4. Maintaining High-Performance

High-performance is a true commitment to excellence. A person demonstrating high performance standards works to accomplish all of his or her individual tasks at the highest level. And in most cases, strives to exceed the quota set by the work group or Team Lead. There are two performance standards we all face: those you set for yourself and those set for you. If you always work to set your standards higher than those set for you, you will achieve high performance. For instance, an internal sales work group decides to hold a meeting monthly to share ideas and learn about new product launches. The Team Lead takes the initiative to increase the standard by creating a weekly email, keeping team members abreast of changes on a weekly basis. By achieving this personal standard the Team Lead exceeds the standards set by management. Thus, he or she can be looked at as performing this task at high performance. To simplify, high-performance is: setting your goals higher than the goals set for you and working to achieve them consistently!

5. Implementing Work groups

Who should implement work groups? Work groups should be implemented by any organization committed to the growth of their intellectual property and aspiring to exceed revenue and profit goals. Sales professionals who desire to get more out of their careers should also push to initiate work groups internally.
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Selling is an energy driven business. Success goes to those who understand how to work closely in group selling environments. To understand the ideas covered in this topic, we will answer:

1. What is a sales work group?
2. What is individual cohesiveness as it relates to work groups?
3. What are high-energy attitudes?
4. How do you maintain high-performance?
5. Who should implement work groups?
6. Why are they important?
7. What procedures are involved in establishing efficient work groups?
8. What impact does a high performance work group have on your organization?

1. Sales Work groups

Sales work groups are divided into internal and external categories. Internal work groups are made of salespeople focused on common goals, sharing intelligence, and working to create team accountability. External work groups are small groups of sales professionals and sales techs focused on closing key business accounts. This is also referred to as team selling.
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All salespeople perform sales presentations, even if they don’t realize it. Whether talking one-on-one to a customer or to a group of decision makers, using handouts, slides, or nothing at all – you are presenting. In daily sales, you need to understand how to read your buyer’s personality and buying type, body language, voice inflection, listening and questioning skills, and storytelling. The techniques specific to making a presentation include preparation, agenda, time allotment and tools. Preparation is the focus of this exploration.

When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two-thirds of the time thinking about what they want to hear and one-third about what I want to say. – Abraham Lincoln

Our Customer First Selling™ Presenting for Success System fully embraces the above view expressed by Lincoln.
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Me : “Good morning, may I speak to Mike Wright please?”
Gatekeeper : “No, I am sorry, Mike doesn’t take calls”
Me : “OK, no problem. Perhaps you can help, I saw that Mike recently made an announcement about the Hertford project. I have been working on a similar project and wanted to make contact. Is Mike in the office at the moment?

I started my sales career in, effectively, telesales. As that company is long-gone I feel I can now share with you some of the funny/cringe-worthy moments of that first job…. this and the following stories are all 100% true, though names and details have been changed to protect the innocent.
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(Possibly my worst blog post title / picture pun ever…?)

I have been reading a fantastic book recently, that’s not at all about sales, however it brought my attention to the phenomenon of “Heuristic Anchoring” – a phrase guaranteed to make you sound either incredibly smart or pretentious, depending on which way you look at it.
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Enthusiasm is infectious.

If you are enthusiastic about something, you are enjoying yourself, you have energy, you want to share, you want to give and have the other person feel and experience what you have for themselves.

You could say it’s altruistic. I don’t believe commission or your pay cheque make you genuinely enthusiastic – and that’s why enthusiasm is genuine and why prospects notice and trust enthusiastic people. And trust is the biggest asset of the sales person.
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(Slightly) off topic : Invest your commission in third world entrepreneurs

The moment that commission payment blips into your bank account is surely one the best parts of being in sales. How to spend it is the question.

Here’s something to consider :

“Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.”
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..demostrable ROI makes a purchase the only sensible thing to do. What’s your ROI?

From The Guardian newspaper;

Benefit claimants and job seekers could be forced to take lie detector tests as early as next year after an early review of a pilot scheme exposed 126 benefit cheats in just three months, saving one local authority £110,000.
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Learn and stay up-to-date with business book abstracts

(BTW this is an independent recommendation. I have not and will not accept sponsorship/advertising/paid-for-plugs on SalesItch)
As sales people we have to know our prospects’ businesses and industries. We have to understand their challenges and opportunities. That’s a pretty hard thing to do, especially if you deal with a number of industries and/or functions.
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