Your guide to a healthier perspective of life
Good salespeople have good answers. Great salespeople ask great questions. Ask open-ended questions and then repeat their answer back to them to get your prospect to feel understood. This also helps because it allows the prospect to clarify something you may have misunderstood or assumed incorrectly.
If you are confident in your abilities and are a good communicator (i.e., you listen well and know how to encourage others to give you more relevant information), you will do well in sales.
Be careful not to judge other people’s capacity to do/withstand something. Not only are there different types of capacities/limits, such as mental, physical, or emotional capacities, but everyone is different in what their capacities are for each type. For example, you may be incredibly strong physically, but maybe you’re overburdened at home and your emotional capacity is very low.
Another thing to realize is our capacities are fluid, as they are constantly changing depending on what is going on in our lives. Maybe you just lost your job, your significant other decided to leave you (taking the dog too), and you were diagnosed with cancer. While your emotional capacity may normally be very high, you would probably be at the tipping point where even something very small which would normally not affect you makes you break down and cry.
These are just a couple of reasons why you should not judge others, but especially if you don’t have a good understanding of who they are and what their typical capacities/capabilities are. What you see from others is only a snapshot for where they are at any one particular time in their life.
Instead of judging others before you really get to know them, default to giving people the benefit of the doubt. They can be down one day, or even for a brief period in time, but after you’ve gotten to know them and their story, eventually you will have a better understanding of what their typical capacities are.
Just like anything else, we all have the ability to strengthen and improve each capacity. Are you working on improving yours? If you’re working with someone, or partnering with them, do you know if they are willing to work on improving theirs? You should not focus on where you (or others) are currently, but on where you (and they) are going based on their daily actions.
Identify what the root of the issue is…is it a people issue, a process issue, or a tool issue? Does it boil down to having the wrong person on your team? Do you have the right people, but you haven’t trained them well enough or put enough processes in place to allow them to succeed? Or do you have the right people and processes, but they don’t have the tools to succeed?
Discuss potential solutions to your issues. At first, anything should be an option to solve your issue. After all options are on the table, then you can start eliminating those that are not as applicable. Be sure to always keep an open mind and don’t shut down opposing viewpoints.
Solve the key issue. Make sure that this is not a band-aid, but a long-term solution. You don’t want to “solve” something temporarily, only to have it crop back up again in a few months.
Just because you are good at executing a task, it doesn’t mean that you will be a good manager over a group of people completing that task. Executing and managing require different skill sets and even if you have the skills, you may not want to do or like to do some of the required tasks when in one position or the other.
Before making a switch from being in the field to going into management (or vice versa), you need to be honest with yourself if you understand the new position, if you want to take on those new roles/responsibilities, and if you’re capable of performing your role for the team.
First comes understanding. If your expectations of what the position entails don’t align with the reality, you are likely to be disappointed. Talk with those who have been in the position you are looking to move into to see if it is something you think you might like. Ask them detailed questions about what their day-to-day schedule looks like, what it takes to succeed at that position, and what is the best/worst part about what they do. You have to gain a better understanding of what is required of you in order to make the best possible decision to make the switch. If you’re making a major life change, you should try to do so with as many facts up front as you can.
After you talk with that person (or hopefully several people in the position you’re moving to), take time to consider if you will like those activities. Will you find them fulfilling? Will this new position provide a healthy challenge for you – one that is fun and exciting, but stresses you just enough to continue to grow? One of the most important questions that you can ask before accepting a new position is, “will I generally get fulfillment doing this everyday for the next X years of my life?” If the answer is yes (or mostly yes, as everyone has the occasional “bad day”), then move on to the third set of questions.
If you understand the job position and still want it, the last set of questions you must ask yourself revolves around “do you have what it takes to win at this position?” Keep in mind that winning is not only something that you have to define for yourself, but for the company as well. You may be happy with the work you’re doing, but is the company happy with your performance? Or they may be happy with your work, but you’re miserable. Both parties have to win for this to work in the long run. Can you prioritize the most important tasks for the day, week, month, or year and get them done on time (and on budget)? If you aren’t yet capable of performing to the standard that you and the company have defined, does your company provide training to get you there? If so, how much time/grace period will they allow for you to improve your performance to the required level? If you are mentally capable of performing the role, are your physically and emotionally capable of performing it? Can you physically complete any tasks the job requires? Are you able to handle the emotional highs and lows of the job? Do you let little things negatively affect you? If so, how can you build your resilience so you can have more good days and win at your job?
Lastly, it’s up to you to decide whether you fit best in the field or in management. If you are being offered the choice, you have to weigh the effects of not only a better paycheck, but also your happiness. Only you can choose what is right for you and your family. No matter what option you select, know that your job is important and that all great organizations need strong management and strong execution. Without both, the company is only as strong as its weakest link.
When you’re in charge of training someone, the only thing you can do is give them an opportunity to perform. You can show them what is required to thrive in their specific role – what they need to do, best practices, etc. – but you can’t make them do it. You can spend hours explaining the tactics of a position, but you can’t teach someone to have passion, to be curious, or to have a better work ethic. But if they don’t want to do it, or if they just don’t understand/aren’t picking it up quickly enough, you can’t force them to do what you would do. If it’s not working, eventually you will have to do something about it.
Be careful to not make an emotional decision about this. Be objective, but be kind. Are they just not doing something the way that you would do it, but they’re still getting the job done? Is their performance still acceptable? Are they making big enough strides where, even though they aren’t where you need them to be right now, they’re on their way to becoming what you need from them?
After you remove emotions and give their work an honest evaluation, talk with others who know the situation. Make sure you emphasize that they give you their true opinions about the work being completed by the person in question. It’s not about the individual. It should always be about the work and how it affects those around them. Many people are careful to criticize because they like the person they are evaluating or because they fear the other person will find out. But if they don’t let their true feelings be known, they are doing a disservice to the company and even to the individual. After all, maybe this isn’t what the individual wants. Maybe it’s not fulfilling for them and that is why they are not putting in the extra effort to learn and excel at their craft.
Ultimately, you must determine if you’ve done everything in your power (as the trainer/mentor) to help that person succeed. Do they only need to make a few adjustments or is it time to move on? Did you lead them to water? If so, it’s up to them to decide to drink…