INSPIRING HIGH-PERFORMANCE IN
SME SALES & LEADERSHIP TEAMS
"I inspire better performance from Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sales reps, managers, and supervisors by engaging the fire within them. When you're in a sales or leadership role, this matters because to be effective, you need to light this spark in other people as well. " - Coach Leon
The secret to having more self-managed employees
Business owners I work with dread having to micro-manage. It eats up the time and energy that they would rather use for planning, leading growth initiatives, or enjoying personal interests relating to hobbies, health, friends, and family.
But many of them say it’s unavoidable because their organizations lean on them hard – even for petty decision-making, getting people to comply with basic rules, and handling day-to-day client concerns.
My name is Coach Leon, and in this story, I’m going to tell you about how I found the formula for more self-managed employees.
I used to believe that good coaching and training were about “edutainment”.
Edutainment— or combining education and entertainment—translates to learning while having fun. And the participants in my training sessions did have fun.
I got invited again and again because my feedback scores from participants were high owing to my engaging style of teaching that I learned from various world-class presenters.
Until I started to learn salsa dancing
In my mid-40s, I gave in to my Antonio Banderas in the movie “Take The Lead” dancing fantasies and enrolled in a dance class. I loved the idea of learning a new off-beat skill.
It looked doable enough. And fun.
It took longer than I imagined
I spent half a year in weekly lessons before I became somewhat comfortable to dance in public. I used more time at dance socials holding my drink and palpitating than actual dancing.
And it took even longer for me to have the courage to ask strangers to the floor and sway like no one was watching. I found it more comfortable to deliver a presentation on stage in front of a hundred STRANGERS, versus dancing with eight acquaintances watching.
Then came my a-ha moment
I realized that when acquiring skills that are performed under a lot of social pressure, like sales and leadership, edutainment is not enough. It takes time, effort and courage. And it’s not always fun.
Armed with this insight, I redesigned my coaching programs.
Now my mission is to help hands-on business owners through longer, more intensive coaching programs that truly impact employee performance.
I work with their sales and leadership teams, delivering learning experiences that transform their performance in the most critical situations.
So that they can do their jobs without being micro-managed.
(And perhaps, the business owner will finally have the time to learn salsa, too!)
Do you struggle with these issues?
They call you to seek your guidance for even minor decisions, practically eating up your day.
When you get to observe them during client calls or meetings, they show low prospect engagement due to poor rapport and consultation skills.
Your managers and supervisors don't initiate improvements. They exhibit 'within-the-box' thinking and play safe.
Your sales reps have an over-reliance on discounts and concessions to close deals. They turn to you to approve each of these. You wish they would sell on the merits of your products more.
You wish they could both inspire and discipline the staff under them better.
Frustratingly, they lack persuasiveness and conviction in delivering sales presentations.
Some of My Mentors
Steve Schiffman:
Steve was one of my first mentors when I decided to go into coaching full-time. He has written over 53 books in sales and consulting. He taught me secrets to sales success from having the right mindset to savvy selling scripts.
Blair Singer:
Blair is another early mentor. He helped me become a more engaging trainer. Blair has trained hundreds of thousands of people around the world on leadership, sales, and personal development skills.
Harv Eker:
Harv Eker is an author, businessman, and motivational speaker known for his theories on entrepreneurship and motivation. He is the author of the best-selling book "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind".
And many more
Other world-class sales and personal development trainers I’ve worked with are: Harv Eker (best-selling author, speaking coach), Barney Wee (NLP trainer), Jane Atkinson (speaking coach), James Leong (NLP trainer), Zoltan Hrotko (speaking coach), Peter Hawe (coaching mentor), Leah Zveglich (coaching mentor), and Larry Gillman (actor-director, speaking coach)
Upgrade your team's sales
and leadership savy!
