Mark Zokle Helms Management Training Session
With over two decades of proven success, Mark Zokle is one of the nation’s leading experts on sales and marketing. Zokle recently compiled a list of strategies that sales managers can use every day to ensure the success of their teams.
03/10/2016 — PALATINE, ILLINOIS – Sales isn’t an easy job. Mark Zokle knows this all too well and has dedicated a great majority of his career to training sales managers and business owners on how to not only promote their products, but also how to manage a team of people to do it for them.
Recently, Mark Zokle shared insights with a group of new managers at BCI Acrylics, where he serves as National Sales Director. During the program, Mark Zokle taught the team how to lead by example, promote amicable working relationships, and quickly dissect each individual’s personality in order to offer tailored incentives.
Mark Zokle explained that leading by example is the single most important thing a new (or experienced) manager can do. Even those not in active sales roles can demonstrate this leadership skill by showing respect, practicing punctuality, and showcasing the behaviors they want to impart. This was the point most emphasized by Mark Zokle.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) was another key factor Mark Zokle touched on in the training. He explained that EI is either innate or developed over time and defined the trait as being aware of personal emotions and those of others. This, Mark Zokle reported, is a characteristic often found in highly successful salespeople.
According to Mark Zokle, leaders encourage amicable relationships within their department. If a sales staff has a sense of camaraderie, they will usually have increased productivity, higher morale, and greater collaboration. All of this equals more sales, described by Mark Zokle as the end goal of any sales team.
Mark Zokle spent a good portion of the training discussing how leaders can interpret their employee’s personalities. He illustrated how salespersons tend to be encouraged by very unique motivators and that money is not the only reward prioritized. Mark Zokle pointed to the Meyers-Briggs personality test as a tool providing assessment of each personality type. He suggested that assessments like this one make it easier to assign tasks that play on people’s strength.
Another effective leadership strategy is creating (friendly) competition. Mark Zokle said this was relatively simple since sales people, by their very nature, are eager to stand alone in the spotlight. Zokle also listed a few ways to encourage competition. A “Wall of Fame” was one easy and inexpensive way to “crown” winners, Mark Zokle stated.
Mark Zokle closed the meeting by encouraging managers to allow employees the independence to sell the best way they know how–their own. He offered anecdotes about significant turning points in people’s careers when they were “left to their own devices.” Mark Zokle said this was something usually reserved for trusted and proven closers, however, and cautioned against granting autonomy too soon in a career.
After the session, Mark Zokle fielded questions from enthusiastic sales supervisors and reported on facts and figures from the home improvement industry.
Mark Zokle is a nationally recognized innovator in the world of commissioned sales. He has lent his expertise to businesses across multiple sectors but remains steadfast and loyal to his love of home improvement.
HomeLife Warranty Protection: 
Janie: 
Alexander:
I was lucky enough to attend the training given by Mark Zokle. I feel like you made a very good point and saying it was important for leaders to really look at their individual employee’s personalities. Mark Zokle shared a great wealth of insight and I am forever grateful.
James,
I am glad that you took something near and dear to your heart away from the training. Thank you for sharing that.
Mark Zokle has been a great asset to BCI Acrylics. We all feel that he is an effective leader and has really helped us understand the meaning of friendly competition. I look forward to working with Mark Zokle in the future and am excited to see how his expertise improves the company as a whole.
Thank you for saying that. I’m looking forward to the future and can’t wait to host other seminars with our sales professionals.
It meant a great deal to me that Mark Zokle stressed allowing his more experienced employees to do our own thing, so to speak. I have been in sales positions where I was required to follow very strict guidelines, even down to the words I had to use when introducing myself to potential customers. Mark Zokle respects the work that we have put into our professional careers and I applaud that.
Ralph,
You are an amazing salesperson and we’re beyond lucky to have you on our team. I think that I could learn a thing or two from you! Thank you for your kind words.
I just want to say that one thing I appreciate about Mark Zokle as a trainer is that he takes questions and doesn’t shy away from interacting with those of us who are new in the field. I left this training session with more enthusiasm than I thought possible from a work-related function. We are all in awe at the insights that Mark Zokle brings to the table.
It means a lot to me that you would say that. Sometimes, answering questions is the hardest part of my job because there are so many variables that go into having a successful career.
I had never really considered that camaraderie among my contemporaries was important till Mark Zokle explained we need to focus on competing with ourselves and not one another (though we still have friendly competitions!). I no longer feel like I have to have a plaque commemorating my accomplishments. Mark Zokle taught me how to compete with myself and I have become better at what I do because of it.
The hardest contest you will ever win is against yourself. There is no reason to add extra stress by looking to see what everyone else is doing.