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How Can Anyone Spend That Much Time on Sales Coaching?
If you aren't the low price leader or one of the two or three best-known brands in your industry, and if buying from you does NOT represent the safe choice for your customers, then you are an underdog. And if you are an underdog, you had better be providing comprehensive sales and sales management training and coaching because you can't compete on price or reputation.
The Search for Perfection - How it Can Ruin Your Sales Efforts
Sometimes perfection is good but sometimes there is a strange dark side. First the good and then, in the fifth paragraph, I'll share the frightening dark side with you.
The Single Biggest Mistake That Salespeople Make
Ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers about the biggest mistake that salespeople make. Ask the question a bit differently and I will give you a different answer too. But ask the question in the title - "What is the single biggest mistake that salespeople make?", with the key word being mistake - something they do incorrectly rather than due to a weakness - and I can provide data to back it up. There are actually 3 mistakes that are nearly always made but 2 of them happen as a result of the single biggest mistake.

Sales Longevity - Free Webinar Available Here
I hosted a Webinar to introduce Objective Management Group's (OMG) newest innovation, The Sales Longevity Finding. In a nutshell, Sales Longevity is the likelihood of being able to retain a particular sales candidate through ramp-up, break-even, and 5X ROI. The attendees thought it was VERY cool! You can view the recorded Webinar here.
Salespeople Become More Effective But Can They Get Worse?
In most cases, especially when effective training and coaching has taken place, significant to dramatic improvement occurs. Occassionally though, a salesperson will appear to be worse - weaker - than the first time. How could this be? I'll explain some of the scenarios where this should not be alarming, as well as some where it should.

Case History - Sneak Preview of a Candidate
It never ceases to amaze me when clients receive nasty-grams from sales candidates who are - let's call it put-off - by the client's request that they first take our on-line assessment. The candidates receive a very nice email thanking them for sending their resume, explaining the client's recruiting process and asking them to take the assessment. You just wouldn't believe some of the notes I've seen. Name calling, cussing, threats, sarcasm, and more. Here's a typical sample:
10 Reasons Why Sales Commitment Has Become More Important
A comparison of selling today with selling over the past 20 years shows that selling is significantly more challenging today than ever before. Let's take a look at 10 of the factors that explain this shift in difficulty:
But I'm a Sales Guy - The Story of Motivation and Compensation
A Sales VP and his CEO were in the conference room and each time the CEO brought up a problem, we asked the Sales VP to elaborate. Each time he began with, "Well I'm a sales guy so I know this stuff..." Yes and No.

10 Tips for Hiring Salespeople for Your Company
This is a perfect time to be hiring - the economy is quickly turning around - heading into an upswing - and you must have excellent salespeople to find opportunities and get them closed by outselling your competitors.

Call Reluctance - Causes, Factors and Predictors
Historically, when salespeople have failed, has most often been because of their inability to get appointments. We are able to identify the three factors that indicate a call-reluctance problem - a malady that is career-threatening for salespeople who are expected to hunt.

Latest Sales Recruiting Breakthrough - Download the New White Paper
We are hearing loud and clear that companies are ready and willing to hire salespeople again BUT - they don't want to make any more mistakes. If you hire a great salesperson but you can't retain your A Player, on paper, it's just one more hiring mistake.
The Science of Selling - Rules versus Data
Regular readers know that I like to talk about the science of selling. I don't mean the science of the sales process, strategy and tactics, as much as the science of research, data and proof. There is a science to selling but a more appropriate name for it would be the rules of selling. In Baseball, the rules dictate what you do, when you do it and how it should be done. In Selling, the rules accomplish the same thing.
Salesperson ROI - How Long Must They Stick to Pay Off? Part 1
Is there a connection between sales success and tenure? Is it really a given that a successful salesperson will stick around longer than an unsuccessful salesperson?
6 Steps to Sales Mastery
Salespeople must evolve through six levels of development before they can consistently and successfully execute any process, concept, strategy or tactic they are trained and coached to perform. The six levels are:
Sales and Selling - Which Has Evolved More?
What I found amazed me and will surely amaze you. Ready? Salespeople have not changed in any way since the recession. The statistics are identical with one exception - the percentage of salespeople who are hitting their numbers has declined significantly. However, the skill sets have not improved despite the need for them to. And the weaknesses are just as plentiful as they were, despite the need for them to be overcome.

Directors Want Better Boards - And Rightly So
One of the many issues we identify is when Board Chairs and CEO's take the lead in areas in which they don't have the strengths or skills to justify taking the lead. They often discount the contributions, thoughts and ideas of directors or executives who are stronger than they are in that area. As a result, the company is not always choosing the best strategies and ideas, or having the right discussions, asking the right questions, or making the right decisions at the right times.
5th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies That are Key to Building a Sales Culture
#5 - Get a Sales GPS These days you wouldn't think about getting into your car and driving to a new destination without typing the address into your car's navigation system. Each one of those 7 reasons for using a GPS applies to a sales cycle, so it makes sense that your sales force should have a sales GPS or a process.
A Forgotten Secret of Sales Success
Brad learned early in his career that left to his own devices, he would find ways to avoid picking up the phone and making calls. Like so many salespeople, he suffered from call reluctance, fear of rejection, fear of failure, and more. Over time, he learned to trick himself, play games and, most importantly use purpose, motivation and fear to assure that he was consistently filling his pipeline. Listen to the show to hear more about this compelling topic.
What we Think About Sales Motivation is All Wrong
The bottom line - for your salespeople - is that everyone is different; everyone is motivated by different things and for those who are clearly motivated by money, and where you have a clear goal and focus for them, their compensation should and must be commission based. When you have people who are motivated more by recognition, awards, competition, time-off, public service, or philanthropy, your compensation program should be flexible enough to compensate them in an appropriate manner too.
You Have an 82% Chance of Making a Hiring Mistake When...
My guest on this week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts was Ken Edmundson. We were talking about hiring when he he said that there is an 82% chance of making a hiring mistake when management does not know how their candidate is wired. He said it's a mistake when they are fired, they quit, or they under achieve. He went on to say that you can't hire without an interview and a background check and you can't hire by only doing those two things. He named 4 things that cause these mistakes:
Latest Fiction for the Sales Force - No More Hunters/Farmers
In 2007 we had to deal with writers proclaiming that sales and the sales force were dead. The reality of all of that talk was that the people writing about it weren't close enough to sales to know what they were talking about. Companies with transactional sales don't need salespeople selling their transactional items, but they do need salespeople persuading companies to choose them in the first place. Then the transactions can be placed via Internet or an inside sales group. That's about the only scenario where the "dead" proclamation even comes close to being accurate.
Sales Assessment Comparison - Objective Management Group vs. Devine
It's not often that we get to compare the assessment results of an individual that took our assessment and another. Why? Because most companies don't use multiple assessments that report on similar findings. Notice that I said "report on" and not "look at". While other assessments report on findings similar to ours, they don't look at or measure the same information to draw their conclusions. That's why the reports I received today make for such an enjoyable comparison.
Teaching Sales in School is Like Learning to Golf on the Wii
They're finally teaching sales in school - yeah! And even more surprisingly, kids are actually taking the classes - yeah again! Why surprisingly? How many of your salespeople selected, as their primary career choice, sales? Kids get a sense that selling is an honorable profession! This post, from November of 2008, demonstrates each of the last two points - kids don't choose sales because, well, they don't believe it's honorable...
Sales Cycles and Time - Is it Running Out?
We are always focused on sales cycles. Are they optimized? Are they taking too long? Can they be improved? How many calls should they take? Are we doing things that make the sales cycle take longer than necessary? For example, the sales cycle can be shortened in direct proportion to how high your salespeople call in the company. If we are have begun a sales development program, you won't see results from top line revenue until 6 months plus the length of the sales cycle have passed. I have a couple of things to discuss today relative to sales cycle.
Hire the Best Salespeople on the Planet
Several months ago Objective Management Group began to identify hirable candidates that are ideal - they will ramp-up more quickly than a normal hirable candidate. A normal candidate should ramp up according to this formula I devised many years ago: Normal Ramp Up = Length of Sales Cycle + Length of Learning Curve + 30 Days.
Personality Assessments for Sales - The Definitive Case Study
Nearly two years ago we began development of an exciting new way to evaluate Executive Management Teams. We brainstormed, conducted surveys, performed research and identified 16 qualities that CEO's wanted their Executive Managers to possess, along with 9 Styles crucial to a Management Team's ability to grow their companies.

Tale of Two Assessments - Comparing the Value
A potential client wanted to know how Objective Management Group could justify the cost of a 25 person license (unlimited assessments for one year or 25 salespeople hired for $18,000) versus a $3500 per 100 assessment price for DISC. There are several factors here but they are all worth noting. Read More
10 Steps to Create More of a Sales Culture
I spoke to a very lively group of 130 CEO's in Cincinnati today and the question about creating more of a sales culture came up. There are ten steps to accomplishing this:
Sales Best Practices - Not
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the difference between company A and B. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to implement the process either. But it does take more than a 60 day commitment to the new process. When it's been broken for a decade it doesn't get fixed in a calendar quarter.
Sales Process - What Have You Gotten Away From?
Think about how easy it is to get away from the fundamental processes, strategies and tactics that impact efficiencies, time lines, effectiveness, consistency, communication, confidence revenue and profit. Take 3 steps back. What have you gotten away from?
Many Recruiters Fear Sales Assessments
I was forwarded an email that originated with from a colleague's client that read, "...Many candidates are advised to not take on line sales assessments before at least a phone conversation." Why do you think that is?
Fact Based Reasons Why New Salespeople Fail
Did you ever have a new salesperson fail? Did you ever have one who was highly recommended fail? Depending on how effective your recruiting, selection and on boarding processes are, you may experience new salespeople that don't work out. This article explores some of the factors that impact short-term success.
Misleading Statistics and Hiring the Wrong Salespeople
Statistics are awesome when they're used in a way that benefits everyone. When they're used to fool people it makes me angry...I'll illustrate my point by using some of our sales selection data. Take the following statistic for example...
Tom Peters - Sales Excellence
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting ‘GERONIMO!' "-Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer Tom applied it to business but think of the implications if you can drive this message home to your sales force! My comments follow each one of his one liners.
Who Makes a Better Salesperson - Men or Women?
Tom Peters said women are better salespeople than men. I wrote that Objective Management Group has data that proves that a greater percentage of women are stronger than men. Here is how that data breaks down:
Top 5 Reasons Why the OMG Sales Assessment is More Predictive
I was asked why Objective Management Group's (OMG) assessments are so much more predictive of sales success and future performance than behavioral styles assessments and personality assessments. There is more than one answer to this question and I'll try to explain the top 5 answers...[read more]

When Salespeople Perform Poorly on OMG's Sales Assessment
When a top producer doesn't assess well on Objective Management Group's Sales Assessment, how can it be explained? These are some of the possible explanations. Read More...
Recruiters Fear Sales Assessments
I'll get a lot of flack over this article. People will say that I'm unfairly characterizing recruiters as dealers of human flesh and that there are recruiters who not only use and pay for assessments themselves, but who guarantee the performance of the salespeople they place. I agree. If you must use a recruiter, use one of them!

Hiring Former Fortune 1000 Employees
If you are considering a salesperson, sales manager or VP of Sales from a big, name brand company, there is a crucial point that executives from smaller companies usually miss. You probably don't run a large, name brand company. Your salespeople probably aren't automatically invited in with open arms. Your company probably doesn't have a reputation that precedes it. Your company probably isn't the market leader. Your company probably doesn't have the lowest prices. So how would one of these former big-brand salespeople or sales managers fare when they encounter the resistance, challenges, ambivalence and rejection that the rest of your salespeople endure?

Other management group Related Articles

Tips For Brainstorming
Brainstorming is one of many creative problem solving techniques. While you can use any size group, we believe it works best when done in a facilitated group of 5-10 people. The more diverse the group the more diverse the input. The group members don't need to be experts in your field. In fact, they don't need to know anything about the problem topic at all! The following steps I use in my Many Good Ideas Brainstorming Seminars:
How to Build a Mastermind Group
A Mastermind group is a supportive group of like-minded people who collectively brainstorm ideas, strategies, techniques and concepts to help people move forward in their business/life and become 'unstuck'. A Mastermind group is not a social gathering of friends, neither is it a session to air your complaints about life and feel sorry for yourself. To make a Mastermind group work, it has to be made up of people who are positive, self motivated, proactive and have a desire to help others reach their goals......

BEING IN INTEGRITY
"The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results. This model has become the basis for subsequent models of group development and team dynamics and a management theory frequently used to describe the behavior of existing teams". ..... Wikipedia
Work Life Balance: 7 Keys to Avoid Burnout
Last week I gave a workshop on time management for a women's group. I asked the audience (mostly moms) about their biggest challenges about time management and stress management. Not surprisingly, most of them feel stressed out, overwhelmed, juggling too many competing priorities, have too many things to do with too little time, and virtually no time for themselves. If you're a mom, I bet you can probably relate to this, at least to some degree. What you might not know is that you are heading toward burnout. This article will teach you 7 keys to avoid burnout.
Home Business Expert: How To Create Your Own Mastermind Group
Forming your very own mastermind group where there will be others who do the same kind of job or are in the same business has many advantages. Such groups may have two members and in some cases, there are more than two who form the group. Everyone who is a part of the group has a lot to gain in terms of professional knowledge and experience from each other.
Empowered Entrepreneurs Need A “Master Mind” In Internet Marketing
To have a plan for wealth from your Internet Marketing business opportunity you need a master mind group.Become an empowered entrepreneur and find a mastermind group or form your own group that is dedicated to helping you achieve your personal goals.

How to Make the Mastermind Group Unlock the Door to Success
I came across the concept of the mastermind group after reading Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich. According to Hill, the mastermind group is formed when two or more minds work actively together in perfect harmony toward a common definite object. Hill noted that every successful person in history had a mastermind group that helped him achieve greatness. No one mind is ever complete in itself, so you need to have a mastermind group to help you achieve those objectives.
Performance Management in the Public Sector
Performance management is the systematic process by which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and goals. This white paper discusses the use of performance management in the Public Sector.
Money Motivated Salespeople are a Dying Breed
Objective Management Group has evaluated thousands of salespeople, and has found that fewer and fewer of the salespeople they assess are money motivated. This has progressed to such a degree that OMG will eliminate the money motivated finding in its sales and sales management assessments.

Make your mastermind rock
In a recent blog – The Power of a Group – I talked about the questions Ben Franklin created for guiding the discussions in his Junto group. Many of you asked to see those, so here they are. See what you think – can you get a sense of why the Junto accomplished so much in Philadelphia with ripple effects for the entire country? How would you like to be a part of a group like that?

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