I didn't want the sales team members to be seen in the office that day.

It was a time when I entered Mexico as a sales director in 2008 and began full-fledged sales later that year after completing the construction of the plant. I went to work in the morning that day and looked at yesterday's sales figures, which were far below what we had planned. We had a difficult situation those days. I had all the sales team members gather in the auditorium. I went to the auditorium earlier than the staff and waited standing until all the staff gathered. Everyone was supposed to gather, but there was a message that one or two members had to attend a bit late because of urgent business. I immediately made them stop what they were doing and made them come to the auditorium right away.

All the staff gathered in the auditorium. Then my words had to begin. I started speaking with yesterday's performance. I continued to talk to my members. Yesterday our performance was far below the sales plan. "Under these circumstances, our ability to predict sales is far from sufficient. If we can't predict the same day's sales in the morning, we have to look back at our capabilities. And we, all, don't have to be here if we're not doing this well. I, too, have no point in being here. I cannot find any reason for the existence of a sales team and a sales director who don't perform well. What we are in this position, the sales department, is to sell. So we have to sell. Why are we here if we can't sell?"

I told all the sales team members to go out of the company immediately and bring in the sales volume. I said "It doesn't matter if you go to the client company and sit next to the person in charge, or you go home, or you sleep in a hotel" I told them that if you wouldn't bring the sales amount next morning, you didn't need to come to work. Saying so, the officials expressed reluctance. They said that there were a lot of things to do, such as ordering production right away, arranging the trucks, and so on. Of course I had known that. But I insisted. I was the decision maker, and all responsibility and authority for sales lay with me, and if I said so, that was up to me. "So get out of here. Go out and get the sales volume." That was what the sales team should do, I thought so. I said I didn't want to see the sales team members in the office from that moment to next day. So I sent all the sales team members out of the company.

I knew that doing so right away didn't meant that sales would surge. I knew we had to order production that day, and we needed to get the trucks out of the way. But I wanted to see the sales in a month, two months and a year. It was my judgment that with that mind set and determination, we would continue to achieve the sales targets. So I needed the urgency of the members. Each member needed to be determined to achieve their sales goals. So I sent the members out of the company that day.

* I don't want to use the word 'employee'. I prefer to use 'member'.

The next morning our members came to the office. I had the members gather in the auditorium again and revealed the sales volume brought by each member. The expectation was not missed. There was not much amount. It was less than 2% of our monthly sales target. Even so, I praised the staff. In the market situation, we were doing our best. I spoke clearly to the sales team staff. "Don't try to persuade me as far as the sales target is concerned. I will surely achieve my sales goal." So we did our best to achieve our sales goal.

Our efforts paid off and we had achieved our sales target attainment level in the shortest period of time and realized the surplus.

Steel sales are not an industry with immediate performance. It is also sensitive to market conditions. But I didn't want to see blaming it on all the reports mentioned that the market was bad. I knew the market was bad even if it was not written in the report. So in this market situation, I wanted to see in the report what the best we could do. The market is bad, but we focused on what to do.

I asked my members how many customers we had when I heard the report that the market was bad and the sales volume was low. That moment if the number of customers was 100, we should expand the number of customers to 200. Then I asked to my members to raise our service levels. If at that moment the market was bad, it was difficult for customers too. So I requested to go to the customers' companies and see if there was anything we could do to help. But would that be possible to increase the number of customers to 200? I had have so many experiences in this market. I knew even if we do our best, we could expand just  10 more customers at the most. I knew it. But we had to do something to achieve the targets.

Our sales team and I used to have dinner together after the monthly settlement. It was natural that we have achieved our performance. I also thanked the members for doing their best. I was actually grateful. I was grateful that the members for trusting and following me. Some of the sales team members who worked together at that time still work for the corporation, and some had moved on to other companies. I'm sure now the sales team members I worked with at that time became the strong sales force anywhere in Mexico.

It was not impossible to achieve the sales target.

The sales meeting was held every day. Directors and managers gathered in the conference room at 9 o'clock to hold a sales meeting that day. One of our managers looked very tired during the meeting. When I asked her if she had a drink last night, she said she couldn't sleep. When I asked her why she couldn't sleep, she said she tried to sleep at night but couldn't because she didn't think she would be able to meet his sales target that day. I laughed and asked if it really is, and it really is. After the meeting, the manager came into my office. I asked the manager to have a cup of coffee, so we went out together and brought in. The manager thanked me. When I asked the reason, she said that the sales target has been just a number but "Now, it is not only a number, but also a goal to achieve." She said that she gained confidence that she could do anything. She told me when I first came, it was impossible for everyone to achieve monthly sales target. It was less than four months to achieve the monthly targets. But now it's changed. Achieving the goal has become a given. And it was shocked for her when one of the other employees said, "It's impossible," when I said, "Just make it possible." That moment she thought we would not continue to achieve our sales target, but she admitted she was wrong. Now she can't even sleep at night if we don't meet our sales goals on the same day. I thanked her, too. I'm sure our employees are not just saying that it's difficult to achieve their goals, but that they know what we have to do to achieve our difficult sales goals and do their best to achieve them. Even though we did our best to do what we had to do, when we found difficulties, we ran diligently to the factory and to the client company. Decisions were made immediately, and a system was created in which profits could be predicted at the same time as sales. It has been quantified so that we can see the performance in numbers every day and the results of our efforts. As a result, not only employees' awareness but also the way we perform our duties has changed.

I saw the market separately. It is a separation of industrial groups. The industrial group has been separated and the management styles were different. In other words, I managed with different ways in each market such as automobiles, home appliances, construction etc. To that end, discussions with directors in charge continued. I had an opinion that it would be better to leave the market as it flows, except for the automobile and home appliance markets. It is to leave the supply and demand of prices or supplies to the market. It was my opinion that doing so would allow some time to elapse so that our products could naturally settle in the market. However, the director's opinion was different. Instead of leaving it to the market, the director in charge said, "We should create a system to distinguish customers and standardize the price level." I was a little skeptical. If we manage the market in a contrived manner, I wondered if there would be any results in terms of human and physical costs. Even so, I think I should not just ignore the opinion of the director in charge. So I asked him to make a plan and report to me first. After a while, the director has come up with a plan to manage the market. I asked him to wait a little bit in order to review the report first. Then I went over the management report, and I couldn't help but admit that I was wrong. It could be summarized that the market is divided into specific customer groups, the financial status of the client company is also considered, and the market is being led by price forecasting. My idea was wrong. I called the director. I said it was great and I was wrong. Then we put the director's idea into action.

Our marketing department has changed. We became strong.

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.