Colleen’s Blog

Let's call a spade a spade. What Wells Fargo did was illegal. They used private customer information to create bogus accounts, forged signatures and authorized charges that customers were not made aware of.  I, for one, am sick of the media and the banks pussy-footing around with their language describing what happened. "Even U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew weighed in on the Wells Fargo scandal, calling it a "wake-up call." "This is unacceptable behavior -- and it's the kind of behavior we need to be able to catch and stop," Lew said on Tuesday at the Delivering Alpha conference in New York." No Lew, it's not unacceptable.  It's illegal. The fines and firings are a good first step, but shouldn't someone be charged with forgery? You stop it by showing the bank that you are not afraid to press charges. Allowing the VP who oversaw the division that committed fraud to 2,000,000 customers to retire quietly with $125 million is not the right message to send.

The scarcest resource for sales professionals at every level is time. So when you hear we've got 10+ hours of actionable tips from the best sales execs in the industry at Inbound Sales Day, you might think that time is better spent on the phone and selling. The thing is, every session we’ve got lined up with world-class sales professionals is laser-focused on saving you time and making you more money. A couple hours spent learning how you can improve your sales process now will pay off in the long run when you see the $$$ rolling in. Here are 7 key takeaways you'll miss if you don't tune in:

Did you just do a double take? Stop closing sales...isn't that counter-productive to our sales success? You heard me right. Salespeople should not be attempting to “close” sales with clients. It’s all in the definition. Closing is something you do to a person. While it may just be a term, the language is completely one-sided. It implies that you are going entirely for the win regardless of what’s right for the customer. Salespeople who approach prospects with this kind of self-benefiting mentality are almost never successful in their long-term endeavors. Depending on their abilities and experience, they may, in fact, convince the prospect to do business with them, but long-term, mutually beneficial relationships are rarely ever fostered. This breed of selling creates the "pushy" and "aggressive" stigma that clouds our entire industry. It puts everyone, including well-wishing, value-focused salespeople at a clear disadvantage with prospects. You want to instill a win-win mindset in your team. Your business hasn't truly won unless your clients are gaining incredible value by working with you. Sales closing techniques that have amusing terms or names are often methods that you should not be using. For example:

After the 2012 Olympics, Ryan Lochte stated he wanted to be a celebrity. He went on to "star" in a terrible and ill-fated reality show titled "What would Ryan Lochte Do." I think we all know now what he would do. Blame others, and lie about the facts. It goes without saying that you should be honest for honesty's sake. But if you can't muster those morals, at least be honest because you know that you will be caught. There are just too many cameras, too many eye-witnesses, and too much information for you not to be honest these days. You will be found out.

It's been an exciting weekend at the Olympic track this week and no one better displays the Olympic spirit than the two middle distance runners Mo Farah from Great Britain (Gold medal men's 10,000 meters) and Ethiopia's 3000 metre steeplechaser, Entensh Diro. In a true to life Chariots of Fire moment, Farah went down hard  half-way through his race, picked himself back up and went on to win. The last 2 laps are some of the best racing I have ever seen and (disclaimer, Farah is a track idol of mine) it's no surprise I was yelling at the TV.

You can discuss sales strategies, ideas, tips and methods to no end. You can set sales targets for your team to hit, implement a promising new strategy and motivate your sales reps with morning huddles. But, when the day starts, it's up to your team to do the work and create the results. Salespeople don't always struggle due to weak strategy, at times poor productivity habits will seriously hinder their progress as well. Let’s cut to the chase. The best way for your team to achieve true productivity in their work day is to ask them to cut off all inbound access. Now, before your jaw drops too low, let me clarify that you should only ask that they do so temporarily, ideally an hour or two each day. Consider asking them to turn their phone to silent or completely turning it off. They will also benefit from logging out of their email inbox while they work through important tasks. When your team is focusing on outbound business development prospecting, they should not have to deal with distracting, time-consuming tasks which take the focus out of their work day. It's great to be able to multitask, but your team will always be able to accomplish more by laser focusing on the task at hand. Want a perfect example of how this simple tweak in productivity can benefit your team?