Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Sales Managers”
We are often asked if we think the Millennial Generation has what it takes to be successful in sales. It’s been my experience that they are often the BEST salespeople – as long as you set up the system to ensure their success. You can read my observations on that here.
We suggest you make two very important lists before hiring. Make one list of requirements to be successful in the job and another list of traits that will ensure failure. Once you are clear about what you want – and what you don’t – the right candidate will become clear. Continue reading
When we are leading, influencing, being called upon as trusted advisors or salespeople, the perspective we choose to take in a situation is fundamentally linked to our success or failure in that situation. Perspective tends to drive how we react instinctively, and our reactions drive our attitudes and our behaviors which then drive our outcomes.
Cold Calling is a CEO agenda item. I have become convinced of this as I work with various companies in a broad variety of businesses. As leaders of our companies, if we don’t establish the culture of picking up the phone and calling people we don’t know, it just doesn’t happen.
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Prospecting, (“cold calling”), has been a hot topic 
with our clients this year. A few months ago we launched a prospecting crash course to help companies build this essential skill on their teams. One of the key aha moments in the workshops has occurred when we discuss the idea that Prospecting and Selling are two completely separate processes with different intents, approaches and measures for success.
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As 2012 comes to an end, I’ve found our business shifting to accommodate the changes in the business and economic landscapes. I’m doing a lot more coaching and advising at an executive level. This combined with my own experience of running a business has brought to light some of the fundamental changes that I’m seeing in selling these days. Namely, decisions are being made differently. Decisions are made more slowly, they are made with far more scrutiny, and they require an almost absolute guarantee of a successful outcome (typically short term ROI) before being signed off. It is harder to sell big complex products and services right now than it has been over the past 15 years. Here are three “selling” imperatives I’ve found to be important for the companies with whom I’m working:
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“Attitude” is a funny thing. We often talk about attitude, refer to it, judge it as “good” or “bad”, and yet it is very difficult for us to really get our arms around what it really is. In situations involving persuasion, tact, diplomacy, etc. we are all aware there is a right attitude for the situation and a wrong one. Continue reading
I heard a quote years ago that shifted the way I look at challenging situations. It was such a formative idea in my personal development that I thought it might be a good blog entry. The quote was on a CD by a speaker named Jim Rohn called “The Art of Exceptional Living”. I can still hear Jim’s unique voice ringing in my head when he said “don’t wish it were easier… wish that you were better!”
There’s a lot of rhetoric available about how to become someone’s trusted advisor. It is a coveted position to be in – both in terms of how it strokes our ego as well as being a prime position from which we can grow our relationship (and our role/business) with that person. From my experience in coaching some very smart people, I’ve noticed that being smarter doesn’t particularly create the trust, credibility, or relationship you might seek with your counterpart.
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One of the fundamental fallacies that I’ve observed in selling is the idea that information is the key reason people buy from us. I have watched the sales people, sales engineers, techies, and executives I coach share with their prospects how great their technology/process/approach is, how superior their features and benefits are, how the speeds and feeds are this and that, and continue with a litany of details about the product or service in question. It is as if they believe the information has some magic ability to cause the prospect to buy. It isn’t so!!!
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