(1)
Almost Always

(P) I invest substantial time in recruiting people who can sell even when I don't have any open positions.

(P) I plan ahead to give my employees opportunities to learn selling skills by observing me or other effective salespeople sell.

(C) I coach primarily with QUESTIONS that force my employees to evaluate their own selling and the consequences of their actions.

(F) My coaching ratio of reinforcing what employees are doing RIGHT to correcting employees is at least 2:1.

(P) I spend 30% or more of my time face to face with the sales employees I supervise.

(S) I ask our salespeople to establish relationship goals and customer action objectives for our most profitable customers.

(C) I adjust my coaching to the behavior style and skill level of each employee.

(D) To assess all employee's sales performance, I look for the cause and effect link between my observations of his selling behavior and his actual sales production.

(F) I reward IMPROVEMENT in performance even if performance is not yet acceptable.

(P) I spend more coaching time per person with new employees and average performers than with marginal performers.

(S) In managing routine retail sales I encourage more sales activity and more use of our preferred selling skills, but in managing sales to our key accounts I encourage planning and working SMARTER.

(C) I SELL the benefits of better performance to my employees just as I SELL the benefits of products to my customers.

(D) I maintain a record of my coaching contacts that helps me monitor exactly what help each employee needs from me to support his selling.

(F) I talk to my best sales employees individually about performance when things are going well, not just when they foul up.

(P) Each quarter, each of my employees prepares a 90 Day Action Plan for achieving sales production goals and three sales behavior goals.

(S) I review and sometimes revise employee objectives for customer action PRIOR to their making calls to important customers or prospects.

(C) I devote specific coaching time to developing the optimism and mental toughness of my staff.

(D) I use performance appraisals effectively for diagnosis of personal development needs for focusing employees on desired FUTURE behavior.

(F) When I give performance feedback, I focus on ONE priority behavior at a time even if the employee needs to improve on several skills.

(P) I know the critical sales production number that is most important to our success as a sales team and actively direct our selling activity to achieve that number.

(S) I frequently discuss with my employees their sales strategy for follow-up to specific customers.

(C) I coach one or two employees at a time in-depth in changing a few priority selling behaviors rather than try to coach everyone at once.

(D) I have a good sense of what motivates each of my salespeople beyond money, particularly my top performers.

(F) When I praise or correct employees, I'm so specific in describing the behavior I like or dislike that the employee knows exactly what the preferred behavior looks like, feels like, or sounds like.

(P) The sales meetings I hold with my staff seem effective in focusing my employees on improving their use of specific selling skills and strategies and in refocusing their priorities based on predetermined objectives for each meeting.