Sales Manager Mag

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Creating The Perfect Professional Selling Practice

The industry you are in has become harder through no fault of your own! The challenge now is having to find good people who are committed just like yourself. Taking the complexity of doing the low paying, unproductive paperwork that takes you away from the activities you love to do, like talking to clients and using your expertise to make a difference in their lives. The challenge is creating a point of difference in the over crowded market place and in the process of all of this having a life.

I work with a great many sales professionals around Australia and find that all of them fall into 3 distinct groups of people …

Survivors … This is the vast majority of Sales Professionals in the market place, approximately 80% from my research. They all look the same, sound the same and talk the same. They are struggling to truly capitalise on the opportunities their industry has to offer.

Successful … These men and women are successful, they give great advice and they earn a great income. However they are weighted down with the burden of now having to be not just a great sales professional but now they have to run a successful business with all the complexities that comes with that challenge … staff, systems, strategy, structure and succession planning. What I have also noticed about this group is they have all the toys … boats, cars, units on the coast but no time to enjoy the fruits of their labour or they are suffering from burn out or serious health issues or just plain bored with their profession. Also many can’t retire and truly gain the maximum value for all their years of hard work.

Significant … This group is made up of the top 5% of Sales Professionals in our country, who have it all … a great business and a great life! It has not come easy but at some stage during their business career they decided to break away from the pack and do it different. When they broke away some of them were mocked by peers but now they are laughing all the way to the bank and beyond. From my experience they didn’t do it all by themselves, they had help! This group of people humbled themselves to find the right people to guide, mentor and coach them towards their personal and professional vision of the Perfect Sales Business for their set of circumstances.

You Have Seen It All and Heard it All Before
Like you I have been to hundreds of conferences all over the world and heard it all before, so I am telling you anything new. There is nothing new that you have not seen before. As I often say to Sales Professionals just like you, “You don’t need any more information, you need insights!”

Great Ideas Applied to the Wrong Business Model, Are Not Great!
Here is one of the great tragedies that I see happen with Sales Professionals. They go to a conference and gain some great ideas and they are truly great ideas but they don’t work in their business because they are trying to apply this idea to their business model and does not work. Each idea becomes a band aid solution rather that a strategy towards significance!

Business Transformation Formula

Take a moment to review the following formula’s components they are not new, however when they are all applied to your business, it will literally amaze you with the results your business will achieve.
Here is the business formula that has transformed the sales professionals into the top 5% in your industry …

Let me explain the above business formula for you.

Your Passion – Business Purpose … This is the foundation for everything we do in life and business. It is important for you to clarify your personal passion and the professional direction of your practise with all your key stakeholders … family, partners and staff. You must get back to basics of why you are in business and what lifestyle do you want your business to provide for you and your family. We sometimes lose our way and become unfulfilled with the direction we are travelling in or the life we have created for ourselves.

Business Model – Business Vision … Have you experienced this in your business? When you first got into business for yourself, you had a picture in your mind of what you wanted to achieve and how you were going to achieve it. Somewhere along the way, things changed without you knowing it. You got taken away from doing the things that you love to do … seeing clients, using your expertise and making a real difference in your client’s businesses. What you need to do is get back to doing the activities that not only have a high payoff but you also love to do them. You need to design the right business model to suit your personal and professional vision, so that the model will support your business exit plans or succession strategy.

Time to Change or Capitalise … At this point of time you may already have the right business model in place, so all you will need to do is now capitalise on your model. If this is not the case and if you are going to move forward then all you need to do is change what is not serving you and your goals in the most effective way. Spend time looking at the roadblocks holding your business back from reaching it’s full potential and create an easy to implement time sensitive strategy on how to do that.

Strategy – Structure – Systems … Business will not change overnight, but your's will change if we work the right strategy and apply that to the right business structure. This is where your people get involved, obtain their buy in and focus on the activities that best serve your goals and business vision. You need to create a realistic flexible workable plan that you will continue to use as your true north for your business.

Strategy Implementation – Ideas Integration … We are never short of ideas, but just the time to implement them. Look at your short term and long term strategies to assist you in implementing and integrating your key ideas into your business. Couple this with a panel of professional service providers and there is nothing that you cannot achieve in your business.

Measure – Monitor – Maintain … Each month you will need to review your progress, redefine your priorities and clarify your strategies for being significant in your industry. You already know what needs to be done at this stage, so this is about making sure that you are keeping on the right track. By measuring and monitoring your business you will be able to maintain your momentum and capitalise on your successes.

Next Step …

If you are not sure where to start, here is the best offer I can give you; contact me at keith@keithabraham.com.au and I will give you 15 minutes of my time on the phone at no obligation to conduct a review of your personal and business needs. At this point of time I will give you some suggestions for moving your business forward. If it is not you that makes the change now, then what is going to happen when you are made to change?