Fantastic feedback for Mike Carr’s session on Advanced Presentation Skills with three experienced sales people. Mike is such an experienced expert in the field of “persuasive presentations” that he is able to coach higher impact presentations for everyone he works with. Contact us to find out what he can do for you.
A fantastic Customer Centric program written for CHEP to deliver in-house to all their sites in NZ. We had a great 2 days training the customer centric champions how to deliver the training and they left that workshop thoroughly prepared and looking forward to their first training sessions. The combined participants feedback report and the trainer’s evaluation of the participants evoked this response:
“Wow what a valuable report, thank you for pulling this together for us. Thanks again for everything. You and your team are magnificent and I have loved every minute of working together.” – Customer Services Manager, CHEP
See the full feedback report here:
Earlier this month Becky Carr facilitated an Advanced Sales Skill workshop for the sales team of a medical company with a diverse range of skills and experience. This can often be challenging to keep all participants engaged when some are more experienced than others, however, the feedback showed that where skills were already in existence it was a great refresher and helped to reinforce their knowledge base. The lesser experienced participants found it a great confidence building exercise with the opportunity to develop their sales call structure. The key areas that everyone found valuable were developing “needs” questions relevant to their industry and the DISC personality styles, a great tool for communicating better with customers.
From the Sales Team:
“A very good refresher on sales and on sales techniques – Becky was fantastic and held everyone’s attention”
“Well structured, excellent examples to implement into relevant industry”
“Delivered very well, kept everyone engaged throughout the full days training. Excellent statement of intent too”
From the Sales Manager:
“It was definitely worthwhile and I am eager to continue with some more training in the future”
Read the full report here:
Rated in the top 10 most viewed TED talks in history, Simon Sinek’s ground breaking talk explains how we inspire action. People don’t care what you do, unless they know why!
Sinek refers to the success of Apple. Apple have been selling computer products for decades now and we all know and trust the brand. Their competitors are just as capable at develop- ing the innovative and beautiful products that Apple produce and yet many people always buy Apple. So why is it that when we look at Apple, a computer company that sells us phones, computers, mp3s and much more, we see a company to put our trust in regardless of whether they’re selling something they specialize in or not. Could you image buying a mp3 player from Dell? No! Apple? Of course!
The reasoning behind this is fairly simple. When you look at the greats throughout history, including the great businesses of today, you can see a similarity in the way they sell themselves. Most of us will promote ourselves in that classic way – we tell you what we’re good at and why we’re good at it. It gives all the information we need and it should entice you into buying from us, hiring us or just following us depending on what you’re selling. But it’s nowhere near as effective as using the golden circle.
The golden circle is what major successes throughout history have used to sell themselves. Whether it’s selling products or beliefs, there’s a similarity in the way the biggest names have talked to us. It has less to do with what they’re selling and everything to do with why. People are interested in why you do things not what you do! Sure, we won’t buy something from you just because we like the why,( unless we need it), but we do invest ourselves into things that we believe in a lot more. Taking this back to Apple, they tell us all about the innovation, what they’re aiming for, where they’re going and what they hope to see in the future. It sounds so promising and futuristic and we all love that – we all buy it on a huge scale!
The greatest leaders throughout history, whether they have been politicians, human rights activists or businesspeople have all had one thing in common, they have used their platform to inspire those around them by telling us “the why”, not “the how”. It’s not all about money and votes, it’s about giving people the power to think for themselves and know that they’re with likeminded people. Leaders and inspiration are two things that are easy to come by but rarely combined, it is the combination that truly makes a difference to the mindset of people in general.
Whether you’re the CEO of an international corporation, the owner of a small business or manager of a team, you will know that productivity depends upon your employee’s motivation and positivity. If only we could keep them motivated daily. While each employee is different, one Harvard University study found that positive feedback does wonders in the workplace. The study found that each employee, on average, needs to have six positive pieces of feedback for one negative piece of feedback received.
The average ratio for the highest-performing teams was 5.6 (that is, nearly six positive comments for every negative one). The medium-performance teams averaged 1.9 (almost twice as many positive comments than negative ones.) But the average for the low-performing teams, at 0.36 to 1, was almost three negative comments for every positive one.
The Asset-Based Thinking 5:1 Praise to Constructive Feedback Principle gives you a guideline for giving feedback to your employees, consistently and across the board.
How can you achieve this?
This process takes a couple of minutes of your day and means the world to employees. By focusing on the behavior you do want in your team, it lifts the standard in a positive manner.
A little constructive feedback is an essential part of the mix of course. It focusses people on what needs to change – showing it is not going unnoticed and that you are not willing to be complacent in your standards. This feedback needs to be in private, one on one and be objective not personal. Focus on facts and outcomes and ask them how they can do something differently in the future.
When they make a change, remember to praise them! Get that balance of 5:1.
Whether you are sitting down with an employee in your office for an annual review or are working in a collaborative team environment, practice the 5:1 Praise to Constructive Feedback Principle. Each employee is different, with various strengths and weaknesses. While it could be challenging to keep the feedback mostly positive, employing this tactic will help employees retain their engagement with your company, leading to loyalty, motivation and increased job performance.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be once I knew what to do.”
This is a real quote from a participant in a recent NZQA sales certificate workshop we are facilitating. What inspired the sentiment? Learning how to prospect.
Sales prospecting refers to the process of seeking leads, which are people or clients that lead to sales. This can be done using a variety of methods: emails, phone calls, social media connections, in person meetings. Prospecting doesn’t just involve unearthing new clients, but it can also mean re-establishing connections with old leads.The benefits of sales prospecting are apparent, yet many companies have yet to hire individuals specifically for this position.A good sales prospector is able to supply his/her company with a reliable, consistent flow of new leads and clients. As a result, higher-ranking employees are able to focus on account development instead of salesmanship, which drives the institution forward. Many times, these folks can seal the deal begun by the sales prospector.
Sales prospecting may seem like an unfamiliar term, but almost everyone who works in sales probably understands the meaning. It’s common for people in sales to be required to seek at least some new business. The tricky part is that a lot of salespeople just don’t like it or don’t know how to approach it. Reaching out to potential clients can be stressful and comes with a certain amount of pressure. However, it’s often the most challenging aspects of a job that are the most rewarding. A salesperson who is good at prospecting will never be out of a job.
So what’s the good news for salespeople and their managers? Effective prospecting is trainable!
Prospecting is a process that, done consistently, provides results. Here are 10 guidelines:
https://www.amazon.com/Raised-Myself-Failure-Success-Selling/dp/067179437X
This book originally written in 1949 is a timeless classic that is a must read for every sales manager or incentive driven sales person. It is a great resource when setting up sales teams to use CRM and get their buy-in on how activity tracking can enhance their results.
The book shares an inspirational story of how the author was going to give up his sales role selling insurance. Then he turned it all around by tracking his sales activity numbers. He soon saw a pattern in his activity and adjusted his approach feeling empowered once he knew what created his success. He then went on to be selected for the Million Dollar Round table club to be one of the industry greats.
Recruitment costs can be very high – time, money, lost productivity, stress on the manager and the team who have to pick up the slack. Yes, but it’s also an opportunity.
Done well recruitment can bring in high calibre employees with a fresh outlook, new ideas and can lift the motivation of the existing team. The key is recruiting the right candidate for the role and on-boarding them well.
One of the major causes of indecision and bet-hedging during the hiring process relates to ‘fit’. You may have identified a candidate that you think is technically competent. Your worry is that they won’t sit well within the team dynamic.
How, then, to sort the wheat from the chaff? You know the damage waiting around and leaving a position vacant could do, but the risks of hiring the wrong person can weigh heavily on your shoulders.
A powerful tool is Extended DISC profiling. Extended DISC profiling can reveal all kinds of insights about how a potential employee can fit into your team. What does this mean? A person’s score along each of these four dimensions can give a great indication of how they’ll operate in a team.
They might fit in similar mapped area to other employees – meaning communication will be similar, thinking and action of tasks will be similar. If they are mapped very differently – perhaps a “lone wolf” then the way they go about communication and tasks could be very different to the rest of the team so people might need to be prepared for that. How can this person be supported if they are out in a limb. They might do and think things through far faster than the rest of the team and therefore get bored or lose focus quickly if not kept on track while the others process the same information. Or they might be more introverted and express or offer their opinions less and may be seen as quite reserved when actually they just need a window of opportunity to talk.
For a leader it can show what support they might need to give the candidate in areas of the job that might not have as ‘natural fit’ with behaviours to fulfill an expected task. It also shows a leader where the candidate’s strengths might sit so they can utilise and therefore motivate them better. Importantly, it helps a leader see how this new person might like to be led – do they like to connect with their leader regularly or work autonomously.
For the team, Extended DISC can show gaps in the makeup of a team. Should you be recruiting someone from an area of the map that you don’t currently have in your team? For example is your sales team lacking a “hunter”? Do you actually need those behaviours in your team? If so, is it best to recruit a “hunter” or is it reasonable to think you can train an existing member to “hunt”? By knowing what you need, you can use Extended DISC to evaluate your objections more objectively.
A reliable objective tool can help make recruitment, selection and development decision in a more cost effective manner.
With a tool like Extended DISC, the real advantage is that you can stop guessing what’s under the surface at interview and start making informed decisions. You can spend less on agency fees (often up to 25% on a new employee’s annual salary, depending on their seniority level) and reinvest those savings into your business. More importantly, you can hire with confidence, deliver a great hiring experience to your new employee and know ahead of time what to expect when they show up for work.
Becky Carr is a Master Trainer and Consultant in Extended DISC. Contact Becky at bcarr@proformance.nz
Performance Reviews can be a daunting task even for experienced managers. Giving constructive and positive feedback to employees is a skill that not all managers have. The YMCA recognise the need to support their Centre Managers during this process and asked ProFormance to facilitate a Performance Review workshop. Tanya Mogg, who has facilitated many workshops already for the YMCA, delivered the training which was really valued by all the participants.
We are pleased to introduce Mike Carr and daughter Becky Carr who have recently joined our our team. Both are master trainers in Extended DISC behavioural assessment and psychometric profiling and also bring a wealth of experience in sales and marketing. We have already provided a number of HR profiling reports as part of our recruitment services and have commenced in house workshops for sales teams enabling them to understand their customer’s personality types and how to sell more effectively to the different styles. See below the latest feedback report for one such workshop:
Contact us now for details about in-house workshops or for individual assessments.
