Am I doing the right things to make my sales number?

In this episode of The Luxury Choice podcast, host Steve Vaughan and his colleagues Jayne Green, Pru Layton and Jonathan Cooper discuss the essential elements of sales success. They explore the importance of planning, understanding performance indicators, and the role of self-awareness and management in achieving sales goals. The conversation emphasizes the need for both activity and competence in sales, as well as the significance of enjoying one's job and maintaining meaningful relationships with customers and colleagues. The episode concludes with key takeaways on how to assess if one is doing the right thing in their sales role.

Key Takeaways:

• Having a territory sales plan is crucial for success.
• Sales figures are lagging indicators and should not be the only focus.
• Enjoying your job is a key indicator of doing the right thing.
• Look to high performers for guidance and inspiration.
• Self-awareness and accountability are essential in sales roles.
• Regular one-on-one meetings with management can provide valuable feedback.
• Leading indicators help in identifying gaps early in the sales process.
• Skills development is necessary for maintaining competence in sales.

Steve Vaughan, Jonathan Cooper, Pru Layton, Christian Walter, Pascal le Floche and Jayne Green are Sales Trainers from george james ltd. You can email the show at: Podcast@georgejames-training.com

The trainers on LinkedIn:

Steve Vaughan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-vaughan-salestrainer/
Jonathan Cooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-cooper-18716b1/
Pru Layton https://www.linkedin.com/in/pru-layton-b46a3528/
Christian Walter https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-walter-a1857b1/
Jayne Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-green-salestrainer/
Pascal Le Floch-Riche https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-le-floch-220ba46/


george james training website https://georgejames-training.com/

Transcript

Steve: [00:15] Hello again, and welcome to the Luxury of Choice, a B2B sales and business podcast brought to you by the training team of George James limited. My name is Steve Vaughan. I'm a senior sales trainer, George James, and I'm also the host and producer of this podcast. And today I've actually got three of my colleagues with me today.

Steve: So chaos may rain. I've never done a four way call remotely over the platform that we use, but we'll see how it goes. So today I have Jonathan Cooper, Pru Layton and Jayne Green. Folks, how are you all doing? How was your weekend? I should say we record this on a Monday, so yesterday was the weekend.

Steve: How was your weekend, guys? As 

Pru: long as we don't talk about the football, Steve, it was brilliant. I wanted to start with the football. Rugby was great if you're an England fan. 

Jayne: And I loved the football. Come on, Villa. 

Steve: She'll point out that Jayne and I are Aston Villa supporters and Jonathan and Pru are Tottenham Hotspur supporters and if you're not a follower of football, we played each other yesterday and Villa won!

Steve: Woohoo! Yeah, the rugby was great as well and even the Super Bowl. I don't fully understand the Super Bowl but I do keep an eye on the [00:01:00] Philadelphia Eagles as I used to live near to there. Very good. It can only go wrong from here onwards. And 

Jonathan: I support, just because of connections, I support one main team, obviously that's just been revealed, but I have interest in four others.

Jonathan: And they all lost as well. So all five teams that I follow, all lost. I won't ask you to do my 

Steve: lottery tickets this week, Jonathan. Yes. All lost. 

Pru: I am packing to go on holiday on Thursday, so I'm quite excited about that. Good. Oh, 

Steve: brilliant. Are you going somewhere nice? 

Pru: Cadiz. In Spain. Oh, yeah, just for five days. 

Jonathan: Some great history. 

Pru: I'm going bird watching Jonathan. Oh, okay 

Jonathan: All right. I'm sure there's some great birds there too. But yeah history as well 

Steve: So this isn't the rest is history podcast nor is it the rest is on the podcast? It's the George James Luxury choice podcast and today's topic Is cryptically called, how do I know, no, if I could say it, how do I know [00:02:00] if I'm doing the right thing?

Steve: And I think we were thinking more around sales people here. So how do I know if I'm a sales person, that what I'm spending my time doing day in day out at work is actually the right stuff? Am I doing the things that's going to lead to me being successful, hitting my targets and all that good stuff?

Steve: Nice big broad topic. Who would like to kick off on that one? That's a hospital pass, as they say in football. Who would like to start? Jayne 

Pru: should start, yes. Oh, 

Steve: go on then. We were chatting before and you had some great ideas on this. I think, yes, you should start first, Jayne. 

Jayne: For me, three really business focused thinking.

Jayne: Am I, if I've got a plan which is always very helpful when you're a salesperson having a territory sales plan, I haven't always had one actually in my role, but and so I wrote my own and it helped me just keep on track to know what I needed to do. I doing the right thing? What does my plan say?

Jayne: And am I actually actioning out what my plan is saying? And then. There's some things to do with [00:03:00] on that, does that feel like that's working? What are the indicators, the KPIs that might suggest those things that I'm working on are producing some good outcomes and good results?

Steve: Love that. Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. I think 

Pru: It's interesting, isn't it, Jayne? You said you haven't always had a territory plan. I know when the businesses made me write a territory plan, I've done it, but I've been in roles when there wasn't one and I've done my own because it really helps you know.

Pru: Yeah. And those are the ones I felt the most invested in actually are where I am. Same. Yeah. And I think you look at them and you look at the things that you're not doing. You go, look at your plan and you go, what did I set out to do? What am I not doing? And I think that it makes sure that you are on the right track, keeping everything going.

Pru: And even if the numbers don't look great today, as long as you're doing the right thing, they will come good. I'm always confident of that. 

Steve: Yeah. I love that. Yeah. And I guess, why am I doing these things as well, proof if they're not doing the things that we set up to do? Why I do them as [00:04:00] well, I guess would be.

Steve: Would be a question I'd ask myself or stopping me doing the things that I said I would do. 

Pru: Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. And 

Steve: I just 

Jonathan: love the, I love the plan, do, check, act. I know we've probably mentioned it on, or certainly have mentioned it on previous podcasts, but I love the plan, do, check, act. So yeah, we start with the plan.

Jonathan: Thank you, Jayne. And we do stuff. And then if I've interpreted the model correctly, we then check, are those things that we're doing actually moving us closer towards, achieving our goals, which should be clearly laid out in your territory plan, your sales plan, your business plan, whatever you call it.

Jonathan: And, and we can periodically check and then act change what we do occasionally. Hey, we even changed the plan. But I think that all comes down to. Great execution, doesn't it? At the end of the day, the plan do check act all starts with the plan. Yeah great place to, to go initially for sure.

Jonathan: I think we have mentioned it 

Steve: before, but it's worth mentioning it again. It's the deeming circle, the Deming circle. I never know how you pronounce that. Yeah. I think it came from manufacturing originally, didn't it? [00:05:00] Yeah, 

Jonathan: I think it was continuous, quality improvement. I think he was I think deeming was an engineer.

Jonathan: Somebody may correct me. Thank you. 

Steve: I'll put a link in the show notes to it so we can finally find a confirmed answer to that question. So yeah good stuff. Yeah. We talked a fair bit about planning, but I was like you Jayne, I often didn't have a plan at the start of the year, unless I was forced to do one by the company, in which case it was Inverted commas admin.

Steve: Oh, I've got to plug these numbers into this spreadsheet from hell until somebody says I've done the right thing. Yeah. And that to me, it wasn't a plan. It was just something I had to do at the start of the year before I can get on with my job, really. I think it was only when I joined GE and they had a concept called growth playbook where you had to Basically develop your own plan and then get sign off from you from your boss.

Steve: I really took it seriously really so So importance of planning, making sure we're doing the right things Jayne and then I guess if we're not doing the right things, as you say, Jonathan, doing a course correction as well on the way, yeah I guess that's if you like, the nuts and bolts of doing the job, the KPIs, the [00:06:00] numbers, the figures, but, Sal's isn't just about, That it's about interacting with your colleagues as well, Pru, and you had some good thoughts on this before we started, actually, as we were chatting beforehand.

Pru: Yeah, I think many people go into a technical sales role from either academia or the lab indeed. And it is a job where you're mostly operating on your own. So plans really help with that. But I also, ve also think, am I enjoying my job? Yeah. For me, I always know I'm doing the right thing because I'm actually looking forward to my day.

Pru: I'm getting up. I'm excited to go and do whatever I've planned to do. And if you're really enjoying your job, because we are so aware of how things are going, whether from looking at the KPIs or just, I'm having a great year. I'm having a great quarter. It makes such a difference, I think. So I know I'm enjoying my, I know I'm.

Pru: Things are [00:07:00] okay. I know I'm doing okay when I'm loving my job and really looking forward to it and getting up with a bit of fun, even if it's like a tough meeting or a tough call, I I think that's a big indicator for me that things are going and I am doing the right things because it's it's giving me this strong feedback.

Jayne: So key, isn't it? Cause it's, that's so motivational when you're enjoying your job, it actually motivates you to. To push a little bit further. I think that also translate through to the relationships that you have on the team. If you're enjoying your job, then you're actually the aspects of team and working with team become so profoundly different.

Jayne: And that has a real strong effect on yourself and the rest of team too. I love that. 

Jonathan: I think you, it's a great point, Pru, Jayne, it's, for me, one of the ways to check if you're doing the right thing is, when you talk about the team, look around you there, there's always a high performer or more than one high performer [00:08:00] probably irrespective of market conditions other things happening in the business, look around you and look for those people that, are performing well.

Jonathan: What are they doing? If if you're not, if you're worried about whether you're doing the right thing, go and check in with them. Hey, it may be that people come in checking with you and you should encourage that both ways. I always found it very helpful just to have a look at what somebody else was doing.

Jonathan: If I needed that sanity check. Yes, I am doing the right thing, aren't I? At the right time. Yeah, there's somebody else that's doing it and they may happen to be better than me at it So I can go and learn from them, but I think that's a great point about be what they're 

Steve: doing Yeah, 

Jonathan: absolutely team.

Jonathan: Yeah, exactly stick, steel with pride. I think they said 

Steve: I made a career out of it. Not really nd I think also all of us have Pretty much got a high value capital equipment background I think most of us have spent most of our working life in that kind of bigger ticket equipment selling and [00:09:00] I think it's super important that we think about some of these things particularly when we take over a territory that hasn't done very well in the past and It might take a while for the obvious indicator of am I doing the right thing ie sales figures to turn around?

Steve: Because there's usually a lag between somebody expressing interest in a 60, 000, 80, 000 instrument and actually being able to buy one because of budgets and all that stuff. There's normally a lag there, so I think just sound figures isn't enough in terms of am I doing the right thing? You're nodding proof, you agree on that one?

Pru: Oh, a hundred percent. I think that's where the plan's really important. You're planning your way to success when you have a plan. The sales figures are historical. Then there were rubbish KPI, in my opinion, because their history and you can't do anything about them. But the, the things, the actions that you set yourself in your plan are all about, am I doing the right thing to move towards that?

Pru: How does my sales pipeline look? Am I creating [00:10:00] enough leads? Am I qualifying enough leads into my funnel? Am I getting out and seeing enough people? It, those are all the things that you will capture in your territory sales plan in terms of sales activities. And I'm always, I always know that if I keep doing the right thing and I check in with other people as.

Pru: As both you, Jayne and Jonathan, said, that I'm doing similar things to them. The numbers will come. The act, the right activities to the right people. Yeah. Lead to the right numbers. Yeah. Yeah. Quantity, quality and direction. Am I doing the right quantity of activity at the right level of quality? And am I moving in the right direction?

Pru: And it's all based as you said, Jayne, on your plan That's. 

Steve: But 

Jonathan: I was going to say, but I, me and the numbers, so I do think the numbers have got a part to play. Pru's right. In many businesses, the revenue is, it's a lagging indicator, isn't it? [00:11:00] And, if things do go wrong, you probably have to look back if it's capital or, large consumable deals, large services deals, all the same.

Jonathan: You may have to look back a year, 18 months to see actually what went wrong. That's now yielded a result which is not satisfactory. So I've always loved the gap calculation. And understanding my gap, from week one of the financial year is also a, it relates to my plan.

Jonathan: It's also a great check, are the actions I'm actually taking on a daily basis, closing this gap, if the actions are closing the gap, great, it loops back into. You know what we've said, but I just had to get that piece in about the gap. And let's just say a bit 

Steve: more about that because that's something we do.

Steve: And I know you, you specifically do as part of our training program. So the gap calculation, what do you mean by the gap, Jonathan? Just to 

Jonathan: take your annual sales target, your quota, whichever phrases you use in your business. Take away from that the actual year to date. That data should be available to you daily, weekly, I would have thought it in worst case.

Jonathan: That gives you a first [00:12:00] gap and then deduct from that your brutally honest projection of what business for the remainder of the year. So if you're in week one, what are the remaining 51 weeks like, look like for you? You've got more certainty in the shorter term as opposed to the medium to longer term and through to end of year, but start to estimate, right?

Jonathan: I've developed, I have this much business in my funnel. I have this much business, coming through for my customers on a day rate basis for, for successful consumable contracts that I've got. And the pull through, et cetera. It's just a really good way just to see what that to look at that second gap, as I call it, the actions to take to, to complete it.

Jonathan: Because at some point you get that joyous moment where you can actually see during your financial year, a way through to your target. And that really is a great indicator of, yes, you are doing the right things. If you can see that, it's fantastic. I know we're only, what, four or five, Six weeks in you should already understand [00:13:00] what that gap looks like to year end if you've January, December, and those actions you're taking that of course relate to your plan should be step closing that gap and hopefully closing it at a rate that you arrive exceeding target by the year end.

Jonathan: So anyway, it's 

Steve: a great exercise. And what we usually do as part of our. foundational sales training You mentioned a phrase jonathan and I want to come back to this actually you mentioned a phrase a lagging indicator and there are two types of indicators, as I know, lagging and leading. Who would like to give me a definition of what a lagging indicator is?

Steve: Let's put you on the spot, guys. Yeah. 

Pru: Yeah, the sales numbers are a lagging indicator. Yeah. So they're an indicator towards the end of The, if we talk about indicators in terms of sales, a lagging indicator is something that happens towards the end of the sales process. So typical lagging indicators are the sales number or the number of [00:14:00] quotes that are issued.

Pru: They're easy to count so they can be really attractive in terms of KPIs because Counting the number of quotes or the number or the sales that you've closed is simple. So that's what a lagging indicator is. It's late in the process. And it becomes quite hard to influence or change. 

Steve: It's what's happened.

Steve: Yeah. 

Pru: Yeah. Whereas a leading indicator is something that happens earlier in the sales process. So classic leading indicators are things like number of new leads, number of new sales opportunities qualified into the funnel. Those are a number of demos or sales visits or some of those things that you see, which are very early in the process can be great leading indicators.

Pru: The attraction of leading indicators. Aligns with what Jonathan was saying about a gap. The great thing about gap analysis is that you see [00:15:00] your gaps early and it gives you a chance to do something about it. If we spot a gap in week 48 week year and it's a big gap, We have very little chance of closing it.

Pru: Zero. We spot the gap, say, in week 20, we have 32 weeks to close it. And that's, it aligns with looking at leading indicators. What are the actions I'm taking that will lead to success or lead to meeting my quota. There are sometimes harder to measure and they're sometimes relatively subjective.

Pru: So they can be avoided in businesses because it's like how do you do that? But I absolutely support really basing all of your plan on leading indicators because They give you a chance to correct your call and do something different. Oh, yeah. They're very attractive. 

Jayne: Yeah, and that information is valuable, isn't it?

Jayne: [00:16:00] Because that then enables us, as Priya said, to direct your actions. And to then reset and align your priorities. What do I know that I need to do now over the next The example of, the next 32 weeks to ensure that I make my number, or exceed my number. It gives a real focus in terms of, where we're actually looking.

Jayne: And again, back to the plan. So where do I need to be prospecting? Who are the people? Am I speaking to the right people at the right time? It gives you a bit of a time. It's for me, it's an encourager. I think when people don't see. The gap or don't understand the figures and I've been I remember not in my early days of selling because it's that unquenchable enthusiasm isn't there when you're a new salesperson that you're annoying probably to everybody because you've just got this contagious, yeah, contagious energy.

Jayne: And of course, depending on your environment, it can be tough for a few years in when you [00:17:00] suddenly, you're trying to gather how you. Prioritize how you become a little bit more strategic and if you've not understood where your gaps are then you might think I've got no idea what I'm doing but of course understanding that information that Jonathan and Pru have talked about now we've got an opportunity to go right I can really focus.

Jayne: Over these next period of time on a specific area on understanding what I need and it's a real release I think it's an encouragement, you know when we feel a little bit flailing To be able to understand that there's something I can do and I know where I am right now 

Steve: On the leaning and landing indicator when I it's in my channel management training deck One of the analogies I use is a rearview mirror.

Steve: It tells you what's happened You ut if all we ever do is look in our rearview mirror when we're driving, we're going to crash because we're not looking where we're going to go. And the leading indicator is telling us what's going to happen, where things are going to go, really. And that's my sort of simplistic way of [00:18:00] looking at it, really.

Steve: I want to change course slightly and go back to something you said, Pru, which was about, and I'm paraphrasing, but the importance of activity and the more that we see people, and it's obvious, isn't it? But the more we see people, the more doors we knock on, the more phone calls we make. The more likely we are to, achieve our objectives, really, there's a formula in sales that I've always loved and I picked up many years ago and it was R equals a times C and it was results equals activity times competence and the competence bit, is where we come in without making this into a sales presentation for Jewish James, but how important, and let's try and be objective about this, how important is, Not just the activity in doing the right thing, but also having the right skills.

Steve: We'd like to pick that one up 

Jonathan: I think i'll kick off by saying that Um, I think one great thing about, in terms of having the skills, yeah, we need the skills. But understanding where you can, which [00:19:00] skills you have, that, what are the skills you've got that do mean, yes, you are deemed competent.

Jonathan: Versus again, it's a gap, isn't it? Which skills do I require that or do I need to develop? And of course that's where training comes in. And of course, when I'm not, of course I would never promote our own training on this on this podcast. But just that, but I think the key point here is that, one great thing about training and I remember, I've remembered right through my life.

Jonathan: One of the things I've said to myself is. Ah, I am doing the right thing. If sometimes I couldn't quite believe my manager, or I may have not believed a colleague, but when an independent trainer then helped me understand what the right thing was, it was, ah okay, this is the right thing to do, or I am doing the right thing.

Jonathan: I'm a huge, yeah, perhaps the reason why we all do what we do, partly do what we do. I'm a great believer in getting it right from a competence perspective. And it's it's something that most people can do, can be. Is it, can we kid ourselves 

Steve: a little bit though?

Steve: Sometimes we're not [00:20:00] always just individuals really honest with ourselves. I know I'm not. I might say actually what I really need is I need a lot more product or I need a lot more demonstration skills training, what I really need is learning how to prospect better, but I just don't want to admit that really.

Steve: Pro you're laughing. So is that the point there? 

Pru: Yeah, I think we can kid ourselves because sometimes it's very hard to hold a mirror up to yourself. That self awareness we all know is a great thing to see in somebody in a commercial role, their ability to be objective and have self awareness in this.

Pru: As we would term it, be coachable, to recognize they aren't the finished article. So yeah I totally agree that we can think, oh, if only. And I think, if, to go back to am I doing the right thing, if you spend more time going, if only I had this, or if only I had that, then you're probably not doing the right thing at the time, because you're looking for excuses and reasons why [00:21:00] things aren't going well, and perhaps not holding the mirror up and having a good hard look at what's in the mirror, and saying, what could What can I do differently?

Pru: It's that sphere of influence, isn't it? What can I action? And if we're pointing our fingers at the market, at the competitor, at the support in the business and all sorts of things and going, yeah, it's everybody's fault, but mine 

Jonathan: and you stop, that's right. And you stop thinking you actually stop thinking because you spend all your time, energy.

Jonathan: Channeling into blaming something else. Actually instead of thinking well, okay some of this I just can't change some of this stuff I have to find a way around it. I have to do I have to you know, leave this for myself I have to find my own solution here so I think as somebody once said to me instead of arguing about the target jonathan Put your energies into figuring out actually how you're going to exceed it.

Jonathan: And that was a great piece of advice that I got and it underpinned doing the right thing, which at that moment in time is [00:22:00] go figure, Jonathan, figure it out. Okay. And guess what I did. It may be it's the 

Pru: same person I got that advice from Jonathan, but I remember when I had my first management role and having to hand out sales targets.

Pru: It was always like here's your sales target. We could spend the next hour. debating about why it's not the right target, or we could spend the next hour working out how I'm going to help you achieve it. And I think that's it. We can always say. It's tough. Sales is tough, but fun. And as long as you're doing the right thing, if that balance between being challenged and having fun while you're being challenged, I think you inherently know you're doing the right thing.

Pru: If it's all really easy, there will come a day when it isn't. I was trying to think of. A time in my sales career when it was really easy and it's never really been really easy, but there are times when it was easier than others for a myriad of reasons and you're [00:23:00] riding the wave, but actually, I went into sales to make a difference and I knew it was challenging and I quite, I still like the fact that it's a challenge and that's what keeps you sharp and it's what keeps you developing.

Pru: If we tried to use the sales skills that we all acquired some years ago and hadn't changed the way we do our jobs, we would not be successful now. It's one of those jobs that you can't say, I know how to do that, sorted. Because life, the whole. The whole kind of atmosphere changes hugely.

Pru: Yeah. 

Jonathan: Adapt, adapt, adapt. Yeah. Learn to adapt. Yeah. I think it's an attribute now of most great salespeople. They're able to rapidly adapt. Because things can change astonishingly quickly. There's an ever, that pressure there for results, understandably. That ability to adapt.

Jonathan: Yeah. Critical. 

Steve: Jayne, you were trying to say something a minute ago. 

Jayne: Yeah, it's about re [00:24:00] tuning, isn't it? And refining the way we do things. So we, if we continue just in the way that we were, we pick up some, with anything, isn't it? We pick up bad habits along the way in absolutely everything we do. I'm dreadful.

Jayne: I pick up habits very easily and I have to work at, ironing some of those out and some of the things become habits that because they're things that I avoid because I just don't want to do them because it isn't the most enjoyable part of a job. So I can think of some things in the past that I absolutely hated doing, so I would avoid them and try and do everything else.

Jayne: But if they're the crucial part, so if really hating, I hate to say it again, prospecting, or picking up a phone, or reaching out to people, or seeing people face to face, which of course has been a difference, a shift over the five years. You know from where we were five years ago. Actually, we have to keep on refining and retuning our mindset as well as our skills.

Jayne: To say actually I really want to achieve in this and I want to, [00:25:00] this habit that I maybe have got into or fallen into or my avoidance, how do we tackle that head on? And it will make a difference when we do it. I know that I've done that for myself and, all the best athletes train and train.

Jayne: I've got a piano in my house. That gets played occasionally, you know what? It needs retuning. It doesn't stay tuned. It has to keep on doing that to sound great. And we need to do that ourselves. My playing doesn't actually help it to be fair. My 

Steve: bass guitar playing upstairs. My bass guitar is definitely out of tune because it hasn't been out for about a year.

Steve: That's another story. So some super points guys. There's one, one last area I want to explore before we wrap this up. And that is. I guess the person in the room we haven't mentioned yet, and that's our boss. What role does our boss have in letting us know if we're doing the right thing or not? 

Pru: Again, I guess I go back to the enjoying it.

Pru: If whatever frequency you have meetings with your manager, and hopefully they're planned and [00:26:00] regular one to one meetings, fingers crossed you have those. If you don't, ask for them. Then, if you're looking forward to that session, it means that, that you are doing the right thing because you will have things that you want to share that have gone well and key reasons to talk to your boss about getting Supporting when things aren't going so well, but you're looking forward to that conversation that you're looking forward to the discussion about, Hey, this is going great.

Pru: This is great. This isn't doing so well. How can you help? So going to your boss with positive things that you want their input from or means that, you are doing the right thing because you're not going to be perfect. If you were, you'd be really annoying. So we don't want to be annoying, having gone to a manager and being a manager, I loved it when you could see from the numbers that things weren't going so well for somebody, but they came to you saying, look, I've identified a real challenge [00:27:00] here are my thoughts.

Pru: How can I be better at this? And those are the best conversations. This, I go back to someone who's got good self awareness and is coachable. So important. 

Steve: Go ahead, Johnson. 

Jonathan: Yeah. And I was going to say, as a salesperson, I think, if you're going to have that one to one with your manager, go into it with an open mind, because one of the benefits your manager has is that they should see.

Jonathan: What great looks like in part or in total across the team that almost certainly be able to share some great ideas with you. Hey, that one to one meeting is of course for you. So to an extent you drive the agenda, but they will have some great ideas, but go into it with an open mind. It might mean you've got to change something quite significant.

Jonathan: But that goes back to adapting, doesn't it? But I do think it's so important you have those regular sessions with your manager because they. Good manager will give you some great feedback, you know Those things you are doing the things you are doing right and those things that you might want to [00:28:00] have a look at Right fine tune reconsider stop even dare I say it.

Jonathan: But that's not continue 

Pru: Yeah, 

Jonathan: correct. Yeah, that just 

Pru: reminds me. I just had an email before we recorded this from one of our listeners who said I happen to be working with them recently and she messaged me this morning and said a really good idea for one of your podcast crew is what does a great one to one look like?

Pru: I'm just sitting here thinking exactly the same thing. Yeah, very good. I actually got an email this morning from somebody I was working with recently who said that'd be a great idea for a podcast crew. 

Steve: You're nodding as well, Jayne, you think that would work, yeah? 

Jayne: Yeah, absolutely brilliant. I think it's good for the salesperson and the manager.

Jayne: How do we get the most out of that for both parties? It's a working towards one goal in a company. Let's do that. Each of those individuals. Perfect. 

Steve: Super points. And the one to ones of course, aren't forecast review calls. That's something else. That's another part of the business.

Steve: Another process that we do, [00:29:00] but let's not do the podcast. Today, but no, I think that's a super idea. Let's see if we can, let's see if we can squeeze that one in. I think that'd be a super topic for a podcast. We've done half an hour guys. It's gone really quickly. Do you have a final point they want to make or a final comment about how do I know I'm doing the right thing?

Steve: Always. Hy am I surprised? I'm 

Jonathan: going to go just dive in. I'm going to go first here and I'm just going to just emphasize a point that Pru made. About meaningful conversations and about face to face conversations. Dare I say, okay. I know that, and of course, some of us in an inside sales role, of course, that might look quite different.

Jonathan: It's still about meaningful conversations, albeit an inside sales role. It's more about the telephone. It's probably more about doing things over teams, even occasional meetings with customers, but in a field sales role, no substitute for getting in front of the customer. Okay. And in terms of doing the right thing, I know the different generations.

Jonathan: I'm an old guy now and communicate may have a preference to communicate [00:30:00] maybe in a slightly different way to the younger generations coming through. But. There's still no substitute for it at the end of the day, I've been able to be with somebody looking between the eyes we, see that body language, even consciously see it no, no substitute and it's just critical to me and I see it, those sales people that, spend, the time in front of customers face to face meetings are generally more successful than their colleagues that do less of it, or certainly don't do enough of it.

Jonathan: Yeah. Really important thing to get right, if there's so many ways for people to hide and avoid it don't write, it is really important. 

Steve: It is. Yeah. I thought you're going to suggest doing one to ones over TikTok then for a second, Jonathan, but 

Pru: that just prompted me, Jonathan, am I doing the right thing?

Pru: I think we've spoken a lot about inside the business, but actually, one of the One of the indicators you get you're doing the right thing is when customers call you first before you call them. We know that sellings [00:31:00] are people to people activity. And long may that continue. Otherwise we'll be sales bots.

Pru: The customers give you that feedback if you're aware of it, when you have a Proactive contact from a customer even if you can't satisfy that need The fact that they reached out to you without you reaching out to them is definitely an indicator that you're doing the right 

Jonathan: thing Too simple almost wasn't it we missed it And could I just add, sorry, Jayne, you might get a word in Edgeways in a minute.

Jonathan: Just one final thoughts off the back of what Pru said for me. Those referrals and recommendations, if you're getting those on a regular basis from your customer base, there's another great check. Okay. Another great check. 

Steve: I'm gonna engage smug mode now, 'cause I've had one of those today.

Steve: I've had a recommendation, a referral from a customer. Oh good. So 

Jonathan: did I over the weekend. . . 

Steve: Yeah. Jayne, final thought from you, Jayne. We'll shut Jonathan up. One final thought from you, . 

Jayne: Yeah, I, stock, look at everything that you've got available to you, a plan, are you enjoying it?

Jayne: If you are, then [00:32:00] you're heading no doubt in a great direction. If you're not enjoying it, I would say just don't hesitate to reach out to maybe one of your peers, don't. Don't spend a long time in a place that's not enjoying it without doing something about it. And that's normally reaching out to somebody in your organization that you know you can talk to or your manager.

Jayne: And really be honest and be real because people will be there to support you along and to help you. 

Steve: Yeah, great point. Great way to finish Jayne. Can I thank you all, Jonathan, Pru, and Jayne. It's the first time we've done a four way podcast over the app that we worked. I think it worked quite well.

Steve: I think we'll do it again, shall we? Thanks very much for your time, folks. And thanks to your time as well, dear listener. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of The Luxury Choice. Don't forget to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app. That way you'll make sure you don't miss an exciting episode from us.

Steve: And also, if you could leave us a review on Spotify or Google, preferably a five star review, that does help us in lots of mysterious ways. 

Jonathan: Then we know we're doing the right thing. 

Steve: I love it, [00:33:00] yeah. Nd also, you stopped me mid flow, I've got to reload my script now. And also, if you want to find out more about our training programs, of course, you can go to our website, which is georgejames training.

Steve: com. And also check out our LinkedIn page, the George James training LinkedIn page, where we have lots of useful information. And also Jayne and I appear regularly with our little LinkedIn lives. So we have 30 minutes live on LinkedIn, where we look at a particular aspect of sales and sales skills. The next one is coming up in a couple of weeks time.

Steve: We'll be back in the end, a couple of weeks time folks, but in the meantime, happy selling out there and we'll talk to you soon.