Seeking "engagement" is a fool's errand

I have finally pinpointed why I really dislike the word “Engagement.” It is a false word.

In linguistic terms, it is a nominalization.  It is a word that pretends to be a noun. But it does not exist. You cannot find an “engagement” and pick it up. As NLP-ers often say, you cannot put “engagement” into a wheelbarrow. No one ever wakes up in the morning and says, “I want more ‘engagement’ today.”

The only correct response to someone seeking “engagement” is to ask: “Who is engaged in what?” And therein we see the real problem. Too many organizations are seeking to improve “engagement” when they should be asking, “What is it we want people to be engaged in?”  Seeking “engagement” is a fool’s errand, a journey into Alice’s Wonderland.

I see many organizations wasting funds on Engagement Projects. They send surveys to determine if people are engaged. Why aren’t they asking, “What did you do last week to improve (insert priority here)?”

There is a famous story of the porter in a NASA facility in the ‘60’s who was asked, “What is your job?” He responded, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” This man was engaged. He knew the mission of the organization. He knew what was important, and he knew he was contributing.

How simple is that? When you can connect what you do with the primary purpose of the organization, you are engaged.  This means people have to know what is really important in your organization. What is the primary purpose? What is the #1 goal that supersedes everything else?

So skip the surveys. Look at the individuals and front-line supervisors in your organization. Do they know the purpose…the primary goal…of your organization? Tell them! They cannot be engaged if they do not know the primary goal, because they cannot know how or if they are contributing toward that goal. What are they engaged in? Do they think about how it connects to the primary purpose of the organization? Is continuous improvement toward that purpose or goal part of the culture? Does anyone ever ask?

Some businesses want to win awards. Baldridge Awards. Top 100 designations. Some even announce that such recognition is one of their key priorities. How does a Baldridge Award connect to what a line supervisor or painter or welder is doing? It doesn’t. Awards and designations are measurements, but they should never be a goal. Instead, announce that “Customer service is our #1 priority” and live it. Or “Patient Satisfaction is Goal #1” and live it. Ask, “What did you do this week to improve our patient satisfaction?” “What process needs to be changed to improve our customer service?” “How do YOU contribute to our goal of outstanding patient satisfaction?” These are the questions to ask. When someone…everyone…can answer those questions, you will have an engaged workforce.

How do you achieve this goal? It starts at the top. What are senior managers saying to middle managers (and everyone else)? What are middle managers saying to supervisors? What are supervisors saying to line workers? If you must hire temporary workers, do they understand the goal? How can they contribute toward it?

If the goal is “We need to improve ‘engagement’”, you are wasting your time. But if the message is constantly communicating the real purpose, e.g., “customer service, patient satisfaction”, then the question becomes “How are you contributing to our primary goal/purpose?” And restate that primary purpose. Constantly. In every message. When people know why their job matters, they will be engaged. An engaged workforce achieves goals. A goal of “engagement” achieves nothing.

Dr. Lakin is a consulting psychologist and author of "The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP!" and "Ten Ways Top Sales Reps are Different".

Time to make a call?

I recently got a phone call from an old colleague. In the course of our conversation, he made the statement, “Every sale begins with a phone call.”

Now in my world of NLP, this would make sense that he would say this, because he is what we call an Auditory…his preferred mode of communication and thinking is vocal…auditory, sound, words.

But then I started thinking. One challenge of getting new business or securing a referral is to be able to DIFFERENTIATE yourself. You want to get someone to see you as different. And maybe this guy was on to something.

How many emails do you get a day?

How many calls…not telemarketing calls, but calls from someone to talk…do you get a day?

I think the ratio has tipped enormously in the past five years, especially now that we all have smart phones and can compulsively check constantly. Many of us probably get at least 100 emails a day. But I don’t get many calls.

Maybe a phone call to someone has become a differentiator!

I hate making calls. I am NOT auditory and I am a very fast typist. I like to write emails and I like that I can choose the time when I do it.

But the key to business communication is NOT to do what I like, but to do what makes a difference to someone else.

SO…for the next month, I am going to start making phone calls. I am going to respond to inquiries and referrals with a phone call. I am going to call old clients instead of sending them emails or newsletters. When I meet someone at a networking event, I am going to call them, not send an email. I want to see if it makes a difference.

Remind me to tell you what happens. And maybe you’d like to conduct the same experiment. If you do, CALL ME and tell me about it.

Beware "common knowledge"

I’m sure you have all heard that you only remember 10% of what you read, 20% of what you see, 30%  of what you hear, etc. It is common knowledge in the world of training and instruction.

Too bad it is not true.

 Some say the source of this was a professor in Texas. But no one can find such a study. It seems to have been first mentioned in the 1920’s, but no research was mentioned and no credit was given to anyone for these findings. It is common practice, unfortunately, to quote someone else quoting some "fact" or statistic. Strangely,  a well-respected US training institution is reported to have claimed at one time that they did the research producing such statistics. But no one can find the original study. What is even more amusing or shocking is how the numbers have changed depending on the point the writer was trying to make.

 Understanding the “languages” of NLP…visual, auditory, kinesthetic…should make anyone suspicious of such numerical claims. If a person is a Visual, it is likely he/she will learn more by reading and watching than an Auditory. Claiming people only remember 10% of what they read begs the question: What people? Kinesthetics? Perhaps. Visuals? Highly unlikely, since reading and seeing are their key sources of information.

Be a critical thinker. And beware of quotes that keep appearing and re-appearing. As I once read, someone said, “A sucker is born every minute.” Or was it every twenty seconds? Can’t recall exactly. I'm sure I read it somewhere.

Duane Lakin, Ph.D.

Author: "The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP!" and "Ten Ways Top Sales Reps are Different."

You are hired. Now what should I do?

It is important to hire the right person for the job and the setting. But what happens after you hire someone? How can you help the new hire adapt and lay a course to be successful?

I have often been asked to coach a new hire for the first six months when an environment is particularly challenging. For instance, I was recently asked to coach a newly hired manager, because the day that she started, the company announced it was being sold and her hiring executive would be retiring shortly. And you wonder why she might have been a bit stressed?

Any new hire is going to be concentrating on two things initially. First, learning the job and demonstrating competence are key drivers. This is the “See, you hired the right person” motivation. Often, they are driven to make changes and prove their abilities quickly—a normal behavior for new hires but often a problematic behavior, especially if they have not learned the job or environment well enough to create meaningful change. Still, most new hires try to do this. They are like the seller who tries to close without learning what the customer really wants.

Second, new hires want to fit in with the others in the work environment. They want to find someone with whom they can bond and build a positive relationship. Obviously, introverts have the greatest struggle with this aspect of onboarding. Also, if the environment includes conflict directed toward the new hire, problems will arise.

Therefore, integration is often tough for many new hires. They frequently experience what psychologists call social anxiety. Typical integration conflicts that can result in social anxiety include:
• An overlooked incumbent may be resentful
• the new hire’s charge to change things may cause ripples
• the new hire may be unable to get the information that is needed to do the new job
• the new hire’s role may be encroaching on the responsibilities that once belonged to someone else
• a supervisor may lack good skills with everyone, including the new hire
• The new hire feels excluded, judged, and/or passively resisted

The biggest cost of such anxiety is a tendency for the new hire to withdraw and avoid asking questions. Reluctance to ask questions is a natural reaction to resistance, because someone new does not want to highlight his/her ignorance about the new job or the organization. Yet, the new hire, to be successful, must gain information and learn quickly. Anything that reduces a willingness to ask questions also reduces successful integration. If a new hire feels he/she must guess rather than gain clarity through questions, there is an increased chance of failure during the onboarding period.

So how can you help reduce this stress and increase the chances of a successful integration into your company?

The best solution to such a situation rests with the supervisor. A new hire suffering social anxiety needs a positive relationship with the supervisor. Through that relationship, a safe route to asking questions and gaining information can be found.

The focus of that relationship, however, needs to be twofold. First, it needs to create an environment where the new hire feels unthreatened and is, therefore, willing to ask questions. Second, the relationship should be focused primarily on ensuring that the new hire ultimately gains the information he/she needs to do his/her job effectively. It is a purposeful relationship with limits suggested by common sense and organizational realities. If that relationship is not bound by strict limits, it is likely to be seen, questioned and resented by others, and the relationship can easily contribute to even more exclusion and resentment toward the new hire.

Help the new hire learn how to get things done in your organization. Keep in mind that often the “needed” information is not processes and procedures but, rather, who holds the tribal knowledge and who can actually get things done in the organization. Once things start getting done, the culture will begin to adapt to the new hire and relationships within the work group will resolve themselves or become an indicator for further changes in the work group.

It should also be mentioned that, just as new hires get social anxiety, the introduction of a new person into an existing work group creates anxiety for members of that work group, too. Sometimes referred to as the “impact network”, research suggests that a new midlevel manager, for instance, has a potential negative performance impact on an average of 12 or more people! Helping a newly hired manager build relationships with direct reports, bosses, and peers is critical to both his or her success and the productivity of others. A new hire needs help learning about his/her network, and those in that network need to learn to adjust and adapt to the new person. A supervisor or boss needs to be alert and proactive in addressing such feelings and work to alleviate whatever myths or realities are present that are creating the anxiety. Role clarity and focus on shared outcomes can often help with this process. Inviting senior team members to play a role in helping the new hire learn and connect is also a way to reduce problems.

Outside coaching for a new employee can often help the person navigate the dangerous waters of onboarding. Such coaching typically needs to include coaching the supervisor, because the relationship between the new hire and the supervisor will largely determine if the new hire is successful (assuming the new hire is a good hire).

(Thanks to Drs. Nifadkar and Bauer for your recent article in the Journal of Applied Psychology for providing the research basis for much of this blog.)

Dr. Duane Lakin is author of Ten Ways Top Sellers are Different and The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP!

Interview Tip: Beware of first impressions and your "gut" reaction

As a professional interviewer, I am always amazed that I still see managers and executives who say to me, “My gut tells me if someone is a good choice.”

Your “gut” is your unconscious making a decision for you. If you don’t use discipline, such as that found in a structured interview, you are falling victim to a known psychological fact: Your unconscious decides in less than three minutes if you like someone. If you are a seller, this is a critical insight. Sell yourself in the first three minutes. If you are the hiring manager, you need to pay close conscious attention to this 3-minute phenomenon.

What do YOU do in that first three minutes of an interview?

Average interviewers spend the initial interaction in “small talk”.  They rationalize this by saying they are trying to put the candidate at ease. I am always a bit skeptical about who is putting whom at ease, but the behaviors are the same. Small talk. Friendly banter. Ease into the interview.

Unfortunately, by the time you and the candidate are ready to “ease into the interview,” your unconscious has probably made a decision. From then on, the average interviewer is asking questions to give him/her a reason to justify hiring the person. The “gut” has already spoken…”I like (or don’t) like her.” I have seen some managers who say they only need to interview for about five minutes to know if the person is the right one or not. In reality, those managers indeed know if they like the candidate, but they have no idea if the candidate is the right one to hire.

Is it any wonder that I tell my clients, “My job is to find a reason that you should not hire the candidate.” I am trying to overcome their “gut” bias.

Go ahead and “ease into the interview.” Be gracious and friendly. But don’t make a hiring decision during this time. Fight to overcome your unconscious. Move from small talk into a structured interview with planned behavioral questions to introduce analysis, judgment, and discipline into the interview process. Overcome your “gut.” And, yes, this takes more than three minutes.

Dr. Duane Lakin is an industrial psychologist, professional interviewer and author of “Ten Ways Top Sellers are Different” as well as “The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP!”

Sales Tip: Partnering vs. Challenging

When you have an opportunity to make a sales pitch, there is a reason you have been invited. The prospect wants some help.

But the situation is not a blank slate. Prospects and customers are already equipped with ideas that they think are great. They know what their problem is, and they have decided what they think they need. At the point in time that you are making your initial sales pitch, they don’t really want your ideas. They want to know if you are the person who can help them with their ideas.

You only have a few minutes to convince someone that you would be a good “partner” in solving their problem. You must demonstrate that you can be trusted. Every prospect is consciously or unconsciously asking, “Do I want to work with this person?” If you forget this fact and initially try to impress your audience with your ideas and your solution, you are likely to fail . You may prove that you are capable and smart, but who cares? Your three minutes are up.

To make a successful sales pitch, you must be prepared to focus on their outcome and their solution, even if you see problems and pitfalls. Forgive the sports metaphor, but sometimes you must be willing to play their game plan, not yours. If you want to demonstrate how smart you are or challenge the prospect in order to “enlighten” or consult, you are going to be in trouble.

Not being the smartest person in the room can be tough for some sellers, because sales professionals are typically knowledge experts. They often think they know the customer's problems better than the customer. They have great ideas, and in a sales presentation, it is temping to jump right into sharing those great ideas. They want to TELL their ideas instead of SELL themselves. It becomes a critical cart/horse scenario. The horse must be in front. And in terms of time, it is a very short race. Sell yourself quickly or you are out of the race.

“Selling” means partnering. You can’t just deliver a great box. It has to fit the space.

Work with the customer to improve service to the customer’s client, help the customer be more successful, cut the customer’s costs, reduce manufacturing delays, or whatever the customer’s issue may be. And frequently, selling means compromising. What you wanted to sell when you walked into the room may not be what the customer wants. The sale will go to the person with the most flexibility.

We often hear about the writer who stuck to her (or his) guns and finally wrote the best-seller she always wanted to write, even though hundreds of publishers turned her down. (For instance, Agatha Christie or J.K. Rowling, to name just a couple.) What you don’t hear about are the thousands of books that were rejected and never published or even completed when the author refused to make some compromises. And you also rarely hear about the books that were published and were better than the original draft due to incorporating some editor’s suggestions.

Stubborn is not smart. It is just stubborn.

If you want to sell something, be prepared to fit your idea into the buyer’s frame. Don’t compete. Be the person who helps the customer get something accomplished that was not possible without your help. And sometimes, you may discover the end product is better than if you had done it exclusively your way.

As a sales professional, be prepared to say, “If that is what you want, let us look at how I can help make that happen for you.” Flexibility is needed. Help find a way to achieve their outcome and incorporate their thinking. You must be prepared to fit into a solution that the prospect already is seeing in his/her mind.

If someone asks me for a team-development workshop, something I am resistant to do, I am likely to help clarify the real desired outcome, talk about the benefits of the proposed approach, some different ways to look at how such a workshop might be implemented in their organization, and I may be able to influence the thinking of the customer to consider different (non-workshop) ways to help the team. But only after I have sold me. Only after they have decided they want to work with me to solve their problem. Only after they trust me. And a workshop will always be an option, because it is the solution they initially wanted. The difference is how we define it and how we implement it. It is still THEIR solution but my refinements as we work together. We. Not me. And if I can’t sell me as someone they can trust, there will be no we to work on ideas together.

Customers want solutions, and they already have some in mind. Listen to those ideas. Look for ways to incorporate your ideas and use your expertise, but remember: Customers already have a solution and are trying to decide if you are the person who can help them achieve their goal. Don’t compete. Don’t quiz about “pain.” Don’t challenge. Don’t think you know best. Be flexible and be helpful. Sell yourself as a good “partner” and you will be invited to help them solve their problem.

Sellers: Stop looking for pain

For decades, sales trainers have told us about the need to find a prospect’s “pain.” What is hurting? What is it costing? What is the cost of ignoring that pain? Who do we see is hurting the most? What is it worth to find a solution to that pain? Follow the long path to “pain”, and you will be successful, they have said.

They are wrong.

It’s time to stop wasting the customer’s time. Stop looking for “pain.” Look for ways to help instead.

Today, people do not have time to invite you to make a presentation and endure a series of “pain” questions. When you get an invitation to sell to a prospect, you should know how the prospect sees the problem before you show up. You don’t need to probe to find what’s causing the pain or whose pain it is or whether it is a financial pain or a personal pain. Clarify the issues and know the desired outcome before you go to the meeting. Learn what you need to know without seeking out “pain.” Stop wasting everyone’s time. Prospects want to focus on their idea and how to solve their problem. And they don’t want the meeting to last very long.

I occasionally get invited to propose a “team-building” workshop. I generally don’t do team-building workshops any more. When someone asks for one because his or her team is not working well, I often shoot myself in the foot by stating that, in my experience, most requests for such action are due to one person being a problem. I ask, “Any chance that might be the case here? If so, why don’t we look at how to help that person and not waste the time of the whole team?” In nearly every case, the prospect appreciates the insight. I hear a response such as, “That’s a really intriguing idea. I think you might be right. Let me think about it for a bit.” And that is the end of it. There is no more discussion with me about team building. Or about coaching the problem person. I didn’t fit THEIR solution. Shame on me.

Prospects are not interested in being “challenged”or probed about their “pain.”

In most cases, prospects have a good idea as to what they want. They are not interested in being “challenged” or probed about their “pain.” They simply don’t have the time or the patience. They are interested, instead, in learning if they feel they can work with you and get their desired outcome. They want to see if you are a good fit and can work with them.

Sell YOU as someone who can help implement their solution

This leads to a major adjustment in how sellers must sell. First, remember you have been invited to allow the prospects to decide if they want to work with you. Can there be a relationship? In short, the presentation must sell YOU as someone with whom they can partner and help implement a solution, a solution that is may or may not be well defined. If you try to sell YOUR solution before you sell YOU, you will fail. Connect on both a conscious and unconscious level. Become someone the prospect will trust before you even talk about what you want to sell. (If you don’t know how to do this, read “The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP!”)

Can you avoid focusing on your solution and focus, instead, on theirs? How quickly can you stop presenting and actually engage your prospect? If you did your homework, you will know what the prospect is trying to accomplish. Get him/her to talk about that. Listen for what is wanted and look for how you can help. Talk about outcomes rather than pain.

Duane Lakin, Ph.D., is the author of “The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP!” and a new book, “Ten Ways Top Sales Reps are Different.”

It has been said, "People don't leave companies; they leave managers." There is a lot of truth to this. However, it may lead to overlooking a key element of employment: PAY.

A psychological study of why people, especially top performers,  leave a company concluded that "high job satisfaction" is a strong determinant of whether someone leaves a company or not, and job satisfaction often reflects one's relationship with a manager.

However, independent of job satisfaction is the impact of pay growth. In other words, even if someone says he/she is happy in the job, stunted or perceived lack of pay growth can lead that person to leave a job. This is especially true of top performers. This is why top performers will take the call from a recruiter and may leave a job that was quite satisfying and challenging. If pay is not seen as increasing, a better offer will entice the person to leave.

The lesson: do not ignore your top performers. Look at your compensation policies and make sure they are not equal and fair. Reward your top performers better than others. As the author of this study (Nyberg) wrote: "Managerial overconfidence could lead to situations in which employees the company most desires to retain are instead more likely to leave." Better performance...and better performers...need to get better pay. Not only will this help you keep top performers, it might also inspire some others to strive to perform better.

Understanding Top Sellers: Observation 4..They have "Curiosity"

T op Sellers approach a sales call in a manner different from average sellers. The Top Seller is thinking about what he/she wants to learn in this call to help accomplish the goal. The Top Seller is curious. The goal is well-defined, and the pre-call thoughts are about what questions to ask and what information to look for to move the process forward. The average seller is thinking about what questions the prospect may ask of them! This is a critical difference between Top Sellers and average sellers. Top Sellers are thinking about what they need to learn, and average sellers are thinking about what they need to say. It is, therefore, not surprising that a Top Seller does far more listening in a sales call than an average seller. Top Sellers know the power of knowledge. Information gives them confidence and an increased sense of the control they seek. As a result, they are always looking to see what they can learn that will help them achieve their goals. They ask questions and they listen. A food ingredient company had been working with a major food processor for several years. The sales people worked closely with the R&D lab where new formulations were being tested. One day, while leaving the lab and walking through the main production floor, a new sales person on the team asked, “Isn’t that tomato soup?” “Yes, of course,” he was told. “That is our biggest seller.” It turns out that tomato soup needs a key ingredient that was one of the primary products sold by the food ingredient company. But for two years or more, no one had ever asked what else the customer made and would there be other opportunities to sell them additional products. They had simply gone to the lab and sold small orders of their products. Until a new sales person, a potential “Top Seller”, joined the team, no one was curious enough to look around and ask about other applications. Unlike the sales team above, Top Sellers are curious. They ask questions. They truly want to know. They are interested in what is around them and what they can learn from others to help them have an advantage. This curiosity can sometimes take the form of competitive intelligence gathering, such as reading a competitors invoice that was accidentally left on someone’s desk. Just as often, it is an active and conscious effort to ask questions and learn more about a customer as well as a market. It is not surprising, perhaps, that there is a program called “Question-Based Selling.” Top Sellers ask questions. But these questions cannot be canned. They can’t learn “Five Questions to Ask Your Prospect.” True curiosity is not just an attitude. It is a behavior.  Top Sellers are not looking for answers. They are looking for insights and information.  They ask questions and listen to the answers. Top Sellers want to know what the prospect worries about and wants to achieve. What problems does the prospect have? What help does the customer need? How does the prospect want to be sold? The questions that are important to a Top Seller are not “qualifying questions”. They are not part of “consultative selling”, a process that can test the patience of some buyers. The typical sales process where a sales person asks about needs or current vendors or similar “questionnaire” questions does not provide what Top Sellers want to know. In fact, such questions can seem like an interrogation and can be off-putting to prospects.  Top Sellers want to know who the prospect is, what is important to that person, and how is the best way to influence and make a difference to this individual. What is the business and where is the pain? Who are my competitors? Who is influential in making decisions in the business? What is your wish-list? These are more broad-based than “How many pounds of nitric acid do you use in a month?” These are things she can learn by listening and observing, not by following a checklist of questions. These are not answers to questions she has to ask because her sales manager requires them. These are answers she wants to discover to satisfy her curiosity and to give her an advantage. It may be because of their curiosity that Top Sellers are good listeners and, often, good conversationalists. They often have a broader knowledge of topics and issues, and because they are always learning, they can talk intelligently about many different topics. Still, it is their ability to listen that most correlates with their success in sales. It is hard to sell value if you do not want to listen and learn. Curiosity also fits well with the competitive drive of Top Sellers. Simply put, they want to know more than the next person. They want to know how someone else can sell or make a change, and they use that information to make themselves more competitive and successful. Another key correlate of curiosity is the Top Sellers’ relative comfort with ambiguity. Few average sellers are comfortable outside the lines of what they expect and know and are accustomed to seeing. Top Sellers are not afraid of ambiguity, because they are curious. They want to know more. They want to understand and find clarity. Average sellers (and politicians) want to get back “on message” and talk about what they planned to talk about. In a similar manner, Top Sellers leave a sales call re-playing the interaction in their head. They are thinking about what was said and what they could have said in a different manner. They are learning from their experience, even if they failed to achieve their goal. Every interaction becomes a learning experience. Average sellers typically are thinking about what they need to do next or where they need to go now that the sales call is concluded. Curiosity does not typically equate to wanting to participate in “sales training”, however. Top Sellers are curious about ways to reduce their fear and the risk of failing with useful knowledge and information. While curious and motivated to learn what will give them better control and influence, they are not eager to participate in formal learning situations. They are skeptical. They are also fearful of looking foolish or stupid in front of their peers. Typical training programs are painful to most Top Sellers. Still, they will be curious and learn enough to use a new skill when they need it to win their goal. The President of a small manufacturing company was a participant in a workshop on psychological selling skills. He was largely unimpressed with the program, because he believed he was a very successful seller and did not need to do the work needed to learn some new skills. In the participant survey, he did not rate the program very high. The next week, he was making a sales presentation. Unfortunately, it was not going well, and he knew it. As he described it later, “I didn’t know what to do, so I tried one of the crazy things Lakin was talking about last week. All of a sudden, the room changed, and I got my price without any real pushback or negotiation. I would like to change my rating that I gave that presentation last week. It was definitely a ‘10’.” Top Sellers, like most people, do not want to work hard enough to change how they do things. However, Top Sellers have the courage to notice when something is not working and the curiosity to ask themselves, “What else might work?”  Others see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. How often has a sales person told her manager, “Oh, I think it went very well” when, in fact, it did not go well at all. This is not a lie. This is simply failure to have the courage to notice when things are not going well. Top Sellers expect to win, and they know when they are not winning. They have the determination to stay engaged and involved until they are successful (if possible). As a result, if they are aware of a new option or a new way to make a proposal, they will often be one of the first of their peers to try it. While not showing a lot of enthusiasm for the training per se, they will draw from that training when they need it.   Trainers should not expect Top Sellers to be enthusiastic participants in a training session, unless they can incorporate competitive games into the learning process. Yet Top Sellers are often the first to test a skill in the field and report results back to the others. But they will only use the skill when existing skills are not working for them and they ask themselves, “What else might work here?” Learning for the sake of learning will not motivate them. Learning must contribute to their sense of control over a situation when failure is suddenly a real possibility. When there is a chance they might fail, they will learn and use anything that is seen as a useful way to give them a competitive advantage.

Understanding Top Sellers: Observation 3..They have "Grit"

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It takes energy to sell. Any good seller is motivated to get up and go to battle. But for the Top Sellers, it is different. They have more than energy. They have more than “motivation.” They have “grit.”

Angela Duckworth is an assistant professor at Penn. She has been studying “grit” for many years. She defines it as “sticking with things over the very long term until you master them.” A person with grit has more than energy. He or she has stamina and determination.

A Top Seller with “grit”  wants a goal badly enough that working toward that goal is not work but just part of the process. An average seller, for instance, is willing to make cold calls but may complain about it and find other things to fill the day when possible. A Top Seller who needs to make cold calls to sell will look upon the activity as just another thing that has to be done. It is not separate from the goal of being a good seller and meeting sales goals. It is one and the same.

A recent candidate told me about getting a job with one of the largest chemical companies in the world. He said his first two months were spent in what they called Sales Boot Camp. About a third of the people left before the training was completed. either of their own choice or because they were asked to leave. He said it never occurred to him that he might not finish. (Optimism) It was hard, but it was what was necessary to get the job and excel.

Many people have goals. But how many never let go of them? As Duckworth points out, graduating from a two year school is a challenge, but it is nothing like graduating from a four-year college. It usually takes “grit” to hang in and go through all the academic hurdles, pay the price, and forego other activities to get the four-year degree.

In spite of Duckworth’s example, a college degree…or the absence of a college degree…does not, by itself, lend any clues about “grit.”  Does getting a degree online require as much “grit” as getting a degree in a conventional academic setting? It depends. It is not the degree; it is what it took to get it. That is how you find out about “grit.” The candidate who told me recently that he is thinking about getting his college degree does not have “grit”, at least in the area of academic achievement. Thinking is not all that tough. But the person may have “grit” in other areas of his/her life. Academic “grit” is not a pre-requisite to being an achiever in the work world and in sales. But the successful candidate must show some “grit” somewhere in life that is meaningful and relevant to the position in question.

A Top Seller must have “grit” to meet quotas and excel. It helps to be smart and driven, but it is focus and persistence that characterize “grit.”

Athletes often have “grit”, and their stories give a hint about what to listen for when interviewing in search of a Top Seller. “ You gotta want it so bad you are willing to be exhausted” was how one football player described college pre-season.  Vladimir Horowitz, the esteemed piano player, hated practicing, but he practiced four hours a day, because that was what it took to be great. A pro-bowler in the NFL said, “Sure it hurt, but I knew it was worth it” when describing the exercises and drills he endured every year of his playing career.  A Navy SEAL described his experience in this way: “It was the toughest training I ever experienced but I knew it was necessary.”

“Worth it”? “Necessary?” These words only make sense when paired with a clear focus, even obsession, toward an end goal.  To someone with “grit”, the end goal is so important that whatever it takes to get there is worth it. Necessary. No complaints. No skimping. No sneaking out of practice or finding excuses to not make calls. The goal is clear and the steps to get there are simply part of the process.

When interviewing sales candidates, ask “grit” questions.

            "What have you wanted so badly that you gave up other

             things to achieve?”

“Was there ever anything so important to you that you suffered through things others might have called boring or hard or even impossible? Describe what you endured. Why did you do that? (Listen for the goal.) Why was that so important to you?”

“What was the most difficult learning experience you ever had?”

“What was the toughest challenge you ever faced? How did you overcome it? Why did you go to so much trouble?”

“Tell me about something you wanted to master but had to really struggle to reach that level.”

“Grit” is character. Character differentiates good sellers from Top Sellers. People with “grit” do not give up. Nor do they complain. They do the “reps” and run the steps and study the financial reports and hit balls out of the sand and play scales. They do what they must to reach their goal of being excellent. Some say it takes 10,000 hours to excel at something. Those with “grit” are not keeping track of the time.

When beliefs become behaviors

I was recently reading a review of a new book by Dan Ariely on honesty, lying, and lying to ourselves. Part of a reported study discovered that when participants were reminded of a set of rules, such as an Honor Code or the Ten Commandants, there was significantly less cheating.

The story reminded me of a company I worked with for many years that had a strong culture of honesty. As the Chairman told me when I first met him, “We bring our own stamps to work”, a message far broader than the simple fact that people used their own personal stamps to mail their personal mail rather than using company postal machines for non-business-related mail. This company was dedicated to high standards of honesty and integrity, and the Chairman wanted me to understand that fact from the beginning of our relationship. It was key to hiring people who fit the culture. Whenever there was a meeting, people were reminded of the values that drove the organization. I never heard of anyone in that company stealing funds or behaving dishonestly.

Simply reminding people of what you believe as a leader can have a significant impact on your organization. A culture exists when beliefs become behaviors. If people do not know what you believe, you will not be able to create nor sustain the culture you desire. Speak up. Let people see in your daily behavior what you consider to be important. And keep speaking up. There will always be someone who hears it for the first time.

34th Anniversary of Lakin Associates: THANKS

Thanks to all my clients and friends who have helped Lakin Associates enjoy 34 years of providing service to executives and companies throughout the world. It continues to be a great run. Thanks.

Understanding Your Top Sellers: Observation 2...They need to control

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UNDERSTANDING TOP SELLERS

OBSERVATION TWO:  Need to control

A Chicago company that processed residential mortgages routinely hired new college graduates for their training program. Once trained, these young people would be assigned to field offices to sell their services to residential brokers. Part of their sales pitch was a commitment to processing loans quickly to enable the realtor to get a closing date quickly.

The training program was in the home office, and all trainees were immediately assigned to processors who handled the paper sent from the field. It would only take about three days to know who was going to be a top seller. By the third day, at least one new hire would realize that his/her future success depended on these office people. If the process was to be controlled after the papers were sent to the office, the processing team needed to be responsive to the person submitting the papers. Future top sellers saw this immediately, and they began bringing donuts and coffee or taking the processors to lunch on a regular basis throughout the training program. 

Top sellers fear they will fail. To manage that fear, they develop a strong drive to control. They believe that if they control enough factors in the sales process, they decrease their risk of failing. They are able to tell themselves that they are preventing the problems that will hurt them.

Anyone who has worked with a top seller has seen this need to control. As soon as an order is submitted, the top seller will be calling to see the progress on the order. He/she will be checking with production or the warehouse to ensure that the product will be available as promised. Although sales managers want their sellers in the field talking with customers, top sellers often spend much of their time trying to control the internal sales ordering process. It is not unusual for a sales manager to suddenly see a top seller wandering the halls of the office or filling emails with questions and follow-up requests for status reports.

When you ask a top seller what he/she wants in sales manager, you will often hear this control issue.  As a recent candidate told me, “I want a manager who can be a resource to work with finance or production to be sure that things get done.”  

When interviewing a sales candidate, one of the first things to look for is how effectively the candidate tries to control the interview. Top sellers are able to stay “on message” in spite of attempts to distract the candidate. They are polite but focused. They may refer back to an earlier question by saying, “You were asking earlier about…”, for instance. 

The top seller candidate also may not be eager to engage in small talk. The stereotype of the sales candidate who references the fish on the wall or the photo of the family skiing is misleading. The top sales candidate will stay focused and want to talk about his/her sales successes in the past as well as why he/she would be a great fit for the company doing the hiring.

A recent sales model referred to as The Challenger Model describes a seller as someone who wants to debate and push the customer. While this is not wholly inaccurate, it seems to miss the real point of the behavior. The top seller will push and advise only when he/she sees a need to step in and control. As long as a top seller feels in control, he/she will not push. There is no need, and the risk of being seen as pushy is too great. Knowledge that can be shared and the ability to lead the customer to trust the seller’s judgment result in the control a top seller needs. He/she does not have to be entertaining, assertive, or pushy.

Top sellers know it is not the customer who needs to be controlled. The top seller learns how to control the sales process, which includes influencing the decision to make the purchase by knowing what to talk about and how to make themselves valuable. Top sellers do not worry about “closing techniques.” They see ways to control the process long before the traditional close.

Understanding Your Top Sellers: Observation One...They fear failure

INTRODUCTION

Are you trying to hire top sellers? Do you understand what makes them tick?

An interesting challenge in any industry: how do you identify who would be a top seller?

Test manufacturers would have you believe that you can “profile” top sellers as a guide to hiring practices. They take the top producers, give them a test, and then use the combined averages as a guide to whom you should select and whom you should ignore.  

Unfortunately, such a practice does not work. It only sells tests.

It does not work, because no test can sample how a seller thinks. It is the thinking process that differentiates top sellers from the rest of the pack.

Try this: Take your top sales producers and put them in a room. Do they look alike? Do they dress in a similar way? Do they sound alike? Do they have similar interests? Are they all extroverts? Are they all verbal?

Probably not!

Any group of top sellers is more likely to include more individual differences then similarities on the surface. It is only beneath the surface that you can begin to understand and see that a top seller thinks in a unique way when compared with an average producer. 

In my 35 years of interviewing and watching the development of sales professionals, I have identified what really differentiates the elite sales force. I hope my observations are helpful.

OBSERVATION ONE:  Top sellers are driven by fear and anxiety

When working with Dean Witter many years ago, I was once told the story of a senior manager who took his top two producers to breakfast one day. He said, “You both make well over a million dollars a year. Yet you are both the first ones in each morning and the last to leave at night. Why? I want you to write as simple an answer as you can on the back of this piece of paper.” He gave them a moment and then took the papers from them. Both had written the same word: FEAR

Top sellers act confident. They can even appear arrogant and superior at times. But beneath the surface, their driving force is fear. They are anxious that their string of successes will run out. As a result, they must work harder each day to prevent such failure.

The top seller from the food distributor John Sexton & Co. had come within $50 of breaking the all-time record sales for a fiscal year.  I stopped by his desk to congratulate him. I mentioned how close he had come to breaking the record. He just laughed and opened his bottom desk drawer. In the drawer, he had thrown a stack of papers. I indicated that I did not understand. He said, “Those are orders I did not turn in this month.  I was afraid I was just getting a lot of end-of-year orders, and I would have no sales at all in January. So I tossed the orders in here until after January 1.” In his drawer were at least $500 worth of sales orders.

Most top sellers will not admit to fear. But listen to their words. They often talk about being “lucky.” When asked to explain what they do that is different from others, they will grasp at concepts that only sound good but reflect little of what they do. “Lucky” means they believe it could all end tomorrow. They rarely can tell you why they are successful.

“Lucky” also means “I’m not sure I can do it again.” As a result, it is often the top sellers who yell loudest about having their quotas increased. A larger target for the next year, based on their performance for this year, only increases their fear. They typically sandbag their forecasts, not just to ensure that they will get their bonuses, but as a way of dealing with their fear about their future.

I once heard a sales manager complaining about the lack of urgency in a seller. She had been a top seller before being promoted. Her complaint: “This may be the only time we have such a window of opportunity with this customer.” Logically, this is not likely to be true. However, she is a top seller by nature, and her fear is that such an opportunity could disappear.  It is not “We have an opportunity and let’s move on it.” Instead, it is “We have an opportunity and may lose it.”

Top sellers could be classified in psychological terms as “Away-from” personalities rather than “Toward.” They want to prevent or avoid failure. That is why, as Daniel Pink has observed in a recent book, incentives do not really work with top performers. Top sellers are motivated to prevent failure, and a quota with bonus is nice but not a driver. Their drive is internal and comes from their need to avoid that which they fear the most—failure. If they do not get their bonus, they are disappointed and even angry, but the real reason is that missing their target suggests that failure may be lurking ahead. If they achieve their bonus, it is enjoyed, but it does not motivate them to do anything different the next year.  It is also why some top sellers, when they get in a slump, have more difficulty than most crawling out of it. A slump may be seen as temporary by average sellers. Top sellers assume it is their worst nightmare coming true.

The fear I see in top sellers is what I call a “healthy neurosis.” It is the reason they answer the phone quickly, yell about orders being slow to get through the office, or complain that customer service is not being responsive to a customer need. When a neurosis becomes so bad that a person is afraid to act, then it is no longer a motivator but a liability. But a healthy neurosis is seen as an excellent source of motivation. It drives the top seller to work hard the next day rather than relax after a big sale. After all, today may have been the result of luck, and tomorrow may begin a long drought of no-sales. Therefore, they get up early and tackle the job that needs to be done.

Why is "sales" a dirty word?

In looking at a recent article in a psychology journal, I found a study on "faking" psychological tests. In the study, the authors said, "...there may be some jobs where it is useful to adapt to situational demands to the point of distorting the truth (e.g., sales)..." (Italics are mine.)

Since when does sales equate with distortion of the truth? This is the same unfortunate view of sales that leads so many young men and women to avoid considering sales as a worthy profession. Why do so many competent people say, "I don't want to be a salesperson" or "I can't sell"? (Incidentally, these two phrases usually mean the same thing: I don't want to sell.)

Many companies try to get around this perception by playing  name games. They call their sales people "Territory Managers" or "Account Representatives." Why not call someone a "Sales Professional"?

Selling is teaching. Selling is guiding and helping. A good teacher makes you want to learn. A good seller makes you want to buy. This requires trust, not distortion.

A good sales call is one in which the prospect or buyer learns something. Rather than distort truth, the seller is trying to help people confront reality and see where something might be improved. Today's seller is faced with helping people overcome denial and talk about where real pain or opportunity exist. Selling is as much a helping profession as social work or psychology when done well.

We professionals need to help the public realize that sales is not the Hollywood version of used car dealers or aluminum siding hawkers. In fact, anyone who makes a living in sales will tell you that a sales person who tries to distort the truth will quickly fail.

In short, a successful seller today must create trust and not distort truth.  A good seller must be the guide who can help someone else make the right decision. Let's help the next generation of professionals see that sales is not a dirty word. Be proud when you say, "I'm a sales professional."

Using a professional interviewer

Too few companies acknowledge that it would be helpful to hire a "professional interviewer". Even though most executives do not really like interviewing candidates and usually hope the next candidate is a good one, they also rarely admit to being weak interviewers. Often these same companies look for "tests" to make the selection process more effective.

By themselves, test scores can be quite problematic and can often result in rejecting good candidates. No test can tell you who can do the job. Psychometric tests can be very helpful, however, to the professional interviewer who can combine the test information, probe the history and distill trends, habits, and the thinking process one uses to make decisions. Only a disciplined behavioral interview combined with an understanding of how to interpret psychometric tests can help identify if there are risks to "fit" or growth potential.

Notice my emphasis: "risk". A good candidate can look really good but some fatal traits can keep those good traits from appearing in the workplace. I tell my clients that my role is to find the flaws and fatal traits that are likely to be such risks. As an old saying goes, "Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes all the way to the bone." Some traits or behaviors block the good ones from surfacing. Those are the traits I look for in the testing and in the interview. Unlike most hiring managers in an interview, I look for reasons to NOT hire someone. Even the best of us can miss a few of these, but if you are able to eliminate one or two bad hires yearly, it easily provides a good return on the cost of a "professional interviewer." I know, because I've been doing this for 35 years.

Is the interview over?

When your last manager candidate ended the interview and walked out of the room, did you have your questions answered? Did you have questions TO be answered? Only by preparing for an interview can you know when the interview is over.

Well-formed outcome to help ensure fit

A group facilitator for a worldwide organization of CEO's recently told us how he uses "well-formed outcome" statements with prospects for his fee-based development/coaching program. He uses a full VAK mix and asks each person, "How do you see yourself benefiting from a group of peers who can give you feedback and insights on your leadership and your organization?" (We have suggested that he add, "...who will tell you what you may or may not want to hear and help you see yourself through the eyes of others who are your CEO peers." He then listens for a response that indicates self-awareness and an openness to learn from feedback and support from peers. He reports excellent success in enrolling new members who fit the program well. They join knowing what to expect and ready to participate. In spite of the economy which has hit small to medium-sized businesses hard, he maintains full groups and his turnover is low.

Example of the power of the unconscious

I recently was reminded of the power of the unconscious thinking process to make us blind to facts.

I was told about a sales rep who is consistently near or at the top of sales results every year for his company. His style of selling is consistent with The Unfair Advantage in that he sells himself and then becomes an "adviser" to his prospect*. He tells the prospect that he wants to help him/her find a way to make an order that will "satisfy the guys at corporate" or something to that effect. He advises on pricing and order mix to "help" the prospect become a customer. With prospects, he figuratively sits on their side of the table and seemingly puts together an order from their perspective. Only by effectively selling himself and controlling the selling process does this work. And a quick look at his results suggest he is quite a master at it.

Unfortunately, his corporate sales leaders say they do not like his style and, therefore, fail to promote his approach as a "best practice" for future training purposes. Instead they label his approach as being "us vs. them" and inconsistent with the culture of the organization. By labeling his selling approach in such a negative manner, it makes logical sense to them to avoid encouraging other sales reps to adapt such an disloyal or anti-company style of selling.

Perhaps, if they could change the label---use different words to describe what he does---they might see things in a different light. Labels are powerful influencers of the unconscious mind and vice-versa.

The unconscious mind influences about 95% of all decisions. As a seller, this can be a huge advantage if you know how to sell to that unconscious. As a manager, care must be taken to avoid letting our own unconscious mind create attitudes that get in the way of our success or the success of others. Looking at facts and trying to avoid letting our unconscious attitudes color those facts is a difficult but worthwhile undertaking from time to time. Sometimes we need to hear things with a different voice. Sometimes we need to step outside of our own skin or sit in a different chair to see more clearly what is happening around us.


*This is a style very similar to a colleague of mine who is a hugely successful commercial real estate seller. In his case, he becomes the adviser to help his client find a property that will fit the client's need and also helps the customer put together a proposal that will be accepted by the seller. Again, the "sale" is the art of selling himself and becoming the adviser.

Different national conversation needed

I am disheartened that still no one is talking about this: Asperger's restricts social interaction. If one's primary social interaction, so to speak, is Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt and Postal, then the brain is both programmed for such behavior and need for visceral excitement as well as desensitized to the moral issues that are involved. This is a form of brainwashing just as lethal as any military or propaganda effort. A lack of alternative experiences (e.g., mental health intervention) and a steady diet of violence leads to sad unhealthy outcomes. Watch for copy-cat behaviors around the country from people with similar social vacuums and a distorted perception of how to get noticed. The problem is not guns. The real problem began when Reagan stopped funding mental health intervention and forced it on the states who have/had no money. Affordable in-patient facilities closed nationwide. First result was the visible increase in the homeless "street people" (no place to supervise their taking of meds); now increased senseless violence by people who should be receiving intense intervention, social options and therapeutic treatment. And if you want to ban something, how about hyper-violent video games?