If you’ve reached the heady heights of Sales Management and now feel that your day job can often be likened to herding cats, I’d like to share with you 4 words that will help you and your team to become more productive, more professional, more efficient, more effective and perceived more positively than ever before.

These four key ingredients, when put together correctly, have shaped many first time managers (and a few old hands) into exceptional leaders.

They are the four pieces of the management jigsaw that come together to create (what we at Varda Kreuz like to call) the FAME Effect;

• Focus
• Accountability
• Motivation
• Education

Let me explain.

FOCUS

You’ve got to start off by truly understanding the real role of any manager or leader.

It’s about working out where your focus should actually be, and why some of the jobs currently filling your day – shouldn’t even be on your to do list.

During our FAME Workshops we begin by taking a look at the need for goals, and the direction in which you’ll be pointing everyone – while understanding exactly where that journey is going to take you all at the end.

This set of goals and a clear sense of direction will lead you to a vision that will define what you expect from those who you’ve chosen to sail the ship with you – which then enables you to sharpen and direct their focus too.

Along the way, you’re also going to have to work out what it is you’re counting – what numbers really define success – and why. Work out whether the things you measure are truly important to arriving at your destination or not.

The way you measure your business is the way you manage it – so you’ll need to work out exactly what needs measuring and then measure nothing else.

Clear, specific, correctly measured, understandable, relevant, time-related.

FOCUS makes us ask – WHAT – as in “What jobs need doing?”

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

So now you know what needs doing, it’s time to work out who is going to be accountable for achieving each piece of the plan.

This piece of the jigsaw is all about defining responsibilities – yours and theirs – and helping individuals take ownership and the responsibility for nurturing their small corner of the global business garden.

You’ve also got to recognise what you’re accountable for and the need to be a role model – and that doesn’t mean doing their job for them.

ACCOUNTABILITY makes us ask – WHO – as in “Whose job is it?”

 

MOTIVATION

So, once you’ve worked out what you’re all supposed to be doing, the next thing a successful manager and leader needs to work out, is why anyone is going to care enough to finish the job, and better than that – care enough to finish it brilliantly.

Yes they’re probably being paid – and I know you think that should be enough – but really, is that what makes you jump out of bed every morning and do your best work? Or are there other drivers that come into play?

I’ll bet your incredible work ethic is driven by more than just money, isn’t it?

When you help a friend or maybe do a little work for charity or the community – do you put in less effort because there’s no monetary reward?

So, you’re going to need to start understanding key motivators, recognise what drives different personality types and why it’s impossible to motivate someone else if you’re not genuinely motivated yourself.

MOTIVATION answers the question – WHY – as in “Why is this job worth doing?”

 

EDUCATION

So now, you know what needs doing and everyone is passionate about helping you achieve it.

Education in this context isn’t about teaching anyone on your team how to suck eggs.

But the world changes continuously, in many cases what was standard just a few years ago can easily be outdated next week.

It’s about developing and nurturing fabulous talent so that they can be the best that they can be.

It’s about understanding and developing effective coaching strategies and communication skills so that every member of the team stays on the right path, and informed – in the correct fashion, but in no uncertain terms – when they are not.

EDUCATION answers the question – HOW – as in “How does this job get done with spectacular results?”

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To launch my latest book – The Managers Guide to Achieving FAME – I’m holding a number of FAME Sales Management Workshops throughout September.

The UK Workshop is taking place at the beautiful Mottram Hall in Cheshire on Thursday 25 September – and to ensure that I get to spend the appropriate amount of time with each of those attending, places are extremely limited.

I hope you can make it – together with a full day’s management training and all workshop materials, those attending will also receive a signed pre-publication copy of the new book and four exercises exclusive to this workshop to take back and use with their teams at their quarterly sales meetings.

I’d be delighted if you could join me on the day – if you can, take a look here for more details.

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Thanks for dropping by and reading my blog – I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

If you would like to read my regular posts please feel free to sign up to my Newsletter Here – I’d also be delighted to connect via Twitter, Facebook and of course, if you or your team require any sales training, you can contact me and the team at Varda Kreuz Training.

About: Chris Murray has become prominent as an inspirational speaker, author and sales training coach and is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works – not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works.

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.