Top 7+ Ways Leaders Will Ensure the Team Thrives in Upheaval

We are all trying to discover and create ways to thrive in this new economy. While some are waiting for things to get “back to normal”, you shouldn’t. They won’t.

Our podcasts have focused on the ways our guests are shaping their leadership to ensure the success of their team(s) and the clients they serve. As we keep saying, REAL leadership is needed now more than ever.

What follows is a summary of the compelling ideas Marcus Chan, pictured above, shared with us in our most recent podcast, Invest in Your Sales Mindset. We are confident you will find essential elements you can incorporate in your success today.

It Takes Tenacity and Persistence

Simon and Schuster found through in-depth research that most deals take 13 no’s on average to close and that average sales people quit at the 5th – not even halfway there…..The founders of The Challenger Sale, one of the newest sales processes to hit the market, say that with the deluge of information buyers endure and its ready access through the web, most people you see are 60% of the way down the decision-making pathway. A recent guest suggested that is not above 80%.

Point? The close could be happening more after the 7th and 8th direct no, which is good news for those of us out there working hard every day to convert our products and services into meaningful revenue for our companies. We may be just 2 no’s away from the yes delivered as a result of our polite, professional, passionate persistence.

Tenacity is what is needed after the emotional “high” you had at the start of your efforts wears off. When we first start working towards a goal – like launching a new product in untested markets – or completing an “interested” warm call, we have an enormous emotional upsurge. It is what follows in the weeks and months after which truly defines our success. 

Tenacity is what separates those that “try” from those that outperform their peers. It is the key that will unlock doors to enormous success in every endeavor. 

Especially in sales, as a professional interested in creating good working relations on which we can build great futures, we may become concerned with being a bother to prospects and clients. How can we exercise persistence without being a pest?  The answer rests in seeking first to truly understand their needs then politely, professionally, passionately helping them pursue their objectives. It sits squarely on your purpose for being persistent – helping them achieve goals, overcome their adversity, or exceed expectations in realizing a wildly important aspiration.

It requires Agility and Adaptability

The one constant and dramatic force in our life is change. Everything is in the process of becoming something else. Change happens everywhere and with everyone, constantly. In the galaxies around us and in our own solar system — where our sun will burn out in a few hundred million years — change is happening. In the subatomic world, where particles are colliding with one another and morphing into something else in hundredths of a second, change is happening. Everything is always changing.

In our lives, change is the one constant that we can be absolutely sure of….So why don’t we live each day acknowledging this and initiate change on a regular basis, putting ourselves in harmony and rhythm with this process? Why is change so hard to embrace?

There are three main factors directing change in our life: choice, chance and crisis. All three carry power and have their own particular dynamic. Of the three, favor choice, even in this crisis. Choice allows you to be proactive in orchestrating change, versus having undesirable transformation just happen to us. Initiating change through choice, will and practice is the path to constant and continuous improvement to create a better you and a better world.

With all that has happened in 2020, it should not be difficult embrace the fact change as a constant reality in our life, yet some still remain resolute in simply working as they once did. They will be left behind.

Become incredibly agile by being vigilant in looking for changes that would help your company and others, and then become proactive in initiating or creating them. In business, it is true no market stays the same year after year. You are either gaining share or losing share. You are either innovating new products and gaining on your competition, or your competition is innovating new products and supplanting you. You are becoming either more competitive or less competitive. You are either gaining customers or losing logos.

If things are going well, you may choose to make no changes and run your business exactly as you have in the past. The marketplace, however, is not static. It truly requires a constant system of development, improvement, and adaptation. 

By not initiating change, being adaptable and agile, you will soon fall behind. Today, identify aspects of your business processes and routines that would respond favorably to change, and then activate that change, putting yourself in charge of creating a better future that ensures you are not reacting to all that is going on around us.

Believe You Will Win ? Hustle to Make it Happen

One simple commitment to excellence – to Exceed Expectations – is an unbeatable competitive advantage. Being the work of making that happen by framing success in your mind. Many coaches have taught us over the years, “Winning all begins between the ears.”

Excellence is not only a choice; it is a form of currency. It has real value. To go deeper, it is creating a personal and business brand that attracts the right people and opportunities.

Being simply good enough is also a choice. It may not be made consciously, but it still becomes a self-limiting decision that places one mid-pack. It compromises quality, devalues your true potential, undermines credibility and reputation and actually repels quality people and reputation.

In order to reach your peak performance, to become everything you were meant to be, and then spread that excellence around to others, everything you do must be done with a single-minded focus of achieving excellence. You must do this with a rock-solid constitution…with an unshakeable belief excellence always counts.

The great thing about achieving excellence is that it is made possible in qualitative adjustments that lead to quantitative shifts into higher gears – pure grit and relentless drive. This means you need to focus on building key assets, such as the quality of your thoughts, the shaping of a positive attitude, the creation of real expertise, image, and preeminent character, leadership and reputation.

After you have visualized your success and set your mind on achieving your audacious goals, apply some serious hustle. Take initiative and make proactive choices. Work beyond the boundaries of your job and even your experience. As you become more knowledgeable, show greater initiative and hustle. Take more interest in the performance of the team, continue to become more adaptable, start to anticipate market needs. Roll up your sleeves, take the bull by the horns, and actively compel yourself and those around you to do more than you ever thought possible.

Winning is a full-time job.

Stay Sharp

It keeps coming up in all of our discussions. Especially in times like these, where we are consuming 48 hours’ worth of information in 24, it is essential we center ourselves and outthink, then out behave, our competition.

To be of the greatest service to your team, you must consistently work on yourself and maximize your own potential. Chan says it is essential that, each day, you do real work in these four areas: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual (we are not getting religious here….). The work is to ensure you avoid distraction. The goal is to make sure you are bringing your best self to work each day.

It is critically important to realize if we do not care for ourselves, we will not be able to serve others in the many roles we are called to…. Focus on the impact you will have each day. Think of three things you can do in each area that will guarantee you are working toward your greatest potential. 

By deliberately engaging in acts which expand your thinking, improve your attitude, protect your family, add value to your company, create preference from your clients, build value into your personal wealth, form healthy relationships, maintain peace of mind, and sustain peak health and energy, we make ourselves useful to others. Taking care of self, then, means we prepare ourselves to be of the greatest service to the common good of our families, our company and our friends.

Set Serious Routines

When we talked with Marcus, it became clear our routines were weak. At least comparatively, but comparison is the source of all misery. Still, you cannot argue with success, and his routines are definitely leading him to quickly accomplish far more than most.

Routines are essential stay sharp. They ensure we focus on the truly important and avoid distraction. Schedule time in the AM to get off on the right foot.

Chan starts each day with an intense workout, feeds his mind with a bit of wisdom work, feeds his body with good nutrition, then sets about visualizing success. The intensity he devotes to this is amazing. If you are not already in the routine of starting your day fast and finishing strong, then wade into it.

First, he reviews his 1, 3 and 5-year goals and the subroutines and actions it will take to make them happen. He spends 5 minutes affirming these and ensuring the metrics are en pointe. While many of us already working with morning routines might now jump into visualizing the day, this is where Marcus really steps up his game.

Chan will visualize this day a year from now. He will narrate it out, from start to finish. He is currently making audio of this work. Imagine the way this truly compounds the effort of reviewing your future goals and bringing them to life!

He then will review the upcoming day, see it going perfectly, and leap into it with the passion you can see in our podcast and his other online video work.

Get Social

We have had this come up in every podcast since we started. It is clear. We each must become somewhat versed in the intricacies of social selling in today’s attention economy. If you have not already done so, begin today to build a real strategy for messaging your company’s value across social networks, and incorporate your entire team in the process.

With physical distancing still a priority for many, we now have to connect through routine broadcasting of value – real value. Make sure it is genuine and tells a story that ties to the value you create for clients.

At a minimum, you should be getting at least 3 posts per week. Many we talk to each day now say, in this attention economy, it may require as much as 3 posts per day. In doing this, make sure you remain relevant by helping people see the future while still indicating you understand the present. Drop insightful comments on those with a following and remain consistent.

Social selling is essential to building your brand, so train your entire team to do it well, then empower them to do so. Make it a part of your strategy to do so. This is all about managing your brand and talent reputation. Make it clear to the market you are here to help, and do it using written copy, engaging video, and even audio.

Be Clear ? Stay Lean

It is essential you get clear today about how and why you are leader. If you haven’t already done so, work on your personal mission, vision and value statements then set your process and routines for leadership around those. Communicate it with your team. Ask them to hold you accountable to the standards.

A friend of ours jokingly refers to his Big Dawg leadership. It is an acrostic that really is tongue in cheek, as it not about being an “alpha” at all. He says:

1.      Be present – How many times in the past week have you been on a call with someone and heard them working the keyboard in the background at the same time or the dings of exchanged texts...that you are not in on...? Whether on the phone or in person (to include video), make sure you are intently, intensely present. Make sure the people you are with right now feel they are the most important part of your day.

2.      Be interested in involved – this is not about micro-management. In this economy, that weak form of management is being exposed for the failing that it is. In fact, this is not about management at all. Communicate, through your actions, your principle focus is your team’s success. Let each individual know you care about them. If you manage anything, manage metrics. Mentor and measure, don’t monitor.

3.      Go make their day – Clear the road ahead to success. Remove barriers and set real and attainable objectives. Roll up your sleeves and help. Cheer them on when they succeed and own any failure.

4.      Devote yourself to development – the real job of a leader is to help everyone on the team attain their peak potential. Sure, this benefits the organization, yet it has to be all about them. Do not go through the motions and give each person the same develop plan. Instead, have routine, meaningful dialogues that amplify each individual’s strengths, bring out of them what is left inside, and help them eliminate weaknesses. Never try to put into them something that is left out…It will only frustrate the both of you.

5.      Action Oriented, Integrity Bound – It is all about a consistent leaning in a focused direction – the kind of push that builds real momentum. Let your team see you in the fight, maintaining a high-performance pace, and doing it in such a way you make a daily positive impact. NOTE: Integrity, here, is not simply about doing the right things in the right way because they are right. It is about being a known and consistent value. Bring the same and very best version of yourself to work each day, with the same focus, unless new information has arisen that clearly indicates you need to make a change. Then make that change and communicate it with integrity.

6.      Work smart and hard – Strategies matter. The road ahead must be clear, and the map for the journey must be made visible to each member of the team. Pushing the now, more and faster buttons without real direction will only demoralize the team. Find ways to ensure everyone a.) understands the processes and the real why behind them, b.) incorporates them into their ongoing success, and then c.) disciplines their own thoughts and actions to carry them out with real hustle and an unswerving devotion to the team.

7.      Go have FUN – It is not last because it is least important. It is the bedrock of all the above. Have fun and help others enjoy what it is that you are doing, together. 

These seven+ things should help you, as a leader, engage the greatest number of people in the greatest amount of success. When you equip, encourage, and enable your team, they will outperform the competition and outstrip their goals. 

If you have not already, please take the opportunity to connect with Marcus on LinkedIn, and please let him know that you heard this on the Talent + Talks Podcast with Scott Rivers.

Links from Today's Podcast:

Marcus’ LinkedIn Profile: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/MarcusChan/

Marcus Company: https://skaled.com/

Also, if you haven't connected with Scott, please connect with him on LinkedIn.  You can find him here:  https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/scottrivers/

Cerca Talent:  https://www.cercatalent.com

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You might be wondering – “what the heck is ‘Venli’ and who the heck is Marcus?”

Great question – Venli Consulting Group is a Portland, Oregon based sales coaching and consulting firm that works directly with sales professionals, aspiring sales professionals, small business owners, large business owners, and essentially anyone who wants to take their sales skills to a MAXIMUM level. More specifically, here’s what we can do to help:

• High performance sales coaching that will deliver results immediately!
• World class PROVEN and field-tested sales training that actually works! (Every single methodology has been field-tested thousands of times and works! Nothing is theory!)
• Online sales training program and tools that you can’t get anywhere else! (This is the sub-brand, 6-Figure Sales Academy!
• Consult with you to build sales training systems that are scalable from as little as one to hundreds of sales reps!

Essentially, whether you are a salesperson or a company and you are FRUSTRATED with your B2B sales results, we can help you or your company with proven high-performance sales systems!

His Mission? To help 1 million sales professionals achieve their goals and dreams through high performance sales training!

Marcus Chan is the founder and president of Venli Consulting Group. He was born in the Pacific Northwest to two Chinese immigrant parents that came to America with dreams of building a future. Given the poor background he grew up in with his two sisters, they grew up in a scarce environment – EVERYONE pitched in to survive.

With no financial help from his parents, he put himself through college and also earned his MBA a few years into the workforce. he eventually went to work for two international Fortune 500 companies over the next decade.

BY THE TIME HE WAS 22, HE HAD BUILT HIS FIRST MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS.

Within the next several years during his tenure with both companies, he was promoted ten different times in ten years, broke many sales records, won awards trips and trophies, hired/trained/coached/mentored hundreds of people, promoted to a Regional Director of Sales over 11 teams of 110+ employees for a $6.8B Fortune 500 organization, and was consistently recognized nationally as one of the top leaders in the organization every single year! As a result of his fortunate business success fueled by a little luck, a LOT of hustle, and PLENTY of mistakes…

HIS TEAMS AND HIM HAVE GENERATED $700M+ IN CONTRACTED NEW BUSINESS SALES BY HIS EARLY 30’S!

Marcus eventually left the corporate world due to his passion of wanting to do something greater to give back to the world. He launched Venli Consulting Group in 2019 and has not look back since! Marcus currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Sara, and his son Roman.

If you or your company are ready to take your sales results to the next level, contact him using the information above.

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CERCA Talent is a full-service Talent Firm with strategic focus in the areas of Life Sciences, Diagnostics, Genomics and Biotechnology.

Our clients choose to work with CERCA because of our deep understanding of the industries that we serve. They continue to work with us based on our knowledge and contacts which lead to amazing service to our clients. By working with the best clients, we are able to support them hiring the best talent in the industry.

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Your host, Scott Rivers, is the Managing Director at Cerca Talent+, a Global Recruitment Solutions firm, where he directs the Diagnostics, Device and Genetics Talent Acquisition activities for the organization. Scott’s background as a recruiter, search firm owner and industry sales and marketing director, gives him an inequitable advantage in today’s talent market. Regarded as an expert in Talent Acquisition and Employment Technology, Scott has consulted some of the largest companies in the world on how best to implement talent acquisition strategies into daily practice.

Scott’s past experiences include senior sales and marketing roles at global organizations including Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson. His last industry position was the Global Director of Oncology Marketing at a Johnson & Johnson Company. There, he was responsible for all upstream and downstream marketing activities pertaining to the molecular oncology products of the organization.

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