all the same.”)

3. Judging is all about you, and whether or not you can selfishly benefit from each sale, instead of selflessly serving others with no attachment to the outcome. Because you’re focused on your past experiences and beliefs and your personal agenda, you’re not focused on the moment but on the future outcome you want.

And if you’re focused on the future outcome you want, you’re no longer present. If you’re not present, you can’t actively listen, create new solutions, and focus on the needs of the prospect. It’s essential to be present. Only then can you make each prospect your priority and uncover how you can deliver extreme value to them. Besides, the sale is created in the PRESENT not the FUTURE.

When you QUALIFY Prospects:

1. You’re arriving at a logical conclusion whether there’s an authentic fit worth pursuing based on a defined set of criteria that identifies your ideal prospect, which you then uncover through the use of well-crafted, open-ended questions.

2. These objective, non-manipulative questions will uncover their unique and specific needs, without making any assumptions about their situation, buying process, decision-making factors, or the solutions that fit for them.

To avoid falling into the judgmental trap, keep your qualifying questions in front of your line of vision, always. Regardless of how long you’ve been selling or how successful you are at selling, this will prevent you from missing that one critical question that will prevent you from derailing the conversation with assumptions and instead, keep you on the path to winning more sales.

CURRENT ONLINE COURSES AVAILABLE

COACHING SALESPEOPLE INTO SALES CHAMPIONS –Transform From Manager To Coach To Develop a Top Performing Coaching Culture and Sales Champions

OWN YOUR DAY. – Master Time Management, Develop a Healthy, Productive Remote Workplace & Your Ideal Life.

What you’ll learn:

Develop a Hyper-Productive, Balanced Remote Workplace, Achieve Bigger Goals Faster, Excel at Your Career, and Create Your Ideal Life.
Develop your personal vision, goals, and identify your core values and priorities so you can honor them every day.
Make time your ally rather than your adversary by mastering the inner game of self-management.
Protect Your Time! Reduce your workload and save over 20 hours every week on unproductive, wasteful activities.
Identify and manage the unplanned events that distract you from your priorities, cause stress, and waste time.
Stop reacting to problems and become hyper-responsive so that you can take charge of your day.
Obliterate your never-ending to-do list and get more done in less time
Coach others on how they can improve their daily productivity, performance, and personal accountability.

2.5 hours on-demand video
1 article
1 Practice Test
7 Quizzes
Full lifetime access
Access on mobile and TV
Assignments
Certificate of Completion

*100% GUARANTEE or money back!

REMOTE COACHING PACKAGES BOTH ONE TO ONE COACHING AND TEAM COACHING DELIVERED BY KEITH ROSEN ARE AVAILABLE!

What started out as a discovery call with a prospect became a lesson in company blind spots. While many companies believe they have a healthy, coaching culture, then why is there 72% employee disengagement in the workforce, which is climbing due to this continued shift to a remote workplace? If companies aren’t honoring their vision statement and values plastered on your website and in your office, it’s time to call BS.

NEW Online Courses!

SALES LEADERSHIP – Learn How to Coach and Manage a Remote Team of Sales Champions

OWN YOUR DAY – How to Develop a Productive, Balanced Remote Workplace and Your Ideal Life

The Blind Spots Company Egos Create (The transcript)

I was about 35 minutes into a conversation with Jamie, a VP for a global technology company headquartered in New York City.

“I’m glad we’re moving forward to begin our partnership so you can develop the coaching culture you want, which all begins with making your managers transformational leaders and coaches. Let’s talk a little about the logistics so we can start the planning process.

Jamie, you initially reached out to have me deliver my sales leadership coach training course for your sales management team. Let’s align around exactly who will be attending this course. How many managers would be attending in total?”

“Thanks, Keith. Okay, if I run down the list, in the U.S. we’re broken up into 15 regions, with one senior Vice President responsible for each region. They answer directly to our Chief Sales Officer who reports to the CEO. And I want all of my front line sales managers attending this program.”

“So 15 regional VP’s, got it. Now, in each region, how many people is each VP and front line sales manager responsible for?”

“Let me do a quick headcount. Each VP has about 15 direct reports who are our front line sales managers. That’s a total of 225 front line managers in all regions combined. Then, each sales manager has a team of about 12 salespeople they’re responsible for managing. And if we include the VP’s that’s about 420 people in the sales org.”

“Thanks. If we were to move outside of the sales department for a moment, how many managers do you have in your other departments?”

“What do you mean?”

“When we were discussing your organizational structure, you mentioned the other departments that have a manager and senior leader who’s responsible for their department and goals. I’m referring to the total number of people managers you have here in the US. That includes managers in operations, marketing, finance, engineering, design, social media, accounting, procurement, inside sales, enablement, learning and development, and let me know if I’m missing any departments that may be unique to your business.”

“No, you’ve identified them all.” Jamie reflected. “But Keith, I reached out to you because I want to focus on the sales managers so they can directly impact sales by coaching their salespeople. We’re not interested in or were we planning on offering this course to anyone else in the company.

If you’re saying you want to include everyone in these departments as well, that certainly expands the size of this group, and our budget, so if we did this, I’m assuming we would break up the groups into several deliveries.

If I’m accurate plus or minus, we’re looking at about another 45 vice presidents and managers who are people managers, not sales managers. And as I initially shared with you, I only want to focus on the sales department.”

“I get that, Jamie. And we will. After all, if managers aren’t coaching, salespeople aren’t selling to their potential, and are losing sales and customer retention as a result. And we both know that sales is the engine that drives the success and growth of every business.

I’m also thinking broadly about your expectations, and your ultimate goal of creating what we’ve defined as a healthy, top-performing coaching culture. You shared with me that your current culture is similar to every other company culture; a result-driven, fear-based, metrics focused, scorecard obsessed culture driven by managers that are directive, Chief Problem Solvers who spend their days telling people what to do and doing other people’s job for them rather than coaching them, which stagnates growth and puts more work and problems on the manager’s plate that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Is this still accurate?”

“That sums it up, Keith! Now, compound this with the continued shift to a remote workforce, it seems we’re just trying to manage the daily chaos and the changes around our newly redesigned sales org. Now that our entire team is working remotely, managers need to figure out how to manage and support people to create a healthy, productive remote workplace in this environment.

But What, There’s More…

“Most important, we need to stop doing sales triage and start reinventing the way we sell, support, and service our customers so we can still drive new business while retaining existing customers. I know you said earlier doing more of what we did yesterday, isn’t getting us any closer to our goals in this new marketplace. I agree we need to reinvent how we sell so it’s aligned with how customers are now making purchasing decisions. It sounds like we also need our salespeople to learn how to coach their customers to succeed in our new world!

Right now, we’re pushing ahead to sell, while trying to figure this out as we go, especially how all departments will be collaborating and working together.

Oh, and I almost forgot about our high-potential program for up and coming sales leaders. We’ve identified those salespeople who have expressed interest in moving into a management role and have the potential and disposition to be a great leader. If we include the high potentials per region, that’s about another three people from each sales team.”

“Thanks, Jamie. Aside from all people managers, was there any discussion around whether those who you identified as high potentials take this course?”

(Pause) “I didn’t even think of that either. Probably because I thought this course is only for senior sales leaders and all front line sales managers, and our #1 priority is driving sales and revenue.”

“I can understand that. This program is a perfect fit for sales managers and all people managers. That’s why the only way to create an authentic coaching culture is when everyone is coaching each other and are speaking the same language of leadership – coaching. And that also includes your salespeople coaching your customers, their peers, and you!

With my coaching framework, while the departments, the manager/coach, and the people you’re coaching may change, the coaching framework and coaching methodology do not. It’s sort of how your company’s vision statement and core values are the foundation of your business that impacts everyone.

That’s the exciting part of my coaching model. It stays consistent in every situation, rather than over-engineering the process or thinking you need a different model for each type of manager, role, industry, or department.

It will be one company, one vision, and one universal coaching methodology and framework that all people leaders are using to complement company objectives and shared values. Most importantly, this develops a universal language around coaching that everyone is speaking and can connect with.”

The Coaching Conversation that Uncovered the Corporate Blindspot

I could sense Jamie was processing this information. “I get that, and it makes perfect sense. But here’s my concern. If we expand the group from just the front line managers to their VP’s, and also include the high potentials who are still in a sales role, and in addition, all the managers outside of the sales department, you mentioned not separating the departments but mixing them up in each delivery. So, we need to figure out how many deliveries are needed, and how to break up these audiences for each training delivery.

One concern about doing it this way is if we’re now including the sales department with the managers in other departments, it’s going to change the dynamic in the room.”

“How so?”

“You said you want to include the people who are part of our high potential program who are still salespeople. Well, the salespeople’s managers are going to be in the same room.”

“And?”

“Their manager’s manager is also going to be there.”

“And, what else?”

“If we’re including people from other departments, they won’t be able to collaborate with or even coach each other, since they all have different roles and responsibilities.

Finally, if the front line sales managers know their manager is in the room with them, and the high potentials know their manager is also in the room, people will feel intimidated, vulnerable and won’t open up or share their ideas in fear of looking bad, being wrong or revealing any weaknesses in front of everyone, especially their manager.”

“What other concerns, if any, do you have?” I asked.

“Then there’s the issue of making this relevant to each person from every department. How does that even work? I mean, how are sales, operations, and marketing taking the same course together when they all have different goals and challenges?

These challenges would change the dynamic in the room, and we need to create a safe environment of trust, collaboration, transparency, and support.

If we combine this group the way you suggest, people may want to bring up certain challenges, goals, or issues they may have with some of the people or other departments who are in the same room! Now, because they are all together, they’ll probably hold back, which is going to inhibit learning objectives.”

The Hard Cost of Company Assumptions

“I appreciate how you feel. May I ask, what assumptions you may be making regarding the limitations you feel are being placed on the room dynamic and the diluted impact the course will make with such a varied population represented in the room?”

“I guess it will not be effective, because there won’t be the trust needed in the room for people to truly open up with their goals, fears, concerns, and challenges. I’m also assuming there’s no way someone would bring up a personal challenge with someone else in the room. And if they’re not willing to do this, then nothing can be resolved or achieved.”

“What are the facts you have to support this?”

(Pause) “I guess I don’t. After all, we’ve never done anything like this!”

“Okay, so if we’re making assumptions, then what if the opposite were true?”

“This approach will break down departmental walls, assumptions of others, personal and departmental barriers, and even team silos that prevent everyone from working well together to get their job done more effectively, efficiently and without the frustration, wasted time and added stress.

And this could dramatically help strengthen the relationships we need internally, as we rely on other departments to get our jobs done, as they do with us. Plus, if everyone adopts the coaching mindset and habit, everyone knows each other’s positive intent when approaching them with questions, feedback, observations, requests, or a request for help. That in itself would be priceless, as it eliminates all the time-consuming drama in the office!”

“Thanks, Jamie. I appreciate you sharing this with me. Now that we’ve talked this through, given your concerns, can you please remind me why you reached out to me in the first place?”

“Sure, as discussed, we determined that the top initiatives, priorities, and challenges we need to work through are as follows:

Lost sales, including up-selling and cross-selling opportunities
Loss of customers to our competition
Making a successful transformation into a high-performance, remote team.
Forecast and pipeline inaccuracy
A decrease in customer retention
Departmental silos which destroy trust, collaboration, communication, relationships, and productivity
Underperformers who are consuming the managers’ time and negatively impacting sales goals
Dealing with problems that shouldn’t be there, costing managers about 25 hours each week
Reluctance from management that coaching and developing their team is their #1 priority
Higher turnover, lower retention of top producers
Our scorecard, result-driven culture breeds stress, low morale, a toxic environment, employee disengagement, strained relationships, and lost trust
Inability to scale because the manager’s direct reports are all dependent on their manager to get their job done
Failure to prepare salespeople for their next role as a sales manager and coach

“Thanks again for sharing that. Now, if you can create your ideal outcome and company culture, what would that look like?”

“A thriving, top-performing, enjoyable, accountable culture. Where all salespeople are hitting their sales goals. There’s less turnover. People come to work feeling great about their job and the work they do. People feel they’re making a difference. Everyone enjoys working and supporting each other. People come to work, knowing their goals, priorities, and values are being honored because they are also aligned with the company’s, so they can create more harmony, significance, and a healthy, balanced life while honoring business objectives.”

“That’s interesting. How does the vision of this ideal culture conflict or align with the concerns you voiced earlier around including the larger, diverse population in each program delivery and then expanding this companywide?”

“Now that I rethink this, you’re right. But we’re so wired to focus on sales, the bottom line, revenue, the cost of taking people out of their role or out of the field for two days of training, and then there’s the concern around the return on investment, and the budget available for these types of initiatives, which we then have to sell internally.”

Where I Call BS and Expose the Corporate Blindspot

“Jamie, I can appreciate the hesitancy and concerns you have about this. I have one question left to ask. Given the challenges you shared, company goals, and the objectives you want to achieve from this program, what’s going to happen if you don’t do anything and nothing changes? What’s the overall cost that will negatively impact you and the company?”

“Ouch. Yup. Nothing changes? Then we continue to struggle with what we want this course to resolve, lose sales, good people, a healthy culture, revenue, and market share. And I get to continue to stress, worry, and spend all of my time trying to figure out how to fix this, while taking time away from my family and priorities. And I also struggle with ensuring people are not only productive working remotely, but are also, designing their life in a way that balances all their priorities. Pretty much all of the things we’ve been struggling with and want to resolve, which is why I call you!

And what kind of company would we be if we didn’t honor our vision and core values, which we’re clearly not doing so today? I mean, the way we manage people does not reflect our vision and values, when all we do is push for results. No wonder why there’s so much uncertainty, fear, and distrust. We’re a bunch of hypocrites!”

“Hey, Jamie. Hold on. This isn’t a reason to be hard on you or anyone else. After all, your challenges are what all companies struggle with, which makes it difficult to see what the real solution to designing a thriving culture really is. And I say that to validate where you are now.

I appreciate your willingness to expand your point of view around this so that you can see the company and personal benefits of revamping this initiative to ensure it makes a long term impact.”

One More Corporate Blindspot to Expose

“Keith, I have one other concern. If you have everyone in the room learning the same coaching strategies, putting aside the people who will be in the same room with their peers from different departments, when the course ends, the managers are going to worry that their direct reports will know what they’re doing when coaching them.

For example, the manager’s direct reports and their peers will know when that manager is trying to coach them or enroll them around something they need to do or change. And the front-line sales managers will know when their VP’s are coaching them! And vice-versa!”

“And.”

Jamie paused. I sensed the lightbulb go on. “Ahh! This is exactly what we want and need to create! The transparency, support, universal vision, values, coaching mindset, and the trust needed for coaching to permeate throughout the organization, so everyone can best support each other and develop the habit of coaching.

Getting everyone together is the only way you can create a thriving coaching culture, rather than creating it in just one department. No wonder why this has been such a struggle. Talk about a blind spot! It sounds like we need to re-think this initiative and explore how we can include what we’ve discussed at a deeper and wider level; and how to roll this out. Let’s schedule that call now.”

Time to Choose

Managers, if want to create your ideal culture, then start modeling the values, activities, and characteristics you want to see in your people.

Take a moment to self-reflect. Now that you know the truth and what it takes to achieve cultural nirvana, does your company, leadership, and you have the commitment it takes to do what’s necessary to create the company culture you really want?

I believe many companies do. It’s just a matter of knowing exactly what it entails to achieve your company vision.

Here’s the good news. As companies begin this journey of cultural transformation, there’s one person who can start impacting immediate, positive change. The manager. You already have the power to create the coaching culture and subculture you want among your team and other departments today.

After all, you are the culture.

No PowerPoint, no videos, just open and frank discussion.

Expect an action-packed webinar filled with sales management gems, pearls, powerful insights, and stories that will help you crush your sales numbers.

Effective sales leaders can produce tremendous results. The challenge is most sales managers are too busy putting out fires as opposed to coaching and developing their salespeople.

You will learn:

The key obstacles to developing a coaching culture
How to create a coaching culture
How to overcome obstacles of finding time to coach
The formula for having impactful coaching conversations

Do you know exactly what to say in the first 30 seconds that captures someone’s attention so succinctly and effectively that they want to talk with you and are actually asking for more? If you’re like most salespeople, the answer is probably, “No.”

Managers, Learn How to Coach and Manage a Remote Team and Win More Sales. Online Course – On Sale Now.

If you’re attempting to prospect without sharing the measurable, intoxicating end results of what you’re selling that builds an impenetrable case around why a prospect needs to listen to you within the first 30 seconds of a call, then it’s no wonder why you’re finding prospecting to be such a challenging and frustrating experience.

The Global Selling Conundrum

It’s not a surprise that most salespeople don’t get past the first 30 seconds of an initial prospecting conversation before the prospect cuts you off and says, “Not interested,” or you hear “Click.”

To avoid this permanently, take the time to develop your compelling reasons which are sure to lead to more valuable conversations and more sales.

Develop Your Compelling Reasons That Stimulate Interest

One question that every salesperson wrestles with answering is, “How can I get a prospect interested enough to want to listen to and talk to me, let alone do business with me?”

The answer is simple; give them a compelling reason to do so.

The word compelling is synonymous with “convincing, persuasive, undeniable, and gripping.” When selling, are you providing your prospects with enough of a compelling reason during the first thirty seconds of your conversation for them to want to speak with you?

The primary objective of a compelling reason is to stimulate a NEW interest and possibility in your prospect’s thinking that will open up a conversation, in a creative and captivating way.

After all, you don’t want to sound like every other salesperson calling on the same prospects and saying the exact same thing.

What Do You Think You’re Selling?

What is it that you are actually selling? Many salespeople immediately think about the product or service they provide. If you’re selling technology solutions, 3D printing, insurance, advertising, cloud computing, social media marketing, videoconferencing, online training, financial, advisory or legal services, consumer goods, or widgets, consider this universal sales truth.

Your prospect isn’t interested in your actual product or service, but what it will ultimately do for them.

If you think that telling a prospect about what you sell and how it can help them is enough to stimulate interest and spark a stimulating conversation, think again. Your product or service is not what you are selling or what the prospect is buying.

A prospect buys what your product or service will ultimately do for them and the benefits they will realize.

How to Develop Mind-Blowing Compelling Reasons

If you are trying to grab a prospect’s attention, your compelling reasons will not include:

Your product or service.
Features of your product or service.
Strategies on how to achieve the desired end result. (The “how, the implementation, etc.”)
Unsubstantiated or lofty claims and guarantees.

You may be asking, “Keith, then what does it include?”

When developing your compelling reasons, follow these five guidelines and you’ll be able to develop your secret sales weapon that will become your competitive edge.

Five Guidelines to Developing Your Captivating Compelling Reasons

1. Include the End Result of the Benefit

Your compelling reasons include the benefit of the benefit’s benefit. What does that mean?

You know you have developed an effective compelling reason when you’re able to break it down to the specific results that the prospect will experience and most importantly, visualize and connect with.

14% of people make purchasing decisions based on prior knowledge and experience. 86% of people make purchasing decisions based on future expectations.

When making an initial cold call, you have seconds to grab the attention of the person you are calling on. You simply don’t have the time to discuss your product or service, especially features and benefits. You will have the opportunity to discuss your solutions later on in that conversation or throughout your sales process; after you’ve set an appointment or confirmed interest.

2. Your Compelling Reason Must Pass the “So What” Test

Building off number one, you know you’ve uncovered the end result of the benefit when the compelling reason can pass the “So what?” test.

For example, Jill, a client of mine, sells an automation platform for managing compliance and administrative tasks. When I asked her to list the benefits of her service, she responded with the following statement. “We have an online reporting system that automates your administrative tasks. My response, “So what?”

The benefit Jill shared with me was, “Automates your administrative tasks.” Well, we’re getting closer but this still doesn’t pass the “so what” test. Let’s peel away a few more layers to uncover the end result of this benefit. While we’re doing so, notice the questions I ask Jill and the creative process she goes through to finally develop a powerful, compelling reason.

I asked Jill to tell me what the advantage was to automating administrative tasks. She told me that by doing so, her clients can streamline their operations while ensuring they remain compliant.

I challenged her again by asking her to share with me what the end result would be if her clients were able to streamline their operations and become efficient. “They would be able to save a tremendous amount of time and money while reducing exposure to risk,” she said.

After several more revisions, here’s what Jill and I came up with. “We can help you eliminate three hours of your daily workload while reducing administrative overhead by 34%.

Now, this passes the “so what” test, since it demonstrates the measurable, end result of the benefit that the prospect will realize. This is certainly compelling enough to grab their attention within the first 30 seconds of the conversation.

If we were to break this process down, here’s what it looks like:

Feature: An online reporting platform for managing compliance and administrative tasks.

Benefit: Automates your administrative duties, while remaining compliant and reducing risk.

The Compelling Reason (The specific end results the prospect will realize):

Eliminate three hours of your daily workload while reducing administrative overhead by 34%.

Notice Jill’s compelling reason – the end result of the benefit, didn’t talk about her product, what she sells or what it even does that would enable her prospects to achieve this end result. When you have seconds to grab someone’s interest, the prospect will always care more about the end result of your product, rather than your product, it’s features or the strategy to achieve the end result.

You know you’ve created a powerful compelling reason when your prospects respond with a question that sounds like, “How are you going to do that?”

3. Speak to Their Ear (Make It Personal)

It’s one thing to tout the intoxicating benefits of your product that the company, as a whole would want to realize. However, if you’re speaking to someone in marketing, they may not do backflips when you tell them that your product or service will streamline logistics, reduce redundancies, ensure compliance and cut overhead.

As important as this may be, it may be falling upon uninterested ears. That’s why you need to create at least five to seven unique compelling reasons you can use, depending upon the scenario and the person.

People buy based on their reasons, not yours.

4. Include Testimonials and Measurable Results

The more you can offer and demonstrate measurable results that other customers have realized, the more of an impact it will have. This makes the process personal and humanizes the selling experience.

In addition, as you can see in the prior example, the most effective compelling reasons are those you can quantify. Use statistics, facts, percentages, numbers, or testimonials that make your offering more enticing to them.

Tip from the Coach: Be careful when using testimonials. Not only do you need to get permission from the client before using their name but be mindful of sharing them with the prospects who want to hear them.

5. Identify Their Greatest Pain

Unfortunately, people are still driven to avoid potential consequences or eliminate problems rather than create or take advantage of a benefit. After all, aside from scheduling a complete physical, we typically don’t go to the doctor when we’re feeling healthy.

What is the personal pain that you will solve if they utilize your product or service? What are their main problems, personal stresses, or triggers of anxiety that they experience in their job that you can eliminate?

Once you share with great precision each prospect’s greatest personal and organizational pains, it also demonstrates that you’ve done your research, know their industry and are putting them first. This will foster a deeper connection with every prospect you speak with. As a result, they are more willing and ready to resolve it.

Take Your Compelling Reasons for a Test Drive

At this point, you may be thinking, “How will I know if my compelling reasons are, in fact, compelling enough?”

They don’t have to be “perfect” to start. Besides, you have to use them in order to continually refine them into something better. Just get out there and start using them. You’ll be refining them the more you use them.

In addition, these compelling reasons will also be leveraged in every communication platform when engaging with your prospects and customers. That also includes weaving them into your prospecting emails, voice mails, social media, marketing, and presentations.

Keep in mind, every compelling reason is not going to include a measurable result, testimonial, personal benefit, and greatest pain. That’s why you have the opportunity to create several different ones that you can leverage throughout your prospecting strategy.

Developing your top compelling reasons why a prospect needs to speak with you provides a unique opportunity for you to reconnect with your product and service in a new, refreshing and empowering way.

By innovating, reinventing and repositioning what you sell, you and your customers will uncover additional and often untapped benefits that your prospects and customers can connect with on a deeper level which they were never able to do before.

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What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear your comments. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and connect anytime, as I want to be a resource for you. I’ve also opened up my personal one on one coaching practice for those who need a coach the most during these challenging times.

As sales teams rapidly reinvent themselves, their skills, activities and the way they sell, the real transformation needed to achieve your goals starts with not just changing, but expanding your thinking. There’s always more than one perception. Here are eight paradoxes that will widen your peripheral view around how the top sales gurus think around selling, cold calling and prospecting for new business to win more sales in a volatile, uncertain marketplace.

Managers, Learn How to Coach and Manage a Remote Team. Online Course.

Embrace Dualities and Surrender EITHER-OR Thinking

Beliefs precede experience. How you think is what you get. What you focus on grows.

These are some of the mantras I share with my clients when it comes to attracting or creating what they want most in their life, to focus on what they DO want, not what they don’t.

Therefore, the most effective way to evolve, achieve what matters most to you, and become who you want to always start with the way you think, about yourself, life and the experiences throughout your life.

Most people are “either-or” thinkers. That is, it’s either one way/truth or the other. What if you can embrace more than one way of thinking, mindset or belief, simultaneously, even if they’re seemingly opposite or contradictory?

There are many things and processes that are right or wrong, good or bad, and have a right and wrong way to do it, whether it’s around the law, safety, education, parenting, policy or compliance. However, when it comes to coaching, managing and selling, there is often no black or white, right or wrong, good or bad, better or worse.

In fact, two conflicting or opposite believes can co-exist at the same time.

Here are eight of the top paradoxes of prospecting that make prospecting even more challenging, while simultaneously making your prospecting efforts easier and more effective than ever. (Another paradox!)

Once you embrace these paradoxes, you’ll notice how these contradictions will provide you with a more creative, innovative mindset and a new competitive edge. This an expansion around your line of thinking is something that no other marketing piece, feature or benefit of your product or service could achieve. A champion mindset that wins more sales.

The Eight Paradoxes of Prospecting

1. You want the sale (appointment, demo) but you must detach from the outcome and have no expectation since the sale is not the initial goal of prospecting.

2. You want the prospect to say “Yes” to take the next step in your sales process but you have to qualify them first to see if there’s even a fit worth pursuing.

3. You want the prospect to buy from you but must learn to give value unconditionally, whether or not they buy or meet with you.

4. You want to deliver and push through your presentation but you must get the prospect’s permission even before you present.

5. You need to keep your eye on your objective while staying in the present moment during every prospecting conversation.

6. You want to make more money and achieve greater success in your career but you have to make the sales process about the prospect, instead of you, in order to do so.

7. You want to sell to each prospect you speak with but need to qualify them to see if you even want them as a customer. (Remember, if you want to build a business or career you hate, just find the people to work with who you just can’t stand.)

8. You want to lead with solutions, your presentation, solution, and your answers, but you need to lead every conversation with questions to best seek to understand every prospect’s point of view, needs and objectives.

Let’s face it. We know that the ultimate objective of your prospecting efforts is to sell more, drive revenue, serve your customers deeply, achieve business and career goals, and boost your income.

However, to achieve this, it goes beyond your activity, skill development, and technology. The real transformation in performance and success begins with widening your thinking for the better by expanding your peripheral view around what can be possible when you think outside of the self-imposed limited way of thinking what can or can’t be done.

If you can embrace the dualities of these paradoxes, you now have the opportunity to respond to each prospect in a healthier, more innovative, creative and enjoyable way.

What do you think?

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