“As a Business Owner:

Are you ‘In the Stands’ or ‘On the Field’ in the areas that matter?

June 10, 2024 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Mindset, Sales, Systems, Team |

What has business and sport in common? They have one thing in common and that is Winning.

Why are we using sport as an analogy for business? Mainly for two reasons, both are games, and both are about winning. The question to business owners is- “On what level do you want to play your game?”

In sport, you're either on the field or you're in the stand. It is similar for business, the problem however, is that in business we're running day to day, work extremely long hours. It feels like you're running at 160 km/h every day in the business. You are putting out fires, doing operational work to get more business in but we do not take the time out to really take stock to see where the business is and asking the question: “If business is a game, how does winning look like?”

 By not taking the time out to define “Winning” bad things are happening, the business starts to stagnate, sliding backwards, you are getting tired and demotivated because the business do not make the money you desire. As a result of daily grinding, and not taking the time out, opportunities that are there are not seen and capitalised on.

In this blog I want to share three ideas about the difference between being:

“On the field” and “In the stand”.

The first point is to actually take the time out and ask yourself, “In what area of the business am I perhaps, in the stand?”.  I talk about it, I talk about action, but it doesn't make any difference. It could be in any area of the business ie in the Marketing, or Sales, perhaps the Team etcetera. That area that you really feel the game is not being played at the highest level, it’s like being "in the stand.”

The second point is you write down what is the impact of that on the business? What does it cost you? How does it affect your life?

 The third point is to actually then make a decision, am I choosing to get on the field? How would winning look like when I'm on the field? How will that be different from today? So, I'm playing the game, I take action. It makes a difference.

There is a risk, but there's also the reward. Very important, how will you keep track of your progress? The best way is to design your scoreboard.

Write down the measurements that will be your scoreboard.

And you can follow this process with every team member, with a relationship, with your spouse. Where are you in the stand and not on the field with your children, with your grandchildren?

Your business should be actually giving you that life that you desire. The business is a vehicle to give you your desired life, wealth and freedom. When you play it as a game you have more Fun as well.

Enjoy your game.

Francois J Lubbe, ActionCOACH Business Coach

“Microscope Work”: A basic management discipline to improve sales performance

Aug 30, 2021 | Business, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Mindset, Sales, Systems, Team |

From my point of view, management must always aim to find a strong balance between, what I would like to term, “Telescope Work” and “Microscope Work”.  

The “Telescope Work” entails the longer-term view where the focus is on the future direction of the business in terms of medium and long-term goals to be achieved. The “Microscope Work” entails a deeper dive into an area of importance to ensure the goals are achieved. In this blog, I will focus on the “Microscope Work” in the area of management of sales. 

The generation of profitable sales for your business could feel like a car that drives in first gear only, or it’s like a car that has changed to higher gears and runs smoothly. Irrespective of which gear you are driving; it’s imperative that management always applies the “Microscope Work” in the area of sales. The purpose of the “Microscope Work” is to identify the areas to focus on – that will produce the results if corrected in time. The correction always provides new opportunities for salespeople to grow personally and professionally which leads to a change of behaviours that produce results in line with their potential.  

Here are the six points to focus your Microscope on during a weekly, 45 minutes, one-on-one meeting between the manager and the salesperson:

• Goals: There must be clarity of the goals that need to be achieved in the week. This should be recorded in the simplest units – for example: Number of calls, number of appointments, number of proposals, etc. 
• Actual: The actual numbers for each of the weekly goals as above are captured – for example: The actual number of calls, appointments, and proposals.  
• Deviation: The deviation is captured – for example: The average percentage for each of the units as described above.  
• Reasons: This is the area where the conversation focuses on the reasons for the deviation whether the deviations were positive or negative. The aim of this conversation is to establish all possible reasons for a negative deviation and to examine in finer detail what caused the negative deviation. In a similar way, it is also imperative to establish reasons for the positive deviations as this could provide great insights in relation to actions to be done consistently for future performance. Tip: Watch out for the trap most people fall into such as excuses, blame, and denial. Shift the conversation to ownership, responsibility, and accountability.  
• System/Solution: The examining of the reasons as per Point 4 above requires the option of two directions. Solutions to the negative deviations, for example: Which behaviours must change for the following week that will turn the negative deviations into positives. Positive deviations on a consistent basis over a number of weeks could be an indication that the person has a system that works well to produce consistent results and therefore a system is created to be followed in the future.  
• Reset and Commitment: In this section, the goals are reset for the following week as described under Point 1. The reset could be that the following week’s goals remain the same as the previous week, or the negative deviation numbers are added to the agreed weekly goals. The aim is to refocus for the next week as if it is a “new game” that will be played with new learnings and changes of behaviours where appropriate, as discussed under Points 4 and 5. 

For consistent high performance, it is important that this meeting takes place on a weekly basis and ideally at an agreed time for every week. It is the sales person’s responsibility to bring the numbers to the meeting and be prepared for a deeper examination of the results in each area.  

The manager should always find the balance of keeping the salesperson accountable for the results and provide support in the form of training, coaching, or other tools that will equip the salesperson for better results.  

In today’s competitive business environment, your clients are being bombarded with an overflow of knowledge and information that makes it more difficult to choose whose product or service to use. Make sure you have a strong differentiating factor not only from a business point of view but also from a personal point of view. People do business with people they like. How do you make yourself more likable for your client?  

Francois Lubbe, ActionCOACH Business Coach