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

According to a recent Maritz Poll, the toxic boss is still alive and thriving. Sure, no breakthrough news here but what if you, as the recipient of this type of manager, could actually do something about it?

Knowing the type of boss you have, their limitations, their management style, their priorities, what drives them and how they communicate, helps you determine exactly where you stand, and what you can expect from them. After all, if you’re looking for more individualized attention, support and training it may not be realistic to expect that from your current boss or even possible for that boss to provide you the support and training you need. And if that’s the case, at least you now have the evidence to make a more educated sand informed decision regarding whether or not to stay in your current position.

So, what can you do to turn around your boss’s style of managing and how they communicate with you? Here’s a twist. Start by coaching and supporting them using these three simple steps.

First: Coach Up. What can you to do support your boss? Most are used to their employees coming to them with problems and complaints. It’s an interesting reaction you get when you approach them with, “Hi Mary. Listen I know how much we’re all under the same pressure to produce and for you I can only imaging that it’s even more intense. So, I just wanted to ask you what I might be able to do for you to possibly take some of that burden off, or if there’s anything you see in my production or performance that I could be doing better which in turn we’d all win.”

Next: Create the Opportunity to Discuss Expectations: The law of reciprocity applies. After you’ve determined how you can make their life a little easier, eventually, your manager can ask what they can do for you, which is your opportunity to ask if you can discuss the management style that you best respond to and how you want to be managed.

Finally: Set Your Boundaries: Bosses don’t know boundaries. Like it or not, through many managers eyes, their #1 responsibility is to run the company, not worry about your feelings. So stand up for yourself and establish your role, but always give 100%. While most of the time not premeditated, people, especially your boss will continually test you, over and over again, in the sense of what they can and cannot get away with when it comes to making requests and demands of you and how they can treat you. While a large percentage of people might initially be scared or intimidated to say something to their boss, in fear of some type of consequence or fallout, most of the time, managers are clueless about how they treat people and often don’t even know they’re doing it! Don’t be surprised when you drop off this article on their desk, and they in turn, thank you for it. So, re-train all the people around you, including your boss, how they can respond to you in a healthier, non-toxic way.

If all else fails:
Of course, there are those managers which will not respond accordingly. After all, we’ve already established they’re not the easiest boss to connect with, which is the reason you’re trying these techniques in the first place.

1. Stop Tolerating: Establish what you are willing to tolerate and what you cannot. Tolerating is ultimately a CHOICE.

2. Check Your Integrity: Ever feel something is just “off”? That’s the feeling you get when you’re not working out of integrity and drive. “Outline the rules and guidelines you live by and stick to them!”

3. Write Your Job Description: Not the one they handed you in the HR package, the ideal job YOU want with the company. This will help you identify your career goals.

4. Manage the FEAR: Either you’re running away from what you don’t want or being pulled by the goal and vision of what you want to create most for your self in your career and your life. The fact is, your fears aren’t real but you’re making important life decisions as if they were.

And with all the efforts those who are managed, the mass, put forth in a regal and often last attempt to salvage a once positive work environment, at the core of every toxic 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 nothing will.

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

Here’s a list of questions that will assist you in discovering the ideal career for you. Create it first, then attract it. Have fun with this! In other words, don’t get hung up on what you think is feasible, available or possible. Just create what you want most.

After reviewing my clients’ responses to these questions, it’s interesting how many of them answered the questions. They answered many questions about how it was or how it is in their current job rather how they want it to be. Remember, answer every question from the place of how would like it to be and create the vision of what you would like your career to look like.

1. How many hours in a typical workday?


2. What is your desired salary?


3. Who are the people you are working with?


4. What type of clients do you want to serve?


5. What type of product/service do you want to offer?


6. What is your day filled with or what type of activities you are responsible for?


7. What type of industry?


8. What is the level of autonomy?


9. What type of growth opportunities exist?


10. What kind of supervisor do you want to work with (if any)? What’s that person’s management style?


11. What are your co-workers like (if any)?


12. What benefit/incentive package is offered?


13. What type of environment/corporate culture do you thrive in (fast paced, stressful, relaxed, quiet, etc.)


14. What are you passionate about?


15. What type of career would be a reflection of who you are?


16. How does your career complement your lifestyle?


17. What are the demographics of your clients and co-workers?


18. What are your strengths and talents that you would like to orient your career around?


19. What do you do great?


20. What don’t you like to do?


21. What needs to be present in order to make a smooth transition and be financially responsible with the least amount of risk or error?


22. Who do you have in your circle of influence to support you through this transition? (family, friends, coach, etc.)


23. Who do you need to be (or become) in order to achieve, create or succeed at this?


24. What are the fears or limiting thinking that’s keeping you from moving forward without hesitation?

The Top Radical Resolutions To Create Your Best Year Yet!

With the dramatic changes in our economy and in our society, it’s no wonder that many of us are asking ourselves, “Now what do I do?” while looking for more order and certainty in an uncertain world.

The New Year brings the opportunity for change. For many us, it’s the time to think about resolutions. Often these resolutions are the same ones that we make every year or the ones we only stick to for a few weeks.

If it’s ever been a struggle to create what you want most in the New Year or to keep to your resolutions, consider that your goals and the strategy to achieve them may not serve you best.

Resolution is defined as, “The process of reducing to simpler form.” Which brings us to the paradox of resolutions: instead of simplifying our lives, we wind up dumping more tasks, goals or projects on our “to do list” thinking that by achieving more, our lives will be more fulfilling and successful in the New Year.

To make and keep your resolutions with the least amount of effort, start with upgrading your attitude and your strategy to achieve greater results. To begin, here are ten resolutions that will enable you to maximize your potential and manage your life.

1. Quit Tolerating. To attract new and better opportunities and results, first clear out what’s clogging up your life to create the space for the better stuff to show up. List the things you’re putting up with that limit productivity, cause stress and waste time and energy. Then determine what needs to happen to eliminate these tolerances. If you no longer accept being dragged down by unwanted events, problems or other people’s behavior, you’ll stop wasting time managing situations that shouldn’t be there anyway.

2. Play Your Game. The best game to play is the one where you make up your own rules. If you’re encountering resistance in reaching some goals, chances are it’s either something you really don’t want to be doing, an old goal that may not serve you or you’re operating from someone else’s agenda! Take the time to discover what YOU truly want by aligning your goals with the priorities in your life rather than the “Shoulds.”

3. Create A Winning Routine. Busy with tasks that consume you? Feel that you’re fighting the clock? Design a weekly routine that complements your goals so you can focus on the activities that support your objectives and enhance your lifestyle. This includes planning for the unplanned as well. Develop a healthier relationship with time by underpromising on personal/professional deadlines so that time becomes your ally instead of your adversary. To develop a highly effective routine, get organized, eliminate distractions, reduce stress, and manage your tasks in order to reach and exceed your goals, check out Keith’s ebook, Time Management for Sales Professionals at www.ProfitBuilders.com.

4. Have Fun. Let’s face it; this isn’t our practice life! Are you doing the things that bring you the most joy? Find time every day that’s yours. Shift your binoculars around to magnify your achievements rather than what you didn’t do. Otherwise, when’s the big payoff?

5. Deepen Your Learning. While we attract what we need to learn, we often resist the lessons. If similar problems keep reappearing, we missed the lesson. To accelerate success, learn from every experience and person in order to grow and move onto a new and better path.

6. Expand Your Vision. What does your ideal life look like? The fact is, we never grow past what we feel is possible. Let go of your current perceptions that are inhibiting your ability to explore greater possibilities and achieve more. Clarify what success looks like in every area of your life (career, relationships, health, environment, etc.). It’s a lot easier to create something great when you know exactly what you’re looking for. Besides, it’s your canvass. What masterpiece do you want to create?

7. Transcend Your Beliefs. The Korean memorial says, “Freedom is not free.” This holds true for our thoughts as well. Old limiting beliefs often keep us prisoner, preventing us from creating greater successes. Your outlook determines your outcome. So if you believe, “The past is responsible for the quality of my life today,” “Success requires sacrifice,” or “This is as good as it gets,” consider challenging these assumptions and replacing them with healthier ones that would better serve you. Upgrade and direct your beliefs without them controlling you. (Otherwise, we’d still believe that our flat Earth is the center of the universe.).

8. Do Complete Work. You don’t have to achieve every resolution at once. Instead of stopping and starting something, pick one thing you want to change, create or finish and commit to seeing it through to completion. Then move on to the next project. Otherwise, consider that you may be an adrenaline junkie and love the rush associated when working on overdrive. To prevent sporadic results and a pile of unfinished projects, get off the adrenaline train and start creating the momentum that produces consistent, long lasting results.

9. Focus On the Present. Although planning for the New Year is productive, during our quest to achieve more we often lose sight of what is occurring today, preventing us from enjoying the hidden gifts or treasures that are already present in our lives. Keep focused on what is occurring now as opposed to what happened yesterday or what will be in the future. Live for today while planning for tomorrow.

10. Fear-less. Much of life’s decisions are governed by fear. Every year we want more but fear prevents us from taking risks, so we continually produce similar results. We resist what we need to learn the most, preventing growth by staying within what’s familiar and safe. Resisting the fear of the unknown paralyzes our efforts to create greater opportunities for ourselves. Realize that you cannot fail, you can only produce unexpected results; results that you can grow from in order to create new possibilities. And only personal and professional profitability can evolve from new possibility. To accelerate your evolution, embrace fear. Since fear is the negative assumption of the outcome, shift your focus towards the positive outcome or what you DO want to manifest, instead of what you are looking to avoid.

11. Amplify Your Awareness: Our society is recognizing more and more that there is greater pleasure in simplifying one’s life, as opposed to filling it with chaos, to-do lists, goal setting, or trying to keep up with overloaded schedules that result in keeping us buried in trivial tasks. We want less clutter and more clarity to see the magnificence life offers right front of us. To become more, desire less in your life. Awareness is evolutionary since it’s derived from a deeper connection to truth and our authentic self, and truth is the gateway to inner peace. When you have the ability to tap into this higher level of awareness, then and only then can you live a richer and rewarding life without struggle, resistance or sacrifice. Growing back to where we came, to a more simplistic form, (a child) will re- ignite and amplify our senses and our passion to explore the wonders within our lives.

12. Choose to Be Fully Accountable-For Everything! Life works a whole lot easier when we do what we say we’re going to do. Having a personal coach in your corner builds in this kind of focused discipline and accountability that allows you to honor all of these resolutions and create the life you want to live today. A coach becomes your accountability partner and helps you tap into the most powerful tool we have at our disposal – The power of choice. However, there is no choice without awareness (#11). Awareness creates choice. To tap into your fullest potential, exercise choice. Otherwise, you’ll feel confined or powerless to make changes, allowing situations, circumstances or other people to influence you. Choosing to become fully accountable for what we draw into and manifest in our lives creates the space for our personal evolution to occur.

13. Express Your Authenticity: The two fundamental parts to each person, the Self and Ego battle for the drivers seat in our life. The ego makes choices concerned with the outside world and achievements, defining who we are by what we have or do. The self makes choices based on our values, strengths, and passions. The ego can be the elusive thief of your true identity. The self is the authentic reflection of who we are and what we really want. It is the self that is satisfied in the present, without being attached to future accomplishments the ego needs to make their life worthwhile or held back by past events/regrets in our life. When we authentically express who we are, (not who we think we are) we can share ourselves with others, without the fear of being vulnerable. You’ll notice how much deeper your connection with other people becomes when you shift the focus away from yourself and onto others. And you’ll add value to people’s lives naturally, without effort or sacrifice, often a result of the ego’s self- serving agenda. To evolve and live a richer, more fulfilling life, focus more on who you who you are, rather than what you do.

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

Paul, one of my clients was involved in a terrible car accident that almost left him paralyzed. Being an eternal optimist and a student of possibility, Paul persevered. He didn’t listen to the nay-sayers and to the doctors when they told him he may never be able to walk. He tapped into his internal strength and refused to surrender.

After several lengthy surgeries, the addition of a titanium rod in his leg, countless months in rehab, and a relentless drive to overcome the odds against him, Paul regained his ability to walk; something that his doctors told him may never happen again.

Paul turned what could have been a tragedy into a new career for himself, becoming a well-known motivational speaker.

Now, for those of you who are wondering how one goes about becoming a motivational speaker, it’s pretty much the same as developing any other business. You need to develop your product and brand, presentation, sales strategy, business plan and marketing campaign.

It was about the fourth month we were working together that Paul was ready to start marketing his services. He had his first presentation or seminar developed. We worked together on finalizing his sales and marketing strategy. Paul was ready to hit the streets and start bringing in new clients.

At least I thought he was. Wait, that’s not accurate. He was ready, I knew he was ready and Paul verbally admitted he was ready from an organizational standpoint. However, there was a disconnect between the things Paul developed that were ready for launching his business and him actually feeling ready to go out and close his first sale.

Here were some of the red flags that indicated there was something else going on in Paul’s mind that prevented him from putting himself out there in the marketplace.

“Keith, I’m almost ready. I’m just not ready yet. You see, I still have to get my business cards done.”

One week later here’s what I heard from Paul. “Keith I’m still not ready yet. I also need to complete my website. And then, there’s my presentation that I need to tweak a little bit. Once that’s done, I’ll be ready. Oh, I mean after I finish the PowerPoint presentation. And I still have to get that professional photo taken and…”

Just when I thought Paul exhausted all the possible excuses that were preventing him from taking action, he came up with one last one. (Actually, it was the last one I allowed him to come up with, before calling him out on all of these diversionary tactics he created for himself that justified his avoidance of taking action and selling.)

It was during coaching call when Paul would typically inform me about his achievements throughout the prior week.
Paul was telling me about how much progress he’s made with identifying his initial round of companies to target who would be a perfect fit for his services.

“That’s wonderful,” I exclaimed, happy to hear that he had identified the companies to begin calling on. “So, what day this week do you want to commit to calling on these companies?” I asked.

“Well,” Paul began reluctantly, “Here’s the thing. I need to do a little more research on these companies before I start calling on them.

Paul was clearly wearing his perfectionism on his sleeve. I inquired, “Okay Paul, so tell me, exactly when will you be ready?”

“Well” Paul began. I sensed he was about to come up with a laundry list. Yup, I was right. I stopped him before he got on a roll.

“Paul, lets look at this through a different set of lenses for a second, okay? What if you were ready, right now, today? After all, you shared with me that you have essentially everything you need to launch your company and start selling and most important you have your heart, your passion and your drive to share your story and inspire others.”

“Yes, but well, it’s still not completely finished.”

“So, when you say, completely finished, is it possible that what you really mean is completely perfect?”

Silence. A few minutes later, Paul reluctantly agreed with me.

Paul suffered from a clear case of perfectionism. And while this is a very elusive diversion we use to often keep us from taking action, Paul felt that in order for him to be ready, he had to have everything perfect, including himself.

Believing that you are “almost ready” is the same as saying “I almost made that sale.” Neither pay the bills.

So, when researching the companies he wanted to call on, it only made sense that Paul became a knowledge junkie, believing that if he could get everything perfect and learn everything he needs to know about public speaking and about his prospects (which of course, could never actually be achieved), he would then be ready to go out and sell. (Thankfully, we caught this early enough before he even tackled the thought of developing the “perfect close.”)

After discussing the consequences of his actions (or lack there of) Paul soon realized that it is who he is and his experience he could share that is the greatest gift he could give to his audience.

Besides, if you strive for perfectionism, and there’s truly no such thing as being perfect, then what kind of disconnect do you think you would create between you and every prospect you speak with? (You being perfect and everyone else being well, a mere mortal?)

Here are five questions to see if there’s any perfectionism in you we can expose.

1. Is there a fairly long list of people who have disappointed you throughout your life or career? How well do people line up to meeting your expectations you have of them? (And what’s that about?)
2. After completing an assignment or project, such as a proposal, writing an article or a newsletter, how much additional time do you take to make sure it’s, how do you say; “Ready.”
3. Are you satisfied in each area of your life?
4. When completing a project, task or goal, or when you make a substantial sale, is that sense of achievement fleeting or long lasting? (When is enough, actually enough?) Realize you don’t have to choose between feeling fulfilled and satisfied and wanting to achieve bigger goals. You can actually have both; fulfillment in your life and in your career today while enjoying the pursuit of lifelong learning, continued development and meaningful, value-driven goals.
5. Do you find yourself often building evidence to support your case, make yourself right or prove your point? Are you rarely, “wrong?”

Paul welcomed himself back to the human race and soon found out that it was the vulnerability he experienced from the accident which people connected with and made him human. Paul continues to inspire people around the world to this day.

Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.

A client I had worked with about a year ago recently emailed me, requesting some time to talk. When we finally got on the phone together, it was apparent why.

Miki was a seasoned executive recruiter. She hired me initially because her sales were down and thought a coach might be able to give her the extra guidance and motivation she needed to get out of this slump. (She was right.)

After three months of coaching, Miki was back on top, the top fifth recruiter out of about 200.

Well, recently it seems as if Miki’s numbers were sliding again and instead of waiting, she immediately reached out for help.

“Keith, I don’t know what’s going on. I mean, I know we haven’t worked together in about a year and for a while I was doing great! But for some reason, I’m feeling stuck again.”

“I’m glad you reached out as soon as you noticed that something was off. Lets do a quick diagnostic and see how things are running.”

“Sure.”

“So, if you were standing on a 100 foot balcony looking down onto your entire sales process, where do you feel the breakdown is occurring; when attempting to get the appointment, when presenting, closing, or following up?”

“Well, I’m using your template for cold calling and that continually works great so the leads are pretty consistent. And the presentation seems to go just fine. So, I guess closing the sale is where I’m stumbling. If I were to look at what’s taking up my time now, I have a handful of proposals out there waiting to be closed. And the prospects I’m meeting with are just not closing; for whatever reason or excuse they give me. The proposal stage and their decision making process seems to drag on indefinitely.”

“So, you’re getting in front of the right people, you feel that your presentation flows well and that you are doing a good job establishing a rapport and relationship with your prospects. However, you feel that these prospects should be able to make their decision faster as it relates to buying from you or not, is that what I’m hearing?”

“Yes, Keith, that’s right.”

“Miki, in the spirit of exploring every possibility and not to step over anything, are you still using the sales process that we put together?”

“Oh yes, of course!”

“You are. Good. Then lets take a quick look at a few things you’re currently doing. Miki, do you remember when we developed your pre-closing and reconfirmation approach to include at the end of your presentation?”

“Um, yes.”

“Are you still asking those five pre-qualifying questions before you discuss your pricing? You know, those questions that ensure you’ve addressed every concern they have, while confirming that your service is something they can clearly benefit from?

Silence. Then, Miki responded quietly with, “Hmm. No, I forgot about those.”

“Well that’s good news! At least we’ve uncovered one critical step in your process that you’re not currently doing which has proven to be very effective. Once you start asking these questions again, you will notice a big difference in your performance. In addition, you won’t be wasting your time drafting proposals and following up with unqualified prospects who you shouldn’t be following up with in the first place.

And what about the questions we developed to defuse the objections you hear? I know that you were running into the “send me a proposal” and the “I have to talk this over with my board” and the infamous “that’s a lot of money” objection. The rebuttals we developed were squashing and preventing these objections consistently, remember?”

“Yes, I most certainly do remember, Keith. I especially remember that when I used them, these objections weren’t getting in my way! The problem is I totally forget about those rebuttals as well! How weird is that?”

We ended our call a few minutes later after I coached Miki and her memory on what she needed to reconnect with in her selling approach. Not surprisingly, she emailed me a week later about a few sales she was able to close as a result of doing what she needed to do again; the basics. Miki got back to the basics of what made her successful.

Interestingly, while I identified certain things that Miki clearly needed to change for the better, it was nothing she hasn’t tried, created or done successfully before. Her real enemies were success, complacency and time.

Whether we’re in a slump or selling like a pro, when something is always going on we become blind to it. That includes becoming complacent or often blind to the good things in our life as well as the bad. Of course, this does not exclude the productive behavior and actions we take in addition to the unproductive ones. We sometimes forget what has worked for us, what has specifically contributed to our success; the things that have become habitual. And when something becomes a habit, it’s now working in the background of our lives, being done without conscious attention. We no longer have to think about doing them. Therein lies the danger.

Tip from The Executive Sales Coach:
Here’s an elusive diversionary tactic to consider.
If you continually forget everything you’ve learned, then you can always claim that you have adopted and utilized what you’ve learned. And if you continually feel that you’re using everything you’ve read, heard or seen and nothing is working, what a wonderful opportunity to look outside yourself and blame your poor performance on everything except you. After all, you’ve tried and done everything, right? In your mind you have the validation to support such a claim, which is really an excuse in disguise. So, if you forget about it, then you are always right (and never accountable). Get it?
When coaching someone out of a slump who has all of the right components to succeed, most of the time it’s the basics which have been ignored or forgotten that contributed to the breakdown. The basic questions we ask, the presentation we deliver, the process we’ve developed that has successfully worked time and time again. Some how, some way, we get sidetracked, distracted or seduced by something we perceive to be better (or worse), like a new selling strategy or approach, status quo, even our attitude. Consequently, we mistakenly change what was clearly identified as an approach or mindset that was working well.

The next time you experience a selling slump or you feel that sales aren’t coming to you as easily has they once did, go back to the basics. Instead of doubting yourself and your abilities, see what you need to be reminded to do consistently again in your selling approach. Look at the engine that drives your sales. You may notice that the only thing needed may be a quick tune up to enhance your performance. It’s all in your control.