+ All Categories
Home > Business > Meet-Beat Your Way To Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Meet-Beat Your Way To Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Date post: 13-Jan-2015
Category:
Upload: george-evans
View: 84 times
Download: 0 times
Share this document with a friend
Description:
If you would like a FREE copy of this book email me with "Send Book' to [email protected] Part 1 of The Executive Summary shows you a technique that will have you smashing targets like an adrenalin fueled downhill ride and not an uphill struggle.
Popular Tags:
32
Transcript
Page 1: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement
Page 2: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Meet-Beat Your Way To Market Beating Sales Growth And Performance Improvement

Part 1 In The Executive Summary Series of Business Insights

by George Evans

Copyright 2010 George Evans

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including

information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only

exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

First Printing: November 2010

Published for the Internet by eBookIt.com

http://www.eBookIt.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0010-5

Page 3: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

DedicationThis book is dedicated to my amazing wife Natasha;

lover, friend, home builder and guiding light.

Thank you for finding me.

Page 4: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Introduction To The SeriesThe Executive Summary – Succinct Business Insights

That Get Right To The Point

You’re an owner/manager or senior exec in a corporation and flat out making your business a success. You’ve got snatched moments for inspiration and nuggets of wisdom but you want it delivered in fast and succinct way.

How many times have you bought a business book and the concept is buried in 500 pages of padding. If you could just get it boiled down into a few pages then you can practically apply it in your own situation.

The Executive Summary gets right to the point. It gives you the concept and some practical ways that the author has used them and leaves the rest to you.

Page 5: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Table of ContentsChapter 1: Targets as an art form

Chapter 2: What is an effective target?

Chapter 3: Why do so many people set the wrong targets?

Chapter 4: The impact of poor target setting

Chapter 5: Understanding an effective target

Chapter 6: “Meet-Beat” in the poker world (and start-up businesses)

Chapter 7: “Meet-Beat” for the professional sports person

Chapter 8: How to achieve even higher levels of growth

Chapter 9: Build an environment of confidence

Chapter 10: Targets and motivation - the big issue

Chapter 11: “Meet-Beat” In a mature business – setting a base level

Chapter 12: Summary of the “Meet-Beat” principles

Chapter 13: Time to do a trial of the “Meet-Beat” principles

Chapter 14: Rewards

Chapter 15: “Meet-Beat” and rewards in tandem

Chapter 16: Summary of the concept of “Meet-Beat” and rewards

Chapter 17: Now go for it with “Meet-Beat”

Page 6: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Chapter 1: Targets as an art form.We’ve all been there…. Set a target too high and it’s

perceived as too difficult or unachievable and it ends up being a massive de-motivator.

Set it too low and people slow down as they know they will get a bigger one next time.

Start-ups or big corporations, private or public sector it seems we are constantly challenged by this dilemma.

If I could just get back the man-hours spent trying countless systems and techniques to crack this most intriguing of problems.

Yet when I looked around there were many examples of individuals and organisations that did it; athletes and sports men and women got to the absolute pinnacle of their chosen sport; individuals got to the top of their chosen profession; organizations that harnessed effective targeting owned their chosen marketplaces; teams thrived on the aura that continued success gave them.

I really wanted to know their secret of success and then BINGO! I got it, tried it, and then used it in every area of my life where I wanted to generate an improvement or achieve a goal.

This book is not about positive thinking (albeit it will help!) and I am not asking you to join some extreme business cult or modern day religion.

This book is a common sense approach to the ART of effective targeting and goal setting and how it underpins personal and organizational success in the growth culture that is the 21st century.

Page 7: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

In fact I am pretty certain that once you understand the “how?” you will say to yourself “sure I knew that” and “how can it be that simple” yet individuals, teams and corporations all over the globe are still wrestling with this most perplexing of issues.

Adopting what I learnt will deliver outstanding results whether personal, team or across entire corporations.

I am so convinced this book will change your outlook and performance but be very careful…. whatever you do don’t on any account share this with a competitor!

Chapter 2: What is an effective target?

C’mon this bit is easy right? … or, is it?.... heard any of these?:

In whose opinion is that target right?

Why isn’t it too high?

Why isn’t it too low?

Why does the most senior person get to set or agree the target?

Why do we even need targets, were doing OK, aren’t we?

Targets, targets, targets,,, please just let me get on with my job! (or life)

Then there’s “gaming” to contend with.

Gaming is the counter measure to targets that the brightest people use. Gamers are like water; they follow the line of least resistance; give them a target and they see it as

Page 8: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

a challenge to crack it; they will find the way to beat it without a change in behavior or performance.

I would like to thank the gamers for they set me on the right track. Harness the creativity of the “gamer”; get him on your side. In a way we are all “gamers” looking for the least line of resistance and an easy way through life.

Strange really isn’t it? We only come this way once and we are happy to cheat ourselves out of our own true potential and the success that is open to every one of us irrespective of colour, creed, schooling or intellect.

So what’s the answer?

Well, I regret having to tell you that all targets in their own way are wrong… if you were lucky enough to get them right today then you have just ensured that they are wrong tomorrow, next week or next month. There is no such thing as a good target!

AUTHORS NOTE

It’s at this point you are thinking “this guy is a crackpot”. You are probably now regretting the purchase of this book and you’re wondering if you can you cancel the purchase, get your money back and get the free copy you gave away back from that respected colleague before they turn a page.

STICK WITH IT…… by the time you get half way I guarantee you won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough.

Chapter 3: Why do so many people set the wrong targets?

This bit is easy…..

Page 9: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

First of all we are all pressurised into having targets. They are a crutch we lean on to spur on performance. In my experience they are rarely effective when used in the traditional manner. They are particularly poorly used by that brand of entrepreneur that thinks everyone is not giving their best or as good as them … ignore this it comes from a dangerous sense of insecurity and absolutely crushes your self-esteem, creativity and high performance.

There is much confusion between a target and a goal. A target is normally an actual amount, particularly in a sales context. Words describing a goal are more like; ambition, purpose or aspiration.

In my experience with motivating individuals I find that agreeing goals in this context is far more palatable and inspiring than giving out cold, hard targets which I find tend to be a cause of conflict and are very often highly de-motivating. If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of an unrealistic target from an uninspiring, Neanderthal manager you know exactly how motivating it is!

Chapter 4: The impact of poor target setting

I’ve seen targets destroy the seed of brilliance and not allow it to flourish and develop. I’ve seen targets destroy confidence and talent because they were just totally unrealistic. I’ve seen business goals and corporate cultures distorted by poorly thought through targets.

And yet the majority of us are obsessed by them.

You will also be familiar with the situation where a sales guy will rubbish targets he doesn’t believe in to all his peers

Page 10: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

and before you know it you have a much bigger morale issue to deal with.

I’m going to give a really strong clue here about the “how” of really effective targeting…. The first rule of fantastic targeting is not to set levels but to strive for continuous period on period improvement.

Chapter 5: Understanding an effective target

An effective target motivates, inspires and drives people on to “show off” how great they are. Smashing targets becomes like an adrenalin fuelled downhill ride and not an uphill struggle.

Is this the thing of textbooks I hear you say.. hell no but I’ve seen it working and experienced the rush you get.

Consistently beating target in every period

Ever heard of a target that works for any period, be it hourly, daily, weekly, quarterly or annually?

Well now we’re onto it. The very essence of a great targeting is not the focus on an absolute number. Instead I would suggest that it’s about the achievement of that magic word…. growth!

Imagine this… if we could do the same or better in every period then surely we must grow. And whatever period I look at it works.

You may have instantly got this but let’s just ponder on this for a few moments…..

I have a team of 10 people and they can take £1,000 of orders in their first hour. I ask them in the second hour to

Page 11: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

focus on “meet or beat” the first hour achievement, it doesn’t matter how small the improvement if they meet or beat that last period they’re doing well. As a worst case I want them to at least meet the first hour achievement.

What happens? Well, we all know the answer to this …. three people (the rate-busters) beat it and do more than the £1,000. In fact one of them does twice as much. Four of them of them don’t fare so well but manage to “meet” the last hour and at least feel good about themselves. The rest don’t meet the goal but have observed the progress of the other seven and are going to try harder next hour.

Then it all starts again in the next hour with the focus on “Meet-Beat” again.

At the end of the day we count up and agree that tomorrow we will “Meet-Beat” today’s achievement. We do this for hours, days, weeks, quarters etc. Everyone gets focused and really enthused about “Meet-Beat”.

I promise you that you will be staggered that with every little improvement the compound growth achieved will stun your competitors.

Here’s an example:

The following table shows a sales executive doing just 0.005% increase in sales every day for 90 days. He turns his £1,000 per day sales achievement into £1,558.76 per day which is a staggering 56% growth in daily sales and delivers a compound month on month growth of 16%.

Page 12: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Now you might say… “heh that obvious it’s just maths”. Well let me tell you it is highly motivating to achieve such high growth figures with what seems so easy to achieve, even for the most average of sales guys.

And, there was no conflict or argument along the way. Both manager and sales guy were both just focused on “can I Meet-Beat my achievement last period”

Now this is where it really works…. If I miss this hour then I can still beat my daily period. If I miss my daily then I still can beat the weekly “Meet-Beat” goal etc. So you see there is never that feeling that I might as well forget it now as I am never even going to get near hitting my target.

Page 13: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

I promise you try this… the impact on the psychology of the targetee is absolutely astounding and you will be heralded as some sort of business god!

Another key point to make here is that the achievement will not of course be in such small increments. They will realize that so long as they move forward positively they will achieve huge compound growth and then they also realize that if they can make small increments they can also make big ones. That is the tipping point when confidence kicks in and you have an organisation of individuals who are totally focused on growth.

It also helps massively as a manager or supervisor who has the unenviable task of apportioning targets. This is one of the most time consuming and debilitating tasks I have ever had to endure as a manager. If I could have back the time spent poring over targets and how to apportion them fairly and equitably. And then there is all the endless coffee chats with sales people who feel they got a raw deal from me.

Focus on “Meet-Beat” and everyone has a challenge before them, whatever their skill and experience level.

Chapter 6: “Meet-Beat” in the poker world (and start-up businesses)

Here is a fantastic case study on “Meet-Beat” that every poker professional will tell you is essential in their world.

One of the most important elements of being a successful poker player (and, by the way, early stage entrepreneur) is bank-roll management i.e. never running out of money (cash flow for the early stage business).

Page 14: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

I start my poker career with £200.00 and so as to limit my risk I am playing in 2p/4p blinds games. This limits my exposure to £8.00 in any given game which gives me the comfort to bet freely and not worry about going broke.

So, to build my bankroll I am applying the “Meet-Beat” principle. Every time I sit down to play I want to “Meet-Beat” my last playing period, by however small a margin. As my bankroll grows then I move up to bigger games keeping in mind that each game I play I never risk more than 5% of my bankroll.

This compound effect of tiny incremental growth steps and the increase in game size produce massive increases in my bankroll.

There are countless stories of online-poker millionaires that used this method and are now playing in the biggest games on the poker circuit.

BIO: Niman Kenkre (Samoleus)

SOURCE: BlueFirePoker.com

Niman Kenkre is a very smart person. He scored a 1580 on his SATs, and he is an extremely analytical player able to break down what would be seen as a simple hand by most players, into an in depth analysis with thoughts that most people would not think of. He approaches the game in a very unique way, and is probably one of the most advanced poker minds out there. Niman was an all-american soccer player in high school, and went on to play professionally after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, and then played a summer in Iceland after graduating Penn State with a 4.0 in his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. He went on to work for a few employers as an electrical

Page 15: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

engineer, most notably MIT, until he turned to poker full time in 2006.

Over the last 4-5 years since he began playing poker, Niman has turned a single $25 deposit into millions of dollars

BIO: Chris Ferguson

SOURCE: Full Tilt Poker

5 WSOP Bracelets

3 WSOP-C Rings

National Champion, Heads-Up No-Limit Hold ‘em, 2008

WSOP Main Event Champion 2000

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. As the son of two mathematicians, Chris was destined to join the academic world. He spent a total of 18 years at UCLA, with five years as an undergrad and 13 as a graduate student. In 1999 he graduated with a Ph.D. in computer science and left the comfort of university life.

Chris started playing poker on an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel – one of the first forms of online poker - during his student years, and quickly became the highest ranked tournament player. He applied this knowledge of game theory to live poker in the LA area in 1994 and played his first World Series of Poker event just a year later. After leaving academia, Chris decided to concentrate on his game.

Within five years, Chris made seven WSOP final tables and cashed in 12 events. He won his first bracelet in the $2.5K Seven-Card Stud event, before going on to win the 2000 WSOP Main Event bracelet and $1.5 million the same

Page 16: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

year. Known for his versatility, Chris won his next WSOP bracelet in 2001, followed by two further WSOP bracelets in 2003.

Chris is recognized as one of the most skilled poker players in the world. He’s made 25 WSOP final tables, won five WSOP bracelets, cashed 42 times in a range of WSOP events and won three WSOP Circuit championship rings. His WSOP earnings alone total over $6.7 million.

In 2006, Chris took on one of his hardest but humblest challenges – to turn $0 into $10K. Using strict bankroll management rules that he’d set for himself, Chris started with nothing but a Full Tilt Poker account. In what became known as the Chris Ferguson $10K Challenge, it took Chris over 18 months of hard work to reach $10K, which he donated to the Save the Children Foundation

I use the poker references, not just because I love poker but they offer a great analogy to a start-up business. When you are staring with zero sales then “Meet-Beat” is one of the only ways to develop your business with a meaningful growth goal and I promise you it works.

In 1994 I started a business and was lucky enough to win a franchise to distribute Intel micro-processors into a mature UK market. At the time I was a small privateer competing against large scale multi-national component distributors. We should never have been allowed to succeed in the face of such mature competition, but we did!

We were so successful using this method of growth and grew so fast that we achieved the highest level of market share in consecutive years and were voted Intel European Distributor of the Year, just 2 years after winning the franchise (even though we only served the domestic UK

Page 17: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

market!). Using the same growth methodology my team also won recognition as Microsoft Distributor of the Year on multiple occasions.

I have consistently applied this learning in every business I have been involved in and it is no coincidence that they have all shown outstanding levels of growth against competition.

I invested in Ten Lifestyle in 2006 and joined as Business Development Director responsible for Corporate Client revenue growth. Again I embraced the “Meet-Beat” methodology and we have achieved a 45% compound growth ever since. In 2006 Ten Lifestyle was voted a Sunday Times Fast Growth 100 company and in 2010 noted as 14th fastest growing business in the UK by GrowthBusiness… no coincidence!

If you haven’t got the message yet you need to start using “Meet-Beat” as soon as you can implement it to improve your results and crush the competition that is still setting traditional targets.

Chapter 7: “Meet-Beat” for the professional sports person

A very good friend of mine has a son who is a highly talented junior tennis player and is showing fantastic promise to rise to the top of the senior game. So my friend asks me “how do I set my son realistic targets for improvement” and being somewhat of a pushy parent I’m guessing he is struggling getting to grips with realism with his traditional target setting [sound familiar?]. Well, by now you will have worked out my answer.

Page 18: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

I suggest to him that he uses the “Meet-Beat” method of personal improvement. In a one hour training session he hits 35 unforced errors or his first serve percentage in a practice set is 65%. So in the next hour can he “Meet-Beat” the number of unforced errors or serve % . You are beginning to see how much easier it is to “Meet-Beat” than to say “you must get your serve % from 65% to 75%”. So long as he is not going backward then improvement, however small, is hugely motivating and makes him want to drive harder to improve. There is no burden to meet (the sometimes) unrealistic expectations of others. I just have to beat myself. The only pressure I feel is one of self-improvement and betterment which I can easily channel into positive thought.

Like the professional poker player I am rehearsing or playing every day and if I keep good records of each session played, or in the case of the budding tennis pro, each practice session then I can easily apply the “Meet-Beat” technique to improve my performance. Remember, beating last period, however small the increment, sets me on the road to growth and improvement.

In the world of professional tennis a budding pro has to get used to the notion of losing. On the way up they are going to lose far more matches than they win. To progress they are constantly coming up against higher ranked players to which they are inevitably going to lose. Winning matches against stronger players is too big a step to make to use it alone to build confidence. The player must break the match down into its constituent parts and analyse where the match was lost. Only when this is done can the “Meet-Beat” principles be applied to the areas that need the most improvement.

Page 19: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

It remains a mystery to me that others have not experienced this and that “Meet-Beat” is not more widely used as a universal strategy for improvement and growth.

My friend’s son has just made the semi-final of Junior Wimbledon and a bronze medal in the Spanish Junior Tennis Championships. I must catch up with him and see if he is still a strong advocate of “Meet-Beat”

Chapter 8: How to achieve even higher levels of growth

I’m now going to demonstrate how to accelerate growth even further. Take our example earlier of the team of ten sales guys. If you recall I gave the example of three of the sales people that are typically the rate-busters who will always out-perform any target given to them. If you assign two of these rate busters to buddy with the two lowest performers in the team then chances are you will bring the weaker performers performance up to, or above, the average. I have found this buddying used alongside the “Meet-Beat” goal to be a highly effective way of advancing team performance.

This approach has the added benefit of the strong supporting those who need to improve their levels of performance in a totally non threatening environment. In my experience this structure engenders extremely high levels of team spirit and confidence levels soar, which in itself drives forward progress on growth.

Buddying in a “Meet-Beat” environment is really effective when done with the right type of rate-buster. You want the coach/team player to buddy and not the out and out individual performer. Leave the individual performer to keep smashing his target as this in itself will set standards for

Page 20: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

other to strive towards. If you are going to buddy an under performer or newby then you need a coaching and supportive environment if you are to build their confidence.

Chapter 9: Build an environment of confidence

Also, as the manager you must be sure that you instill an absolute belief in your under-achievers (or face up to it and change them). If they have any shred of an idea that you don’t believe in them then any attempt at improving their confidence levels will be undermined and you will not achieve the performance improvements you are seeking from your teams.

If I haven’t made it crystal clear before now “Meet-Beat” only really works where there are exceptionally high levels of confidence. You need to have the confidence in your performance before you can even start thinking about using the “Meet-Beat” methodology. And your teams need to have the absolute confidence that if they continue to “Meet-Beat” then they will be handsomely rewarded.

It was only this morning I listened to an interview with Lee Westwood on his achieving the No.1 spot in professional golf.

He recounted that back in 2002 he had slipped back to lower than 200th in the world. He put this down to poor form and loss of confidence. The worse he played the more his confidence waned, the lower his confidence went the worse he played. Performance and form can easily spiral down in this scenario yet look at him now … sitting on top of the golf world!

Page 21: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Look at any professional sportsman when they get on top of an opponent or in their exhibition matches they perform at an extraordinary level and hit out with amazing freedom. They all talk about the aura of being “in the zone”. If you haven’t experienced this it is an absolutely amazing feeling. To hit out at tennis with absolute abandon and see winners fly off your racket is one of the most amazing feelings in the world. Yet come up against a stronger opponent, have your confidence dented, and the all of a sudden you get tight and nothing works. Having high levels of confidence in your ability to perform is a real game changer in every field in your life but particularly where you are striving for high growth or rapid performance improvement.

There have been many examples of sports stars that have dominated their chosen sport; Roger Federer; Tiger Woods; Steve Davis; Michael Schumacher to mention just a few. When they stepped into the arena they had already psychologically beaten their opponents and won the contest before it had even started .

Yet bit by bit they began to be beaten. The aura slipped away, their opponents began to believe, confidence kicked in and suddenly these “unbeatables” returned to the mortal world where they had to compete once again with the rest of us.

In my experience “Meet-Beat” instills incredibly high levels of confidence which in itself then drives positive forward strides in performance. Get these two working for you and, believe me, no one will catch you in the race to the top.

Page 22: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Chapter 10: Targets and motivation - the big issue

For me people confuse motivation and confidence.

Look at some of the descriptive words for motivation:

Incentive; inspiration; drive; enthusiasm; stimulus; spur; reason

We all know if people are motivated they will work harder. Let’s not get bogged down in motivation drivers here (I might write on this later because it is interesting).

The concept I am putting forward here is that high confidence levels are a real driver of rate-busting results and high-growth teams. If you inspire and engender high confidence in personal performance then the “Meet-Beat” method really works to your advantage. Conversely, if your team lacks confidence in their own abilities or if they sense you lack confidence in them then you have bigger problems than driving for improved results…. I can suggest some other books you need to buy real fast.

Chapter 11: “Meet-Beat” in a mature business – setting a base level

We’ve talked about the poker analogy and how using “Meet-Beat” can be really effective is start-up situations where no norms exist and you are starting from scratch but what about in a mature scenario.

Well this is what I have previously done in mature businesses and honestly it is so simple: To get started in a mature environment you need to establish a Base Level of performance.

Page 23: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

The first thing to do is to find a “norm”, the existing average performance. For example I have a team of ten sales guys and I want to find what an OK performance is. I break out three of them, one rate-buster, one average performer (steady eddie) and one newbie and ask them to spend one week selling with no specific target but just to do the best that they can between the three of them. Over the three days I remain close giving encouragement and working amongst them driving the best performance we can over the period.

I can then use the team performance to set a Base Level for the team to start their “Meet-Beat” approach. And individually I can agree that their individual Base Level is the starting point from which they can then start using the “Meet-Beat” method. Actually the larger the sample used for the “trial” the more realistic the start point (and by the way the easier to get agreed with subordinates).

This is a really short description but really it is that simple. Once people feel that their start point is realistic and achievable then you are a long way to the sort on mental attitude you need to make a start at the “Meet-Beat” approach.

Remember, you will need to establish your Base Level so that you can begin to apply the “Meet-Beat” principles. If you find that you have a run of periods where you are consistently falling below your Base Level then you have not prepared well or been honest enough with yourself about the realism of your expectations. Performance can be super-human if you create the right environment and build confidence levels but as a cautionary word… be too aggressive and you will stifle confidence and snuff out improvement before it even starts.

Page 24: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Chapter 12: Summary of the “Meet-Beat” principles

OK, let’s try and summarise where we are.

• Traditional, old fashion targets are hard to set, get right, be realistic and achieve high levels of “buy-in” from both superiors and subordinates.

• Get your target setting wrong and you will destroy morale and confidence. And you have to contend with the “gamers” who will conspire against you and your targets.

• An effective target motivates, inspires and drives people on to “show off” how great they are. Smashing targets becomes like an adrenalin fuelled downhill ride and not an uphill struggle.

• “Meet-Beat” is all about meeting or beating the achievement of the last period by however small a margin. Even very small increments in growth have a massive compound impact. Focus on any period and then “Meet-Beat” in the following period be it hourly, daily, weekly monthly. Whatever the period “Meet-Beat” will deliver incredible compound growth.

• “Meet-Beat” when used well engenders extremely high confidence and morale but won’t work where individuals lack confidence or the individual doesn’t feel they have the confidence of their manager.

• “Meet-Beat” works in both start-up and mature corporate environments. Be sure in mature environments to set your Base Level before you start.

Page 25: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

• Once you have established your Base Level of performance then you can start using “Meet-Beat” to drive improvement.

Chapter 13: Time to do a trial of the “Meet-Beat” principles

What I suggest you do now is to time out on your reading and to go and try out what we’ve learnt. Do this in a small way in your private life, in a sport you love or why not go for it in your work. Make sure you start with hourly or a short session and then extend it to daily and, if you’re really going for it, a week or a month. Make sure that you religiously keep accurate records of each session so you can accurately monitor your progress. And here comes the price promise… if “Meet-Beat” doesn’t work for you somewhere in your life then send me back the book and I will give you a full refund. “Meet-Beat” has served me incredibly well during my life at both work and play and I am extremely confident that it will do the same for you.

When you’ve done that and you come back we will concentrate on how to build in a rewards and bonus scheme that works in tandem with the “Meet-Beat” method.

Welcome back.

By now you are either convinced that “Meet-Beat” is a real winner or you have just come back to find details of how to get your money back! However I doubt it somehow. I think you will have come to the same conclusion as me… how on earth could it be so simple and how could “Meet-Beat” solve so many target related issues.

Page 26: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

Chapter 14: RewardsI will probably write another book on rewards and

motivation at some point but let me give you one piece of advice that again has served me extremely well when driving for extreme levels of rapid growth:

REWARD THE BEHAVIOUR NOT THE ABSOLUTE NUMBER!

So many managers and corporations get this so wrong. They are obsessed with absolute targets and the achievement of numbers. There are many stories (particularly in the UK public sector) where the real objectives have been compromised in pursuit of absolute targets.

When you combine “Meet-Beat” and the reward of the behavior of “Meet-Beat” together then you will see the full potential of this method and can file this book away, or give it to a colleague and start enjoying the fruits of your success. By the way don’t forget to send me details of your progress and success. It would be great if we can share our collective success with others.

Chapter 15: “Meet-Beat” and rewards in tandem

OK so here’s the concept and again it’s a real easy one.

Use a simple traffic light system which everyone can easily associate with:

Page 27: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

So every period I can score myself against the previous period. Now the great thing about “Meet-Beat” is that even if I miss my previous hourly performance I still have the chance to get back on track for the day. And if I miss the daily achievement I still have chance to correct it for the week. This takes away all those feelings of missed targets and the tendency to just let the target go as it is now hopelessly unachievable.

How many times have you been in this position where you have set an annual target and missed it in the first month to the point that you felt like just giving up. With the “Meet-Beat” method you need only concentrate on doing better than the previous period you chose to measure and record. You will be totally amazed at how the compound growth just happens.

Now you need to be prepared for push back here. So few businesses or teams “get” this concept that you are going to have to prove the concept before you will get universal buy-in. You will need all of your persuasive skills, particularly with your bosses, to allow you to fully exploit this method. Don’t forget or lose focus on the fact your trials have been successful… if not I am not sure you should be at this stage of the book right now!

So we are recording each period and looking for a consistent “Meet-Beat” performance. Now as I am sure you

Page 28: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

have witnessed in your trial there are of course very few periods where you have achieved an exact AMBER period where you achieved exactly the same performance as the last period. Remember, “Meet-Beat” is about any and indeed very small increments in growth. So what you will find once you start recording results is that most of the period scores will be either RED (missed) or GREEN (beaten).

Here is an example: Daily Measurement/Monthly Reward

I score each day as either RED, AMBER or GREEN based on the performance against the previous day.

Then based on the number of GREEN, AMBER or RED days I can determine the score for the month based on the number of days in each sector. I also want to reward exceptional performance so if I have a rate-buster who scores Green in say 90% of all periods then he is GOLD standard which gives him the top level of reward.

GOLD standard works really well if it has a cumulative element to it over a sustained period. Make GOLD quite hard to achieve yet equally hard to lose if continued high performance is maintained. You will be amazed the lengths that team members especially will drive to achieve and maintain GOLD standard.

You can also publish league tables (if you’re into them) based on the traffic light system but believe me you won’t need to. The power of peer group pressure for everyone to achieve GREEN and GOLD status is immense and will work far better than even the most sophisticated manager.

Before you know it all your team members will be showing off their GREEN or GOLD status and with this method you are rewarding the action of achieving growth

Page 29: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

and not a finite number, thus letting the power of compound growth CRUSH your competition.

In a business I worked in some years ago we were making around 10,000 shipments per month of Intel microprocessors and other expensive computer components in an environment where we were making less than 5% gross margin. One of the biggest challenges I faced was that we had a scary 15% wrong pick rate and many of the warehouse staff didn’t realise the value of some of the components. One day I walked into the warehouse and picked up an Intel chip that was laying on the warehouse floor which looked like a squashed beetle. I asked the nearest picker if he realized that the value of the chip was over £500 so more than a week’s salary, which of course he was totally unaware. What we had was a total atmosphere of indifference and lack of motivation to perform at the required level. This was also ingrained in all including I suspected the shift supervisors.

In frustration I walked round to the Finance Director’s office, whose responsibility the warehouse was, recounted my findings and the frustration at the extremely poor pick rate which we had endured for some years. To my horror I had to sit through a lecture on expectation and how I should not and could not expect people who worked close to the minimum wage to care about such things as quality or accuracy. I quickly came to the realization that my problem was not with the pickers or packers themselves but the leadership they were getting. One of the programmes I implemented to improve performance was to buy a case of beer (the preferred reward of choice for this team) to every picker and packer that did a whole month without making a single error (the GOLD standard).

Page 30: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

I have to tell you that within very few months I was buying a lot of beer and whenever I met a warehouse guy on my way past the warehouse or during a walk round they would proudly remind me of their GOLD standard status and the beer they were looking forward to at the end of the month. Our Finance Director moved on and I don’t recommend you buy his book on managing warehouse staff. Hopefully he is sticking to managing the numbers and not motivating people for a living.

The other part to this story is that we began to hit record levels of pick/pack quality by implementing an early version of my “Meet-Beat” concept.

So I will leave you with a final thought on rewards….

REWARD THE BEHAVIOUR NOT THE ABSOLUTE NUMBER!

Chapter 16: Summary of the “Meet-Beat” principles

Let’s now summarise the whole concept of “Meet-Beat” and rewards.

• Traditional, old fashion targets are hard to set, get right, be realistic and achieve high levels of “buy-in” from both superiors and subordinates.

• Get your target setting wrong and you will destroy morale and confidence. And you have to contend with the “gamers” who will conspire against you and your targets.

• An effective target motivates, inspires and drives people on to “show off” how great they are. Smashing

Page 31: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

targets becomes like an adrenalin fuelled downhill ride and not an uphill struggle.

• “Meet-Beat” is all about meeting or beating the achievement of the last period by however small a margin. Even very small increments in growth have a massive compound impact. Focus on any period and then “Meet-Beat” in the following period be it hourly, daily, weekly monthly. Whatever the period “Meet-Beat” will deliver incredible compound growth.

• “Meet-Beat” when used well engenders extremely high confidence and morale but won’t work where individuals lack confidence or the individual doesn’t feel he has the confidence of his manager.

• “Meet-Beat” works in both start-up and mature corporate environments. Be sure in mature environments to trail and set your Base Level before you start.

• Once you have established your Base Level of performance then you can start using “Meet-Beat” to drive improvement.

• At this stage “time-out” and run a trial to test the concept

• Choose your first “Meet-Beat” experiment

• Be prepared for pushback from your boss… buy him a copy of the book!

• Combine “Meet-Beat” and rewards and remember to reward the behavior and not the achievement of the absolute number.

Page 32: Meet-Beat Your Way To  Sales Growth and Productivity Improvement

• Implement the traffic light system of RED, GREEN and AMBER periods

• Introduce GOLD standard for your consistently high achievers

• Send me your success stories

Chapter 17: Now go for it with “Meet-Beat”

So were done.

All that is left is for me to wish you every success using the “Meet-Beat” method.

Try to overcome the skeptics who will say its bunkum and can’t possibly work. I promise you it has worked for me in just about every environment I have applied it in be it sales, performance improvement, tennis or my poker play.

If I can be of any help or assistance then feel free to contact me through LinkedIn and of course I will be happy to assist.

And send me those success stories. I have always got immense pleasure in sharing in others entrepreneurial success.

I wish you well in your personal and professional life and look forward to sharing some other concepts real soon.

George Evans

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/georgeevanslondon


Recommended