Step Up Results

Let’s face it, SELLING IS DEAD, BUT VALUE CREATION IS VERY MUCH ALIVE! Allow me to share tips on how to get more business by creating more client value by explaining the difference between a top performing sales coach and an average performing sales coach. You guessed it…

•Mindset– Top-performing coaches understand that coaching is about thought partnership, not dictatorship. The classic average-performing coach or sales manager is more of a dictator. This is the way it will be done; more of a manager. Top-performing coaches understand that the name of the game is thought partnership or leadership.

1. A good coach is a good thought partner. They help their sales team to think of new ideas on how to create client value.
2. They give them a better understanding on how to drive client value.
3. Top-performing coaches give their sales reps access to their rolodex, people inside the company, data, reports. Maybe it’s not people, maybe its information.

Are you a top-performing coach or an average-performing coach?
Here’s the reality about results. We’re all coaches. Given that coaching is about thought partnership, someone can be your coach if you report into them northbound. East-west could be a peer that’s in your group or could be someone that reports into you. Coaching – thought partnership.

•Skillset– The skillset of top-performing coaches is this — they create a coaching culture that creates an environment where team think comes alive.

What’s team think?
Well, the framework is the team that thinks the best is the team that wins the most. In today’s market condition it’s about thought leadership and top-performing coaches are creating time so that teams can get together and brainstorm about how to drive more client value.

Most organizations have a business plan on how to grow business by 10 to 20%, but they don’t have a value creation plan on how to create 10 to 20% more client value. Top-performing coaches do the latter. They have their team focused in on a value creation plan, using team think as the basis for doing that.

Are you a top performer or an average-performing coach?
It’s time to STEP UP! Your competition is, the question is, will you?

Click here to get a free tool kit!   http://www.stepuptoolkit.com

http://www.danielgrissom.com

Let’s face it, SELLING IS DEAD, BUT VALUE CREATION IS VERY MUCH ALIVE! Here’s your tip on how to get more business by creating more client value by explaining the difference between a top performer and an average performer. There are two main ways to do this.

 Mindset and skillset

 Mindset– Instead of selling, top performers have a mindset of creating client value. Now, get this right. They understand the name of the game is selling, but they also understand that the market is tough and that you can’t get more business unless you create more value.

Value creation is the talk track, is the mindset of a top performer. Average performers are thinking sales. Top performers are thinking value creation. Which side of the equation are you on, top or average? Which side of the equation do you want to be on?

Skillset– You see the mindset about creating client value and being positioned as a trusted advisor leads to skillset.

PLAN– DO– REVIEW

→    Slow down to speed up, and

→    Do a post-call review

Top performers versus average performers are utilizing plan, do, review. They’re planning a clear call objective. They’re asking themselves, how can I create more client value?

Whether it’s a small transactional sale or a big consultative sale, they know that that question gets them client centered versus seller centered and on the call they’re asking the client a number of questions. They understand that the quality of the call is consistent with the quality of the questions that they ask or fail to ask.

Then during the review stage, the follow-up stage, they know that the fortune is in the follow up, so they follow up with their clients with an email summary. They also slow down to break down the game footage of their own performance to see where they could improve.

How about you? Plan, do, review or are you heavy on the do, do, do? Top versus average performers – mindset; skillset.

It’s time to STEP UP to create client value.

Let’s face it, SELLING IS DEAD, BUT VALUE CREATION IS VERY MUCH ALIVE! Let me share some concrete examples with you on how to get more business by creating greater client value. There are two main ways to do this.

Mindset and skillset

Two building blocks for sales and presentation excellence…

• Mindset– is that you want to be preparing, whether it’s a face-to-face one-on-one call where you’re speaking to a large group or delivering during lunch. You want to prepare for a conversation, not a presentation; a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s the first place to start in terms of improving sales presentation.

• Skillset– is the key to turning a presentation into a conversation. Average-performing presenters plan what to say. Top-performing presenters plan what to ask.

Questions transform a presentation into a conversation. Questions pull; statements push. You want to put a little pull into your push. So next time you’re planning a presentation, one on one or to a small group, plan not just what to say, plan what to ask. Think conversation, not presentation.

STEP UP!, the market has. The question is, will you?

Click here to get free toolkit – http://www.stepuptoolkit.com.

Daniel Grissom-

Setting higher standards without holding people accountable may be worse than not setting a higher standard at all. That’s because if you don’t actively measure performance and hold people accountable, you are saying  to them that the higher standard is not important, that it really doesn’t make a difference. 

If a manager is fearful of or doesn’t agree with the goals set down for him by his superiors, he may set and communicate standards for his team in a way that tells them he is merely following instructions from above. He may in fact unconsciously hope that his subordinate’s performance falls short, which then reinforces his belief that the goals were inappropriate to begin with. When a manager does not show full commitment to standards, the results are the same as setting standards and not following up. Either way you’re telling people higher standards aren’t important.

 ”Leadership is not holding another person to your standards; that’s management. Leadership is getting another person to create extraordinary standards for themselves.” -TONY ROBBINS

Excerpt from Step Up!  How to WIN MORE and Lose Less © 2008 Daniel Grissom. All rights reserved.

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Perfection is our goal, but excellence will be tolerated. -Vince Lombardi

 Daniel Grissom - Let’s take a look at a few additional examples of individuals and organizations that have consistently raised the bar on results. Consider modeling their standards and passion of excellence.

Michael Jordan – On the basketball court, his personal standards and commitment to excellence were the basis for his superior results. Think about it. He first came to our attention with the game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship game for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He entered the NBA in 1984 after being named an All-American twice and leading the 1984 U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal. Jordan entered the NBA as the 3rd pick in the draft that year and was chosen by the Chicago Bulls, who were the league’s perennial losers.

As a rookie, he averaged 28 points per game. That’s the result of someone who believes in raising the bar, and it was still rising.  He went on to seven consecutive scoring titles, slam-dunk championships, MVP performances and finally three consecutive world championships and a starring spot on the 1992 Olympic Dream Team.

 Those were his personal results, but what about the team results? With Jordan leading his teammates, the Bulls advanced from worst to first in a few short years.  How’d they do that? It began with Jordan continually raising his personal standards. In doing so, he raised the standards of his teammates. Jordan’s self-driven quest for results had a multiplier effect on his performance and his teammates. It was his commitment to excellence that transformed his team and gave them six NBA championships.

 Consider the comments from Jordan’s coach for most his career, Phil Jackson, who said:

“The thing about Michael is he takes nothing for granted. When he first came into the league in 1984, he was primarily a penetrator. His outside shooting wasn’t up to professional standards. So he put in his gym time in the off-seasons, shooting hundreds of shots each day. Eventually, he became a deadly three-point shooter.”

 As the corporate or entrepreneurial tri-athlete, what aspects of your professional game should you work on?

Excerpt from Step Up!  How to WIN MORE and Lose Less  © 2008 Daniel Grissom. All rights reserved.

www.danielgrissom.com www.stepupresults.com www.stepuptoolkit.com

The future has several names. For the weak it is impossible. For the fainthearted, it is unknown. For the thoughtful and valiant, it is ideal.  —Victor Hugo

 Daniel Grissom – We live in a rapidly changing world of increased commoditization and decreased differentiation. What was “good enough” yesterday is considered “unacceptable” today. Business success today, and in the future, is achieved by those who not only anticipate the market shifts and trends, but who are able to re-evaluate, re-focus and re-engineer themselves.

Through my work and evaluation of some of the most successful companies in the world, I have identified three key market forces that are significantly impacting individual performance and organizational results. The intersections of these challenges are driving leaders at all levels to re-think the way they do business and STEP UP to the next level.

These market trends are:

1. Radical Change  2. Increased Commoditization  3. Hiring Top Talent

 Now what will you do?

www.stepuptoolkit.com and   www.DanielGrissom.com

You hear me reference it all the time, but what exactly does STEP UP stands for anyway:

• Standards
• Talents
• Evaluations
• Preparation
• Unleash Potential

It’s an acronym that identifies 6 steps that make 80% of the difference in the achievement of superior results.                      

                                                          6) Invest in Coaching

                                                5) Unleash Your Potential

                                         4) Proper Preparation

                                   3) Consistent Self Evaluation

                               2) Identify Your Talents

                         1) Raise Your Standards        

                 6  STEPS   = 80 % of the Difference

Knowing how to STEPUP is important, but actually stepping up is invaluable! The market has STEPPED UP -have you?

www.stepuptoolkit.com and   www.DanielGrissom.com

Do you have regular meaningful contact with your employees?

More often than not, companies do a much better job at maintaining relationships with customers and not such a great job maintaining meaningful relationships with their own employees.  Yet both are critically important.

We forget sometimes that every employee is a marketer, that every employee speaks for the company, that your own employees represent your first line of positive (or negative) word-of-mouth public relations.  This is especially true for employees who are in regular contact with customers, but it is true for all employees.  Why?  Because you never know who that employee is going to talk to.  It could be a customer, competitor or reporter.

The challenge is, it is in your best interest to ensure all employees feel good about your products and services and know how to deliver positive messages.  The best way to do that is to ensure regular and meaningful contact with employees, similar to what you do (or should be doing) with your customers.  Teach them what to say about you, and make sure you live up to it.

What will you do to ensure you have regular meaningful contact with employees?

Do you take full responsibility for all parts of the process, including the tasks that are completed by other people?

 Long-term relationships and customer loyalty are directly related to personal accountability.  We give greater trust to people who take ownership and demonstrate personal accountability.  Trust, as we’ve discovered, is a key element of excellence in customer relationships.  And without good relationships, you cannot achieve maximum results.  The challenge is, you need to take ownership of each step along that path. 

It’s really easy to say, “it’s not my job,” and to assume your job ends with the sale.  But it doesn’t.  The customer doesn’t see the handoff or organizational boundaries or the distinctions between sales, fulfillment and service.  You are the first person the customer comes into contact with and builds a relationship with.  When you take responsibility and show yourself as personally accountable, you separate yourself from the competition, and help to solidify a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship. 

How can you demonstrate 100% accountability?

Do you really listen or are you concentrating on what you’re going to say next?

To really listen means you’re don’t focus on what you’re going to say next.  Rather, you focus on the customer and what he is saying.

This is valuable to the customer because it shows you are concerned about his well-being.  It’s also a vital part of building rapport and trust.

Listening is difficult for many of us because we are often so eager to tell the customer all about our wonderful product or service.  We want so much to make sure we say the right thing at the right time that we can’t help but work on our spiel in our heads while the other person is talking.  Often, it’s too late before we realize that we don’t have a clue what the other person just said.  He handed us the keys to the kingdom and we didn’t realize it.

Here are some guidelines for effective listening:

1. Quiet inner chatter.
2. Focus on the other person (focus outward on them rather than inward on you).
3. Let the other person talk without interrupting him.
4. Leave “space” in your conversation.  When the person comes to the end of a statement, pause for a few seconds before responding.
5. Listen for the story.
6. Probe for clarification.
7. Reflect.
8. Summarize.
9. Validate or reflect back their feelings and statements.
10. Refrain from giving advice or opinion or trying to solve the problem.

Identify 2 areas of focus for improving your listening skills.  How will you practice these new skills?