Sales Success by Design | Chris Lott

7,336 Views

If you’ve been in any kind of position (sales or otherwise), a business owner, and/or manager for any length of time you know what I’m talking about. I always know I’m “in a bad place” when after winning a deal it’s a pain to fill out the contract. One of my sales people tell me about a deal they won and while I show excitement I’m not. These should always be good things, right? What happened to the passion? The “I can’t wait to go to work” attitude?

10 Suggestions to Overcome Sales Burnout

Then it can actually get worse… As the weekend winds down… Sunday night becomes an anxiety attack as you know Monday you need to hit it hard again. You have an early morning flight, customer heat to fade, responsibility, accountability, endless training, endless meetings, reports to fill out, contracts to get re-signed, mind numbing sales – customer chat, long days, stress, stress, stress.

“Burnout is nature’s way of telling you, you’ve been going through the motions your soul has departed; you’re a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.” -Sam Keen

I know… I know… sales performance has to be met regardless of your “state”. So how do you keep successful performance going year after year, month after month, day after day? Here are 10 ideas that have helped me throughout my career as a sales professional to overcome burnout.

6,087 Views

What does it mean to be driven? To have drive? Is it important to sales success? Where does it come from? Can it be taught?

Driven to Success

One of the hardest challenges as a sales manager is hiring great talent. Even after multiple interviews, sales evaluation exams, and impeccable references contacted a less than hire can still happen. What makes them less than?

I can sum this up in one word, Drive.

In my experience it is really hard to root out whether a person has drive or not. Most, if not all, potential candidates can talk the talk but very few can walk the walk. After a few months their drive, or lack of, is what usually starts frustrating me. Those that have drive and are driven, a breath of fresh air. The latter I started analyzing years ago and here is what I found.

7,047 Views

I recently investigated Foursquare, Google Latitude, Zhiing, Yowza and others. I’m not a game guy and definitely don’t use coupons but this mobile presence idea is intriguing to me and should be to you.

Location Based Services Smart for Business

In the movie Minority Report Tom Cruise walks by displays that identify him, present a product, and customize the ad with his name. With location-based services what would stop a business from doing this on your smart phone? “Hey Chris, Tony Pizzeria has a new pizza that we think you would like just around the corner from where you are right now.” Also, “Bill with XYZ company is already there eating. Isn’t that a LinkedIn Contact you wanted to connect with?”

It doesn’t take a business genius to see that getting relevant information to you as quickly as possible is pure marketing gold.

Location-Based Services Defined
For those like me that had no idea what this technology was, wikipedia defines location-based service (LBS) as information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile.

1.) LBS services can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, work, personal life, etc.
2.) LBS services include services to identify a location of a person or object, such as discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the whereabouts of a friend or employee.
3.) LBS services include parcel tracking and vehicle tracking services.
4.) LBS can include mobile commerce when taking the form of coupons or advertising directed at customers based on their current location. They include personalized weather services and even location-based games. They are an example of telecommunication convergence. The key result of convergence at a macro-business level is the merger of the telecommunications and media / entertainment industries.

4,708 Views

Poor choices are made daily… Temptations to take things too far are always there. What separates those that make correct business choices and those that don’t? Let’s take a look.

Business Greed Ethics and Morality

Greed can be a Motivator and a Destroyer
I worked for a brilliant man that was a total thief. He had a high IQ, enjoyed a photographic memory, and was blessed with a beautiful intelligent family. From the outside… a quality of life most of us only dream of. For him though, it wasn’t enough. He had made up a fictitious company and embezzled millions of dollars from trusting church members. And it wasn’t the first time.

“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” -Erich Fromm

The interesting part to this story is that he had another legitimate business that was just taking off and doing well. He just wanted it all now. Sound familiar? How many times have we read about people with so much that chance it all for more? DeLorean , Stewart , and the list goes on and on.

10,014 Views

So I bust my behind, network meetings, relationship building, lunches, Starbucks, etc., maybe even pay some bucks, to get a qualified lead for my sales team. “Keep me in the loop” is the only prerequisite I ask in order for them to receive this lead. Simple right?

3 Rules of Sales Lead Etiquette

Not only do they not keep me in the loop… they act like they found the lead later and had some sort of prior “relationship”. What is up with that!

Rule #1: When someone gives you a lead internally, or externally, keep them in the loop. Why is this so important? Other than just simple manners and respect… It just makes good business sense. If I had a business contact give me a lead and met them later… I would not want to find out that we did not follow up on this opportunity from them. Obviously this would be embarrassing and most likely I would never get a lead from them again. Not good for business.