Oluyemi Oloyede

Whatever you and your teams have been doing before now, STOP and take a breather, STOP. Burnout is a very horrible state to have a sales team in. STOP, then take some DAYS off, as many team members as possible and get some fresh air. You should not COPE with burnout. You should support your team to avoid burnout and ENJOY their work. Reconnect to PURPOSE, leave the now and reevaluate the essence of what you are doing and see where the disconnect is. Salespeople absolutely enjoy what they do when there is a connection between their purpose and what they are doing. No one should endure or cope with burnout. All of us should find the right cause and enjoy it, work is a big part of life, life is not meant to be endured, by any means.

The happiness index of my CUSTOMER is one of the smoothest ways I check. Are my customers happy with me? Are they happy with my brands? Are they happy with my service levels? Are they engaged? Do they see me as a partner? When my customers are happy, the rest of the metrics such as revenue, cash flow, margins, EBIT become easy. Happy and engaged customers will gladly pay me cash vs credit, happy customers will push my brands at or close to the recommended price points, and at a price that will deliver the right margins, etc. So if I can spend time delivering this, I get closer to achieving my objectives. This is why I recommend an annual or bi-annual customer survey for every customer facing organization.

I usually have multiple ongoing projects that exceed my bandwidth so the natural solution is delegation. I do this by creating the vision, making it as clear as possible, deciding what we aim to achieve in each project and then looking for a team member who has capacity and enthusiasm to lead and achieve results to design the execution plan. I then create a calendar of stand ups for me to get an update on each project, starting from weekly or bi-weekly to monthly. I ensure that the tasks are clear, the team remain on track in terms of design and execution and all of them are well compensated for the energy they put in. That way, they are always looking forward to being selected as a project lead or project member - always fun and rewarding.

This is one of the most difficult things to do as a leader. I do this by taking them out of their current fields of play, I take them to a new, neutral environment and provide them, each one at a time, if possible an opportunity to speak, while I actively listen. In these conversations, I am the listener, I spend time to engage, but not talking, not giving feedback. That way, we both get to the root of the issues, understand the challenges and I am able to provide real support and help without judging. Most underperforming teams and team members are damp, lonely, frustrated, discouraged so the only way to help is to help them look up, chin up, stand up! Optimism helps a lot but listening sincerely and providing support is even better.

I spend the most amount of time to know THE customer and identify those subtle soft spots that draw him closer to me, to my presentation, to my craft. Usually, it is hardly about the presentation or the sale, it is something soft, silent but key to the customer. It could be about his daughter, his only child trying to learn a new language or sport that I am deeply interested in, it could be about his favourite town or sports club, his home town, his childhood, his family, things that draw both of us closer than the subject of the presentation, then the ground is ripe enough for both of us to connect and listen to two hearts beating as one, then the presentation usually does very well. It is all about how much work I put in preparing.

By PLANNING. Sales is more about planning and following through than actually 'selling'. When we plan, we are able to stretch the goal into a set of well defined, structured tasks that, most times, when well executed lead to the desired results. We must leave room for 'failure' or gaps that we can close later. Next is to create time for a before and after rest. On or off grid rests provide the opportunity for the team to relax, recharge and return.