Gladiator U August Webinar Series Kicks Off Tomorrow!

In roughly 60 days the Rated R 4 Results Team will be launching a subscription-based website, called "Gladiator U", to aid in the success of sales and sales management professionals across the globe. To ensure that our product is world-class we are delivering 6 free webinars over the next 60 days. With the webinars playing a major role in our upcoming website, we wanted to deliver a variety of them for free to you, our prospects and sales experts, to obtain your feedback!

So...how can you help? Sign Up! They are absolutely 100% free, no tricks, nothing up our sleeves and no bait and switch! Can't make the times fit your schedule? No problem! We are going to be recording every webinar and will send you a link to download them and view them at your leisure! All we want is your feedback. What did you like, not like? What works for you and what doesn't work? Bottom line ... when we roll the "Gladiator U" site out in October, we want our webinars to be the best!

What does our August schedule look like?

The August webinar series will address the following subjects...


"From Order Taker to Gladiator" - How Top Sales People Win & Win Big!!

This webinar is designed to address the 4 critical building blocks for outstanding sales performance. In this webinar we will discuss what it is that top sales performers "are & do" that consistently lands them at the top of every sales report

August 11th, 2009, 2:00pm to 3:00pm CST


"Are You Social? - How to Tap Into the Social Media World and Implement it Into Your Business"

Are you retiring in the next 3 months? If not, then you cannot afford to sit out in the world of social media. In this webinar our attendees will learn how to create a presence through systems such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Blogging.

August 18th, 2009, 2:00pm to 3:00pm CST


"A" Players Only! - How Top Sales Managers Build "Hair on Fire" Sales Teams!

This webinar is designed to discuss the skills necessary to build a high performance sales team. Key topic areas for this program include how to get the right people on board from the very beginning, how to develop and manage the team and then how do you keep that talent on board for the long haul.

August 25th, 2009, 2:00pm to 3:00pm CST


Register Now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/724940931


Can't make it to one of the webinars? Like we said ... don't worry! We will be recording each of the webinars in our August series and will be more than happy to send them to you. We look forward to having you join us for this great series. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions at jim@r4ronline.com !

Stealing Info From Blog Posts ...

Hey folks ...

Just a short blog post to share a story with you!

Through a series of events we (Jason's Young Guns blog and our various other blogs) found out that a gentleman by the name of James Rickman at http://www.sustainablevirtualbiz.com/ was ripping off our articles by simply cutting and pasting them into his website, blogs and other writings and claiming that they are original works!

A little investigation is easy to do. All you do is cut and paste a line or two from the middle of an article into a Google search and wherever that article is posted on the web will show up in the search results! Well, when you do that with Mr Rickman's blog posts you find out that he has done this to a number of people! And the articles are showing up in blogs at places like Fast Company and Business Week as his original work.

We, actually Jason did, confronted Mr Rickman with a number of those articles in an e-mail and we got the funniest response from him. It is copied and pasted from his e-mail and my reply below. I hope you get a chuckle out of it! Bottom line ... check out your content with a Google search every now and then. We are learning that this is a common occurence these days!

Enjoy!

Dean? Or James? Or whatever your name is …

I am laughing hysterically at your e-mail below so at least your plagiarizing ways are providing some humor for us all. You and I both know there isn’t much we can do to stop you from stealing articles from us or anybody else but we will spend a little time letting folks know about who you are and what you are doing so it will be a little harder for you to get paid for cutting and pasting real authors original work!

So … here is what is so funny!

To: Mr Jason Jacobus

we have ghost written over the past 20yrs hundreds perhaps thousands of popular articles, whitepapers for business, national celebrities. financial analysis research etc these original materials we are free to do with whatever we choose according to terms -- sounds like you have a good amount of time on your hands to surf the Internet mr jason jacobus http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonjacobus --

P.S. your father's (Jim Jacobus) http://www.teamcer.com/jim.html false posting http://www.fastcompany.com/ was forwarded to legal for review and possible damages -- it is appreciated if you cease and deceased all further communications including online etc --- SVS LLC, Legal Team –

Deceased? I think it is desist! Being a writer and a member of the legal team surely you know that!

Now that is funny right there! I don’t care who you are! (Larry the Cable Guy … gotta give credit where credit is due now don’t we?)

So you need to cyst and decrease!

"How Do You Not Know the Answer To That Question?"

If you have been following our newsletters you know that we have a monthly video feature titled "How Do You Not Know the Answer To That Question?" and I have to tell you they are a blast to record! Our readers pose the questions and all I have to do is to come up with an answer. The title itself comes from a reaction I have every now and then when someone asks a question in a workshop or training program that I think people who are sales or sales management professionals should know the answer to.

The reality is that all of the questions are good ones! And ... at some point in my career I didn't know the answers to the questions either. That said, there are questions we all should know the answer to as we pursue becoming the best of the best in our field. The quality of the question depends more on which of three different categories the sales person falls into. Are they a UI, UC or CC? Allow me to explain.

Every one of us falls into one of these following three categories;

• UI's - are what we call "Unconscious Incompetent's"! They aren't any good at what they do and they have no clue that they aren't any good. We all know folks that fit into this category. They tend to go about their sales activities without any semblance of knowing what they are doing and they see no need to try and get any better. They think they are incredible and the fact they aren't delivering the goods is always someone else's fault! When they ask questions, and they rarely do, they are usually off topic, off base and usually want me to respond ... DUH!
• UC's - are what we call "Uncoiscious Competent's"! They are good at what they do but they don't know why? They're level of performance runs from below average at times to excellent at others. The reason for the variance comes from the fact that they don't really know what it is they do that determines why they perform well. That creates two separate challenges. 1) They can't lead, teach, mentor anyone else to improve their performance because they don't know how they do it themselves and 2) when things require change or adaptations they can't make them because, again, they don't know themselves well enough to make the adjustments! When they ask a question it can be a really good one but their reasons for asking the question aren't clear and application becomes difficult because the don't understand how it fits into to their own processes they don't understand.
• CC"s - are what we call "Conscious Competents"! These are always our top performers and our most consistent performers. They are good at what they do and they know why they are good at it! They can easily teach, mentor and coach others to do the same because they "own their own solutions, insights, strategies and tactics" and have a systematic way of continued development of those skill sets! When this pro asks a question they have a good reason for it and when provided with a good answer can put it into practice immediately!

The truth is I have been (and probably still am) all three of these in different areas of my professional and personal life! I aspire to be a "CC" in every part of my life that matters. A lot of my expertise has been developed through my career because people have asked me a ton of great questions that challenged me to get better every day! So keep sending in those questions cause I need them to improve and I'll keep trying to answer the "How Do You Not Know the Answer To That Question?" each month!

Jim Jacobus, CSP
CEO Champion Education Resources
www.ratedr4results.com
jim@r4ronline.com

The Power of Process ... Executing A Proven Sales Methodology!

How many of you have heard this? You are a born sales person! You have to be in sales because you have the "gift of gab"! Or, "you could sell snow cones to Eskimos ... you are a natural"!

I know they are well meaning and it is intended to be a compliment but to a real professional it is really more of an insult. It's like saying that Michael Phelps is a natural born olympic swimmer because he liked to splash around in the pool when he was 10 years old! Yes, we have certain skill sets that may help us in our sales careers. Everyone has a certain skills, talents and abilities. To take advantage of those abilities, to leverage them into a career of even a hobby and to be really good at that career or hobby we have to become intentional about how we use those skills!

In our "Order Taker to Gladiator" workshops we talk about 4 cornerstone fundamentals that top sales people have to master to be the best of the best. They are "value based selling" (not selling on price), developing and maintaining trusted advisor relationships, becoming an "A" Player by knowing our behaviors, workplace motivators and by understanding and developing our "core skills". The last of those four cornerstones is consistently executing a proven sales process!

The process we teach is simple but it is and has been proven to consistently deliver results for as long as I have been using, teaching and coaching around it. The critical process we teach is ...

1. Planning - 5 year, 1 year, 6 month, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, 1/2 day, hourly and minute by minute having and executing a plan for succeeding!
2. Prospecting - creating a client and prospect base that is both deep (account penetration) and wide (a broad base of clients) and that is populated with clients that deliver the sales rep a solid ROI for the time they invest!
3. First impressions - taking a look at every single client touch point like clothing, hair, body language, handshake, attitude, language and others to make sure we make a good first impression! But we need to take that further to include other touch points like how we answer the phone, voicemails (incoming and outgoing), letters, memos, e-mails, marketing materials and much more. Is the first impression the one I want and does it support my personal branding efforts?
4. Qualifying - identifying if we have the decision maker and can they pay are a by-product of engaging the client or prospect in a conversation that is driven by a well thought out set of high impact questions. We teach this conversation should be a much deeper one that that and should help us determine if we are right for the client. Can we truly serve them effectively? And ... are they right for us! Will they deliver a solid ROI for the time we invest as a professional sales rep!
5. Presenting or demonstrating - here's where the natural "gift of gab" comes in right? Well, it helps to be an effective communicator but effective presentation skills goes way beyond entertaining blah, blah, blah and more blah! Effective presentations have a defined structure and are focused on communicating a series of value propositions driven by what we learned by asking great questions in the qualifying stage.
6. Influencing - is a fancy way of avoiding using the word objection handling. Bottom line, we are going to have objections. It is part of the deal! As a matter of fact, we teach that objections are actually a "buying signal" and when handled professionally increase our credibility in the eyes of the customer so top sales people learn to embrace the objections they hear!
7. Closing - again just POTD (part of the deal) if we are going to be successful. I won't go into our super secret method of closing that works every time on every client. We might do that in a subsequent blog. But if we can't become an effective closer we are going to wind up very skinny!
8. Follow-up - one of my pet peeves about sales people. We do all of the hard work to get an order but we fail to effectively and consistently follow-up because we don't have an efficient system for doing so. We have to create a consistent process for closing the loop on every sale bcause it opens the door to the next opportunity, and the next and the next!

So, there's the process we teach in a nutshell! Dependable and repeatable! The question we always ask in our workshops is "which one would you leave out"? The answer is always ... none of them, they are all critical! So, do we have them all mastered? The natural born sales person doesn't! The real pro, our sales Gladiator, does!

Jim Jacobus, CSP
www.ratedr4results.com

I Am Sick & Tired of The Abuse & Misuse of Behavioral Assessments!

Hey folks ...

Here is the first of many "video blog" (vlog) posts we will be sending your way in the future. This one I just had to do because in the past week and a half I have had 3 people with separate clients refuse to take behavioral (or personality) surveys because they had had a bad experience with them in the past!

When used properly they are great tools to help individuals and organizations improve sales and sales management performance. Bottom line ... I am sick of how poorly consultants and clients appropriate these awesome tools so I go off a little bit here!

Check it out and let us know what you think about the proper use of behavioral surveys!

Click here to watch the video!

Jim Jacobus, CSP
www.ratedr4results.com

It's All About RESULTS!

It’s All About

RESULTS!

As a sales person, sales manager or key decision what really matters at the end of the day? What is it we are measured on? The answer is simple. The only thing that really matters is results! Sales volume, product mix, territory penetration, technology, process, sales margin, and profitability are all about the same bottom line factor – results.

During this difficult time in our economy we are going to find out that everything that doesn’t matter is going to be stripped away to reveal whether or not it is producing the type of results we ourselves and our organizations need to win and win consistently! The things we have become enamored with during times when things were easy are going to fall by the wayside and become servant to that which delivers. Our marketing departments who believe they actually push products and services are going to become a supplier to the real champions of the company’s revenue stream … the sales force! The operations people, who believe that the world revolves around their processes and systems are going to realize that their client isn’t the COO’s balance sheet and manufacturing’s schedules but their real client is the guy or gal who is out beating the pavement every day and the customers they serve! Everything … our Ipods, laptops, phone systems, CRM’s and more are going to become tools to our sales gladiators not toys or status symbols to be played with!

But! There is always that word … BUT! It isn’t going to happen if we, the sales professional, keep doing things the same way we have the past decade! With all due respect to the handful of world class quota crushers out there, most of us have become order takers and route runners! Sorry if that offends a few of you out there but it is true! If we simply apply the 20/80 rule here (80% of the product/services is sold by 20% of the sales force!) I have to have it right for most of us. So let’s dispense with the sweet nothings and ego soothing talk and get down to it! What is it we have to do to take back the rightful place sales, your sales, should have at the head of the corporate or company dinner table?

The answer comes back to that word … RESULTS! We have to deliver! We have to become masters of talking about, and delivering bottom line results! It is critical that we become conscious competent’s (we are good and we know why we are good) at four important skill sets that guarantee our success. Consider the importance of each of these;

1. Executing a consistent sales process! We have to be able to repeat every step to the sale – planning, prospecting, first impressions, qualifying, demonstrating, influencing, closing and follow-up. I always ask our audiences during training what happens when we leave one out or we are weak in one of these steps to the sale. I also like to ask which one they would leave out. The answer is always the same – none of them. So, how well do you execute these steps?

2. Building Level 5 & 6 relationships! Simply defined, Level 5 & 6 Relationships are where the client values us and considers us trusted advisors. They might not really like us all that much but they know that every time they do business with them we deliver value beyond the numbers at the bottom of the invoice we send! When they see our name on their caller ID they pick up the phone instead of relegating us to voicemail prison with the rest of their suppliers. Our experience tells us that the average sales person has less than 20% of their client base that would fit into these two levels of relationship. That probably doesn’t apply to you though does it?

3. Value Based Selling! Owning the solution and being able to communicate it in the form of a value proposition. What’s the problem? What do we do about it? Why should they care? Most of us understand the problems and challenges our clients have and we do a pretty good job of knowing what it is that our product or service does to help the client with their challenges. Could we do a better job? Absolutely, and we should. The area where we fall short is in understanding and effectively communicating “why should they care”! What is the economic impact or the real world ROI for doing business with us? What is the impact going to be on the “user buyer” of our product? What technical aspect of our product provides our client a clear cut decision to choosing our offering? If we don’t own the answers to why should they care then does anything else really matter?

4. Becoming an “A” Player! “A” Player status is a term we reserve for those sales professionals we refer to as Gladiators! This is an internal look at core skills that come together to make us the best of the best! These core skills not only make us better sales people, sales managers or key decision makers … they make us better at anything we choose to do in life! Consider the following core skills we call the “Big 5”! They are the top 5 core skills out of 23 that we use to benchmark top sales performers. They are;

· Personal accountability – I do what I say I am going to do because I said I would! It is my nature to do what is wise and right!

· Resiliency – I quickly and easily bounce back from all adversity and keep things in perspective!

· Interpersonal skills – I am adept at connecting with, communicating with and influencing other people!

· Continuous learning – I am self motivated and hungry to keep learning that which serves my clients, my company and my own personal success!

· Self management – I run my territory and my life like a business and make conscious decisions about the ROI for my time which is my inventory!

How about that list? Where do you stand on these internal skills?

So, what will it be for you during these tough times? How about the times when things are good again? Would you like to join the rank and file of our Sales Gladiators and own the kingdom? Then it’s time to focus on RESULTS! Talk the language, own the solutions and master the critical skills, external and internal, and win big!

Jim Jacobus, CSP

www.ratedr4results.com

jim@r4ronline.com

From Order Taker To Gladiator ... How Top Sales Pros Are Winning the Sales Wars!

What do you do during tough times to keep your sales numbers up? How are you dealing with this economy as a sales rep to make up for budget cuts? What can I do when everyone around me is struggling to continue to win and win big in my sales territory?

I am hearing these questions, and many more like them, every day in our blog, in our e-mails and in our sales training programs. These questons aren;t just coming from the newbies in sales ... they are coming from seasoned vets who have been through times like these before. I think these questions are a part of the landscape that accompanies tough economic times but I also believe they are a byproduct of and are being exacerbated by another condition that has crept into America's sales forces over the last several years!

What condition am I talking about? Order takers! As sales people we have allowed ourselves to become order takers instead of the "gladiators" it takes to consistently win the day to day battles that ultimately win the sales wars! Order takers who work the shady side of the street, who call on the easy customers to deal with, who are addicted to "price selling" or what my buddy Tim Wackel calls the "crack cocaine" of the sales world! Order takers who do nothing more than protect their territories when they should be expanding their kingdoms! Order takers who act like every other "employee" of a company instead of operating their territories like a business owner would and insisting on and earning the right to a maximum ROI from their customers and clients!

I don't mean to be harsh towards my brothers and sisters who lay it on the line every day as a part of America's sales forces but the truth is we have allowed ourselves to become a little "soft around the midsection". We have begun to rely more and more on the "marketing department" to expand business, we have become dependent upon our amazing product or technology to expand our territories and we have allowed our clients to get us hooked on mainlining "price selling" as a fix for and a substitute for real selling skills!

As a speaker, trainer and consultant to some of the best sales forces in the world, I have seen this malady (to one degree or another) in the last dozen companies we have had the pleasure of working with. So the question is ... what can we do? How do we become "gladiators" and retake the ground we have lost? How do we start back winning the day to day battles again, expand our sales territories and win our own personal "sales wars"?

There are four critical pieces to the puzzle we have to master to win back our "gladiator" status. These critical sales principles will be the subject of this blog as we move forward through the months to come. We will focus on developing within ourselves and our sales teams the following 4 keys to success;

1. We will learn to consistently execute a sound, proven sales process! I am not a process guy, I am a people guy. But, I have learned that there is power in mastering every step in the sale and that leaving one out or being weak in any one area means I will lose out to a better prepared competitor!
2. We will learn together how to intentionally build "high yield" business relationships where our clients and customers see us as trusted advisors and are willing to pay a premium for our time because of the value we bring to the relationship. I hope all of my clients like me. What is more important to me is that they respect and value me as a professional!
3. We will learn how to sell "value" instead of price. We will master the art and science of developing compelling "value propositions" and when we are in a "me too" value position we will tell the story better than our adversaries and when we have a "hammer" or leveraged value proposition position we will expect to get paid for that value!
4. And we will master the core skills necessary to become a gladiator. Our focus will be to daily build into ourselves and into those around us critical core skills like personal accountability, resiliency, self management, interpersonal skills and continuous learning knowing that these internal framework pieces will manifest themselves in outstanding performance on the battlefields day in and day out!

That's our mantra! Whether we are currently at the top of our game, stuck in the middle of the pack or struggling just to stay alive we are going to become "gladiators"! We are going to win and win big and take back our place as the driving force in the success of our respective sales organizations!

For more information and for real world tools to help you become a "gladiator" visit our website at www.ratedr4results.com .