1. Lead, Don’t Manage.
There is a tremendous difference between a leader and a manager. In my office hangs a saying by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on that sums up the perfect leader:
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
Leaders encourage others to achieve a common goal and strive for the best. Show your team the way and encourage them to be a part of its growth and opportunity. Give them a sense of ownership of the project, and with it, the ability to make decisions to continue the growth. Teamwork produces amazing results. Gordon Kaufmann did not build the Hoover Dam, he lead a team of thousands. The work was tiresome, dirty, and dangerous – but every single person working on the project knew they were building something special, working together towards a common goal to complete something wonderful.
Leaders empower every employee (regardless of tenure) to discuss roadblocks and ideas that can move each program forward. Trusting in the feedback of the people that are on the front lines every day, and see the results of every change – good, bad, or indifferent. Additionally, by creating a sense of ownership in each campaign, each person within the organization becomes more apt to proactively help under-performing team members to boost the performance of the team as a whole.
2. Talent Is Key
I was fortunate enough to attend a keynote address hosted by Kip Tindell, founder of The Container Store while attending the Inc 500||5000 Awards Gala in October of 2014. Kip and I share many of the same ideals when it comes to building great teams, bolstered by high-performing talent, and during his talk, he succinctly summed up how to build & scale excellence.
One great person = 3 good people
Recruiting, hiring and retaining high-performing talent is one of the largest challenges any business faces. We place as much emphasis on this side of the business as any other, and we nurture each employee through our on-boarding and growth model. Employees need clearly defined, achievable goals housed in a positive working environment. This leads me to my final key to success…
3. You Get What You Give
From the title alone, you would think that this would be a continuation of my first point. However, its more focused on data integrity and systems, versus management style – more of a positive spin on the old adage “garbage in, garbage out”. Salespeople are great assets to your organization and are the cornerstone of any successful company’s growth. Feed them quality data, in an intelligent way. Give them the tools to perform their job at peak efficiency, and mitigate any revenue-neutral task that they may do in the course of their day. After all, revenue neutral in a sales environment is actually costing you money.
Salespeople should have clearly defined and achievable goals, with simple systems to maintain their prospects. Far too often, I consult with companies who treat their salespeople like commodities, expecting them to endure frustrating working conditions and putting too much effort into revenue-neutral tasks.
Satisfied sales teams sell more often, and attract larger opportunities than ones who are not.
We consult with our clients to maximize sales opportunities while minimizing revenue-neutral tasks. Because of this, we have been fortunate enough to attract and retain fantastic talent not only for ourselves, but for our partners as well.
For more information on how we can help your business, feel free to contact us!