Span the Chasm – Sales Team Training – Driving Sustainable Sales and Growth through Development and Consulting

Category: Blog

Blog posts from Randy or any thought leaders who contribute

  • 10 Commandments of Success

    10 Commandments of Success

    In an election year, the concept of a promise takes on odd meaning.

    What can we believe…. What can we not…..

    Sadly, these promises cannot be counted on, certainly not as a guarantee. Leaving us to wonder:

    When will the day come that we can believe a guarantee?

    Great news for you:  That day has come. Today. Right now.

    As a result of our work with dozens of companies, hundreds of sales leaders and thousands of sales reps; we have distilled these 10 Commandments of Success which, if followed, WILL increase your sales. I personally guarantee it.

    The 10 Commandments of Success:

    1. Simplify: 

    Many reps make the path to success overly complex. Today, I spent hours reviewing opportunities where reps over-engineered simple concepts and put an undue burden on their prospects for actions that the rep should be completing. Keep simplifying the task until it’s in its simplest, most elemental state. Put as little burden on your prospect as possible.

    ‘Make it as simple as possible but no simpler.’  Albert Einstein

    2. Commit:

    Too many reps ‘kinda’ want to do a deal but in reality, they aren’t willing to do whatever it takes to win. Instead, they partially commit to many opportunities, weakly pursuing them and winning very little. If it isn’t worth winning, don’t bother. If it is, be willing to do whatever it takes.

    Want to delve deeper? I recommend this book: The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Whatever You Want by Mike Hernacki.

    3. Plan: 

    How many times have you gone to a meeting where you are the star and yet you didn’t have a clear map for these 3 basic elements: 1) your goals for the meeting, 2) the prospects goals for the meeting and 3) your expected next steps? Without at least a basic plan, you are slowing down your path to success and wasting everyone’s time.

    ‘Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.’ Sun Tzu.

    4. Move: 

    Ok. Planning is great but Action is greater. When in doubt, friggin’ DO something. Make a call, do some research, edit a proposal. Many times even the wrong action is more powerful than doing nothing correctly.

    ‘Have a Bias for Action’ , learn more in Tom Peters’ book In Search of Excellence.

    5. Listen: 

    <shock> Your clients really don’t give a rip what you have to say until they KNOW you have listened to them from your core. No, not listened to ‘respond’. Truly listened to understand and echo back to them what you heard. Listening creates intimacy and trust. You MUST have these to do meaningful deals.

    ‘Seek to Understand before you seek to be Understood’.  Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

    6. Focus: 

    ‘Value’ is the only currency today. If you aren’t trading in that, you are in the commodities market. Value aligned to a prospect’s known (or unknown) Business Pain is the only way to do meaningful business.

    ‘Focus on what is Vital and ignore what is Trivial’ . Greg McKeown, Essentialism.

    7. Be Brave: 

    So many reps that I coach admit with embarrassment that they are afraid in their sales cycles. Awesome! Sometimes it IS a bit scary. BUT…. We must pursue anyway. It is OK to be afraid. What is not OK is to have that fear paralyze you. Please read Feel the Fear…. and do it Anyway by Dr. Susan Jeffers. It will liberate you.

    8. Be Honest, with YOURSELF: 

    Often times, we don’t like what we know or suspect. So we do the smart thing: IGNORE it. That solves nothing and only prevents us from being successful. Reps that embrace whatever the truth is and build a realistic plan to deal with it: WIN. Reps that don’t: LOSE. It’s THAT simple. Save yourself the heartache and Run to the Truth™

    9. Persevere: 

    Starting is easy. Buzzy, fun, exciting…. And then it gets hard. It doesn’t go well. Sh*t hits the fan. We get discouraged. Here is what I know: At some point, the big deals that I have been involved with were really ugly, beaten up or even dead but, because we chose to fight on and endure, we were able to cross the finish line victorious.

    ‘Have the Courage to Endure.’  Ruben Gonzalez, The Courage to Succeed.

    10. Be different: 

    We frequently feel we have to do something crazy when, in the end, our prospects simply want to count on what we say we’re going to do. I saved this one for last as it’s been the biggest success maker for me and our clients at Span the Chasm. Simply follow Larry Winget’s #1 Rule of Business (and relationships) from his book, The Idiot Factor:

    1. Do what you said you were going to do
    2. The way that you said you were going to do it
    3. When you said you were going to get it done.

    BOOM! (mic drop)

    You might have noticed a lot of books referenced in this post. Here is a bonus: Read.

    Find a partner and hold each other accountable to reading a book per month for a year. It’s an important factor in your own personal development.

    I have worked this concept with many reps to date and have never heard negative feedback. Your personal success matters to us at Span the Chasm.  Try these out, let us know what you think! I guarantee you’ll see results, if you stick to it and COMMIT.

    BONUS!

    You may have noticed I used a lot of quotes in this blog. Quotes are powerful teachers and provide daily inspiration for me. We gather wisdom and new insights through quotes. I’ve assembled my favorite 10 success quotes in a handy PDF.

    Click here to download and place it on your desk for daily inspiration!

  • Women in Sale Leadership with Laura Blackmer

    Ep 36: Why aren’t there more Women in Sales Leadership roles? Randy continues this inquiry with Laura Blackmer, Sr Vice President, Channel Sales at Konica Minolta. Laura targets self-promotion and marketing yourself as a woman capable of sales leadership. She discusses how women focus on their performance and doing their job, however, they do not advertise their accomplishments as men do. Laura and Randy discuss being “fun to work with and easy to manage” and how these notions facilitate self-promotion for women and men alike. Simple concepts that can lead to Uncommon Sales Success!

  • Women in Sales Leadership with Carrie Wooten

    Ep 35: Randy welcomes Carrie Wooten, President of Mindset Enterprise and the Dean of the National Command & Staff College, to the Uncommon Sales Success Podcast. Carrie and Randy discuss the old dynamics of women in sales leadership and how there is a significant shift happening in the space. Carrie speaks from her leadership development background and delves into the dynamics that women in leadership face and applying a scientific approach to leadership roles.

  • For Sales, Yoda was wrong. TRY does Matter.

    For Sales, Yoda was wrong. TRY does Matter.

    ‘Try Not. Do or Do Not. There is no Try.’

    An epic quote from a 3′ tall Jedi. A highly respected Jedi. But, for Sales, he is WRONG.  Simply WRONG.

    (more…)

  • Women in Sales Leadership with Sydney Sloan

    Ep 34: Randy discusses women in sales with Sydney Sloan, Chief Marketing Officer at SalesLoft. Sydney tackles the topic of fear in sales, and how women overcome the fear to lead, the fear to advance and the fear of succeeding in the industry. She highlights how vulnerability can be the catalyst instead of an obstacle to success in sales leadership. Randy and Sydney round out the discussion with maintaining a work-life balance and flexibility in sales leadership that lends to success personally and professionally.

  • Recession Proofing Wrap Up with Ken Lundin

    Ep 33: Randy re-engages Ken Lundin to wrap up Span the Chasm’s series on Recession Proofing. The series has been near and dear to Span the Chasm, and they wrap things up with their own best of topics. Ken discusses the underlying theme for the series – purposeful, intentional and not to be afraid of a recession and the environment that comes with it. Randy reinforces the application of the 3Rs of sales and their importance. Tune in for a terrific rundown!

  • Hey Sales Leader: Use LENSES, not LABELS

    Hey Sales Leader: Use LENSES, not LABELS

    You’ve heard them.  You may have used them.  Phrases like:

    Jimmy can’t prospect.

    Janey can’t close well.

    Timmy doesn’t align value to role.

    Sally can’t get to the Economic Buyer.

    Billy can’t build and test Champions.

    You know the formula:

    (name) (can’t/won’t/doesn’t) (activity desired)

    These are all labels that we stick onto our peeps.  Here is why you MUST change your approach: After a while, in your mind, people ‘become’ that label.  It is also the lazy-leader’s way and takes no skill. Literally no skill. Sorry if that felt like I poked you in the eye.  (I’m not really but…)

    Our people can feel these labels being stuck on them.  It hurts their morale. It crushes their confidence. It kills their production.  

    Here’s a thought: Instead of using these LABELS to put them into categories, what if, instead, we used LENSES to better see them.  An opportunity to assess instead of condemn.

    If we take the LENSES mindset, I think there are 5 steps that can transform how you engage with the underperforming parts of your peeps:

    Awareness:  The first step is to know what the skills and competencies for the role are.  Many times we are holding up a ruler to someone that is not relevant or as relevant as we make it.  What REALLY matters for success in this role? It is usually less things than we think.

    Assessment: Instead of having an opinion, we need to dig in and actually assess the situation.  Listen to calls, go out on appointments, review notes, administer an assessment. A thousand ideas per role, per attribute.  But it needs to be done. As objectively as possible as subjective actions tend to feed our biases.

    Action: Once we have the actual gap mapped, we need to build an action plan that is going to develop that skill or competency.  It should have a lifecycle. It should have check points. It should follow a framework (I personally always use the SMART model.  Google it or call me.) The secret sauce on this piece is for them to own this action plan. It is their development. Build the plan with them and be part of the process but they need to own it.

    Adoption: Moving from being incompetent to basic skills to mastery to a habit takes time.  It takes commitment. It takes pushing through the stumbles. The plan you build should be in place for a period of time LONGER than required to learn the skill.  If we don’t get it to a habit, it will likely snap all the way back (scar tissue speaking here…).  

    Accountability: As humans, we suck at personal accountability.  Think New Year’s Resolutions. We don’t have the staying power.  It’s just true for most of us. Help the person build an accountability ecosystem.  When we are accountable, we increase our odds of success radically. (96% of decamillionaires have accountability partners)  Help them build 2 – 4 ways to get frequent accountability. You, a buddy, a coach, a mentor, etc. Emails, a quick call, a recurring weekly reminder.  It isn’t hard.

    At the bottom of many skills gaps lies a layer of fear and potential disbelief.  Often times execution errors are ties to something deeper.

    You can’t see past a label.  They become the label. With a lens mindset, we can be diagnostic and developmental.  Sure, it’s harder but that is simply the price of progress and growth.  

    Being good is easy.  Being great is hard.  

    When we label people, we are demonstrating a Closed Mindset.  When we use lenses, we are demonstrating a Growth Mindset. A great read on this topic is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.  I highly recommend it.

    Imagine how it will feel when you move from condemning team members and, instead, build an environment of development on a 1:1 basis.  How would it feel to have the production of each of your team members improve by 10 – 20% because of this process? I bet it’s gonna feeling friggin’ awesome. 

    Love to chat with you to see if this approach makes sense for you and your team and how we could activate this together.

    #BeBrave

  • Women In Sales Leadership with Heather Combs

    Ep 32: Randy welcomes Heather Combs to the podcast to further discuss, Where are the Women in Sales Leadership? Heather Combs is Chief Revenue Officer for 3Pillar Global, a digital product development services organization. She oversees marketing, business development, and operations for the over 900-person multinational company. They discuss mindset, opportunity and how the role of women in sales is changing.

  • Uncommon Sales Success with Dale Dupree

    Ep 31: Randy welcomes and bro hugs the legendary Copier Warrior himself, Dale Dupree. In this high energy podcast, Randy and Dale discuss authenticity, knowing thy self, and caring about the sale. Tune in and listen to Dale explain how to “exist in the chaos” and why “no one cares more than you do except for me”. Dale shares his stories from the trenches and provides context on how making assumptions can be the nail in a deal’s coffin.

  • Reaching Your Target Audience with Mario Martinez Jr.

    Ep 30: This week, Randy engages Digital Sales Evangelist Mario Martinez. With over twenty years of sales experience, Mario shares his wisdom on how to best reach YOUR target audience. Learn how to communicate the right way at the right time. Don’t do normal – be AWESOME and listen in to this powerful podcast.