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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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 …

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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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    Leading a healthy sales career

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Emotional Intelligence, Neuroscience, Neuroscience in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Psychology, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Self Development, Time Management, Wellbeing

    It is well documented that being healthy (physically, emotionally, and mentally) is vital to leading an effective and productive life.

    In sales your health is a critical factor to your success. Many highly successful sales people I meet are self disciplined in all aspects of their life ensuring they are fit, healthy and well trained in their profession.

    Having a healthy sales career is underpinned by the individuals healthy life style, and a well managed business which includes good sales support, clear goals and leadership.

    I have written before in a previous post Healthy salespeople, healthy …

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    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 …

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    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 …

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    A Test of Character

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Ethics & Values, Mindful selling, Neuroscience in Sales, Resilience, Sales Psychology, Sales Talent, Self Development, Success

    I can honestly say I did not enjoy the early years of my sales career. I initially found it hard, relentless and sometimes really distressing. I was asked to do things I didn’t always understand that significance of. I often felt overly scrutinised by the constant monitoring of activity and performance by my managers. I worked in tough markets in tough times and sometimes wondered if it was worth it. I felt under pressure and sometimes wished I didn’t have to sell at all, however I came to realise that this tough introduction to …

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    Elite athletes find key to corporate success

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Emotional Intelligence, Sales Talent, Self Promotion

    For Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe and now Stephanie Rice and Michael Phelps Olympic success has literally brought fame and fortune … but their high profile success is not just about the colour of their medals.

    With the Olympics just over I can’t help but think of all the other athletes who won medals and wonder how many of them will end up with amazing sponsorship and media deals like Cathy, Ian, Stephanie and Michael. Not many I’ll bet. And with the Paralympics just begun, how many of these athletes will capitalise on their talent …

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    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 …

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    Don’t confuse quantity for quality, or biggest for best

    By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Talent

    Attracting and Searching for Candidates
    Just like sales, in today’s market you need a combination of ‘Push & Pull ‘ contact strategies for finding the right candidates for your business. Advertising alone is not likely to yield the candidates you seek. When you decide to recruit externally, the following methods are available to select from:

    • Advertising (On-line job boards (MyCareer, SEEK, CareerOne, etc.); Newspapers;Magazines;Radio and television)
    • Recruitment Agencies
    • Executive search firms
    • Viral Marketing email campaigns
    • University Job Boards
    • In-store Advertising (shop window)
    • Family & Friends
    • Your own website
    • Information Seminars
    • Search (direct contact)
    • Networks
    • On-line network groups (My space;Link Me;Linked in)

    With the advent of online job boards, many people can DIY …

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