Building Trust from the Start: Why First Impressions Matter

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by Nick Cane

 

“First impressions are formed in the blink of an eye, but their impact lasts a lifetime” is an expression I repeated to myself before meeting potential clients for the first time. The science behind this mantra suggests people form an opinion in seconds. Some studies have shown that people form initial judgments about others within milliseconds of meeting them. These opinions can impact sales success and career growth. This article explores how sales professionals can make their best first impression when meeting new prospects for the first time.

Every salesperson knows the importance of making a good early impression. However, it is all too common that, despite this awareness, buyers are often left with a negative impression after the initial meeting with a seller. This begs the question: How does this disconnect occur when sellers understand that their success hinges on the opinion of the buyers they are working with?

The answer lies in the fundamental dynamics of human psychology. As social beings, we are hard-wired to judge others rapidly based on limited information. Our brains automatically seek cues to assess trustworthiness, competence, and likability. These instinctive evaluations guide our subsequent interactions and influence our decisions.

For salespeople, understanding first impressions is not just a matter of intuition but a strategic imperative. A positive initial impression helps foster trust, instill confidence, and create an environment conducive to open dialogue. On the other hand, a poor first impression can create barriers, raise doubts, and hinder communication and the sales process.

Start with Low Ego

Have you ever observed a new salesperson who appears nervous and cautious at the beginning of their sales career, carefully choosing every word and action? They diligently follow the sales training and coaching they received and experience early sales success. They might even set a new sales record, and their potential seems unlimited. However, after this initial peak, they seem to reach a plateau and never manage to achieve the early high-performance results again. Continue reading →

10 Habits To Follow For A Better Work-Life Balance

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By Julianna Summers

 

 

Our professional and personal lives often intermingle, creating a complex web that necessitates a delicate balance. As individuals, we strive to maintain an equilibrium that fosters our well-being in both spheres, a feat that is often elusive yet persistently sought after. This balance is an integral component of our overall wellness and success. The key to achieving this balance is not a single act but an amalgamation of various habits, ten of which are highlighted in this guide. The discourse navigates through the power of prioritization, the courage to decline, the necessity to disconnect, the art of time management, and the importance of health. Additionally, it shines a light on the joy of hobbies, the wisdom in seeking help, the pursuit of lifelong learning, the practice of mindfulness, and the value of relationships. These tenets are a stepping stone to crafting a harmonious work-life environment—a balanced existence that fosters personal and professional fulfillment.

1. The Power Of Prioritization

The initial step towards a harmonious work-life balance resides in establishing priorities. Consider the facets of your life that hold utmost importance, then identify corresponding objectives. Success requires a narrow focus, an understanding that not every task warrants your energy. Focus not on everything but on significant tasks. Your direction should reflect your values and goals, depicting your desired future.

2. The Strength In Declining

The word ‘no’ carries immense power. It sets boundaries, creates space, and serves as a tool for maintaining your focus. Invitations will come your way—requests for assistance, participation in social events, or additional work tasks. Pause and consider their relevance to your goals. Permit yourself to decline those that do not align, conserving your energy for what truly matters.

3. The Necessity Of Disconnecting

We live in a world where technology blurs the boundaries of work and personal life. Disconnecting from work becomes paramount. Establish rules for work hours, and implement them rigorously. An open-door policy may sound appealing, but the cost is often a continuous mental association with work. Continue reading →

How to Build Sales Onboarding Programs for Better Retention

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BY ANDY SPRINGER

 

Hiring and keeping sales professionals has never been more difficult. In fact, 52% of sales and enablement leaders say that finding strong sales talent is one of their top challenges. And turnover is estimated to reach 25% across sales organizations in the next year. Still, it’s on organizations to do all they can to not only hire top talent but also to prevent unwanted turnover.

What if they’re looking for a solution in the wrong place?

High Turnover? Strengthen Your Onboarding Program

Despite their struggles with hiring and turnover, few sales leaders seem worried about onboarding. Only 22% consider onboarding/seller ramp-up to be “very challenging” (Top Challenges and Priorities of Sales and Enablement Leaders, RAIN Group Center for Sales Research). Yet this is part of the new-hire journey that might have the biggest impact on turnover.

A strong onboarding program is a key retention strategy. Not if it’s rushed, though. Here’s how long it takes to onboard a new rep, on average:

Ready to interact with buyers: three months

Competent to perform: nine months

Top performer: 15 months

While this might seem like a considerable investment of time and resources, the alternative is far worse. The cost of turnover typically ranges between 100% and 500% of the seller’s compensation. In one example analysis of seller turnover during the onboarding program, in which four sellers left, the turnover cost was over $600,000.

Continue reading →

The unexpected power of making mistakes

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by Peter Hinssen

 

 

My exclusive interview with Amy C. Edmondson, renowned Harvard Business School Professor of Leadership and Management, about psychological safety and the right kind of wrong.

In the Never Normal, where change happens fast and unpredictably, how we work together is just as crucial as what we are working on. And psychological safety, a concept which I love to refer to in my keynotes, lies at the very heart of that “how”. That’s why I was really excited to interview Amy Edmondson who uncovered that groundbreaking concept, almost 25 years ago now. We talked about the seemingly paradoxical relationship between error-making and team effectiveness, the misunderstood aspects of psychological safety, its peculiar dynamics within boardrooms, its popularity in tech companies, Steve Jobs’ ‘toxic’ leadership, remote work and her upcoming book, “Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well”.

Amy bumped into the concept of psychological safety by accident. She set out to study organizational learning, as is essential in this fast changing Never Normal world, and she was interested in team dynamics. “Organizations are too complex to learn in any formal sense, but their teams learn”, she explained.

Better teams, more mistakes
And so she embarked as a member of a team conducting a landmark study of medication errors in hospitals. She was asked to measure team effectiveness and to find out whether team effectiveness predicted error rates. Her data found that there was indeed a statistically significant link, … but in the opposite direction than she had expected. Better teams appeared to be making more mistakes, not fewer. After her initial surprise, she suspected that these teams were not actually making more errors, but rather were more open and willing to report and discuss them.

Continue reading →

The forced return to the office is the definition of insanity

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BY GLEB TSIPURSKY

 

 

In a world where we’ve seen five consecutive quarters of declining productivity in the U.S. according to a study by EY-Parthenon using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one would think that CEOs and company leaders would question their tactics. After all, over two-thirds of business leaders report they’re under immense pressure to squeeze more productivity out of their workers, according to a new Slack survey of 18,000 knowledge workers.

Yet despite the overwhelming evidence that flexible hybrid work is more productive than forced in-office work for the same roles, top executives are stubbornly herding employees back to the office like lost sheep, expecting productivity to miraculously improve. This, my friends, is the very definition of insanity.

The myth of the magical office

Many CEOs are clinging to the false belief that the office is the secret sauce to productivity. It’s as if they think the office is a productivity vending machine: Insert employees, receive increased output. But the data tells a different story.

Instead of being a productivity wonderland, the office is more like a productivity black hole, where collaboration, socializing, mentoring, and on-the-job training thrive, but focused work gets sucked into oblivion. In fact, research shows that the office is detrimental to productivity.

For instance, a recent study by scholars at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Harvard University, and the University of Iowa found that software engineers located in different buildings on the same campus wrote more computer programs than those who were sitting close to colleagues. However, the engineers who worked in different buildings commented less on others’ code. In other words, they were more productive but that meant that less experienced coders got weaker mentorship.

To put it simply, expecting the office to boost productivity is like expecting a fish to ride a bicycle: The office serves a different, and very important purpose. The EY-Parthenon research shows a direct correlation between the forced return to the office and plummeting productivity. The numbers don’t lie. People are working longer hours and barely putting out more products. It’s high time we stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Continue reading →