Measuring and managing the right things in sales

By / / Performance Management, Sales Coaching, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Motivation & Rewards, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Self Development

Who wants to work with accountable, responsible, and self-directed sales people? Of course we all want these types of sales people in every sales team. Yet, most businesses do not support this by setting up their sales team to clearly measure and manage their sales performance.

Sales performance management begins with accurate role descriptions and perception, data collection, and measurement in line with set goals and strategy, however many organisations measure only one variable, sale results (outputs measures).

This type of approach leaves businesses and sales teams in the dark about how they arrived at their sales …

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Getting back to sales basics

By / / CRM, Sales Planning, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Social Media, Social Sales

It’s time to get back to basics.

I don’t know about you but recently I have found myself getting more and more distracted by the latest trend and fads, especially the social media phenomena. My reason for this is that I have been trying to get my head around social media and specifically, the impact on the sales profession.

As you may have gathered, I like to keep on top of what is current, what is emerging, and what is still an idea. This is why I make time each week to do research as it helps me navigate my way around …

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Help! My sales team isn’t coping with the fallout from the GFC

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Wellbeing

Many sales people, for the first time, are experiencing tough times when it comes to selling and many are not sure how to handle themselves in these difficult situations.

The current climate is, indeed, a test of character.

Many sales people, especially those in their 20’s and 30’s have not likely experienced selling in tough markets before. For the past 12 years prior to 2008, at least, the business climate in our market place has been, for the most part, buoyant. As we all know it’s very easy to sell when times are good.

It now begs the question: How well have …

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Create your ‘Ideal’ sales force blueprint

By / / Assessments, Competition, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Performance Management, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Role Clarity, Sales Consulting, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Planning, Sales Psychology, Sales Results, Sales Talent, Strategy

Now is the time to rethink your sales strategy and your sales force. Design the sales force your business needs and get great results.

Tip: It’s all in the thinking and planning that happens before the execution.

To help you start your thinking and planning here are two case studies from our work files where the businesses got it right.

Story one: Transform your current sales team into a new sales team

“The Sales Culture transformation and competency project we worked on with you in 2008 has been such a great success for our team. The culture is now fantastic and the morale of …

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Exceptional Prospectors

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Call Reluctance, Competition, Networking, Prospecting, Resilience, Sales Pioneer, Sales Psychology, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Self Promotion, Social Media, Social Sales, Success
  • “My most important appointment is prospecting and I do it first up every day.”
  • “I qualify all leads I generate and have an approach to handle those that aren’t ready yet.”
  • “People appreciate a professional sales approach and are able to make an informed decision to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ because I clearly explain, up front, my reason for contacting them using a customer centred approach. They need only say ‘no’ if they’re not interested.”
  • “I have a list of categorised prospects or influencers and a set approach for each category.”

    • Is this what you say, and how you feel and act about prospecting?

    These …

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    An ideal sales week

    By / / Prospecting, Role Clarity, Sales Motivation & Rewards, Sales Pioneer, Sales Planning, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Self Development, Time Management
    • Are you finding that you are over servicing your existing clients and not bringing in new business?
    • Are you running out of time each week to do the important sales jobs such as prospecting?
    • Are you at risk of not meeting your sales budget?

    In my many interactions with sales people I have found that many find they have problems prioritising their week. They often get caught up in activities that do not produce revenue, leaving them vulnerable.

    Let’s look at the key activities that should feature as priorities in most sales people jobs:

    Revenue Generating Activities
    Direct

    • Prospecting (phone calls, etc.)
    • New business client meetings (with …

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    Create your own opportunities

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Networking, Prospecting, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Strategy, Value Proposition & Value Add

    Just one idea can positively transform your life, career, income and wealth.
    As I have written before, in uncertain times, we can let the negativity of current events and others consume us or we can continue to look for opportunity. Excessive worry, however, can often cause us to lose sight of our goals and can limit our creativity and problems solving capabilities just when we really need them.

    These tough times call for us to be even more innovative, inventive, creative and persistent. Some of the most successful sales people are the most adaptive and creative people you can …

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    Persistence and the Honourable Retreat

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Prospecting, Resilience, Sales Results, Self Promotion

    Did you know:

    • Over 50% of sales people give up at 1st contact if they get a ‘NO’ from the prospect never to go back to that prospect again .
    • At the 5th contact 7% of sales people are left to speak with the prospect to see if they can do business together.
    • At the 8th contact there is only one sales person left to work with the prospect. Hopefully it is you.

    Many sales people, especially those new to sales, often take it personally when a prospect says ‘NO’. Many fail to persist and often fail to favourably position themselves to ‘leave …

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    Trust-based relationships

    By / / Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Customer Service, Ethics & Values, Networking, Prospecting, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Up-selling & Cross Selling, Value Proposition & Value Add

    I typed ‘Sales’ into youtube.com the other day just to see what was on offer. I have to say that some of the initial videos displayed on the front page were very disappointing indeed, especially when it came to building trust-based relationships with clients.

    One well-known speaker was spruking ways to get your prospect to call you back. His idea was to leave a provocative half message that said something along the lines of “I’ve just been speaking to your competitors and they said you are in big ” then he suggested hanging up before you competed the message. …

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