The Business of Meetings 63: The Three Sins of Sales Management with Jack Daly
We’re delighted to speak with an icon of sales today! Jack Daly is a fascinating individual with an amazing track record! He is all about numbers. Jack has spoken all over the world and trained thousands of people. He has built six companies to become national firms, two of which were sold to Wall Street companies. Jack has fifteen “Iron Man” titles. He has played golf at over ninety-five of the top one hundred golf courses in the USA, he has completed ninety-five marathons in all fifty states in the USA, and he has bungee jumped the world's first and largest bungee jumps.
Jack is joining us today to speak about systems and processes, entrepreneurship, and business owners in the meetings and events industry. You will learn a lot from what he has to share!
Jack Daly’s bio:
Jack Daly is an experienced and inspirational sales trainer and sales coaching expert who inspires audiences to take action in the areas of sales management, corporate culture, and sales training. He brings over 30 years of field-proven experience from a starting base with CPA firm Arthur Andersen to the CEO level of several national companies. Jack is a proven CEO/Entrepreneur, having built six companies into national firms, two of which he has subsequently sold to the Wall Street firms of Solomon Brothers and First Boston. Jack’s role as a sales trainer extraordinaire has helped craft “street-tested” sales methodologies that help create truly successful sales professionals and profitable companies. His professional sales trainer know-how has turned him into an accomplished sales coaching authority and author of books including Hyper Sales Growth, The Sales Playbook for Hyper Sales Growth, and Paper Napkin Wisdom, all Amazon #1 Bestsellers. Jack is an Ironman on five continents and has completed 95 marathons in over 50 states. He was married to his high school sweetheart Bonnie for 48 years before her passing in 2017, and is the proud grandfather to two grandsons and a new granddaughter. Jack received his B.S. from LaSalle University, an MBA from Wilmington College, and held the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army.
His own business
Jack knew at a very early age that he wanted to have his own business. When he was thirteen, he spent the summer interviewing two hundred accomplished businesspeople to find out how they became successful. They taught him that understanding numbers was vital when running a business.
An accountant
Jack became educated as an accountant and then went to work at Arthur Anderson directly after school. After that, he bounced around a bit in the corporate world to get his bearings on how the big companies ran because he wanted to own a big company one day.
His own business
He started with his own business when he was twenty-six and remained at it for the next twenty years. Since then, he has continued to run a business. He views his current business differently, however, because it is a quality-of-life speaking business.
It all started with sales
Although he trained as an accountant, Jack has always had a focus on sales. At thirteen, he had five employees delivering the newspapers he sold, and he grew his customer base from 32 to 275 in one year. That was where it all started for him.
Southern California
In 1985, Jack moved to Southern California to start a company. He started with four people, and in eighteen months, he grew it organically to 750 people. In the first three years, they made $42,000,000 in earnings, not revenue.
Inspiration
In the early nineties, while Jack was building that company, one of his employees hired Jim Pratte to help them grow. Jack was so impressed with Jim that he decided to take him along to his twenty-two other locations. Over the next three months, Jack learned about Jim’s life and how he was helping people and companies grow. That inspired Jack to want to do the same thing.
Jack Daly’s philosophy on systems and processes
Jack is all about systems and processes. He believes that you should build the practices that work best in your business. You should then build your processes based on those best practices, hire people, and get them to practice those best practices. The rest will take care of itself.
A formula for better sales results
Figure out what your top people are doing. Get those things into your system and sales process. Then have the rest of your salespeople practice that. Everybody’s game will improve as a result.
Military courses
The courses that Jack took while in the military had a long-lasting impact on his life. They taught him about leadership in an ownership-type way. They also taught him about communication, public speaking, and the value of systems and processes.
The three sins of sales management
The three sins of sales management are:
- When a great salesperson becomes the new Sales Director, and things start to fail.
- When the owner or entrepreneur also wears the hat of the salesperson or Sales Manager.
- When the best salesperson gets made the Sales Manager, and they are also expected to sell in their territory.
There are cases where Jack has identified success after taking a salesperson and making them the Sales Manager. There are very few of those cases, however. What typically happens is that you lose your best salesperson and get a mediocre Sales Manager. Often, the good salesperson misses the act of selling and leaves the company to go and sell for someone else.
Jack Daly’s advice for business owners regarding sales
If you have sufficient capital when you start your business, grow your sales force in quantity and quality. If you hire the right person to ensure that happens and you pay them correctly, they should pay for themselves with the increased business that their team generates in under a year.
CEO coaching
Jack has been doing CEO coaching telephonically for the last four years. He allows about twenty-five percent of his clients to commit the first sin of being in charge of the sales team and being the CEO. He only does that because those CEOs do not have enough capital.
Part of the answer
Jack’s ideal view of compensation for salespeople is 100% commission only. Also, at least 50% of the overall compensation of the Sales Manager should be predicated on the results of their team’s sales.
Paying salespeople a significant amount of money
Jack has no problem with paying salespeople a significant amount of money. He had salespeople working for him who made seven figures when he, as the owner, was not earning that much. He does not believe in capping commissions.
A sales playbook
Jack is creating and packaging a sales playbook. It will be Thin to Win, and contain the processes and words that have helped the owners of small businesses become successful. After the book is complete, Jack will have regular practice sessions with salespeople, following that playbook.
Inc. 500
Jack built six companies from scratch to become national firms. All six were very fast-growing, and one of them got to number ten on the Inc. 500 list. Jack had 120 salespeople in that company, and all of them spent a minimum of one hour every day practicing.
Practice is the key
Incessant practice is the key to success. Jack feels that sports teams are better run than most businesses. He points out that a coach would not consider putting a player on the field without a playbook and the practice that adjoins the playbook.
Double your sales
More than 50% of a salesperson’s time gets spent on doing things that have nothing to do with bringing new customers in or growing the ones they have. The definition of sales is: Get new wins. Grow the ones you have. That means that if you get everything else out of the way and let the salespeople sell, you can double your sales without hiring an additional salesperson.
For the biggest impact
You need to make a list of all the tasks and delegate those you can to the right people. Then figure out the things that will make the biggest impact and move the needle the most. Focus on those.
The secret potion
Opening a business is a risk. Keeping everything under control is a bigger risk. Build systems and processes that work, and then delegate and empower your people to do the work. Let go, and let your people do what you hired them to do.
Culture
A culture, like systems and processes, needs to reflect the changing times. Some aspects of culture will never change, though. Human beings will always want to be recognized and rewarded. So taking the time to build the processes for regular and ongoing recognition is a significant foundation in any company culture. People also want to know how the company is doing, where it is heading, and how they are doing. So having processes in place for consistent communication is vital.
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Book mentioned:
The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber