Can You Handle a Few Tough Questions?

By Tim Connor, CSP

If I could ask you ten questions, the correct answers to which would ensure your growth, increased sales, and profits this year would you take the time to ask them of yourself? Your answers to some of these questions could have a tremendous impact on your year’s profits, sales, competitive position, market share and overall effectiveness.  So, if you have the courage, answer them.  If you don’t why not ask some of your managers to answer them for you!

Here are the ten questions that can help you improve your organization’s sales, effectiveness and profits. One of the biggest challenges today for many organizations is knowing what the future holds for them.  Managers plan, think, strategize, hope, dream and even cross their fingers from time to time but many are still unsure how to move from today into tomorrow.

The question – Is it clear to everyone in your organization - where you are going, why you are going there, how you are going to get there and their roles in helping you get there?  If not, why not? When you have a problem in your organization, look up the ladder for the cause and down the ladder for the solution.’

The question – Is this your style or is it the opposite; to look down the ladder for the cause and up the ladder for the solution? A recent study found that to replace an employee who leaves an organization, costs an average of three times that person’s salary.

The question - Are you aware of the indirect as well as direct costs of your turnover?  Every organization loses sales and sales revenue every month due to poor sales skills, lousy sales attitudes and poor or inconsistent training.

The question - Do you know what your lost sales are costing you every month? A poor hire can cost you significantly in a very short time due to down time, impacted relationships, lost momentum, the impact of poor attitudes on a department or the entire organization.

The question – What safeguards do you have in place to prevent from making a poor hiring decision? Managers make lot’s of small and some important decisions every day.  Some of these might turn out right in the short or long term but many poor ones can cost you morale, employee or customer loyalty or money right off the bottom line.

The question – Have your managers been trained to manage effectively or are they just winging their way through their days and responsibilities one after another? Most managers complain that over 65% of their wasted time is due to poorly planned or run meetings.

The question – What would you guess is the total number of man-hours spent in meetings in your organization in a month?  This exercise might take a few minutes but don’t do it if you are on any kind of cardio vascular medication.

The question – Are you aware of what is on your competitor’s agenda for the near future to take business away from you and how that might impact your future sales, growth and success?

The question - What is your organization doing or not doing when it comes to sending clear and consistent messages to the market place, your customers and your competitors as to who you are, what you represent, what you stand for and where you are going?

The question – Are you in touch with reality – the truth – when it comes to the impact on your organization and your employees as a result of your attitudes, philosophy and management style?

Why not pose some or all of these questions to members of your management team or if you are fairly secure, even your boss.

Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales and management speaker, trainer and best selling author. Each year he delivers over 75 custom in-house programs on a variety of sales, motivation,  management, leadership and relationship topics.  Since 1973 he has given over 4500 presentations in 20 countries.  His sixty plus published books include the best sellers, Soft Sell, Your First year in Sales and You Call That Selling, 91 Mistakes Smart Salespeople Make.  He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit www.timconnor.com.