SalesHQ

That's funny.  I felt like I was the ginea pig for critique in my last postition as Account Executive - Telephone....First when they started they wanted me to have a tape recorder hooked up to my phone.  Honestly that bothered me.  If I knew I was being taped that made me feel un natural.  I would always tell them...if you want to hear me on the phone..do not tell me when you are going to listen.  If you want to see how I really work on the phones... by me not knowing will give a true test on how well I perform.  They actually listened and applied that to our entire department and did away with the tape recorders on the desks...which I was happy about.  If I have a monitor right in front of me...I get stage fright so to say.  If I don't know I'm being recorded my sales presentation is much more natural.  My managers would sit as a group in an office and listen to me sometimes....sometimes they would forget I didn't like to know and say something like...call this person back...we want to hear you.  Sometimes I would just have to roll with it. 

They would also like to have managers come sit in our cubes.  I was not one for liking that either.  They usually didn't bother me about it and left me alone.  Some people would have a manager sit in their space all day.  Those people honestly didn't seem to be very productive with that situation either.

I had many phone evaluations.  I was one of the top reps in my department.  I do not know why some managers would like to pick on me...all these things added up to me becoming a stronger sales rep.  I think it would just depend on the manager too.  Because when I would talk to other AE's in the office, some would say they didn't get the evaluations and wanted them...and certainly I knew of some reps who really needed some improvement.

Bottom line for me though is just don't tell me you are monitoring me.  I don't care if you do...just don't let me know.  How can I improve if you do not catch me in a natural selling state.

Our office was suppost to be required to monitor reps a certain amount of times each canvass...our office had a performance plan.  Basically you had to perform our you got put on a step.  If you had three steps you could loose your job.  They would also give us annual evaluations.  This particular company was always evaluating us...very much.

I admit to having difficulty with being critqued or critquing someone else. I have not had any "bad" reviews that I can remember, most were fairly pleasant affairs and good learning experiences. The ones that weren't I instantly put out of my mind and that's where they have stayed. As for struggling with critquing others I blame my mother. She always told if I couldn't find anything nice to say about someone to not say anything at all. hmmm....

Good point James, also makes employee responsible for their own actions, or lack of.  Like the emp-buy in.  Have seen some managers even have the employee sign an "agreement", like a contract, committing to the action.  Certainly makes one accountable.  AND, eliminates any possibility of miscommunication as to what is expected!

Claudia emotion is rarely  taken out of it.Emotion can be removed by the one  that is doing the critique however the one who is being critique has a difficult time removing the emotion. This is a natural reaction. A good or great review the emotion is happy afterwards. The emotion of a bad or terrible review is the opposite we are required to understand and communicate skilfully with how it is said. The skill of communication is tested when doing this.

 My father was very skillfull communicating with his staff about improvements and change. They wouold thank him for a productive meeting and 15 minutes later realize that they were told in no uncertain terms that change was going to happen.

Claudia

  It is nearly impossible for them to reach me.I refuse to bring a phone into a clients home or place of business.I want the client to know at all times that they have my complete attention and my focus is on them and  providing a long term solution.

 As far as examples. I can remove emotion  however I have no control over another persons emotion. I can guide that emotion however the normal reaction from people who are realizing or not realizing the need for change  is resistence. That is the reason change is so hard to bring forward.Old habits that worked in the past and  no longer work provide the resistence. Most experts inform us that it takes at least 21 days to break old habits and that is from someone that admits the old habit needs to be broken.

  How many times have you heard the economy is to blame for a lost sale? I hear more and more from others in b2c that a new objection to them is the " your over qualified" objection. The price is too high and every other false objection out there. It is difficult to find a sales person to admit  and take full responsibility for their process as a reason there is a no sale. These are the ones who refuse to change and cannot take the emotion out of a critique session.

  I am going to point to a few sales people where I work. We had a female manager and I loved her. She wa s great to work with. We had two sales people who did not like the fact that they had to receive orders from her let alone her critique.They refused to work with her and change their way. There is more to this story that I can write you however the short story. The manager left us and finally the owner understood and those two  sales people are no longer with us.

Gold, I am sorry I just saw your post!  I think my computer is on cookie preference.  Now, were I critiquing my computer, I would be saying all the things you did and then some, but under my breath, lol. 

Seriously though, would you really say what you wrote?  Would you snap and go off on someon that made a mistake, or screwed up something even very important?  You are aware there are some things we just Can NOT say to employees or they could own a portion of your business!  Besides, I think , especially if you have kids, you may already know some ways to calm yourself before you "REACT"

HiringExpert says ...

 I would make an effort to not re-act to any situation, work, home, or in public. This is discipline.  Re-acting has its place, and I'm think it is there for protection, like adrenalin.  

 

Gold, I’ve read many of your posts throughout the forums, and I think you’re more self disciplined than to just re-act to someone in the manner you described.  Maybe I'm wrong.  If I am, then I suggest no matter what the circumstances, before someone or you yourself, re-acts, you make an effort to first STOP,(like counting to 10) before you do anything, and then THINK about what has happened, and decide if your first thought of re-acting warrants your blood pressure  shooting up, and if your blood pressure IS shooting up, then REMOVE yourself from the situation until you can calmly handle it.  Re-acting to ANYTHING is usually not beneficial to anyone, not even your health. 

 

I created my own quote: “Re-action is action without any (prepared) thought or planning"

By the way, here’s a cool quote that you might like:  "Discipline is doing what has to be done when it has to be done whether you want to or not”.  I think, that controlling our Re-actions takes learned discipline. I think that RE-ACTING is the same as:

 

Providing a Response without thought,  or

Giving an Answer without thought,  or

Providing Feedback without thought!

I wrote so much about this, it ended up being a small article, lol.  The "jist" of what I had written ( I'd be ex-communicated, it’s so long, lol!) is this:  re-acting is just like any other thing we learn,  We can unlearn it or replace it with different behavior.  We can and should learn to act rather than re-act.  Like a habit, and I would think re-acting is a learned habit, we can practice and learn to NOT re-act.  We can teach ourselves a new habit. (act, not re-act).  One that involves stopping and thinking before acting.  Like a fireman, that has skill when fighting fires, still won't burst into a burning home without thought or plan, yet in a way has learned it so well, it is second nature, like a re-action, but in fact is a learned, practiced, thought out, planned act.  

I hope this shortened version makes sense!

 

Your right, I have been giving that situation some thought and it probably was a pretty well thought out critique. This was the condensed version... months of stress, sleep deprivation, no time off, and not to forget the ol adreneline addiction and even the most self controlled can lose it.  But obviousely, he didn't go flying off a bridge so I didn't totally lose it:)

That all happened a long time ago... I am much more laid back now days:)

I agree with every aspect of your post! bet, everyone hs their breaking point. Mind came over 3 years and a lot of lost money, extra problems, and a whole list of failures... Now, some might say you need to know your limits but, unless you actually are faced with your limit, how do you know where your breaking point is?

But, from that experience came a lot of great lessons..

Gold, the older I get, the more I understand how it is through adversity that I learn my greatest lessons,... unfortunately, lol!