Training – The Chalifour Group

Keep on Keeping on

This past year has been hard for all of us, and Pew Research reports that 42% of US adults under the age of 50 reported difficulties in finding the motivation to work since the beginning of the pandemic. So how do we get through this seemingly never-ending struggle?

Discipline. That probably is not the answer you wanted to hear, as it points to the fact that working hard is the real way to overcome dips in motivation. Motivation comes and goes. We have great days at work that inspire us and remind us why we do what we do, but we may also go weeks without any form of gratification. The key is to stay disciplined throughout the ups and downs. We have to keep in mind that all of this is temporary—someday we will work in offices again and see our friends and family. But for the time being, if we are fortunate enough to have jobs, we have to keep on going. The struggle we are working through now is building strength we cannot even appreciate or comprehend at the current moment. This is a training ground for your mental discipline, your ability to keep on keeping on even when things get tough. This skill, also known as Grit, is actually more important for long-term success than raw intelligence.

So although the current times are hard and we may not feel motivated, just remember that the work you are doing right now (both professionally and mentally) is building your strength and mental disciple, and that you will reap these benefits for years to come. Discipline will carry you much further in life than pure excitement or passion. One day you will look back on how you worked through this difficult time and feel proud and thankful for your own hard work. Keep on keeping on. We are all in this together.

9 Habits of the Most Successful People in the World

After a little research, here are 9 habits that the most successful people in the world incorporate into their lives daily:

Wake up early

Having a set routine and following it every single day can create positive outcomes. 95% of the most successful people in the world wake up early in the morning. To name a few, Jack Dorsey who started Twitter wakes up every morning around 5:00 am, meditates, and goes on a run. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple wakes up at 4:30 am and is at the gym by 5:30 am, and finally Steve Jobs wakes up no later than 6:00 am and also works out. Out of these three successful men, they wake up on average around 5:00 am and not later than 6:00 am. For those of you thinking that this won’t work because you’re a night owl, you could do a little extra research and see what you can incorporate at night to help yourself fall asleep and stay asleep earlier.

Write down your goals

Research shows that writing down your goals on a physical piece of paper will help you pursue and accomplish them. There was a study done by Harvard in 1970 for the graduating class. These 100 students were asked what their goals were upon graduating. Out of the 100 students, only three of them had written down their goals on a piece of paper. 10 years later, Harvard followed up with this graduating class to see if they had accomplished their goals. When they followed up that 3% of the class with written goals were two times more successful than the 90% combined. This proves the importance of valuing your goals and taking the time to write them down.

Work ethic

People are not born with a strong work ethic, rather it’s something that you build upon each day. Finding something you’re passionate about and working hard in it every single day can create a valuable work ethic. Over time you will continue to develop it and continue to work harder.

Exercise

Our bodies are incredible temples that help and support us every day. Research shows that the more exercise you give your body the more energy it will give you. The first time you go to the gym you may be tired. But your body realizes this and gives you more and more energy to get through the workout. Eventually, your body will adjust and it will get stronger. This energy doesn’t leave when you exit the gym. It gives your body energy throughout the whole day which allows you to work even harder than you would have otherwise.

Read

The average person reads 1-2 books a year and the average CEO reads 60 books a year. That is a huge difference. You may be telling yourself that you don’t have time to read 60 books a year and that’s okay. CEOs are some of the busiest people in the world and they find time to incorporate reading into their life. However, if this is too much, try starting small and reading one book every month. Not only is reading important but the type of reading you do is crucial. Many CEOs aren’t reading murder mysteries or romance books. They are reading books proven to better themselves such as mindset and psychological books

Plan your week

Most people go in every week hoping that it goes the way they want to. Instead, try going into the new week with a detailed plan that you are ready to execute. Every Sunday try to sit down and have a personal meeting with yourself. Look back at the past week and use the start, stop, and continue the method. The start is the new things you want to bring into the week, stop are the things that didn’t go well and you’re not going to do this week, and continue are the things that went well that you want to continue doing. Writing these things down will give you some sort of list you can follow throughout the week.

Positive, Self Talk, Gratitude

Starting every day off with positive thoughts will help you continue to have them throughout the day. What you focus on magnifies so thinking positively will only be beneficial.

Mentors

On average, successful people have about 7 different mentors that they look up to. This could be a business partner, a fit person, or even someone you admire that is a great father. These mentors are in your life because you seek them out. They don’t have to be someone that you see every day and that is always around you, but someone that you know will always be there for you.

Proper Nutrition

Giving your body the proper nutrients will help fuel you through the day and accomplish your task at hand. Certain types of food will give you energy and some foods that will take away your energy such as cheese, greasy food and red meat. If you feel like you can’t eliminate these foods or that you don’t want to, try eating them for dinner instead. Listening to your body and what it needs is extremely important.

Do Not Talk Past The Close

I had an old employer who had built an amazing business, incredibly successful guy, and he loved to go on sales calls. He was actually quite talented at building rapport and getting the customer to want what we were selling. The only issue was that he loved to talk and often times when, as a salesperson, we should not be. Many times we would get a verbal yes for another meeting or to close the deal and he would begin to talk in circles unsure of where the conversation was going. It was often easy to tell that the buyer, on the other side of the table, was ready to be done with the meeting (Fidgeting, looking at watch, changing posture). This is quite common after receiving confirmation of your objective for new or out-of-practice sales people.

Just about everybody in sales has heard the expression “Don’t talk past the close”. But I have found that many people do not really understand what it means and more importantly forget what it means when in a pitch meeting.

Like I have said in the past your buyer is like an 8 year old boy and that means that the decision window is very small. You have to be able to recognize when the buyer has said yes and when you begin to lose them. Odds are if they said yes and you are still the one talking then you are talking past the close.

Every pitch should end with asking for the business and once there is a concrete yes (or something similar, typically it is not just a yes) then affirm the buyers decision to choose your product or service and get out of the office. The only time that you want to stay in the office is if the buyer is talking.

Two things can occur in a pitch meeting that can cause a sales person to talk past the close:

Nervously excited about closing the deal
Is oblivious to the fact that the deal is closed and that the buyer is losing interest

There is an old sports saying that goes “Act like you have been there before”. Don’t get me wrong you should be excited about your success as sales is a very difficult job and every victory must be celebrated but wait until you get in the car. You got the answer you wanted now leave before they change their mind. The second reason is sometimes tougher than it may sound and is why I always recommend two people for a sales call. When someone is performing a pitch it is easy to get lost talking and when you get to the end of the presentation you are in a word vomit. The counterpart to your team can recognize the buyers body language better as they are not focusing on the pitch and they are able to real you back in. (Post coming soon about how two is always better than one)

Just remember to be confident in your ability, once you get the answer that you are looking for get out of there and do not get sick with word vomit. It is far too common.

Creating a Culture of Positivity

The American work culture is something of true value. Consider the following statistics:

Average work week of 50 hours or 9.4 hours per day
- Other countries work an average of 20% less hours
88% of US Citizens are considered Upper Middle Class or Wealthy as compared to rest of world
Average Yearly Income in the US is $61,937
Only 15% of US workers are unhappy with their current Jobs
The US Remains the worlds richest company per capita controlling $105.99 Trillion or about 30% of the entire worlds net worth

America loves to work. More than any country in the world, we have absolutely no discerning lines between work life and personal life. I believe this issue stems from our desperate need for material items. As Americans we are wasteful and materialistic. Because of our need and our children’s need to have STUFF we need to make more money. It is a really interesting paradigm. You look at other cultures and they have sacred days, or long vacations, or maybe shortened work weeks, but Americans we maybe get a week vacation after our first full year working.

Now believe it or not I am actually not looking to change the American work culture. Because guess what I am American and I like working and I like STUFF. I am however a proponent of making the work atmosphere as positive and enjoyable as possible.

Becoming ranked as one of the best places to work by Fortune is by far one of the best things that can happen to a company and I guarantee that they are successful because of the positive culture that exists. For your curiosity I have included the top 10 for 2020 below:

Hilton
Ultimate Software
Wegmans Food Markets
Cisco
Workday
Salesforce
Edward Jones
Stryker
American Express
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants

We need to create winning, happy, positive, high energy offices at all of our companies and the only way to do that is to create a culture of positivity. The act of being positive decreases cortisol and your brain begins producing serotonin creating a happy feeling, in addition, one feels calmer less anxious and more focused. Guess what that means in the workplace? More production and more money!

Easy enough right? Just create an office full of positivity… Well this is often easier said than done. At an office there are a multitude of factors that make the mere act of being positive very difficult such as deadlines, bosses, stress, and money to name a few. Nearly every aspect of our life that we stress about revolves around money which revolves around our job.

In order to create a culture of positivity and an office that people want to work at the change has to start at the top. The key for success with this process is to search for people doing good. I think far too often in our work culture employees are only noticed when they do something poorly, especially as a mid level employee. We need to reward and encourage positive behavior by catching people in the act of doing something good. It does not matter what exactly they are doing, catch somebody doing something good even if it is just changing the ink in the printer, somebody has to do it. If the boss starts this positive encouragement it will become contagious in the office. This is a grass roots culture change but if you want to succeed it starts small.

People screw up it happens and you criticizing them or publicly coming down on them is not going to change that fact. I am by no means saying that there should not be a level of accountability because I believe in a proper accountability process as well. I am saying, that you will see a greater response from your employees and your bottom line if you encourage a culture of positivity.

We work a lot as Americans but this does not mean that we have to be unhappy. Encourage positivity in the workplace and watch your company soar.

References:

How Americans View Their Jobs

America-Global Income

I called the Vice President but still no decision…?

Sitting at your desk ready to make some calls and land some appointments but not sure who to call, general manager sounds important right? Wrong! If you are not calling the owner or someone with true authority then you are waisting your time and theirs. Sometimes these middle level employees are tasked with finding a product like the one you are selling so it is important to impress everyone you speak to but nonetheless they are still a gatekeeper.

Oh the dreaded gatekeeper, but this one is disguised as a Vice President or General Manager…? Yes, sure you have the traditional gatekeeper that is the receptionist or the Owners assistant but you also have another level of gatekeepers. Sometimes the first set, secretaries, will transfer you to the second layer, Vice President/Manager.

This second set of gatekeepers can be far worse than the first set as they do have some level of authority. The problem becomes that you do not know what level of authority they have. Often times in a company there are a lot of people that have the authority to tell you no but very few that have the authority to purchase or say yes. Two bad outcomes can occur when transferred to mid level management:

They automatically tell you no
They graciously have you in for a meeting, many meetings and string you along only to find out they can’t make the decision

Far too often when prospecting, sales personnel get put in the “friend zone”. They go out on sales calls quite often and are very like-able people but because they are visiting prospects so often the middle management actually becomes friends with them. Not to say they are taking advantage of you but ultimately if you don’t have a decision in 3 meetings they are probably not going to buy from you. Send them a birthday card or drop by once a quarter to keep the relationship alive in case something changes but until then don’t waste your time.

A few years ago I was prospecting this decent size account that my boss had worked on a few years prior. He warned me that the owner liked to talk and didn’t like to make decisions but as the cocky salesperson I was I figured it would be different. After about 6 months of driving out there, taking him to lunch, and bending over backwards to get his questions answered he finally agreed and signed the paperwork to offer our products. The only caveat came when I returned to do the install and introduce the new products, processes, and systems none of the employees knew that the decision had been made. It was introduced with much resistance (Because there was no owner buy in) and moving forward the sales team would quote both companies (My products and the competition) and sell whichever was cheaper. Safe to say that my commissions did not equal the time that I put into the account. Some prospects are just not worth it. But I digress.

Now it is tough to find out who the true buyer is because when you are working with a small company the Vice President may call all the shots but when calling on Morgan Stanley, where everyone who owns a suit gets a VP after their name, it becomes a bit more difficult. To find out who if person is a true buyer you have to use your sales reasoning to feel the buyer out as you are conversing and more importantly after a short initial pitch or fact finding meeting be sure to ask if anyone else needs to be involved in the final decision. This question is so valuable and far too many people fail to ask it. Who knows maybe the company has a silent partner that you have never heard of.

2 years ago I was called in to one of my accounts to do a “recap” on some material that we had gone over the month before. When I get to the account there is a gentleman there that I had never met, seemingly calling the shots (I had this account for 18 months at this time) and began to instruct me to perform a presentation. I stopped dead and said “excuse me sir who exactly are you?”. Well as it turns out he was the owner… nobody told me that the general manager (who I thought was the owner) had been given officer authority and was able to sign the documents. Always ask if there are any other decision makers involved as it is never fun to be blindsided.

When speaking with company personnel remember that there are many people inside that are able to say no to you but very few that are able to say yes. Do not waste time trying to get to the decision maker through the middle management. If you are confident in your abilities/products then you deserve to speak to the top. Conversely, if you are self conscious regarding your ability then you will think you are not worthy of speaking to the true buyer and next thing you know you are “friend zoned” by middle management, spending a fortune on lunches for commission that is likely never coming. Next time you are about to make a sales call and you are choosing between calling the General Manager and the owner, be confident and call the Owner.

The Knowing Doing Dilemma

Everybody needs training. It is not something to be ashamed of or something to shame. That is just how life goes. In fact, you are really hurting your company without implementing formal training (As I have discussed before). A recent study from the Association for Talent Development (ATD) shows that companies that offer comprehensive training programs have 218% higher income per employee. Pretty staggering statistic. So that makes it pretty clear that training is not something that should be looked down upon but rather awarded.

The truth is, it does not matter what you are doing even something as mundane as turning on the TV, someone once showed you how to do that task. Most skills are not inherent, they are learned. Sure, you may find that some people have innate skills that make them better at something but they still have to learn. Michael Phelps, for example, is an excellent swimmer and truth be told he probably has the correct body frame and special abilities that made him the swimmer he is today. With that said, he still would have drowned as a child if nobody ever taught him how to swim. Inherent skills are useless without proper training.

When we get into work related tasks the training becomes far more important, comprehensive, and beneficial (as shown by statistic listed above). After all, the success of the employees affect the success of the company. Training sessions can be long in duration and even lasts months at a time. If you have implemented training processes at your company or you work at a company where there are solid training processes then bravo to both of you. Give yourselves a pat on the back, because this is a critical step to the success of your career and your business.

Now to get to the crux of the blog post, Is it a knowing or a doing problem. A few years ago I was approached to work with a manager at a medium sized business in Maine. The manager was directly tied to the sales flow and interacted with customers on a daily basis. After reviewing their sales process it seemed that the process and their training was actually pretty solid. I told this to the owner and he assured me that I must be wrong because the sales numbers were drastically lacking. I decided that I wanted a closer look at the manager so I put on my customer hat and role played with the manager. I could not believe how proficient he was with the material and process that he was taught to perform. Some of the best word and thought track performances I had seen. Perhaps a little shaky, definitely not a natural salesmen but nonetheless should be performing well. This illustrated to me that the issue with this business was not the process or the implementation but rather the personnel.

Allow me to elaborate. When I am asked to come into a company and work with their employees I am always looking to answer one question. This one question is not difficult to answer and is actually quite simple. It can usually be evaluated in as little as ten minutes even if I am unaware of the context or subject for which I am implementing the process. The question, “Is it a knowing or a doing problem?”. This critical step in my process was established from that training consultation just a few short years ago. This is why it is so critically important to follow the ABLE mentality, Always Be Learning – Evolve. We will be having a blog post on this in the coming weeks but I think you can garner the general message.

The manager from my story above demonstrates that the he knows the process but ignores it when with customers. This is the crux of every process implementation. When you are looking to implement change be sure to do so in a manner that allows for sufficient training. If the change is encouraged through constant training but your numbers are lacking, you can rule out the knowing problem. If it is not a knowing problem and the employee is resisting the change then it is a doing problem and you likely have a disgruntled employee on your hands, time for an Intimate Negotiation.

Basically, to break down the two aspects, a knowing problem simply means that the person does not know how to perform the task. Perhaps they were thrown into the job with insufficient training, or filling the shoes for somebody who quit. This is a good problem as it is a fixable problem. Likely, with a knowing problem you will actually have a happier and more productive employee once they have received the training that they so desperately need.

The alternative to this is the doing problem. This means that the person is aware of how to do the task the way it should be performed but chooses to do it differently. This could occur for a few different reasons; upset with a manager, thinks the process you are implementing is stupid or takes longer, or thinks that their way of doing things is ultimately better. This is not the mindset that you want for an employee, they need to get on your bus. These are the employees that we have to worry about, now they may not be gone altogether but it is time for an uncomfortable conversation. I recently posted a blog post on “The Intimate Negotiation” this is what I call the uncomfortable conversations that need to be had in the workplace. This could be between Employer and Employee or vice versa and even among peers. Take a peak if you feel that it may be time to have one of these uncomfortable discussions.

Bottom line is whether you are an employee or a boss be sure to ask this simple question to see what the status is on the job being done. If you are the employee resisting change, ask yourself why. Typically, people far smarter than any of us came up with the process you are being taught.

My sales department is very good… I think

Sales is not an easy profession. It requires training, diligence, patience and above all accountability. All these requirements culminate in a seasoned professional sales person. A sales department may have a handful of these seasoned professionals and some that are learning and some that are brand new. Many times the missing element to a successful sales department is a process and a structure.

I have been working with many sales departments that basically allow the sales people to do whatever they want and there is no accountability for time and process and laziness is ubiquitous. Eventually the sales person becomes fat dumb and happy meeting the status quo and there is no longer a drive or any ambition. They essentially become clipboard order takers – not good.

A company needs a hungry and ambitious sales force in order to grow and stand with or ahead of the competition. This is done with incentive programs, aggressive commission structures, contests and competitive processes. Do you have a sales board in your sales department? Do you have quotas set for the day, week and month? Are there contests sprinkled in from time to time, are you honest about the overall sales numbers? Is there accountability to the quotas with performance reviews, rewards and even discipline if necessary. Are you constantly monitoring production and sales pitches? Are there training programs in place to help educate your sales people about the product, value statements, features, advantages, benefits? Have you trained and educated your sales people on the products and companies they are selling against?

There are many elements of en effective sales department and creating all these elements into a process and then wrapping that process into an exciting and energetic program can help increase sales, commitment, loyalty and moral.

Johnny, your 8 year old buyer

Maybe you are new to sales looking to learn the ropes or maybe you are a sales professional looking for another edge. In either case you must know that in almost all situations your buyer is an 8 year old boy named Johnny. This is a perplexing thought for many of you as I would imagine you are probably dealing with highly professional and successful people. With that said, almost all true buyers (blog post coming soon on the “True Buyer”) have the same set of personality traits when dealing with a sales person. A set of personality traits that are not that different than an 8 year old boy.

Think about the last sales pitch you had.. how long did it last? Was there a decision made? Did you have to persuade the buyer to take the egg that you hoped he’d choose? If you are any good at sales then you are probably pretty good at reading peoples body language and there overall demeanor. Here are a few facts:

Your buyer loses interest after about 10 minutes of conversation (No matter how stimulating you think you are)

Your buyer does not really care about you or your company

Your buyer only cares about how you can help him and his company (Dont get lost in company history or where you went to college)

Your buyer is indecisive

Your buyer does not really know what he wants

The facts listed above are very similar to facts that would be noted about the average 8 year old boy. Now you may be looking at this list and be thinking my buyer is different, I can assure you he is not. Remember that if you secured a meeting with a buyer then you did something right, do not waste the meeting by bragging about you or your company. Get to the facts and illustrate why the buyer needs you!

The 4 Top reasons you need a training process

Where do I begin… here are my top 4 reasons (Although there are many):

1. Acquire Top Talent & Retain Top Talent

Believe it or not people like to learn, nobody likes to start a new job and not have anything to do for 2 weeks (most new hires describe their first two weeks as lackluster and non productive). Having a solid training process that can be discussed in an interview and even outlined in a potential job listing is a huge plus for attracting talent. People now understand that intellectual property is currency and thus valuable even if things do not work out. In addition, the talent that you already have on your team want to develop new skills and hone in their craft no matter if it is sales or accounting. Employees consider personal and professional development as a monumental factor when starting a new position. Develop a training process that can be marketed to attract and retain top talent.

2. Streamlined processes to remove key management from mundane training

There is an old adage that goes like this “Make sure you are running your business and not letting your business run you”. This is critically important for growing companies. Management and owners must be removed from much of the mundane tasks so that they can focus ON the business. Training an executive assistant or administrative personnel would fall under the classification of working IN the business. Spend the time and develop a process for these roles so that you are not stuck training them, trust me the ROI will be worth it.

3. Solid Process means higher valuation

Whether you are thinking about it or not every company has an opportunity to be purchased at some point. Many times the sale of your company can be your retirement if it is approached correctly. Having in depth processes in place, especially for training purposes increases the value of your company to a potential buyer because it means less work for the new owner.

4. Quicker turnaround on new hires

The average cost to hire a new employee is $4,129. That is a lot of money so you better start seeing a return on that money as quickly as possible. This can be achieved by having comprehensive initial training programs so that the employee is working more and asking questions less. Decisive, independent employees is always the goal. Do not let a new hire perform tasks and duties in a lack luster manner for a month because they are still learning. Allow them a week to perform proper training and learn the job.

Trying to get everybody on board: The Key to Training

You have to get the absolute top management involved. You need uniform front starting from the top. If everybody knows that the owner, CEO, CFO, and VP are on board then there will likely be success. This does not necessarily mean they have to be involved in every step of the implementation process just that they are on board and that there will be repercussions if they do no conform. For example, if the VP declares a new initiative but the owner has blown it off, then what do you expect the account managers to think?

When there is corporate emphasis on training (personal and professional development) then there is employee buy in. The best way to approach ongoing training is in short continuous intervals. Large corporations like to do these extravagant corporate training events, typically offsite and last a long duration of time. The thought is there but they are simply not productive. When push comes to shove and a customer service representative is speaking with a customer they will naturally refrain to their old habits because it is what they are most comfortable with. Training must be a progressive, tapered approach with sessions lasting no longer than an hour for any single training meeting. This allows for extreme repetition and garners full attention of the trainee.

Once the training plan has been unveiled and shared with the entire team it is important to get the sessions scheduled and in everybody’s calendar. Make it a priority! Remember that your biggest asset is your people. If you spent $100,000 developing a product how much should you spend training your sales team to sell that product? I would hope more than a 3 hour meeting that cost maybe $1000. People are your future, invest in them.