time,” he says. Today, it’s well-regarded as a guide for entrepreneurs, revealing the processes necessary to take a business from an unsatisfactory Point A to a highly successful Point B that will soon have buyers and investors knocking. “You won’t even have to put it up for sale. You’ll be approached by people who will want to buy your company,” Les promises. In addition to snagging a copy of his book, Les offers this nugget of advice to business owners ready to make 2020 their best year yet: “Make sure that your team is on board with you, that you’re all out to make a profit, and that you know what that profit is. Check your numbers regularly — I like to check mine weekly — to find out if you’re on task and on course. If you’re not, ask, ‘What’s the fix?’” As the business owner, it’s up to you to find that fix. However, that’s much easier said than done — which is why both Business Networks and our team here at Sandler Training are here to help hone your leadership skills. To learn more about Business Networks, email Les directly at les@ businessnetworks.com or call 800- 525-1009. And to get in touch with our team and revolutionize your approach to leadership, head to Sandler.com today. We have a host of resources and programs waiting to help you grow.
recommended our courses to his clients, putting particular emphasis on our sales training, which he believes can make or break a business. “Sales training is a definite need for every business on a constant basis, and Sandler is the answer,” Les says. “I’ve been seeing it work for 30-plus years.” Here, he sees another parallel with his time in the cockpit. In both sales and flying, he says, standardization is the key to success. “In a commercial jet, we have a very specific structure in the cockpit. There are things you do and things you don’t do, and most of the time the two pilots flying the aircraft probably won’t fly together again until months later, so they both have to be trained, they have to follow the rules, and they have to have checklists,” Les says. “You need standardization, and it’s the same in sales.” Thanks to our training and the metrics it provides, Les quickly identifies underperforming salespeople and offers them help in the form of additional education or even “the opportunity to seek fame and fortune at somebody else’s company.” He recommends checking these staff numbers weekly and meeting with employees a minimum of twice a year, once in August or September for a performance review, and again in February or March for a pay adjustment. When it comes to his staff, Les isn’t afraid of tough love — sometimes, if they aren’t performing well, he’ll adjust an employee’s salary down rather than up.
Sandler’s assessment processes have also proved key for Les when it comes to hiring, developing, onboarding, and training employees, and he highly recommends them to his clients. In addition to checklists, he’s a big fan of tests that reveal whether new hires are up to snuff. “What these tests are designed to do is tell you whether, based on what you said you want the person to do, they’re going to be a good fit for the job or not,” Les says. “There are things this test sees that we eschew and usually don’t see unless we’ve been trained to pick up on them. So, I think the tests should be mandatory for at least your top two applicants for any leadership job in your company.” Transparency,” a complete guide for entrepreneurs aspiring to build their companies through peer review. The book is unique because it wasn’t the idea of its author. Instead, a group of dedicated, passionate clients Business Networks called The Eagles convinced Les to write the book so they’d have it as a resource. Passing the metaphorical hat, the group raised $60,000 to fund the publication process. “I wasn’t interested in doing it because I knew it was going to take some work!” Les says. Les covers all of these tactics and more in his 2013 book, “Accountability Through
However, after the funds were raised, he couldn’t say no.
“I had to write most of that book on airplanes because I just had to find the
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