The general manger was so delighted with the positive results of the program launch – the changes in employee attitude, happiness, and the positive bottom-line impact – he literally cried out, “Thank God for Frontline Performance Group!”

In that moment he understood the power behind our principles, program, and the reason for our unwavering commitment to creating service-based sales cultures: happy employees = great customer experiences = improved bottom-line results.

This, of course, is no secret. However, what most business owners and managers do not realize is that changing a workplace culture requires much more than just wishful thinking; it requires the implementation of a hyper-efficient, impactful business system. This takes time, commitment, persistence, and diligence. But as this client realized, those willing to transform their business culture into one that supports employees and a service-based sales environment will reap the benefits a peak performing sales organization has to offer.

Andy Racz - Senior Account Manager, Frontline Performance Group

Sales is a social event; yet the inherent, old school practices of many sales organizations are preventing them from making the “A” list. One such practice is attempting to sell customers on the merits of products and services without having an understanding of their likes and dislikes, their true wants and needs.

So, how do you get your customers to open up and tell you what they’re thinking? Just listen!

Since the advent of social networking sites, today’s customers have been talking about you and your business every day, to virtually everyone! According to a recent study, “three of the world’s most popular brands online are social media related (Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia) and the world now spends over 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites. This equates to 22% of all time online or one in every four and a half minutes. For the first time ever, social networks or blog sites are visited by three quarters of global consumers who go online, after the number of people visiting these sites increased by 24% over last year. The average visitor spends 66% more time on these sites than a year ago, almost 6 hours in April 2010 versus 3 hours and 31 minutes last year.” (Source: Nielsen, June 2010)

Getting with the program – utilizing social networking sites to hear what customers are saying and communicate with them will lead to more relational rather than transactional experiences for salespeople and their customers.

Lynda Fleming - Director of Learning & Development, Frontline Performance Group

Growing a company to this size is no easy feat. It entails creating the right corporate environment, attracting the right type of people, as well as motivating and enabling your sales force to achieve great things. Mary Kay Ash was able to do all of this and more.

The following sales leadership actions are just a few of many that came directly from Mary Kay Ash’s playbook.

1. Know Your Role

In the early days of the company Mary Kay focused on her strengths – engaging and inspiring her team. Her son Richard Rogers, who still runs the company to this day, has said she believed her job was to “energize, recognize, teach, and motivate our independent sales force.” According to Richard, she left everything else to him.

2. When In Doubt Recognize

The pink Cadillac is a key incentive for Mary Kay’s top salespeople. A complimentary two year lease of a pink Cadillac is provided for each region’s top performer. At the end of the two year lease the sales star is eligible for another car if they continue to perform well. Since its inception in 1969, the pink Cadillac Career Car has been awarded to over 100,000 top performers and is still in effect today.

3. Balance Constructive Feedback With Positives

Mary Kay was legendary for her coaching and mentoring sessions. In her book The Mary Kay Way she described positive reinforcement as “Sandwiching every bit of criticism between two heavy layers of praise.” This relationship-focused approach to coaching made her sales force feel comfortable, valuable, and important to the company.

Implementing effective training, meaningful recognition programs, and valuable coaching sessions has been and continues to be very successful and lucrative for Mary Kay, Inc. So much so the company’s methods and direct sales model are still the envy of their competition and the focus of many business school case studies today.

Ken Stellon - Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group

What do I mean by this? Salespeople need something tangible, something they can visualize, to help them achieve their goals. As a result, when setting goals it is critical that sales leaders ask their frontline employees what they would like to do with the extra incentive money earned when (not if) their sales goals are met. When salespeople are asked this question their answer is often a halfhearted “put it in the bank.” While putting it in the bank sounds and is noble, I have learned that saving more money is simply not compelling enough for the average employee to push through the additional efforts and rejection required to achieve the highest levels of sales performance.

This is because saving more does not elicit emotion. Having an extra $100 in your bank account is nice, but it doesn’t drive behavior consistently – it does not cause acute pain when it isn’t achieved. Conversely, when you are staring at a picture of a sunset on Waikiki Beach, a cherry red Ford Mustang, a pair of deep blue Gucci jeans, or a new home with a swing set and a photo of your children alongside, it hurts when you fail. It sears and it disappoints. But best of all, it angers. This type of pain is a good pain, a valuable pain because it focuses your energies, resolve and concentration to achieve something of worth…and of difficulty.

Salespeople should be encouraged to choose tangible personal rewards as part of the goal setting process, and to use pictures to remind them of their goals. However, as I always tell our clients, make sure the images placed on your refrigerator or in your work space are a true representation of what you desire most – because what you constantly think about, you become.

Albert Einstein said it best, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

What are you imagining?

Chris Brown - Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group

Companies are overlooking the most critical element in the service to sales transition.

The idea of cost-cutting and doing more with less is nothing new to contact centers. Even before the economy tanked, managers struggled with dwindling budgets and limited resources. But now, the severity of the recession has most organizations feeling squeezed dry – and they’re running out of things to cut back on.

As executives shift their sights from cost containment to revenue generation, many are looking to the contact center as the primary opportunity to drive profits through cross-selling, upselling and enhancing existing customer relationships. The fact is, most centers now have some sort of sales component in place – whether it’s add-on sales for special promotions or full-on solutions-based selling. But have their efforts to incorporate sales into a service-centric environment been successful?

Click here to read the full article

I contend that when one is blessed with a specific, clearly definable talent, each day should be viewed as an opportunity to hone that talent rather than ride upon it.

Here are a few tips:

1. Get Over It!

“As long as you’re green, you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot.” – Ray Kroch

Don’t become so rapt by your accomplishments that you miss the opportunity to grow. Success is a moving target and someone else is always a shot away from claiming its rewards.

2. Get On It!

“If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.” – John C. Maxwell

You know what your strengths are – now make a growth plan to build upon them. While being aware of your areas of weakness is a critical component of success, the majority of your time is best spent by giving focus to your strengths. Perhaps a continuing education course or even just the practice of networking with others who have achieved success in your field will provide the edge you will need to stay at the top of your game.

3. Get Through It!

“Smooth seas don’t make skillful sailors.” – African Proverb

Once you have mapped out your plan, prepare for obstacles. If allowed, the day-to-day workings of your business and your life can take you off course. Determining the pay-off will help to maintain the focus needed to achieve your goal of improving your strengths.

Lynda Fleming - Director of Learning & Development, Frontline Performance Group

Sometimes in the world of college sports all it takes to beat a champion is to believe that you are a champion and to play like a champion. Any loyal Notre Dame fan understands this important message.

On January 14, 1974 the University of Notre Dame demonstrated this belief when they stunned the college basketball world by toppling reigning National Champion UCLA. What made this one point victory special for the Fighting Irish was that the loss marked UCLA’s first loss in 88 consecutive games, and it came at the expense of legendary coach John Wooden.

How were they able to do this? Prior to the game Notre Dame’s coach, Digger Phelps, implemented the following coaching techniques:

1. Make it Visual: He had the team practice cutting down the nets and celebrate the momentous win four days prior to the start of the game.

2. Make it Behavioral: Throughout the practice week he drilled all of his players to hit shots at unique angles stressing that this was to be the “game winner!” The extra jumpers, runners off the glass, three pointers and two foot lay-ups helped create the right muscle memory for when it really mattered!

3. Make it Emotional: According to John Shumate, an Irish player, “Digger told us at practice the week before the game if you win this game, it will be part of your life for the rest of your life…” Phelps was famous for drawing upon duty to the University and the team’s faith to believe.

So how do these techniques translate into success in today’s competitive business environment? Whether it is a well coached round of role plays, situational exercises, or a candid discussion with your employees about the importance of moving your customers through an emotional connection, these same types of coaching techniques can generate tremendous results for your frontline team — just as they did for the Fighting Irish.

Ken Stellon - Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group

One organization I recently worked with focused all of their attention, compensation and recognition on their top volume revenue producers. They characterized these agents as ”top performers” and rewarded them as such. Upon closer inspection, however, the agents who had produced the most revenue were not the best salespeople. They were simply “churning” calls and skimming opportunities rapidly for the easiest sales. This “cherry-picking” does produce large revenues; however, it does so at the expense of more needy customers who require greater attention and patience. Once conversion of opportunities handled and a customer service index were added as performance indicators, many of the perceived top agents fell significantly in the rankings. Although they were producing large revenue sums, the hidden collateral damage they were doing to the brand through their insensitivity to other customers largely outweighed the positive sales results they were generating. This situation is tragic…and common. Conversely, with the new performance indicators in place the true capabilities and contributions of some of the near-top and average agents were seen for the first time.

In one industry, an owner might place all of his focus on sales revenue only to get burned by profit slippage from excessive agent-to-customer incentives or discounts, or on the back-end through poor quality sales resulting in high accounts receivable defaults. In another scenario, an owner may become fixated on utilization percentage (as in car rental or hotel room usage) while simultaneously neglecting to see the harsh effect of the lower daily rates needed to drive that utilization. If you had a four room hotel, would you rather have 100% occupancy at $100 per room night or 80% occupancy at $150 per room night? The first example produces a Revenue Per Unit of $100 while the less-used property produces a Revenue Per Unit of $120 — a 20% revenue premium for less work! Factor in the reduced labor needed to handle the lower number of transactions along with the reduced product cost, and you see a new perspective surface. In yet another case, transactions produced per hour may be the driving force while little or no consideration is placed on the profit or brand-building potential of those transactions to the organization.

All of these metrics, along with many others, are worthwhile and critical to your success. However, it is important to remember more often than not it is the calibration of several Key Performance Indicators that will ultimately drive the two metrics that matter most, long-term customer care and profit.

Chris Brown- Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group

Study after study proves that happy employees = productive employees = happy external customers. This means that service success flows from the bottom of the organizational chain up, rather than from the top down.

Today, organizations that want a vibrant frontline service-based sales culture must shift from their entire organization serving the president, CEO, or owner, to the entire organization serving the end customer.

This can happen only by concentrating heavy resources in the area where they can do the most good:  your service and sales personnel and their immediate management teams.

Chances are if you don’t enjoy what you do, not many people will enjoy dealing with you while you’re doing it!

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a colleague as he spoke to a group of sales professionals about the importance of harnessing the power of attitude. He reminded us that while not many people get the opportunity to do what they love, it is essential to love, find fulfillment, contentment and joy in what we do.

Having a keen awareness of the impact attitude can have on one’s ultimate success is key. It is our mindset that determines end results – so when analyzing a career choice, it is important to identify “the prize.” Ask yourself what it is about the work you do that will bring meaning and value to you, your employer, and your customers. Perhaps the most important question is will “it” bring about enough to sustain you through the rough, mundane tasks and the challenging times?

For a few of you, the first thing that may come to mind is your bottom-line. And while everyone’s goal is to be richly rewarded for one’s effort, it cannot be what gets you up and keeps you going every day.

I Love my job and that is not to say that every moment of every day brings me joy. Like most everyone, I have experienced moments when I’ve thought “I would rather be doing anything other than this!” What gets me through is keeping my eye on the prize, which for me is the gratification of helping others achieve their goals; it is the reason I have chosen to do what I do. It is that assurance of ultimate fulfillment which gets me through the difficult times.

You have the power! Your attitude is the foundation of all successes and failures. Maintaining a positive attitude and keeping your eye on the prize, whatever that may be for you, is a power only you can control.

Lynda Fleming - Director of Learning & Development, Frontline Performance Group