DEADLY SIN #3: NOSTALGIA

• Definition: Sales teams often look back to the glory days, when their product was selling like hotcakes.
• Why It Happens: Sales professionals always know what worked in the past, but the memory of past success blind the team to changing customer requirements and major shifts in the marketplace.
• What Results: Gradually, your firm becomes unable to develop new accounts, or take advantage of existing ones.  Revenue from your cash-cows take over and you find yourself consistently being outbid and outsold by the competition.
• How to Prevent It: Whenever you lose a deal (or don’t get included in an opportunity), take the time to find out exactly why.  As the market changes, adjust your sales approach so that it better fits the way that the customer wants to buy.

DEADLY SIN #4: OVERWHELM

• Definition: Sales teams keep taking on more work, insisting that they can close more business than the last quarter, quarter after quarter.
• Why It Happens: Sales teams enjoy being successful and so they’re sure that they’ve got the ability to be even more successful in the future.  As such, they commit to more growth without having a strategy to accomplish it.
• What Results: It works for a brief period of time, but then productivity begins to quickly decline.  Top performers become frustrated and leave the team.  The company begins to lose business, creating even more pressure to perform.

Soon for all our Enigin Team readers - sins 5, 6 and 7…..

How to Prevent It: Come up with plans that are achievable given your current resources.  Then figure out how make the team gradually more productive.

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This week the always high quality stuff by Geoffrey James was entitled “The 7 Deadly Sins of Successful Sales Teams” - I would like to share these seven deadly sins with you over the next couple of weeks.

At Enigin we love this sort of information, as knowledge is power, power to perform better for Enigin, our Distributors and the end users of our products,

So enjoy…

Selling is hard work, but it’s even harder when sales teams fall into bad habits. When these deadly sins take hold, the team can end up alienating customers, peers, and co-workers alike.

If your team remains unrepentant and refuses to change, the end result can easily be the failure of your current sales campaign and even the collapse of your entire company’s sales.

Be forewarned. You must, must, must take these 7 deadly sins seriously, and make sure that they don’t take hold, either on you, or on your team-members.

DEADLY SIN #1: STUFFING

• Definition: Pushing more products on the customer or the channel than they want or need.
• Why It Happens: This is often done with the best of intentions, under the “customer is always right” maxim.  Customers and channels are not always on top of their needs and requirements, and thus order (or agree to buy) too much product.
• What Results: When the customer or channel figures out that they’ve been “stuffed” with product, they assume (probably rightly) that you were more interested in making your numbers than in making them successful.
• How to Prevent It: Before closing, always make certain that the customer really needs your offering and that it will assist them in building their own business.  If not, volunteer an adjustment that will put the order in line with their real needs.

DEADLY SIN #2: GRANDIOSITY

• Definition: You’ve got a product that’s so wonderful that you’re convinced that it’s the solution to every customer’s problem.
• Why It Happens: Most of the time, this happens because you’ve let the marketing group convince you that you’ve got a product that can “change the world.”  However, no matter how fabulous you offering might be, it’s not a panacea and there are going to be customers for whom a competitor’s product is a better fit.
• What Results: Grandiosity results in customers who aren’t well served.  They end up with features and functions that they don’t use, can’t use, and don’t want.  Worst case, they begin to see you, the sales rep, as something of a religious fanatic rather than a trusted adviser.
• How to Prevent it: Remember that the point of selling is to help the customer become more successful.  Rather than trying to converting them to your “product” religion, dedicate yourself to making sure that your offering gets into the hands of the people who need it most.

Number 3 and 4 soon….

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Teamwork is a universally acknowledged to be a desirable business attribute, but few organizations have a clear definition of what teamwork actually means or how to achieve it.

This and following posts provide nine rules defining teamwork, based on a conversation with Phil Geldart, author of the classic In Your Hands: the Behaviors of a World Class Leader.

RULE 1. A team must have a leader. In most sales groups the leader is the sale manager and the team members are that manager’s direct reports. However, there are many cases when teams consist of people from different organizations, in which case, there still needs to be a team leader. The team leader is responsible for delivering the outcome that the team is expected to achieve, even though the leader will need to depend upon the team to deliver the result.

See next post for the next points.

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As we considered in the last post we again turn to the quote above made by Henry Ford referring to Team Work. Last time we looked at the first phrase, now lets us consider the middle phrase, “Keeping Together” and how this is vital to progress through team work.

“Keeping Together” may seem implicit with team work, but that is not necessarily so. A team can function, get results and perform to a limited sense without being “together”. Every member of a team will have a role to play and as long as that role is fulfilled, to a greater or lesser degree, a target can be reached, eventually.

But to really progress “Keeping Together” is vital, as Ford stated - because a team should be more than it’s constituent parts and progress further than just a bunch of individuals. Team work at its best is a group of individuals coming together and then functioning as one body.

Each member of the team is vital - just like in our own bodies, a hand may seem very important compared to let’s say a toe, but is a toe is missing movement and balance becomes more difficult, so the whole body suffers, Each member of the body is needed and to function at its best the body needs to be complete - to keep together.

So a team needs a head, it needs hands and it needs toes, all these parts - people - need to work with one common purpose and not override each other but allow each part to do its bit.

If a team works in this way, with clear communication, there is no end to what they can accomplish.

Hence to make real progress, and not just complete a project, a team needs to “Keep Together” - morphing into one seamless body.

So, Enigin Distributors are advised to form their teams, like the airliners crew we discussed int he last post, and make sure everyone knows their role and pulls together and keeps together, working for and with each other and hence progress to higher achievements in the energy saving business.

At Enigin training new Enigin Distributors are encouraged to build a close team as that brings success.

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The leader of a team has to fulfill his role - he is the one who leads and the others look to him as to which way to go, not that they are not their own people, they are and to be. A good leader, employer, encourages individual though within the confines of his direction and lead, but the BOSS needs to set the example, and within that lies a danger.

Your employees will constantly watch you,  say the wrong thing, even unintentionally, and you send the wrong message, at the very least. It is even possible that what you say could even destroy staff morale.

So if you are an Enigin Distributor, remember your Enigin Training and benefit from this following advice:

So, with thanks to Geoff Haden at bnet.com, I would like to present 8 things a good leader should never say to employees - I posted the first 4 in earlier in the month, the other four follow are below:

1. “Sure, I’ll be happy to talk to your brother about a job.” The smaller the company the less you can afford interpersonal problems, especially those created by cliques and “alliances.”  (Doesn’t running a small business sometimes feel like an episode of “Survivor”?)  There are certainly exceptions to the rule, but think carefully before you hire an employee’s family member.  Blood is always thicker than business.
2. “No.” Actually, “no” can be okay — as long as it is always followed with an explanation.  Still, better choices are “I don’t think we can, and here’s why…” or “I would like to, but here’s why we can’t…” or “That sounds like a great idea, but we’ll need to do a couple of things first…”  Explain, explain, explain: As a leader, explaining is near the top of your job description.
3. “I can’t wait to go to Cancun next week.” Don’t assume your employees will be inspired by and hope to emulate your success. They won’t.  Leave your Porsche in the garage.  I’ve consulted for a number of family-run businesses, and in every instance (sometimes when I was on-site less than a day), at least one employee spoke of resenting how “good” the owners have it — at the expense of underpaid employees.  Is resenting your success, even if you don’t flaunt it, fair?  No.  Is it a real issue for employees?  Absolutely.
4. “We.” This one is conditional:  Use “we” when it fits, but never use the royal “we.”  Employees are aware there is no “I” in team, but they know when you are paying lip service to “we.”  Just as it’s incredibly obvious to employees when you take an insincere, obligatory tour to “check in” and show how much you seem to care, it’s just as obvious when you say “we” just because you think you should.  Build a real sense of teamwork first and using “we” comes naturally.  Teamwork actions speak much louder than any theoretically inclusive words.

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If you have attended Enigin Training and wish to have increased success as an Enigin Distributor, consider the following advice.

The leader of a team has to fulfill his role - he is the one who leads and the others look to him as to which way to go, not that they are not their own people, they are and to be. A good leader, employer, encourages individual though within the confines of his direction and lead, but the BOSS needs to set the example, and within that lies a danger.

Your employees will constantly watch you,  say the wrong thing, even unintentionally, and you send the wrong message, at the very least. It is even possible that what you say could even destroy staff morale.

So, with thanks to Geoff Haden at bnet.com, I would like to present 8 things a good leader should never say to employees - here are the first 4, the other four follow in the next blog post:

1. “I’m in charge, so this is what we’re going to do.” Dealing with different opinions or even open dissent is challenging for any leader and can make you feel defensive and insecure.  When that happens you might be tempted to fall back on the golden rule:  She who has the gold makes the rules.  Don’t.  Everyone knows you’re in charge; saying you are instantly destroys any feelings of collaboration, teamwork, and esprit de corps.  When you can’t back up a decision with data or logic, possibly that decision isn’t the right decision.  Don’t be afraid to back down and be wrong.  Employees respect you even more when you admit you make a mistake.
2. “I have a great opportunity for you.” No, you don’t; you just want the employee to agree to take on additional work or the project no one wants.  If you say, “Mary, next week I’m assigning you to work on a new project with our best customer,” she immediately knows it’s a great opportunity.  If you say, “Mary, I have a great opportunity for you; next week I’m assigning you to sort out the problems in our warehouse,” she knows she just got stuck with a less-than-plum assignment.  Any opportunity that really is great requires no preface or setup.  Don’t sell.
3. “Man, this has been a long day.  I’ll see you guys.  It’s time for me to get out of here.” No employee wants to feel your pain. From your perspective, running a business can be stressful, draining, and overwhelming.  From the employee’s perspective you have it made because you make all the rules.  Don’t expect employee empathy; instead talk about how today was challenging and everyone pulled together, or how you really appreciate that employee’s help.
4. “Hey, that’s a great idea - and if we do it this way…” Successful people often try too hard to add value.  (Unsuccessful people do too, by the way.)  You may be able to improve an employee’s idea and lay out a specific path for implementation, but in the process you kill their enthusiasm.  Instead, say, “Hey, that’s a great idea,” then ask questions:  How they came up with the idea, the data or reasoning they used, how they think the idea should be implemented, etc.  In the process the employee may identify small tweaks on her own, and if not you can gently guide him in the right direction.  The best ideas, from an employee’s point of view, are not your ideas.  The best ideas are always their ideas, and rightfully so.  Make sure employees’ ideas stay their ideas, and everyone benefits.

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To remind all businesses, Enigin and Enigin Distributors included - here are some the Business Blunders committed over the last 12 months - This is Part 2:

Google announces it will change its search-engine algorithm after Brooklyn-based eyeglasses retailer Vitaly Borker tells The New York Times that abundant complaints posted online by customers after Borker harassed them and treated them abusively improved his rankings in Google search results and thus increased his company’s revenue. Borker’s alleged business practices included addressing dissatisfied customers as “bitch,” sending an e-mail saying, “I AM WATCHING YOU,” and sending one woman a photograph of the front of her own apartment building. Eventually, Borker is arrested by the United States Postal Inspection Service and charged with cyberstalking, sending threatening interstate communications, mail fraud and wire fraud.

Movie director Kevin Smith, of Clerks and Mallrats fame, isn’t shy about calling himself fat, but he takes issue when a Southwest Airlines captain ejects him from an Oakland-to-Burbank flight because his heft is a “safety risk.” Not appeased by the airline’s offer of a $100 flight credit and a seat on the next flight, Smith fires off 50 tweets in a single day to his 1.6 million followers, giving the usually well regarded airline a torrent of bad PR.

As part of its energy-saving “Cool Biz” campaign, designed to reduce the use of air-conditioning in offices in the summer months, officials in the Japanese city of Isesaki enact a ban forbidding municipal employees from having facial hair.

McDonald’s announces the recall of 12 million Shrek Forever After 3D drinking glasses after it is determined that their designs—images of movie characters Shrek, Fiona, Puss ’n’ Boots, and Donkey—contain cadmium, a carcinogen that damages kidneys and bones and may also affect the brain function of children.

In the wake of the McDonald’s recall, the Associated Press commissions its own tests and finds high levels of both lead and cadmium in drinking glasses sold by companies including Time Warner, Coca-Cola, Burger King, and Disney. Decorative enamel on Warner Bros. glasses depicting characters from the Wizard of Oz, among others, contained 500 to 1,000 times the allowable levels of lead for children’s products; a red Coke glass ordered from the Coca-Cola website shed three times more cadmium than the recalled Shrek glasses.

Gregorio Iñiguez, general manager of the Chilean mint, is fired after it’s discovered that he had overseen production of a run of 50-peso coins with the nation’s name spelled “C-H-I-I-E.” Astonishingly, the coins had reportedly been seen and approved by numerous officials and had actually been in circulation since 2008.

Nine months after buying Segway—maker of an electric scooter once hailed by business luminaries as a more important invention than the Internet, around which entire cities would be designed—British multimillionaire Jimi Heselden is killed when he launches his Segway off an 80-foot cliff into Yorkshire’s River Wharfe. Despite early sales projections of 50,000 to 100,000 units per year, analysts say about that many have been sold altogether since the product’s 2001 debut.

Viewers enjoying the crisp HD coverage of England’s first 2010 World Cup match on the UK’s ITV network are treated to a strange editing decision. About three minutes into the game, the ball is thrown in, England works its way toward the goal and . . . cut to a Hyundai commercial of a driver eating an orange. Not to worry: ITV cuts back just in time to show … star player Steven Gerrard celebrating his spectacular goal, which would turn out to be the team’s only goal in the game. Among the printable epithets lobbed at the broadcaster in the aftermath are “cretins,” “inept,” “amateurish,” and “a bloody disgrace.”

Delta Air Lines passenger Josiah Allen arrives safely in Detroit after a flight from Mexico City in May. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for his most important piece of checked baggage: his dog, Paco. After Paco fails to arrive on the next flight as well, Allen is informed that the dog had broken out of its kennel and escaped in Mexico City. To compensate Allen for his loss, Delta generously offers to refund the $200 fee Allen had paid to transport Paco … in the form of a credit good toward a future flight. A few days and a spate of negative publicity later, Delta offers Allen “additional compensation as well as our sincere apology.”

As part of a campaign to shed light on Google’s privacy practices, nonprofit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog sponsors a 540-square-foot video in Times Square that depicts a Google executive nefariously monitoring children with a scanner it labels “Google Analytics.” Trouble is, Consumer Watchdog itself uses a product called (you guessed it) Google Analytics to track clicks on its website. As explained by a reporter for BusinessInsider.com, “this means that Consumer Watchdog collects information about your click-behavior—certainly something Consumer Watchdog considers private information in other contexts—and sends it to a third-party: Google, just about the least trustworthy third-party on the planet in the group’s estimation.”

Four days after unveiling a new corporate logo, The Gap announces it is immediately switching back to the old design in the face of overwhelmingly negative reaction. Shortly before scrapping the redesign, the company had posted a message on its Facebook page saying, “We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding!”

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, engineers at Google turn the site’s home page into a fully functional version of the game, wasting an estimated 4.8 million hours of the world’s time and more than $120 million in lost productivity.

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To remind all businesses, Enigin and Enigin Distributors included - here are some the Business Blunders committed over the last 12 months - This is Part 1:
Walmart fires Heather Ravenstein, a customer service manager at a store in Wichita, Kan., for preventing a shoplifter from walking out with a $600 computer. Though the thief let go of the PC after punching and kicking her, Ravenstein was terminated the next day, says Walmart spokeswoman Anna Taylor, for “violat[ing] company policy as it pertains to how we treat people in our stores.”

Several top executives at Chicago-based Tribune Company resign from the bankrupt media conglomerate after reports surface of frat-house behavior among company brass. Among other notorious incidents, CEO Randy Michaels allegedly offers a waitress, in the presence of other company employees, $100 to bare her chest; chief innovation officer Lee Abrams sends a company-wide e-mail that includes a link to a parody video from The Onion in which a woman empties a liquor bottle on her exposed breasts; and a memo announcing the hiring of a senior vice president describes her (fictionally) as “a former waitress at Knockers—the Place for Hot Racks and Cold Brews.”

Documents from a lawsuit against Dell unsealed by a federal judge in November reveal that, after shipping nearly 12 million potentially defective computers equipped with faulty capacitors from 2003 to 2005, the company had provided its sales force with instructions that included pointers such as “Don’t bring this to customer’s attention proactively” and “Emphasize uncertainty.”

Health-information website WrongDiagnosis.com, which attempts to help patients who believe their medical practitioners may have reached erroneous conclusions, offers a “Patient Profile Survey” that poses questions such as, “At what age did you first notice symptoms of Death?” “How long after you noticed symptoms of Death were you officially diagnosed?” And finally, “Are you happy with your experiences of medical care for Death?”

To write a white paper that will guide British government policies on obesity, alcohol, and diet-related diseases, the UK Dept of Health enlists the aid of businesses including McDonald’s, KFC, Kellogg’s, Mars, and booze conglomerate Diageo. PepsiCo is chosen to chair the subcommittee on calories, while the “alcohol responsibility” group is helmed by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association.

The National Institutes of Health launches a program called We Can!—short for “Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition—with the stated goal of “improving food choices, increasing physical activity, and reducing screen time.” To promote the campaign, the group holds a video contest on the We Can! YouTube channel and encourages kids to vote for their favorite videos on the We Can! Facebook page.

Thanks to a misprint on boxes of Ochocinco’s, a limited-edition cereal featuring Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco and benefitting a charity called Feed the Children, callers looking to contact the nonprofit are instead directed to a phone-sex line. “Trying to do good and got messed up,” tweets Ochocinco, “of all numbers why that one!!!”

Designers of a new Las Vegas resort called the Vdara are surprised to discover that the swanky reflective-glass surface of the building has a special feature not included in the plans: Like a giant magnifying glass, it focuses sunlight directly on the pool area. One guest says the beam burned his scalp and melted a plastic newspaper bag, telling ABC News that hotel staffers jokingly referred to it as “the death ray.”

After Long Island, N.Y. daily Newsday creates a clever ad for the iPad that goes viral on the Web, Apple reportedly shows its gratitude by sending the paper a cease-and-desist letter. What stuck in Steve Jobs’ craw? In the ad, Newsday says its iPad app “is better than the newspaper in all kinds of ways … except for one”— then makes the “one” clear when a man reading the digital Newsday uses it to swat a fly, shattering the device.

As officials from all 50 states investigate shortcuts taken by banks in repossessing hundreds of thousands of homes, it becomes clear that the workers handling the foreclosures were often less than qualified. Among other telling details, a Wells Fargo employee testifies that she was signing 300 to 500 foreclosure documents per day without bothering to read them; a firm hired to review documents for Citigroup and GMAC is found to have outsourced the work to companies in the Philippines and Guam; and at JPMorgan Chase, in-house hires were so wet behind the ears that they were referred to internally as “Burger King kids.”

Two months and roughly 3 million barrels of spilled crude into the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster—and fresh off criticism for saying “I’d like my life back” after the accident had cost 11 workers theirs—BP CEO Tony Hayward adds insult to injury by spending the day off the Isle of Wight aboard his $270,000 Farr 52 racing yacht. Stunned reactions to the sailing holiday from environmentalists, U.S. government officials, and Gulf Coast residents range from “insulting” to “the height of arrogance” to “man, that ain’t right.”

TSA screeners in Chattanooga, Tenn., conduct a pat-down search on three-year-old Mandy Simon, much to the chagrin of her TV reporter dad, whose video of the encounter helps to fuel the public’s anger toward the outfit securing our nation’s airports. The incident began when the younger Simon objected to putting her teddy bear through the X-ray scanner.

Chrysler debuts a stirring, patriotic commercial during the 2010 World Cup, featuring George Washington himself driving a Stars-and-Stripes-festooned Dodge Challenger into battle against the British. What could be more American? Unfortunately, not a Dodge Challenger. As Consumer Reports is quick to point out, the Challenger was engineered in Germany and built in Canada by a company owned in part by Italian carmaker Fiat.

New York–based Echometrix settles charges with the Federal Trade Commission that the company had failed to adequately inform customers that data gathered by its FamilySafe Sentry Parental Control software—intended to help parents protect their children from potential predators by monitoring their online activity—would be sold to third-party marketers. The company had been using the data to fuel a program called Pulse, a market-research tool offering insights drawn from social media websites, blogs, and chat forums.

Huggies unveils Little Movers Jeans Diapers, printed to look like denim, with the slogan “The Coolest You’ll Look Pooping Your Pants.”

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You maybe playing sports or flying fighter jets, you need a formation or shape to be able to be organised to achieve your goals as a team - it is no different here at Enigin.

A formation is used by Enigin in the way all businesses use a formation, whether they realise it or not, they divide the workforce into departments.

Hence at Enigin we have sales, marketing, development, accounts, research and development and so on.

Now that is a sort of formation but can only truly called that if they work together to achieve the goal of the business.

In a soccer team for instance you have defence, midfield and attack, they will have their roles to play but it the way they interact that can truly be called the formation. Will it be attacking, defensive or holding?

The decision in sport will be made by the coach, in business it will be the CEO, owner or board of directors as to whether they focus on sales, on service or on some other aspect.

It doesn’t matter what the goal is the team needs to work together, with each department playing its roles to achieve the ultimate prize, success.

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Good managers fail to work hard enough to improve themselves. They reach a certain level of proficiency but stop there, they are good at what they do and are smart, capable, but could do better. That is the conclusion of Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill and her collaborator Kent Lineback.
The professors said in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review: “Managers rarely ask themselves, ‘How good am I?’ and ‘Do I need to be better?’ unless they’re shocked into it. When did you last ask those questions?”

What are the first steps toward improvement?

Start with a clear realisation of what managers do, namely that they are responsible for the performance of a group of people. This work is achieved through exerting influence that “makes a difference not only in what they do but also in the thoughts and feelings that drive their actions,” write Hill and Lineback.

Once you understand what you do, the authors offer some great methods for managing yourself, your network and your team. I especially liked their section on what you can do right now (Prep, Do, Review) to improve performance. Read the full article Are You a Good Boss — or a Great One? on HBR.org. The authors also have a new book, Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader
If you are stuck on good? What’s holding you back?

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