Why developing your Sales Managers is the key to your sales success

By / / Business Acumen, Coaching, Competition, Education in Sales, Performance Management, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Strategy

It may surprise you to discover that many Sales Managers learn how to be a Manager on their own.

According to the latest international study on Sales Training and Sales Force Effectiveness, many Sales Managers are given very little or no support when it comes to being a competent, effective Sales Manager. In fact, many Sales Managers reported that they were given no formal training in Sales Management practices, either before or during their tenure as a Sales Manager.

The study reported that Sales Management training is the category of sales training …

Why developing your Sales Managers is the key to your sales success Read Post »

The cost of poor sales selection

By / / Assessments, Brain Science, Brand & Reputation, Competition, Performance Management, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Management, Sales Psychology, Sales Research, Sales Talent

Have you ever done the math on how much sales recruitment costs you, especially when you get it wrong?

If you are like most managers then chances are you haven’t. So let’s consider the costs, overt and covert, involved in sales recruitment.

If you don’t know it already, sales recruitment is one of the toughest assignments around. I know this firsthand, as I was in this role for over 8 years with a leading consultancy and recruitment company. During this time, I interviewed about 8,000 sales people face-to-face in the technical, industrial, medical, and scientific industries. Remember, this is not counting all …

The cost of poor sales selection Read Post »

Creating the right environment

By / / Ethics & Values, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Management

I was running a ‘train the sales trainer’ session with some experienced, professional Sales Managers the other day. The session I ran is designed to equip these managers to run mini sales training modules of as part of our sales fitness programs. Many manages are not trained facilitators and so we make sure we give them the information they need to set up an effective learning environment. All was going well until we came across the content entitled “Creating the right learning environment” which is a practical guide about what you need to prepare and take into account when setting …

Creating the right environment Read Post »

Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment?

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Management, Sales Talent

1. How much is a good sales person worth to you?
2. How much is a good hiring manager worth to you?

Speaking about recruitment in these current economic times may seem foolish, however in the area of selling, this is where you could make great strides by picking up highly effective sales people who have found themselves on the job market or are looking for a better business to work in. I know of a few highly competent sales people and sales managers who have been let go along with other staff as part of large staff reduction strategies.

In …

Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment? Read Post »

Practice, Practice, Practice then Play

By / / Brain Science, Coaching, Mindful selling, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Sales Training

In the sporting world it is expected that athletes make the time to practice, practice, practice and then go and compete or play the game. Through regular practice they hone their skills, behaviours and attitudes to ensure they are ‘match fit’ and ready to compete at the highest standards.

A sports team needs to make sure that when they are in the thick of the game they can draw upon those skill drills and practice sessions to perform well as a team and perform well under pressure.

When an individual athlete is neck and neck with a competitor racing for the finish …

Practice, Practice, Practice then Play Read Post »

The Dark Side

By / / Assessments, Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, Neuroscience, Neuroscience in Sales, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Psychology, Self Development, Uncategorized, Wellbeing

How well can we manage ourselves, our teams and businesses in a crisis or tough times?

Are our actions and behaviours putting us, our people and our businesses at risk?

As leaders and managers we are on show and our actions often speak louder than our words. In challenging times this is even more evident. Under pressure cracks may appear and our leadership is put to the test.

How do we cope under pressure? What happens to us when we crack? When placed under high levels of pressure, most people will rely on coping mechanisms or their strengths …

The Dark Side Read Post »

Daring to be Different (part 2)

By / / Assessments, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

Here is the second of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

Even though I have not worked as a traditional recruitment consultant for more than 14 years many of my long standing clients still talk about those ‘out of the box’ placements we made. Was it just the recruitment approach that made the difference. Well NO. What these savvy mangers is did was make sure the culture and the business could accommodate these ‘new’ types of people.

They took their current team along on the journey to …

Daring to be Different (part 2) Read Post »

Daring to be Different (part 1)

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Management

Here is the first of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

When it comes to assessing sales and sales leadership capabilities in your business do the lines blur between the cultural morays, views and perceptions, gossip and politics and the real capabilities needed to be assessed against your actual sales strategy?

In my line of work I am often requested to sit on senior management interview panels for clients because of my background and expertise in assessing sales leadership and sales performance and the issues around of internal and external …

Daring to be Different (part 1) Read Post »

Preparing for your 2008-09 Sales Year

By / / Business Acumen, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Pipeline, Sales Planning, Sales Strategy, Value Proposition & Value Add, Vision, Mission & Purpose

If you haven’t already it may be worth your while to hold a formal review and business/sales strategy planning session with your team before the new financial year kicks in. Many markets have and are going through major changes and this requires us to be on our toes and ready for action.

The challenge for any business, especially those of us who run a small business with limited man power and resources, is to take the time out to work on our business and plan for the future rather than stay stuck in the day to day of our businesses. This …

Preparing for your 2008-09 Sales Year Read Post »

Thinking of promoting your best sales performer to sales manager? Think again!

By / / Assessments, Attitudes & Behaviours, Role Clarity, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Talent

Many businesses have made the mistake of promoting their best performing sales person into the role of sales manager. Their logic – well they are great at selling, they’ll be great at sales management. Sadly most of these situations end in disaster.

To start off the top performing sales person has usually been given no training or a development framework to help them make the transition into what is a very different role. It is almost assumed they will know how to be a sales manager because they ‘know’ (sadly usually only intuitively) how to sell. The …

Thinking of promoting your best sales performer to sales manager? Think again! Read Post »

Scroll to Top