FranklinCovey-The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Sales Leaders

HABIT 7: SHARPEN THE SAW

DESIGN DELIBERATE PRACTICE INTO YOUR SALES ENDEAVOURS If you look at top performers in any field, I mean those at the top of their game, the best in the world, you’ll see a common theme – deliberate practice. There’s something true in the theory that you need 10,000 hours to achieve mastery. Top performers in any sport, art or profession take time to practice, with deliberate regimes designed to perfect skills or techniques. Let’s look at this from a sporting perspective. Take a look at the rankings for the top 100 professional golfers. You can easily access this information on the PGA website, and I did this at the time of writing this. If you first look at the top 100 rankings from the perspective of scoring, the average strokes per round of golf of the person ranked number 1 in the world was 69.5. The person ranked number 100 had an average of 71.3 – that’s less than 3% and less than 2 strokes different. Now look at the same table in relation to earnings. Again, at the time of writing, the official earnings (year-to-date) of the golfer ranked number 1 was $4,854,964. The corresponding earnings for the golfer ranked 100 was $540,865 – that’s almost 9 times less. Marginal improvements or differences can pay major dividends. Another example of this is the GB cycling team under the leadership of Sir Dave Brailsford. Brailsford is credited with championing a philosophy of ‘marginal gains’ in British Cycling. The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into

Marginal improvements or differences can pay major dividends.

riding a bike and improved it by 1%, you would get a significant increase when you put them all together. As well as looking at traditional components of success such as physical fitness and tactics, Brailsford’s approach focused on a more holistic strategy, embracing technological developments and athlete psychology. He is noted for his emphasis on constant measuring and monitoring of key statistics such as cyclists’ power output and developing training interventions that target any observed weaknesses. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Great Britain won two cycling gold medals – their best performance since 1908. Under

I cringe because I see so many teams take their foot off the gas or lose concentration because they mistakenly believe they are in the driving seat on a deal – well ahead of the competition. And then – guess what? – they lose it, sometimes badly. Just like top performers in any sport, top sales performers get help from a coach. Let’s look at how YOU can win more by engaging a sales coach, or becoming a better one yourself. According to joint research by Selling Power Magazine and the Sales Readiness Group, High- performing sales organizations – those where 75% or more people achieve sales quotas - employ sales managers who spend more time on sales coaching. More than 65% of high- performing sales organizations spend more than 20% of their time coaching salespeople. Effective leaders provide coaching support for major ‘must win’ opportunities, that are critical to win, complex and highly competitive. Here are three ways to win more often on competitive deals and avoid the ‘ours to lose’ pothole or bear- trap: 1. Coach all priority sales opportunities 2. Establish a coaching cadence 3. Track progress at every stage and identify critical tasks Designing deliberate practice routines and coaching critical deals are both ways that an effective leader can encourage and motivate the team to Sharpen The Saw and create better sales habits.

Brailsford’s leadership, the cycling team continued to

improve, winning multiple world championships in road, track, BMX and Mountain bike racing. Great Britain led the cycling medal table at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, winning eight golds at both, while British cyclists won 59 World Championships across different disciplines from 2003 to 2013. So, if you compete with the best in the world (and many of our clients do just that), you need to be aware that even the tiniest differences can yield big results. Think about what you can do to build deliberate practice into your weekly schedule and that of the team. Simulations are a strong indication of how your team will perform in real-life sales situations. CREATE A CULTURE OF COACHING Well team… It’s ours to lose… When I hear these words – in fact EVERY TIME I hear these words – I cringe!

As a sales leader, do you encourage exercise or physical activity? Lead by example as a more powerful way to show fitness matters. Ask your company to pay for gym memberships as part of the wellness program. Allow scheduling flexibility so your team uses that membership, even during the day. Research shows people are more disciplined for longer periods and work out more intensely if they have a workout partner. Perhaps you could encourage workout partnerships. This could also build harmony in the team. What can you do on the healthy-eating side that would make a difference? Choose different snacks for meetings. Suggest different foods be included in the cafeteria or vending machines. Pay attention to energy management. Schedule heavier meetings in the mornings when energy is high rather than later in the day.

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