Are you making common mistakes that could hold back your sales team's success? In this episode of The Coaching Equation, we dive deep into the top five sales leadership mistakes that leaders unknowingly make and, more importantly, how to fix them. We discuss the problem of setting clear expectations for sales teams and how to communicate, clarify, and verify sales outcomes effectively. Discover what a healthy sales environment looks like and the common missteps sales leaders make when attempting to create one. Explore the difference between coaching and management, how a typical sales team is structured, and how to find the sweet spot between autonomy and micro-management. Gain insights into the value of regular check-ins with team members, the leadership style that is successful in sales, the characteristics of a true leader, and much more! Join us as we uncover the keys to becoming a more effective sales leader and learn how to turn these common mistakes into stepping stones for success.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The importance of setting clear expectations and communicating effectively.
• What role certainty plays in sales and why it’s vital for the success of sales teams.
• How setting reasonable and achievable goals keeps your sales team motivated.
• Key differences between setting sales targets and sales standards.
• Common pitfalls leaders should avoid when creating a work environment.
• Tips for dealing with team members who are not hitting their sales targets.
• When to be a coach and when to be a manager as a sales leader.
• Strategies for balancing team autonomy with management outcomes.
• The type of environment a servant leader fosters compared to a traditional leader.
• Final takeaways and how to start becoming a better leader today!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Outwitting the Devil

Ryan Lang on LinkedIn

Brook Bishop on LinkedIn

Empire Partners

Empire Academy

The Coaching Equation Podcast on iTunes

We make decisions all the time. Are you conscious of the ones you’re making? During this episode, we are joined by Focusologist Penny Zenker, a captivating public speaker, business strategy coach, and best-selling author. Her work has been featured on NBC News, Forbes, ESPN, and more, and today she joins us to share her insights on the psychology of productivity and focus. Penny’s story begins with a tragic event at the age of 19, and she talks about the turning point that this created in her life, totally transforming her relationship to meaning, control, and making the most of her one precious life. Diving into the content of her TED Talk, she distinguishes between positivity and intentionality, before sharing insights on productivity from her book, The Productivity Zone. Penny gets real about her own relationship to focus, and how she reels in her tendency to say yes to everything before unpacking her thoughtful delegation strategy. We discuss what it might look like to shed the all-or-nothing approach to delegation and hiring by really understanding the value of your time, and how to set priorities according to Penny’s two-quadrant theory. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear how Penny makes the complex simple, through her memorable, accessible approach.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Background on guest Penny Zenker, author, public speaker, and productivity specialist.
• The story behind the moniker, ‘the Focusologist’.
• How Penny first became interested in the work she specializes in today.
• Finding meaning in her father’s death when she was 19.
• The semester abroad that she spent at JP Morgan.
• Asking the question, “What else could this mean?”.
• Her role at Tony Robbins and how being rejected for speaking sparked a new journey.
• More on her TED Talk, The Energy of Thought.
• Distinguishing between positivity and intentionality.
• Becoming conscious of the decisions we are making.
• Insights from her book, The Productivity Zone, on barriers to productivity.
• Three things that support getting into the zone as a high achiever
• Examples of how Penny resets and approaches her tendency to say yes to everything.
• How failing to delegate can sabotage productivity, especially as a leader.
• Challenging yourself to ask questions about where you are most effective and where you can let go.
• Penny’s thoughts on hiring others and understanding the value of your time.
• Setting the necessary criteria to set priorities.
• Becoming more dynamic in changing the way that we do things.
• Where to pre-order The Reset Mindset.
• Why her approach to focus is different: it’s simple, accessible, sticky language.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Penny Zenker

Penny Zenker on X
Penny Zenker on LinkedIn

Penny Zenker’s TEDx Talk

The Reset Mindset

The Productivity Zone

Tony Robbins

Ryan Lang on LinkedIn

Brook Bishop on LinkedIn

Empire Partners

Empire Academy

The Coaching Equation Podcast on iTunes

In life and business, you either win or you learn! During this episode, we dive further into Co-Host Brook Bishop’s journey into sales success. In this continuation episode, Brook gets into all the muscle that he built in the early part of his sales career, learning how to turn that into massive amounts of sales revenue and eventually scaling a team level to the tune of 30 million dollars. Tuning in, you’ll get countless lessons from Brook on turning difficulty into opportunity and identifying systems, processes, and patterns for faster sales and success. He takes this a step further and teaches listeners how to turn this into a template that facilitates scaling. With insights from different points in his career, Brook shows how he has found opportunity in difficult circumstances, and shares what he has learned and won along the way. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 of this conversation, visit iTunes and do so before pressing play on this one. Thanks for listening!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing Part 2 of our conversation with Co-Hose Brook Bishop’s journey to sales success and mastery.
• What he learned from working behind the scenes at Buffini & Company.
• Brook’s intention to master each role beyond its function to educate himself.
• Becoming calculated in the process of building a network.
• How developing his understanding of personalities and strengths enabled him to create rapport with others.
• Obstacles to climbing the leadership ranks at Buffini.
• Advice from his mentor after leaving the Buffini marriage.
• Extracting opportunity out of difficulty.
• Building his own coaching practice and branching out into different industries.
• How Brook met the team at Tony Robbins before being headhunted to work with them.
• The role of taking inspired action in facilitating opportunities.
• Starting to work at Tony Robbins and getting his team’s attention by getting insane results.
• Why it is so important to be strategic with every opportunity.
• Changing his life mission to triple his income and cut his errors in half.
• Distinguishing between what you are saying and what a client needs to hear.
• How his accolades dovetailed into results while working at Tony Robbins.
• Finding clear ‘whys’ for himself and his clients to motivate his success.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Mastering Sales Pt 1: Lessons from Brook Bishop’s Path to Success

Buffini

Tony Robbins

Heritage Profile

Ryan Lang on LinkedIn

Brook Bishop on LinkedIn

Empire Partners

Empire Academy

The Coaching Equation Podcast on iTunes