FranklinCovey-The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Sales Leaders

HABIT 1: BE PROACTIVE

constantly shift and choosing the best course of action requires judgment. That’s not an inconsequential difference. It makes all the difference! For years, most sales organizations have operated on the premise that giving an extra percent or two in commission, or a bonus here, or President’s Club there, is somehow going to motivate people to work harder. Yet salespeople often don’t need another big-screen TV, and they don’t want another trip, but there is something they do want. They do want to make a contribution. They do want to make a difference. And they do want autonomy, driven by a belief they can reach a level of mastery, and that there’s purpose in what they’re doing. The drive towards self- actualization—and this is backed up by mounds of research—is more motivating than financial incentives. Consider your own experience and see if top salespeople validate this point. They’re the ones who go outside the norms and the rules, and they don’t just coast as soon as they hit their number. They crush their numbers because they’re driven by autonomy, purpose and mastery. With this in mind, how can you move your organization away from a being driven by outside pressure, quotas, measurement and numbers, even while acknowledging that those are still very important? Stop taking responsibility away from your people so you can shoulder the load. Give them the responsibility. They want it. CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE VS. CIRCLE OF CONCERN A very powerful way to boost proactivity is to think in terms of the Circle of Influence versus the Circle of Concern and determine

and do something about it now. Here are five ways you can build proactivity.

where your team is focused. As defined in The 7 Habits, your Circle of Influence encompasses factors you can directly control, do or change, while your Circle of Concern includes all the things outside your direct control, e.g. the weather, the economy or a customer’s actions (or inactions). Many sales organizations don’t achieve what’s possible because too much focus, conversation and effort is targeted at things beyond their control. To make matters worse, they are mired in reactive habits and don’t realize it. As a sales leader, help your teams by asking them to identify factors in their Circle of Concern that slow them down and require time and attention. Take them off their plate as those factors often fall into your Circle of Influence. Tell them you will handle those issues and get them focused on the things they do control. Taking into account the Circle of Concern vs. the Circle of Influence can make a powerful difference in your ability to coach and guide the people on your team to be more proactive. Working together to understand issues and determine what types of resources or actions are needed in a given circumstance—and which ones are within your power to control or influence or not—can help in identifying where you and your team are going to spend your time moving forward. A coaching sequence that begins with questions like ,“How can I help? What do you need from me? What do you not need from me?” invites the Salesperson’s engagement and better results. Similarly, asking “Would you be open to some suggestions from me?” makes a recipient much more open to the suggestions you can make.

STOP BEING SO RESPONSIBLE

As sales leaders, we tend to be afraid that if we don’t use pressure, then results will drop because people won’t work hard to hit numbers. So it’s common to manage results by constantly monitoring daily activity reports, inspecting deals, assessing forecasts, checking up, pouring over pipeline reports, controlling, deciding, directing, and holding people accountable. Let’s assume for a minute that it’s true: No pressure = No results. That means the responsibility for all the numbers is on you. Otherwise, nothing happens if you don’t make it happen. If that’s true, then you have the biggest and most difficult job of all. Indeed, when you use pressure as your primary mode of motivation, you keep all the responsibility for results squarely on your shoulders. It’s exhausting. But when you stop to consider intrinsic motivation as the primary factor of human achievement, it’s clear there has to be another way. The good news is, there is. It’s hard to believe sales leaders haven’t more aggressively pursued proactivity, which is validated by the findings in Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. As Pink reports, behavioural researchers found that carrot-and-stick incentives do work when there’s a step- by-step process to follow that always results in the same outcome. But that’s not the case with sales. Sales is a profession where there is no set formula for success Instead, there are a variety of factors that

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