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Sales Leadership Tagged Articles
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Build Your Salespeople’s Strengths And Use Them As Launch Pads For Better Sales Success
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| I used to work for a company that tried to change me into someone I just was not. In an interview, the HR manager said, "This company will help you overcome your weaknesses by thrusting you into different kinds of situations. We will help you grow to become a completely different person."
Here is the thing. There's nothing wrong with "overcoming your weaknesses". But to turn me into a "completely different person," that's something else.
Back then I didn't realize the repercussions of that statement. Now that I've got years of experience as a sales manager, I know better than to try and change my sales reps into something they're not.
My sales reps are themselves. They are not their colleagues. They are not their friends. They are not me.
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The Importance Of The 80/20 Rule In Becoming A Top-Performing Sales Manager
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| Being a top sales manager means being above average, which translates to getting more done with less effort. That’s what distinguishes a top sales manager from a mediocre one. But how do YOU become a top sales manager? |
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Recruiting Sales Professionals: Sales Recruiter Reveals Three Key Ingredients Needed to Hire Top Sales Talent
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| Learn how to hire top sales professionals with a few powerful strategies. Identify fundamental elements needed to elevate your sales team and capture more market share faster. Hiring outstanding sales professionals doesn't have to be a mystery, by keeping a few things in mind you can hire stronger sales talent and start generating better results today. |
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Communicating Challenging News
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| Communication is tough at the best of times and even tougher when it is challenging news on a departmental or company level. Most sales leaders do not communicate challenging news well. Learning to improve their communication tactics will help them face less resistance and facilitate a smooth transition when changes are to be made. |
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Will Your Sales Defy Gravity?
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| The world of professional sales is on the cusp of major change. This new reality simultaneously threatens and challenges us, but like it or not, things are changing. The question before us is, “Are we going to drive it, or become its victims?” |
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SNAP Out of Your Sales Status Quo
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| I'm thrilled to share this interview with Jill Konrath about her new Best Selling books, SNAP Selling. |
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Puddles in the Parking Lot
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| It was a cold October morning in Dayton, Ohio and as I left my house at 7am the skies opened up and it began to pour. It wasn't cold enough to turn the rain into ice but it was still chilly enough that I turned on the heater.
Today we were having customers in. Not just any customer - General Motors was visiting our branch and we were going to make a presentation trying to secure all the distribution business for two of their local manufacturing facilities. We had a plan and we had rehearsed our game plan over and over.
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Why you should stop trying to delight your customers
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| Delighting customers does not build loyalty. Reducing customers’ effort does.
These were the findings from a large customer service survey conducted by the Customer Contact Council (CCC), and featured in the July edition of the Harvard Business Review. The survey’s aim was to get answers to three questions:
1. How important is customer service to loyalty?
2. Which customer service activities increase loyalty, and which don’t?
3. Can companies increase loyalty without raising their customer service operating costs?
After conducting structured interviews with customer service leaders and a study of more than 75,000 customers, the CCC uncovered three findings... |
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Latest findings from the world of Sales Transformation
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| I recently had the opportunity to MC and attend the Optimising the Sales Force Conference – OSF2010 which was the follow up to the inaugural OSF2009. Building on last year’s success, this year’s conference was attended by over 120 high level sales leaders across Australia. Once again I was privileged to be part of the panel of international and local experts presenting on this year’s topic, Sales Transformation.
This was the second time in Australia that we have had the opportunity to come together as a profession and share ideas and discuss important matters moving forward, and from the looks of it, we will be doing this again. The feedback from our international sales experts was that this was one of the best forums in the world. |
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Top Three Mistakes Made in Selecting Referral Partners
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| There are thousands of dollars invested every year in creating a compelling brand. Once created, well designed pieces of collateral hit the streets through different venues; email newsletters, direct mail, blogs and videos. All important strategies and tactics for generating qualified opportunities. |
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You Know Your Sales Process is Outdated When…
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| Fashions change, seasons change and so do customer needs. So when is the last time your company looked at your sales process to determine it was keeping up to date with the times? The information age has dramatically changed how businesses compete. Small businesses look and act big. New ideas are copied quickly and lead to service and products looking like everyone else.
To quote late night host, David Letterman, “You know it’s time to update your sales process when…” |
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Sales Leads...
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| Looking at a familiar phrase from a different perspective, how does your organization's leadership lead or impact the selling process?
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How can we learn from our best sales performers?
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| How do we get the rest of our sales team learning from our top performers? Should we get our top sales performer in front of our sales team to teach them how to be more effective?
Well that all depends…
* How well does that top sales performer understand how and why they sell well?
* Can they articulate what they do in a step by step process?
* Can they teach to the others in a simple and meaningful way?
* Do they want to teach others? |
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How do I lead and manage a virtual or remote sales team?
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| More and more organisations are adopting virtual teaming and remote working. They are doing this to achieve wider reach and tighter integration, reduce their carbon footprint, decentralise operations and allow their staff to benefit from less travel and more home working.
This type of work environment has been around in sales teams for a long time, and with the advent of technology, a sales person may not even have to come into the ‘office’ for weeks. |
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Why hiring or keeping the 600lb sales gorilla is a mistake
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| For many years the legend of the 600lb sales gorilla or Alpha sales superstar has been strutting the hallways and boardrooms of businesses. Often revered for achieving top of the league ladder sales results, yet feared by many for their aggressive, manipulative, ego centric, demanding, intimidating antics, countless CEO’s and sales managers have allowed these sales prima donnas to remain in their sales teams but at what cost to their sales team and their business? |
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Add Structure with Processes and Procedures
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| Have you hit a ceiling in your business model? Is winging it and flying by the seat of your pants no longer helping you reach your growth goals? Discover why structure is necessary and how it can produce quality results through additional individual and team accountability. Read on... |
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Bounce Back Power is Emotional Resilience
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| It's not how fast or hard that you fall that matters, it's how quick and strong that you bounce back into the game that makes the difference! Get the power of emotional resilience working for you! Read on... |
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Certainty and Decisiveness Breeds Confidence
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| Why must you lead others with certainty and decisiveness? How will a lack of these qualities hurt you and your team? Read on to learn more... |
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Crank it Up With Performance Evaluations
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| People need feedback! You hurt your people and yourself with inconsistent or non existent performance evaluations, they are worthy of the effort! Learn why performance evaluations are necessary and how to leverage them to improve overall results! Learn more, read on... |
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Creating a Champions Environment
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| The most fertile soil and ideal growing environment produces the ultimate crop! Discover why you must play a role in creating a champions environment and how you can accomplish this objective. Read on... |
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Fourteen Kick Butt Time Management Tips
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| This article outlines fourteen of the most common areas for concern regarding artful time management. Learn how to cut the fat and make yourself more productive so you can maximize your results and also your gains! Read on... |
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How Setting the Example Builds Great Teams
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| We live in a monkey see, monkey do world! Men and women want to follow those who aren't affraid to lead the way not with their words, but with their example. Discover how setting the example can make the difference for you, read on... |
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Knowing Your Players is Worth the Time Investment
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| It takes time to get to know the people on your team. Treating people as individuals and understanding how they are wired and what makes the tick enables you to meet them at their needs and coach them for maximize performance. Learn how to do this more effectively and why it is necessary, read on... |
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Leadership Style
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| What is your Leadership style and what impact will it have on those that you wish to lead? Read on... |
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Are You Ready to Be a Sales Manager?
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| So you want to be a sales manager? It’s a rewarding and tough job that requires the skills of a good parent, the vision of a CEO and insights of a psychologist. This unusual combination of skills is the reason many companies struggle to find the right person to lead their sales organization. Ask and answer the following questions to see if you have what it takes for success in leading a high performance sales team. |
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A Great Lesson from a Stealth Leader
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| A vital lesson not only on sales, but on life, from sales veteran John Moran. |
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Qualities of a Sales Manager: Emotional Intelligence and Leadership – Part 2
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| In Part 1 of this article, we discussed the overall importance of Emotional Intelligence to the Sales Manager and learned that EI is not just acquired at birth; EI skills can be enhanced or learned. |
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Six Ways to Lead Your Sales Team Through Tough Times
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| The recession is technically over, however, sales teams are still facing more competitors going after the same projects, price pressures or the new competitor, prospects doing nothing. There is an old saying, “character not tested is no character at all.” |
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Refresh your Lead Generation Process in 3 Easy Steps
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| The current volatile markets and disruptive technologies largely dictate how our future clients and business prospects are making buying decisions. As a result, many companies struggle to develop strategies that generate a consistent flow of leads. Small to mid-sized manufacturers are struggling more than most as many don’t have a marketing or lead generation department. |
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How well do you know your product/service?
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| So how prepared are you?
How well do you know your product or service?
How much do you practice?
Seem like elementary questions – right?
I mean outstanding athletes practice.
Outstanding actors practice. And trust me
on this one, so do outstanding sales people.
This should be a “no brainer”, yet is it?
Three things for you to take with you today.
We are all sales people. There are things
each of us has to sell. So learn the process. |
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Ten Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team Without Spending Big Bucks
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| How do I motivate my sales team? How do I retain top sales talent? At the risk of sounding too simple, there are two proven principles that work well in motivating salespeople: recognition and appreciation. Two simple principles often overlooked because execution takes time and attention. |
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The New Sales Funnel – Makes Sales Fun, Easy and Effective
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| The economy is not the only thing that has changed, so has your relationship with your clients. If you want to attract new clients and expand existing relationships, then you need a new approach to selling and a new sales funnel. |
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The New Sales Funnel – Makes Sales Fun, Easy and Effective
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| The economy is not the only thing that has changed, so has your relationship with your clients. If you want to attract new clients and expand existing relationships, then you need a new approach to selling and a new sales funnel. |
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If You Structure Your Sales Force Like The Big Companies...
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| Why you shouldn't structure your sales force like the big boys. |
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How to Recruit Top Sales Guns
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| Companies have systems and processes for accounting, shipping, and marketing. It’s time to get a system in place for hiring top guns. These high flying sales folks will make you money, regardless of the economy. Stop using the excuse that it’s hard to hire good salespeople because they interview well and are charming. Sharpen your hiring process, become even better at interviewing and take the first step in making your life easier as a business owner or sales manager.
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Are You A Good Customer?
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| There are great books on the market about customer service: Raving Fans, Contagious Customer Service and Exceeding Customer Expectations. All good books, however, none address a core issue required for receiving great customer service from vendors and suppliers: be a good customer. |
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Top Five Ways of Becoming a Better Sales Coach
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| Sales Managers execute several roles and wear many hats: manager, trainer and coach. These multiple roles can create challenges for some sales managers. Where should they invest their time? Should it be in attending internal meetings? Analyzing reports? Training and coaching the sales team? If you are serious about hitting and exceeding your revenue goals for 2012, invest your time in training and coaching your sales team. (It makes analyzing reports a whole lot more fun when the numbers are in the black.) |
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Sales 2012: What Will You Choose?
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| It’s that time of the year when people set New Year’s resolutions and goals. Setting goals really boils down to making new and better choices. It’s as much about what you are going to start doing as it is about what you are going to stop doing.
This tradition has been going on for years and most of the time it is just rhetoric and hope which eventually leads back to old comfortable behaviors and attitudes. Here’s three things to consider choosing if you are serious about making 2012 your best year in sales.
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Management by Osmosis
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| Sales Managers are a critical part of any sales organization and by extension, the entire enterprise.
Selecting the right manger and providing them with the tools and skills necessary to succeed are vital, and sadly too often mismanaged. Avoiding this costly error should be the most important mission for senior executives in a sales organization, it should be hands-on and practical, not passive and emotional. |
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Do You Really Believe That?
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| The self help guru's are the best at teaching, "You are what you believe. Your thoughts determine your outcomes and actions. And what you think about most will manifest in your life."
These guru's are right and many salespeople and sale managers still subscribing to old beliefs and ways of selling do not serve them well in the information age. |
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Coaching Training Part 3: The 3 Elements of Sales Coaching
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| To perform at the highest level, a sales manager cannot merely be great manager who drives processes, but never captures the hearts of employees. Likewise, even the best leaders who can effectively collaborate with those on their teams, but never pushes them into the high growth mode of complexity, will not be able to maximize results. It is only when sales coaches are able to effectively manage processes, lead collaboratively, and coach their teams into complexity that they will truly be able to enter the high performance zone. |
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Other Sales Leadership Related Articles
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Top 7 Sales Skills to Increase Sales in 2009 Regardless of the Economy
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| Being a top sales producer extends beyond your technical sales skills into your personal or self leadership skills. You must have knowledge of the results from your marketing and selling actions along with incredible self leadership skills. These seven sales skills can potentially deliver far more results than any technical selling skill such as fact finding to closing. |
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Why hire a Sales Coach when I already have a Sales Manager?
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| Most companies already have a sales manager or person in charge of sales in some capacity, so why hire a sales coach? Many sales mangers are not trained in the subtleties of effective sales coaching nor have they developed the necessary skills and tools to be effective sales leaders. The most common way to hire a sales manager is to simply promote your best sales person. This logic suggests this person is the most qualified to lead the sales team based on their past sales achievements. This type of ‘promotion by necessity’ is common, but not commonly successful. In the process you may even lose your top sales performer when their leadership abilities fail to match their sales ability. |
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It’s been a month with no sales! Do I sack my sales manager?
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| A sales manager, or more appropriately, 'sales leader' is a key leadership role in any sales driven organisation. That means sacking your sales leader, more often than not, also means bleeding intellectual property (IP) to your key competitors. Moreover, an emotionally charged ex-sales leader may even take some of your sales team and clients with them. Ouch!
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The coming together of sales leaders in Australia
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| I recently had the opportunity to attend the inaugural Optimising the Sales Force Conference, along with over 120 high level sales leaders across Australia. I was privileged to be part of the panel of international and local experts presenting on sales effectiveness where we explored the latest research on sales strategy, leadership, learning and development, sales management, sales people, and current market trends. |
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6th of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
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| This is the 6th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.
#6 - LEADERSHIP
Sales Leadership includes but is not limited to: |
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“Third Generation Leadership” – “3G Leadership” or “Leadership v3.0”
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| First Generation Leadership ("G1 Leadership" or "Leadership v1.0") was typified by a command and control approach in which hierarchy ruled and the leader was "right". Second Generation Leadership ("G2 Leadership" or "Leadership v2.0") was typified by a reward for conformance / non reward or punishment for non-conformance. Again, hierarchy ruled and the leader was largely "right". Third Generation Leadership ("G3 Leadership" or "Leadership v3.0") is typified by engaging followers both with what they are doing and with the people with whom they do it. In this article Doug Long introduces both the concepts of leadership generations and shows the distinctions between them. |
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Business Leadership Skills
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| Not that a business is born with leadership skills. It is true that certain leadership traits that quite a few others seem to them. However, there are others that can be developed. There
are many leadership programs that teach us different leadership style will also help us realize our business leadership skills and have some improving. However, short of the best
leadership training effort comes from rising above the rest and put personal gain before the collective interests. |
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Five Ways for Sales Leaders to Stay Inspired
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| Paul Smith is the Sales Director of a leading pharmaceutical company. He has been in the industry for the last 10 years and has been a star in his various sales and marketing roles. His recent promotion, finds him managing managers. His leadership style has always been one of pace setting and leading by example. Having just gone through a sales force downsizing Paul has adopted an inspirational leadership style.
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Sales Management Case Studies Inspired Five Ways for Sales Leaders to Stay
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| Paul Smith is the Sales Director of a leading pharmaceutical company. He has been in the industry for the last 10 years and has been a star in his various sales and marketing roles. His recent promotion, finds him managing managers. His leadership style has always been one of pace setting and leading by example. Having just gone through a sales force downsizing Paul has adopted an inspirational leadership style. |
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Is "leadership" dead?
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| "Leadership" now seems to be a catch-all term (a bit like "communication"). That being the case, has the time now come when we should be considering whether the term "leadership" has lost its impact and whether we need to radically rethink the whole concept by moving out of all the traditional concepts like "servant leadership", "situational leadership", “contingency leadership”, “leadership habits” etc that are based on attitudes and behaviours? |
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