Performance Appraisal

Work from a master list of 41 different performance areas to select, prioritize and evaluate.

With our comprehensive evaluation rating scale that includes example behaviors for each level of performance you'll be able to accurately evaluate each person on your sales team.

You'll use both a subjective and a numeric scale to compare and contrast performance and you'll use the Continuous Performance Improvement Goals Process to schedule, motivate and track improvement in specific areas.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• Understand the steps in the appraisal process
• Write descriptively about levels performance
• Know the types of comments not to make
• Understand the goal setting process
• Understand how to plan the observation schedule
• Know how to test patterns of behavior
• Know where not to document performance
• Understand how to conduct the performance appraisal session
• Be able to consistently implement the performance improvement process to optimize productivity

Tools:

• Performance Appraisal Ratings Guide
• Continuous Improvement Goals Process

Sales Coach

As a Sales Manager, your number one responsibility is to obtain results through the efforts of others.

This means that you must know what those efforts are, what they look like and you must know the know the specific knowledge, skills and strategies the person must have to perform at the desired levels of effectiveness.

Knowing what to coach and when to coach comes before knowing how to coach.

This course gives you the requisite knowledge, skills, strategies and tools to help your team achieve the highest levels of self motivated performance.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• Understanding what coaching is all about
• Knowing if coaching is the appropriate course of action using the “quick coaching analysis”
• Following the natural flow of the coaching process
• Allowing and enabling the person to solve the problem with your guidance
• Selecting effective positive and negative motivational consequences that aren't terminal or costly
• Using checklists to help define “what” to coach
• Using specific communication skills to provide support and direction without painful criticism
• Using the “Interim Action Plan” to document coaching sessions

Tools:

• Curbside Coaching - PDF
• Peer-to-Peer Coaching: Priority Prospect / Project (P3)Strategy Sessions PDF and Slide Show

Interviewing & Selecting

Identify high potential candidates regardless of previous experience by uncovering key characteristics associated with top producers and by matching corporate culture fit with candidate's usual mode of operation.

This course provides interview recording, calculating and tracking form tools. Questions are provided to help you determine everything from selling skills to organizational skills.

The purpose of this course is to understand how to establish a systematic, structured process for recruiting, interviewing, and selecting professionals most likely to blend with your organization’s culture and succeed in their positions.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• Differentiate between Resume based and Criteria based interviewing
• Compare the key characteristics of top sales producers with those of top sales managers
• Discover the true cost of turnover
• Define and summarize job descriptions
• Determine if candidates are likely to fit within the established corporate culture
• Develop “knock-out” questions to streamline the interview process
• Design the criteria “T” form
• Understand the basis for questions you cannot ask
• Formulate an interview question pool
• Construct a candidate folder
• Locate qualified candidates
• Conduct successful employment interviews
• Make the selection based on objective criteria

Tools:

• Interviewing, Selecting and Hiring interview "T-Form" pre-loaded with Sales Professionals question pool
• Sales Professionals Detailed Job Description [PDF - 27 pages]

Leading & Motivating

Part One

Management Methods that Motivate

Ignite and unify a singleness of purpose, establish a strong achievement driven sales culture, and create a highly motivational environment through the development of specific challenging and fun leadership skills.

It starts by painting a picture of what you want to create for your team. Once they can see the vision, then it can become a shared vision and begin to drive the performance through internal motivation.

This also course enables sales managers to learn how to use multiple low cost to mostly "no cost" motivators (and de-motivators) that border internal and external drives to keep their team moving in the right direction.

The purpose of this course is to demonstrate how to establish a strong achievement driven sales culture, and create a highly motivational environment, through the development of specific challenging leadership skills.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• Gain an understanding of human motivation
• Learn how to overcome resistance to change
• Know the components of a motivational culture
• Write a vision of what you want to create
• Write the team mission statement
• Identify your critical success factors
• Understand the concept of cascading goals to achieve goals alignment

Leading and Motivating

Part Two

Creating and Leading a Motivating Culture

Work units (teams, divisions, companies) that tend to be highly successful in producing and sustaining high quality and quantity work, as well as, high job satisfaction, have strong motivational cultures.

Once people buy into and share the "vision" of what you want to create, they will figure out on their own how to contribute and how to do so at continuously higher levels.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• generate and write a vision that motivates
• define the groups mission
• determine the "critical success factors" that must be met to successfully carry out the mission
• identify the goals necessary to support each critical success factor
• formulate the tasks and action items to achieve the goals
• ensure that the goals cascade to each person in the organization
• review and select values that guide implementation
• learn how rites, rituals and hero selection can dramatically change production - up or down.

E-Mail Etiquette

Communicating with both internal and external customers by email is now as routine as talking with them on the phone. Just as "Telephone Etiquette" is a mission critical skill set, so is Email Etiquette in today's marketplace.

In fact, for many companies, email communications are many times more frequent than actual telephone calls. What this means is that one unintentionally aggressive message in a stressful encounter can cause significant damage to a long-standing relationship all of which could have been prevented with a brief training course in Business Email Etiquette.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• Define the purpose for business email “etiquette”
• Know if email is the correct communication vehicle
• Understand the permanency of email
• Know how to use top and bottom information such as addresses, cc’s, subjects & signature lines
• Use "Plain Text" or "HTML" Format as appropriate
• Know how to structure the message for business purposes
• Understand “Emoticons” and abbreviations
• Develop an email thread and know when to start a new one
• Know what to forward and what not to forward and other tips

Tool:

• Job aide check list

Managing Customer Expectations

A critical skill set in today's fast paced marketplace.

The core knowledge, skills and strategies taught in this course can strengthen customer relations and avoid catastrophe when difficult challenges arise.

Managing internal and external customer expectations, yours and others, is usually a simple task of agreeing on what is to be done and all parties delivering on that agreement. However, when unexpected complications occur, pro-active communication, defusing negative emotions, and previously agreed upon fall-back plans, can impact the service recovery outcome.

Knowing how to deliver good news without distorting expectations, as well as, how to deliver bad news with minimal disruption to the project and minimal negative reaction from the customer.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• How expectations are defined and set from simple orders to complex projects
• How meeting expectations can be as simple as following a routine process to utilizing a project management system
• How to use communications pro-actively to present project status updates, deliver good and bad news
• How to re-define and re-set expectations in light of unforeseen circumstances that prevent the original expectation from being fully met
• How to debrief and evaluate performance

Tool:

• Project Management compiled task checklist and tracking forms

Goal Setting

It's easy to understand how people with goals accomplish significantly more than people without goals. People with goals have direction. They have a target. They have something to work towards. This provides motivation to achieve.

Business goals that are in alignment with personal goals are more motivating than goals that are not in alignment, not related in anyway, or are counter to personal goals. Goals that help cause you to stretch increase motivation.

Goals that are written provide a mechanism to review, refresh, and stay focused on what you want. People with written goals accomplish significantly more than people who only have goals in their heads.

After completing this course you will be able to:

• Develop positive goal statements with measurable action plans
• Identify the resources you need and the source of those resources you need to achieve your goals
• Learn how to energize your goals
• Select multiple areas to set goals to create balance in your life

Tool:

• Goals setting email form

• Sales Professionals Detailed Job Description [PDF - 27 pages]
• Sales Diagnostic Questionnaire [PDF - 204 skilled competencies in 31 areas of selling - 45 page booklet]
• FREE Online Sales Diagnostic Questionnaire (for individuals and companies)
• Interviewing "T Form" Questionnaire pre-loaded with questions for Sales Professionals [33 pages]
• Performance Appraisal Ratings Guide [50 Categories]
• Strategic Sales Plan [2 page checklist]
• Strategic Sales Plan [116 page workbook]
• Pricing Strategies