Do you plan to succeed in 2009?
A bigger question for many of us may be whether we plan at all. During our recent National sales meeting this question was posed to approximately 115 of our top salespeople. I have to be honest... I did not see 115 sets of hands go up in the air!
It was exactly for that reason that we set up and ran workshops on designing a plan to be successful.
Unfortunately I think too many of us have been on "auto pilot" for a number of years. We get up in the morning and say " well let's see what today brings". For many years today brought a lot of things, a lot of good things like repeat orders, new projects and customer referrals.
Recently today has not brought us many good things. Has anyone picked up their phone recently to make sure that there is a dial tone. I know I am paying my phone bill but I swear it is broken as it only seems to be allowing outbound calls. No calls are coming in!
At Vernon we are done moping and whining about the economy. Much of our discussion is about getting in an attack mode, a proactive mode where we make things happen as opposed to sitting back and letting things happen to us, or not happen as the case may be.
Designing a plan, a custom plan for each rep is a labor intensive project however it can be done. Allowing the individual rep to play a key role in the design is essential because at the end of the day who is going to be expected to carry out the plan? it is the rep, not me or some other member of the management team.
This is why it is critical that a plan is designed that each person can buy into. Several of our top reps stood up in front of the group and told people that business is out there for those that go after it! They went on to say that each person needs to get off their butts and go after it!
When your existing customers are buying less there is only one way I know of to maintain your overall sales and income or post gains and that is to take it away from someone else. Our workshops concentrated on teaching salespeople how their plan can combine all the marketing and tech tools that we have to stay front and center with their customers and prospects. We need them to think of our company and our sales person when they are ready to buy!
Some of the tools we spent time educating our sales people on using included...
1. ESP On Line...all of our reps have their own ESP On Line Account
2. Technologo...proactively creating virtual spec samples is a great way to present ideas to your clients and prospects
3. Vernon Special Web offers...all of our customers receive regular web special offers from us. These offers are automatically generated and they are personalized with the reps information
4. Digital catalogs...We offer seven exclusive catalogs during the year and digital versions personalized for the reps are now available.
5. Direct Mail Catalog Program...most of our reps have all of their customers on our direct mail program where "specials' catalogs are mailed to their door steps...
These are just a few of the ways to stay visible with you customers!
I use the analogy that when you plan a trip you need to map out the directions and follow those directions. Failing to do so will result in you getting lost!
It is the same thing with your sales planning. You need to map out your goals and design a route to achieve your objectives. Once you do this you can check and update your route as needed, monthly, quarterly etc.
The bottom line is make sure you have a plan to succeed. It is your only chance!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Positive Attitude leads to Positive Results
Is this a new concept? We think not!
One does not need to initiate a congressional investigation to come to this conclusion. All we have to do is to go to a sales meeting and see the positive people, the sales leaders and who they hang around with during the meeting.
It is very rare to find one of your company sales leaders who is always negative about everything. Of course a case might be made that they are positive because they are one of the sales leaders...what do they have to be negative about?
I take the stance that one of the reasons that they are successful is due to their positive attitude and their resiliency meaning their ability to bounce back from adversity. Do they get every order? Do they win every bid? Of course not!
But do they dwell on their defeats or feel sorry for themself when they don't get that big order? No because they realize that the next opportunity could be right around the corner and if they are not ready for it they might miss out.
This past week The Vernon Company had 125 reps attend our 2009 National Sales Meeting in St. Pete Beach, FL. The weather cooperated nicely with 78 to 82 degree temps for the five days we were in town.
Golf at the famous Innisbrook Course on Sunday (where this week's PGA Tournament is being held) was phenomenal. This is probably the one place that tested my positive attitude theory.
To be perfectly honest I have to say that it would have been tough to find a Vernon rep with a negative disposition during this week. It was very evident that the people who chose to take the time to attend this event were the positive people. They were the people that knew they needed to attend this event to share with others and to learn from others.
It was very interesting for me to see our newest sales team members and who they gravitated to. It is amazing how little time it takes for these people to find the winners!
I think this is the knack of the winners. They find a way to surround themself with other winners. This is a tough business in normal economic times so needless to say it can be very trying now. Surrounding yourself with people who can help to support you andf pick you up when you start to get down is critical!
Even more important is the need to bond with people, allowing them to get to know you so that they can recognize when you need help and support.
I have gone on and on before about attempting to stay away from the negative influences in life (TV, Radio, Newspapers, etc.) however it is equally important to try to maximize the positive influences around you (co-workers, family, friends, etc).
Your ability to follow these instructions will dramatically increase your chances for a successful sales year in 2009!
I encourage you to be aware of the influences around you and do your best to control who and what you allow in and who and waht you work to block out. This will be the key!
One does not need to initiate a congressional investigation to come to this conclusion. All we have to do is to go to a sales meeting and see the positive people, the sales leaders and who they hang around with during the meeting.
It is very rare to find one of your company sales leaders who is always negative about everything. Of course a case might be made that they are positive because they are one of the sales leaders...what do they have to be negative about?
I take the stance that one of the reasons that they are successful is due to their positive attitude and their resiliency meaning their ability to bounce back from adversity. Do they get every order? Do they win every bid? Of course not!
But do they dwell on their defeats or feel sorry for themself when they don't get that big order? No because they realize that the next opportunity could be right around the corner and if they are not ready for it they might miss out.
This past week The Vernon Company had 125 reps attend our 2009 National Sales Meeting in St. Pete Beach, FL. The weather cooperated nicely with 78 to 82 degree temps for the five days we were in town.
Golf at the famous Innisbrook Course on Sunday (where this week's PGA Tournament is being held) was phenomenal. This is probably the one place that tested my positive attitude theory.
To be perfectly honest I have to say that it would have been tough to find a Vernon rep with a negative disposition during this week. It was very evident that the people who chose to take the time to attend this event were the positive people. They were the people that knew they needed to attend this event to share with others and to learn from others.
It was very interesting for me to see our newest sales team members and who they gravitated to. It is amazing how little time it takes for these people to find the winners!
I think this is the knack of the winners. They find a way to surround themself with other winners. This is a tough business in normal economic times so needless to say it can be very trying now. Surrounding yourself with people who can help to support you andf pick you up when you start to get down is critical!
Even more important is the need to bond with people, allowing them to get to know you so that they can recognize when you need help and support.
I have gone on and on before about attempting to stay away from the negative influences in life (TV, Radio, Newspapers, etc.) however it is equally important to try to maximize the positive influences around you (co-workers, family, friends, etc).
Your ability to follow these instructions will dramatically increase your chances for a successful sales year in 2009!
I encourage you to be aware of the influences around you and do your best to control who and what you allow in and who and waht you work to block out. This will be the key!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Is the ROMANCE gone?
Do I have your attention?
For the past four days we have been participating in The Vernon Company National Sales Meeting held at St. Pete Beach in Florida. What a great time we had! Approximately 145 people coming together to share ideas and to learn new things and most importantly to recharge our working approaches.
Lots of fun was held especially during Vernon's Exclusive Tabletop Show where we had 66 supplier booths just for our sales rep. This provided a great opportunity for our people to learn more about our key supplier partners. For years our emphasis has been to funnel as much business as possible through our key supplier partners. This has never been as important as it is today!
The highlight of the four days had to be our Gulf of Mexico Dinner Cruise. Sponsored by our friends at Bic and Hit we had 165 people eating, drinking and dancing on a three hour sunset cruise. WOW...what a time....but remember what happens on the boat stays on the boat...at least we hope so!
OK...now to the romance part. One of our seminar sessions was aimed at talking about how we can make sure that we get as much as we can from our existing customers. I was making the analogy that going after a new account was much like romancing your girlfriend or boyfriend prior to taking the plunge and getting married. Hopefully some of your remember....the flowers, the romantic dinners and the drives along the beach to see the sunset.
Then you've been married a few years and what. Roses are too expensive...the romantic dinner turns into ordering pizza on a Friday night and gas is too expensive to waste it on a drive to the beach...right???
Hopefully this is not the case but many in our audience seemed to identify with what I was saying.
Now back to the account, we work so hard to go after the account and then we become somewhat complacent. We take things for granted. The creativity is lost and we fall into a rut of calling to see if they want to reorder the same old stuff as last year. All the while that this is going on we better hope that no one is looking at our account like we used to look at our girlfriend because if they start to "romance" them and we are not we may be in jeopardy of losing them.
We all agreed that none of us could afford to lose even one account in this economy. On the contrary we all came to the conclusion that if we put the romance back into all of key accounts we just might get more business out of them.
So we made a pledge to do first things first in our efforts to increase our business for the remainder of 2009. Make sure...darn sure that you are doing everything in our power to take care of our existing accounts. Then and only then can we start to look to get business from others.
Does this make sense? We think so! While many people want to complicate the heck out of what is going on in the economy analyzing and interpreting every single move in the stock market I fall back to that old say....that there is paralysis through analysis!
It is back to basics for us. The simple approach includes...
1. Get more out of your existing accounts
2. Expand to sell additional buyers in the companies that you sell
3. Ask every customer for a referral or testimonial that you can use
4. When going after new prospects look to industries that are familiar to you or that are listed as growth areas...
This is simple advice...no need to analyze....just need to get off your fanny and take some action steps!
Good luck!
For the past four days we have been participating in The Vernon Company National Sales Meeting held at St. Pete Beach in Florida. What a great time we had! Approximately 145 people coming together to share ideas and to learn new things and most importantly to recharge our working approaches.
Lots of fun was held especially during Vernon's Exclusive Tabletop Show where we had 66 supplier booths just for our sales rep. This provided a great opportunity for our people to learn more about our key supplier partners. For years our emphasis has been to funnel as much business as possible through our key supplier partners. This has never been as important as it is today!
The highlight of the four days had to be our Gulf of Mexico Dinner Cruise. Sponsored by our friends at Bic and Hit we had 165 people eating, drinking and dancing on a three hour sunset cruise. WOW...what a time....but remember what happens on the boat stays on the boat...at least we hope so!
OK...now to the romance part. One of our seminar sessions was aimed at talking about how we can make sure that we get as much as we can from our existing customers. I was making the analogy that going after a new account was much like romancing your girlfriend or boyfriend prior to taking the plunge and getting married. Hopefully some of your remember....the flowers, the romantic dinners and the drives along the beach to see the sunset.
Then you've been married a few years and what. Roses are too expensive...the romantic dinner turns into ordering pizza on a Friday night and gas is too expensive to waste it on a drive to the beach...right???
Hopefully this is not the case but many in our audience seemed to identify with what I was saying.
Now back to the account, we work so hard to go after the account and then we become somewhat complacent. We take things for granted. The creativity is lost and we fall into a rut of calling to see if they want to reorder the same old stuff as last year. All the while that this is going on we better hope that no one is looking at our account like we used to look at our girlfriend because if they start to "romance" them and we are not we may be in jeopardy of losing them.
We all agreed that none of us could afford to lose even one account in this economy. On the contrary we all came to the conclusion that if we put the romance back into all of key accounts we just might get more business out of them.
So we made a pledge to do first things first in our efforts to increase our business for the remainder of 2009. Make sure...darn sure that you are doing everything in our power to take care of our existing accounts. Then and only then can we start to look to get business from others.
Does this make sense? We think so! While many people want to complicate the heck out of what is going on in the economy analyzing and interpreting every single move in the stock market I fall back to that old say....that there is paralysis through analysis!
It is back to basics for us. The simple approach includes...
1. Get more out of your existing accounts
2. Expand to sell additional buyers in the companies that you sell
3. Ask every customer for a referral or testimonial that you can use
4. When going after new prospects look to industries that are familiar to you or that are listed as growth areas...
This is simple advice...no need to analyze....just need to get off your fanny and take some action steps!
Good luck!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Solution to our economic woes
It seems that most of my time to do some "brainstorming" comes on the weekends so it appears that my prayers have been answered when I received this email on this rainy Sunday morning in Iowa.
It reads...
--------------------
We Have Arranged Your Payment Through Our ATM Swift Card
Payment Center Of OCEANIC BANK OF NIGERIA P L C. That Is The Latest Instruction By Our President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Ya'radua (GCFR) Federal Republic Of Nigeria. Below Is The Arrangements ;...
The Swift card Center Will Send You An Atm Card Which You Will Use To Withdrew Your Money From Any ATM Machine In Any Part Of The World, But The Maximum Is (One Hundred Thousand Dollars $100.000.00) Per Day, So If You Like To Receive Your Fund This Way Please Do Let Us Know By Contacting The ATM Card Payment Center Of OCEANIC BANK OF NIGERIA P L C
1) Address Where You Want Them To Send The Card Through Diplomatic
Courier Service (P.O box Not Accepted)
2) Your Full Name
3)Occupation
4) A Valid Phone Number
------------------------
How they found me smack dab in the middle of the country...I'll never know!
The bottom line here is....
Do Not Lose Faith!
These kind people may find you next weekend the same way that they found me!
It reads...
--------------------
We Have Arranged Your Payment Through Our ATM Swift Card
Payment Center Of OCEANIC BANK OF NIGERIA P L C. That Is The Latest Instruction By Our President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Ya'radua (GCFR) Federal Republic Of Nigeria. Below Is The Arrangements ;...
The Swift card Center Will Send You An Atm Card Which You Will Use To Withdrew Your Money From Any ATM Machine In Any Part Of The World, But The Maximum Is (One Hundred Thousand Dollars $100.000.00) Per Day, So If You Like To Receive Your Fund This Way Please Do Let Us Know By Contacting The ATM Card Payment Center Of OCEANIC BANK OF NIGERIA P L C
1) Address Where You Want Them To Send The Card Through Diplomatic
Courier Service (P.O box Not Accepted)
2) Your Full Name
3)Occupation
4) A Valid Phone Number
------------------------
How they found me smack dab in the middle of the country...I'll never know!
The bottom line here is....
Do Not Lose Faith!
These kind people may find you next weekend the same way that they found me!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Keeping balance pays off
Do you have balance in your life?
We all know that sales have not been coming easy these last six months or so for many of our industry sales professionals. So as a manager of salespeople what are we to tell our people?
Should we tell those people that are working 8 hours a day to increase their hours to 10 or 12 hours. Using my modern math skills and some logic it might stand to reason that this would be a way to guarantee a sales increase of 25 to 50 %. But a funny thing happens when you keep working long hours, you lose some of your effectiveness!
At the end of those real long days your mind is not quite as sharp. You are not clicking on all cylinders and therefore you are really not getting the bang for your buck.
So what lessons should this teach all of us?
A quick easy take away that I get is that working smarter makes more sense than longer!
A second lesson that I have learned is that I need to know when I hit that "wall" where my effectiveness is waning. Taking this one step further I need to make sure that when I realize this that I take some time for myself to recharge my battery.
Having balance in your life is one of the most important traits for any salesperson to remain successful over a long period of time.
It is critical for managers to note this fact and watch for signs that a rep is overextending themselves or putting too much pressure on themselves. If the rep is not able to recognize this on their own someone else has to point it out because there is high likelihood that the rep can become depressed due to the fact that more success is not coming with all their extra hours and the long hard work.
Having balance to me means allocating time to your family and friends. This is a must! Does anyone know any workaholics? Perhaps you are one, yourself?
If this is the case you can overcome it by first admitting it and then working hard to create the balance necessary to stay sharp and live a healthy life style.
Don't forget exercise and hobbies! Having outside interests and working to maintain them makes navigating the balance beam of life much easier!
The moral of the story...make time for yourself and you will find one of the great ironies of life...it will not cost you success...it just might be the thing that makes you a success!
Try it...I guarantee that you will like it!
We all know that sales have not been coming easy these last six months or so for many of our industry sales professionals. So as a manager of salespeople what are we to tell our people?
Should we tell those people that are working 8 hours a day to increase their hours to 10 or 12 hours. Using my modern math skills and some logic it might stand to reason that this would be a way to guarantee a sales increase of 25 to 50 %. But a funny thing happens when you keep working long hours, you lose some of your effectiveness!
At the end of those real long days your mind is not quite as sharp. You are not clicking on all cylinders and therefore you are really not getting the bang for your buck.
So what lessons should this teach all of us?
A quick easy take away that I get is that working smarter makes more sense than longer!
A second lesson that I have learned is that I need to know when I hit that "wall" where my effectiveness is waning. Taking this one step further I need to make sure that when I realize this that I take some time for myself to recharge my battery.
Having balance in your life is one of the most important traits for any salesperson to remain successful over a long period of time.
It is critical for managers to note this fact and watch for signs that a rep is overextending themselves or putting too much pressure on themselves. If the rep is not able to recognize this on their own someone else has to point it out because there is high likelihood that the rep can become depressed due to the fact that more success is not coming with all their extra hours and the long hard work.
Having balance to me means allocating time to your family and friends. This is a must! Does anyone know any workaholics? Perhaps you are one, yourself?
If this is the case you can overcome it by first admitting it and then working hard to create the balance necessary to stay sharp and live a healthy life style.
Don't forget exercise and hobbies! Having outside interests and working to maintain them makes navigating the balance beam of life much easier!
The moral of the story...make time for yourself and you will find one of the great ironies of life...it will not cost you success...it just might be the thing that makes you a success!
Try it...I guarantee that you will like it!
Friday, March 6, 2009
The truth will set you free....
It's all in the presentation. I find myself lately spending a lot of time observing our industry competitors and how they are marketing themselves.
It is without a doubt a very interesting time in this industry. Recruiting ads, blasts and direct mail pieces have to be at all an all time high. There are so called "experts" giving seminars at industry shows that are supposed to be objective and not at all self serving but in reality they are nothing but a blatant recruiting session.
There are magazines hosting seemingly harmless webinars with so called "experts", once again touting their own company and what they can do for you.
Other companies are talking about adding 10, 20, 30 or more new associates a month with sales volume of millions of dollars. WOW.....they must be doing something right.
How about companies that have increased their sales 72 % in the last 12 months? This is incredible!
As an individual who works for one of the "big" distributorships with 100 years of history and tradition I am charged with the responsibility of growing our sales force. Oh yeah, I almost forgot there are some people that will tell you that history and tradition are bad things or that family ownership is a bad thing. My question is....since when?
If I were a sales rep or a distributor owner out there I wonder how I would react to all of this "spin". Would I be smart enough to do my homework before making my next move? I hope so!
Here are a couple of my suggested questions that I think MUST be asked. Let me stress here that I am not suggesting that any company is better or worse than any other however I think you might agree that these questions make some sense. See what you think....
1. Who owns your company? How long has the current ownership been in place?
2. Are you profitable? Would you provide me with audited financial statements before I finalize my decision?
3. What is your Dun and Bradstreet Rating? Can I see a recent report?
4. Can I talk with some sales reps who have been selling for you for five years or more?
5. Have you changed any of your compensation plans in the last three years? Ask about things like commissions splits, benefits, timing of commissions?
6. Are there any extra fees or costs involved in joining your firm?
7. If I were to decide that your company is not a good fit for me a year or two down the road can I walk away without any costs, fees, legal action, etc.
8. What is your total sales volume? Check the financials....
IMPORTANT NOTE: There is an old saying "trust but verify". If you find yourself in the position of having to make a change the last thing you want to do is make the decision without all the facts.
My feeling is asking these questions would be a good start in determining if a company might be a good fit for you. The key here is don't take what someone tells you as the gospel truth. Ask for documentation or proof of their claims. The last thing you want to do is to go through a heart wrenching decision process to find a new home for your clients only to have to do it again 6 months down the road because something happened or you didn't know the "whole" story.
Did we learn anything from the Corporate Logo fiasco that occurred about one year ago this week?
I did and it is the fact that not everything is the way it appears or the way people tell you it is!
If you ask these questions and everything backs up the ads that you have been seeing then you can make an educated decision for what company is the best fit.
On the other hand if a company will not provide you with this information or the information that they provide does not jive with their representations in the ad then I think that would lead me to one last very important question....
If they will lie or misrepresent their company before I even sign up with them what might they do after I join.....
H-m-m-m-m-m-m-m!
Just remember...the truth will set you free...free to make a good decision for your future well being!
It is without a doubt a very interesting time in this industry. Recruiting ads, blasts and direct mail pieces have to be at all an all time high. There are so called "experts" giving seminars at industry shows that are supposed to be objective and not at all self serving but in reality they are nothing but a blatant recruiting session.
There are magazines hosting seemingly harmless webinars with so called "experts", once again touting their own company and what they can do for you.
Other companies are talking about adding 10, 20, 30 or more new associates a month with sales volume of millions of dollars. WOW.....they must be doing something right.
How about companies that have increased their sales 72 % in the last 12 months? This is incredible!
As an individual who works for one of the "big" distributorships with 100 years of history and tradition I am charged with the responsibility of growing our sales force. Oh yeah, I almost forgot there are some people that will tell you that history and tradition are bad things or that family ownership is a bad thing. My question is....since when?
If I were a sales rep or a distributor owner out there I wonder how I would react to all of this "spin". Would I be smart enough to do my homework before making my next move? I hope so!
Here are a couple of my suggested questions that I think MUST be asked. Let me stress here that I am not suggesting that any company is better or worse than any other however I think you might agree that these questions make some sense. See what you think....
1. Who owns your company? How long has the current ownership been in place?
2. Are you profitable? Would you provide me with audited financial statements before I finalize my decision?
3. What is your Dun and Bradstreet Rating? Can I see a recent report?
4. Can I talk with some sales reps who have been selling for you for five years or more?
5. Have you changed any of your compensation plans in the last three years? Ask about things like commissions splits, benefits, timing of commissions?
6. Are there any extra fees or costs involved in joining your firm?
7. If I were to decide that your company is not a good fit for me a year or two down the road can I walk away without any costs, fees, legal action, etc.
8. What is your total sales volume? Check the financials....
IMPORTANT NOTE: There is an old saying "trust but verify". If you find yourself in the position of having to make a change the last thing you want to do is make the decision without all the facts.
My feeling is asking these questions would be a good start in determining if a company might be a good fit for you. The key here is don't take what someone tells you as the gospel truth. Ask for documentation or proof of their claims. The last thing you want to do is to go through a heart wrenching decision process to find a new home for your clients only to have to do it again 6 months down the road because something happened or you didn't know the "whole" story.
Did we learn anything from the Corporate Logo fiasco that occurred about one year ago this week?
I did and it is the fact that not everything is the way it appears or the way people tell you it is!
If you ask these questions and everything backs up the ads that you have been seeing then you can make an educated decision for what company is the best fit.
On the other hand if a company will not provide you with this information or the information that they provide does not jive with their representations in the ad then I think that would lead me to one last very important question....
If they will lie or misrepresent their company before I even sign up with them what might they do after I join.....
H-m-m-m-m-m-m-m!
Just remember...the truth will set you free...free to make a good decision for your future well being!
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