02-26-2013 Entry: Change is looming

I am writing again and I even have my own fitness journal in my other blog: http://fitbysummer.blogspot.com/. This journal will be different this will focus more on what is going in my life in general and what goes through my mind. Well today, it was all about work.  

I set up a meeting with my broker Florezil Agujetas II and we were brainstorming on how to improve the performance of our sales group. After a somewhat stellar January, the agents are crahing back to earth and it seems that our sales agents are ultra-underperforming. I was wondering we spoiled them or something. One thing is for sure is that change has to come. We cannot succeed if we stagnate and just do the same things all over again. I felt that the agents were over reliant on queueing and they are not maximizing our exhibits.  Flo and I realized that it was time to crack whip and handle the agents differently. It is a tough pill to swallow but it is necessary.  I am going to admit that my management style has flaws and I have to adopt some changes to lead a consistent and high performing team.  Things must be run differently from now on.  Here are some of the proposed changes that Flo and I thought:

1. Change in exhibit manning procedures - I have told Analane Yap that I am letting go off our Robinsons Cybergate manning. It seems to me that the Rainmakers do not perform well when they get stuck with too many exhibit manning schedules. I need the agents to explore other sales channels.  I am also reducing the number of agents that are going to be present in each exhibit.  Having too many agents at one time is very inefficient as there are only few mall clients every day. 
2. Reporting - Every agent is required to report all sales activities and results.  We will closely monitor all prospects and check if agents need to be assisted or pushed.  The time of just giving them total freedom with their clients is suspended and as much possible the managers will get involved in the transactions. I think we somehow overestimated their abilities and it is just proper that we make adjustments to improve their performance.
3. Tripping - We will now join agents in their trippings in March to see if we can still fine tune their presentation and closing styles. We have to improve their closing rate. 
4. Change in attitude and habits - We noticed that some agents are developing bad habits and we will make steps correct it. We want to run our operations differently and we would like to kill some of the bad practices of our agents. We will now control how they will act and look during work.  We even what to somehow control how they think.
5. Focus on bottom lines - In the end, it is all about sales. A dismal month should be taken lightly by the leaders and the members. We have to send a clear message that the February performance is unacceptable. We need to show them our disappointment and we even need to scold them. We won't fire them but we want them fired up. We have to make them fear and hate being zero.  It is all about accountability.  We have to turn things around and finish the quarter with a flurry. 

I will be meeting the team on Thursday evening and we will set "fire to the rain". The tone of the meeting will start with disappointment then anger then self-evaluation then proposing changes then laying of ground rules that is acceptable to all then hope and motivation. "We will keep on fighting till the end cause we are the champions, we are the champions ...." ;)