How To Drive a Sales Person CRAZY

The question was asked of sales professionals, "What does your company or boss do that drives you crazy?" The following are a few of my observations, related to companies I've work for and around. I hope it gives you something to ponder.

Motivational FAIL!
Many companies place operations people over their sales organizations. Not surprisingly, they try to run it like an operations department. <> Sales people are different, maybe even a little weird (from an operations perspective).

Operationally, tell a CSR or a Field Tech what to do, the standards and expectations, then hold them accountable. With a modicum of leadership, the goals and objectives will likely be accomplished.

You want to drive a salesperson crazy? Manage him like a service person! Salespeople are never motivated by another memo to read, another report to complete, another meeting to attend, or another butt-chewing to endure! While all of these things may be necessary from time to time, none of them motivate a real sales professional. All of them will drive him crazy! (If they don’t, he’s probably the wrong person for the role.)

You want to build a successful, effective sales organization? Find out how to LEAD and MOTIVATE your sales team! Hint: Money, Recognition, and Emotion. Incentivize behavior you want. If you want this policy, service, or widget sold, make it lucrative for them. A reward or award for doing what you want will go farther than hours of yelling and belittling for doing the opposite.

Micromanaging.
This is a continuation of the above thought. Successful salespeople are typically Type-A and internally motivated. If a salesperson is effective and successful, quit trying to fix him!

Pointless or Unproductive Meetings

Pointless Reports

Assuming "Successful Salesperson" = "Successful Sales Manager"
Just because someone is a good salesperson does not mean they can duplicate their success. Many organizations shoot themselves in the foot twice with one bullet. First, they take their most successful, revenue-generating salesperson out of production. Then they set him up to fail by assuming he’s got magic techniques and pixie dust that he’ll somehow use to replicate himself.

Subterranean Termites That Aren’t

A Pest Control Professional from Bombay, India, posted the following questions on LinkedIn. I don’t know if it will benefit anybody here, but this page is about the things on my mind, so I’m posting it. I hope someone will find something useful in it. I would welcome any opportunity to help any reader with a pest related problem.

Q: Have you experienced secondary and tertiary termite colony attacks on sites, which do not have noticeable ground connection?

A: Yes, but I have worked in the Pest Control Industry only in South Central US (OK, AR, TN, and MS) Most of my experience has been with Eastern Subs (reticulitermes flavipes). The common factor on each of the occurrences has been a moisture source (and food) above ground.

With what species are you dealing? Identification is key to diagnosis and treatment.

While visiting the Entomology Dept of the University of AR this week, I inspected a display case housing working termites. Dr. Allen Szalanski had collected workers off of a piece of wood several years (I believe he said 5-7) earlier. He confirmed that neither a queen nor reproductives had been collected; yet the little colony thrives today. Inspection of the case reveals immature termites. It seemed clear that they'd created a queen from among themselves. How ever they did it, they had managed to survive in his care/case for several years - clearly cut off from the ground.

Q: What are your views on managing such a problem, particularly in concrete/rcc structures?

A: (Again, I’ll emphasize that identification is key!) Moisture elimination would probably be my first objective, having been unsuccessful with basic chemical treatment.

I’m not an entomologist and I’m sorry that my experience may be too narrow to help you. Assuming this is not a hypothetical situation, please update us as your case progresses.

Traveling With Laptops

My dad forwarded the following article from the Tulsa World. I'm not a frequent traveler, but thought I'd post this for the sake of any who are.

Feds have the last say on air traveler laptops
by: PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor, Friday, February 27, 2009

Dear Action Line: Under what circumstance could airport security confiscate a laptop from a business traveler? --- M.H., Tulsa.

Last April, a federal appeals court issued a decision "giving customs officials the unfettered authority to examine, copy and seize travelers' laptops --- without reasonable suspicion."

Two days later, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives warned its members worldwide to "limit proprietary information on laptop computers when crossing U.S. borders." It also recommended eliminating personal data, photographs, finances and e-mail they would not want examined by border protection authorities.

The association filed an amicus brief contending that a traveler's laptop is "essentially intellectual property and not luggage nor freight," Susan Gurley, global executive director of the group, said in an e-mail. "The court has disagreed, and this decision will have significant impact on business travelers who have no idea their data is subject to search and seizure."

Beginning Aug. 16, the Transportation Security Administration began allowing laptops to remain in bags meeting its "checkpoint friendly" guidelines. Its Web site notes that not all laptop bags are checkpoint friendly and suggested reviewing TSA's "Laptop bags: industry process guidelines" at tulsaworld.com/TSAlaptop and "TSA ready for 'checkpoint friendly' laptop bags" at tulsaworld.com/TSAfriendlylaps.

To streamline the security process and better protect laptops, TSA encourages manufacturers to design bags that will produce a clear and unobstructed image of the laptop when undergoing X-ray screening. "A design that meets this objective will enable TSA to allow laptops to remain in bags for screening," the TSA says. "TSA screens laptops to see if the electronics have been tampered with. Our officers know what the inside of a computer should look like, and they can recognize irregularities. This is why they need an unobstructed view as the item moves through the X-ray machine."

Purchasing one of these bags will not guarantee you can leave a laptop in your bag for screening. If a security officer determines that the bag does not present "a clear and distinct image" of the laptop separate from the rest of the bag, the laptop must be screened separately.

The association argued before the court that there were "no published guidelines as to what might trigger a secondary inspection or the seizure of data or possibly the entire computer."

Gurley said the expectation of privacy at the border is considerably less than in one's own home or office.

The association reports that a survey it performed last year showed that 81 percent of responding travel managers were unaware that laptops and other electronics seized by TSA could be held indefinitely, and 65 percent said their companies have instituted policies restricting the amount of sensitive or proprietary data their employees can carry in laptops. That number is expected to rise.

See the association's "Traveler security and data privacy" at tulsaworld.com/ACTElaptop.