Salespeople are made not born. If you have the right people in your organization the best thing for your company is to support and develop existing talent. Sales managers should work together with their team members to identify what characteristics are needed to be a professional salesperson. And emphasize how important sales is to your company empowering them to have authentic conversations with clients as peers. As often younger salespeople will attempt to befriend the client instead of having an equal conversation out of a need to be liked.
Key Takeaways:
[1:53] Sandler addresses skill gaps in companies large and small
[3:35] Structures and strategies
[5:30] Negative perceptions of sales starts early i.e. Head trash
[8:47] Who is really in the position of power?
[10:34] Authentic conversations with your peers
[13:29] People buy emotionally, they make decisions intellectually
[17:25] The ideal salesperson has these characteristics
[22:00] Salespeople are made not born
[23:39] Understanding existing issues that need to be addressed
[26:52] The role of a sales manager is to develop their people
[29:20] Hold employees accountable to their own goals first
[30:58] Using a parenting book as a guidebook for sales managers
[33:04] A hallmark of good sales leaders
[33:46] An example of transformational leadership
[36:44] Adam Boyd on LinkedIn
Mentions:
If your company is not solving your customers hair on fire issue your competitor is. Your brand promise should be dictated by the clients needs and not a vague conglomeration of popular buzzwords. Inspiring employees to embrace a go with the market flow culture can help you to achieve operational excellence. And empowering those individuals to provide service beyond compare will help your company to obtain and transcend the necessary customer intimacy discipline.
Key Takeaways:
[1:51] Rob’s extensive background
[2:46] The genius book of great thought leaders
[4:50] Strategy in terms of revenue growth
[5:36] You business strategy in a single phrase
[6:39] The brand promise - solving your clients issue differently
[9:48] The hair on fire issue
[12:18] An example of a small company that hit it big - Rackspace
[17:30] The customer intimacy strategy
[18:50] Obsessing over the metrics pays off
[23:18] 3 steps to grow your company
[24:38] The 20 year overnight success
[26:47] Create an inspirational culture
[28:02] The natural resource that is flow
[30:28] The central idea through a series of basecamps
[31:55] Changing your strategy as the market changes
[34:00] 3 different pathways or disciplines
[36:15] Embracing self organizing teams
[39:17] What does fanatical support look like to your company?
[39:50] Achieving operational excellence
[42:02] A market story of proper focus and discipline
[44:24] rob@burstgrowth.com
Mentions:
MasteringtheRockefellerHabits- Verne Harnish
Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
DisciplineofMarketLeaders - Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersema
Kaity and Andrew recently graduated college with marketing and entrepreneurial degrees respectively. The pair had many positive influences in their lives including Kaity’s entrepreneurial father, a volunteer opportunity in Ecuador and Professor Vijay Govindaraja whom they saw speak on his concept of reverse innovation. The concept is the act of bringing technologies, services and innovations from developing nations for use in the developed world. The goal of this adventure is to learn what it means to be an entrepreneur in South America and bring that information back to share in the United States.
Key Takeaways:
[1:22] It all started with a volunteer experience
[1:56] The concept of reverse innovation
[2:32] 7 countries in 7 months and 100 entrepreneurs
[3:19] Marketing and Entrepreneurship courses in college
[4:26] Starting the process and finding the opportunities
[5:55] Adversity is a leading indicator of success
[6:48] We bought the tickets and then decided to
[7:20] kaity606@gmail.com
Mentions:
Legacy thinking may be taking over your business. Brainstorming sessions may not be a useful as playing strategic games that build upon constraints. Take a chance and be open to democratic solutions and flexible work environments to jump start a new idea. As long as you have hired like minded people your business will move past the old way of doing things and on to the new. Try looking at your business as if it belonged to somebody else. Use education as a way to gain loyalty with clients and when giving a presentation please be authentic. The audience will know if you are not.
Key Takeaways:
[1:32] Innovation doesn’t happen when you start doing something new
[2:33] AV is important but presentations are more important
[3:48] Solving presentation problems for today’s world
[4:46] Fall in love with problems
[6:05] There are opportunities in the things that frustrate you
[6:44] Constraints produce innovative results
[9:25] Make sure your cash cows are not a crutch for your business
[11:00] Controlling your burn through raising the bar of expectation
[12:44] Ask this of your business “Are we still adding value?”
[13:54] Become the experts by educating your clients
[15:32] People learn through interaction and metaphor
[16:44] Playing games to increase the understanding of business
[18:00] Look at your business as if it belonged to somebody else
[20:16] Annual strategic planning sessions for big deployments
[21:40] The Monday meeting created the fall of the Berlin wall
[24:50] Trying out a business democracy
[26:38] The team created their own manifesto through empowerment
[27:27] Exit interviews created autonomy in our office
[29:21] Caught in the act is a source of motivation
[31:35] Hire like minded people with similar values
[33:30] How much of an a**hole are you is a gauge of how not to behave in business
[35:19] To be a good presenter you should always be authentic
[38:28] Download Star Realms and challenge Mulhulligan
Mentions:
rich@missinglink.co.za
As a leader you may have a hard time saying no because you are an abundant thinker. If you learn to say no to the four thieves of productivity you can focus on the most important, most profitable, most necessary part of your business. Saying no can be aspirin for the modern business person. True mastery comes with time, practice and experience. Make a concerted effort to define what it is that you can call your one thing and dedicate yourself to it. Let your heart lead your head to stop living a life of regret. Pick your moment of truth and start making a difference in your life.
Key Takeaways:
[1:34] The heart of the One thing book
[2:58] Proven methods for implementation
[3:20] Gary wrote a powerful essay that started it all
[5:16] Mission Statements should be focused on your one thing
[6:54] True mastery - 10,000 hour rule
[8:25] Entrepreneurs have a hard time saying no
[8:49] 4 thieves of productivity
[9:44] Who brings the highest contribution?
[10:58] I’m prouder of what we said no to.
[12:11] Some yeses are bigger than others
[13:59] Get clear about what’s important to you
[15:43] Different priorities than what they are living
[18:00] What you do isn’t who you are, we are looking for validation
[19:27] Saying ‘no’ builds our companies strength
[21:35] Line up your metaphorical dominoes
[23:14] The shape of success is a long flat line that ramps up at the end
[23:40] The latte factor
[24:36] The 100 Best Businesses Ever took 7-9 years to get there
[27:15] Let your heart lead your head
[28:55] Turning your to do list into a success list
[30:00] Clarity about the priority in your business and your life
[31:36] Two entrepreneurs sold their business after reading the book
[33:14] The 1 Thing website
Mentions:
Essentialism- Greg McKeown
TheAutomaticMillionaire - David L. Bach
Knowing who you are are being clear about what you want can be some of life’s biggest challenges. Make an appointment with yourself for a self discovery session. Use basic questions as tools to clean out your subconscious of all the data energy that has been stored for years. Gratitude can help to put life into perspective. Where your awareness goes your energy will go. Give as much value to your energy as you do your money and you will have more of both. Finish what you begin.
Key Takeaways:
[1:00] You have to do all the work yourself
[2:35] The burden of responsibility
[3:38] Monks should never go back
[4:31] Practice what you preach
[5:41] East meets West
[6:55] The start of the path
[8:28] If you listen you might learn something
[9:41] Special guest teachers
[10:45] Get to know yourself for personal growth
[12:36] How well do you know the tool?
[13:35] Make an appointment with yourself, M-F
[16:35] A process of reflection
[18:45] People need to engage with others
[19:15] Time to clean out your subconscious
[20:40] Facing yourself is one of the most challenging things
[21:32] Every experience has an emotion attached to it
[24:40] Write down your problem and then burn it
[25:41] You can not destroy emotion
[28:02] Gratitude puts life into perspective
[29:09] A sense of lack makes you needy
[29:51] With will you can accomplish anything you want
[31:23] Finish what you begin, try making your bed every morning
[34:32] Where awareness goes energy goes
[35:44] Time management or energy management
[38:20] Most people can’t stay concentrated
[39:07] Treat energy the same as you treat money
[40:37] Strengths and weaknesses
[42:31] Be clear with what you want in life
[44:06] BEHAG - Tim Cullens
[45:14] Life is not short
[46:25] Private workshops and spiritual adventures
Mentions:
Happierpodcast - Gretchen Rubin
The culture of continual improvement drives companies towards agile management. Squeezing out productivity for the sake of productivity can lead teams to compartmentalize their roles. Knowledge workers should be empowered to deliver value as well as code. Project management software tools give the illusion of time management when in reality there is no level of accuracy when dealing with people. Allowing teams to organize themselves and then supporting that motion with an adjustable management support structure will provide project validation at many stages along the way. This is the fastest way to monetize initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
[1:09] Agile is a set of values and principles
[2:00] Commonalities with Lean
[3:54] Output versus Outcome
[4:47] The industrial era management style
[5:34] Customer delight as the focus
[7:08] Empowering teams
[9:19] Predictability and productivity of teams
[10:15] A servant leader perspective
[11:41] Trust is at the bottom of the pyramid
[12:40] Consistency of team
[13:37] Multitasking kills - the switching cost
[16:44] The fastest way to monetize initiatives
[18:24] It’s infectious when it works
[19:54] Agile provides predictability
[20:57] Mythical certainty
[23:00] Agile inspects and adapts
[25:38] Will the market accept your idea?
[28:01] The learning mentality
[29:10] Aligning cultures with Agile
[30:39] Discovering the architecture and design
[32:35] Encouraging developers to produce value
[34:12] Self organizing teams
[35:37] Building things in a quality way
[36:38] Empower your teams to self pivot
[39:20] David sees change as incremental
[41:35] Stepping into the agile concept
[43:04] david@agilevelocity.com
Mentions:
RadicalManagement - Steve Denning
FiveDysfunctionsofaTeam- Patrick Lencioni
Description: Entrepreneurs and small business struggle daily with how to determine their profitability. Greg shares his proven insight to help you compensate yourself and your employees. Contribution dollars must cover operating expenses. You can’t get profitable enough in changing OPEX to put a dent in your numbers you should be focusing on labor - human productivity, revenue by person and justifying clients based on their LER. You should build corporate accountability by paying fair market compensation for fair market performance. And before opening up your books in an effort to achieve transparency, be certain that the owner is able to talk numbers and no inconsistencies exist in your schema.
Key Takeaways:
[1:25] How Entrepreneurs/Owners should pay themselves
[3:40] The market picks your pay
[5:07] Distributions explained
[7:37] The 10% breakeven
[9:17] Clearing the distortions of real revenue
[10:01] Gross margin + Direct Labor = Magic
[11:08] What exactly defines direct labor?
[12:33] Growth is business model dependent
[16:02] The thinking model
[18:01] Management should be held accountable
[19:53] Your focus should be on revenue, direct cost and direct labor
[20:18] The simplified message is watch your labor not your toilet paper
[23:03] LER, use gross margin as the calculator
[25:19] Compensation does not change performance
[27:00] Everybody’s an A player, somewhere
[28:00] A severe case of open book
[28:55] The true cost of unproductive labor is the disruption to the rest of the team
[30:15] Two pre-conditions to opening the books for transparency
[31:58] Use the bonus as a confirmation that the employee achieved their goals
[33:10] You can never replace leadership and management with monetary incentives
[34:40] An example of a market based wage, equitable compensation
[36:29] The salary cap for non-sport related businesses?
[38:47] Cost of living raise is an invalid argument when it comes to compensation
[39:55] Time is not a factor in compensation, you must demonstrate your performance
[40:44] 5 factors determine your worth
[43:09] Contact Information
Mentions:
Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profit - Greg Crabtree
Motivation 2.0 - Daniel Pink
Give and Take - Adam Grant
Praxent, Commanding Business