By StudioPod Media
The podcast currently has 8 episodes available.
The question that I really wanna ask you is because you've led a lot of different teams in different environments and have had a lot of successful teams that you built out, I have no doubt that you've had your fair share of underperformers. How do you deal with underperformers?
S1
Speaker 1
00:16 - 01:54
The biggest challenge you have as a leader is to figure out why they're underperforming, what the problem is. And, the best way to do that is through coaching.
So the first place you look when you have people who are performing, it's are they hitting those KPIs or tables or whatever a business wants to call them, but the 3, they're the 3 or 4 things that a seller has to do to be successful. And so if you find out they're doing those things and yet they're still not being successful, then it's incumbent upon you as the sales leader.
And usually this is the first line sales leader. If you find it, this, this person, this individual is hitting all of their metrics that you felt were important to do it.
Then a lot of what you have to do is going to involve direct contact with that seller, going out and visiting customers with that seller and having discussions about those visits at the each visit. If you develop a culture of coaching, you can give constructive coaching to the individual.
When you look at all those metrics, if you can look at them and be really thinking constructively about how they can improve those tangibles, then you wanna talk to the individual about what they're doing long. What many sales leaders don't do is get involved to the detailed level, why they're not making those metrics.
And then when they do get involved, they don't provide proactive coaching because what's important is that that individual has to face up to what they're doing wrong, typically to to try to progress them to become a performer.
S0
Speaker 0
01:54 - 02:10
Anecdotally, just in conversations with leaders, I could say they're probably not doing this because the feedback I get from candidates is they've been told, you know, or coached out.
But the words you use or the tones you use, like how important is that?
S1
Speaker 1
02:10 - 04:29
You know, words are important, but the frequency of coaching is I think the critical factor.
I wasn't the kind of sales leader that looked to try to demean you. What I would like to do is just to talk about where you're doing well, where you're not doing well.
And if you're not making your number, it's a problem. And you need to know that it's a problem.
Sales leaders are funny. You know, one of the things they don't, most people don't make their quota. Like if I'm a sales manager, it's gonna be hard to make my quota if I don't keep a full staff.
So I can't have a lot of attrition and I can't be fired a whole lot of people. A lot of sales leaders will, permit underperformance to relax and just continue along their way because maybe they believe they've got some over performers that are going to cover up for them.
I never thought that was a good idea. I always thought that what you needed to do is to build up a funnel of potential candidates that you could always go to.
And so you're not, reluctant to have that tough conversation with your underperforming salesperson. So the idea that you go out with a salesperson and they do a whole lot of things wrong, and you say, oh, it was a pretty good call.
Yeah. You, you may wanna be able to think about doing this and doing that the next time. No, you can't do that.
You have to say, you know, the call was really bad. Okay.
That was not a pretty good call. Call was really bad.
You got to set the tone really upfront. The call was really bad.
I was disappointed that you let these things take place during the call. It doesn't appear to me that you were listening properly, but I set the tone while I lead the meeting with that was not a good call.
I'm doing the person a favor, but staying in it extra nights when you're not, because when you, when you don't say it very directly, they may not hear it. And so you're not giving them a chance to fix it because if they don't think it, if they think something was pretty good, but you really thought it was pretty bad, then they're gonna go away with not thinking that they need to fix something.
You need them to go away thinking that they need to get something fixed.
S0
Speaker 0
04:29 - 04:42
I've heard of leaders through the voice of the sellers, like the aggressive nature of just rating.
Is there a time and a place for that? Yeah.
Or not as even doesn't even exist.
S1
Speaker 1
04:42 - 06:04
If, if you're being described as somebody just be rating somebody that's usually means that you're not just offering them constructive advice.
But I will tell you that it is important as a sales leader, people see you treat everyone fairly. Some people say, well, I would never have a, have any constructive conversation in public, in a public forum, in, in like in a sales manager meeting.
Well, I don't think this, I don't agree with that. I think that if your seller is, hasn't been performing and hasn't been doing what they're supposed, it's okay to talk about that in sales meeting.
It's okay for me to say Chris, and we've got the other sellers around Chris, you're not hitting any of your metrics. Your funnel is weak and you're not making your number.
We're gonna have to talk about that. And the reason I think it's important that other sellers hear the op in the sales meeting environment is because now you're setting, you're setting the tone for the business, you know, and they're hearing it.
Now I didn't demean you in any way. I just talked about the 3 things that you're not doing.
We can have that dialogue. I doubt we want to have it back and forth, but you did hear me Yeah. In the middle of the meeting.
And all the other reps heard too. So if they're in that state, it becomes a culture that can handle that.
What I'm
S0
Speaker 0
06:04 - 06:16
what I'm curious is because you've worked in the bigger companies and you've worked in start ups. What are the differences, if there's any, when coaching people underperformers or dealing with underperformers?
S1
Speaker 1
06:16 - 08:07
Technically, there shouldn't be any difference. Okay.
But in the bigger companies, the formal personal improvement plan is critical in a startup. You should do a formal one, but many times you're every year, every year running so fast.
You just gotta go. Hey man, the informal is, hey, look, man. We talked about this last week.
We talked about it a month ago. You're still not doing any of these things.
We gotta move on. In a bigger company kit, you gotta do the personal improvement plan, even though you talked about it, you talked about it. And the reason I say that there shouldn't be any difference.
The key is that the salesperson know that they're not meeting their number. Does the salesperson know that you believe that theirs, they're not meeting their number because they're not hitting the metrics that they should be?
Have you told them that? Have you coached them on how to do it? All of that can take place in 3 days.
Okay. Yeah. All the things I just thought can take place in 3 days, but it's important that it takes place and that should take place in a bigger company or the smaller company. If you're a frontline sales, normal, Jerry, you have to be touching your sellers all the time, especially the ones that are underperforming.
The ones that are hitting their number is fine, but 30% are not. You should be focused on that 30% because you can potentially help them improve to so that you will have an 80% number or 90% number, but you also, but the way to do that is to also be strategic about building your funnel of candidates.
Because I think that most sales managers, if they knew they had somebody in their funnel that could come in and do the job, they'd be more likely to coach on a more regular basis.
S0
Speaker 0
08:07 - 08:13
How do you deal with underperformers that are giving you these sob stories that are very compelling?
S1
Speaker 1
08:13 - 09:41
Yeah. I'm gonna be very direct with with them. I hear you.
And, you know, and I'm I'm I'm quite confident you're gonna be able to work through that. Let's get back to focusing on what you're not being with.
Okay. So I'm not, I, I, I'm not getting involved in what they got going on. I hear you too, and I'm confident you're going to take care of it.
And as a sales leader, like I said, move me. I can't count a one horn.
People who have come up to me with that as it is coming up to bring their personal problems is that we're shooting. That just doesn't happen.
And I think it's because I've shut a business tone in my discussions. We coach each other, we talk to each other daily, but it's all business.
But I said, I, you know, very, I didn't face that a lot because I did stay in the business lane so much with the one that you should work with. And ultimately by doing that, they found me to be frail.
They found me to be, focused on their well-being from a job standpoint. I mean, the job is an important piece of your life.
And I'm I am being when they do the job well, I am enthusiastic on giving credit and try to make sure they get as much money as they can get. And when they do the job poorly, I want them to know what they're doing poorly so that they can potentially fix it.
S0
Speaker 0
09:41 - 09:52
I guess summarize the 3 like, a couple points ending this discussion that you would wanna remind people or sales leaders that are dealing with underperformers just to kinda highlight what we just talked about.
S1
Speaker 1
09:52 - 10:55
The first one is build a culture of coaching in your organization, because that's going to help you over perform exactly that performance, but it's really going to help you with underperformance.
If you're given them direct and structured coaching. Number 2, if you're a sales lead, always interview other people.
Yeah. One of the biggest things that keeps you from really, focusing on your underperformer is you don't have a back. And so always be looking to have a funnel of people that can come in and do potentially do the job, better than the underperformers are doing it.
And the third, you know, stay true and be fair, stay true in your approach. You know, it's in business and you, you want them to see everything that you do is for the good of the business and for their good in terms of I'm trying to help you make more money.
I'm trying to help you keep this
Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by Chris Nakiso, where we bring you the stories, strategies and the viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters.
The world of talent acquisition has changed dramatically in the last decade. It feels like not so long ago when we printed curriculums and took them to an office dressed in a suit and tie. Now, recruiting has merged with technology, and the way of applying, and interviewing for a position is very different. In this episode of Talent Acquired, Chris talks to his long-time friend and colleague, Leah Harrigan Verouden, Founder of Career Copilots and Talent Acquisition Partner at WestJet. Leah has a long career working on talent acquisition and has helped some of the world’s biggest companies like Google find and hire the best professionals out there. In this conversation, Leah shares her expertise and tells you how to work LinkedIn to your favor, tips for a successful online interview and shares exactly what to do if you don't hear back from your dream job. Tune in and learn the best practices and how to avoid common mistakes from a recruiting professional!
Jump straight into:
00:10 - Leah’s background on talent acquisition for the world’s biggest companies - “When Google calls, you answer. Essentially I packed up my belongings and skipped countries to head over to the States and help with their hiring.”
02:51 - Career coaching with Leah’s consulting company Career Copilot - “I've got about 12 years of in-house recruitment and agency recruitment, so I've converted that into a business that allows me to give behind the scenes knowledge.”
05:33 - How hiring has dramatically changed over the last years - “The item that I noticed that has changed the most is that always-on job searcher. Having something like a LinkedIn, you can be found at any hour of the day!”
09:02 - The importance of LinkedIn in today’s recruiting processes - “Legitimately massive companies are still proactively recruiting people that they want to come join them. LinkedIn remains such a hot tool.”
12:41 - Tips and tricks on how to have a perfect LinkedIn profile - “What are your values? What's important to you? It's an opportunity to highlight the things that maybe don't show up in a job description.”
14:02 - Common mistakes: The new norms for professionals - “I think people are getting too casual. If you're interviewing and you're on a video interview, that's still an interview.”
21:09 - Why am I not hearing back after my job application? - “Depending on the scale of the company and the vast number of resumes they might be getting, there might not actually be a person on the other end reviewing each and every resume so that sometimes is also why people don't hear back.”
26:48 - Where is the recruiting world going in the next 10 years? - “I think the way we use LinkedIn, the way we use social media, the way we use things like video are going to replace a lot of those traditional job searches and how you attract candidates.”
Resources
Connect with Leah through LinkedIn or via email
Thanks for tuning in, if you want to know more, please visit our website. This show has been produced by StudioPod, for more information about their service, you can visit their website.
Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by Chris Nakiso, where we bring you the stories, strategies and the viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters.
Is today’s situation the perfect opportunity for hiring managers to get exceptional talent? Should your corporation be looking at profiles from outside the industry to cover key positions?
In today’s episode, Chris talks to Luis Berlanga, Senior Sales Manager for Smart Collaboration North America at Lenovo about recruiting during COVID19 and the opportunities that remote work can offer. Plus, he tells us why the future for IT is definitely the cloud and what we should be looking forward to regarding collaboration spaces. Join this conversation now and learn firsthand how big companies like Lenovo find the best talent for their teams!
Jump straight into:
(05:22) - Recruiting on times of COVID19: How do successful companies get the best talent - “ I want people that are looking to create momentum and really move from one stage of growth into another explosive growth. And I think that's the opportunity at hand with what we are doing now.”
(07:09) - Should you get talent from outside the industry? - “The challenge that most hiring managers have is that the people that you want usually aren't looking for jobs. They're not looking for work, they're not out there.”
(12:16) - How to get out of an old hiring mentality - “If you're trying to talk about the old days to customers that are buying now and that are buying differently, those are the things you really have to care and feed for.”
(14:54) - What is the future of collaboration spaces? - “The number one priority for IT buyers today is to get their applications into the cloud and their number two priority is to get video turned on everywhere.”
(15:49) - The magic of today's accessible technology - “If you look at all of 2020, and up to the pandemic, everybody got shut down and sent home and had to continue working in different ways. You couldn't have done that in the past.”
Resources
Connect with Luis through LinkedIn
Thanks for tuning in, if you want to know more, please visit our website. This show has been produced by StudioPod, for more information about their service, you can visit their website.
Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by Chris Nakiso, where we bring you the stories, strategies and the viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters.
Going from an operational role into a leadership position is not easy. It takes time to master your craft and get noticed plus a lot of strategic decision-making to rise to the top. In this episode of Talent Acquired, Chris sits with sales legend and sensei, Larry Satterfield, retired Sales Leader at Jazz Networks, to talk about his professional career from the time he was running around calling clients, to becoming the Sales VP for companies like Dell, Tanberg, and Cisco. Join in to listen to Larry’s expert advice on how to be sufficiently driven, process-oriented, and competitive to rise to your dream position.
Jump straight into:
(03:29) - The reason that made Larry discover the sales world - “I noticed the freedom you get as a seller and I noticed the amount of money that you can make because you're getting paid commissions.”
(05:22) - The challenges for young sales professionals - “ Get self-aware and understand how you're going to feel when you get rejected, because in sales if you're good you're going to get rejected three out of every four times.”
(11:35) - Learning the business back in the 80’s - “Back in those days, the sales guy was an engineer, as well as the seller. And so you got out there in front of customers and you had to be able to answer past the first three questions.”
(15:27) - Larry’s jump to sales leadership - “When they came to me and said 'You have helped train the sellers that we have today and we think you can do this' I was doing some of the sales management while I was a seller to help out my teammates, but it didn't feel like a move I needed to make.”
(20:26) - Advice to young professionals looking to get into leadership positions - “Be self-aware, you're really good at what you're doing as a seller and you're having a lot of success. Are you willing to make these kinds of sacrifices?”
(24:55) - The characteristics of a good sales leader - “Do the people that work for me think that I'm looking out for them? That I have their back? That I have their best interest at heart? Do they trust me?”
(31:01) - Larry’s mindset as a sales leader - “I believe that if you can't do a job in a great way, then you should probably look for a different role and not barely making quota or barely missing quota didn't put me as number one in the company.”
(35:09) - Competitiveness and money motivation - “I want sellers to understand that sales is a process and have a good understanding of what their process is, but I also want them to be greedy.”
(40:30) - Moving for business and getting demoted - “If your job is as VP of sales and people don't believe you're doing a good job at it, then instead of demoting you, they should just get rid of you, let you go find something that you can do better.”
(52:12) - Are you suited for sales? - “If you're in the job now, if you're doing well and having success and you enjoy it. But if you're struggling, don't struggle forever.”
(55:05) - The importance of having mentors in your professional career - “There were always people that were around me that challenged my thinking and were great coaches.”
Resources
Connect with Larry through LinkedIn
Jazz Networks
Thanks for tuning in, if you want to know more, please visit our website. This show has been produced by StudioPod, for more information about their service, you can visit their website.
Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by Chris Nakiso, where we bring you the stories, strategies and the viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters.
It’s a fact, video conferencing went from being a high-value asset to an everyday tool available to everyone via companies like Zoom. The market for video solution integrators has definitely shifted and it’s time for them to change the game to stay relevant in today’s landscape. In this episode of Talent Acquired, Chris sits with Olly Hender, Vice President of UC and Cloud at Kinly, to talk about the future for video integrators and their secret of recruiting the best tech-savvy talent. Olly gives golden advice on what to look for when building a new team and how to redirect your traditional business into a service-oriented company.
Jump straight into:
(00:00) - Olly’s work at Kinly - “We're a global integrator originally but now thanks to people like myself and a few more progressive thinkers in the organization. We're really trying to push to be a collaboration fronted solution.”
(01:51) - The video conferencing market - “There was a seismic shift from classic video conferencing, which was the luxury of a few major corporates. It cost millions of dollars to put infrastructure in, to have it operating at a really good level where it was always on, always in high quality and had that robustness to it.”
(03:49) - The shift to easier solutions - “There were millions of dollars in maintenance every year for large environments. Then all of a sudden clients started to change to Teams and Zoom where let's be honest, the slice of the pie wasn't so big. It's become a commodity-driven market.”
(05:58) - Finding the right tech-savvy talent - “Our younger techs, the kids that have grown up with PCs all over the house, pulling in and pulling out USB devices, knowing where things are going, those guys are taking to it like ducks to water.”
(10:35) - Olly’s recommendation for building your team - “Agility is number one for me, you've got to be agile in your approach, you've got to be agile in who you're looking at, and you've also got to be looking for agility in the people.”
Resources
Connect with Olly through LinkedIn
Thanks for tuning in, if you want to know more, please visit our website. This show has been produced by StudioPod, for more information about their service, you can visit their website.
Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by Chris Nakiso, where we bring you the stories, strategies, and viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters.
Since 2020, businesses were forced to migrate to fully remote ways of operating, selling, and connecting with collaborators and customers, so it is crucial for modern day sales leaders to embrace this new model of doing business. In this episode of Talent Acquired, Chris chats with Scott Peterson, Chief Revenue Officer at Mitel, to talk about leadership and the roles of emotional intelligence, effective communication, and empathy for others when it comes down to getting things done. Tune in to learn more about the skills you need to push your team and your brand to the next level.
Jump straight into:
(00:10) - The evolution of leadership: What does the modern-day sales leader truly need? - “Both the soft skills and hard skills are important. It is an art and a science to doing this well.”
(06:26) - The skills that make the difference when building a team - “The soft skill that I seek in leaders is the ability to have an emotionally intelligent conversation, with their people, their customers, their partners.”
(10:12) - Reading situations through a screen - “As leaders, our challenge and our opportunity are to really be in tune with what's going on, and what that person is bringing to that session that day.”
(12:10) - The building of relationships in the digital world - “Way in and day out, we're not going to be able to go out and just play golf. We'll need to have different conversations about what's happening in your business and how I can solve them and build trust in different ways than we did before.”
Resources
Connect with Scott through LinkedIn
Thanks for tuning in, if you want to know more, please visit our website. This show has been produced by StudioPod, for more information about their service, you can visit their website.
Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by Chris Nakiso, where we bring you the stories, strategies and the viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters.
Let’s face it, the hiring process of any company takes a lot of resources, energy and time, so when it comes the time to get new talent on board, it is crucial for managers to be prepared and plan the entire process. In our first episode, Chris sits down with Boris Seibert, Head of Business-to-Business and Go-to-Market, Global Creativity and Productivity at Logitech, to chat about the importance of process throughout the interviewing cycle when acquiring talent. Listen now to learn Boris’ tips and tricks, so that you too can spot the diamond on the rough and choose the best fit for your team.
Jump straight into:
(00:10) - How important is the process for the interview cycle? - “When I joined Logitech, I interviewed with 13 people over the course of eight weeks. It was long, painful and crazy.”
(06:18) - The tricks of the trade and why every moment counts as an interview - “Until you see, feel, and touch what they're doing every day, you don't really know what you're signing up for.”
(10:23) - Common mistakes companies may make during recruiting - “When you get to the final three candidates or the final five candidates, the assumption that one of those people are going to get the job is a horrible assumption to start with.”
(12:29) - Tips to improve the hiring process and spot the best candidate - “A resume and qualifications aren't everything. They're a good starting point, but it's really the interview process that really finds the right candidate.”
Resources
Connect with Boris through LinkedIn
Thanks for tuning in, if you want to know more, please visit our website. This show has been produced by StudioPod, for more information about their service, you can visit their website.
Welcome to Talent Acquired, a Chris Edward Consulting podcast hosted by its Founder, Chris Nakiso. Whether you are a company looking to hire, a professional looking to improve your career or a recruiter helping people connect, this podcast was designed to help us understand how we can improve talent acquisition in the modern era.
Join us on this journey through the talent acquisition landscape! We’ll bring you stories, strategies and viewpoints of candidates, hiring managers and recruiters that will help you find the right talent for your team.
Talent Acquired is produced by StudioPod Media.
For more information about Chris Edward Consulting services please visit their website.
The podcast currently has 8 episodes available.