I am not familiar with Mark Giganti but I am enjoying his interview at Landing the Deal. Giganti comments on common sales management mistakes: “Most managers I begin training are just at the point where they begin managing people with the “golden rule” philosophy: “Manage people as you would want to be managed. But I try and get them to see that gold isn’t good enough anymore…they need to get to the “platinum rule” philosophy: “Manage people as they need to be managed.” There’s a big difference. “Also, I see a lot of professionals who like to ‘manage from the hip’. No plan, no real reason for doing what they… Read More
Continue ReadingManaging a Sales Team
Keys to Managing a Sales Team is a quick read from the abcnews.com career center. The article has hands-on advice (which we like) that cut to quick of effective sales management – at least in a limited scope. One item I want to pull from the article: Do you adapt to their style? I had a boss who never wanted to visit my work space; we always met in his office. Are you like that? It’s important to make your coaching more about the workers. Find out how they learn the best and what topics they think are the most important to discuss. The more you make it about your… Read More
Continue ReadingLack of a Sales Process
From Sales & Marketing Management: Of the 1,275 companies surveyed nationwide recently, less than half have a formal sales process; of the 45 percent that do, only 45 percent of those actually monitor the processes in place to make sure they are helping the company sell better. Our first step in running a sales hiring process is to have our customer fill in this graph: This information tells us 2 things – the basic level of prospecting activity required and the company’s grasp of their current sales process. If a company cannot define what it takes to close one deal, how can they expect a new salesperson to do it… Read More
Continue ReadingIncentives vs. Motivation
Rewarding salespeople is a tricky endeavor. Yes, most salespeople are motivated by money, but what rewards do they seek? This seems like a fine point, but motivations are different than rewards. This Selling Power article provides some examples of misaligned rewards, or incentives, that companies have thrust upon their sales force. An example: One high achieving rep at an insurance company, who had won every award the company had to offer, including salesperson of the year, eventually stopped bothering to attend the annual award ceremony. Noting the rep’s absence, one manager decided to find out what was truly important to this particular salesperson. The manager discovered that the rep centered… Read More
Continue ReadingHow to Win the Talent Wars
From Sales & Marketing Management’s e-newsletter (sorry, no link available): How to win the talent war: * Assess current strengths and gaps. Review the talent on hand and what your future needs will be. * Create a vision and strategy. Identify the tools, processes, and technology you will need to fill your talent gaps. Create a vision that can be embraced by a those who will be asked to do the recruiting work. * Complete a readiness assessment. Is your organization ready to jump into the talent wars? Is the culture prepared to support the impact of a new talent vision? * Build the business case. Identify the benefits to… Read More
Continue ReadingMotivating a Sales Force
I’m catching up to some older articles in my RSS feeder and came across this AllBusiness.com article – Managing and Motivating Salespeople. We have an appreciation for tactical management articles. What I mean is articles that take a “how to” approach to management. There are plenty of strategic, mile-high articles out there so we enjoy a good hands-on read. First off, all sales managers need to motivate their sales force in some manner. Even the most self-starting salesperson will need an occassional injection of external motivation from their sales manager. Many sales managers tend to ignore or deny this fact at their own peril. Next, the author’s suggestions are spot… Read More
Continue ReadingPerfectionism
Two links that relate directly to each other. First, a Forbes.com article titled Addicted to Work. Interesting point: “Perfectionism overrides efficiency,” Robinson says. “A workaholic will spend unnecessary time on a project, often going over it again and again before passing it on.” The article gets fairly intense about the outcroppings of a workaholic. One particular Selling Style is particularly susceptible to becoming a workaholic – it is the High C. The very strengths in their style also make them susceptible to extremism in their work role.
Continue ReadingHow to Manage a Staff of Young Employees
We have a bit of an impromptu theme this week starting with our article released Monday. Generations X and Y are popular topics these days. I have been catching up to some older articles and came across this one from allbusiness.com which is the title of this post. Overall, it is a strong article with good tactical suggestions for managers. Some seem simplistic – be clear from the outset, be a mentor and teach them business standards. Yet, I can immediately think of 5 examples where sales managers did not perform such rudimentary tasks. Maybe these items are topical fodder for management articles nowadays? Two points really jumped out from… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring as a Part-Time Activity
A few years ago we were working with a large corporation that was having a difficult time finding strong salespeople. In fact, they were quite lousy at it and had assembled a weak team overall. This project was quite extensive in that we had to assess their current team of over 30 salespeople, 5 managers and 3 VPs. After that, we modified our hiring process to work with their existing HR department’s process. After many meetings, we were off and running on the sourcing side. We identified the strong candidates and went to schedule interviews with the hiring managers. Anyone who has hired strong salespeople before knows that you do… Read More
Continue ReadingFirst-Time Managers
Stepping Into the Role of a First-Time Manager (link is gone) is a quick read article with practical advice for employees making their foray into management. My first foray into management left me with many bruises as I did not follow one of the suggestions in this article. I attempted to change many things in a short amount of time. My approach led to some significant changes but it triggered many management meetings with the other departments. Let’s just say those were quite candid meetings. Much of our focus is on hiring, but we have another side to our business where we assess existing teams. In some ways, this work… Read More
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