Keenan 411

Jim Keenan is a Senior Sales Executive, Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 Connector, an Entrepreneur still trying to get it right, and a PSIA Certified Ski Instructor for Vail Resorts. Husband to Big E and father to four great kids. In a nut shell, I'm a Sales Guy. Life is good!

Act Right

Lou Gerstner said, “I came to see in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game — it is the game.”

Culture is a fancy way to describe how a group of people act. Every group, community, household, team, has a culture. Get people together and they will start acting a like. It’s how we are wired.

The hard part isn’t having a culture it’s creating one that aligns with what your trying to get done.

Organizations can’t succeed without the right culture. The right culture means everyone is acting right towards the goal.

Plans, strategies, processes, customer service, sales, all require us to act. How we act is the culture. Build the best plan, have the best product, recruit the best people, it won’t matter without the organization acting right towards the goals.

Lou was spot on. If you want a killer company, a killer sales force, a killer call center, start and end with the culture. It dictates how we behave and success comes from the sum of our behaviors.

The teams that acts right win. Period.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

March 10, 2010 | Filed under: Leadership | Comments |

You Get EXACTLY What You Ask For

In Ancient China Confucius praised filial piety; the dutiful attention to the needs of ones family elders, especially parents and grandparents.

The Han Dynasty (200 BC-200 AD) took filial piety to a new level. Those who had the greatest reputations for filial piety were awarded choice government appointments. To gain a reputation worthy of such appointments men would perform exaggerated acts, such as refusing to end their mourning of their parents. Getting to the court of Han and getting a job of stature meant performing the virtues of filial piety at tremendous heights and this is exactly what the men of Han did.

The Han dynasty rewarded filial piety and that’s what they got.

Sales is no different. You get exactly what you reward for. The problem is most organizations don’t reward the actions they want.

Companies offer commissions, or “choice appointments” but they don’t align. They pay commissions on sales to all customers, when what they need are new customers. The result; no new customer sales. They pay the same commissions on all products when they’ve just launched a new product. The result; no new product sales.

Sales people follow the money. They are not going to read between the lines. They will move in the direction of reward.

What are you trying to sell? How do you want people to act?

Rewards and commissions are how you ask people to do things. Reward the behaviors that are important. Commission the things you want the team to sell.

You will get exactly what you ask for whether it’s what you want or not.

February 24, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance, Leadership, Sales Leadership | Comments |

Is There A Glen Plake of the Business World?

Glen Plake is a free spirit. He is a guy who has been changing the world of skiing from the inside out. He’s done it, not by winning gold medals, or Winter X games, but by traveling from ski hill to ski hill hanging out with the people that make them run; not the CEO’s, but the dishwashers, and the busboys; the best skiers on the hill that no one knows about.

I remember watching his first big movie; Greg Stumps, Blizzard of Ahhs! It was in stark contrast to the mainstream, conventional ski videos by Warren Miller. They pushed the limits. They were rough, no frills, extreme skiing movies, that got to the raw essence of what its like to strap two wooden boards to your feet and ski the ungroomed, untamed, natural terrain provided by mother nature.

The Glen Plakes of the world force us to remember what it is we do and why we do it. They don’t allow the conventional to anchor us in the mundane. They push the envelope and challenge what we accept as the norm. They remind us that it’s the dishwashers; not those in the big offices that make our world run and in many cases they know a lot more about our business than we do.

Is there a Glen Plake in the world of business? I can think of a few, but I think there need to be more. They keep us honest and this is exactly the kind of leadership we need.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

February 21, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance, Leadership, Personal Brand, Skiing | Comments |

Do You Believe Your Employees?

Do you believe your employees, when they tell you they are going to miss their number because the customer has slashed budgets? Do you believe them when they exceed quota because they beat out the existing provider because they screwed up not because your product was better? Do you believe them when they tell you they are losing market share due to new competitors entering the market? Do you believe them when they say they are going to exceed plan? Do you believe them when they say the customer is unhappy. Do you believe your employees when they tell you what is happening in the field?

You should AND you shouldn’t.

Employees are on the front line. They are talking to the customer. They are sitting next to the competitors. They are in the battle.

Like most soldiers, they will exaggerate what they see. Employees will also be extremely accurate. They know what is going on and should be seen as scouts or as an early warning system.

Getting reality from employees is the leaders job. Leaders need to dig. They need to push for more information, look for evidence, and challenge assumptions.

If your employees are telling you your losing market share you need listen. If they are telling you everything is great, you need to listen.

It’s not what employees are saying. It’s what YOU get from what they are saying and the best leaders get to the truth.

Do you believe your employees? You should AND you shouldn’t.

November 30, 2009 | Filed under: Leadership, Personal Development, Sales Leadership | Comments |

Don’t Feed the Trolls

This post by Seth Godin rings true to me. I’ve experienced Trolls in every company I’ve worked.

Trolls

Lots of things about work are hard. Dealing with trolls is one of them. Trolls are critics who gain perverse pleasure in relentlessly tearing you and your ideas down. Here’s the thing(s):

1. trolls will always be trolling
2. critics rarely create
3. they live in a tiny echo chamber, ignored by everyone except the trolled and the other trolls
4. professionals (that’s you) get paid to ignore them. It’s part of your job.

“Can’t please everyone,” isn’t just an aphorism, it’s the secret of being remarkable.

Even as this post rings true the fact that Trolls exist at all has always been a mystery to me. They bring little value to an organization. They are almost always at the center of subversive efforts. Everyone knows who they are and can’t stand working with them. They are quick to say no, yet rarely say yes. Yet, despite this they thrive in every organization. Like weeds, the take root and are difficult to get rid of. I think the reason is because we do as Seth says and we ignore them. That’s the wrong approach.

Getting ridding of Trolls is a leadership issue. Trolls exist because they are fed. They’re fed because they are convenient when people need them. They’re fed, because they do our dirty work. They are fed, because most people don’t have the gumption to get them out. Trolls are crafty. They do their job to the letter of the law. They don’t give measurable, specific reason to let them go, yet their existence is almost always in conflict with getting things done.

Don’t ignore the Trolls. Stop feeding them. Then show some leadership and get them out . . . it is also a sign of being remarkable.

October 28, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance, Hiring/Firing, Leadership | Comments |

Give em a Chance To Win

People like to win. Everyone likes the thrill of success. In fact, the belief we can win motivates us. If we feel helpless, or that we are incapable of winning, we stop trying.

When we stop trying failure is imminent.

When times are tough we tend to push hard asking more and more of our teams. The wins become fewer and fewer as we strive to regain dominance, market share, or just prevent cataclysmic decline. With the decline in wins comes a decline in confidence as the teams begin to wonder if they are even capable. As confindence declines, losses pile up, wins decline even faster and confidence erodes even more. The cycle has begun.

When sales are down, when your product team is struggling with innovation, when the competition is kicking your ass, or when external enviroments are taking their toll, look for ways to give your team wins. Cut quota for the quarter, offer incentives for a net new client, reward innovative improvement on an existing product rather than just the new product. Build your teams confidence, give them a chance to win.

Like a baseball team in a rebuilding year, don’t expect the World Series, not only will you not get there you will damage your chances next year also.

Like that baseball team in a rebuilding year look for incremental improvement. Target your biggest weaknesses. Focus on team chemistry. Look for little wins that can be big wins and build confidence.

Decline can happen overnight. Recovering from decline rarely can. Don’t suck the remaining life out of your organization trying to get back to the World Series in the first year. Focus on getting some wins. Without the wins the rest is just a loss.

If you want to win, you have to give em a chance!

September 10, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance, Leadership | Comments |

Motivating Sales People in Tough Economic Times

I was recently invited to do a podcast with Jerry Kennedy and Brad Trnavsky on a Sales2.0 blog. It was a fun discussion. We hit on a number of topics, including and old college story, I haven’t told in awhile. It made me laugh to revisit.

Motivating employees is the single most important thing we can do as leaders. Despite our own ego and what it tells us, we really don’t do much of anything. We get others to do it and this is no small feat.

In today’s NY Times there is an interesting article on Nancy Everett head of GM’s pension fund. I liked this quote about her:

“There is no such thing as an investment guru,” Ms. Handy said. “Your talent is in organizing the team so that they make the right decisions. Nancy is good at attracting talented people and retaining them and letting them make the right decisions.”

What makes this quote so poignant is it recognizes the key component to motivating people is empowering them with the autonomy to do their job.

During tough times companies tend to do just the opposite. They exert more control and give employees less ownership. This doesn’t serve anyone well.

Enjoy the podcast. I had fun doing it.

September 1, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance, Career Development, Leadership, Sales Leadership, Sales Process, Uncategorized | Comments |

Do You Have the Guts?

Do You Have the Guts?

Do You Have the Guts?

As a leader . . .
Do you have the guts to hire a contrarian?
Do you have the guts to have people on the team who will disagree with you?
Do you have the guts to actively look for people more talented than you?
Do you have the guts to hire someone who will break the rules and deviate from process if it means winning? Will you celebrate them for doing it?
Do you have the guts to add the chaos that comes with spontaneity to your organization?
Do you have the guts to hire someone who will take risks and fail taking them?
Do you have the guts to have people on the team who think and act completely different than you?
Do you have the guts to have a subordinate tell you, you are wrong, EVEN if they are wrong?
Do you have the guts to let someone else pull all the strings?
Do you have the guts to get out of the way?
Do you have the guts to say, “I don’t know?” and ask the team for help?
Do you have the guts to be uncomfortable?
Do you have the guts?

I don’t care what your business card says. If you don’t have the guts, you aren’t a leader. You may be a good manager. You may be good with spread sheets and PowerPoint. You may be good at office politics, but you aren’t a leader.

It takes guts to be a leader. It takes real strength to be a leader. Unfortunately, these characteristics scare people, they scare companies. They disrupt the status quo. They challenge the systems. The create chaos. They create unpredictability. Corporations thrive on predictability and the status quo and unfortunately the cost to maintaining the status quo is the loss of great leaders.

Do you have the guts?

August 31, 2009 | Filed under: Leadership, Personal Development | Comments |

Are you a Thermometer or a Thermostat

I absolutely love this.

Seth Godin quote from Tribes:

“A thermostat is far more valuable than a thermometer.

The thermometer reveals that something is broken. The thermometer is an indicator, our canary in the coal mine. Thermometers tell us when we’re spending too much or gaining market share or not answering the phone quickly enough. Organizations are filled with human thermometers. They can criticize or point out or just whine.

The thermostat, on the other hand, manages to change the environment in sync with the outside world. Every organization needs at least one thermostat. These are the leaders who can create change in response to the outside world, and do it consistently over time.”

I see thermometers everywhere. It’s easy to be a thermometer. There is little risk. Thermostats are different. They are measured on their output. How they can change the environment around them. Like themometers, they can tell you what’s wrong, but unlike thermometers, they then actually do something about it.

Are you a thermometer or a thermostat. The world needs more thermostats.

August 20, 2009 | Filed under: Leadership, My Reading Quotes | Comments |

Stop Rewarding The Naysayers

It’s easy to bash things that are new or unconventional. It’s easy to say someone is wrong when it’s a new perspective. It doesn’t take a lot of guts to challenge the unique idea from the intern. It’s not hard to say something won’t work if it has never been done before.

Taking the safe side of a controversial position is easy. It’s easy because you can’t lose. If the idea or innovation fails your were right. If it is successful, no one else saw it either and so your not faulted for being wrong. We reward the naysayers.

If you want more innovation in your organization, stop rewarding the critics and start rewarding innovators, they are the ones taking the risk. Make it harder to be a critic and easier to be an innovator.

Don’t reward the naysayers.

August 18, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance, Leadership, What I Think! | Comments |

Keep Up With Me:


Categories