Mike Cardinal has released the final article in our Proactive Sales Management series titled The Finishing Touches. This article completes our 3 part Summer series which defines 3 basic steps in structuring a sales department that acts, well, proactively instead of reactively. An excerpt: A simple but effective way to ensure flexibility within your sales department€™s foundation and structure is to utilize information available to you. Many of our clients take the insight they learn from our assessments to customize and add finishing touches to the communication style utilized with each individual. Each salesperson has a blend of traits, styles, skills and motivations that need to be considered. The sales… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Get The Most Out Of Your Sales Team
The first step and greatest key to get the most out of your sales team is to know what you have. I realize many sales managers believe they know their team’s strengths and obviously they do to some level. But I’m thinking deeper than an observational level. Assessing and evaluating their skills, talents and motivations provides a detailed, objective blueprint for maximizing performance. This principle is well written in an excellent Boston Herald article titled Leverage your team with sales assessments. Here is a succinct description of some successes which flow from assessing and evaluating your team. Assessments that measure individuals€™ motivating drives at work help you understand who the… Read More
Continue ReadingValue Differentiation
We work with our clients in a variety of levels from simply assessing candidates to full-fledged sales management. For one of our clients, we are hosting their weekly sale conference call for their geographically-dispersed sales team. We are building this team by recruiting salespeople and a sales manager to take over the reins. The chance to work with these sales reps every week has reminded me of the critical nature of value differentiation. These reps are located throughout different states in the Western US and each one is chasing slightly different markets. But one thing is clear, they all have focused in on their value and how it differs from… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Accountability For Others
We continue this week with another mission-critical sales manager trait. This measurement reveals a manager’s ability to take responsibility without using excuses for a lack of team peformance. Accountability For OthersThe capacity of a sales manager to take responsibility for the consequences of the actions of those under their management. This trait encompasses taking responsibility for the decisions and actions of subordinates and not shifting focus on blame or poor performance back onto them, or somewhere else. This trait derived from an internal responsibility and accountability to one€™s self as a manager. This internal willingness is to accept responsibility associated with being in a position of management. It involves understanding that it… Read More
Continue ReadingA Sales Manager’s Biggest Responsibility
SellingPower.com offers a terrific how-to article regarding the sales manager’s role in developing his or her team. How to Ace Your Most Important Responsibility is a must read for any sales manager. The article categorizes the sales manager’s approach into 5 straight-forward stages: 1. Set the schedule 2. Pre-call planning 3. During the call 4. Post-call critique 5. End of the day A perfect breakdown of what has to happen to coach your team: To ensure the call remains in the rep€™s hands, sit further away from the buyer than your rep does. Lean back rather than forward in your chair. If the customer directs a question to you, turn… Read More
Continue ReadingManage The Leading Sales Indicators
I’ve been talking to numerous prospects and existing customers this week about onramping salespeople. This topic is germane to every company that employs salespeople. The discussions I had this week have all involved a common thread – managing the trailing indicators. Revenue, customers, pipeline, etc. The sales managers in these discussions were discussing the performance of their new salespeople based on the aforementioned criteria. But this data is a trailing indicator. Think of it as trying to drive a car by only using the rear-view mirror. Some of these companies were frustrated with the new salesperson and skeptical of their future. Mistake. Onramping a salesperson is difficult because the trailing… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Developing Others
This week we focus on a critical sales management trait. We often encounter sales managers who attempt to sell first, manage later. This approach may pay short-term dividends, but the long-term effect is an underdeveloped sales team. We always look at this measurement when hiring sales managers. Developing Others The ability to understand the needs, interests, strengths and weaknesses of others and utilize this information for developing others. This trait is derived primarily from a person€™s concern, their ability to evaluate others, and their ability to identify with others. It is affected by a person€™s focus on structure and order. The person with a strong focus on structure will tend… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Regarding Proactive Sales Management
The first two parts of our series on proactive sales management have been focused on foundation and structure. An experience about a year ago, sums up the crux of the problem – and the eventual fallout. Depending on the sales scenario, product knowledge can be a foundational item that should not be compromised. Having been in a very technical environment for most of my sales career, experience says a sound product foundation is important in the sales process. I’m not suggesting that a salesperson delve into the minutia of every last product detail. What I am suggesting is the ability to use product information and knowledge in the sales process.… Read More
Continue ReadingNew Article – The Structure Of A Selling System
Part 2 in our 3 part Proactive Sales Management series has been released. It is titled The Structure of a Selling System and continues the homebuilding analogy by comparing a selling system to the framing of a house. Just to give you a taste: It took me awhile to understand what was going on and why some of the things I was required to do were important. The key to the training was to understand and use a proven sales process. Tom assured me of success if I stayed within this structured approach. He also assured me I would fail if I didn€™t use the process and techniques that had been refined by… Read More
Continue ReadingOver-Reliance Upon One Customer
Our local Pioneer Press offers a well-written story titled IT PAYS TO THINK SMALL. The article chronicles the up-and-down nature of starting a business from scratch. The piece that caught my attention was how this company, which makes wax-dipped pine cones for burning, grew almost overnight thanks to orders from Target, Wal Mart and Sam’s Club. But that growth came with a significant problem. The sales spike, though, concealed a weakness: The couple’s business was a one-product wonder. A seasonal product, at that. And its sales growth had been fueled by three big customers. Talk about over-leveraged. The allure of one big customer is enticing to a young, growing business. … Read More
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