Business is under attack.  The economy has changed all the rules.  Every company survives by the loyalty of their employees. Executives work in the board room; making decisions about the direction of their company without ever considering the ramifications on their hardest working employees and/or team members….those that make the company what it is.

CBS has launched an interesting program on Sunday evenings titled “Undercover Boss”.  The premise of the show is having the president of a company go “undercover” into the different aspects of the company’s operations.  They work in the day to day operations as a trainee, and learn exactly how their boardroom decisions impact the employees, customer service and delivered product.

All sales professionals are basically CEO’s of their business. They must act like a CEO, think like a CEO and understand how each employee of his or her team impacts their ability to do business.

How would your business look to you if you went into the trenches and worked all the small jobs that make your company run?  Would you find happy employees, feeling privileged to work at a great company? Or would you find employees unhappy with every aspect of the management, but afraid of losing their job?  Would your customers be raving fans?

Most companies focus heavily on customer/client service. What that makes the customer/client happy and willing to give repeat business plus referrals? For management, the customer begins with the employees.  They are the company’s first point of customer service. If the employee feels taken advantage of, feels the pay scale is unfair, the work hours are long and unreasonable, or they are unable to understand the logic behind management decisions, how can they be the cheerleaders’ for the company they work for?  Service starts well before the sale.

Empowerment…enable them to make decisions.

Being a customer driven company means every employee must have a clear understanding of how his or her job impacts the customer—from  the receptionist at the front desk, to the CEO of your organization.  This means giving the employee a certain level of empowerment within their job descriptions.  Allowing the employee to make decisions, for the benefit of the customer/client and knowing that they will have the support of management.  This doesn’t mean they make decisions willy-nilly, but they are trained effectively and efficiently to satisfy the client’s needs without having to “get permission” from someone higher up.


Sales Professionals spend their lives working with people.  Success in sales is dependent upon being able to communicate clearly verbally and in writing.  Building and maintaining networks and business relationships is the bread and butter of sales.  There also has to be a high level of mentoring and coaching within the sales team and the ability to address conflicts. This is NOT the Wednesday morning sales meeting where everyone’s presence is required and their time is tied up for a meaningless pep talk.  Learn about your team members. Learn what drives them and inspires them.  Recognize and reward achievement.  Commit to employee development while teaching employee accountability.  Understand that while a certain level of expectation is necessary in order to deliver a consistent product, how those sales professionals get there may be different. Embrace the talents your team members have and encourage any process that morally, legally and ethically fits your company or teams goal.

Share your vision with your team.  Allow them to be a part of the vision. Share the risk and returns of decisions and allow the teams’ input. Their understanding of how your company or team functions automatically gives them the empowerment to help build a company of success.

What would your company or team look like if you went into the ranks as a new hire?  Would you sense their strong commitment? Would you find training adequate? Is there a passion for every job? Is integrity the basis for the business? Finally, are you making it possible for your employees and team members to succeed? Are you giving them the tools they need to be the most efficient and successful in their jobs, to the company and to you?  Can you take responsibility for failures and turn them into successes?

“No (one) of us is smarter than all of us.”---author unknown

Whether you are the CEO of a major company or the head of your department, achieving a level of success takes much more than just your determined attitude.  Your business, your sales team, your department is dependent upon everyone working together to create an atmosphere of consistency, concern, empowerment and efficiency.  All of this together will create a sales team that will be a driving force within your industry.  Dig deep, go undercover, learn who makes your company tick and change the things that are holding you back.  Ferret out the best ideas and rethink the old ones. Learn what is important to your employees (or sales team) and build a strategy that embraces their ideas. Keep ahead of the game—your business success depends on it.

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