Creating Sales Stars: A Guide to Managing the Millennials on Your Team

Creating Sales Stars: A Guide to Managing the Millennials on Your Team

Creating Sales Stars: A Guide to Managing the Millennials on Your Team

Creating Sales Stars: A Guide to Managing the Millennials on Your Team

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Overview

Everyone knows about the business potential represented by the huge millennial age group. But how do you manage the next generation millennial sales force required to reach this gigantic market?

Meet your new sales force: They love collaboration, live and breathe technology, and happily bring assignments home. They also show up late, resist authority, text their friends in meetings, and job hop like there’s no tomorrow.

You can bark orders all you want, but it won’t work with millennials. To get great sales results, you need to let go of old school approaches and learn to speak their language.

Creating Sales Stars is your field guide to managing today’s emerging sales professionals. Packed with generational insights and surefire strategies, the book helps you:

  • Create a back bench of future sales leaders
  • Fire them up and keep them focused on sales
  • Establish a fun, meaningful environment
  • Train them and retain them
  • Apply the right pressure
  • Teach without preaching
  • Ensure they feel valued
  • Mine their tech savvy

Millennials crave feedback, flexibility, and opportunities to grow. Creating Sales Stars shows how to give them what they need—and achieve the results you want.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814439388
Publisher: AMACOM
Publication date: 10/16/2018
Edition description: Special
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.95(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Stephan Schiffman(New York, NY) has trained more than half a million salespeople at wide range of corporations including IBM, AT&T, Motorola, Sprint, and Cigna. A popular speaker, he is the author of numerous bestselling books with eight million in print, including Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!) and The 25 Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople.


Gary M. Krebs(Fairfield, CT), founder of GMK Writing and Editing, Inc., is a writer, literary agent, and longtime business book publisher who has managed large teams. He is coauthor of Greg S. Reid’s The Wealth Hackers. He recently completed his novel, Little Miss of Darke County: The Secret Origins of Annie Oakley.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

BREAKING THROUGH THEIR MINDSET

Recently, I was coaching and training a sales organization based in Portland, Oregon. As soon as I sat down with management and the sales leaders, they barraged me with their frustrations and helplessness in dealing with their young teams. These are some of the things they called out:

• They're really difficult to work with.

• They walk out when I'm talking to them or in meetings.

• They expect me to treat them as equals.

These managers were at their wits' ends. They couldn't believe these individuals had graduated from college and seemed good enough to be hired by their companies. There must have been something that made them come across as professional, smart, motivated, and capable. Where did all that go?

Let's take a step back. When you walked into the office on the first day of your first job back in the 18th century (okay, maybe not that far back), you were scared of saying or doing the wrong things. You went out of your way to show respect and be courteous to your boss. You desperately wanted to impress people and move up the ladder. You had every intention of staying in that company until you retired or dropped dead — whichever came first. You were probably thinking: "Wow! I have a job. This is great. People think I'm good enough and hired me. They're taking a chance on me, paying me a salary, and giving me benefits. I don't want to let my boss or anyone down. I want to show everyone what I can really do."

I have some news for you: the people you've hired as sales reps don't think being hired is any kind of honor or privilege like you did. If anything, it's the opposite. They think they can be hired by anyone at any time and leave for brighter horizons whenever they want. Whereas you were adapting to your company and boss when you started out, today's salespeople expect you to adjust to them.

You need to find ways to break through their mindset. And no, this doesn't mean preaching to them or berating them. Any preaching or condescending, hierarchical-sounding statements like "You need to pay your dues," "Know your place," "I'm your superior," "You have to toe the line," "Show respect," etc. will be treated with justifiable disdain.

Instead, if you have an employee who thinks he or she is an "equal" to you and not showing reasonable respect — i.e., not listening, eye-rolling when you speak, leaving meetings early, not following instructions — ask him or her the following simple question in a calm, casual voice: "How do you see my role here?"

The inevitable response will be a nervous chuckle followed by the honest question "Are you serious?"

"Yes," you reply in the same tone.

"Your role? Aren't you the boss? You make all the decisions around here."

"Okay, help me understand this. If I'm the boss and make all the decisions like you say, don't you think that what I say is important?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I asked you to format your sales forecast like everyone else. If you don't do it like that, I can't merge all the spreadsheets from the other reps to create the final forecast. If it doesn't get done right or on time, it reflects on the team's performance."

In the above instance, you've established a) that you are the boss and what that means; b) that the work needs to be done a certain way; c) why it's important to get it done that way; and d) how the employee's failure to follow explicit direction could hurt the team's overall performance and reputation.

The key in the above is letter "d" — the team's performance and reputation. Why? Because Millennials care about their peers and the team performance even more than they care about individual perceptions.

In their eyes, team failure is a personal failure. By recognizing this and pointing out that you understand this fact, you are getting into their mindset and earning their understanding and respect.

One thing is for sure: there is nothing in the Millennial mindset suggesting that they care one iota about how things reflect upon you. They strongly disapprove of leaders who take credit for individual or team accomplishments and, on the opposite end, don't think for one second about how things might negatively impact you or your standing in the company.

When I was new to the workforce, there was a sense that you had your boss's back. You cared about your boss. You wanted your boss to succeed. His or her success meant your success. Today's salespeople believe you are impervious to harm because of your job title, and therefore you are on your own. They don't know or care about how you had to work your butt off for over twenty years to get to your position. They already believe they can do your job without having gone through the obstacles you faced.

Today, you don't need your team to refer to you as "Mr. Smithson," "Ms. Watson," or "Sir." (These actually sound ridiculous.) You don't even need them to call you "boss" (although it's kind of endearing if they do this on their own). You don't ever need or want to have a "superior" attitude when communicating with your team.

In general, you always want to include yourself as part of the team and say we instead of you or I/me. Your reps don't care about you, so if you use I they will presume you only think about yourself and not the team. Or, you are using yourself as an example to show you are better or smarter than they are. The collective we rings far truer.

Still, even though you want to exercise caution with pronoun usage, it can be extremely problematic for an employee to see you as an equal in other ways. There are many reasons why, but they have nothing whatsoever to do with your showing off your power and ego.

It's about commanding respect, which is needed for the following reasons:

* Decision-making: Your employee has already admitted that you are the decision-maker. Since this is the case, there are times when it is essential that you must have unquestioned authority to make the decisions without worrying about "feelings" and "everyone's opinion" over what you think is best for the organization.

* Your expertise and experience: Yes, this counts for a lot. You never want to remind them of this or shove it in their faces (yes, they will roll their eyes), but your years demand respect. By all means, acknowledge any areas in which they excel and you don't — i.e., technology is an obvious example — but that doesn't mean they should act as if your expertise and experience is of equal to or less value than the things they know.

* Leading the entire team: If one individual doesn't show respect to you in front of the whole team, then the others won't either. It is fair for you to privately hold an employee accountable for any such behavior.

* Assigning tasks and responsibilities: Without someone delegating projects and responsibilities, a team falls into chaos. While team members can request certain roles, ultimately you are the person deciding who does what.

* Performance reviews: At the end of the day, you control that employee's destiny in the company. Will she get a raise? Will she get promoted? You never throw this in their faces, but during regular 1:1 meetings, it is always a good idea to keep employees apprised of where they stand vs. their goals and where their rating would be if the performance review were to be done that day. This is a great reminder to the employee that you are her manager, that you are not equals, without bluntly stating this fact. Your main goal in doing a periodic performance temperature take is to mentor and guide the employee, as well as to give the employee a reality check, as she may think she's 100% on track when that may not be the case. The reminder to her that you are the person who "rates" her performance is a residual upside for you in the process.

It goes without saying that everyone on the planet is equal in terms of importance and deserving of inalienable human rights. No one person is "better" than another. But when it comes to managing a sales team, there should not be a perception from anyone on the team that he or she is "equal" to the manager — even in a non-hierarchical workplace. You, as manager, are looked upon to coach and mentor your team and provide team members with the tools and support they need. But when it comes to decision-making and leading the troops, you are in charge and the one pressing them to make the deals, make sales, and make revenue. Without that understanding, they'll never listen to you and everyone will flop. If they don't perceive your place on the org chart, you have a respect issue with them and have to confront them head-on to change their mindset. Everyone needs to follow the road that you've paved — in the form of goals, targets, and strategies — to drive your company where it needs to go. The folks who venture down a separate path can just keep walking.

I've found that a key reason managers don't know how to manage today's salespeople is that they can't relate to them and can't get into their mindset. They become afraid to manage them because they come across as so convinced that they can do their jobs (which they can't). Throughout this book I will give you tips on how to bridge that gap. The first thing you need to realize is that some Millennial salespeople don't want to be managed in the traditional sense — and they don't want to be managed by you. Now that you are well aware of this incontrovertible fact, you can go about your business as manager doing what you need to do at the helm.

5 Things to Remember

1. Salespeople today do not see their managers as the same authority figure that past generations did.

2. Many young salespeople today believe that they are qualified to do your job without having had any experience as a manager.

3. Some salespeople see themselves as your "equal"; in fact, their roles are vital to the company, but you still need to demonstrate leadership to change their mindsets and reinforce that you are in charge.

4. You likely have team members who don't care how their poor performance reflects upon you, which means you need to associate everything with team success and failure.

5. Salespeople who don't respect authority and won't adjust their mindsets are welcome to test their theories out at another company.

CHAPTER 2

GETTING THEM TO BUY IN

In an ideal world, should you really be "obligated" to cajole your team into "buying in" to the product or service you are selling? No, you shouldn't have to do this. Are you going to end up doing it? You bet you will.

Millennials can be really skeptical and don't have a sense of the past. They also have an odd lack of imagination about the future, as if it's already arrived and they are convinced that they already know everything about it. They aren't paying any attention to the way things were, where they are now, and where they could be in the future.

The phonograph was an unbelievable invention in 1877. When Thomas Edison invented it, he had no idea how long it was going to last or be appreciated. It survived the cassette era and the 8-track era, sputtered during CDs, and vanished in the wake of digital music. The phonograph went kaput, right? Wait, not so fast.

In 2005, turntables came back, with sales of about 138,000. That's a pretty interesting blip. Was it just an anomaly? Between 2006 and 2014, the sales ranged between 60,000 and 111,000. The original excitement aside, this seemed like a pretty niche market that was flat to downtrending at best. But what happened in 2015? Sales went through the roof to 1.4 million! A year later, sales reached 1.8 million! Now, suddenly, we have a turntable trend, and records — vinyl albums — are a viable business once again. One company, SEV Litovel, is seeing 400% increases in turntables and can't keep up with demand.

You are probably asking: Why are you bringing this up? Should I start investing in 8-track players?

No, of course not. I bring up the turntable sensation as an example of how knowing the past can help the future. Today's sales professionals only see a big black cloud hanging over the future. It's absolutely ridiculous. They only see the negatives in the marketplace, not the opportunities.

I believe the past can often be a beacon to the future. When I get on a crowded bus, I can predict what is going to happen: some people will get off at the next stop; some people will stay on the bus; more people will get on. Am I a soothsayer? No. It's common sense. Business is circular, and customers are always coming and going.

Whatever you do, no matter where the bus is headed, you and your team don't want to be left off the bus because someone else — i.e., a competitor — has stolen your seats.

Your team needs to recognize that there are important moments in history, and this could be your turn to take advantage of them. How do you accomplish this? Everyone must buy in 110% to your product or service and its bright future.

Let's say your team is selling a widget that's existed since 1972. It still makes money and supports two thousand people in a factory, a warehouse, a back office, a sales team, a marketing team, a board of directors, and several executives. Sure, sales are soft and times are tough. They have always been tough. Your sales team is about to go off on a road show to unveil and present a brand-new widget that's been in development for years. One problem: your sales team doesn't buy in to the new widget at all. The objections might go something like this:

• Widgets are old — who cares about a widget?

• Anyone who wants a widget already has one.

• The competitors are outselling us three to one on widgets — how can we beat that?

• A new widget? Really? There's no difference between the old one and the new one. A widget is still a widget, isn't it?

What they are saying is that they don't buy in to your product, they don't believe in it, and they don't have any confidence that they can sell it. They couldn't care less that widgets have sustained the business for years and that the new widget is sensational. It's all doom and gloom and black clouds.

Do you think this sales team is going to succeed on a road show with this widget? Not a chance. They are guaranteed to fail. They've created a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they don't believe in the product, there is no way they will be able to sell it. The buyers will smell their lack of faith from a mile away.

Salespeople not only need fire in the belly in order to sell; they need fire in the brain as well. Their brain cells need to be bubbling with excitement over the new product. They should be pumped to hit the road: "A new widget? Hell, yeah — pile them high and wide, I can sell a ton of these!"

So, how do you foster this kind of enthusiasm? As a team exercise, gather everyone together for thirty minutes. To start the dialogue, show them a metal paper clip. Open with this:

In 1817 the paper clip was invented. What a brilliant, perfect invention! It's still used in offices everywhere — in spite of staplers, binder clips, and digital documents. The paper clip is never going away.

Now. Suppose you had to market and sell this metal paper clip. Your commissions depended upon it. How would you do it? Everyone knows exactly what a paper clip is and what it does, right? You're thinking: "He's out of his mind. Paper clips are old. Who cares? No one will buy a paper clip."

Ask everyone to write down their ideas for reinventing, marketing, and selling the paper clip. Anything that comes into their heads is fine. Each idea should be written on a separate Post-It. Give them ten minutes to come up with as many ideas as possible.

When time is up, have everyone place their Post-Its on the walls. Every salesperson should have at least ten, if not up to fifty. When they are done, the walls of the entire room should be covered with Post-Its filled with inventions, marketing ideas, and sales pitches for the paper clip. Pick a volunteer from the room to read them all aloud. I guarantee some will be silly, some will be wildly creative, and a few will be brilliant.

The point is this: everything has a precedent for invention and can be reinvented. Every year there is a newer and better smartphone. The reps at Apple are never going to whine "Aw, man, do I have to sell another iPhone again?!"

If Apple can create, market, sell, and generate excitement for new phones every year, why can't there be a newer, better paper clip? Think about the versatility of the paper clip today and all the variations currently available in office stores:

• Paper clips used to just be metal and come in only two sizes. Why not offer them in ten sizes, for every need?

• They could be made of bendable plastic instead of metal; no longer could they be used as sharp weapons or tear your paper when you remove them.

• Paper clips can come in a variety of colors — blue, green, orange, red, and more — so you can separate different documents by paper-clip color.

• How about an amazing low-priced paper clip spinner with dividers to separate the colors?

• Why not customize paper clips in the color and shape of your customers' brand and logo — it's a whole new revenue stream!

(Continues…)


Excerpted from "Creating Sales Stars"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Stephan Schiffman.
Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Foreword Jeffrey Hayzlett xiii

Introduction: Old-School Management Doesn't Work! 1

1 Breaking Through Their Mindset 9

2 Getting Them to Buy In 15

3 Convincing Them They Don't Need Approval for Everything 21

4 Training, Training, Training! 27

5 Inspiring Team Spirit and Unity 35

6 Assigning Sales Mentors 43

7 Conveying Their Targets 49

8 Guiding Them on Prospecting 55

9 Broadening Their Sales Community 65

10 Applying the Right Pressure While Appreciating Their Work/Life Balance 73

11 Leading by Example 81

12 Teaching Without Preaching 87

13 Conducting Team Meetings 91

14 Communicating on a Regular Basis 99

15 Giving Them the Tools to Overcome Sales Objections 107

16 Keeping Them Fired Up and Aggressive 113

17 Recognizing That They Know Way More About Technology Than You 119

18 Shielding Them from What May Challenge Their Values 127

19 Helping Them Make a Good Impression 133

20 Creating a Fun, Interactive, and Meaningful Work Environment 139

21 Coaxing Them to Do Stuff They Don't Want to Do 147

22 Showing Them How to Make a Difference to Their Customers 153

23 Encouraging Them to Make Deals and Close FAST 159

24 Ensuring That They Feel Appreciated, Respected, and Valued 165

25 Providing New Opportunities and Future Challenges 171

Conclusion 177

References 179

Index 183

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