The Salesby5 Blog

We are big fans of Verne Harnish and his daily huddles.  We do them everyday, because as Doug Harrison from The Scooter Store says, “If you want to win everyday, you have to do huddles everyday.”  At times, there are a number of us bouncing all over the country.  To help make our huddles a reality, regardless of time and place, we use Foonz.  Foonz is a free conference calling service that allows us to make this happen.  We are still able to complete our News, Priorities and Hurdles.  It works by one of us calling into the service, starting a conference, it sends out a text message to the rest of the team letting them know that it is time to call in.  Have you tried Foonz? Do you have a cool way of using it at your company or organization? Share with us in the comments.

If you want sales by 5pm every day, you need a pipeline full of prospects. The correct number for this is 15 warm ideas/leads/clients/prospects. If you have more, great, but make sure they are truly warm. What you do with your prospects is key! Are you finding clients for your prospects? Are you saving them money before they are a client?  The world is becoming more of a competitive place. The strongest sales companies will provide so much benefit to their clients and such great communication in all areas that their competitors will not be able to compete. Which will you be and who are you working with to make sure you hold the favored advantage?

“No one has ever achieved peak performance without a coach.”
- Verne Harnish, Author of Mastering The Rockefeller Habits and contributory editor for Fortune Small Business magazine

The top growth companies in the world are using the following check list to plan, organize and evaluate their quarterly goals as well as where they are on their way from good to great. Here it is for the last quarter of the year or if you are like many, planning the first quarter of 2009.

checklist photo by eoshea

The second time I attended a Rockefeller Habits workshop (we now teach them), Verne Harnish asked us a question:

If you were to fire everyone from your company today, who would you re-hire with enthusiasm?  I came back to town and fired a few. You will be amazed, as I was, at the reactions from the other employees! The number one question from your employees or your team will be “what took so long?” Our question is how fast can you react once you realize you have the wrong people in the wrong seats.  It is simple, but it is not easy. I do not know anyone who likes to fire people. It’s not a pleasant feeling and I have done more firing than I ever wanted. What is most important to understand is that every person who needs to be free to find a new career is un-selling your company to your customers and your employees, when you hold onto them too long. The speed in which you move sells or un-sells.