Book Club: Keith Rosen on Coaching as a Language for Sales Leadership

Olivia Fuller: Hi, and welcome to Book Club, a Sales Enablement PRO podcast. I’m Olivia Fuller. Sales enablement is a constantly evolving space and we are here to help professionals stay up to date on the latest trends and best practices so they can be more effective in their jobs.

Today I’m so excited to have Keith Rosen join us. Keith is the CEO of Profit Builders named one of the best sales leadership coaching organizations worldwide. Since 1989, Keith delivered his programs to over 3 million sales leaders and practically every industry on six continents and in over 75 countries. Inc. magazine and Fast Company named Keith one of the five most influential executive coaches. He’s been featured in Entrepreneur, Inc., Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Keith has written several bestsellers, including “Own Your Day,” “Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions” and is the winner of five international best book awards and the number one bestselling sales management coaching book on Amazon for the last seven consecutive years. His latest book, “Sales Leadership”, was named the 2018 sales book of the year. Keith, could you please introduce yourself to our audience?

Keith Rosen: Absolutely. Hello everyone, out there globally. My name is Keith Rosen and basically, I spent the last 30 years and had the privilege and the pleasure of working with hundreds of thousands of sales leaders and salespeople on six continents and in 75 countries helping sales leaders and salespeople transformed from manager or salesperson to exemplary coach. And it’s been an honor to be able to work with these companies. And these are the companies when they’re looking around and trying to figure out how to build a coaching culture, that’s me, I’m the person they call.

OF: That’s fantastic. We’re so excited to have you on today. And as we were talking about, actually just before we started this interview, I personally am a massive fan of yours and have read all of your books and definitely have gleaned so many great insights from them. I’m so very excited to have you on today to dive deeper into those. But one of the key themes that you bring up in your books is that just because someone is a manager that doesn’t necessarily mean that they know how to coach. So why does coaching require a unique skill set and why is that coaching component so critical to being a successful sales leader?

KR: I’m going to start off with that last part and backtrack. And I will say this as directly as I possibly can. If companies are not investing the time, the money, the energy, and have the stakeholders involved to make sure that a coaching foundation coordinate sustained, no company can continue to grow to the level they want set a different way. Coaching is the only way for managers to accelerate the sales growth, engagement, and trust amongst their team. Period. And I’ll give you a quick analogy, Olivia, on this one. I’ve heard it so many times when I’m speaking to senior leaders and they’re talking to me about wanting to either train their managers on how to be better coaches, because it’s not natural. And we’ll talk about that in a minute.

They say to me, “Keith, we want our people to coach at least 50% of the time.” Once I hear that I know they have no clue what coaching is because coaching is not something you do to someone. It is not an event. It’s not like, Olivia, you’re my direct report. You’re coming to me with a problem. One second, let me get my coaching hat. I’m going to put it on right now. And now I’m going to coach you. I’m going to do this. In the most simplistic form, coaching is the language of leadership. Just like sales is a language, leadership is a language.

When managers tell me, “Oh, we want to coach more, coach less, or coach more directly,” or, it’s every conversation is a coaching conversation. So, when we’re talking about developing skill, skill is one thing, mindset is another. And that really speaks to the other component of why managers struggle so much, especially today in a world of constant change and uncertainty, how are they building a team of sales champions? How are they building a remote team of sales champions? And again, going back to my point before every conversation being a coaching conversation, my job is to make manager’s jobs easier. You know, I don’t sit here and throw all this theory at them. If they learn the language of coaching and have a framework that they can follow, and this is the mind shift that every leader needs to make is leading with questions in every conversation, rather than leading with answers. And it’s an occupational hazard for managers because every organization I’ve ever worked with is result driven. Every organization has revenue goals and sales goals.

So, unfortunately this becomes an occupational hazard for managers, senior leadership and frontline salespeople, because now everyone has a target on their back. So, if everyone has a target on their back, what are they focusing on? What’s the next deal, the next results? Everyone’s focused on the future. And especially now, fear lives in the future. Uncertainty lives in the future. Anxiety lives in the future. We need to bring ourselves back in the moment, because the last time I checked this is where life happens. This is where we engage with people. Every conversation you have is in the moment. And the definition of coaching is the art of creating new possibilities and you’re doing that in every conversation. In every conversation you’re either building people and you’re building their competence and you’re building their critical thinking as well as their critical questioning skills, because salespeople will need to coach their customers today, or you’re eroding them.

OF: I love that answer. That was fantastic. And you touched on so many important aspects of why coaching is really critical to leadership and why they’re kind of interchangeable in so many ways. So, let’s dig into that a little bit further. What are some of the core characteristics of successful coaches? Maybe just beyond having the mindset, but what actually kind of leads someone to being a great coach?

KR: Yeah. I could probably go through 80 characteristics and it’s interesting because when most people ask what makes a great coach or what makes a great salesperson, or even when they say what’s your profile of your ideal client, those lists are always about measurables. You know, about results. We work with clients that are from X million to X million dollars in revenue every year. That’s all great. But who do you want to work with? Are they the type of person that your company and you are aligned with in values and integrity and the way you like to work in collaborate?

I learned a long time ago if you want to build a business you hate, just work with people you can’t stand. Okay, that’s it. And so, taking all that to your question today, it’s not just about what they need to do and learn the skill of coaching and a framework of coaching it’s about who they need to be. It’s about how you’re going to show up every day. You know, how do you show up every day? Every day we’re going to be challenged. Every person today on this planet is challenged. They wake up in the morning, what’s today going to bring? No other point in anyone’s life today has there been more fear and uncertainty, and this is the time when, more than ever, where companies are trying to streamline more and they’re trying to leverage technology more and do more things faster.

I hate to disappoint all the companies and managers out there; you’re doing the wrong thing. Doing more of the wrong thing faster in a world where sales has changed and your buyer’s buying habits have changed, is not going to fit. Leaders, salespeople need to stop, take a step back and reconnect with their buyers in a way where, how would they like to buy so they can now align how they need to sell that. That’s what needs to change today and going back to the characteristics. So, what does that mean? Empathy. To me, the most important say skill or attribute today in sales is care. It’s about humanizing the experience that you have, whether you’re a manager or whether you’re a salesperson, we need to humanize the sales process. We need to humanize how we engage with people. After all you’re in my home right now. It doesn’t get more intimate than this. And if leaders are not taking the time to care deep enough, to build that trust with their people that, that, that transcends to customers as well.

Again, top characteristics. My personal word of the year is a resilience. I think that to me, encapsulates everything that each person, if they can truly embrace and build their level of resilience that will allow each of us to adopt and align around changes rather than fighting. There’s no going back, everyone keeps saying, “Oh, I want to get back, when it gets back to normal.” There’s no going back. This is only going forward. And that’s the part where bringing back to the characteristics, innovation, collaboration, care. I did a great Q&A VIP session with Salesforce a month ago. Again, talking about what are the characteristics leaders and salespeople need to leverage more than ever: creativity.

So, what they did is they said, we want you to be a guest at our event with a small intimate group of our top customers, and we’re going to do a whiskey tasting So they sent out, you know, three small bottles of whiskey and who am I to say no. And then they brought these whiskey connoisseurs to the call and they spoke for a little while. And then afterwards I spoke a little. The point is, who’s doing that? Who else is doing that? Managing salespeople, keep cold calling. Your customers are just as desperate for human connection as you are. Humanize the sales process. That’s the most important thing.

Finally, in this world of such uncertainty, the one thing that every single person has on this planet is the power of choice. And it’s the most underused power that we as human beings have. And we only have three things in life that we have absolute control. It’s our attitude. It’s our actions or reactions. It’s how we respond to things in the world. You know, I learned a long time ago, it’s not the events that surround you, but it’s how you respond to them that create the quality of your life. So, actions, reactions, attitude, and mindset, everything else is an illusion. Focus on the things we can control rather than the things we can.

OF: Definitely. And speaking of things that you can control, and you touched on this a little bit as well, especially in the context of just where the world is at today, fear is absolutely something that is really driving a lot of negative behaviors that we’re seeing both in sales, as well as leadership. So, in your book “Sales Leadership”, you actually outlined 15 different toxic tactics that can make coaching ineffective. But I’m actually curious in the context of today, what are some of those toxic tactics or common mistakes that you’re seeing, and have they changed at all, or maybe shifted? What are some of the common mistakes that you really are seeing coaches make today?

KR: I would say number one, I would say it’s getting worse hands down. Every tactic that I listed there is getting worse. I have so much evidence and of course, you and I have such a limited time I want to make sure we maximize the media value. But just as a point of reference, I was talking to a senior VP, global organization, two levels away from the CEO multi-billion-dollar company. It’s client of mine for years, and during a coaching session he said, “keep listening.” Like every leader here, it’s amazing CEO confidence is an all-time low. Gee, I wonder why? But that’s a whole other conversation. But he said to me with that sense of fear and concern in his voice, he said, “Keith, with all the uncertainty going on with all the furloughs, with all the layoffs, with our revenue down, maybe this is a time we stop coaching. And maybe this is a time we just be more directive and tell people what to do.”

If I had a universal two-by-four, it would have reached them across the head and in a very loving and affectionate way, but that’s sad. This is when every single person’s character is tested. This is when your integrity, this is when your priorities, this is when the essence of who you are is put to the test. We don’t get tested on our good days. We get tested on our bad days. That’s one of the true essences of our character emerges. It’s really easy to go out and sell and manage when things are going great. Okay. Just like I said before, CEO confidence. CEO confidence can go great when everything’s going well. But what about now?

Unfortunately, it’s just bleeding back to the point I made earlier, companies are scrambling around trying to figure out what they can control when I just share with you the three things I can, and that’s it. And I really love how you’ve been this whole conversation together, because now we’re moving into one of the things I mentioned before, the greatest toxic thing that people are doing right now, I could break it down to one thing is not being present in the moment. I will challenge any person who’s listening to this or watching this, and I’ll give you my mobile number. You can call me or email me to challenge me. 99% of every person’s waking hour they’re living either in the past or they’re living in the future. Cerebral conversation talks to the inner game. The greatest leaders and salespeople I know are masters at living in the present, being engaged in the moment. Because selling and coaching’s defined same way by me, the art of creating new possibilities in every conversation. If you’re living in the future and focused on your result, creation happens in the moment. New possibilities are created in the moment. Active listening happens in the moment. And if you’re worried about your result, “Am I going to get the sale? Am I going to hit my quota? Am I going to get fired or overload?” You’re no longer in the moment you cannot coach or be a sales professional. At that point, you’re focused on fear. Fear is driving you. And as I said before, because every single person, any organization has a target on their back because they have to achieve results. Results live in the future.

So, this becomes a global conundrum and occupational hazard where managers or leaders are always focused on the next deal. The next, you know, the next pipeline review, the next business review the next meeting. But how much time are they really stopping to focus on now? And if you’re not focused on now, you’re not in the process and you don’t coach the result. You coach the process.

OF: I love that advice. So, we’ve talked about some of the skills and characteristics that make an effective coach, but I’d love to dig in now to how people can really put that into action. And one way is through the leads coaching model that you’ve developed and talked about in some of your books to really help guide an effective coaching conversation. So, I’d love for you to just take a moment to kind of walk us through some of the core elements of that model and why that approach is so impactful.

KR: Absolutely. Again, as I would love to go through the whole framework. This framework has been adopted I think at this point by 10,000. I think the last time my marketing director checked, 10,000 of the top global organizations today. So, I’m going to share with everyone right now what I call a 60 second coaching strategy. So, no manager can tell me they don’t have time to coach. No salesperson can tell me they don’t have time to coach. So here it is, Olivia. Let’s say it set the stage here. So, you’re one of my direct reports and you’re coming to me and saying, “Hey Keith, I’m working on this deal. I need your help. I really need to know what to do here” Now gee, why do you think you would come to me like that? Asking for an answer, I wonder who conditioned you. That you go to your manager every time you want an answer. I don’t suppose there are no cheap problem-solvers watching this or listening to this because last time I checked, most managers lead with answers. A direct or sale or peer or someone in another department follow up comes to them and says, “I need your help. Here’s my challenge.” First reaction, manager rewinds, searches through their database and in a nanosecond, they respond with, “here’s what I’ll do or here’s what you need to do.” I’ve never met a manager who didn’t want a team of independent, accountable salespeople.

Here’s a paradox. Managers create the very problems they want to avoid. Every time you give an answer, you’re creating dependency. You’re not building their problem-solving skills. You want to team up confident people, you’re robbing them of their confidence because when they leave a conversation with you after you told them what to do, they’re thinking, “wow, my boss is doing my job for me,” but a lot of them thinking, “I guess my boss doesn’t trust me. I guess they don’t think I could do my job.” What do you think that’s going to do for engagement, especially in a world we are all remote right now? So, let’s stop that bad behavior and replace it with just one question. And here it is, someone comes to you, you’re a manager. I come to you, I’m your direct report with a problem. Suspend your innate response to give an answer because you think it’s quicker.

No, it’s not. You give answers every time. Here’s the real irony. When you tell someone what to do and it doesn’t work, that salesperson gets to come back to you and say, “Hey boss, my hands are clean on this. You told me what to do. Not my idea, your idea.” Successfully robbing people, the very accountability, we want to instill. How’s that for insanity? So here we go. I promise you the 60 seconds set a coaching strategy, which will probably take me less. Here it is. Someone comes to you looking for help, here’s how you respond. “Hey, Olivia, thanks for coming to me. I’m happy to share my opinion with you. However, you’re a lot closer to the situation than I am, and I trust you and I trust your judgment. So, what’s your opinion on how to move forward and handle this so that you can achieve the results you want.”

OF: I think that was 60 seconds.

KR: Every manager can do that in every conversation, every conversation. Wow. Thanks for coming to me. I’m happy to share my opinion. However, you’re a lot closer to it than I am, which is true. And I respect you and I respect your judgment, building confidence. So, what’s your opinion on how to resolve this? Everyone listened to me. Coaching is a language, we talked about that, selling is a language. Why do you think I’m using the word opinion rather than what’s the solution? What’s the answer? Tell me what you’re going to do. Because solutions and answers can be right and wrong. Opinions are not right or wrong. They just are, and everyone has them. So, when you ask someone for their opinion, they can’t look back at you and say, “I don’t know.” You don’t know your own opinion. So, managers ask that question. You always can get an answer. And by the way, if you ever get to the other, “But the boss, I really don’t know.” Then you could add this other one of my other favorite questions. Well, if you did know what would it be?

OF: I love that, that’s a fantastic way to approach those conversations without giving away the answers and helping to really build that confidence. Like you said, you’ve talked a lot about how coaching happens all the time, and it isn’t something that is necessarily just a scheduled part of your day but is more just organic and happens in the moment. So, given the kind of virtual environment that many sales teams are now, what are some challenges that sales leaders might encounter or that salespeople might encounter in trying to get effective coaching and for leaders to actually conduct effective coaching conversations that aren’t just a pipeline review?

KR: Yeah. So, I mean, I’ll say very directly if managers are not coaching effectively, salespeople aren’t selling effectively. It’s that simple. Money and deals are being left on the table. Don’t tell me it’s tough out there. Don’t tell me the market is tough because I know a lot of my clients that are absolutely crushing. And I’m not just talking about the industries that better have a nice rebound because of the pandemic. I’m talking about every industry here, all right. Leaders of the nucleus, leaders you are the heartbeat of the company. How can the company grow if you’re not growing, your people can’t grow. If you’re not growing, they’re going to remain stagnant.

So, when it comes to not only coaching, you know, now expound that to the fact that now, oh my gosh, I’m talking to a screen. Now how about this one? Olivia, I’m sure you haven’t heard this one. I’ve been hearing this a lot. So, Keith I got a promotion in February and I met my team once and then they went virtual and I’ve never seen them again. I’ve been hearing that a lot. These are caring managers. Most managers I know are caring people that want to help people succeed, and they’re struggling with the same issues because they’re not getting coaching from their managers. That’s not how you build a coaching culture. Everyone gets coached.
So, with remote coaching, they struggle on a good day with regular coach. Remote coaching is a whole other level. So not only that, as I mentioned before, those managers who really hadn’t had an opportunity to build relationships with a new team, now they’re building relationships on a one-dimensional screen. Just like your salespeople are selling, trying to build relationships on a one-dimensional screen. So, the one thing that managers must have, and Olivia, I have some great resources I want to make sure that everyone gets their hands on. Number one, I want to make sure everyone gets a free copy of my new book, “The 60 Second Sales Coach”. I also have another document that I want to make sure everyone gets, which is exactly what you’re looking for.

What’s the conversation as a manager that I need to have with my team that is now remote, that will allow me to reconnect with them, keep them motivated, keep them inspired, hold them accountable and make them still feel part of a team where so many people are feeling isolated and alone, which is leading to depression. Managers didn’t sign up for this, but the greatest leaders I know support people unconditionally. They are selfless. Those are two other characteristics. Okay. So, the conversation, I’m just going to give everyone here a few questions that you can ask. And by the way, managers, this is not just for you to ask your direct reports salespeople. This is the same conversation you could be having with your prospects and customers. As I said before, this is about humanizing the sales process.

So, let me share a couple of questions. As a manager, talking to some of my employees having a one-on-one with each one and just asking, just being human and saying, “Hey, listen, I’m struggling. I know everyone’s struggling through this and I’d love to have a conversation to see how you’re adapting to our new environment and how we’re doing business. And I’d love to share how I’m doing, and maybe we can learn from each other. Are you open to having this conversation?” What I just did right there is setting intention. Managers, especially today, if your intentions are not clear, people default to fear. You call up one of your salespeople and say, “Hey, got a minute. We need to call.” They’re going to run the other way. Why? Because they think what did I do wrong, am I getting fired? Am I in trouble? Might be put on an infamous pit.

Your companies know what that pit is. Right? So, when people don’t know intentions, they default to fear. So, what I just did is set clear intention around the conversation. It’s called the audit enrollment, which Il talk about my book, so that people know what’s in it for them. Now that I’ve done that, I could ask some questions such as, Hey, you know what? Now that you’re working and you know, there’s no more line between personal life and work, how have you adopted what are some of the changes you’ve made that are working well for you? What are you doing every day to shut down? What are you doing every day to shut off? Because now our home is now our office. So, what are you doing way to just turn off and focus on your family and the people and the things that you love to do?

How good are you being at taking care of yourself? Are you practicing self-care? How effective is your routine? Do you have a daily routine from the time you wake up until the time you end your day, that details the specific and measurable actions that not only move you forward to your business goals, but keep your life in balance and harmony? I can tell you’re right now on a good day, most people don’t have that. This is an opportunity to reinvent your lifestyle. Beyond that and again, this speaks to not only speaking to our employees, but also to our customers is, what are you struggling with? If I’m a manager talking to one of my direct reports, I’d want to know, “Hey, every conversation I’m here to support you. But I don’t know how much interaction you want with me, what type of cadence you want to develop so that you feel connected and part of a team?”

Other questions, how are you honoring your priorities and your core values at home? How are you setting boundaries at home, so family knows you’re working, or significant others know you’re working? And finally, and this is that other part. You’re in my home right now. Okay. This is my home. This is my happy place in my man-cave in my office. But you’re in my home right now. Managers, when you’re speaking to your employees, salespeople, when you’re speaking to your customers and prospects, unless they have a green screen or something, you’re in their home. And as a manager, having a one-on-one or a team meeting, and you see one of you directs, clearly, they haven’t slept in days. They look stressed out. Maybe they’re wearing the same stain shirt they’ve been wearing for the last five meetings. Maybe as you’re having the meeting their head is down. Maybe during the meeting, children, dogs, cats, family, running around everywhere. Some people even told me their offices is their closet.

Then what about the people that are sitting there and rather than having an organized workplace, all you just see is just clutter. As a human being, are you going to tell me as a manager say, “Okay everyone, I know it’s tough out there, but listen, I’m here to support you. You’re doing great. Just, just be like Teflon and get out there and keep selling. Okay. You’re doing a great job. Good job, everyone. You look great. I’ll see you next call.” Managers have no idea how to have these conversations and the reason a lot of times they don’t is because first of all, they’re thinking, do I need to have HR? Is this a compliant conversation that I gave him to have on such a personal level? Yes, you do. HR rules, guidelines need to change because everything’s changing now, and we need to adopt. Managers need to be comfortable having these personal conversations with their people.

Again, I wrote an article, I’ll leave this last point here. I wrote an article a few months ago about the new top corporate value is low. And love doesn’t mean, you know, interpersonal relationships. Love means care. Love means concern. Love means empathy. Love means being human. Love and just being authentic, it means caring enough to want to connect with another human being and who doesn’t want that?

OF: Absolutely. I’m so glad that you brought up that intentionality is really core there. And you also mentioned so many great characteristics, like authenticity, empathy, love, care, vulnerability, all of those are always important. But I think even more so right now, and you did touch on this a little bit, but you know, as kind of the lines between work and home for so many are being blurred right now, time management is something that’s becoming really difficult. And especially for sales leaders who already didn’t have a lot of time, they’re already stretched pretty thin. What often can happen in those situations is coaching kind of gets deprioritized, or maybe pushed to the back burner for folks that just have so many other things on their plate that they feel really take precedent. But as we talked about coaching is one of those core things that can really make or break sales success. So especially in this time where it’s so difficult to manage time effectively, how can sales leaders really kind of take their schedules into their own hands and get back on track to be able to make time for coaching?

KR: You know, the first part in terms of salespeople and managers coaching, it’s interesting. Back in the day when I was traveling a lot. God, I miss those days. I was in Ireland and I remember it was the second day of my leadership coach training and we were going around the room. And one of the managers that keep us, and I’m so committed to coaching. Okay. I see the value. I know it’s the most important thing as a manager that I need to do every day, but I’m struggling with trying to fit coaching around all of my other responsibilities. Before I could respond, another manager jumped in and said, wait a second, you need to look at this in a different way. You can’t ask how are you going to fit coaching around all of your other responsibilities? You need to ask how you going to fit all of your other responsibilities around coaching. And that’s the fundamental mind shift that every leader needs to make today. Now keep in mind there’s every conversation being a coaching conversation, and there’s also scheduling the one-on-ones with each person on your team at least once a week.

For those managers that are thinking, “But Keith, you’re doing the math. I have 20 direct reports. You want me to schedule a one-on-one with each of them once a week?” Tell me what’s more important. Tell me what’s more important than spending time with your people. Because the last time I checked it, when managers wake up in fear, they wake up and they say to themselves, they asked himself the wrong question, they ask themselves, “What do I need to do to hit my business objectives today?” That depersonalizes what leadership is all about. The best leaders I know, wake up and ask themselves, “What do I need to do today to make my people more valuable than they were yesterday.” This is the fundamental mind shift. And that belief is going to precede experience.

How you think is what you get. Okay. And what you believe is what manifests in your life. Okay. So, your beliefs proceed your actions. So, everything that we’re just talking about here, you can’t be a great coach or a great salesperson if you haven’t embraced, not just the skillset, but if you notice how much we’re really talking about mindset today. And that’s always going to be more important. Who you are is always more important than what you do? I mentioned earlier about having a specific routine and a lot of people have told me if I can’t do that or Keith my business it really doesn’t allow me to have a routine like that, or, you know, I tried it and it didn’t work out. Let’s be clear. Anyone that’s tried a routine and it didn’t work out means one of two things. You didn’t build it the right way or you’re an adrenaline junkie. Okay. Because a routine is consistent action, consistent thinking, consistent results. Adrenaline is a rollercoaster. I don’t suppose, Olivia, you’ve ever ran into any managers that feel like they work really good under pressure, or they have a lot of incomplete tasks on their plate, or they thrive on solving problems. I’m sure none of those managers are listening or watching this, right?

OF: Absolutely.

KR: Adrenaline, you can’t have a routine if you’re an adrenaline junkie, you need to tap into another energy source called momentum. Consistent actions. So, when you wake up in the morning, I bet every single person has a routine, but it’s not conscious. We need to bring it to our conscious level. I’ve worked on the same routine for probably the last five years. Because I’m doing everything consistently. What am I doing? I’m taking care of myself. I’m practicing extreme self-care, I’m doing my yoga, I’m working out at the gym, I’m doing kickboxing, I’m playing golf, I’m mountain biking. Self-care okay. Taking care of me. Those are the things that you need to build into your routine.

You know what else I built into my routine? Making sure I go out and see my parents. And I am so blessed they’re only 15 minutes away. Making sure I call my mom every day and it’s so hard. Everyone knows that those are the things I forgot to do, and I’ll do it tomorrow. You won’t forget if it’s in your routine and I will leave two points. If you don’t have the appointment, you don’t have the commitment. So, if coaching is not scheduled, if prospecting is not scheduled, if self-care is not scheduled. If having putting time aside to spend with your loved ones is not scheduled. All that self-care is going to be overshadowed by your business and your career responsibilities. And I can tell you with great certainty this is the part where people struggle with most. I want everyone to hear what I’m saying. This is not a bad opportunity. This is a great opportunity for you to stop, look in the mirror and say, am I living my ideal life? And if I’m not, how do I want it to be?

Most people can’t even answer that question. So, the reason why people fail at setting a routine, you know, all roads go back to time management, but you don’t build a routine. First, you have to start here, and really quickly personal navigation system is your North star and your guiding light. It’s your internal compass that pulls you towards your ideal life. When I asked people send me right now what your personal vision is, most people don’t even have one, let alone know what it is. when I ask people to send me what their goals are, either their goals are what I call should be goals, which is something they were told to do. Or it’s a lifestyle. You know, for example, a goal is I want to improve the relationships I have with my people, my family, my team, my coworkers. That’s not a goal because the goal has a finite end point. So, what are you going to do? You’re going to improve the relationships and then go back to making them toxic again? No, that’s a routine.

Do you want to stay in shape? Well, do you lose weight and exercise for a month and then go back to eating poorly and not exercising. That’s lifetime, that’s lifestyle. A lot of people confuse tasks or goals with lifestyle. Most of the goals that people have are not goals. They’re part of the things they want to bring into their life always. So that’s the good news. And when you can identify your ideal life and you can pull out your core values, and what is most important to you, only then can you design your day around what the life you want to live. Otherwise, you’re always going to feel off.

OF: So, I just have one final question for you. And this has been an awesome conversation and you’ve shared so much with our audience. So just to kind of wrap everything together, what are some of the key things that you’re seeing successful sales leaders do right now to really stand out and what is it that’s setting them apart?

KR: What I’m seeing they’re doing, number one, they’re like I said before, they’re putting the people first. Number two, they’re realizing it isn’t about you. It’s never about the managers. It’s never about the coach. It’s about your people. I’m always behind the scenes. I’m on the front. I’m behind to make my people look great. My clients look great. Okay. You need to have a framework that you use in every conversation. Give yourself a roadmap of how to have a conversation. That’s the most important skill of leadership, because at the end of the day what makes a great leader? How they show up, their presence, their commitment to their people, and what’s the skill, how they communicate.

OF: Fantastic. Well, Keith, thank you so much for sharing all of these fantastic insights with us and for taking the time. And we absolutely are so excited to share your resources that you mentioned with our audience.

KR: Yeah. So just to make sure they know where to grab my stuff, I have some really new I decided over the last several months of every book, every resource I decided to put out for free because that’s what people need today. So, everyone can go to my website, KeithRosen.com and forget about how many podcasts on there, download my new book. “The 60 Second Sales Coach”. That’s not just for leaders. That’s for salespeople to have ever been in a situation where you wish you had the right question. How about I give you 600 of them in this book, grab it. And finally, what kind of coach would I that’d be if I didn’t honor the attributes and characteristics that I shared with you that make an exemplary leader. So, I want to give everyone out there my mobile number, and I want to give everyone out there my personal email address. My personal email address is KeithR@keithrosen.com.
If you have a question, if you need me, you are not alone. Like it or not I’m your coach. You’re not bothering me. If you need someone to lean on, contact me. Lean on me. My mobile number (516) 233-9239. I know you’re probably thinking Keith are you crazy for giving your personal phone number out. As I said before, what kind of coach would I be if I didn’t model unconditional leadership and that’s what I want for you.

So, Olivia, thank you so much for the opportunity to work with you. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your global audience. I truly hope we make an impact in people’s lives that they really need today.

OF: Thank you, Keith. And to our audience, thanks for listening. For more insights, tips and expertise from sales enablement leaders, visit salesenablement.pro. If there’s something you’d like to share or a topic you’d like to learn more about. Please let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

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