A friend of mine was recently promoted to sales management within this company.  He asked me what suggestions I had to help him be successful.  I shared the following book recommendations and general sales management principles with him:

Book Recommendations:

1)       Topgrading by Brad Smart

2)       Leading at a Higher Level by Ken Blanchard

3)     Don’t Fire Them, Fire Them Up by Frank Pacetta

4)      Who by Geoff Smart

5)       Coaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions by Keith Rosen

6)       First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham

7)       The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

 Sales Management Principles for Success:

1)       Set clear expectations, in writing, with your sales people

2)       Provide regular written and verbal feedback on how they are doing

3)       Give them special projects or tasks to lead

4)       Constantly praise them for their efforts and let upper management know when they do a good job

5)       Learn how to listen better and solve their problems

6)       Don’t ask them to do anything you are not willing to do

7)       Creatively show them you value and appreciate their work (handwritten notes, plaques, letter to  spouse, etc.)

8)     Make yourself available all the time and have open/honest communication with them

9)       Keep them informed about what the company is working on and where it is going

10)     Share your vision and help your reps understand how they are a part of the success of it

11)     Control team negativity

12)     Fire low performers

13)     Empower your team members to say yes

14)     Lead by example

Hopefully these suggestions help you become a more effective sales manager!

Under the microscope: In tough economy, Charlotte businesses facing more scrutiny

During the first break-out session at this year’s NAHAM conference in Orlando, I delivered a speech entitled “Keys to Effective Leadership in a Diverse Workplace.”  Within this presentation, I discussed a variety of topics including incentives, rewards, goal setting, time management and increasing staff morale and motivation.  By the end of my presentation I had realized that the attendees were most interested in my section on increasing morale and motivation. 

The following is an overview of the top eight ways you can accomplish this within your team or organization:

1)     Public Displays of Appreciation

While money can sometimes be a motivating factor, there is extensive data suggesting that employees have a strong interest in being recognized by their managers in front of their peers.  The next time one of your team members provides a remarkable customer experience, try acknowledging them at the next department meeting. 

A key aspect of this recognition is to request that they stand up in the front of the room and that you sincerely thank them for a specific instance where their work went beyond expectations.  This act will put a smile on their faces (as well as in their minds) for quite some time which will in turn enhance their work satisfaction and attitude.

2)     Work a Station Occasionally

Many managers complain about all of the calls, meetings and paperwork that keep them in their office for days at a time.  While this may be unavoidable it has been my experience that employees would like to see their managers walk in their shoes from time to time. 

For example a manager in the registration area should occasionally sit with patients and help with the admission process.  Not only will the staff appreciate the fact that their manager understands what it is like to do their jobs, but by being on the front lines managers will hear many things about their employees that they would not have heard with their office door closed. 

3)     Training Should Not Be a One Time Event

Many organizations have strong new-hire training programs in place, however not enough on-going training for their employees.  Managers should constantly invest in a cycle of success for their employees. 

This means providing regular development opportunities for them.  Managers should want this for their staff, and research suggests that employees generally have a desire to keep improving and learning.  If you run out of training ideas, ask a vendor or consultant to come in and discuss market trends or case studies of other successful organizations. 

Bottom line, in order to keep spirits high management needs to provide employees with frequent opportunities for professional development.

4)     Provide Regular Performance Reviews

Managers need to keep a close eye on how their employees are doing.  Regular feedback is a necessity.  This cannot be accomplished through an annual review.  I recommend providing reviews on a quarterly basis – twice in writing and twice verbally. 

I have found that most good employees want to know how their manager rates their work.  So, increasing performance discussions will increase morale and continuing that communication throughout the year will keep the motivation high. 

Additionally, providing consistent feedback gives management more data to make changes in staff should an employee not be performing well.

5)     Set Clear Expectations

You can start to frame your expectations as early as the new employee interview process.  Then follow that by using a simple “expectations document” to remind employees of their objectives as the year progresses.  This resource can be used for both new hires and existing team members.

The “expectation document” lists what you need and want from an employee during a review period.  It is a working document that will change as an employee grows and objectives are updated during the review process.

This type of communication is vital to the success of an employee.  It has been proven that people want to know what is expected of them and how they will be measured against those objectives.  If this information is delivered in a clear and concise fashion, you will greatly increase morale and motivation.

6)     Empower Your Employees to Say Yes!

Most organizations spend a lot of time and money trying to hire and retain high quality people.  This allows management to trust that staff members know right from wrong.  If that is the case, then there is no need for policies and procedures that make it hard for employees to do the right thing.  The harder you make this process, the more frustrating it will become and ultimately your customers (both internal and external) will be affected.

7)     Control Team Negativity

Unfortunately, we will all come across an employee who is a bad apple.  If this is your reality, then move quickly to improve the situation. 

If one person has a bad attitude, then separate that person from the team and work with them on improving behavior.  You do not want one person’s negativity to have an impact on your top performers. 

Additionally, good employees want to see their management address problems head on.  Get in front of your problems right from the start and you will be amazed how much your team dynamic improves.

8)     Enable a Sense of Progress

Employees do not expect to move from the front line to upper management overnight, but they do want to feel like their job has purpose, and that they are moving in the right direction.  Low levels of morale and motivation can set in, if employees do not think that they are making progress. 

Give your employees opportunities that will allow them to validate that they are making progress.  Develop a career ladder or appoint team members to lead special projects or tasks.  These are small ways to show employees that they are moving forward. 

Hopefully these eight ideas serve you well as you continue to shape and mold your team.  Always keep in mind that employee morale and motivation can play a significant role in the short and long term success of your organization.

The Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) demonstration project found over $1,000,000,000 of improper payments from just a handful of states.  The permanent program will likely generate several times that amount.  Even though your organization may not be receiving many complex review letters yet, you should be preparing to minimize your financial exposure as much as possible.  Here are seven ways to accomplish just that:

1)     Mail Yourself a Mock RAC Letter

Many providers are concerned about how the RAC letters will be handled in their facilities.  Some popular questions are: Who will the RAC letter be routed to within our hospital?  How long will it take for that letter to get to the right person after we receive it from the RAC?  Will there be any consistency to how our internal team treats this process?

One quick and inexpensive way to address these questions is to mail yourself a letter as if it was from your RAC.  Go ahead and make it look official, address it to the person who is responsible for RAC letters and document exactly what day you put it in the mail.  Then, wait to see what happens.  Even if you are already receiving letters from the RAC and they appear to be handled correctly, I would suggest that you mail a sample letter every month to ensure that your process is still running smoothly.  (If it is not, wouldn’t you want to learn that from a practice letter before you miss a deadline with your RAC because the right person did not receive their mail in time?) 

2)     Review All Four RAC Websites

All issues need to be formally approved and posted on the RAC websites before they can pursue those with providers.  Given that, review your regional RAC website on a weekly basis to see if there are any updates.  However, do not stop there.  Take a few minutes every couple weeks and review the other three RAC sites as well.  If a different region has had success with a series of DRG’s, it only is a matter of time before your RAC will add that to their approved list as well.  Be pro-active and see what is going on from a national basis and get your team prepared.  You can learn more about the four national RAC’s at: www.aha.org/rac.

3)     Increase Your Billing & Coding Resources

While medical necessity was the category that produced the most improper payments during the demonstration project, the permanent program has only approved DRG related issues as of the first quarter of 2010.  Many hospitals have built up their RAC team largely focused on clinical resources, but they do not seem to have added certified billers and coders to meet the increased demand that is soon to be coming.  If your facility gets inundated with RAC letters, your existing team members will likely not be able to handle all of that additional work.  I would encourage you to add another FTE if possible or partner with a company who could provide this as a service to you.  Doing nothing will probably result in adding to your financial exposure from the RAC’s.

4)     Plan for an Audit Revolution

Given the overwhelming financial success of the RAC demonstration project, all other payers must be salivating over the opportunity to perform similar audits on you in the future.  While this is painful to think about, your audit concerns need to focus on more than just the RAC’s.  Plan for Medicaid, Blue Cross, United, Aetna, etc. to quickly piggy-back off of the wild success that the RAC’s have had. 

Accordingly, your internal committee should probably not be called your “RAC Team” but rather your “Audit Response Team.”  Think more globally about how auditing will change in the near future.  It would be helpful to have a plan in place to handle audits that come from any payer, not just RAC. 

5)     Focus on Getting it Right from the Start

While responding to the RAC’s is a necessary endeavor, your real goal should be much broader than that.  In an ideal world, you would like the auditors to never find any reason to come calling.  In order for that to happen, you must be focused on revenue integrity and data correctness right from the start.  How do you do that? 

Get more committed to your denials management process! Regardless of how good you think it is now, there is always room for improvement.  You probably need to have parallel task forces to accomplish this.  One would be for your newly named “Revenue Integrity Team” and the other would be your “Audit Response Team.”  The combination of both of those efforts will produce short and long term results which will pay dividends to your organization.

6)     Be Prepared for the Long Haul or Partner with Someone Who Is

Even though a defined appeals process has been established for the RAC’s, that timeframe has turned out to be much longer than anyone expected.  For example, there are many providers from the demonstration project that are still waiting to have resolution on their appeals.  Given that the permanent program will grow to 50 states, what will the appeal timeline look like for you?  Common sense would suggest that many appeals in the future will take years to finalize.  Given that, do you have the time, resources and patience to work through this process over the course of several years?  If you are not sure, I would encourage you to partner with a company who can help you do just that.  And, make sure they charge you a flat fee for the appeals; otherwise you may end up winning the RAC appeal but giving all of your proceeds to your vendor.

7)     Build Your External Team and Plan for Implementation

Many providers THINK they have everything in place to manage all of the audits coming their way.  However, so did most of the hospitals during the demonstration project.  The unfortunate reality is that many of you need help.  If you cannot pull together funds to add FTE’s, then partner up with external resources who can help.  You should have a RAC attorney who you can call when you need their services.  Additionally, do you have a company that can provide both DRG and medical necessity claims review and support in the event your existing team cannot manage the increased volume?  Hopefully you will not need to utilize all of these services, but since you cannot really tell what your workload is going to be it is wise to set some partnerships up now.

If you agree that you may need some external help, please remember that most partners need some time to implement.  You need to sign an agreement and then given the nature of the RAC reviews, you may also need to set up electronic access to your system.  This can take two or three months.  Don’t wait for the RAC’s to create a problem for you, proactively plan for success in this area.

Hopefully these ideas will help minimize your current and future financial risk related to the pending audits.  While it can sometimes be difficult to plan for the unknown, there is simply too much at risk not to be prepared.  Do yourself a favor and implement the steps above.  It would be great to have all of them in place and not need them than the other way around!

In today’s business world, working from home is a reality. For some of you, it is only occasionally at night or on the weekend, but for others it can be part of your daily routine. More and more employers are giving their team members the flexibility of working from home simply to keep their overhead costs down. While others do it to allow their employees some flexibility in their day. In our current competitive job market we must all become effective and remain productive regardless of where our place of work happens to be. Here are 8.5 tips on how to make working from home a successful venture for you, your family and your employer.

1 ) Start your business day as if you were going into the office.
Even if you will be physically at home all day, that does not mean that you cannot mentally be at work. I encourage you to set your alarm to wake up bright and early, jump in the shower and get dressed in comfortable, yet business casual attire. These steps set the expectation in your mind that you are going to work. Not only that, but it demonstrates to your family that you are treating the day as a work day.

2 ) Place your office in an area that is not easily found.
If your office is right by the front door, kitchen or kids play room, you will undoubtedly be interrupted by others throughout the day. Even if you are not interrupted, you curiosity will be peaked and you will be inclined to leave your office when you hear others. Instead, I recommend your office be set up in an area that is away from all distractions. Remove the television, couch and home phone from this area as well, as they will only compel you to take your focus away from the tasks at hand.

3 ) Use a separate phone line.
Whether you use your cell phone or have a separate house line put in do not share your lines of communication with your family. Nothing will be more burdensome that having family members interrupt your business calls with their personal agenda.

4 ) Make sure you have all the equipment you need to be productive.
My office in my residence has the same equipment as my corporate office. I have a separate phone line (with speaker), a spacious work desk, high speed internet access, a color printer, fax, scanner and copier. This allows me to be as productive as possible.

5 ) Communicate your location to co-workers.
If you work in both a corporate office, and also at home sometimes make sure to let people know where you are each day. This will reduce the amount of follow-up you will have from people constantly leaving you messages at the office that you do not get until a later time. Also, you might consider forwarding your office calls to your home or cell line if more appropriate.

6 ) Set boundaries with your family.
My family knows that if my door is closed at home, then I am busy at work and I am not to be disturbed. Also, if they want/need to speak with me they call me on my phone. This prevents them from interrupting my flow of work. If you would like to integrate some time with your family during the work day, I recommend a short break and set your time limit up front.

7 ) Take several short breaks to change the scenery.
Don’t let working in your home office cause cabin-fever. Take a couple breaks throughout the day. Keep these breaks short, no longer than 15 minutes, and relegate them to 1-2 per day.

8 ) Know when to call it a day.
One challenge with working from home is that your work is always available to you. Learn when to end your work day and week. Just because you can work all the time, does not mean you should. Listen to your family members on this one. If they complain about you always working while at home, they may be right. Give your work and yourself a break after business hours.

8.5 ) You may need a permanent change!
Working from a home office only works for some people. I know quite a few people who thought they could do it, but failed. That is ok. But, try to be rational when you evaluate your production at home. You should be able to get the same amount of work done at home as in your corporate environment. If not, make a change – before your boss does it for you!

Question: Have you established goals for this year and are you prepared to meet those goals?

Goal setting is a good idea regardless of your professional or personal situation. Most people have an interest in getting from where they are today, to someplace better in the future. The goals you set for yourself may be suggested to you or you may create them on your own, either way, people have an innate interest in self-improvement. The following are ideas to consider when establishing your goals for the year:

1) A goal is much more realistic if you make it yourself.

Many sales organizations try to force a required quota onto their employees. This quota was probably based on an objective that your boss or the organization has. Bottom line, most front line people do not relate well to the goals given to them. Instead, ask your employees to create their own goals. Not only will these goals be more realistic, but the employee will automatically have more accountability to them.

2) Set goals based on income, rather than units sold or revenue produced.
Most sales people are completely or partially paid via commissions earned from the sales they generate. Money generally motivates team members more than the total number of units sold or the value of the deal. Reason being, the product sold is what the customer receives…..the revenue is what your company receives and cash is what the sales person receives. Why not set your goal based on how you are affected by the outcome? It is generally a lot more fun to think about all of the money you are going to make versus all of the units you are going to sell. This tip is equally important for sales managers. Put yourself in your sales reps shoes and see how your current measuring stick applies to them. If it is not providing the right incentive for them, make the change right now to get their goals aligned with their outcomes.

3) Keep your goals visible and make them known to all.
Write down your goals in three spots: such as a business card to carry in your pocket, a piece of paper next to your desk at the office and a sticky-note on your mirror at home. This way, you are guaranteed to look at your goals several times a day. Read your goals and think about them often. The power of your thoughts can directly affect your ability to reach your objectives. Additionally, share your goals with as many people as you can, such as your wife, your business partners, sales reps, your mentors, etc. You will be instantly more accountable to your goals you have shared with others. Also, once your family and friends listen to your goals, they automatically become supporters in helping you achieve them.

4) Set your goals based on historical data.
If you made $50,000 last year, your chances of making $250,000 this year are not so good. For better or for worse, your history tells you a lot about your future. Reviewing your past sales record will help you be more realistic when setting your goals. Your intent should be to improve on what you accomplished last year and to set your goals in a way that is challenging, yet attainable. If you are new on the job and have no previous data to pull from, then ask one of your peers what kind of success they achieved in their first year.

5) Modify your goals as the year goes on.
If your intent is too create realistic goals that motivate you to succeed, then your target for the year may change as time passes. This could work in two ways. First, perhaps you are having a better than expected year and it looks like you will achieve your goal sooner than expected. Great….now re-set your goals to more accurately reflect where your target should be. Secondly, there may have been several challenges to your business that you did not anticipate. That being the case, your goals for the year may be too aggressive. Review your objectives and try to re-align your present objectives to your current reality.

6) Treat yourself!
Often, people focus too much of their attention on the goal and not enough on their personal reward for reaching the goal. Think about a short wish list of personal items that you want for the year and align your goals with them. So, if you meet your quarterly or annual goal, go ahead and buy that watch or golf club that you wanted. Print out pictures of these rewards and post them in strategic places around your home and office. When you see these photos, it will remind you again of how great it will feel to buy those items as a gift to yourself once you meet your goal.

Hopefully this overview of goal setting has been valuable to you. All of these suggestions can be adopted and implemented right away. The longer you take to get started, the longer it may take for you to reach your goals.

News Flash: Your prospective buyers are smarter than they used to be. Well, at least it seems that way. With the advent of the internet, they can now educate themselves on your company and your competition very easily. Do not kid yourself, savvy buyers are going onto Google and Yahoo before meeting with you. The days are over where you come into an introductory meeting and impress them with your one-of-a-kind business model.

So, what can you do to counter-act the advanced knowledge the prospective customer likely has?

Tip #1: Understand that your prospect knows more about your business than you give them credit for.

Tip #2: Your buyer is tired of the standard sales process that you are using.

Buyers today want to feel good about buying something, as opposed to being sold something. You should start focusing on things like building rapport, asking great questions and speaking candidly with the potential customer. While some of these skills may already be on your radar screen, I would offer that you are focused more on which “step” you are in the sales process versus developing areas of connection with the buyer. Once you open your meeting well, get right to the bottom line of what your presentation is all about. Speak to what your objective is, what the top reason(s) the buyer would benefit and also try to quantify what that value might mean to them. You can do all of this in five minutes if you really focus. Then, stop your presentation and ask them what they think? Their feedback at this point is very revealing. If they are interested, they will want you to explain more of the details. If they are not, then you should also be able to interpret that quickly and really determine if this meeting is worth everyone’s time.

In sales it is not simply a numbers game. You need to be more strategic than that. You need to meet with lots of prospects who are also qualified buyers. If your prospects are not qualified, then you likely will not make your annual goal.

This lack of a sales process is likely a departure from your existing methods. And, my ideas will not work all the time. However, before you reject my suggestions, give them a try on your next ten prospects. Then, measure your effectiveness at that time. You may not generate any more sales immediately, but you will likely spend less time with folks who are not real buyers of your product/service. Worst case scenario, your audience will appreciate the fact that you are different than the last ten sales reps they met with.

Asking great questions should be a part of every sales call. But, there may be a difference between the questions you are asking and great questions. Great questions solicit candid, thoughtful feedback, which leads you closer to making a sale. Based on fifteen years of sales experience and countless hours of training and courses on the topic, here are what I believe to be the five best questions that you can ask while in front of a prospect….

1) Who signs the order or agreement?
I used to ask who the decision-maker is, but I have been burned too many times on that question. My experience tells me the following: (1) the decision-maker is commonly not the person who signs your deal and (2) the decision-maker likes to pretend they are in charge of the decision, when they are really not. These two points are especially relevant in strategic sales applications. I would argue that most sales people know who signs the order less than 50% of the time. Now, that does not mean that you will not earn the business, it just infers that you leave yourself open for the competition to align themselves with the correct person. I have never come across anyone who has not been truthful when I asked “who signs the order?” People who do not have the authority to do so, will not put themselves out there if they cannot execute the agreement.

2) What is my competition saying about me?
This is the quintessential assumptive question. If they are talking to others, this question will uncover who they are and what their positioning is. Or if they are not talking to others, this question will generally open up discussion around whether the buyer intends on inviting other companies to participate in the opportunity. You may be thinking, “Why introduce competition when there may not be any?” Again, my experience tells me that buyers will elect to include another vendor (or not!), whether you bring it up or not. Give this question a try, I think you might be pleasantly surprised by the discussions it generates.

3) Even though you want our product, what are the reasons why you would not be able to buy it right now?
This is a terrific question because it gets to the heart of several possible sales obstacles. First, while the person you are speaking with may want your solution, it does not mean that the organization is really committed to buying it. Your question will uncover the true obstacles to closing this sale. And it makes it easy for this person to defer the challenges to your sale to another person or department, if appopriate. Second, this question speaks directly to the timing of your prospective order. Sometimes this response will validate that this is a pressing issue for the potential buyer, but usually it will tell you the real timing of the opportunity. And yes, depending on what you are selling, your conversation may be one or two years ahead of their actual buying schedule.

4) After you say yes, what has to happen?
After experimenting with lots of different ways to ask this, the question above has proven to be the most effective at determining what the REAL decision-making and buying process is. I have found no other way to get to the heart of what happens next. The beauty of this question is that it includes the person you are engaged with as part of the buying process; yet, uncovers who else is involved and what other buying influences exist. The importance is not only in asking this question, but listening intently to the answer. This will reveal the keys to your success with regards to this order.

5) After we earn your business, what is the best way to encourage you to speak with others about your good experience with us?
This question addresses several relevant parts of your sales campaign. First, by starting off with an assumptive question, you can quickly qualify the buyer’s interest in you, your product/service or your company. If they did not want you to “earn” the business, their answers to this question would likely divulge that critical piece of data. Next, one of the best ways to grow your business is to cultivate a customer to an extent that they pro-actively tell others about you. This is no easy task. That is precisely why you ask the question before you close the sale. This way, you know exactly what you need to do in order to encourage this buyer to recommend you to others. Understanding the “triggers” to what motivates a buyer to talk favorably about you is paramount.

While there are many good questions to ask during a sales call, I have found these five to be the most beneficial. If you already using these, then measure yourself in terms of how often you are doing so and also what responses prospective buyers give you. If you are not asking these questions, then I recommend that you start right away. I believe that one’s ability to close business is often related to the quality of the questions he/she asks!

With the advent of cell phones and PDAs, our lives are now filled with devices intended to make communication easier. Ironically, though, many of us have let these gadgets, combined with poor time management skills, ruin what would otherwise be a productive workday.

It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Here are some tips that you can use immediately to help you become more organized…and consequently, less stressed out.

• Schedule your workday the night before. This suggestion may be the least difficult to implement, but it will provide the quickest return on your investment. Take 10 minutes during the night to review what your following day’s schedule looks like. This review typically sets your mind at ease about what is coming up and often reminds you of a task that you wanted to do in order to prepare for something on your schedule.

Also, write down your most important objectives for the following day. A “To-do” list only helps if you prioritize your time and activities. Unfortunately, people rarely rank what is most important on the list. Try coloring the revenue-generating ideas in green and the non-revenue producing items in red. When you arrive into work the next day, you are then ready to begin working on what is most relevant, instead of thinking about what you to need to work on.

• Use selling hours wisely. Most businesses in your area are likely open between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Given that, try not to fill up that time with non-selling activities. Plan your weekly internal meetings at 7:30 or 8 a.m. If you aren’t the boss, ask yours to make the change based on your self-interest in having as many selling hours as possible available to you. Odds are you’ll find him pleasantly surprised by your request.

Another tip: If you travel in the car a lot, plan phone appointments at that time instead of while in the office. If you move one 15-minute phone call from your office line to your cell phone daily, you just opened up over one hour of extra time per workweek.

• Make clear distinctions between work and personal discussions. Yes, you love your family and friends, but 99% of their communication just isn’t urgent. Accordingly, do not answer personal telephone calls during the day. And make sure all personal e-mails go to your personal account—never your work one. In fact, you’re best off not giving out your business e-mail account to friends or family.

Also, turn off the text function on your cell phone and close your instant messaging client. Have you ever added up how many minutes (hours?) you waste answering people’s meaningless messages to you? Business and personal communication need to be separated—period. Don’t worry, your friends and family will quickly get the message and stop bugging you during the workday.

• Change your e-mail patterns. Switch your e-mail settings so new messages arrive in your inbox every 10 minutes. This way, there is less of a chance you will be interrupted while finishing another e-mail, on the phone or completing another item off of your “to-do” list. It isn’t necessary to drop everything to immediately read and respond to every e-mail that comes into your inbox. E-mail is not intended for instant communication. But the more you respond instantly, the more often people expect you to do so.

When several important projects are piled up on your desk, simply close out your e-mail account altogether. It’s okay to respond at a more convenient time. In fact, it makes more sense to respond later in the day when you aren’t distracted with other things on your mind. The same is true for answering the phone. Feel free to let a few messages accumulate. You can easily call them back later that day or the next morning. As long as business calls are returned with 24 hours, there’s no problem.

• Be selfish with your time. This is the hardest one for salespeople to get comfortable with, but it’s perfectly alright to tell people you cannot do something right then. When someone requests some information right now, politely explain that you are in the middle of something else and ask them what times would be good to meet with them.

These tips will help you organize and prioritize your time better. They may even help you earn more money and reduce your stress level. By controlling your activities, you will no doubt experience a much greater sense of fulfillment.

Once your reps have mastered the above concept, interaction with their prospects will become markedly more productive. It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way: When I was first starting out, I was taught a sales process that had me asking lots of questions to avoid giving the buyer too much information about my proposed solution. My sales meetings would typically take 60 to 90 minutes, yet by the end of them, my target buyer sometimes had no idea what it was I trying to sell them or how much it would cost.

You see, my training dictated I first gather as much information as possible, and then bring it back to my team for a discussion. At that point, we would figure out the right way to deliver a proposal. Not only did this process seem to irritate some of my prospective clients, I found it to be a huge waste of my time.

Yes, I am a proponent of asking good questions. But I’m not an advocate of dancing around questions made by the client in order to hide what your solution might really be. Direct questions deserve direct responses. Your reps prefer that when dealing with a potential buyer, and they desire the same kind of treatment in return. Why wait to the end to give them the bottom line?

I advocate starting most presentations by stating the meeting’s objective. This seems to disarm the buyer, but it also sets a tone of candor with them. Direct communication is often reciprocated by the client. The benefit of this approach is that it’s easy to determine how serious the prospective buyer is right from the start.

Company executives tend to make up their minds in less than five minutes. If that is true, then why wait to the last five minutes of a 90-minute presentation to tell them what the bottom line is? Most likely they have already tuned out of your presentation or have left the meeting because “something else came up.”

I think of myself as a straight shooter, and I respond best to people who try to sell me in that fashion. Salespeople who are direct with me may not always win the business, but they will know where they stand after a short meeting. Direct conversations will likely lead to more constructive sales engagements for both parties.

Once your reps have mastered the above concept, interaction with their prospects will become markedly more productive. It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way: When I was first starting out, I was taught a sales process that had me asking lots of questions to avoid giving the buyer too much information about my proposed solution. My sales meetings would typically take 60 to 90 minutes, yet by the end of them, my target buyer sometimes had no idea what it was I trying to sell them or how much it would cost.

You see, my training dictated I first gather as much information as possible, and then bring it back to my team for a discussion. At that point, we would figure out the right way to deliver a proposal. Not only did this process seem to irritate some of my prospective clients, I found it to be a huge waste of my time.

Yes, I am a proponent of asking good questions. But I’m not an advocate of dancing around questions made by the client in order to hide what your solution might really be. Direct questions deserve direct responses. Your reps prefer that when dealing with a potential buyer, and they desire the same kind of treatment in return. Why wait to the end to give them the bottom line?

I advocate starting most presentations by stating the meeting’s objective. This seems to disarm the buyer, but it also sets a tone of candor with them. Direct communication is often reciprocated by the client. The benefit of this approach is that it’s easy to determine how serious the prospective buyer is right from the start.

Company executives tend to make up their minds in less than five minutes. If that is true, then why wait to the last five minutes of a 90-minute presentation to tell them what the bottom line is? Most likely they have already tuned out of your presentation or have left the meeting because “something else came up.”

I think of myself as a straight shooter, and I respond best to people who try to sell me in that fashion. Salespeople who are direct with me may not always win the business, but they will know where they stand after a short meeting. Direct conversations will likely lead to more constructive sales engagements for both parties.