The One Thing That Has to Happen to Claim Sales Success
Years ago, I was introduced to a concept that I found really helpful in the management and motivation of my sales team, and then as my responsibilities grew, I found it was beneficial to the entire company. It was called “Good News Friday.”
The idea is that each Friday the team would jump on a call and share the best news of the week. The top performers loved to share the business they had won during the week, opportunities that were advancing, and news about new prospects. We did it in such a way that it wasn’t boasting or bragging, it was done to help inspire others.
Those who were not performing as they needed to be, both from a personal or company perspective, began amplifying their sales game. No one wanted to show up without something good to report, so they worked hard to make sure that they could participate on “Good News Friday” with everyone else and feel good about what they shared. And everyone knew that they would be called out by peers if they were fabricating their story or results.
After a while, I changed it up a bit. “Good News Friday” was still going on in each team or department, but what I added was asking different individuals who needed a little boost to join me on another quick call on Mondays. During this call, I asked each person what they thought the one thing that they could do, and were in control of, that they could look back on Friday and claim the week was a sales success.
Even top performers who were in a bit of a slump found this helpful.
Is it a simple approach? Yes. Are others doing it? I hope so. Are they doing it and seeing better results? If they are doing it right. Here is what I mean by doing it right. The goal here is not to ‘tell’ our salespeople what to do during these calls, that guidance comes as part of our coaching and mentoring. The Monday calls were asking each team member what they thought would define their sales success for the week. They needed to own that. My job was to talk them through it and ask clarifying questions so that we both understood the expectation and the metric we would use for achieving a successful sales week.
This had to be something that they could be proud to share with their teammates and their manager. No fluff, no easy tasks, no ‘get-out-of-jail’ free cards. It had to be quantifiable achievements, specific activities, and results-oriented. As this practice became repeatable, instead of fearing “Good News Friday,” they couldn’t wait to participate and get their turn on the call.