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“In my personal opinion as a career sales leader, Engage Me captures a masterful framework for building a high performance sales organization. It is clear from Kevin’s experience, examples and models that high performance does not come from one secret ingredient but from a multi-faceted combination of interdependent concepts that must be consistently and deliberately lived by leaders.

I was particularly struck by the careful balance between business growth and people growth – which cannot be dissociated. This balance requires clarity of expectations, both what and how, and the managerial courage to set up and maintain positive performance tension.

If you’re in the market to deliver results through a sales team committed to great performance, Engage Me is a must read!”

— Paul Lirette, President, GlaxoSmithKline Inc.

“The great leaders I admire most are those who can both envision on a grand scale but, if necessary, execute down to the finest detail. Kevin Higgins is one of those leaders and he shares both in this book.”

— Greig Clark, Founder of College Pro Painters

“As a sales professional and sales leader, I’ve seen firsthand the impact of these tools across sales organizations. Engage Me works. Buy it. Use it.”

— Craig Wortmann, CEO, Sales Engine Inc., Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Author of What’s Your Story?

“Fusion has embedded these disciplines within my sales organization. Higgins provides the essential ingredients to help Sales Leaders turn common sense into common practice.”

— Lou Gizzarrelli, President, Neopost Canada

“Higgins shares sales management strategies that are practical with broader application beyond the sales force.”

— Bill Maurin, Acting CEO, Meridian

ENGAGE

ME

STRATEGIES FROM THE

SALES EFFECTIVENESS SOURCE

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KEVIN HIGGINS

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Copyright © Kevin Higgins, 2014

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, or to book Kevin Higgins to speak at your live event, please contact Fusion Learning at 416-424-2999, or visit our website at www.fusionlearninginc.com.

ISBN: 978-0-9920771-1-2

Fusion Learning Inc.

272 Richmond Street East, Suite 200,

Toronto, Ontario M5A 1P4

Publishing Consultant:

Brilliant Idea Books

Editing:

Catherine Leek of Green Onion Publishing

Ebook Preparation:

Kim Monteforte of WeMakeBooks.ca

Cover Design:

Kim Monteforte of WeMakeBooks.ca

Foreword

July 9, 2008, I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was at my first Fusion Learning Strategic BluePRINT Offsite. It was held at founder Tim Magwood’s cottage.

It was the first time I came face to face with the incredible Fusion Learning Culture. The culture at Fusion Learning can be summarized in a few key phrases, “Work hard, play hard, results matter, but having fun is key.” I was there as the new chair of their Advisory Board. The partners of the business were far-sighted enough to know that they didn’t know everything and an Advisory Board could help them face strategic issues and solve problems better.

The goal of the 2-day offsite was simple — have fun and turn out a Strategic BluePRINT (SB) for the business for the next 3 years. The Fusion Learning SB is an amazing piece of paper. In just one page it summarizes the keys for the business for the next 3 years. It is one of the best focusing documents I have ever seen and, in business, focus is king. Proctor and Gamble was famous for getting their business plan down to four pages; Fusion Learning has it down to one. It hangs on every person’s wall at Fusion. It hangs on mine. More important … it works.

On that warm July day I participated in a number of small groups and took the opportunity to get to know a number of the team members and learn more about this amazing company. As is my habit, I always try to discover what makes a company tick. I love Peter Drucker’s three questions.

  1. What Business are you in?
  2. Who are your customers?
  3. Why do they buy from you?

I find the wide variety of answers I get to these questions from different people within the same company fascinating. This day it was pretty clear.

The answers to the first two questions were usually some version of, “We are in the Sales Effectiveness Training Business” and “We sell to big companies with sales forces.” It was the answers to the third question where the lights really flashed. Over and over people from program designers to facilitators to executives would repeat, one on one or in groups, “They buy from us because our stuff really works!” When I probed them on how they knew this, they would elaborate with great pride some examples they were personally involved with. “If it doesn’t work and really change behavior and results, we don’t want to do it,” one person told me.

Later in the big group session we were working on what I call the “top box” of the SB — what positioning we wanted to have; what we stood for. When it was my turn to speak, I asked Tim, who was facilitating, if I could digress and tell a little story. Being the consummate story teller himself, he said, “Sure. Fill your boots.”

I told them about the time I was in New York City, the week after I had graduated from Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario. I was out on the town, in the heart of capitalism, dreaming about conquering Wall Street. I remember distinctly walking along the southern side of Central Park, taking it all in. Just ahead of me was a young teenager carrying a boom box on his shoulder, listening to the music. Just as we approached a couple of police cruisers, parked just 3 feet away from us, one of them, for no apparent reason, let its siren blare. The car didn’t move. It just sat there with its siren blasting away. I turned to look, but the boy in front of me didn’t bother. He just kept walking straight ahead. Out of the side of his mouth he said, “I’m glad it woiks, fellas. I’m glad it woiks.”

I loved that line and it was my suggested tagline for Fusion. “It Woiks!”

And it does. Over the last 7 years I have seen countless examples of Fusion Learning help companies develop solid, effective sales management practices that really “woik” and produce fantastic results. Kevin will tell you many of these stories in Engage Me, but more importantly he’ll tell you why they work and how to get them for yourself.

Which brings me to author, Kevin Higgins. I have known Kevin for 28 years, since he was a franchise manager for me at College Pro Painters in 1985 and 1986. He was a top performer there. He was a top performer at Forum. He is a top notch CEO at Fusion. The CEOs I have always admired most are those who can both envision on a grand scale and, yet, if necessary, execute down to the finest detail. Kevin is one of those CEOs, and he shares both skills with you in this amazing book.

Kevin’s middle initial should be “D” for Discipline. It is core to everything he does and it is built into the selling model for Fusion Learning. Vince Lombardi used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”

Perfect sales management practices are laid out for you in Engage Me.

Enjoy it. I did.

Greig Clark
Founder of College Pro Painters

July 2013

Contents

Great Sales Culture = Engaged Sales Team

PART I: Attitude

Chapter 1: Sales Culture

Personal Experience — Compound Growth

Creating Your Sales Culture

Company Values

Coaching Mind-Set

Company Meeting Structure

PART II: Skills

Chapter 2: Question Better, Confirm More, Respond Less

Personal Experience — “Do You Have a Minute?”

Coaching Skills

Coaching Strengths

Coaching Opportunity: Confirm

The Formula

Chapter 3: Effective Feedback Is Not a Sandwich or a Seagull

Personal Experience — Constant Feedback Wins!

Effective Two-Way Feedback

The Model

Common Issues with the Four Steps

Timing and Balance in Feedback

PART III: Sales Management Disciplines

Chapter 4: Good Versus Great People

Personal Experience — Unforced Turnover

ROOMr

Recruiting

Onboarding

Ongoing Management

retention

Chapter 5: One-on-Ones Are About People (and Performance)

Personal Experience — No Chapter at Chapters

The Typical One-on-One System

Standard Agenda and Form

1. Big Picture

2. Green Flags (Build Confidence)

3. Red Flags (Build Skills)

4. Sales Activities/Results

5. Help Needed

6. Action Plan

Sales Manager Preparation

Manager File for Employee

Chapter 6: Sales Meetings that Motivate

Personal Experience — Ten Pounds of Stuff in a Two-Pound Bag

Great Sales Meetings

Keys to Excellent Sales Meetings

Key #1: Start with an Energizer

Key #2: Keep It Simply Simple (K.I.S.S.)

Key #3: Individual Updates

Key #4: Motivate and Reward

Key #5: Capability Activity

Key #6: Standard Agenda

Chapter 7: Are You a Deal Manager or a Sales Manager (Pipeline Management)?

Personal Experience — Not Where I Need It to Be!

Definitions to Set the Stage

Pipeline Management System

Pipeline Review Process

Chapter 8: Field Coaching

Personal Experience — Elbows Up

Field Coaching

Before-Meeting Coaching

During-the-Meeting

After-the-Meeting Feedback

Frequency of Coaching

Managers Field Coach Managers

Chapter 9: Performance Reviews Should Not Be About the Boxes

Personal Experience — Fuzzy to Specific

Performance Review System

1. Agree with Performer to a List of Reviewers

2. Collect Feedback

3. Create Feedback Document

4. Feedback Meeting #1 — Present and Discuss

5. Feedback Meeting #2 — Finalize Review and Agree on an Action Plan

Sample Performance Review

Attitude + Skills + Disciplines = Engagement

Great Sales Culture = Engaged Sales Team

This book is not theoretical. It is a practical guide with the attitude, skills and disciplines you need to possess for an engaged sales force that will deliver above-plan performance. A lot of what you will read is common sense; it is not always common practice.

Many of us are familiar with the research that says people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. We agree! The “we” refers to myself and my colleagues at Fusion Learning. Fusion Learning is a sales performance firm. Our vision is to be “The Sales Effectiveness Source.” The content of this book has been developed over the last 10 years as we have worked with hundreds of clients and thousands of sales leaders to help them dramatically improve their sales organizations.

Here’s just a little of the feedback we’ve received over the years.

The numbers are impressive — the “how” is engagement.

People leave managers — but why? They are not being coached, developed, motivated to be their best. They choose a “greener pasture.” With that premise, we will review the attitude, skills and key sales management disciplines that, when practiced consistently, will continually coach, develop and motivate your sales team. They will be engaged and will not look for greener pastures.

The title, Engage Me, is the outcome we must achieve — a sales force that is productive and engaged. The cycle of poor engagement is a frequent occurrence in organizations. A survey is conducted. The organization is unhappy with its engagement scores. They also have higher personnel turnover than they would like to see. The senior leadership team meets and forms a committee to study the issue. They get lots of information and a plan is formulated. The plan involves many tactics but often missing is that managers’ need to be much better at managing. If managers are great at managing and leading, their people will be engaged and they will not leave.

In implementing the ideas in Engage Me, I encourage you to adopt a “progress not perfection” mentality. Look for small changes that deliver strong results. Do not attempt to implement everything at once. Read the book in full and then decide on one area of sales management to change. Work on that change until it is a habit and then move to your next change.

Our clients often adopt our sales management disciplines and then take them beyond the sales team. You will see that most of what we discuss, from coaching to feedback to one-on-ones to performance reviews, can apply beyond the sales organization so feel free to share the book and the ideas with your colleagues outside the sales organization.

My team at Fusion Learning (www.fusionlearninginc.com) is always ready to help your sales organization with its sales culture. We believe a great sales culture has three components (see graphical representation of a great sales culture).

  1. Sales Strategy
  2. Sales Management Disciplines
  3. Sales Process

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This book addresses the second of these three components. The sales management disciplines required to have a great sales culture and an engaged sales team are:

Engage Me will provide a clear process and best practices for each of these disciplines.

This book is intended for all Sales Leaders in all types of businesses. With no sales, there is no company. So if you are a business leader, this book will give you concrete how-tos to dramatically increase the success of your sales organization as demonstrated in the results shared by our clients. The book is not a substitute for training; it is a kick-start before training or a great source book after training.

I wrote this book as a business leader, as a coach, as a trainer and as a salesperson. I will at times switch “voices” depending on the chapter and the content. Please enjoy the different styles and when we meet I will just be me.

Properly executing the learning in Engage Me will lead to a productive and engaged sales team. Enjoy!

PART I

ATTITUDE

The attitude required to Engage Me (where Me is your sales team) is one of a high performing team. “We win together and I win individually.” The one chapter in this section deals with sales culture. The definition I find most useful of culture is “the way we do things around here.” It is not something that is written; it is how things are done.

I will talk about the Fusion Learning culture, not because it is perfect but because it is a strong example of culture and it delivers results — a compound annual growth rate of 28% over the last 10 years. Please do not try to copy it. Take what is great in your culture and add in some new, fresh ideas that you pick up here.

This chapter will introduce you to results from Fusion Learning’s Sales Culture Survey. The survey has three main components, matching the three components of a great sales culture outlined in the introduction.

  1. Sales Strategy
  2. Sales Management Disciplines
  3. Sales Process

The Fusion Learning Sales Culture Survey will be quoted at the start of each chapter. It was conducted in 2006, 2010 and in 2013. The respondents were from multiple industries.

The respondents had sales forces that ranged from 50 to 500+ and revenues ranged from less than $100 million (18%) to $100 million-$1 billion (45%) to over $1 billion (37%). Many questions were repeated on all three Fusion Learning Sales Culture Surveys but not all. In the 2013 survey we added a number of new questions and dropped some that we had found not as useful. The data reflects a generic viewpoint. Use it as a reference point for your organization and how you stack up against peers in the same and different industries.

Engage Me is about having a great sales culture. Let’s begin with that.

CHAPTER 1

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Sales Culture

THE RESEARCH

The Question: “We currently have a high performing sales culture.”

The Response 2013: 6.1 on a 10-point scale (where 1 is not at all and 10 is most definitely); 58% of respondents replied with 6 out of 10 or lower.

STRENGTHS

Strong sales cultures are easy to spot — they consistently deliver above-plan performance.

22% of organizations ranked themselves between 8 and 10. They have a strong culture and they know it.

OPPORTUNITY

Weak sales cultures rely on heroics — a few strong performers are driven to make the numbers.

Consistency is not present.

Senior management lives in fear of the bad month, quarter, or year.

DEFINITION

A process with the right attitude, skills and disciplines for salespeople and sales leaders that holds salespeople accountable for delivering above-plan performance in a way that supports our values and our culture.

Sales Culture that is metrics driven and predictable.

FUSION LEARNING POINT OF VIEW

Sales Culture is a complex web — a mesh of structure, process, reward, recognition, compensation, training, leading, motivating, coaching, teaching, providing feedback, etc.

GOAL

A sales culture that delivers consistent above-plan performance quarterly and annually.

Everyone can have a bad month, just don’t have three in a row!