Bring the power of progress into your one-to-one meetings

Bring the power of progredienz into your one-to-one meetingsBring the power of progress into your one-to-one meetingsAcknowledging team success via a Friday Wins Meeting like this one at content marketing tech firm Percolate has become standard practice at many companies. Many teams also informally share wins at their daily huddle meetings.Theres something exciting about celebrating a win with members of your team that can start the day off right, or wraps up an especially busy week.Beyond the momentary buzz that celebration provides, focus on success aids in a broader goal enhanced performance. The late social psychologist Kathryn Cramer coined the phrase Asset-Based Thinking in which she encouraged people to focus on whats going right in their world, rather than focusing solely on problems that need fixing. When leaders shine the light on whats working, it opens up the potential for even bigger gains.In addition to group settings, theres another way you can use the idea of wins in your leadership role during one-to-one meetings. Heres an example from my home life. Every Sunday night, I check in with my 17-year-old son, who will soon start the college application process. We review the weeks progress and set goals for the upcoming week. At the start of each meeting, he lists three wins (he defines what constitutes a win) for his week and we talk about it.This process works well becauseIt starts the meeting on a positive musiknoteIncremental success is recognized, which maintains momentum as he works towards larger goalsHe decides what serves as a win therefore its more meaningful to himIts part of an established process that perpetuates framing of activities in terms of successAlthough he dislikes public praise, my introverted son is comfortable sharing his wins in a one-to-one settingAlthough I stumbled into this wins process on my own, it turns out that research backs up my hunch that a positive focus aids in goal achievement. In the Harvard Business Review article The Power of Small Wins, researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer describe the progress principle - the human desire to feel that one is making progress on work that matters.Whether they are trying to solve a major scientific mystery or simply produce a high-quality product or service, everyday progress- even a small win- can make all the difference in how workers feel and perform, the authors write. Leaders who act as nourishers providing respect, encouragement and recognition are those best poised to help their team members capitalize on their daily (or weekly) wins.If your one-to-one meetings with staffers have become bogged down in detailed status updates and problem-solving, consider changing up the agenda. Ask your team members to start the next meeting with a list of two or three wins. Listen carefully and without judgement. Assure them that you arent looking for huge, blue ribbon achievements. If you continue this process for a while, youll discover precisely what each of your employees finds worthy and rewarding.As Amabile and Stevens point out, their progress principle only works if people feel that their work is meaningful. Luckily, meaningful doesnt have to be life-altering.Meaning can be as simple as making a useful and high-quality product for a customer or providing a genuine service for a community, they explain.As a leader, its up to you to help connect the dots between team members wins and the value their work provides to your company and customers. In the process, not only will your team members experience satisfaction, their output will improve as well. And thats progress everyone can feel good about.Jennifer V. Miller is a freelance writer and leadership development consultant. She helps business professionals lead themselves and others towards greater career success. Read more about leadership and AI on her blog The People Equation from the post, 7 Reasons Leaders Should Focus on Developing Employee Soft Skills.This artic le first appeared on SmartBrief. If you enjoyed this article, sign up for SmartBriefs free e-mails on career growth and leadership, among SmartBriefs more than 200 industry-focused newsletters.

Understanding the Product Creates Sales Success

Understanding the Product Creates Sales SuccessUnderstanding the Product Creates Sales SuccessNearly all sales experts agree that knowing at least the basics about your product is critical to selling it effectively. However, understanding your product is even more helpful. The difference between product knowledge and product understanding? Knowledge is the facts and figures, while understanding is about realizing how those facts and figures affect the product owner. Knowledge vs. Understanding Product knowledge vs. product understanding is quite similar to the contrast between features and benefits. And just as features tell, benefits sell, a salesperson who focuses on product knowledge without product understanding misses the mark. For example, someone who sells cars probably knows all about the latest models acceleration features, the available paint colors, and whether it comes with a V6 or V8 engine. All of the above come under the category of product knowledge. But the sales person who understands his product knows what each of those factors will mean to different prospects. He knows that high acceleration will be attractive not only to the teenager who yearns for speed but also for the suburban mom who wants to be able to safely merge onto a busy freeway. Product knowledge is absolutely essential for salespeople, but by itself, it can create a badeanstalt case of expert-itis, especially in salespeople with a highly technical product or service. The result is often a salesperson who carries forth at length about product specifications that mean little or nothing to most prospects. An addiction to industry jargon is another common side effect. In extreme cases, these aspects of expert-itis can make a salespersons pitch completely unintelligible. And if your prospect cant understand what youre saying, shes not likely to buy from you? Product understanding, on the other hand, allows a salesperson to present these technical details in terms that make sense to prospects. So a new computer with dual-core processors and two terabytes of hard drive storage could be pitched to a prospect as ...a computer that has plenty of room for all those movies you like to download, and still runs really fast Use the Product The best way to make the leap between knowledge and understanding is to use the product yourself. If your company gives you access to your products for free, then, by all means, take as many as you can and use them as much as possible. If you can also get copies of your competitors models, so much the better youll be able to explain exactly how your product is different and (hopefully) better. If your company cant or wont give you the product to try for yourself, then the next best option is to do a little market research. Set up appointments with a few of your best customers and ask them to tell you about their experiences with your companys products. Try to make it clear that you want sehr honesty, since there will almost a lways be ways in which your products are both good and bad and the more you know about both aspects, the better. In many ways, product understanding goes hand in hand with prospect understanding. The more information you have about both your products and your potential customers, the better youll be able to fit one to the other... the less time youll waste with matches that are doomed from the start... and the happier your customers will be.

Great Referral Sources for Salespeople

Great Referral Sources for Salespeople Great Referral Sources for Salespeople No matter what you sell, there are a lot of people out there who can benefit from buying it. The question becomes how to find and make contact with them. Some folks you regularly or not-so-regularly cross paths with can often introduce you to said people. Dont limit yourself to asking just your own customers for referrals. Think outside the customer box.   01 Friends and Family Uncle Fred might not be a qualified prospect, but he probably knows someone who is. Your family and friends can be a big help if you educate them a bit as to who your potential prospects are. Give them a few of your business cards and ask them to keep their ears open. 02 Professional Contacts Do you work with an accountant? A lawyer? Even a dry cleaner? All these are great sources for referrals. They talk with clients all day long and many may be great prospects for you. Just let the professional know what you sell, give them a stack of your business cards, and thank them a few dozen times! If you find youre able to refer people back to these professionals, youll really get some enthusiastic help from them. 03 Other Salespeople Look for salespeople who are incompatible industries and form a referral pact. If youre selling furniture, talk to an interior decorator and suggest that you trade referrals back and forth. If you sell gym memberships, befriend the team at your local athletic shoe store. The possibilities are endless. 04 Former Colleagues You probably worked somewhere else before you took your current sales position, even if it was just a summer job at McDonalds. By all means, keep in touch with the gang at your former place of employment. Unless theyre direct competitors of your current employer, they can be a terrific source of referrals. 05 Online Acquaintances Got a Facebook page? How about LinkedIn? Mention what you sell in your bio, being as specific as possible. You can even make up informal contests, like promising to buy ice cream for the first person who sends you five referrals. Dont push too hard, though, or people will start dropping off your network. 06 The Guy Standing Behind You in Line As youre standing around waiting to buy tickets to a movie, to get your picture taken at the DMV, or to pay for groceries at the supermarket, strike up a conversation with the person next to you. You usually dont have to pitch them hard to get a referral â€" often all it takes is explaining what you sell and theyll spontaneously think of a friend whos in the market. 07 Closing the Deal Dont forget to send a thank you note when one of your referrers comes through for you and sends you a paying customer. Hell remember you, and your name will come to mind the next time hes talking with someone whos in the market to buy the service or product youre selling. Hell probably tell the person to look you up. Maybe he even still has some of those business cards you gave him on hand.   Customers Are Everywhere Everyone you meet every day is a potential customer â€" or he knows someone who is. This doesn't mean you must spend your entire life in hard sales mode, but you can drop a word about what you're selling, then move on if interest isn't high. Maybe your neighbor's sister isn't looking to buy a widget today, but she might need one tomorrow and she'll think of you.