It was like a great movie!

We received a few more comments, from our members, that I wanted to share with everyone.
Kathy Giddings of Assurity said, "The EcSELL Institute Sales Management Summit was like a great movie or book that when over, you didn't want it to end!"

Paraphrasing a comment from Doug Hamm, also from Assurity, he sent the following message to his boss, " ...not sure what you paid for us to be members of the EcSELL Institute, but whatever the investment was, it is worth it. Thanks for investing in my future."

Thanks Kathy and Doug for your warm support!

Learn more about the EcSELL Institute and how being part of a family of sales managers can impact you personally and professionally. www.ecsellinstitute.com or call 402 261-6948.

For those who listened well and acted accordingly, you should be receiving/seeing tangible benefits from the EcSELL Institute Sales Management Summit by now. I know someone is...

I received a message from one of our instructor's assistant who informed me that Kimberly Rath of Talent Plus has had conversations/meeting set with all but one company who attended the EcSELL Institute Sales Management Summit. Kimberly certainly didn't waste any time, nor perhaps did you. Those will certainly be win/win conversations.

All attendees committed a great many resources to be at the lovely St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, so here is my question to you all..."What are you doing differently today?" You know the old line - if you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten.

At a high level, there are two basic ingredients to growth:
1. Information
2. Implementation of information
EcSELL Institute is committed to bringing you information specific to sales management. It is your job as a sales executive to implement.

That said, please join us for our next 6 Pillars Of Productivity webinar on August 26 at 10:00am PST / 12:00noon CENTRAL/ 1:00 pm EST. We will be sharing break through information on how the selling brain works. Managers who understand this will have a significant advantage and be better equipped to build a motivated, satisfied sales team who consistently exceed their goals. Stop managing blind and start managing with insight! To learn more and register online, click on this link: http://www.ecsellinstitute.com/webinars/aug2609_webinar.html

First Five Favorite Quotes from the EcSELL Institute Sales Managment Summit

I have been going through the audio recordings from the Summit. Over the few weeks I am going to post some of my favorite quotes from our excellent instructors. Here are my first fave five!

"Sell people their dreams, not your products." Dr. Lowell Catlett

" Never stop celebrating the success of your sales people." Kimberly Rath, Talent Plus

"You need to always remember who we are working for (sales managers work for their reps)" Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry, Institute for Health and Human Potential

"Leadership is a behavior, not a formal role." Kimberly Rath, Talent Plus

"The essence of industrialization is the division of labor. Why not apply this thinking to how we structure a sales team?" Justin Roff-Marsh, Ballistix

Learn more about EcSELL Institute's 6 Pillars of Productivity. Those that maintain a diligent focus on the 6 Pillars plus an ongoing, professional development program around management and leadership skills will be able to make the necessary adjustment to optimize the productivity of the sales department by creating a highly motivated sales team who regularly exceed their goals.

When you stop the pursuit of learning, you have turned off your career

We just wrapped up our EcSELL Institute Sales Management Summit with great reviews. It's truly amazing what can be delivered to your customers (members) when you have a team of dedicated associates and partners. The formula is not complicated; talented people, clear mission/objectives, unending commitment to customers and talented people...did I mention talented people?

The message, as pointed out by those who attended the Summit, was pretty clear - put an emphasis on the selection and development of your talent. If you study the science, most sales managers list the identification and selection of talent as the most critical Pillar that drives sales productivity, so it would make sense many of our instructors emphasized that need.

How could one listen to Kimberly Rath, of Talent Plus, and not implement the most cutting edge selection and development programs? How could one listen to Dr. Lowell Catlett and not get excited about what our future holds. Regardless of what your sell, how could you listen to Justin Roff-Marsh of Ballistix and not put in a process that creates more selling time for your reps? Dr. Mary Uhl-Bien, Director of the Global Leadership Institute, helped us understand the changing nature of leadership and the need to change the way we view and develop it. Dr. Pawliw-Fry, of the Institute for Health and Human Potential, made it infinitely clear our need to hire and develop emotional intelligence in all our associates. We will wait and see what happens, but EcSELL members are now loaded with enough fact-based information and best practices to begin the journey of maximizing productivity.

Events like this, whey you ask more than you tell, are very therapeutic. I love it when I am made to think more about asking good questions versus finding good answers. And, this only occurs when surrounded by bright people.

Shortly after the Sales Management Summit I was asked what I liked best, and I couldn't respond intelligently. Now I can - evening dinners, Monday and Tuesday night with our members and instructors. To get in the smaller, more intimate settings provided amazing, consequential conversations. Thanks to everyone who didn't let the learning end at 5:00pm!

We learned from some exceptional minds the past few days and I'm still soaking in the information and experiences. One of the most poignant quotes was from an EcSELL Institute member, Ken Eiken, Sr. VP Sales from Universal Weather and Aviation. While referring those who don't pursue a journey of continuing education he stated, " when you stop the pursuit of learning, you have turned off your career." Ken summarized in one sentence what the EcSELL Institute is all about - professional development for sales managers.

We thank everyone who attended and hope to see you back in March 2010!
As always, my door is open. Email me anytime at beckstrom@ecsellinstitute.com

Communicating Difficult Information

"Difficult Communication" was something that came up as a topic of interest during Mary Uhl-Bien's instruction on Leadership & Sales Management. Understanding that this is an area of interest - nay, urgent need for learning among EcSELL Institute members, I thought it would be helpful to share the story below. Although it describes "customer" relationships, I remind you that the principles are likely the same for your sales team members. Said another way, your 'customer' is the recipient of the communique.

Turning Bad News Into Good Vibes - New Siegel Gale Simplicity Survey Finds Organizations Can Strengthen Customer Relationships in Times of Crisis

This study examined letters sent to customers by mail telling them about changes to their credit. The letter which was discovered to be the best overall and the most "informative, balanced, direct, and made[readers] feel most loyal to the company" was one that was sent to mortgage customers explaining the bank's new policies. The letter's key features were:

1) Explicitly stated its commitment to transparency; and
2) Contained easy-to-understand descriptions.

Other letters had positive features including truthfulness and respect. According to Siegel+Gale's Global Director and Practice Leader of Simplified Communications, Lee Rafkin there exists a "Strong correlation between clarity, comprehensive explanations, and respect on
the one hand, and trust, engagement, and loyalty on the other" in these types of written communication.

Applied to delivering bad news to your customers, peers, salespeople, etc... do the same principles of Clarity, Truthfulness, Respect, and Relevance apply?

Summit a Success!

Thank you to everyone who attended the EcSELL Institute Sales Management Summit. It was great putting faces to names. We will be emailing out evaluation forms to the attendees for all the intructors and the Summit overall. From the few I have reviewed, it appears that everyone got a lot out of this event.

The people who attended the Summit are an amazing group of sales managers. Their commitment to professional development is comendable.

Liveblog: How to Grow Sales in a Shrinking Economy, Justin Roff-Marsh

Justin Roff-Marsh is an author and prolific blogger at http://www.salesprocessengineering.com. Roff-Marsh is an expert in the Theory of Constraints, the process-engineering methodology that underpins Ballistix's contrarian approach to the sales process.

Roff-Marsh asserts that if an organization meets the two following criteria...

1) The organization has unutilized production capacity
2) Market share less than 20%

...then, the following two conclusions fall out:

1) The organization has growth potential; and,
2) The constraint to growth is sales (not production)

"There is a potential for productivity improvement in sales. The modern salesperson is currently an artisan, operating in a craft-shop environment."

"Standardization, centralized scheduling and a format management regime are prerequisites of division of labor."

"In a knowledge-based environment, we have invisible work-in-process."

Roff-Marsh posits that specialization results in 10x the 'effective capacity" of sales:




Center: Business development meetings go from 2/week to 4/day

Periphery

• Promotions
• Administration and clerical
• Customer service and fulfillment (engineering)

(Talent + Fit) x Investment = Growth

A portion of the peer learning session focused on the "(T + F) x I = G" model.



(Talent + Fit) x Investment = Growth

Does the investment "Motivate" or "Satisfy?"

Potential types of investment:

Job descriptions are boxes. People are puzzle pieces.

Reading Recommendations

In a peer-to-peer session, the EcSell Summit group shared some of their recommended authors and books.

• Patrick Lencioni, "The Five Temptations of a CEO," "The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive," "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" and others

• Jim Collins, "Good to Great"

• Ricardo Semler, "Maverick" and "Managing Without Managers"

• Harvard Business Review, "The Musings of Management" and "Who's Got The Monkey?"