Go for the Goal!

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 4 Comments

So the world didn’t end on the 21st of December. But let’s just pretend that we all have just one year left to exist. What would you do with that year?

What would you be willing to do to realize that fantastic, pie-in-the-sky, slightly crazy dream that you’ve had all your life?

A major key to success is to have big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs) running as undercurrents for everything we do in the present and in the near future.  A BHAG is the single purpose that underpins and drives everything a business is about and is striving for.

Author and business strategist Jim Collins says, “BHAGs are not just random goals … A good BHAG has to fit with what you’re passionate about, which includes your values. It has to fit with what best drives you.” We need to set our BHAGs and let them guide us every step of the way to reach our ideal destination.

I’ve been creating my list of goals for the New Year and thought I’d talk to you about your specific goals as well. I achieved some of my goals for 2012 but didn’t reach all of them.  I’m not going to let that happen again this year!

This time next year, at the end of 2013, there will be only two possible outcomes:

1. We will have accomplished our goals for the year and we’ll feel great about our achievements.

2. We will be in the exact same place we are today and will wonder where the time went and why we didn’t get what we wanted.

We need to set big goals for 2013. The challenge is then to turn those big goals into action, to keep ourselves accountable, and to do what we say we’re going to do. So carve out two hours this weekend and focus on your goals in order to build your blueprint for 2013.  Make the most of the upcoming year, because if you don’t, then no one will. 

As you start pondering your specific goals, think about what it’s going to take to achieve them. It’s easy to say that I want to win awards as a salesperson or that I want to make $200,000, but I must think about all of the different things that have to occur to make these goals reality. 

I would challenge you to set a minimum of two professional goals and two personal goals.

Once your list of goals is established, it’s time to start looking at each goal individually. Identify specific behaviors needed to reach your goal—I call this “making your game plan.” Putting a specific plan together for each goal can be a difficult process, but it is necessary.  The whole point in having a plan is to establish a road map to get you where you want to go.

If your goal as a sales professional in 2013 is to make $ 200,000, then you should calculate what you need to sell on a quarterly, monthly, and on a daily basis. Then you can determine the specific behaviors that will produce the intended results.   This may include the number of surgeon calls, the number of scrubbed procedures, changed preference cards, referrals, and more.  Once you have these parameters set up, your game plan is set, and now it’s time to execute. Keep in mind that this process can be applied to any goal; it just takes time and thought.  It’s not an easy path, but if you are seriously committed to achieving your goals, it is a powerful way to launch yourself to success.

One of the most important aspects of any goal setting venture is sharing—making our goals visible. We need to make our goals public, verifiable, open. Why? It’s all about accountability.  Sharing is a measure of our “stick-to-itiveness” to our goals. If we tell others about our goals, we can bet that our overall commitment to each goal will be considerably higher.  With that being said, I have decided to “walk the talk” and share my goals with you for 2013!

Personal: 

1)      Run the Denver Marathon on May 19, 2013.

2)      Complete a 7-day river raft expedition of the Grand Canyon July 2013.

 Professional:

1)      Read 40 nonfiction books on personal development and business education.

2)      CRUSH the numbers!  Exceed total revenue budget by 5% and Altrus quota by 10%.

 

Let’s all have a fantastic year by achieving all of our professional and personal goals!! 2013, BRING IT!!!

 

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A Glimpse into Success, Part I

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 3 Comments

As Vice President of Sales and Marketing at ConMed, I have the privilege of working with extremely talented people every day. I do not take this for granted, and I have decided to take a few weeks and shine the spotlight on some of our terrific employees and leaders. I wish I had time to highlight every single person’s achievements at ConMed! I hope you will enjoy reading about these remarkable people and their secrets to success in medical sales.

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John Christenbury has served as an Area Manager at ConMed since 2011. In just a year, John has made remarkable strides in the sales for his territory and is on track to finish this year as one of ConMed’s top Area Managers, thus securing a prestigious ConMed award—President’s Club. John is described as a top leader and a mentor to his Territory Managers, encouraging their success through coaching by objectives and taking an active role in their development.  I am privileged to work alongside John, and I recently asked him some questions regarding his sales career:

 

If someone wants to be in medical sales, and, more specifically, wants to sell Altrus for ConMed, please describe what types of scenarios to expect.

If you love a challenging, intellectual sell, then you would love selling Altrus. With Altrus, you are in one of the most competitive environments in the OR. You have to be aggressive, and you also have to know the anatomical “lingo.” This isn’t a job for the average salesmen. If you hate a challenging sell that requires doing your homework before stepping into the Operating Room, then maybe this isn’t the job for you.

 

Have you ever had a surgeon that, at the outset, was completely disinterested in your product but is now a big believer? What changed that surgeon’s mind? How did you get through to him or her?

Absolutely. There have been a few different instances when the surgeon who shot the product down initially ended up as a top Altrus surgeon. One instance that comes to mind involves a general surgeon I pursued for a few months. He explained to me in several ways how he had no problems with his current instrument. I was in the Operating Room one afternoon when he had a colon resection added to his schedule. I asked to observe his procedure just to learn his technique.

In the middle of the procedure, his instrument broke. The staff tried hooking up a new instrument, and that did not work either, so he looked at me and said, “Here’s your chance.” I hooked up Altrus and put it in his hands. Immediately, he loved how quick it was and the hemostasis achieved with it. If I hadn’t been persistent with him, then he may have never given me the time of day. 

 

What has been your most exciting moment in the OR?

My most exciting moment in the Operating Room had to be the first time one of my surgeons used Altrus. I was the third or fourth rep in the company to sell Altrus, so using this product in a human procedure was still fairly new. The procedure was a hysterectomy and went flawlessly! The surgeon was so sold on the benefits of the instrument that he began coaching his partner midway through the procedure on why Altrus was better than what they were currently using. I knew Altrus was a game changer at that point!

 

What has been your most challenging moment in the OR?

My most challenging moment in the Operating Room probably came when I was just starting out. I was about a month into my first medical sales position without my manager. I was told to work with a surgeon that was currently using our equipment but was unhappy with it because he didn’t see the hemostasis he was looking for. I naively approached him before the procedure, suggesting that since our equipment was in the top hospitals in the U.S., I wasn’t sure anything was wrong with the equipment.

That was the WRONG thing to say. He didn’t care about those top hospitals at all, and he let me know it. I had to go outside the OR and call a colleague for help. My colleague’s advice was to ask questions and use my technical knowledge. Eventually, we found out what was not working and diffused the situation. I learned to ask questions rather than act like a know-it-all. 

 

How important is goal setting to your success? How do you go about determining your goals and achieving them?

I use goal setting religiously. At the beginning of the year, the beginning of each quarter, and the beginning of each day, I set goals. It’s important to set your long-term goals and then also have short-term, achievable goals that build up to hitting those long-term goals. It’s very important to write those goals down on a sheet of paper. To me, writing them down makes them that much more real. I keep track of my goals by checking them off the list and then measure where I’m at quarterly in relation to my long-term goals.

 

How do you handle adversity in the field when things don’t go your way?

Not every day is perfect. When things get tough, I try to step back and slow everything down. It’s easy to respond quickly, but sometimes you may shoot yourself in the foot with a quick answer. I try to use questioning to uncover information and then plan a way to handle what’s come up unexpectedly. 

 

How do you plan your day?  How far in advance do you plan?

In a perfect world, I plan out my day two weeks in advance. It’s helpful to set meetings far enough out to give plenty of time to prepare. I always made sure as a rep to get in the Operating Room first thing in the morning. Our highest chance of success begins and ends in the Operating Room. Working procedures in the morning and attending set meetings with decision makers in the afternoon was always the template I tried to abide by. 

 

What is your best advice for a brand new salesperson? 

My best advice for a new salesperson is to reach out to the individuals that are the most successful in the company. Those people are successful for a reason. Find out how they’ve become successful, and incorporate small aspects of their strategies into your job.

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Finish Strong!

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Sean Moore | | Leave a comment

What will you do to finish this year well?

Julie Moss is an American triathlete. She first became known during the 1982 Ironman Triathlon, in which she competed as part of her research for her doctorate. The race wasn’t what she envisioned, and she did not finish in the way she expected for her first Ironman Triathlon. Julie was leading the event in Hawaii and was less than 500 yards from the finish.

Suddenly, she felt her legs buckle and her body give out. She collapsed and then got up, only to fall again and again. Desperate to complete the race, Moss crawled the last 15 feet, reaching out with her left hand to touch the line a mere 31 seconds after another competitor had passed her by and crossed the finish line before she did.

The Ironman aired on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Within hours, the network was flooded with calls from viewers wondering if Moss had survived the grueling ordeal. In response, ABC flew Julie to its New York studio for an interview. After that came numerous television appearances and even a TV movie based loosely on her experience. Says Moss, “I fell into being famous—literally.”

And her fame endures: Moss’s performance over 25 years ago, which helped lift the triathlon into mainstream sports, has been preserved on YouTube and seen by tens of thousands.

“What I did that day wasn’t pretty to see,” Julie says. “What shined through was the humanness of my struggle. That determination is inside everybody.”

Here is the video of Julie’s amazing finish:

A few years ago, I read an insightful book called Finish Strong by Dan Green. While many people at the end of this year are winding down, celebrating the holiday season and getting ready for Christmas, some of us in sales are determined to achieve performance objectives and finish strong. The words “finish strong” have greater meaning as a whole than the sum of their parts.

As Dan Green illustrates, when we combine the word “finish” with “strong”, we create a powerful platform for action. Imagine the impact these two words can have in achieving excellence or dealing with any challenge. To quote Dan Green:

“Regardless of what came before or of what has yet to come, what matters most right now is how to respond to the challenge before me. Will I lie down or will I fight? The choice is mine and I choose to FINISH STRONG.”

You may not always get the result you are looking for, but there is great satisfaction in knowing that you gave it everything you had. In the end, our greatest accomplishments are not the end of our greatness but are merely a launching pad to other bigger and greater things to come.

Moss did not win the 1982 triathlon race, but she chose to not give up. She chose to finish, and most importantly, she gave it everything she had—leaving everything on the race course as she crawled across the finish line.

Moss has become an iconic symbol of hard work and determination for the Ironman race. Her race and ensuing popularity pushed an obscure sport into the limelight; in 1982 there were 250 triathlons with a total of 60,000 participants. A year later, those numbers jumped to 600 triathlons and 600,000 participants.

As Dan Green states at the end of his book:

“May your greatest achievements be in front of you and may you always Finish Strong!”

As many of you come down the home stretch, striving for those sales accolades and end of year awards that are only a few weeks away, I encourage you to give it your all!

For another inspirational video, watch Dan Green in his Finish Strong video:

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Read and Succeed!

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Sean Moore | | Leave a comment

Over the past couple of weeks, my blog posts have focused on personal growth. Two weeks ago, I shared how to be a lifelong learner, and last week I wrote an entry about strategies for continuing self-education.

They don’t teach success in schools, and because I’ve always wanted success in my career, I have looked to books for knowledge on how to become successful in business. This week I will give you a starting point for personal empowerment as I share my top 10 book choices that will provide timeless principles for energy, motivation, and success. 

Get them. Read them. Study them.

When you’ve digested the contents of these personal development books, you will be more than ready to get to the important part of your success journey—getting into action.

These are listed in no particular order (click on book to be directed to Amazon):

 1.  The Sandler Rules: 49 Timeless Selling Principles and How to Apply Them – by David Mattson

Have you ever wondered why some salespeople work hard and struggle for every deal, while others consistently—and almost effortlessly—close sales and uncover new opportunities? Why is it that two salespeople selling the same product in the same market can have such different results? The Sandler method is a fantastic selling system that allows a salesperson to understand the physiologic aspects of selling within a system. 

 

2.  Emotional Intelligence 2.0 – by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves

To be successful and survive in today’s society, individuals need to have the necessary communication and organizational skills to make sound decisions and interact with each other. This book helps you develop key skills such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management to aid in your everyday decision making at work and in your personal life.

 

3.  The Compound Effect – by Darren Hardy

When I graduated from college, I weighed 185 pounds.  Over the course of ten years, I managed to balloon up to 227 pounds.  After my annual physical and a lecture from my caring primary physician, I realized that I needed to make some changes.  I was reading The Compound Effect at the time—this book is based on the principle that small decisions shape the course of our lives. Over the next few months, I began applying this principle and lost 50 pounds! We can all apply the principles in this book to many key areas of life: business, career, family, and health.

 

4.  Strength Finder 2.0 – by Tom Rath

In today’s business world, we are often so focused on fixing weaknesses that we can easily forget about tapping into our natural talents and strengths. We would do well to devote more time to finding and maximizing our strengths! This book, along with an online assessment (activation code included in the book), will enable you to discover your top five talents and will then give you strategies for developing your unique skills.

 

5.  The One Minute Manager – by Kenneth H. Blanchard

This book is a must read for anyone in or pursuing a leadership position. The One Minute Manager is a concise, easily read story that reveals three very practical secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands.  This is an invaluable resource for any new manager.

 

 

6.  Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership – by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi

After you have read the One Minute Manager, your next read should be this book.  People who feel good about themselves produce good results.  This book teaches managers the art of situational leadership. You’ll learn how to tailor your management style to individual employee’s competence and commitment levels while also learning when to delegate, support, coach, or direct in each situation.

 

7.  Monday Morning Mentoring: Ten Lessons to Guide You Up the Ladder – by David Cottrell

Everyone needs a mentor—someone who has seen it all before and can share experiences of success and failure, thus teaching valuable lessons.  This book is presented as a parable in which a struggling businessman seeks out a tremendously accomplished executive, who agrees to mentor him every Monday morning for ten weeks. In the course of these insightful sessions, you will discover the secrets of real leadership on your own road to success.

 

8.  Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times – by Donald T. Phillips

As leaders, we all go through different phases in our companies.  The tough times are when our companies needs us most, and who better to set an example for leadership in challenging times than President Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln on Leadership tells the tale of one of the most influential presidents in American history. It’s a quick read that really touches the core of leadership, and the author does a terrific job in extracting crucial jewels of leadership wisdom by analyzing Lincoln’s actions. 

 

9.  The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership – by James C. Hunter

When leading people, you have two choices: to lead with power or to lead with authority.  Effective leaders lead primarily with authority, and one way to develop that skill is to lead people with a servant mentality. In this book, you watch the timeless principles of servant leadership unfold through the story of John Daily, a businessman whose outwardly successful life is spiraling out of control. To get his life back on track, he reluctantly attends a weeklong leadership retreat at a remote Benedictine monastery. The principles in this book are neither new nor complex, and they can be applied by anyone, anywhere.

 

10.  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable – by Patrick Lencion

This is a great book for anyone who works in a team environment.  The author does a nice job exploring the basics of why teams fail. Lencioni illustrates principles through the telling of a fable, and he also provides suggestions for overcoming team dysfunction—all in a very structured and concise delivery. This is a great book for everyone in all levels of leadership or for anyone who works with people in general.

 

I hope you enjoy these timeless classics.  Please let me know about your favorite books, as I am always looking for a good book to read.  Happy reading!!!

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The Keys to Self-Education

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 1 Comment

Last week, we discussed the importance of continuing self-education, and we learned that self-education is important not only for our business lives as salespeople, but for our personal lives as well.

Interesting people are those who continue to educate themselves throughout their lives.

What exactly is self-education, you may ask?

It is what you teach yourself and what you learn every day while you move along the measuring tape of life. It is improving, learning, and growing.

As you travel through the linear progression of life, and you find yourself headed down the wrong path, you don’t need motivation to speed things up—you need education to turn yourself around.  Learning is the beginning of prosperity, success, and wealth.  A whopping 75% of our lives are lived after we complete our formal education, and, after this, the rest is up to us.  Legislation dictates that we attend school until the 12th grade. Many of us go on to college, but true success comes from deciding to learn for the rest of our lives.

There are many ways to learn. 

One method is found in learning from other successful people.

Another method grows out of learning from our own experiences: gleaning insights from both our successes and our failures. 

An often overlooked way to learn is the simple act of reading.  The average nonfiction book is 200 pages long, and the average person can read one page in two minutes.  If you were to commit to read twenty minutes a day, by the end of one year you will have read 18 books!  Imagine how this simple activity could increase your self-awareness and lead to greater success in business and in life.

Have you ever wanted to sit down with great leaders or famous thinkers? You can learn from other successful people by reading their books and biographies. 

Reading these types of books opens our minds to new ideas—these new ideas are like seeds that will grow in our hearts and minds, and, when applied to our lives, these principles generate our own achievements and successes. 

The knowledge and inspiration we receive from books moves us forward to success. 

I will say it again: make the last 75% of your life count!  Establish your place in life and in the sales business by growing through self-education every day.

As Dr. Seuss once said,

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

 

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