In sales, only by delivering results can you speak with confidence and secure your position, your team, and your subordinates; otherwise, many things become difficult.
- Sales is a profession aimed at achieving results What is execution? The ability to deliver results is execution. The thinking direction and management model of excellent managers can be summed up as a simple philosophy: focus on results. Their main work and only interest is results. For these managers who crazily pursue results, everything else is secondary and cannot truly interest them.
In fact, their pursuit of results sometimes reaches a pathological level, even to the point of being unbearable. Although such managers may not be likable, they always win favor with shareholders through excellent performance reports. Subordinates who originally disliked them also feel that following such a leader, although sometimes hard to bear, ultimately brings not only economic benefits but also personal growth. Gradually, these annoying people become likable.
What is sales? Essentially, sales is a profession that aims to achieve results, and its evaluation standard is the degree of completion of goals and tasks. When the boss or leader assigns you a task, you must find ways to lead the team to complete it, deliver results, satisfy shareholders, and reassure leaders; otherwise, your position is at risk.
At the competition site of CCTV's "Win in China": Judge Shi Yuzhu: "If you are the boss, and you have a project implemented by two teams. At the end of the year, the first team completes the task and receives the agreed high bonus. The other team fails to complete the task, but they worked very hard, everyone was dedicated, and they did their best, but they just didn't complete the task. Would you reward this team?" One contestant said: "Because they worked so hard, I need to encourage their diligence and reward them with 20% of the bonus." Another contestant said: "I would need to see if there was a prior agreement on how to reward if the project was not completed. If there was no agreement, I wouldn't give it." A third contestant said: "I would need to see the specific reasons why they failed to complete the task before deciding whether to reward them." Shi Yuzhu said: "I wouldn't give it, but I would treat them to a meal on the day of the year-end bonus. Effort contributes nothing to the company; only results do. I only reward results, not effort."
- Hard work is not a result Result awareness sometimes challenges our conscience, and some managers may feel compassion. Managers often hear salespeople say: "I may not have achieved results, but I have worked hard; if not hard work, then I have endured. For the sake of my years of hard work, you should at least give me a meal!" The market does not grant favors because of an individual's or a company's effort or investment; the market only believes in results that meet customer needs and demands.
"I come to work on time, leave on time, never late or early, and at the end of the month, I should get my salary." This sounds reasonable. The problem is, at the end of the month, if no one buys the company's products and there is no revenue, what will the company and the boss use to pay salaries?
Some people also think that as long as they serve the company for enough years, they will naturally get annual raises. Little do they know that those who claim to have served the company for 10 or 20 years are actually just repeating the experience of the first year ten, twenty, or a hundred times. Age does not necessarily represent wisdom, seniority does not necessarily represent contribution, and of course, it does not necessarily represent a high salary.
In fact, no matter how hard you work or how difficult it is, if all employees of the company work from dawn to dusk, work overtime, produce products, and then take them to the market and say to customers: "These products were made by employees with sweat and effort. Although the functions are somewhat lacking and the quality is not satisfactory, since we made them, you should buy them." Is there such a reason? If you say that, people will think you are an alien.
- "Don't tell me about the pain of childbirth; show me the baby" Zhao Wei is a regional manager at a waterproofing materials company. After the Spring Festival, he has been very depressed because this year's sales task has increased from 1.1 million yuan per month to 2 million yuan, almost doubling. To make matters worse, the real estate industry has been underutilized this year. From January to May, total sales were only 7.07 million yuan, meaning that in June he must achieve 4.93 million yuan in sales to complete the first half of the year's task; otherwise, he will be eliminated in the semi-annual assessment. This 4.93 million is more than double the monthly task and nearly five times the same period last year. It seems that elimination is inevitable.
At the end of May, I was invited to this company for the second phase of the management action learning course. Zhao Wei raised his question. In his words, he was "treating a dead horse as if it were alive"—he seemed to have given up and prepared for the worst. After Zhao Wei raised his question, I asked the trainees present: "What is the difference between completing a 4.93 million task in one month and completing a 2 million task?" Many were confused and remained silent for a long time before someone answered: "You definitely can't use the same methods and means."
"Right!" I immediately inspired: "Extraordinary goals require extraordinary means and measures to accomplish extraordinary tasks! Zhao Wei, you must adopt new methods and channels to bring the dead horse back to life. Please brainstorm and help Zhao Wei escape from death!" Through brainstorming, the conclusion was that Zhao Wei should abandon the passive reliance on distributors and take the initiative to attack; only then would there be a way out.
The result was that in June, Zhao Wei used a new patented product as a breakthrough and secured a direct supply project for a corporate group with a bid of 5.3 million yuan. Near the end of the month, Zhao Wei also signed contracts with three real estate companies for an initial supply of 2.8 million yuan. In other words, Zhao Wei achieved monthly contract sales of 8.1 million yuan, setting a company record for single-month regional sales. At the semi-annual business operation summary meeting, Zhao Wei became the national sales champion. In his speech, Zhao Wei concluded with: "Goals are meant to be surpassed; plans are meant to be broken!"
An American entrepreneur once said: "Don't tell me about the pain of childbirth; show me the baby." The reason a company exists is to maximize profits, reward shareholders, benefit society, and develop employees. Investing the same resources to produce the greatest value is the highest operational realm of a company. Value must be created by employees' efforts, and employees must prove their value through their performance. The company should help employees realize their value and enhance their ability to create results, rather than sympathize with their fruitless hard work.
- Results are an internal exchange Doing work is doing results. More work, more reward; less work, less reward; no work, no reward—these are principles everyone understands. Labor and work are only processes; the ultimate purpose of these processes is the work outcome.
As the saying goes: "If you take someone's money, you must help them solve problems; if you take something, you are short-handed; if you eat something, you have a short tongue." As employees, at the end of each month, they ask the company or boss for a result, which is the salary. Conversely, the boss also asks employees for results: "Why should I pay you a salary?" The employee says: "Because I completed the work goals." The boss happily pays. If the employee says: "I worked hard for a month," the boss will be unhappy and ask: "Does hard work alone warrant a salary? Did you implement the work plan? Did you get the orders? Did you complete the tasks? Did you handle the assigned matters?" These are all results. If you can't achieve these, then the results you want are out of the question.
In sales, only by delivering results can you speak with confidence and secure your position, your team, and your subordinates; otherwise, many things become difficult.
Source: Marketing Art of War -END-