10 Ways to Become a Proactive Sales Leader

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: February 22, 2021

Do you think you are a proactive sales leader?

Many of my coaching clients do. But there’s a bit of a paradox we have to consider first.

If you are successful in sales, your time can be spent reacting to inquiries.

Particularly after you’ve been in the trenches for a while.

Prospects reaching out on account of some past interaction or discussion is often a positive sign that your efforts are starting to pay off.

But there’s a problem.

When prospects begin reaching out regularly, it can start to eat up much of our prospecting time.

Time spent on business development activities can be replaced with follow-ups, quoting, and internal dialogues.

To be effective, we need to become (and remain) a proactive sales leader.

What Is Proactive Selling?

Proactive selling is as simple as it sounds.

It’s maintaining a proactive approach to selling, rather than shifting to a reactive approach.

Consider all of the activities you engaged in during the early days of your career.

Many of those were proactive.

Reaching out to potential customers, rather than waiting for them to reach out to you.

Predicting and in turn preparing for objections, rather than using the “wait and see” method.

Working with your sales manager to create a strategy before approaching a new prospect, rather than after.

But success, although wonderful, can also be a curse.

We can get lazy.

There, I said it. Lazy.

We need to find methods (that work for us) to remain hungry and proactive in our selling.

How Can a Sales Leader Be Proactive?

You might be wondering exactly how you can become (or remain) proactive.

Simply put, you need to “stay hungry.”

We’ve all been faced with sales slumps at one time or another.

Being proactive dramatically reduces the chances of our reaching a slump.

We are always being proactive, reaching out, making plans, and acting on them.

Proactive sales leaders are busy.

They never rest. Most importantly, they never take reactive opportunities for granted.

They know that moving to a reactive approach to selling will mean a slump will come sooner, rather than later.

Proactive Sales Leaders have the right mindset backed up with the right activities.

Proactive Sales Leader Techniques

Here are some common and effective proactive sales techniques.

Consider which of these would work best for you, then implement today.

A.B.R. (Always Be Ready)

Don’t take any call or meeting for granted. Do some up-front research and know who you are meeting with and what their company is about. Prepare a few questions that will help you clarify their priorities and how you can help.

Have a Plan

After you spend a few minutes doing some preliminary research, make a plan as to how you will approach the meeting. Sure, some of the circumstances might be unknown, but by having a plan, you at least have a direction for the meeting (and will avoid wasting your time).

Block Your Time

You can’t be proactive if you don’t have time. The most proactive sales leaders I know block time in their calendars to ensure they can be proactive. Book 15 minutes before a prospect call to prepare. Set 30 minutes at the end of the day to ensure you follow up on the day’s calls.

Be Bold in Your Outreach

Don’t wait for the big fish to come to you. Always reach out and engage with any customer that you deem as having high potential. Set a weekly target of number of high-potential customers you want to connect with, then make it so.

Bring Value First

If you want to build trust and rapport quickly, you need to provide value. Don’t try to sell to everyone, but first provide something of value. A tip, trick, introduction, sample—the sky’s the limit. The more value you provide upfront, the faster your prospect will trust you.

Data-Driven Decision Making

If you are successful at selling, you’ll be busy. Being busy can sometimes mean we rush to make a decision. Wrong approach. If you want to be proactive in sales, you need to use the data and information around you to support decisions. From recognizing your average closing rate, to understanding the DNB of your prospect, data can support making better quality decisions.

Be an Active Listener

You can’t learn how to best serve or sell to a prospect if you are talking. Most salespeople are blessed with the gift of gab, and the relationships anyone can build are just one of the many reasons sales can be so rewarding. Unfortunately, however, you have to ask questions and stop talking if you want to learn more about your prospect. Be active in your listening, and you’ll be more valuable to your prospect. Even if you are cold-calling.

Anticipate Objections

We’ve all faced objections. If you aren’t prepared with a response to the most common objections, then you aren’t being proactive. Identify what the five most common objections you receive are, then prepare a response and practice it.

Solicit Feedback on Lost Sales

We can’t win them all. When you don’t get the sale, be proactive enough to ask why. Use language like, “I’m curious for my own learning. Can you tell me why we didn’t get the sale?” The more you know, the better you can be prepared for the next sales opportunity.

Use Success and Failure as Fuel

Take time to reflect on both your successes and your failures. They can leave clues as to how you can improve. Most importantly, they can identify trends around what’s working, which in turn can help you sell more!

How to Become More Proactive

Being proactive does come at a cost.

It requires that you invest some time in the activities above.

But in the long run, any time you spend becoming more proactive is an investment.

How will you be more proactive in your selling?

Thursday Thrive Newsletter

© Shawn Casemore 2021. All Rights Reserved.

C-Suite Selling

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Regain Passion for Your Business

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: July 29, 2019

I spoke to a group of business owners, who work in the Wood Industry, on the topic of growing their business. The intent of the talk was to spark new ideas on how to grow their businesses, shifting beyond tactical measures such as marketing and sales and instead building a framework for growth.
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passion for business means growth

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Motivating Your Employees Is An Inside Job

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: June 21, 2019

Are you motivating your employees? Although it’s easy to believe that an employee’s motivation to stay with their employer is directly related to how well they like the company, like their job, and like their boss, the reality is, motivation is an inside job.

Sure, these three things matter, but not nearly as much as an employee’s own self-motivation. Speaking from my own experience, for example, I worked at a nuclear power plant for several years. The company had (and still has) a great reputation in the local community; the pay, benefits, and pension were all fantastic, and the boss I had during my time there was very down-to-earth and understanding. Essentially the perfect job, or so you might think. Problem was, however, I was miserable.

Why? You couldn’t motivate me to like a job that didn’t align with where I saw my life heading.

You see, I had a growing family at the time, and income and job stability were important.  What was more important, though, was my desire to become an entrepreneur. So the perfect job wasn’t so perfect.

Now, I’m not suggesting everyone is like me.  What I am suggesting is that an employee must see their “job” as supporting their desired life. (Notice I didn’t say lifestyle?)  They need to:

  • feel like they’re contributing to something that is worthwhile to them.
  • believe that their job will offer the variety and interest level that align with their personal needs.
  • feel connected with the people (or culture) that surround them.

Essentially, there has to be a “fit”, and this extends beyond whether you like your company, job, or boss.

The question, then, is how to determine the self-motivation of your current employees and those you may hire in the future. In my experience assisting clients with building a team that manages itself, I’ve found that the best way to achieve this is to ask on a one-to-one basis 3 key questions (and don’t stop asking these questions until you are confident you’ve gotten the real answers).

Key Questions to Confirm Self-Motivation

  1. What are the things that matter most to you in life?
  2. Where do you see yourself in 3 years, in 5 years, and in 10 years?
  3. How do you see myself (your leader) and the company supporting you in your goals?

It’s through questions, and more importantly, listening and discussion, that we can uncover what’s motivating your employees to be part of your organization.  We can identify what motivates them to stay (or what might motivate them to stay if they are thinking of leaving), and how we might assist them in growing with the company.

This is essentially the foundation of building a company culture… simplified, of course.

Try asking your employees these 3 questions, or place them as screening questions in your interviews, and listen to the types of responses you get. Most importantly, though, remember that it’s getting to the REAL answers that will help you truly understand what motivates your people.

 

© Shawn Casemore 2019. All rights reserved.

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How to Find Commonality to Influence Employees

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: August 3, 2017

During a talk for CAFE (the Canadian Association of Family Enterprises) I made the comment that if you’re finding it difficult to motivate those around you to have the same ambition and energy you do, there’s certainly a chance that it’s not them, it’s you.

Finding Commonality to Influence Employees:

The most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders are influential. They become influential by practicing the achievement of commonality based on adapting to individuality.

Sound complex? It’s not and here’s why.

[Tweet “How you react and respond to the people and events around you are influenced by your perceptions.”]

Today and everyday, how you react and respond to the people and events around you are influenced by your perceptions. So, your perceptions are in turn unique to you, which means that it is rare that your perceptions (and in turn your responses and reactions to events around you) will align completely with others you interact with.

Most importantly, the greater your ability to find commonality by adapting to individuality, the greater your chances of influencing people and the environment that surrounds you.

For instance, if you’ve ever observed a good politician (I know, it’s a stretch), or a likeable car salesman (another stretch!), what you will find is that they are highly flexible in how they listen to, approach and respond to those they interact with. That is to say they place intense focus on understanding the individuality of those they interact with in order to find commonality and they adapt to it.

Assessing Five Separate Components:

Finding commonality is based on assessing five separate components which is done in the form of questions that you can consider during (or prior to) an interaction with someone.

Here are the questions:

1. Life Experiences: What life experiences have influenced their perceptions of the world around them?

2. Generational Differences: Based on their generation, what are their likes, dislikes and preferences?

3. Behavioral Preferences: What behavioral patterns can you spot and how might these influence their perceptions?

4. Thought Patterns: What are their sensory experiences? How do they tend to filter their thoughts?

5. Social Environment: What are the attributes of the social environment that they exist in today?

Sound overwhelming? It’s not. Take it from someone who started their own business at the age of fourteen and sold cars at the age of twenty-one!

Question: Consider an employee or customer that you work with frequently and answer the five questions below. In conclusion, based on your responses, how might you change your approach, conversations and interactions to create a more valuable interaction and in turn increase your influence?

To learn more about how to apply these strategies throughout your business, click here.

© Shawn Casemore 2017. All rights reserved.

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How to Motivate your Employees to Reach Higher Levels of Productivity

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: May 18, 2017

Success is not a solitary journey. The most successful CEO’s, Presidents and Entrepreneurs that I’ve encountered have built a powerful network to assist them along their journey including surrounding themselves with peers, trusted advisers, coaches, financial advisers, accountants, lawyers and even personal trainers. There is no end to the network one can build if open to the possibilities.

But you may have noticed that there is a significant group that is missing from this list. Any ideas as to who they are?

Every successful leader is surrounded by a supportive team, however interestingly enough for most of the business leaders and entrepreneurs I interviewed for my book from McGraw Hill, employees were not always high on the list of a success network.

Why?

More often not the response I received when I asked this very question was simple. An Executive or Business Owner can choose (and change) their network of advisers, peers and friends quite easily, however changing out employees within the business is often more difficult. Tightly bound union contracts, skilled labor shortages and a general dis-taste for termination topped the list of reasons as to why this is.

[Tweet “Success is not a solitary journey. Every successful leader is surrounded by a supportive team.”]

This being said, because we don’t have the same freedoms to manage and select our employees as we often do with advisers, there is a greater disparity in identifying the optimum methods to motivate, energize and incentivize employees. For this reason I wanted to share a few of the methods that I’ve helped clients incorporate to improve the productivity and motivation of their staff, with the intent that you can do the same.

Three ideas to motivate your employees to higher levels of productivity:

1. Loosen the reigns. Stop holding employees to a lower standard. Expect more of them and allow them an opportunity to rise to the occasion. I can tell you a dozen stories of my clients who found a diamond in the rough working in an administrative role who is now running a division or leading the company simply because a previous CEO or President took a chance and allowed them the opportunity to grow.

2. Growth through failure. As you know success comes with it’s ups and downs, often more of the later than the former. This said, why are we so prone to avoiding the opportunities to let our employees fail? We have to be selective of course, but allowing employees to fail builds character, resilience and dedication to finding success. Stop thinking of failure as a bad thing.

3. The Power of Three. Put two employees together in a room and it won’t be long before they are thinking and agreeing on most everything including world views, business and politics. Put three into a room however and the dynamics change. The “third wheel” often ensures that group think doesn’t have an opportunity to manifest itself, resulting in increased diversity and ingenuity. Are you shaking up the ranks by incorporating the Power of Three?

Question: How are you maximizing the return on your investment in employees? What can you change in how you and your managers interact with employees to spur increased motivation and ingenuity?

© Shawn Casemore 2017. All rights reserved.

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The Four Steps to Building Resolve in Your Team

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: May 15, 2017

The degree to which you can empower a team is determined by the level of resolve that exists amongst team members.

This was a realization I had several years ago when working with a team shifting them from a team lead by several managers, to a team that had no managers and was “self-managed”. Although I’ve been doing this kind of work for many years, I recognized early on that the degree to which a team is successful in becoming self-managed is determined by the level of resolve that exists within each individual team member. This is why I always begin my work by conducting individual interviews amongst team members, allowing for the determination as to the degree of resolve each employee holds.

[Tweet “Each individual has a different level of resolve and resilience that will let them become empowered.”]

Whether you are trying to build a self-managed team, or you simply want your team to take on more responsibility and accountability for what they are doing, step one is always to assess individual resolve.

I literally threw together this brief video to outline some key steps you will need to take in order to make this happen… Specifically I’ll share:

  • Why the extent to which each of your employees has resolve will determine the success of your team
  • Examples of how to build resolve over time and measure progress
  • The importance of regular check-ins with employees, and how this must be catered to meet individual needs.
  • Ideas on how to broaden the perspective of your employees

What ideas can you take from this video and apply right now?

I want to hear from you. Email me and let me know your success stories (and struggles) in building resolve and I’ll pick one of your issues to discuss on our next video.

For more strategies to empower your team and grow your business subscribe to my YouTube channel.

© Shawn Casemore 2017. All rights reserved.

 

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How Underestimating Departure Times Killed Credibility

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: May 8, 2017

This past week I was flying from Toronto to San Diego, a relatively straightforward flight with one stopover in San Francisco. Unfortunately, this didn’t end up being the case. Upon boarding the Air Canada flight, all the passengers were notified by the stewardess that the Captain and First Officer had not yet arrived for the flight. No big deal, I thought; I’ve got sixty minutes between the time we land and the time I have to catch my connecting flight. Within thirty minutes they both arrived, and preparation for the flight was underway – that is until there was a computer glitch, followed by additional paperwork that was necessary due to the glitch, followed by the ground crew leaving our aircraft to help others. It was an unfortunate series of events, through which I could see my ability to make my connecting flight slowly slipping away. 
 
I remained optimistic until we were two hours past departure, at which point, I knew my luck had run out. Then the captain came on the PA one more time to advise that due to our additional idle time, we would now need to refuel.
 
Seriously?!
 
Despite the mounting issues, I didn’t become irritated until I realized during the second or third delay that each time the captain came over the PA to update the passengers (about once every thirty minutes), he ended his update by saying, “We should have you up and on your way in about five minutes.”
 
His estimates were never even close. In fact, during the last two delays passengers began laughing out loud and taunting the captain, yelling, “Sure we will!”
 
Underestimating the time it takes to do something, particularly when making commitments to others, absolutely kills your credibility. This is particularly true if you’re a leader, yet I run across leaders all the time who make commitments to their employees that they don’t follow through with. Worse yet, they often make similar commitments to customers (internally or externally), on which they do deliver. That’s right, they deliver on their commitments when it comes to serving customers, but rarely when it comes to employees.
 
Does that sound right to you? Have you possibly missed a few commitments to your employees recently?

If you have I’m not here to bash you about it; we all miss on delivering some of our commitments. However, doing so with your employees consistently can kill your credibility, particularly when they know you are meeting commitments for others. Fortunately there’s a better approach.

Best Approach:

When an employee asks you to do something, either do it immediately (if you have the time and it warrants immediate action), direct them to someone better suited to help them out (such as another employee or team member), or ask for time to reflect and follow up.
 
Asking for time may seem like a cop out, and to some degree it is. But if you actually do follow up and take action, you are now not tied to a commitment that you were never able to meet.
 
This week, try the Do It, Direct Them or Reflect approach and watch the benefits it provides.
 
Do it: You’ll gain credibility for taking action.
 
Direct them: You’ll empower the employees with new ideas on how to approach their challenges.
 
Reflect: You’ll have time to respond when it’s convenient for you.
 
Stop missing your commitments and try a more structured approach. Stuck on introducing this approach with some challenging employees? Email me. We can set up a time to discuss some specific strategies for your environment.

© Shawn Casemore 2017. All rights reserved.

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Do you have a secret sales force?

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: April 17, 2017

What is a secret sales force? Let me explain through an example.

As spring is upon us, I spent some time last weekend trying to line up a load of topsoil to be delivered for our flowerbeds. Although we live in a small community, there are three nurseries within a short drive that offer topsoil delivery. Because of this I presumed that getting a load delivered would be quite simple…

Boy was I wrong.

After calling each of the nurseries, I had less than stellar results. One nursery was closed on Saturday, so didn’t answer; one nursery didn’t have topsoil yet; and the third wasn’t ready to deliver as their soil was still too wet.

Despite what you might be thinking, I wasn’t bothered by any of this.

Nurseries can’t predict the weather, and of course want to deliver high quality product to their customers. What I did find interesting however was that the two nurseries I was able to reach made no offer to contact me once they were ready to deliver soil.

A grave mistake.

In fact I was so surprised at the lack of desire to follow up with me, that on the second call I was at a loss for words when the employee suggested they weren’t ready to deliver yet. We sat in silence for several minutes as I wondered if the employee on the other would suggest a solution…

He didn’t.

This situation reinforced something I’ve discussed previously. Employees make all the difference when it comes to creating and sustaining a positive impression on your customers. In essence, your employees are your secret sales force.

Although you might not be running a small business like these nursery owners, the impact is the same. Employees need a “customer first” mentality, and must understand how their actions or inactions influence your customers’ behavior.

[Tweet “Employees need a “customer first” mentality, and must understand how their actions influence customers’ behavior.”]

Want to test this theory? Try secretly shopping your business.

First, call into customer service and ask a question that is out of the ordinary. Throw them a curve ball to see their reaction.

Next, when you receive a response (regardless of it’s relevance), stay silent and don’t say a word. Wait to see what kind of response you get if any.

Lastly, when on the call, don’t accept anything but exactly what you’re asking for (as long as it’s within reason based on the products or services your business offers). Just continue asking the question in different ways. For example, considering my nursery example above I might ask, “But you do sell topsoil don’t you?” or, “I don’t quite understand, do you no longer offer topsoil for sale?”

Next steps?

The responses received, good or bad, will provide some insight into how well prepared and willing employees are to satisfy customer needs. More importantly responses will provide ideas on where time should be invested to further develop scripts and scenarios to ensure every customer leaves feeling that their best interests are in mind.

If you’re concerned that this may seem like an awkward or inappropriate way to “check in” on your employees, think about the potential cost of lost or dissatisfied customers that you may be experiencing on account of a lack of knowledge or experience on the part of your front line employees.

Don’t let the cost of ignorance ruin your customers experience.

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Avoiding the Team Performance Dilemma

Shawn Casemore • No Comment
Posted: April 3, 2017

My wife, boys, and I moved last year to a home in a more rural area, preferring the scents of fresh air over those of car exhaust. Although we’ve been in our home for over six months now, the disappearance of snow on our lawn has shed light on just how much work is left to do around the yard in order to get this home to the same level of presentation as our previous home. As each day passes, the number of things that need to get done seems to grow, ever increasing the anxiety and pressure to get moving.

Have you ever experienced this kind of pressure? In retrospect, despite our ability to accomplish so much last year (i.e. finding a new area to live in; a new home; selling our old home; packing; moving and getting settled into our new home), the pressure and anxiety about everything that is, “still left to do,” remains.

This same pressure also exists in high performing teams. Despite everything they might accomplish and the overall significance of those accomplishments, the continued desire to make further improvements and not be happy with the “current state” surmounts, often creating the perception that the team and members in the team are unhappy and want to give up their quest to improve.

Don’t be fooled, as this response is quite normal.

For example, while recently working with a client, I learned that their team members seemed disgruntled even though they had achieved significant shifts in how they worked during the past twelve months. In essence, the team had made the transition from a fully supervised team of nearly twenty employees to a fully functioning self-managed team, no longer having or requiring a supervisor or manager and functioning as an autonomous group…

No, I’m not kidding or elaborating on the truth. A fully autonomous and high-performing team is possible.

When I spoke with various team members, the issues were all minor and culminated into one very simple conclusion. Team members had become accustomed to large scale shifts in how they worked, and now, with some of the most challenging work behind them, they felt deflated at the idea that there were no further significant leaps to make.

You see, most employees and teams are very adept and accustomed to change. Where we fail as business leaders is in taking advantage of this desire for improvement and continuously feeding new challenges and opportunities to the team.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to pause and let changes settle in before taking the next big leap, but if we wait too long we risk deflating the desire and the momentum of the team to continue moving forward.

[Tweet “If a team isn’t moving forward, it’s moving backwards.”]

What to do?

I’d suggest if you are facing this sort of dilemma with your team there are a few simple yet effective steps you can take to keep the “hopper” of ideas for continued evolution of the team full and keep the momentum and attitudes of the team alive.

1. Introduce a Team Development Meeting, connecting with your team every six months to assess progress against team objectives while also flushing out any existing concerns and next steps.

2. Build actions that require commitment and support of team members to achieve objectives –for example don’t take on this responsibility yourself. Remember, an autonomous team supports their own development and only requires a leader to break down barriers.

3. Celebrate wins AND failures or delays. To fail or be delayed means the team is trying and energy and effort are both something to be rewarded.

How can you introduce a Team Development Meeting this month and provide some fresh and needed challenges to your team? Struggling with setting the agenda? Send me an email and I’ll share a few additional ideas.

[Tweet “Build actions that require commitment and support of team members to achieve objectives.”]

© Shawn Casemore 2017. All rights reserved.

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