http://www.fastcompany.com/3002324/how-successful-companies-sustain-innovation
Innovation is widely regarded as the single most important ingredient
in today’s economy. But innovation as a destination isn’t enough.
Sustained innovation is a high-productivity state in which an
organization strives to innovate in all aspects of its business,
including management, divisions, operations, customers, and suppliers.
It requires a seamless, structured management approach that begins with
board- and CEO-level leadership and connects all the way through
technology investment and implementation. Above all, sustained
innovation is a journey, not a destination. The enterprise doesn’t stop
innovating after attaining one goal; it’s engaged in a continual process
of reinvention, invention, and discovery.
Consider the following three examples:
• The one-hit wonder: The smartphone market is
red-hot, with Apple and Samsung engaged in the most fierce race for
dominance via product innovation. But let’s not forget the once
ubiquitous handheld of choice for most employers and business people:
the BlackBerry. A mere five years ago, Research In Motion was one of the
most celebrated technology companies in the world, as the BlackBerry,
or “CrackBerry” as it became known, led the smartphone market. But the
meteoric rise of the iPhone and Android devices has made R.I.M. and its
big innovation a relic in a world of constant reinvention.
• Rising from failure: In 1919, Cornelius Vander
Starr was the first Westerner to sell insurance to the Chinese, and he
did so successfully until Communism drove him and American International
Group back to the U.S. in 1949. AIG quickly grew it business globally,
and in 1962 Starr gave management of the company's slowing U.S. holdings
to Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, who revitalized the company by moving
from personal insurance to high-margin corporate coverage and selling
through independent brokers rather than agents to slash those salaries.
The company went public in 1969 and continued to thrive until 2005, when
AIG became the high-profile subject of fraud investigations by the
Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Justice Department, and New
York State Attorney General's Office. Greenberg was booted amid an
accounting scandal in February 2005 and the company was battered by a
liquidity crisis when its credit ratings were downgraded below "AA"
levels in September 2008. Thanks to government bailouts in 2008 and
2009, AIG has bounced back and regained its status as a vital American
multinational corporate titan. AIG isn’t taking its rescue for granted.
The insurer unveiled a new corporate logo as part of a major rebranding
overhaul aimed at its continued growth and success.
• Ongoing success: Pfizer, the world's biggest
pharmaceutical company by revenues, constantly develops blockbuster
medicines and vaccines with household names like Zithromax, Lipitor, and
Viagra. Founded in 1849 as a manufacturer of fine chemicals, Pfizer's
discovery of Terramycin a year later launched its successful and ongoing
expansion into a research-based pharmaceutical company. The drug maker
has augmented its research by building its brands, pipeline, and profile
through a series of major acquisitions. The company continues to lead
the market with treatments for myriad maladies. Last month, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s Bosulif, which treats a
rare type of leukemia that usually affects older adults.
3 Principles for Sustained Innovation
Sustained innovation is powered by people who come together to share
ideas, compare observations, and brainstorm solutions to complex
problems. Enterprises with a strong focus on sustained innovation share
three common principles that act as the glue binding people together in
productive collaboration. They are:
1. Converged disciplines: Ideas aren’t isolated; they’re celebrated
in groups that enable the entire organization to act as one entity. Of
particular importance is the convergence of business and technology
management to ensure that no one unit or division is missing the
opportunity to capitalize on new ideas and possibilities.
2. Cross-boundary collaboration: No enterprise operates in a vacuum.
Every manager, employee, and contractor potentially has a piece of the
puzzle to create a new breakthrough business opportunity. Suppliers,
partners, distributors, and customers are an equally valuable source of
information and ideas.
3. Innovative business structure: Not every organization can empower
an unstructured development culture like the Lunatic Fringe who led
innovation at groundbreaking tech pioneer Texas Instruments; most
require structure that compels convergence of disciplines, management,
and operational units.
To bring these principles to life, enterprises operating with
sustained innovation focus on three distinct, intimately related
practices that require business/technology/management convergence to
perform at a high level of organizational maturity.
Sustained Innovation Playbook
Designing and operating organizations capable of sustained innovation
requires a playbook that demands a systemic process constructed around
the following core steps:
• Listen broadly for ideas through vision, innovation, and external
networks. Listen to the customer. Listen to the front lines in your
organization.
• Understand who your actual and potential customers are, what they want
and need, what they will need, and why those needs have not yet been
met.
• Organize the innovation team to include those with a stake in the
innovation, organize the innovation program, and organize the resources
and investments needed to address the problem.
• Create an environment and capability for innovation by giving the team
the ability to fail. Create many alternative solutions by leveraging
the cascaded innovation lifecycle.
• Experiment and learn from failure. Conduct many experiments in
parallel, using prototyping and other iterative, feedback-driven
techniques.
• Listen again to the customer to help them imagine. Use prototypes to
elicit feedback. Listen to customer acceptance/buying criteria. Listen
to what could go wrong, but don’t let the devil’s advocate take control.
• Design the concepts to address customer-centric values, such as cost, intuitive use, ease of change, and sense of enhancement.
• Implement the final go/no-go decision. Consolidate or eliminate
competing alternatives to a manageable number. Send concepts back for
reinvention, retesting, or redesign. Implement the second stage of the
innovation lifecycle: manifestation
.
Get Out of the Garage
Sure, some people work better alone. But most people are more prolific
as part of a team or extended community of ideas and talents that
fosters some of the world’s most important inventions. Garage inventors
can’t possibly compete with myriad breakthroughs born from sustained,
systemic innovation. The first single chip microprocessor publicly
introduced by Intel in 1971, the first car safety air bags offered in
the 1973 model Chevrolet, and the depression game changer drug Prozac in
1988, are all considered great innovations developed and perfected by
teams, not individuals. Even Oppenheimer needed the Manhattan Project
team to create the atomic bomb. The true test of sustained innovation
isn’t the invention itself, but the ultimate and ongoing benefit
produced by the innovation for the business.
Discipline and innovation are not opposites, but complements.
Establishing an innovation culture consumes a great deal of
organizational energy in overcoming the forces of inertia and entropy.
But once an idea has been successfully commercialized, respected
champions emerge to drive new sources of the energy, creativity,
discipline, and resources that sustain and grow an enduring culture of
innovation. Successful organizations manage innovation from concept to
commercialization so that good ideas not only get created, but also
continually find their way into the products and services portfolio.
--Faisal Hoque is founder, chairman, and CEO at BTM Corporation and founder of research think tank BTM Institute. His newest book is The Power of Convergence. Follow him on Twitter @faisal_hoque.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Inside the Successful Leader's Mindset
As a business leader, you are mired in the everyday details of your company's success. You're worried about your bottom line, your sales goals, or your next board meeting. Amid the chaos, it's easy to forget that intangibles -- like your beliefs -- play an important role in your success.
The most successful entrepreneurs share a set of core beliefs that help them persevere as they grow their businesses. These four tips will promote a positive mindset and increase your chances of success:
1. Trust that you'll adapt to new challenges. Successful entrepreneurs approach uncertainty with confidence. When faced with an unfamiliar challenge, they think of similar situations they've handled before or skills sets that might apply. "Focus on the abilities you do have and apply your general knowledge to whatever comes your way," says Matthew Della Porta, a positive psychologist and organizational consultant.
If you focus on your current skills and your ability to learn new ones, you'll be less likely to feel overwhelmed. "Trust your ability to adapt," Della Porta says.
2. Attribute your success to hard work, not luck. Successful leaders believe their achievements are due to hard work, not just lucky circumstance. "That's a result of self-efficacy," Della Porta says, meaning that people who believe they've worked hard trust their ability to master new or unfamiliar skills.
Leaders who are confident in their ability to learn are more likely to seek out and persevere through tough challenges, increasing their chances of success.
3. Believe that you are unique. Every great entrepreneur stands on the shoulders of giants, but successful leaders champion their individuality. In other words, they don't try to become "the next Steve Jobs." To be successful, learn from the people you admire but don't try to emulate them.
"You need to focus on being the first you, not the next someone else," Della Porta says. If you foster the unique strengths that you bring to the table, then you will be far more likely to stand out in a crowded industry.
4. Challenge your negative beliefs. If you want to succeed, stamp out negative beliefs that might be holding you back. "People have a tendency to self-handicap," Della Porta says. For example, an executive who believes he won't meet his sales goals is more likely to prioritize other tasks, giving him a preemptive excuse for a poor performance. His belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Notice the goals or tasks that you shy away from and articulate your beliefs about them. Challenge any negative thoughts by reminding yourself that you will succeed if you apply yourself. When your beliefs are confident and positive, your actions will promote success.
The most successful entrepreneurs share a set of core beliefs that help them persevere as they grow their businesses. These four tips will promote a positive mindset and increase your chances of success:
1. Trust that you'll adapt to new challenges. Successful entrepreneurs approach uncertainty with confidence. When faced with an unfamiliar challenge, they think of similar situations they've handled before or skills sets that might apply. "Focus on the abilities you do have and apply your general knowledge to whatever comes your way," says Matthew Della Porta, a positive psychologist and organizational consultant.
If you focus on your current skills and your ability to learn new ones, you'll be less likely to feel overwhelmed. "Trust your ability to adapt," Della Porta says.
2. Attribute your success to hard work, not luck. Successful leaders believe their achievements are due to hard work, not just lucky circumstance. "That's a result of self-efficacy," Della Porta says, meaning that people who believe they've worked hard trust their ability to master new or unfamiliar skills.
Leaders who are confident in their ability to learn are more likely to seek out and persevere through tough challenges, increasing their chances of success.
3. Believe that you are unique. Every great entrepreneur stands on the shoulders of giants, but successful leaders champion their individuality. In other words, they don't try to become "the next Steve Jobs." To be successful, learn from the people you admire but don't try to emulate them.
"You need to focus on being the first you, not the next someone else," Della Porta says. If you foster the unique strengths that you bring to the table, then you will be far more likely to stand out in a crowded industry.
4. Challenge your negative beliefs. If you want to succeed, stamp out negative beliefs that might be holding you back. "People have a tendency to self-handicap," Della Porta says. For example, an executive who believes he won't meet his sales goals is more likely to prioritize other tasks, giving him a preemptive excuse for a poor performance. His belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Notice the goals or tasks that you shy away from and articulate your beliefs about them. Challenge any negative thoughts by reminding yourself that you will succeed if you apply yourself. When your beliefs are confident and positive, your actions will promote success.
Employee Recognition of the Week
Congratulations to Alex, Jamie, and
Christopher! for being nationally recognized in the top 20 most
productive reps in the country. Great job, Keep up the good work!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
8 Leadership Lessons That Buck Showalter’s Success Teaches Us Leadership
http://www.business2community.com/leadership/8-leadership-lessons-that-buck-showalters-success-teaches-us-0303133
By Lisa Swan, Published October 10, 2012
Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter turned around a failing baseball franchise and made the team into a baseball postseason powerhouse. And he did this without the financial resources of the competition, in the toughest division in the game. This is the fourth time the manager has worked such miracles with an MLB team, making the postseason with three different teams. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, there are good leadership lessons to be learned from Showalter’s career that may help you in your company:
Changing the culture: When Showalter took over as manager of the New York Yankees in 1992, he inherited a team with a slew of malcontents. One of them was an outfielder named Mel Hall, who bullied Bernie Williams, one of the most promising young players on the team. Hall called the shy Williams “Bambi” and treated him badly, hazing him and hurting his confidence. Showalter got rid of players like Hall and saw Williams become a star. Leadership lesson: Don’t be afraid to get rid of bad actors in order to build your work team.
Spotting and developing talent: Former Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, who played under Showalter and is now an MLB manager himself, said that Showalter has “the ability to spot talent that people miss.” In 1990, as a coach for the Yankees, spotted a young, unheralded pitcher in the lower levels of the Yankees farm system that he knew would be a star. The hurler? Mariano Rivera. Leadership lesson: Learn what makes a great employee at your company, and how to spot diamonds in the rough.
Expecting accountability: Employees are accountable not just to Showalter, but to each other. As he told the New York Times last month, “When you see something done the wrong way, you say, ‘Hey, that ain’t good enough.’” He said that as time goes on, “you get the players to do that for each other,” where they expect the best from themselves and their teammates. Leadership lesson: Holding your employees accountable can eventually result in their taking ownership of not just themselves but their co-workers.
Showing no fear of the competition: Showalter currently manages in the American League East, the team with the toughest competition in baseball, with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays as rivals. Before he got there, his team played with fear of the superstars on the other teams. For his part, Showalter showed that the teams were nothing to be afraid of by, as he put it, taking the fight to his opponents, exhorting his players to play hard, and giving them a vision of success to strive for. He took the Orioles from 93 losses in 2011 to 93 wins in 2012 and their first playoff appearance in 15 years, a remarkable achievement. Leadership lesson: Don’t be afraid of taking on the big dogs in your industry.
Paying attention to detail: In each of his managerial stops, Showalter has shown great attention to the little things, from picking the colors of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ uniforms to redesigning the Orioles’ spring training facility to more closely resemble Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the team’s stadium. Doing so has raised the bar as far as creating a team ethos. Leadership lesson: You can change the big things by changing the little things.
Be prepared: Showalter puts in the preparation, staying hours after the game to work on strategy. He also makes sure to impart this knowledge to his players, so they can execute this strategy. That preparation is one of the reasons why the Orioles have a won-loss record that is 11 games more than they should have this year, given how many runs they score. Leadership lesson: Put in the work if you want to run with the big dogs.
Expecting the best, and establishing consequences: When Showalter first met with his Orioles players after taking over the team in the summer of 2010, he had a dry-erase board in the background listing replacements from each player in the minor leagues. This was done to let the players know that they couldn’t be complacent about their spot on the team. Leadership lesson: Don’t let you staff feel that they can have a job forever, even if they don’t produce.
Changing with the times: While nobody will ever call Showalter mellow, the 56-year-old manager he showed that he was capable of lightening up a little, and communicating with players 35 years younger, when he got the job with the Orioles after not managing for four years. The notoriously austere manager even allowed the Orioles to have a ping-pong table in his spring training facility, something they didn’t expect him to let him keep. Leadership lesson: Be willing to relax a little if it means gaining better relationships with your staff.
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/leadership/8-leadership-lessons-that-buck-showalters-success-teaches-us-0303133#qSpP4sBiF7fE2Iol.99
By Lisa Swan, Published October 10, 2012
Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter turned around a failing baseball franchise and made the team into a baseball postseason powerhouse. And he did this without the financial resources of the competition, in the toughest division in the game. This is the fourth time the manager has worked such miracles with an MLB team, making the postseason with three different teams. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, there are good leadership lessons to be learned from Showalter’s career that may help you in your company:
Changing the culture: When Showalter took over as manager of the New York Yankees in 1992, he inherited a team with a slew of malcontents. One of them was an outfielder named Mel Hall, who bullied Bernie Williams, one of the most promising young players on the team. Hall called the shy Williams “Bambi” and treated him badly, hazing him and hurting his confidence. Showalter got rid of players like Hall and saw Williams become a star. Leadership lesson: Don’t be afraid to get rid of bad actors in order to build your work team.
Spotting and developing talent: Former Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, who played under Showalter and is now an MLB manager himself, said that Showalter has “the ability to spot talent that people miss.” In 1990, as a coach for the Yankees, spotted a young, unheralded pitcher in the lower levels of the Yankees farm system that he knew would be a star. The hurler? Mariano Rivera. Leadership lesson: Learn what makes a great employee at your company, and how to spot diamonds in the rough.
Expecting accountability: Employees are accountable not just to Showalter, but to each other. As he told the New York Times last month, “When you see something done the wrong way, you say, ‘Hey, that ain’t good enough.’” He said that as time goes on, “you get the players to do that for each other,” where they expect the best from themselves and their teammates. Leadership lesson: Holding your employees accountable can eventually result in their taking ownership of not just themselves but their co-workers.
Showing no fear of the competition: Showalter currently manages in the American League East, the team with the toughest competition in baseball, with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays as rivals. Before he got there, his team played with fear of the superstars on the other teams. For his part, Showalter showed that the teams were nothing to be afraid of by, as he put it, taking the fight to his opponents, exhorting his players to play hard, and giving them a vision of success to strive for. He took the Orioles from 93 losses in 2011 to 93 wins in 2012 and their first playoff appearance in 15 years, a remarkable achievement. Leadership lesson: Don’t be afraid of taking on the big dogs in your industry.
Paying attention to detail: In each of his managerial stops, Showalter has shown great attention to the little things, from picking the colors of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ uniforms to redesigning the Orioles’ spring training facility to more closely resemble Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the team’s stadium. Doing so has raised the bar as far as creating a team ethos. Leadership lesson: You can change the big things by changing the little things.
Be prepared: Showalter puts in the preparation, staying hours after the game to work on strategy. He also makes sure to impart this knowledge to his players, so they can execute this strategy. That preparation is one of the reasons why the Orioles have a won-loss record that is 11 games more than they should have this year, given how many runs they score. Leadership lesson: Put in the work if you want to run with the big dogs.
Expecting the best, and establishing consequences: When Showalter first met with his Orioles players after taking over the team in the summer of 2010, he had a dry-erase board in the background listing replacements from each player in the minor leagues. This was done to let the players know that they couldn’t be complacent about their spot on the team. Leadership lesson: Don’t let you staff feel that they can have a job forever, even if they don’t produce.
Changing with the times: While nobody will ever call Showalter mellow, the 56-year-old manager he showed that he was capable of lightening up a little, and communicating with players 35 years younger, when he got the job with the Orioles after not managing for four years. The notoriously austere manager even allowed the Orioles to have a ping-pong table in his spring training facility, something they didn’t expect him to let him keep. Leadership lesson: Be willing to relax a little if it means gaining better relationships with your staff.
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/leadership/8-leadership-lessons-that-buck-showalters-success-teaches-us-0303133#qSpP4sBiF7fE2Iol.99
Monday, October 8, 2012
Seven Keys To Sales Leadership - Scott Edinger, Contributor
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottedinger/2012/10/04/seven-keys-to-sales-leadership/
The sales leadership job is one of the toughest in business today. I have previously written about why this is so, but suffice it to say it is a few critical jobs rolled into one: super seller, coach, strategist and business leader. I have had the chance to work with thousands of sales leaders over the course of my career and have observed that the most successful among them possess key characteristics: the seven keys to being a great sales leader.
1. Create useful success metrics that mark progress, not just report results. Most sales leadership jobs demand a series of metrics that indicate results that have been achieved. Revenue and profit contribution are classic examples of these very important measures. But there is another side of the metric scale which includes those measures that are indicative of progress toward those goals—successful sales calls, implementation planning meetings, and the like are examples. The key difference is creating a balance of those that are backward-looking or lagging indicators, and others that are forward-looking, or leading indicators. Having both is vital to success.
2. Provide visionary leadership. There are few audiences more cynical than sales professionals (I have found lawyers and accountants to come close), so providing clear and definitive leadership is critical. Since most sales organizations serve as the nosecone of the business, as customer and product or service issues impact them first, they benefit greatly from having a vision for the entire team. The sales leader must be the exemplar of that vision, as the team will be watching. Pithy and concise are the themes for your sales team’s vision, which should dovetail with the organization’s vision.
3. Develop talent and coach relentlessly. Many a sales leader has risen through the ranks as a great seller to a sales leadership position. One of the problems I frequently hear about sales leaders is that they were great individual contributors but they haven’t quite taken hold of what it means to be a sales leader. Most of the time, the fundamental issue is a lack of coaching and development of talent. All too often they are narrowly focused on the role of super closer in an effort to drive business instead of building sales capability across a team.
4. Pay close attention to your selling roles and understand how you get involved in sales cycles. I have seen four distinct roles that sales leaders take on: Model—you run the call, Observer—you observe only with an intent to coach following the call, Teammate— you engage in joint selling with clearly defined responsibilities to take on specific topics during the call, and Strategist—you provide pre-call planning guidance and post-call support. Each of these selling roles has a unique purpose and impact, so it is imperative that the sales leader is intentional about what role they are playing as they support business development efforts.
5. Focus on creating value in the sales process. For many, success in selling is far less about what they are selling and increasingly about how they sell. Said simply, it’s about how, not what. That how is creating value in the sales process, and sales leaders can engineer the sales experience of customers to be one that is worth paying for. The litmus test for this is, as sales guru and a former boss of mine, Neil Rackham, has said is: “Would the customer write you a check for the sales call?” A sales call worth paying for is the pinnacle of value creation, and those interactions provide insights, new approaches and ideas for solving problems, and innovative opportunities to capitalize on, instead of simply a description of products and services.
6. Forecast with an understanding of where the customer is in the buying process. By and large, forecasting tools are centered on a series of tasks that sellers perform during the course of a sales cycle. What they too often lack is the perspective of the buyer and where the buyer is in the decision process. One of my mentors, John Hoskins, often said “if you want to learn how to sell, learn how buyers buy.” When forecasting, include milestones of customer behavior and joint accountabilities like “mutually reviewing a proposal together” versus “proposal sent” to have a considerable impact on forecast accuracy.
7. Motivate with recognition and rewards. I’ve said before that sales professionals have a reputation for being prima donnas, and, having spent my career in sales, I think the stereotype is correct. (It takes one to know one, right?!) That means a good sales leader has the opportunity to use this to their advantage and develop a strong rewards and recognition program. Rewards and recognition ought to be timely and relevant, and while an annual awards banquet is great, in order to reinforce behaviors it needs to be more frequent. Top performers value financial rewards for certain, but they also crave regular feedback on performance, autonomy, and degrees of freedom. Consider the myriad ways to reward and recognize in non-monetary form and you have a good recipe for an important element of sales team motivation.
The sales leadership job is one of the toughest in business today. I have previously written about why this is so, but suffice it to say it is a few critical jobs rolled into one: super seller, coach, strategist and business leader. I have had the chance to work with thousands of sales leaders over the course of my career and have observed that the most successful among them possess key characteristics: the seven keys to being a great sales leader.
1. Create useful success metrics that mark progress, not just report results. Most sales leadership jobs demand a series of metrics that indicate results that have been achieved. Revenue and profit contribution are classic examples of these very important measures. But there is another side of the metric scale which includes those measures that are indicative of progress toward those goals—successful sales calls, implementation planning meetings, and the like are examples. The key difference is creating a balance of those that are backward-looking or lagging indicators, and others that are forward-looking, or leading indicators. Having both is vital to success.
2. Provide visionary leadership. There are few audiences more cynical than sales professionals (I have found lawyers and accountants to come close), so providing clear and definitive leadership is critical. Since most sales organizations serve as the nosecone of the business, as customer and product or service issues impact them first, they benefit greatly from having a vision for the entire team. The sales leader must be the exemplar of that vision, as the team will be watching. Pithy and concise are the themes for your sales team’s vision, which should dovetail with the organization’s vision.
3. Develop talent and coach relentlessly. Many a sales leader has risen through the ranks as a great seller to a sales leadership position. One of the problems I frequently hear about sales leaders is that they were great individual contributors but they haven’t quite taken hold of what it means to be a sales leader. Most of the time, the fundamental issue is a lack of coaching and development of talent. All too often they are narrowly focused on the role of super closer in an effort to drive business instead of building sales capability across a team.
4. Pay close attention to your selling roles and understand how you get involved in sales cycles. I have seen four distinct roles that sales leaders take on: Model—you run the call, Observer—you observe only with an intent to coach following the call, Teammate— you engage in joint selling with clearly defined responsibilities to take on specific topics during the call, and Strategist—you provide pre-call planning guidance and post-call support. Each of these selling roles has a unique purpose and impact, so it is imperative that the sales leader is intentional about what role they are playing as they support business development efforts.
5. Focus on creating value in the sales process. For many, success in selling is far less about what they are selling and increasingly about how they sell. Said simply, it’s about how, not what. That how is creating value in the sales process, and sales leaders can engineer the sales experience of customers to be one that is worth paying for. The litmus test for this is, as sales guru and a former boss of mine, Neil Rackham, has said is: “Would the customer write you a check for the sales call?” A sales call worth paying for is the pinnacle of value creation, and those interactions provide insights, new approaches and ideas for solving problems, and innovative opportunities to capitalize on, instead of simply a description of products and services.
6. Forecast with an understanding of where the customer is in the buying process. By and large, forecasting tools are centered on a series of tasks that sellers perform during the course of a sales cycle. What they too often lack is the perspective of the buyer and where the buyer is in the decision process. One of my mentors, John Hoskins, often said “if you want to learn how to sell, learn how buyers buy.” When forecasting, include milestones of customer behavior and joint accountabilities like “mutually reviewing a proposal together” versus “proposal sent” to have a considerable impact on forecast accuracy.
7. Motivate with recognition and rewards. I’ve said before that sales professionals have a reputation for being prima donnas, and, having spent my career in sales, I think the stereotype is correct. (It takes one to know one, right?!) That means a good sales leader has the opportunity to use this to their advantage and develop a strong rewards and recognition program. Rewards and recognition ought to be timely and relevant, and while an annual awards banquet is great, in order to reinforce behaviors it needs to be more frequent. Top performers value financial rewards for certain, but they also crave regular feedback on performance, autonomy, and degrees of freedom. Consider the myriad ways to reward and recognize in non-monetary form and you have a good recipe for an important element of sales team motivation.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
This Month's Employee Recognitions
Congrats to on your recent promotions
Alexandra, Gary and Doug! Great job stepping it up. We look forward to
what you will accomplish in the coming months. Keep up the great work!
Congratulations Jamie for being the top performing client representative in the nation! Great Job!! Keep up the good work!
Congrats to the entire team at Infinite for bringing our client more revenue than any other vendor in the nation.
We are looking forward to a strong finish to the year!
Congratulations Jamie for being the top performing client representative in the nation! Great Job!! Keep up the good work!
Congrats to the entire team at Infinite for bringing our client more revenue than any other vendor in the nation.
We are looking forward to a strong finish to the year!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Infinite Partipates in Charity Dodgeball Tournament for Operation Smile
Infinite traveled to Miami for an annual retreat hosted by its client broker. The weekend was hosted at Miami Beach's Eden Roc Hotel. In addition to client hosted dinners, talent contest and awards ceremony, attendees participated in a charity dodgeball tournament.
The tournament raised $3600 for Operation Smile.
Operation Smile, a non-profit organization founded in 1982, is an international charity for children. The organization is a mobilized group of doctors and nurses who provide reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.
Since inception, Operation Smile has created a presence in over 60 countries and has helped more than 2 million people with evaluations as well as conducted over 200,000 free surgeries.
The dodgeball tournament involved several teams of 6 competing in a best out of three bracket style competition. Each team paid an entry fee of $100 to play. One hundred percent of the donated entry fees went to Operation Smile.
The tournament raised $3600 for Operation Smile.
Operation Smile, a non-profit organization founded in 1982, is an international charity for children. The organization is a mobilized group of doctors and nurses who provide reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.
Since inception, Operation Smile has created a presence in over 60 countries and has helped more than 2 million people with evaluations as well as conducted over 200,000 free surgeries.
The dodgeball tournament involved several teams of 6 competing in a best out of three bracket style competition. Each team paid an entry fee of $100 to play. One hundred percent of the donated entry fees went to Operation Smile.
Congrats Jess! On Winning The National Talent Show At Client Conference
Congrats to our talented Human Resource Director for winning first prize in the talent show at the Eden Roc. Great Job!!
Have fun with your $1000 grand prize!
Have fun with your $1000 grand prize!
Infinite Travels To Miami For Business, Charity, And Fun
Infinite with Execs from across the country hanging out on the beach in Miami
Jess winning the national talent show! Good job!
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