"It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game."

You’ve heard this platitude many times in your life — from a parent, teacher, coach, or friend. But, in the real world, how many times are you measured by your methods and not your results?

Failure is inevitable. No one wants to lose or fail, but it happens. In spite of the countless Baby Boomer parents who drove home self-esteem by pushing the "Everybody Wins" approach, ultimately, everyone succeeds at failing somewhere in their lives.

Look at professional baseball. A good hitter in the major league has a batting average of .300 or higher. That means he hits the ball 30% of the time. But this statistic also means the "slugger" fails to get on base for a whopping 70% of their at-bats. If you couldn’t deliver results on 70% of your attempts, would you be considered a high-powered professional? I doubt it.

While it’s great to drive home the "how you play the game" belief to children, at some point, they will have to accept that, with every winner, there is a loser. Once you grow past adolescence and into your profession, there is a scorecard on you, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. Success is not defined by simply trying. In fact, accepting the "how you play the game" methodology sets you up for failure because you give yourself permission to ignore the outcome.

The most successful home sales professionals I have seen are those who swing for the bleachers every time, putting their full force behind every sales effort with the goal of scoring the big one. Doing anything less than your best — out of laziness, fear, or procrastination — is an immediate strike-out.

Posted In: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training, New home sales marketing

One of the hardest tasks a manager ever has to do is terminate an employee. This concept of "firing" dates back to medieval times. When someone in a community was deemed to be unacceptable, that person’s hut was burned down, forcing them out.

We’re struggling with an economy that is forcing businesses to downsize. The workplace has become a competitive environment, where those who demonstrate the greatest value win the grand prize of keeping their jobs.

Even in a strong economy, managers have to let employees go, and the biggest reason is poor performance. Whether you tell them the decision is downsizing, a layoff, or outright firing, the result is the same: someone is out of work. And while the terminated employee clearly suffers the greatest loss, it is the manager who has to deal with the tough decision and its consequences.

Now, if you look at the behavioral economics of management, firing is, in truth, de-hiring. And this action is the result of the employee’s actions (or lack thereof), I do not fire anyone; I let them de-hire themselves. If an employee is late every day or unwilling to actively prospect for leads, I believe that person has made a choice not to comply with the clear-cut requirements of the job. With this action, he has chosen to de-hire himself. I merely affirm that decision.

When the termination time comes, I explain, "You’re a wonderful person, but I’m not judging you on your character but rather the fact that you have clearly decided not to comply with the needs of this position. So, do you want to change that behavior or de-hire yourself? The choice is yours."

With this simple statement, I remove any guilt on my part and reaffirm the employee’s responsibility. Behavioral Economics 101: It’s business, not personal.

Posted In: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Management Training, new home sales management

When I work with sales managers, the first lesson I teach them is about the value of behavioral economics. You must be able to remove your emotions when managing people. Your job is to manage, not just systems or processes such as sales and marketing tasks, but people as well. The problem with this reality, however, is that we tend to be very subjective in this regard when objectivity would be far more valuable. We want to view people in a qualitative manner ("he’s a good guy" or "she’s a nice person"). But are these the qualities you seek in a salesperson? Does "nice" close more deals?

When you evaluate an individual’s job performance, you are actually assessing their work behaviors as they pertain to the specific position and goals, not their personality traits. You are not evaluating the human being but the working professional, and it is crucial that you separate the two.

I’ve worked with managers who lose sleep because they have staff who are under-performing and don’t know how to tackle the challenge. Maybe your kids go to school together or you are members of the same community group, so you worry about the confrontation. These are personal commitments, not professional ones. The concern here is more focused on not offending the offender, when it should be tuned in to achieving the goal of betterment. Think of it this way: When you help an individual to improve, you improve your own value as a manager.

Performance is a reflection of attitude, and attitude is a behavior, not a person. Someone who is perpetually late is not a bad person, but simply an individual with bad behavior. Make it clear that the behavior, not the person, is unacceptable. Look at this worker and say, "I’m not judging you as a human being. I’m judging your behaviors, and what I’m seeing is the choice not to comply with the behaviors required for this job."

It’s not personal. It’s business. So don’t personalize your personnel management tasks. You have a business to run.

Posted In: New Home Sales, New Home Sales Training, new home sales management