Fun and focus can work in an office environment.......

Several years ago I noticed my sales team having trouble out of the gate every Monday morning. Coffee surrounded by consistent tardiness created no less than a 3 hour lag in production. Equally as troubling was the casual dress Friday's that only represented casually working on the most critical day of the week. Still with the obvious solution before them, the team complained about having to occasionally work on the weekend to stay caught up with the demands of the job.

My solution? First I scheduled a weekly sales meeting at 8:00am (sharp) every Monday morning. We called this "Starting Line Monday". The idea was to create a fast start to the week with a highly energized, fast paced, and extremely productive sales meeting. The meeting was to be no longer than 30 minutes but packed with tons of information and training. This allowed the team to get right to work following the meeting. We had small break out meetings and a lot of communication throughout the rest of the week, but this stood as the only sales meeting as an entire team.

Casual Friday was a bit more of a dilemma. I challenged my team and I called it "Finish Line Friday." This was a total team effort to finish everything we possibly could by close of business Friday. This almost eliminated weekend wrap ups for the team allowing them time to re-charge their batteries. They returned energized and ready for "Starting line Monday" with passion and a sense of purpose.

Within 60 days of this new routine we grew sales 16% (year/year-same months) and our company moral was at an all time high. The work pace increased and that year we finished 47% above sales plan with the same head count. Fun and focus can work in an office environment when controlled and focused.

Accountability as a Sales Leader

I sincerely believe it is my obligation as the Sales Leader to be the first one to act and react in any circumstance. I also feel that the overall success of the sales team is solely my responsibility. If a performance issue should arise I must first examine my efforts before addressing the concern with the teammate. True Sales Leaders takes full responsibility for any negative result and credits the team for all victories.