From now until the end of the year it is a challenge to get prospects to make buying decisions. Savvy sales pros, though, are engaging businesses that are sitting on piles of cash and demonstrating how smart buying decisions now can add value to the business while reducing their…...
Time Invested in Training Tomorrows Sales Leaders, Pays Big Dividends TODAY!
Business executives can be forgiven for not wanting to think about a key, upper sales management employee leaving the firm. They cannot, however, be forgiven for not planning how to deal with such a possibility. Planning for changes in the sales leadership environment will not only pay off when…...
Hiring Strategies to Build the Best Sales Team
The way you organize your sales team and structure their activities plays an integral role in the type of salesperson who will be successful in your firm. To maximize your chance of hiring a great representative, align your company’s organizational structure with its business model, and then hire candidates with…...
8 Sneaky Sales Techniques to Try in Your Next Job Interview
When you think about it, closing a sales deal and scoring a job offer really aren’t that different from one another. In both cases, you have to identify the right contacts, thoughtfully reach out to them and convince them that you, above all others, are the right person to help them…...
Top 21 Sales Management Books
How many books do you read each month? How about in a year? Maybe you feel like there’s no time for a “luxury” like reading. Or maybe it’s just never been your thing. I’m here to tell you, there is and it should be. “If I have seen further it…...
Breaking the Sales Coaching Dilemma: Four keys to jumpstart your coaching efforts and overcome sales leaders’ greatest blindspot – | The
A recent study of more than 800 front line sales reps and sales leaders highlights a disturbing trend in sales management. While organizations are making ever greater investment in technologies and operational processes to improve performance, sales reps are citing Training and Development as being one of their greatest challenges…...
What Percentage of Sales Managers Have the Necessary Coaching Skills? –
I am often asked to explain what we look for when we evaluate Sales Managers. At this point, most experts agree that a good Sales Manager will spend half of their time coaching up the salespeople. Recently, I was asked to share some statistics about sales management coaching – the…...
The Definition of Sales Management – What’s Missing
The state of sales management in many companies is disturbing. Consider these stats from our Top-Performing Sales Organization study:66% of companies do not believe their sales managers have the skills needed to manage and coach sellers. Elite performers are 2.4x more likely to agree that sales managers and leaders are…...
Are First-Line Sales Managers In Danger Of Extinction?
The sales landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade as modern and empowered buyers, new technologies and competitive pressures forge new realities. This confluence of factors has imperiled various sales roles, creating adapt-to-survive imperatives.For example, nearly three years ago, Forrester Research predicted (registration required) the impending death of the B2B salesman…...
Infographic; Key Traits of Successful Salespeople
After recruiting sales professionals for 25 years now, we have learned that beyond charisma and likability, there are very specific skills, as well as distinct characteristics that when combined, result in those unique individuals that excel in sales roles. When you look at someone that has consistently met and exceeded…...
The Checklist Every Sales Person Should Ace Before Being Promoted
It’s no secret. Often times the best sales people do not make for the best sales coaches, yet sales departments continue to promote their top performers into coaching roles.Personally, I believe this happens for 3 reasons. (1) It is how it has always been done. (2) It's easy and convenient.…...
Sales Coaching 101: How to Help Your Sales Representatives Succeed
Strong sales coaching is critical for sales success. Research shows that sales representatives who receive effective coaching can increase their win rate by 54% within a year and a half of starting a coaching program. Furthermore, overall turnover can decrease by 12% simply by implementing good coaching.But despite the benefits of…...
The 7 Bad Actors on Every Sales Team & How to Manage Them
Conventional wisdom states that there are 7 types of sales reps that often exist in many mid-market or enterprise-level sales teams. No matter how big your sales team, you'll probably recognize many of these bad actors, and especially their bad behavior.Use the tips below to avoid or manage these…...
The World’s Most Dysfunctional Sales Team
Building a world-class sales team doesn’t sound that hard, until you realize how many things can go wrong.From hiring to lead gen to sales forecasting, it’s easy for your team to get tripped up and fall into a pattern of bad habits and costly mistakes.Compare your team’s performance to the…...
A Scorecard to Perform a Sales Team Assessment
Managing salespeople is a difficult job. From understanding their pipeline and key metrics to recruiting, hiring, and firing, a sales manager has a lot on their plate. One of the biggest sources of turnover and missed opportunity comes from a lack of understanding of what each sales person is doing…...
Sales Management: The Ultimate Guide
Even the most talented, hard-working, persistent salespeople only bring in so much revenue. They’re limited by their time. With a set number of selling hours in the day, a great rep can sell twice as much as an average performer -- probably no more.But a great sales manager? They can…...
