I’ve been assessing many existing salespeople over the past couple weeks and have seen many different levels of abilities. The ones that stick in my mind are the salespeople who are presently struggling with their revenue production. Sales is one of, if not the most stressful positions within any company. The overt issue with a lack of sales performance is that everyone in the company can see it. The numbers are very visible. One underperforming salesperson I talked to recently has hit a true low point. He’s not certain where to start. I thought about that discussion for quite some time afterwards. The lack of performance becomes a spiraling nose… Read More
Continue ReadingThe External Focus Of Sales
I’ve bumped into a common tension point within a company – the battle between Human Resources and Sales. My observations (and participation) of this feud is that it comes down to a fundamental difference in perspective between the two departments. Human resources has the strongest internal focus of any department. Their world exists within the walls of the company and then spend most of their time examining, building, adjusting, etc. that world. Clearly this is an important aspect of building corporate culture. A weak HR department has a significant negative impact on the entire company. I have worked in those environments and they are tortuous at times. Sales as the… Read More
Continue ReadingA Hazy Shade Of Forecasting
The stresses of this economy are affecting entire sales departments from the leadership down to the trenches. One piece I have noticed is a distinct aversion towards customer relationship management software. Interestingly, the resistance is coming from sales managers. What I believe I am seeing are sales managers with less than solid forecasts…and they know it. However, one of the oldest games in sales is fudging the forecast. Sales managers typically inflate the forecast to buy time. They know certain deals are soft, to say the least, but they are hopeful they can cover those loses with new, undiscovered opportunities. It is some twisted logic for sure. I once worked… Read More
Continue ReadingDo Values Change In A Recession?
That is a tough question since I think values are primarily hardwired into each of us. We assess this trait in sales candidates – call them motivations. Each person tends to have two of these motivators that drives their behaviors (some people have 3 primary motivators). We have assessed salespeople who were in slumps, who were unemployed and who were candidates. These are stressful situations that should impact their values. When we had the opportunity to assess the same people at a later date (years later), we did not see an appreciable change in their values/motivations. Granted, this was no scientific study, but rather a consistent observation. BusinessWeek.com provides this… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Managers In Over Their Head
Dave Stein has a provocative post regarding some recent poll data about sales executives. This is excellent: Top Five Reasons Executives Are Unhappy At Work Limited advancement opportunities (12.8%) Lack of challenge/personal growth (12.3%) Compensation (11.7%) Stress Level (7.7%) Job Security (7.7%) For sales executives, I believe there is another reason for unhappiness in their jobs: many don’t have the capabilities to perform successfully. It’s too much of a challenge rather than lack of a challenge (indicated in number 2 above). Here are two indicators that this is true: First, tenure of sales executives is getting shorter year after year. These sales executives aren’t leaving their jobs in less than… Read More
Continue Reading7 Sales De-Motivators
This list comes from Brian Tracy via the SellingPower.com Incentives newsletter. If you have ever managed salespeople, you know how important proper motivation is. Some days salespeople just don’t have it so you have to step in as their manager and give them that push they need. The problems start when you find yourself stepping in daily. At this point, you clearly have a de-motivated salesperson. If you are at this point, here are some topics to consider: 1. Where am I going? Salespeople lose their sense of direction when they are unclear on precisely what is expected of them on a daily basis, what their goals and quotas are,… Read More
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