Top 10 – Evaluating Your Team

What do you look for in the people who report to you? Have you really sat down and put it on paper? It will help you understand the individual members of your team and formulate your plan for success. I tend to put a matrix together for what I look for (see my prior post on the subject). Here are 10 things to look for that can help any new manager know they have a winner:

1.) Experienced and competent

2.) Good communicator

3.) Trustworthy

4.) Focused and flexible

5.) Able to build relationships internally and externally

6.) Good attitude

7.) Highly energetic

8.) Reliable

9.) Shows good judgment

10.) Shows grace under fire

Effective Leaders

I’m getting asked for more Top 10s – so here’s another:

 

TOP 10 SIGNS OF A GOOD LEADER:

1.) Able to build strong relationships internally and externally

2.) Communicates realistic goals, gets commitment

3.) Takes charge, is prudent and makes decisions in a timely manner

4.) Available when needed

5.) Good listener

6.) Good communicator

7.) Strategic, able to identify opportunities and act on them

8.) Focused but open

9.) Knows how to leverage diverse groups of people/skills

10.) Realistic about what is achievable and knows how to obtain excellent results

 

Fear In Techland – Sales troubles ahead?

I’m hearing that many technology sales people are complaining that deals that were suppose to get done are being postponed and that prospects are fearing the loss of jobs. If this is true, we only have to look at history to know what to do. This is the time when products/services that don’t save or make a company money will not sell. Fluff or me too just won’t cut it. Sales people who have not learned to really sell in bad times won’t be successful.

Absolute have to do’s in a down market:

1.) Fully understand your products/services

2.) Spend the time to fully research the target company and contact before calling on them, and then spend more time researching before your first meeting.

3.) Ask the right questions of your prospect and listen for their answers. Don’t think you know it all.

4.) If you don’t know how to cold call you had better learn (this is for those folk who’ve never had to do it or never became good at it. In a down market many companies cut cost by getting rid of the people who where garnering leads for salespeople. Keep your pipeline full of QUALIFIED prospects

5.) Know your competition well

6.) Know how to overcome objections in advance of any meetings (practice, practice, practice overcoming all the known objections)

7.) Develop a strategy for each account – don’t do the same thing every time.

8.) Keep up your education about sales, trends in your industry, competition and what your company is doing

9.) Work closely with marketing to come up with ways to target more/new prospects

10.) Increase the amount of networking events you attend. Do in-person and online. Know about social media and Web 2.0 tactics

You might be saying to yourself at this point that sales people should be doing these things all the time in both up and down markets and your right, the difference being that those that have been doing these things all along are the one’s that are keepers if things get bad.

Difference between Sales & Marketing

Frequently people will use sales and marketing as meaning the same thing.  I’m often asked to explain the difference and I’ll offer this description that a friend of mine gave me years ago; he said “They are two sides of the same coin. They are distinct, but one does not exist without the other.  Sales backs up marketing, marketing backs up sales. Sales fronts for Marketing and the two have to work together.  Each side has its unique needs and requirements and its unique contributions.  Each side has to be cognizant of each other, as intimately as two sides of the same coin.  But each side has its own identity as well”.

Within both professions there’s a tendency for these professionals to get frustrated with their colleagues because they often don’t understand one another and because of misunderstood expectations. 

Marketing and Sales must make an effort to work together and have an appreciation for what each other does. I’ve found that the most successful people are those that have an understanding of both professions and what they do.  It certainly helps if you’ve have one or the other discipline in your background.  It also helps to have management create an environment that encourages cross communication.  Sales should get to know what the major components of marketing are and marketing should so the same.  In addition, I’m all for marketing going out on sales calls to get to know what the customer has to say.  Both sales and marketing should meet frequently to understand the issues at hand.

 

Quick Tip

I’m starting out 2008 with a little tip for you. As a sales professional you may from time to time in your career take visitors to your place of business. Those visitors may include prospective clients, existing clients, partners, potential alliances or prospective employees. It is important that you make the visitors comfortable but it is also important that you acknowledge your co-workers . Know who they are, what they do and something about them that you can share with the visitor. Not only will this make an impression on the visitor but your co-workers will be delighted that you acknowledged them and that you took time to learn about them If you’re sincere, you will be successful. I garnered this tip from a book titled “How to become CEO”. It really works!