Over the past 20 plus years I have attended more sales meetings than I would like to admit. Some of them were memorable and made an impression on me, while others not so much. For instance, my very first sales meeting, the GSM asked “if you did a good job how would you like to be recognized, money or praise?” I have not forgot that meeting and the meaning behind it. I think I was the only one in the room who raised my hand for praise! I have on many occasions asked people this very question and I am always enlightened in some way as to the response.
I also remember a meeting where the GSM did nothing to inspire the staff, filled the room with negativity and wondered why his weekend sucked. I think we can all remember this guy, that guy that seemed as if he was appointed by God and felt good by making all of us feel worthless. Trust me when I say, I have learned more of what not to do, than what to do by these type of people.
Compassionate Leadership – this is where it is at---and this is where I want us all to be in leading our teams to success! This is how we will move mountains and motivate our people to do great things. Do you have that knot in your throat when you see someone succeed? When you see them reach a goal or achieve a dream? My passion is helping others achieve whatever it is they want , that is WHY I do what I do. The more people that I can help achieve their dream, no matter what it is, the happier and fulfilled my life will be.
I believe that a sales meeting needs to have substance and meaning. It is my goal for all of us to switch 100% of our BIG weekly sales meeting to be 100% focused on positive, motivating and inspiring topics. Our staff needs to leave our Friday Sales meetings HIGH—high on motivation that is.
This for me has become easy, because I believe in in Culture, and the concept of leading people by their strengths. We can inspire our Team to do what we want internally, in the community and directly to the customer. Our Culture can declare and show them what is acceptable and what is not. I use the analogy of pushing in a chair as the most basic, ground zero, idea of where culture begins. The chair simply wants to be pushed in, it is out of place. Do you walk by and ignore it or do you see the big picture and push it in?
My office walls show in a very simple formula that chemistry is more important to me than competency. This means I would rather have a person who plays well with others than a person who sell 30 cars a month and does not play well with others. This not only applies to Sales people, it applies to everyone from the lot staff to myself. My philosophy of “One Team, One Plan, One Goal” means everything to our success. We all have to be moving in the same direction.
Recently, we announced what our keys to success are. We came up with a total of 8 keys that we have defined as our “8 Keys to Success”. These keys will help us implement a culture that will have 100% of our staff embodying the behaviors we want in our store. If you haven’t seen it –here is a link to the video we recently did to promote the “8 Keys to Success” culture.
Starting this week, I am going to send out topics for the weekly sales meeting to you via email. I want all of you to put your own style into the meeting, but it is important to me that we are all coaching on the same topics.
Please use daily meetings and one on ones to do house-keeping, coaching, counseling, and keep it outside of the Friday sales meeting. We are MOTIVATORS, we INSPIRE, we get people to open their brain and hearts so that they can reach their goals and fulfill their dreams.
