One of the great joys of my job is helping sales leaders think though how they want to structure their retreats/off-sites/sales meetings.
The current structure is very easy and has been used for many years. The group gathers for a day and a half, so time away from production is minimized.
The group is welcomed, senior leadership provides an update and answers questions, and then the fun begins. Each business partner that attends the off-site gets a one-hour slot to talk about their product. The team hears between 6-10 presentations during the day and a half.
The team concludes with a wrap-up and everyone heads to the airport.
What I find interesting is the reluctrance to step out of this structure. I have some questions that I like to ask, that usually creates some good discussion.
1) What will be the focus of the off-site?
2) What are the 1-2 things that you want the team walking away with?
3) Are you going to be setting a BHAG goal? If so, when did you want to do that?
4) Are you going to give any business partner a slot or do they have to earn their slot? If so, how?
5) Have you thought of having one of your team members, who is an expert in that area, work with the business partner to do a joint presentation?
6) Are you going to go over the business partner's presentation before the off-site?
By just asking a few questions you cause the sales team leader to back up and start really thinking about what they want to accomplish. They don't have to do things the way everyone else does things. In fact, the best off-sites are where the leader builds off the last off-site, and helps the team grow by providing JUST the things they need. No fluff
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Can You Get Your Team To Move One Foot?
Leadership involves moving people. Moving them with an idea, or a goal. In order to illustrate the importance of moving in the right direction, you need a great story. I have used the one below with great success.
I went to How J Say in order to hear the generals name pronounced correctly.
Source: The Warrior Ethos by Steven PressfieldEpaminondas (E pam in nondus), the great Theban general, was the first to beat the Spartans - at the battle of Leuctra (Luke Tra) in 371 B.C.The evening before the fight, Epaminondas called his warriors together and declared that he could guarantee victory on the morrow if his men would vow to perform one feat at the moment he commanded it. The men, of course, responded aye. "What do you wish us to do?" "When I sound he trumpet," said Epaminondas, "I want you to give me one more foot. Do you understand? Push the enemy back just one foot." The men swore they would do this.Battle came. The armies clashed and locked up, shield against shield, each side straining to overcome the other. Epaminondas watched and waited till he judged both armies had reached the extremity of exhaustion. Then he ordered the trumpet sounded. The warriors of Thebes, remembering their promise, summoned their final reserves of strength and pushed the foe back only one foot. This was enough. The Spartan line broke. A rout ensued.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Getting Synced with A Guest Speaker
Have you ever had a guest speaker, or a "motivational" speaker at a conference, offsite, or retreat? If so, what do you remember about their presentation? Did you make positive changes in the way you did business, or can you just remember the name of the speaker?
I recently attended a team retreat where the highlight was having a well-regarded, luxury hotel chain come in and give a two hour presentation on how they focus on the customer. The presentation started strong with a few stories about the chain, and how they saw their guests.
After about forty-five minutes the "how" portion of the presentation kicked in with fancy graphs, exotic formulas for guest service success, and a great credo card carried by each hotel staff member.
As this portion of the presentation continued I turned and started to read the body language of the assembled team and literally watched them disengage.
The reason their attention span diminished was that the guest speaker and the team leader didn't spend enough time, pre-presentation, syncing the hotel world with the team's world. This is a common mistake and the main reason why guest speakers are easily forgotten.
Here are a few suggestions on how to sync your team with potential guest speakers.
1) Get the speakers basic deck - Every speaker has a stock deck that they use, no matter who the audience is. Look for basic themes that will or won't work with your team. Do they need more help with connecting with clients, or their listening skills? Ask the speaker to deepen the content in areas you need and lighten or remove areas you don't. This will cause some heartburn for the speaker as they as used to giving the show their way. Hold firm as you are usually paying them a ton of money for their work.
2) Focus on the translation between worlds - In the hotel example above the main focus was on interactions with the client that lead to increased satisfaction and the potential for increased business. How does that translate to your teams world? How do you interact now, and how can the hotels principles be used to interact with the team's clients. An idea would be to have the team leader stand at this point and talk about how this principle could be used with the team's clients.
3) Less is More - The hotel's presentation had three large, guest-focused formula's. Seventy-five percent of the presentation was spent on the first formula and the other two were covered very quickly at the end. If the team leader and the guest speaker had agreed on covering one, in-depth, the presentation would have been more memorable. The fear to overcome is "I have so much great stuff, I will just zip through these last two items, because they are so good." They aren't. You may feel great about them, but that is because of the time you have spent with them.
4) Provide more interaction - Every guest speaker could learn from this. Rather than just calling on folks to throw out the answer to an easy question, work with the team leader to find out more about the team so that you can ask great questions. Those questions will help frame a positive discussion, that will make your presentation memorable. This is scary because any guest speaker is afraid of diving into the weeds and losing momentum during their presentation. I would argue that proper preparation will help avoid this.
5) Know Your Audience - What roles will be in the room, what are the compensation ranges, what are the main duties of each role, how do they do their jobs now, what are the pain points etc.
Get ready to spend at least 3-4 hours working with your guest speaker to make their presentation pop!
I recently attended a team retreat where the highlight was having a well-regarded, luxury hotel chain come in and give a two hour presentation on how they focus on the customer. The presentation started strong with a few stories about the chain, and how they saw their guests.
After about forty-five minutes the "how" portion of the presentation kicked in with fancy graphs, exotic formulas for guest service success, and a great credo card carried by each hotel staff member.
As this portion of the presentation continued I turned and started to read the body language of the assembled team and literally watched them disengage.
The reason their attention span diminished was that the guest speaker and the team leader didn't spend enough time, pre-presentation, syncing the hotel world with the team's world. This is a common mistake and the main reason why guest speakers are easily forgotten.
Here are a few suggestions on how to sync your team with potential guest speakers.
1) Get the speakers basic deck - Every speaker has a stock deck that they use, no matter who the audience is. Look for basic themes that will or won't work with your team. Do they need more help with connecting with clients, or their listening skills? Ask the speaker to deepen the content in areas you need and lighten or remove areas you don't. This will cause some heartburn for the speaker as they as used to giving the show their way. Hold firm as you are usually paying them a ton of money for their work.
2) Focus on the translation between worlds - In the hotel example above the main focus was on interactions with the client that lead to increased satisfaction and the potential for increased business. How does that translate to your teams world? How do you interact now, and how can the hotels principles be used to interact with the team's clients. An idea would be to have the team leader stand at this point and talk about how this principle could be used with the team's clients.
3) Less is More - The hotel's presentation had three large, guest-focused formula's. Seventy-five percent of the presentation was spent on the first formula and the other two were covered very quickly at the end. If the team leader and the guest speaker had agreed on covering one, in-depth, the presentation would have been more memorable. The fear to overcome is "I have so much great stuff, I will just zip through these last two items, because they are so good." They aren't. You may feel great about them, but that is because of the time you have spent with them.
4) Provide more interaction - Every guest speaker could learn from this. Rather than just calling on folks to throw out the answer to an easy question, work with the team leader to find out more about the team so that you can ask great questions. Those questions will help frame a positive discussion, that will make your presentation memorable. This is scary because any guest speaker is afraid of diving into the weeds and losing momentum during their presentation. I would argue that proper preparation will help avoid this.
5) Know Your Audience - What roles will be in the room, what are the compensation ranges, what are the main duties of each role, how do they do their jobs now, what are the pain points etc.
Get ready to spend at least 3-4 hours working with your guest speaker to make their presentation pop!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
What Can't You See About Yourself?
I was recently talking to an individual who had observed someone at my company sitting with a client. When I asked how things went, my colleague said, "They didn't connect with the client."
I asked how it went giving that individual feedback, and my colleague said, "They thought they did a tremendous job."
Ouch! How do you give someone feedback on something they think they are great at?
1) Start by asking questions about specific points in the meeting where you saw a lack of connection. What did they see, what did you see? No judgements yet, just what you both saw.
2) After talking about what you both saw, ask what the result of that portion of the meeting was. Was it a move forward in a positive direction, did things branch out in a different direction, did the client move to a different topic?
3) Can the individual now see that MAYBE there was some room for a better connection that would lead to a positive result?
4) Role Play specific language that would help the individual connect in a more positive fashion with the client. That means you have to have the specific language in your head first. The mortal sin is to tell someone to "connect better" and then not have specific language that will bring this to pass.
5) Repeat for each situation
If you want to grow yourself, ask a very good friend if there is an area they feel you need some help with, that you are unaware of. Take a deep breath as they start talking, as it will probably be something you feel you have a world-class aptitude for. Ask for specific examples and work through the area together.
I asked how it went giving that individual feedback, and my colleague said, "They thought they did a tremendous job."
Ouch! How do you give someone feedback on something they think they are great at?
1) Start by asking questions about specific points in the meeting where you saw a lack of connection. What did they see, what did you see? No judgements yet, just what you both saw.
2) After talking about what you both saw, ask what the result of that portion of the meeting was. Was it a move forward in a positive direction, did things branch out in a different direction, did the client move to a different topic?
3) Can the individual now see that MAYBE there was some room for a better connection that would lead to a positive result?
4) Role Play specific language that would help the individual connect in a more positive fashion with the client. That means you have to have the specific language in your head first. The mortal sin is to tell someone to "connect better" and then not have specific language that will bring this to pass.
5) Repeat for each situation
If you want to grow yourself, ask a very good friend if there is an area they feel you need some help with, that you are unaware of. Take a deep breath as they start talking, as it will probably be something you feel you have a world-class aptitude for. Ask for specific examples and work through the area together.
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