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Build Your Salespeople’s Strengths And Use Them As Launch Pads For Better Sales Success

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.

The Importance Of The 80/20 Rule In Becoming A Top-Performing Sales Manager
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?

Maintain Long-Term Success As A Top Sales Manager By Offering Products And Services As Solutions, Not Commodities
The job of a top sales manager is a lot like old-school video gaming. The more you succeed, the deeper you get into the game, the harder the challenges get thrown your way. And the same is true for sustaining the revenue growth of a large company. Success breeds imitation.

Get Your Sales Reps to Sell Like Corky

What is the highest performing stock in terms of total return over the over the course of the past 40 years? It's not Microsoft. No, its not Cisco Systems. It's not GE. It's not even Intel. You ready? Its Walgreen's Drug Stores. Walgreen's? You gotta be kidding me! The drugstore chain? Yep, its true. How they did it is even cooler than that fact that they did it in the first place. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins investigates how they actually did it. And the answer is very simple. All that Cork Walgreen, the founder of Walgreen's did is that he took a long hard look at what his business did really well and then channeled all his energies into that one thing. In essence, he figured out exactly what Walgreen's could be the best in the world at and channeled all of their efforts into achieving that one thing.

A Top Sales Manager Adapts To The Situation…And Not The Other Way Around
Sales managers are hired to solve problems. They’re also hired to lead, but they end up spending an enormous time solving problems within the sales team. Say a sales person is showing consistently poor performance? Take it to the sales manager. Quarterly sales stink? Let the sales manager handle it. Hiring a new sales person? Let the sales manager take that one.

Prospecting, the #1 Job for the CEO

Does your company need more sales? I¡¦ll assume that for the majority, the answer is yes. When did you last schedule and then spend an hour prospecting for your business? With the mountain of things to get done each day and the number of people looking for time on your calendar, there is just no way that you can do that too. Maybe you don¡¦t really prospect, but leave that up to your sales manager and sales team. Beware! You must cast the shadow, walk the talk and be the lead prospector so that your team understands that prospecting and bringing in new business is the number one job. Even for you.

Addressing Common Difficulties for Sales Leaders
Executive Summary Sales leaders must control their sales organization. They have to be aware of potential difficulties and must be prepared to overcome any issues that arise. Having the ability to work from the top down, sales leaders must be firm, and clearly communicate expectations to avoid difficulties before they affect business operations.

The Dreaded Monday Morning Sales Meeting

Do They GET TO GO or HAVE TO GO? For years as a speaker/trainer/coach, salespeople have approached me with feedback regarding their regular company sales meetings. This is what I hear: -The meetings are boring with little to no direction -The meetings turn into individual gripe sessions -The meetings turn into complaint sessions by management -The meetings tend to “bring down” the reps rather than “pump up” the reps -The meetings tend to be filled with reports, data, stats, and rules -The meetings never start on time -The meetings never follow an agenda -The meetings never end on time Does any of this sound familiar to you? Do your people tend to “go through the motions” in your sales meetings? Do they complain about having to come to these meetings regularly? Do you sometimes agree with them?

Empower Your Sales People By Providing Them With Positive Behavioral Feedback
The sales manager is the sales rep's direct line of communication between himself and his performance. If this line is cut, if the sales manager is somewhat incompetent or won't do his job properly, then the company has a problem. One of the most important factors that could influence a sales rep's growth in his career is the sales manager's ability to do his job well.

Don’t Read This…Unless You Want To Have A Really Good Sales Meeting

We’ve all sat through God-awful boring sales meetings right? Not exactly a good time, as I’m sure you’d agree… Has the thought ever occurred to you that your sales reps might feel like this almost every time you call a sales meeting? “Positively absurd” you say! Well, if you are one of the few who does have the need to inject a little vigor in your next sales meeting, then read on… Try this to spice things up: next time you call a sales meeting, try a little “lead by being led” reverse psyschology on your sales reps to get them involved in the process of choosing topics. All you do is simply ask your sales reps a week or two before the sales meeting what they most want to hear about is the best way to get them engaged and helps to “spruce things up”. After all, if you ask them what they want to hear about in the meeting you

Don't Be A Finger Pointer
Are you an exceptional sales manager? You can be you know. It all starts with your leadership abilities and can end quickly if you're a finger-pointer.

Lead the way

Sales needs to be led from the top and it needs to be on the agenda of the ‘C’ suite, and this will mean from the CEO down, including the CFO, COO, and CIO. Even if the ‘C’ suite never has contact with an external customer (which I strongly advise against) they need to know how to lead, sell in, and support the sales effort. Why? Despite millions, if not billions, of dollars being invested in sales training, CRM systems and the like, many leaders are realising that their frontend processes, backend systems, culture (including those staff who have not traditionally seen themselves involved in sales), and sales methodologies are not aligned with their customers.

Why Sales Managers need to work on the business, not just in the business

Playing “catch up” is a common challenge for organisations of all sizes. Whether you have enjoyed a period of rapid growth and prosperity, or encountered some unexpected obstacles or losses, with little warning, businesses can discover that their decision making and activity has become very reactive. Too much time is spent putting out spot fires and reacting to situations, while too little time is spent on pro-active and strategic activities. The very real and legitimate day to day business pressures result in many (if not most) decisions being made on an ad-hoc basis, with each one disconnected from the next.

How do you create future sales superstars?

How many of us entered our sales careers with our eyes wide open? Fully aware of what it takes to be an effective sales person – ably resourced with the tools, processes, plans and support essential to our success. Knowing full well what you were getting yourself into. For most, if not all of us, our initiation into sales was nothing like this, and was cushioned with little or none of these luxuries. Does the analogy “sink or swim” resonate with anyone? All of this makes the story I am about to share quite unique and refreshing. Recently, some rather clever and farsighted managers gave some very fortunate young people the opportunity to get a large glimpse into the world of selling.

Is internal competition eating away at your sales results?

Many sales cultures are traditionally based on respect for authority, status and success, and encouraging competitive, challenging and achievement-oriented atmospheres. Although this is not true for all businesses, especially in the 21st Century! There are a growing number of businesses adopting more collegiate, lead team approaches. However, despite different types of cultures, sales performance and results are usually derived from the efforts of individuals. Harnessing those individual efforts to achieve synergy (the sum is greater than its individual parts) is a key task of management, yet so many get it wrong. Let’s take a look at one case study and see why.

Create a Great Sales Training Program
Every company has sent their sales reps and employees to sales training seminar; however, most of those people forget what they learned less than one month later. Follow these sales tips and techniques and figure out how sales training reinforcement can enhance your employees performance.

SMM 1 \| The #1 Factor To Achieving Sales Management Success
On this episode of sales management mastery we are going to get into a little bit about what we what to accomplish on this show. As well as, introduce one of our core foundational concepts that is absolutely essential to becoming a top sales manager.

SMM 2 \| 3 Proven Sales Management Techniques To Establish Trust With Your Salespeople
On this week's episode of Sales Management Mastery we're going to talk about what's in it for you to placing deposits in the trust account, plus three proven methods to establish trust with your salespeople so that you can drive your company's sales revenues.

SMM 3 \| The Secret To Fighting Mediocrity In Your Sales Team
Let's talk a little bit today about some of the corporate buzz words that you probably hear flying around in corporate America today. Most of the people that listen to the show are sales managers and/or general managers of large and small organizations. The corporate buzz words have been going around for a quite some time.

SMM 4 \| A Simple Way To Lead Your Sales Team To Sales Stardom
On this episode of Sales Management Mastery we are going to teach you how to lead you sales team to sales stardom using our "lead by being led" sales leadership strategy.

SMM 7 \| 7 Quick Ways To Lead a Sales Team To Maximum Sales Impact!
On this episode of Sales Management Mastery we're going to give you 7 quick ways to lead a sales team for maximum sales impact.

The Lazy Sale’s Manager’s Way To Coach Salespeople

A couple years back when I took over a sales team, I was hired as a sales manager, before I left the corporate world to train sales managers fulltime. I was a sales manager for a few Fortune 500 and Nasdeq 100, and some smaller company's as wekll. I did that for many years. but one of the organizations that I started with, going back 8 or 9 years now, it was an organization that I really wanted to be a part of because they had an excellent record and a tremendous amount of opportunity.

4 Proven Methods to Motivate Salespeople…Gently

Great leaders in business, especially those in the sales world, have often regarded people skills as their greatest assets in motivating as well as leading. There are lots of opportunities for sales managers to motivate even during mundane every day activities. They could be anything from, taking corrective action, to criticism, to anything during the normal course of business, there is always the opportunity to motivate. Don't understand the power of some of these very simple techniques. This is the stuff that separates the men from the boys, and the women from the girls when it comes to superior sales management; motivating under ordinary circumstances.

How To Motivate Salespeople The Easy Way

One of the things that prompted us to talk about this today is that I am just continually amazed at the number of sales managers that have absolutely no clue as to what actually motivates their sales reps. It's really one of the most popular requests that we get at Sales Management Mastery is what motivate salespeople? In fact, in all the all line polls that we have done of sales manager, CEO's, sales trainers, this comes up as the number on demand for anyone engaged in our surveys on line. Which is "how do you motivate salespeople?"

How To Become A “Silent Sales Leader”
On this episode of Sales Management Mastery we teach you how to use silent might to empower you sales leadership with 5 powerful techniques

The Forces of Sales Motivation
No one has gotten more press on motivation, over the course of time, than Abraham Maslow. Each person, as we know, is truly motivated by a series of physiological then safety and security and belonging needs which Maslow goes into in his "Needs Hierarchy Theory".

The Seven Forces of Sales Motivation, Part 2
On this episode of Sales Management mastery we go into part 2 of our series on the Seven Forces of Sales Motivation. We continue with forces 5 through 7 and further develop our understanding with our psychology of motivating people As a quick review, we went through the first 4 of the 7 forces of sales motivation on last week’s episode.

Masterful Reprimands – The Best Sales Management Training
As effective as Masterful Praisings are in reinforcing good behavior, reprimands are as effective at curtailing bad behavior. We call em, you guessed it..."Masterful Reprimands".

Why Money Doesn’t Motivate Salespeople
Where your sales rep actually falls on this continuum will makeup what we call their “motivational profile”. There are the 7 Forces of basic motivation, and they get this primarily from their genetic makeup. The point of our first two shows was to show you that the motivations of your sales people today really don’t differ a whole lot from how they were motivated as kids.

Sales Management \| How To Be A Flexible Sales Leader
Sales managers are hired to solve problems. They’re also hired to lead, but they end up spending an enormous time solving problems within the sales team. Say a sales person is showing consistently poor performance? Take it to the sales manager. Quarterly sales stink? Let the sales manager handle it. Hiring a new sales person? Let the sales manager take that one.

The Secret Sauce to Sales Management Success Part 1
It's not a secret, but goal setting, and goal setting specifically used in the right way as a sales manager is the absolute secret sauce to you getting the best from your sales people to achieve ultimate sales success to you getting the best from your sales people.

Sales Management \| How To Save A Ton Of Time Hiring A Sales Superstar
With the hundreds of sales resumes you will likely screen for the position that you have open, you really need a methodical way to screen a resume and get the sense of what the candidate is all about.

Sales Management \| 5 Proven Methods To Screen Out A Bad Sales Hire
No sales manager wants to make the torturous mistake of hiring a complete sales dud. Although a few are bound to slip in, in order to prevent this from happening to you, there are a number of ways that you can screen out a great sales rep resume, prior to actually meeting with them face to face.

As A Sales Manager, How Do You Know When You’ve Made A Hiring Error?
All this time I’ve been talking about the techniques and the right ways to manage your sales team. But here is the thing: when is enough enough? When do you get to throw in the towel and say, “Sales isn’t your true calling. I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go”?

When should we appoint a Sales Manager?

For many start ups and small businesses having a full time sales manager in place is not a viable option. Firstly, there is usually no one to lead and manage in the sales function however, the function of sales management should be on your â€˜To Do Listâ€™ as a business owner/manager even if you are sales managing yourself. Paying attention to your sales activities and results, developing your sales strategy and plan, knowing who to target, etc. all form part of a sales manager's role.

The Secret Sauce to Sales Management Success! Part 2
The "secret sauce" to sales management success is getting your sales reps to set their own goals for themselves.

The REAL Secrets to Sales Management Motivation

Motivating your sales team is just one aspect of the job of a sales manager, but it is all encompassing in that it also includes all of the other things that you do as a sales manager. Sales managers are not only coaching and leading, but there should also be an undercurrent of motivation in everything and anything that you do. And be acutely aware that every interaction that you have and every message that you send has to have an undercurrent of motivation associated with it in order to keep your sales people at peak performance, especially in today’s economy when sales are tougher to get, it is very important to have a highly motivated sales team to push you towards your goals as a sales manager and towards the goals of the organization.

Two Proven Methods To Supercharge Your Sales Force
The sales person who is motivated primarily by praise and encouragement is probably the most prevalent motivational profile that you will have on your sales team.

Don’t Make This Sales Management Mistake
You need to set the tone and set out a vision of where you want the team to head, over-performance from a sales performance standpoint. As far as leading and motivating, it comes down to individual tactics and techniques that you need to use with each one of your sales people because they are all motivated by different forces.

Don’t Do This as a Sales Manager

When you are setting goals, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind that are danger spots and pitfalls of goal setting. As part of the "don't do this as a sales manager" this is one of the important parts to helping you and your sales people set goals, and to make sure that you keep a very tight leash on those goals. Have control over those goals, and oversee the actions that are being taken to achieve those goals is very important.

The Importance of Sales Management Motivation
The difference between sales performance above expectation and sales performance below expectation is largely determined by small things that a sales manager can do every day to keep his sales team at the top of their game and highly motivated.

7 Proven Methods To Motivate The “People” Salesperson
We have identified 5 separate sales rep motivational profiles. We have discussed a few in previous shows. As we continue on our motivational, leadership and coaching series on personality types and motivational profiles, today we are going to talk about the sales people that are primarily motivated for this need for companionship, and people, and affiliation.

Are The Majority Of B2B Salespeople Allergic to Paperwork Even Though It Means They Are Missing Out On A Competitive Advantage?
If you are a salesperson looking to differentiate your approach, a meeting agenda prepared in advance and sent by e-mail will help you do just that. Since most of your competitors are likely allergic to such paperwork, you'll have a distinct competitive advantage. Curious? See what the decision-makers have to say.

What Every Sales Manager Ought To Know About Sales Leadership
In general, enthusiasm in a sales manager is something that is probably not even talked about a whole lot. It's not something that is typically taught. How do you teach enthusiasm?

5 Proven Sales Rewards for 2011
This is one of the easiest strategies to use to motivate sales people but it is also one of the least effective because sales people are very adept to manipulating sales rewards programs as well as they only give you a short term gain in sales and don’t produce sustained motivation over the long haul.

6 Killer Tips To Get Promoted to Sales Management in 2011!
For the New Year of 2011, we wanted to give you 6 killer tips on how to get promoted into sales management if you are a sales person right now. If you are a sales manager now, this is something that you may want to advise your ambitious sales people on. One of the roles of a sales manager is to find out what their career goals are.

How to Motivate Your Most Difficult Salesperson, Part 1

And those are the most difficult sales people, the ones that are motivated through a variety of different motivations, but the biggest one is the need to be assertive and to have power of their own. And these are typically the type of sales people that are highly opinionated, they are brash at times, they are boorish at times, they are fiercely independent, and they have a strong desire to have their voices heard.

SALES & MARKETING - ARE THEY COMPATIBLE FOR MARKET SUCCESS?
Are you facing a common dilemma of sales manager where sales are poor and sales team are not bringing in the expected results? Read on....

Sales Management - You Got The Job Now What
Are you in sales management? Learn how to become a better sales manager, especially if you're making the transition from selling to managing.

Sales Management ---- Do the Inmates Run the Asylum

Handling sales people that can put up the numbers but break every rule in the book, ones that can’t get along with their peers and drive inside sales people crazy can be very challenging for a sales manager. This will create a situation that ultimately will affect overall company performance regardless of this sales person’s individual success. This is especially true if this sales person holds the sales manager hostage knowing his numbers help keep corporate off the sales managers back.

Seven Things that Frustrate Sales Managers

Did you ever just sit around the office wondering what was in the head of the person next to you? Did you ever have a little voice saying what does he/she think about me? We all have these thoughts and with economic volatility high the voices seem to get much louder. I thought this might be a good time especially with the fourth quarter just around the turn to discover what on earth your sales manager is thinking and what you can do to alter their thinking.

Today’s “rant” – can’t take eye off the ball
If we were any other smart business we would shift our attention to where the business is going and we would do it quickly.We would hire the brightest people at the station level and hold them in the highest regard.Maybe to become a GSM you must have DSM on your pedigree?

Are You a Manager or a Coach?
Discover what some of the best sales managers in the world do to stand out from the pack and drive results from their teams! Learn more about each of these strategies: Always be Looking for and Drafting Top Talent Set Expectations Up Front Always Have a Clear Plan for Every Player Always Be Training, Teaching, Guiding and Coaching Constantly Build and Strengthen Relationships

To Become a Better Salesperson, Find a Mentor
Becoming an award-winning salesperson isn't something you just do, but rather a journey of constant self-improvement. There is another critical component that most top salespeople leverage which is a sales mentor to help guide them along the way.

Sales Manager
Whether you are selling a kitchen blender, carpet-cleaning services, or cutting edge computer software, the personality traits you need to possess as a sales manager are the same. And, if you do not already have them, it is important to start cultivating them now. As the team leader, it is your characteristics and attitude that will be infused throughout the rest of the workers. What are they?

Sales Manager
Whether you are selling a kitchen blender, carpet-cleaning services, or cutting edge computer software, the personality traits you need to possess as a sales manager are the same. And, if you do not already have them, it is important to start cultivating them now. As the team leader, it is your characteristics and attitude that will be infused throughout the rest of the workers. What are they?

New Penn State Coach - Just Like Dysfunctional Sales Management

Officials at Penn State will introduce Bill O'Brien as their first new head football coach in nearly 50 years. He will be responsible for rebuilding the football program and through that, the image of the school. That will be one difficult job and it begins immediately. Today, Bill O'Brien is still the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. Because the Patriots are the #1 seed in the playoffs, Bill O'Brien has another challenging job - preparing and helping the Patriots offense, led by future Hall of Fame Quarterback Tom Brady, to compensate for their own pathetic defense, as they attempt to advance to another Super Bowl championship. Bill O'Brien. One coach - two full time jobs. Both teams need his immediate, undivided attention and won't get all that they need.

What Kind of Sales Manager Are You?
As a sales manager, are you maximizing the individual performance of your sales team?

Discover Your Team’s Weaknesses
As a sales leader, do you wonder why members of your team can't seem to perform to they level you expect?

Coaching Training Part 3: The 3 Elements of Sales Coaching

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.

Management Skills That Drive Performance
Sales Management 303 class was held yesterday down the road at the University of Nebraska, where 54 undergraduate students packed in room 212 of the stately looking College of Business Administration building. As a guest instructor I was supposed to bring some "gray hair" (I fit the description) wisdom and shed some light on the real world of business and sales management.

6 Reasons Every Company Needs a Marketing Plan
Does your company have a marketing plan? If not, read this article and learn the 6 most common reasons EVERY company needs a marketing plan.

Motivating Your Sales People to be More Productive

How can you motivate your sales people to be more productive? Isn’t that what every sales manager and every business owner would like to know? Well, if you fall into this category, then listen up. In order to motivate your sales people to do anything, you have to help them. And to help them be more productive, you have to show them how they can leverage more sales to your existing customers. And, to show them how to do this, you must first find out a few things about your customers.

Sales and Wasting Time
The way that sales people utilize their time is critical to their success. Many sales people are simply ineffective time managers. Every minute of every day is essential to a sales person. Sales managers need to stress the importance of time and help their sales people understand how wasted time translates into lost sales.

Why is a Salesperson like a Refrigerator
Let me ask, have you heard the joke about the light being on inside the fridge? Top sales professionals, like fridges, are always "on".

How To Build A TurboCharged Sales Force
This article describes the proven steps that are required to build a salesforce that consistently "hits the numbers" and takes the company to a leadership position in its industry.

What Seagulls Can Teach You About Top Sales Leadership
Ever work for a " Seagull Sales Manager"? You probably have. A "Seagull Sales Manager" is a sales manager who seldom interacts with his people but occasionally swoops down, dumps on everybody, and then quickly flies away. If you haven't guessed already, this is not exactly the kind of leadership we advocate at Sales Management Mastery...

The Power is in the Question
Does sales management seem to be lost in the wilderness at your company? Was your sales manager your top rated sales person that you promoted based on sales performance? Did your sales manager ever receive any formal sales management training? Do you think your sales force needs to be more aggressive? Are you following best practice principles?

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