The basis of a leader is to take the initiative.

The basis of a leader is to take the initiative. The presence of members in the organization creates a leader. The most important virtue for a leader, from a beginner to CEO, is taking the initiative. A leader who does not show the initiative is not qualified as a leader. Unqualified leaders are fatal to companies that value performance and profits. In the past, manufacturing was a time when all products was sold in a supplier-oriented industry. In today's diverse industrial era, hard work is needed to sell products that have been produced. Effort can be done by anyone if they want to. Leaders have to be different.

It was when I was working as CMO in a overseas corporation. I checked the sales process after I was assigned to the corporation. There was a fairly good system in the process. But there were many months when the company failed to meet its monthly target sales. I began to analyze the causes one by one. Although improvements in processes and systems have been seen here and there, compared to other companies, we have built an excellent system. After looking at the process one by one and consulting with the staff, I realized that there was no urgency to achieve the goals in their mind. For them, the goal was just a number, and achieving the goal was almost impossible under the current circumstances.

 First of all, I asked the staff not to say "impossible" in front of me. The expression "impossible" in sales could be told only by me.  In our organization I'm the only one who can say "impossible". All members of the marketing department were asked to gather in the conference room. Then I told that in the future we would never fall short of our sales Then I said that I would hold a sales meeting at 9 a.m. every morning with directors and managers. Then I asked for the sales form they had been managing, then I looked at it carefully. There was no immediate need to modify the management style. I didn't want many changes which could add the staff's work. I tried to make the most of it if I could use the existing one. As time went by, I could revise it with my staff. Employees and leaders must go together. The leader decides and leads, but it is not desirable for employees to be dragged reluctantly.

After careful reviewing of the form, the form was put on the screen at the morning sales meeting. To directors and managers, it was the first time that CMO has attended a meeting every morning to discuss the sales. For me, I  have had a meeting every morning since I dispatched to Mexico. At that time I was the head of a overseas corporation, so I could brought the managers from all departments, including sales/production/financial/maintenance/quality/general affairs, to attend. This meeting had been going on every single day unless I was away on a business trip. In the course of the meeting, it was necessary for employees to clearly recognize why sales objectives are important and how they should be managed and what should be done to achieve sales goals.

The meeting started at 9 a.m. the next morning. The form was shown on the big screen in front of it. It's just an Excel sheet. The sheet showed the departments, teams, customers and dates. First of all, each column was blank. As it was the first meeting, I explained the purpose of the meeting. After explaining the purpose, I asked the managers what our sales target is for this month. Some knew and some didn't. I then asked what the goal of the team was. Some knew and some didn't. There is no reprimand or rebuke. There is my way of doing it from now on. We will achieve our sales targets every month.

The directors and managers attending the meeting were made sure they were not late for the meeting. Every morning, the team preparing for the meeting was asked to be ready before five minutes, and the meeting could begin at nine o'clock on time. I told the attendees why I was here. I am here to take charge of the sales of our corporation and to realize our sales goals so that our corporation can continue to realize its profits. Then I told each of the attendees that they should be clearly aware of why they are here. Each of the attendees as a sales manager, they were here to manage the carrier of their employees so that they could develop, and then to achieve the team's sales goals.

Then we divided the corporate sales target into departments. And we divided this into teams. After that I ordered them to distribute the target to their respective customers. They could have just divided the number up to the team's goal, but it was not easy to set the goal as a customer unit. Corporate goals, department goals, team goals, and customer-specific goals were expressed in quantity. Now we can divide this by the day of the month. It is not easy to predict daily sales for each customer. I knew it wasn't easy either. However, they were forced to divide it into daily and fill the form. So for the day we have completed the form for our daily sales meetings. Through this form, we have achieved our sales goals with detailed management during our daily sales meetings.

* The following story will specifically tell you how we managed sales meeting and achieved the targets.