The Executive Sales Coach: Keith Rosen’s Sales Blog and Business Blog On Selling, Leadership, Managing Your Team, Business and Life » Books

Power Referrals – The Ambassador Method Will Build Your Social Currency

In today’s market, exploiting every vehicle you can to drive more prospects and more sales to you is crucial. The innovative will reign supreme, while those scurrying to simply do more of what they did yesterday wonder why ‘more’ isn’t the answer. What daily activities yield your greatest ROI? How are you then refining and re-inventing those activities to over respond to the needs of your customers?

Winning today requires re-thinking every activity you engage in, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Just yesterday, I’ve incorporated a whole new system that has now enabled me to more efficiently respond to every email that’s sent to me or to my company, with less human resources being exhausted. It’s a win-win for my customers and for my company and it didn’t cost me one penny. I simply refined a system we already had in place and made it even better. Keep in mind, the old system was working fine, but working fine is what got all of us in the mess we’re in today. The “Good Enough Mediocre Mentality.”

Stop and think about how you generate new business? What new initiatives or ways of prospecting have you incorporated over the last few months? How proactive are you about pursuing referral business and the many business opportunities that are out there waiting for you?

My friend and colleague, Andrea Sittig-Rolf has just released her latest book entitled, Power Referrals: The Ambassador Method for Empowering Others to Promote Your Business and Do the Selling for You (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

What does this mean to you? An opportunity to tap into a new way of doing business and attracting more customers. And it all revolves around your ability to leverage your Social Currency.

I’ve included an expert from Andrea’s book below, defining social currency and how you can start building your own.

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Social Currency is the value we bring to the social networks in which we are involved. Think of all of the networks you are involved in; social networks, professional networks, family networks. In every network, you bring value to others in that network based on the people you know and the relationships you have. Social currency is what you have to “spend” by way of introductions you make to help the people in your networks get what they want.

So how do you determine your social currency? Think of all of your spheres of influence: the people you know and the networks you’re involved in. Your spheres of influence can include colleagues, associates, referral partners, prospects, customers, friends, family, and Ambassadors. The Social Currency Assessment will help you map and understand your individual strengths and how they can benefit those in your spheres of influence, your potential Ambassadors, and your actual Ambassadors.

Everyone has skills, abilities and gifts, and this assessment will help to hone yours for a clear understanding of what strengths you have and what assets you bring to the table in your Ambassador relationships. For those skills and strengths you don’t feel you have, it’s best to simply manage your weaknesses, and to build on your strengths.

Your spheres of influence and your strengths are just part of your overall social currency…

For more information about social currency and the new book Power Referrals: The Ambassador Method for Empowering Others to Promote Your Business and Do the Selling for You, plus a free online toolkit, click here.

This is pretty neat! My book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions is being translated into a Chinese and Czech version! Below are the details.

Global Rights Deal Announcement for Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives by Keith Rosen

We are pleased to report a Global Rights Department license for the following title:

Author: Keith Rosen
Title: Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives
ISBN/PL: 0470142510/H

Here are some details of the deal:

Rights Licensed: Translation/Simplified Chinese
Licensee: Enterprise Management Publishing House, CHINA

Rights Licensed: Translation/Czech
Licensee: Computer Press. a.s., CZECH REPUBLIC

With technology advancements nearing the speed of light, there are no sustainable competitive advantages anymore…except for your people. Engaging the hearts and minds of your team is the only sustainable advantage left in today’s hyper-competitive, high-velocity world.

As a result, employee engagement has been a white hot topic. Lee J. Colan’s rapid-read book translates the concept of employee engagement into concrete actions leaders apply in real-time. Whether you lead a family, a project, or community volunteers, this a highly interactive book delivers “how to” strategies for igniting passionate performance – our teams willingly giving their time and energy to achieve our goals.

As a thank you for your support and readership, I have arranged with Lee to give you a free bonus tool (worth $99) when you pre-order his new book.

Take a quick read of a sample chapter. It offers actionable tips to fulfill the emotional need for purpose on your team… and ignite passionate performance – fast!

Sales? Leadership? Coaching? Strategy? HR? There’s a new AllBusiness.com expert feature that was just launched. I’m excited about this new platform to connect with readers and interact with you! More specifically, this is an Ask The Expert, Q and A Forum for you to get your toughest questions answered, and your greatest personnel and sales related or management challenges resolved ,so that you can sleep well at night knowing you are achieving your goals.

We’re hoping you will enjoy the connection and the opportunity to interact. Here’s how it works. You will be able to e-mail me direct, on the bottom right corner of my blog page here, as well as leave a voicemail on my exclusive toll free hotline describing your specific issue, challenge or question! We’ll review the voicemail questions and select the ones to use in the recorded “Ask the Expert” interviews where I will provide short answers to your e-mailed and phoned in questions. Call in now using the number below. I look forward to hearing from you.

“Ask the Expert” Hotline!
The number is: 1-877-49-EXPERT (1877-493-9737)
Option #1

Or, send me your question on This page here.

The Sales Book Awards recognize books, authors, and publishers whose work advances sales as a profession.

During one of their regular conversations, two avid readers, writers, and globally recognized sales experts lamented that sales books were often overlooked by book award programs and shunned by many in the publishing industry.

Jeb Blount, CEO of the sales portal, powerhouse, SalesGravy.com and Jonathan Farrington, Chairman of The Sales Corporation based in London and Paris and CEO of Top10SalesArticles.com, who share a life-long passion for sales, decided it was time for a book award program just for sales and sales related books, ebooks, and audio books.

Farrington, who has identified and cataloged the world’s top sales experts on his website TopSalesExperts.com said, “Our ultimate goal is to develop and foster a wide coalition of thought leaders, educators, publishers, authors, and corporations who share our mission to recognize authors and publishers who create outstanding works which contribute to the profession of sales.”

“Advancing sales as a profession is our core mission,” said Blount. “All proceeds from corporate sponsorships and entry fees will be used to create scholarships for deserving students enrolled in University level, sales degree programs.”

He explained that across the globe there are more than 50 universities and colleges that have developed degree level programs for sales within their business schools. “The students who graduate from these programs will be responsible for growing the world’s economy in the very near future. Our desire is to play a small but significant role in helping future Sales Professionals meet their financial needs while at the same time highlighting the accomplishments of today’s key thought leaders who contribute so much to sales.”

In the spirit of their mission, Jeb and Jonathan tapped three students, enrolled in professional selling at the University of Central Florida, to design the Sales Book Awards and build the website. According to Blount, Yurani Caicedo, who will be selling for the Miami Heat when she graduates this summer, along with Bri Chmel, the 2007 Women’s World Wakesurfing Champion who will also be enrolled in the University of Central Florida Sales Track this fall, and Raymi Dick, a UCF marketing major who graduates in 2009, were the real key to bringing the Sales Book Awards to life.

The Sales Book Awards call for entries begins on June 23, 2008. Titles may be entered online at SalesBookAwards.org

Any publisher or author may enter books with publication dates between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2008. Books will be judged in ten separate categories and a title may be entered in up to five categories. Finalists in each category will be announced on November 15, 2008. On December 15, 2008 category winners and the Sales Book of the Year will be named.

For information go to: SalesBookAwards.org

Who Do You Coach?

“Who should I be coaching?” I’ve been asked this question hundreds of times by both internal sales and corporate coaches as well as those looking to build a career as a coach and develop a sustainable coaching practice on their own.

The short answer is that not everyone is coachable.

You can determine if people are ready to be coached by who they are—the degree to which they are receptive to making positive, long-term change both in their thinking as well as in their behavior. This determination is less about what the people do or their position, age, industry, experience, education, knowledge, or intelligence. Remember, coaching is about building sales champions from the inside out.

The following six qualities need to be present in the person and the coaching relationship in order for your coaching to have a profound impact. I’ve identified these attributes by the acronym A. G.R.O.W.T.H.

A. G.R.O.W.T.H. Success Indicator to Determine Personal Coachability

1. Actionability. A combination of both action and ability. The word represents both the actions that will drive success as well as the person’s actual proficiency and aptitude. Without action, nothing happens. And without the person’s innate ability and intelligence to carry out the task as intended, the action becomes an exercise in futility. As I tell my clients, “If you’re only willing to do today what you did yesterday, then what do you need me for?” This holds true for both action in your thinking and in your doing. Coaching is based on forward movement by engaging in activities you either haven’t tried, haven’t done consistently, or haven’t modeled on established best practices. (You may have been engaging in the activity in a less than effective manner.) In addition, action is the effort you put forth to change your current beliefs, your attitude, and how you think.

2. Gap. Simply put, the gap is the space between where the person is now and where they want to be. It is the space where new resources, beliefs, skills, strategies, and dialogues are cocreated by you and them. This gap stands in the way of the person’s goal and where the magic and power of your coaching occur. We will spend some time later in this chapter discussing how to uncover and coach the gap.

3. Responsibility and Ownership. I connect these two characteristics because there is a symbiotic relationship between these traits: One cannot exist without the other. If the person you are coaching is unwilling to take full responsibility for her life, career, or for the outcomes produced throughout the coaching process, your coaching will be ineffective. The coaching sessions can quickly turn into an environment for excuses. What’s worse, coaching someone who is unwilling to take total ownership of her success creates a situation where the coach can easily become the scapegoat and validation for the salesperson’s lackluster results, failures, and inefficiencies.

4. Willingness. How badly does your salesperson want to achieve the goals she has laid out? Is this person willing to go above and beyond what her peers are doing to achieve what matters most to her? How has she demonstrated evidence of her commitment and desire to achieve the outlined objectives? Determination and drive are the fuel that propels the coaching forward. Without an unconditional willingness to forge ahead, even in the face of adversity and doubt, you may find that these meetings quickly turn into a prodding or pushing session. The danger is, you may start pushing harder than the person is ready for and then you are dictating the agenda rather than the salesperson.

5. Trust. Trust is the backbone of any relationship, especially a coaching relationship. The foundation of trust is even more essential if the person you are coaching is your employee, peer, or coworker. As with respect, trust is earned. What have you done to earn the trust of the person you are coaching? Or, what have you done to destroy the trust between you and a person you are coaching? Can it be repaired? Can you trust the person you are coaching? Do you have evidence that makes them untrustworthy? Listen to your instincts on this. If you can’t trust them, don’t coach them.

6. Honesty. Honesty is distinct from trust. Honesty refers to the ability of the person you’re coaching to be open and vulnerable with you, the coach. Honesty relates to the degree in which the salespeople not only share with you pertinent information about themselves, their situations, challenges, upsets, and inspirations but also their willingness to look inside themselves and embrace the truth in every situation, whether they like it or not. Part of the role of a coach is to hold up that proverbial mirror so that people can see the truth of what’s going on, what’s getting in their way, and what they need to do to achieve unprecedented results. A defensive attitude creates an unhealthy coaching environment.

Thought I’d share with you a way to get my book for free.

Simply attend a short, live online demo of Landslide, a sales workstyle management tool created FOR salespeople BY salespeople to help increase their sales, leverage their time and boost their income. Register now to see how selling using Landslide is different from traditional CRM and SFA solutions. Landslide focuses on helping salespeople and sales teams work most effectively by easily enabling a three-tier sales process complete with selling cycle phases, selling activities in each phase, and the selling tools to complete these activities. At the conclusion of the demo, Landslide will ship you a free copy of Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions!

PLEASE NOTE: This offer is only available for shipment to addresses in North America.

Keep in mind, no demo no book. But hey, it’s a free copy. Here’s more information.

With all the efforts those who are managed, the mass, put forth in a regal and often last valiant attempt to salvage a once positive work environment, at the core of every unhealthy working environment is the toxic boss, manager or supervisor that breeds it. All roads go back to the manager. And if the manager isn’t willing to change, then it’s a safe bet that in the end, nothing will.

That’s why to impact long lasting change, managers need to upgrade their style and approach to managing their people.

Throughout my years of coaching managers, business owners and executives, I’ve been able to identify seven types of managers. Using these seven types of managers as examples, identify the critical competencies necessary to become an effective coach. It all starts with the way we communicate. Which one best describes you or your boss?

1. The Problem-Solving Manager
This boss is task-driven and focused on achieving goals. These problem solvers are constantly putting out fires and leading by chaos. The paradox here is this: It is often the manager who creates the very problems and situations that they work so hard to avoid. Continually providing solutions often results in the lackluster performance that they are working so diligently to eliminate.

2. The Pitchfork Manager
People who manage by a pitchfork are doing so with a heavy and often controlling hand: demanding progress, forcing accountability, prodding and pushing for results through the use of consequence, threats, scarcity, and fear tactics. This style of tough, ruthless management is painful for people who are put in a position where they are pushed to avoid consequences rather than pulled toward a desired and collective goal.

3. The Pontificating Manager
These managers will readily admit they don’t follow any particular type of management strategy. Instead, they shoot from the hip, making it up as they go along often generating sporadic, inconsistent results. As a result, they often find themselves in situations that they are unprepared for. Interestingly, The Pontificating Manager thrives on situations like this. Often adrenaline junkies themselves, these managers are in desperate need of developing the second most essential proficiency of a coach: masterful listening. The Pontificating Manager is the type of manager who can talk to anyone and immediately make people feel comfortable. This character strength becomes a crutch to their leadership style, often blinding them to the need to further systemize their approach. As a matter of fact, the only thing consistent about these managers is their inconsistency.

4. The Presumptuous Manager
Presumptuous Managers focus more on themselves than anything else. To them, their personal production, recognition, sales quotas and bonuses take precedence over their people and the value they are responsible for building within each person on their team. Presumptuous Managers often put their personal needs and objectives above the needs of their team. As you can imagine, Presumptuous Managers experience more attrition, turnover, and problems relating to managing a team than any other type of manager. Presumptuous Managers are typically assertive and confident individuals. However, they are typically driven by their ego to look good and outperform the rest of the team. Presumptuous Managers breed unhealthy competition rather than an environment of collaboration.

5. The Perfect Manager
Perfect Managers possess some wonderful qualities. These managers are open to change, innovation, training, and personal growth with the underlying commitment to continually improve and evolve as sales managers, almost to a fault. This wonderful trait often becomes their weakness. In their search for the latest and greatest approach, like Pontificating Managers, Perfect Managers never get to experience the benefit of consistency. This manager is a talking spec sheet. Their emphasis on acquiring more facts, figures, features, and benefits has overshadowed the ability of Perfect Managers to recognize the critical need for soft skills training around the areas of presenting, listening, questioning, prospecting, and the importance of following an organized, strategic selling system. Perfect Managers rely on their vast amount of product knowledge and experience when managing and developing their salespeople. Because of this great imbalance, these manager often fall short on developing their interpersonal skills that would make them more human than machine.

6. The Passive Manager
Also referred to as Parenting Managers or Pleasing Managers, Passive Managers take the concept of developing close relationships with their team and coworkers to a new level. These managers have one ultimate goal: to make people happy. While this is certainly an admirable trait, it can quickly become a barrier to leadership efforts if not managed effectively. Although wholesome and charming, this type of boss is viewed as incompetent, inconsistent and clueless often lacking the respect they need from their employees in order to effectively build a championship team. You can spot a Passive Manager by looking at their team and the number of people who should have been fired long ago. Because all Passive Managers want to do is please, they are more timid and passive in their approach. These managers will do anything to avoid confrontation and collapse holding people accountable with confrontation and conflict.

7. The Proactive Manager
The Proactive Manager encompasses all of the good qualities that the other types of managers possess, yet without all of their pitfalls. Here are the characteristics that this ideal manager embodies, as well as the ones for you to be mindful of and further develop yourself.

The Proactive Manager possesses the:

<li>Persistence, edge, and genuine authenticity of the Pitchfork Manager</li>

<li>Confidence of the Presumptuous Manager</li>

<li>Enthusiasm, passion, charm, and presence of the Pontificating Manager</li>

<li>Drive to support others and spearhead solutions like the Problem-Solving Manager</li>

<li>Desire to serve, respectfulness, sensitivity, nurturing ability, and humanity of the Passive Manager</li>

<li>Product and industry knowledge, sales acumen, efficiency, focus, organization, and passion for continued growth just like the Perfect Manager</li>

The Proactive Manager is the ultimate manager and coach, relying on their newly developed skills, mindset that every manager needs to develop in order to build a world class team.

If you happen to have missed the book launch, my new book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions has several chapters dedicated to these manager types and how you can transition into the Proactive Manager. You can even download a few chapter excepts here.

Be among the first to gain access to superb articles from fifty of the world’s leading sales gurus. Top Sales Experts (yes, I am one ;-)) just launched this quarter’s E-book that I can offer to you for free! Download this amazing 144 page compilation. Click here now to download this PDF.

And here’s a quick update on what this team has planned in the very near future over at Top Sales Experts, because they fervently believe that collaboration is the way forward and intend to develop this team into the premier business collective, creating a global presence along the way.

From September, you can expect to find:

• Daily Blog


• Monthly Newsletter


• On-Site Resource Centre (Including articles/”How To” guides etc.)


• Podcasts


• Webinars


• Forum


• Book Store


• “Ask The Expert” facility

Plus a weekly radio show and finally, before the end of the year, we will be adding a complete library of online training sessions, designed and delivered by the expert team.

TSE’s aim has always been to create a one-stop shop for harassed business owners, VP Sales, Sales Managers, frontline sales personnel – in fact anyone seeking business related services, solutions, coaching and consultancy – and they are achieving that! I very much hope you enjoy their latest collaborative offering.

Here’s the link to download.

Here’s part 2 of the interview I conducted With Dr. Rick Kirschner
regarding what managers can do to drive greater results, better motivate their salespeople and boost productivity by utilizing these powerful communication strategies.

KR: How can a sales manager leverage the power of persuasion to increase the motivation and performance of her sales people?

DRK: That’s a big question, big enough to write a book, so I did, two books in fact. That’s a key point of my Insider’s Guide and Playbook To The Art of Persuasion! But here’s the quick answer. Persuasion is the deliberate attempt to influence another person’s attitude in order to change their behavior. Once you’ve paid some attention, listened well and learned about what motivates your people, using the Kirschner Motivational Model or McClelland’s Model or Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs Model, or any other motivation model that appeals to you, it is important that you use what you’ve learned to speak to the motivations of your people in a way that moves them, engages them and connects them to a desirable future while offering them protection from an undesirable one.

This has to do with what you say, and also how you say it. The fact is that most people are listening emotionally most the time, and logically only rarely. So, no matter how logical you are in what you propose they do, you have to send signals that help your people feel that they should let themselves be influenced by you. Otherwise, you may be wasting both their time and yours.

There are known ways to package what you say for maximum impact. I call these packaging tools ‘signals,’ ‘guides’ and ‘themes.’ Signals speak to how you address the emotions. Guides make it easier for others to understand the logic of what you say. Themes are a way of structuring what you say to help you stay on track while saying it.

The more you use this kind of approach, the more successful you will be in getting a sustainable result.

KR: Teamwork is an important part of any successful sales organization. How can sales coaches increase commitment and elevate the motivation among their sales people?

DRK: Almost nobody goes to work wanting to do a bad job. Most people want to do well, and want what they do to matter. So it seems to me that teamwork happens when leadership happens, and leadership begins with you knowing the answers to three very important questions. What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Why does it matter? Once you have the answers to these questions firmly fixed in your mind, you can help your sales people to find their own answers to these questions and then keep those answers in front of them as a reminder of meaning and purpose.

Of course, it’s one thing to have a lofty vision, and something else entirely when it comes to the rubber meeting the road. So to keep your people connected and focused, you simply must treat them with respect, keep them informed along the way, and give recognition whenever it’s due, and not just in the large things but in the small things as well. Thanks for showing up. Thanks for speaking up. Thanks for standing up. Thanks for keeping your promise. Thanks for following through. My mom used to tell me that there is always something to appreciate, you just have to appreciate the value of appreciation to find it.

KR: What are the most successful tactics used by sales managers/coaches when they are faced with bad behavior within a sales team that can negatively impact the entire team’s results?

DRK: Most of us can agree that what’s bad about bad behavior is the bad effect it has on morale, teamwork and getting results. There’s no getting around the fact that pushy, negative, disruptive and unreliable behavior is costly because it has real world consequences.

But I think it’s important to keep in mind that behavior is purposeful, people do what they do for what they consider a good reason, and labeling a particular behavior as good or bad may do little to influence whether you get more or less of it. More important, I think, is to understand what’s behind it for them. Then, using your understanding of their good intent as a reference point, you can help your people understand that the consequences of their behavior are self defeating to their good intentions. Done persuasively, and they’ll be grateful for the insight and opportunity to learn. And you, as a result, will get better results from your people.

So what specifically do you do when there’s a problem with someone’s behavior? First, observe it. Notice what is happening, when it happens, where it happens and how it happens. Then get together with the person or people involved, and learn everything you can about it from them. Set the stage by telling them what you’ve observed, where and when you observed it, and then ask them, “When this happens, what’s going on for you? What is your intention?” Next, tell them the self defeating part. “When you do that, here’s the reaction it gets. Is that what you intended?” And the answer is almost always going to be “No, it’s not!” That’s your learning moment, right there. “What do you think might work better?” Either give your people a chance to come up with a new choice, or, if they’re drawing a blank, either brainstorm with them, or tell them what you know could work better. In any case, you’ll have set the table for learning. A little reinforcement, and it becomes their skill for life.

To read more of Dr. Rick Kirschner’s suggestions for improving your ability to use persuasion to create positive change in your life, relationships, and work, visit Dr. K’s Blog here: www.drkblog.com.