A quote from JustSell.com’s daily email: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” -George S. Patton (1885-1945) U.S. Army general during WWII It is a good reminder for sales managers. One thing we discuss with sales managers is letting your salespeople fail. I’m not referring to big deals, top prospects. Instead I am referring to smaller opportunities where you know the salesperson is going to get a lesson. Here is why it is key. We have a customer who has a sales manager who has become the closer (for lack of a better word). Essentially, he has… Read More
Continue ReadingTop 30 Job Boards
Weddles.com has published their annual user choice awards. Here are their top 30 online job boards. Unfortunately their newsletter does not have a link but does have some interesting points worth noting: Nine of the sites are making their first appearance. Two-thirds are niche or specialty sites providing recruiting support in a specific career, field, industry, location or group. One-third are general purpose sites.
Continue Reading7 Deadly Sins of Salespeople
From SM&M – The Seven Deadly Sins of Salespeople: 7. Chattering 6. Gourmandizing (never heard this word before) 5. Inactivity 4. Obliviousness 3. Shallowness 2. Presumptuousness 1. Ignorance You will need to follow the link to read the description of each “sin.” It is well worth the time as the author has laid these out in detail. I agree with all of them though I would have swapped the order of Presumptuousness and Ignorance. My reason is this – a salesperson can effectively close a deal without having a spy (to use the author’s word) within the organization. A salesperson who presumes to know critical pieces of qualifying information will… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Unsaid Often Says It All
Many thanks to Eric for his compelling comment to this post from a couple days ago. I thought this was too good to leave in the comments. It may come as a surprise to know that there are ways to assess the potential value of ‘professional actors’ when they show up in your selection process net. Two of my early careers were production stage manager and theatrical stage director – and key to the success of our productions were selecting the best actors for the roles and the show. If you can imagine – many actors are a lot better at auditioning than actually performing. Anyone familiar with the process… Read More
Continue ReadingA Rewarding Culture
I was talking to a sales manager friend today regarding motivating salespeople. This topic could fill a book, but the key point we were discussing was how managers have to focus on motivations and rewards. He told me of a company he used to work for that rewarded the sales team with a trip for the entire team. If they made their group goal, the sales reps along with their spouses got to go on an all-expenses-paid vacation together. All except the sales manager – he did not go with the team. He was not inclined to that group reward and felt he was too busy to attend with his… Read More
Continue ReadingOf Cold, Coffee and Closing
This is not the way to start your day – it is -20 degrees here this morning in New Prague, MN. That’s pretty cold even by our standards. Next I read that there is going to be a coffee bean shortage next season which certainly means that prices will be increasing. Not what you want to read on a -20 morning. However, I was thinking about the importance of qualifying in successful selling based on this post from yesterday. A key point to understand is that qualified deals close themselves. If a salesperson can successfully qualify the prospect, they do not need to use slick closing techniques. The obvious question… Read More
Continue ReadingSlowhand Selling
From Selling Power’s latest sales manager newsletter – Does Your Needs Development Need Development? One of the important early steps in the sales process is uncovering a prospect’s needs. Unfortunately, most reps take that step literally and ask a prospect about his problems and challenges, then check off that step and move on to the next one. And later in the article: Freese just worked with a group of reps from a major, global software company who said they were trained to develop needs by asking, “And what else is important to you?” until the prospect ran out of answers. And then they figured they had all the needs. These… Read More
Continue ReadingThe “Drop Trouser” Sales Move
First off, I have an interest in the Boeing vs. Airbus rivalry. Boeing used to be a customer of mine in a previous role and I have seen their amazing production facility in Everett, WA. The building is unbelievable huge. Anyway, I caught up to this Foxnews.com article – Airbus CEO Dropped Trousers to Seal US Airways Airplane Order. Here is the money excerpt (emphasis mine): Pierson, who ran Airbus from 1985 to 1998, was at US Airways’ headquarters for what he thought would be a short meeting to tie up a 400-plane deal, the anecdote runs. At the last minute, US Airways’ then-chairman Stephen Wolf started arguing for a… Read More
Continue ReadingSalespeople Are Professional Actors
Inc.com offers this article – When Is It Safe To Hire? The focus of the article is a software manufacturer’s assistance to their rep companies in hiring salespeople. Basically, the manufacturer will provide $10,000 to the rep company to assist them in hiring salespeople. The money can be used for assessing, training, supplementing salary, etc. Apparently this approach is relatively common in the software industry. The article discusses the pitfalls of hiring salespeople in the context of small business owners ($1-2 million revenue). This ground is well travelled by us. I am convinced that in companies this size, sales hires are a make-or-break proposition. And when I say “break” I… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat If All Your Senior Execs Left?
What If All Your Senior Execs Left? from BusinessWeek addresses a topic we have been shouting from the mountaintop. First, a great point that I haven’t considered: Organizations today are running with lean, highly productive staffs. While such streamlining is great for budgets, the fact that workplace productivity levels have continued their upward trajectory has created a dearth of available talent.Losing multiple key executives within a short time can tear a hole in the business plan and hurt both a company’s bottom line and stock price. Companies are highly streamlined today which makes every position important to overall corporate success. Technology continues to drive productivity increases, but I believe the… Read More
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