Industry Magazine Get JACK'D Magazine Summer 2018 | Page 4

ASK JACK
Ask Jack
INSIGHTS FROM THE EXPERT
1. Practice: the salespeople typically
don’t want to do it, and the Sales
Managers are tired of beating this
dead horse. What to do?
Well, one thing is that the salespeople
who don’t want to practice just may need
to go to work in a different company. Pick
anything in life where people are viewed as
at the top of their business and you will see
people who achieved this through practice.
Michael Jackson in the pop music business;
Meryl Streep in the acting profession;
Michael Jordan as a professional basketball
player; Mick Jagger as lead singer of the
Rolling Stones; Olympian athletes; and the
examples are unending. So, if you want to be
better as a salesperson, one requirement
is you must practice. And if you are not
practicing in your business, then by default,
you are practicing on real prospects/
customers. Schedule regular practice,
hold to the schedule, and practice as if the
opportunities are real—they are!
2. Sales Playbook: more and more
of our clients have built their Sales
Playbooks, which is terrific. A
frequently asked question has to do
with following the scripts verbatim: is
that necessary?
One of the primary values of knowing
the Sales Playbook is the personal
confidence with which we embrace our
markets. When the salesperson has
anticipated the prospect marketplace
and has wrestled down the best answers
regardless of the situation, one’s personal
confidence becomes steel strong. We are
not suggesting the salesperson become
robotic; however, the salesperson should
know his or her business cold and deliver
on that knowledge on a consistent basis.
Your odds of success increase the more you
know the Playbook. There is flexibility here,
but be careful. The closer we stay to the
script, the higher the likelihood of success.
3. Finding good salespeople is
difficult. Any suggestions?
Boy, do I hear this most everywhere I go.
Yet, when I ask to see the list of prospective
hires they are working on, the looks are the
equivalent of “What list?” No matter how
staffed you are, the Sales Manager needs
to have a written list of prospective sales
hires. There are always openings for good
salespeople. Figure out the profile of what
you are looking for. Not a job description
but the personal attributes of what makes
a top performer in sales. Sure, recruit in
your industry, but don’t overlook going
beyond your industry. Touch each on the
list at least twice a month, letting them
know how things are going and letting them
know of your interest. Consider building
them from scratch leveraging the Sales
Playbook. Networking and referrals are a
big part of building the list. Think of sports
teams and the coach’s allocation of time
to this effort. Get the right people in the
seats and watch how much easier your job
becomes!
4. All management seems to want
is for us to “meet our numbers.” It’s
demoralizing. Any suggestions here?
I understand the leadership’s desire
to hit numbers, yet I also share your
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sentiment of it being demoralizing if that’s
all you are hearing. Meeting numbers is
Sales; at the end of the day, that’s what
matters. But rather than get stressed out
over it, the salesperson has to filter out the
noise and stay focused on the activities
that have proven to be effective at making
the numbers happen. The simple formula
for sales success looks like this: Identify
the high payoff activities plus do the
activities equals success. Do this and the
numbers will follow.
5. Fighting fires seems the norm for
the field of sales, yet I only get paid
for producing sales. How do I get out
of wasting time on the fires?
Look, fires will occur, and occasionally
I’ve gotten sucked into fighting them. On
those occasions, I have made that late-in-
the-day call to my wife and let her know
I wouldn’t be making it home for dinner.
Early in my sales career, I saw how easy it
was to get sucked into that being the norm.
Well, that wasn’t going to work for my
marriage, and it wasn’t going to work for
creating the success I was seeking in sales.
My first piece of advice is identifying
the HPAs—High-Payoff Activities—and
making sure you get them done on a daily
basis. One of the solutions is to leverage
an assistant to work on non-HPAs and
the fires. The second piece of advice is
that when you are “forced” to personally
get involved, it’s essential to not leave for
home without getting to the HPAs. Being a
top producer in Sales often requires doing
what others are unwilling to do. It comes
with the territory.