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DISC – Compliance Style

I use DISC as a core competence for sales professionals. Last week I focused on the Steady style. This week I'm focusing on the Compliant style.

Compliance style people have a strong commitment to accuracy and specifics, which is surpassed only by their high level of detail and precision. They value information and trust facts, especially from credible sources. They will avoid conflict, prefer to not make eye contact, and their communication will include a lot of factual information, delivere…

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DISC – Steadiness Style

I use DISC as a core competence for sales professionals. Last week I focused on the Influencer style. This week I'm focusing on the Steady style.

Steadies are accommodating and conforming and find the opinions of others important in their decision making. They smile when you look at them, have gentle expressions, and will not usually initiate conversations. Comfort matters to them – both physical and emotional - as evidenced by their casual dress and their use of words like “feeling, understa…

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Sell it or Schedule it: Know it and Demonstrate it.

We all nod in agreement when someone says, “You need to lead by example.”And yet, when put to the test to demonstrate the process that the salespeople are expected to execute, many sales managers would fail. So I ask you, how would you do with that?

Are you able to demonstrate 'Sell it or Schedule it' by taking a sales opportunity in the showroom and executing the process from start to finish…including getting a sale or getting an appointment?

Being able to demonstrate selling actions that pro…

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Sell it or Schedule it…or “You Do You.”

If you manage a sales team, your role is to have each of them make their goals and improve their performance… and if they do, then you make YOUR goal, which is the SHOWROOM goal.

(Yes, the showroom goal is YOUR goal.)

And to do that, you need structures and actions and a methodology to teach from, or you will be managing your team from your own behavioral preferences and your own selling autobiography.

That doesn’t mean that what you did when you were a salesperson was wrong or deficient, esp…

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June is…the end of the first half of the year.

Here we are…halfway through the year. At the completion of June, it’s a good time to review performance for the first six months and see what worked and what didn’t work… or was missing from your strategy. 

Since the first half of this year has been different from the first half of last year, what has changed that you need to adapt to? The trend that is driving this year is different from last year – and we can adapt and build a new strategy or we can complain and bemoan the changes. The choice…

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June is…what follows May

If your showroom is like other showrooms, April was soft, and May followed April in a similar fashion. Neither month are historically strong but that isn’t much solace when you are expecting to see a certain number of opportunities and they don’t come in the door. 

Remember that there are THREE ways to drive business and traffic is only one of them. Review your other areas for business: close ratio (increase the number of opportunities you close of the opportunities you get) and average sale …

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Managing Distractions and Interruptions

We can do a fine job of organizing and planning our own actions and involving others when we schedule appointments with them. And even with all that, our best-scheduled actions can be derailed by the actions of others.

Take a look at how your time unfolds. Are your actions taken as you plan them…or do they get pushed back to accommodate the requests of others? Does this happen frequently? Do others interrupt you because you allow or encourage it or because you have a skill that they often nee…

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Guardrails #2

To continue with the guardrail conversation… setting boundaries.
A boundary that helps guide the conversation is the ability to say “No.”

Say NO when the client/customer asks for things that cannot be done – either within the current budget or timeframe.
Say NO when the client/customer asks for additions without adding to what they are paying for it. 
Say NO when the client/customer asks you to ‘take it out of your commission’.
Say NO when the client/customer asks you to do something that you know is…

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GRATEFUL QUESTIONING

How can we bring gratitude to questioning? When do we need it the most?

Let’s look at where questions start. Are they coming from a place of interest and helpfulness?

Are the questions originating from compassion and a desire to understand?

Are the questions courageous (tough to ask but we know we must) and considerate (asked in a
way that is respectful and kind)?

When a sales interaction is successful (in that it produced a sale or an appointment), take a moment to present and to be gratef…

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GRATEFUL GREETING

This is where gratitude matters most…when we welcome clients, customers, and prospects into the showroom and collectively and individually create an environment that is warm and inviting.

Our thinking and conversations internally impact the experience that we create for our ‘guests’ 
and when we understand the impact that we have, we can be responsible for it and be
intentional with it.

What do you do to prepare yourself to be welcoming and grateful to incoming guests?
What do you do to rem…

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