Inside Our Head

Emphasize Developmental Sales Coaching

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:33:00 GMT

Instead of just evaluative coaching, our sales management training program helps your company to install a culture of developmental coaching.

Evaluative coaching happens when a sales manager looks at what a salesperson has done (or not done), such as what occurs during many performance reviews.

Developmental coaching looks to the future. The focus and intent of developmental coaching is to help salespeople do better the next time. Evaluative coaching tends to be date-driven--end of month, quarter, year. Developmental coaching is a sales manager's ongoing commitment to the development of sales skill and sales will.

Research has found, that developmental sales coaching is essential for continuous sales improvement and production. It also improves the morale of the entire sales team.

Get a Complete Sales Management Training Solution

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:25:00 GMT

Our sales management training program is more comprehensive than other sales management training programs. Other sales management training companies focus on a few aspects of the sales managers' role, such as how to coach the sales process and how to hire salespeople. While our sales management training program also includes these necessary modules, we provide much more! The sales manager role requires a comprehensive set of skills for maximum productivity.

Manage Your Time Effectively

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:52:00 GMT

Untrained sales managers become buried in "stuff" work, reactive fire-fighting, feeling overwhelmed.

They're working harder than ever, but unable to catch up.

Untrained sales managers have no time for what should be their #1 priority, sales coaching—no time to teach his or her talents, skills and energies to those individuals on the team who need and want it the most.

No Follow Up Leads to a Lack of Sales Team Discipline

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:50:00 GMT

The newly minted sales manager was once a high-performing sales rep who dutifully implemented the boss's suggestions.

Sales managers assume the reps now reporting to them will do the same, and follow their suggestions.

Sales managers who fail to follow-up create a team culture that's lacking in accountability. Without accountability there can be no team excellence.

Teach your Salespeople to Solve Their Own Problems

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:47:00 GMT

Untrained sales managers become high-paid, administrative assistants to the salespeople.

Untrained sales managers think that if they solve the problems salespeople bring to them, the reps will automatically sell more. Not true.

Sales managers need to expect salespeople to solve their own problems. When a salesperson comes to the manager with "a monkey on his back" it is the manager's duty to:

1) Ask the rep how the problem should be solved
2) See that the rep leaves with the monkey

Mediocrity Brings the Entire Sales Team Down

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:42:00 GMT

Untrained sales managers focus on what they know best, selling. They spend their time working on the largest deals... or jump in to take over customer meetings... (in both cases stifling the learning curves of their reps).

Untrained sales managers don't define standards of performance... so they don't coach to standards... which leaves the sales reps to sink or swim on their own... and leaves the manager without any objective means for evaluating performance... which means your managers hang on to poor performing sales reps too long...

Acceptance of one salesperson's mediocrity brings the entire sales team down.

Install a Culture of Coaching within your Sales Team

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:36:00 GMT

Your company can increase sales and reduce sales turnover by installing a culture of coaching within your sales management team.

Recent research has found that the highest producing salespeople are those that work for sales managers with a "hands-on" coaching style. Sales managers that monitor, direct, evaluate and reward their salespeople on a on-going basis; and, these high-performance salespeople were found to have a greater level of commitment to their organizations when they worked for a sales manager with this "hands-on" coaching approach.

From our experience working with over 35,000 sales managers since 1989, we have learned that you cannot install a culture of sales coaching simply by training sales managers how to coach. Instead, your sales training solution must also solve the obstacles that prevent proactive, hands-on sales coaching from actually happening.

Get the training you need by attending our Sales Management Training Seminar.

Our next seminar is in Salt Lake City, December 1-2, 2010. Click here for details on our Sales Management Training Seminar.

New Sales Book by Kevin Davis

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:10:00 GMT

I've written a new sales book: Slow Down, Sell Faster!
The book will be available January 2011.

About Slow Down, Sell Faster!

Faster sales pitches won't lead to faster sales. The key to speeding up the sales process is to actually slow down and get in sync with your customer's buying process.

Customers don't care about your selling process. They are moving through their own buying process, a set of predictable steps that doesn't match how most salespeople sell. With the highly effective techniques in Slow Down, Sell Faster!, you'll learn how to help your customers through each step of their buying process faster, and with the odds shifted in your favor.

This eight-step method unleashes the power of slowing down each sales conversation, asking more questions, identifying needs, and supplying solutions—in the right sequence, with the right approaches. It's an especially effective formula for high-stakes sales involving multiple decision-makers that delivers big rewards.

TopLine Leadership on Twitter

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:30:00 GMT

I finally have a Twitter account! Follow me on Twitter to get timely updates on sales training, sales management training, sales tips, sales seminar updates, book updates... and probably more.

If you read this blog, do me a favor and follow me on Twitter! Thanks!

When to ask Customers for Referrals

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:16:00 GMT

For many salespeople, attempting to obtain referrals can be frustrating and unproductive. Customers often provide either poor referrals or none at all. Many salespeople underestimate the risk that buyers feel when they're asked to supply referrals: you're asking your customer to put their personal credibility on the line. Another difficulty is that your customer may not know the specific needs of their associates.

The first hint for getting more sales referrals is to ask at the right time. Traditional sales training techniques usually teach salespeople to ask for referrals at the close of a sale, but that's too soon. It's another form of selling too fast. Your new customers haven't yet achieved value, and you are, in effect, asking them to send you off in another direction (selling to another customer) at the precise moment when they need you the most! At best, your request for a referral will be ignored. At worst, the trust you have worked so hard to build may be damaged.

The key is to ask for a referral after value has been achieved. Make sure your customers are satisfied before asking for sales referrals.

Preparing to Negotiate

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:30:00 GMT

In preparing to negotiate you need to figure out what you want from the negotiations and how flexible you're willing to be on each of your selling points. Then, for each item, develop an explanation that justifies the position you desire.

Being prepared to make the right concessions—those that cost you little, but give your customer much—is also key to having the actual sales negotiations go smoothly.

Get Specific Answers to Questions About Satisfaction

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:16:00 GMT

Treat any vague response as an early warning signal. Remember, many unsatisfied customers would rather flee than fight. Complaining takes time and complaints are often ignored, so customers think, "Why bother?"

Customers often hide their unhappiness by responding to a salesperson's questions in a nonspecific way. You've probably done the same thing in other circumstances. Suppose you dine out at an expensive restaurant, but receive poor service. After your meal, your server asks you, "How was everything?" If you choose to avoid the hassle of complaining, you'll reply with a nonspecific "fine." Only by asking more questions and seeking specific answers might the server learn the real story -- the salads arrived too late, the vegetables were overcooked, and the meat was tough.

To discover what your customers truly think of your solution, seek specific answers to your questions.

Cultivate Your Sales Relationships

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:13:00 GMT

Your best asset isn't the client company; it's your personal relationships with the people who buy from you. People buy from people they like. As Dale Carnegie suggested in his classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, you've got to become genuinely interested in other people. Smile more. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk. Talk in terms of the other person's interests. Just by using these simple techniques, you will close more sales.

Achieving Customer Satisfaction in Sales

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:09:00 GMT

Achieving customer satisfaction -- satisfaction with your solution's price, performance, and service responsiveness -- is the pre-requisite for developing any long-term relationship with a customer, and especially one that you may want to take to a higher level of mutual commitment and loyalty.

Because your customers' expectations are always on the rise, you've got to stay close to ensure their continued satisfaction. Becoming complacent because your customers have made their purchase is the number one killer of customer satisfaction. Complacency is a feeling of satisfaction in the mind of the salesperson, but not necessarily in the mind of the customer.

Supporting your Customer after the Sale

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:05:00 GMT

Your customers' level of satisfaction is based on how they feel about these four questions:

1. Am I achieving the results I expected?
2. Is the product or service performing as expected?
3. Did I pay a fair price?
4. Does the way I'm treated by your support people make me feel important?

The first three questions reflect tangible results the customer is expecting from their purchase. The last is more intangible and reflects how well you're doing with post-sales support.

If the customer feels confident that the answer to each question is "Yes," then you've achieved customer satisfaction (at least for now). But be forewarned: Satisfied customers may not stay that way. Most people are satisfied with a new car for several years… until they start noticing newer models on the road with better designs and innovative features. Or perhaps until their life circumstances change and their current car is too small, or too big, or doesn't perform well in different conditions.

The same thing happens with your customers. Their immediate goal after the sale is achieving satisfaction with that purchase. But their satisfaction will change as their business changes or they become aware of new alternatives. If you stay in-touch with that customer and keep track of changes, you will find opportunities for additional sales.

Remove Obstacles for your Sales Team

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:51:00 GMT

Are there any barriers to great sales performance that your organization has created for you? If so, how can you remove the obstacles?

One way is to improve your energy and desire to excel. Remember, the speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.

A few more successful strategies include:
1) Pay more attention to your sales team. Ask your boss to talk to him/her, 1 on 1.
2) Sometimes you can appeal to their competitive instincts by creating a contest against another division of the company, and give the salesperson a stretch goal to shoot for.
3) You can recognize their achievements more frequently.
4) Delegate the delivery of a few sales meetings on a subject such as new sales prospecting (which they, in all likelihood, need a refresher on).
5) Explain to them how their role as a senior tenured salesperson fits in to the big picture and why it's so important to the sales team results.
6) Last, challenge your senior salespeople to "step-up." Let them know that you expect much more from them, and are counting on them to increase sales.

Develop Improvement Plans for your Salespeople

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:46:00 GMT

Salespeople who have "lost the fire" are salespeople who have lost sight of their sales goals, so you must help them see their future more clearly.

To create your plan, ask good questions, and really listen. Ask: Why are you selling for a living? What is it that you want, that you don't currently have? Where do you want to be in 24-36 months? What motivates you?

For example, one salesperson may want to buy a house, another wants to join a golf/country club, a third wants your job. Three very different goals, but all could be achieved faster by exceeding sales quota.

Get into each Salespersons Head

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:42:00 GMT

In sales training, don't use a "one-size-fits-all" strategy. Every salesperson is different, with different needs, commitments, motivators, etc. You must build a relationship with each individual on your sales team to get the results you want.

Sales Team Leaders and Followers

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:40:00 GMT

A sales team typically consists of a few leaders and lots of followers. So does a ranch, where the herd follows along behind the one cow with a bell around its neck.

Many salespeople, especially those with less experience, emulate the example of the bell cows on your sales team. If one of your bell cows is a senior sales rep stuck in a rut, you must act to improve the situation! Otherwise, everyone else will follow the bell cow's meandering pace.

Comprehensive Sales Management Training Programs

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:53:00 GMT

At TopLine Leadership, we solve problems that are unique to sales managers.

Our sales management training program solves the problems sales managers have that often prevent them from becoming great sales coaches.

We combine the "how-to" skills that you would expect such as coaching, communicating and motivating the team; with the self-management skills that sales managers need to manage themselves differently - so they free-up more time to coach.

We have several sales management training programs. Our open enrollment sales management seminars are 2-day workshops focused on helping sales managers improve the performance of their sales teams.

We also provide in-house sales management training. This is more intense, on-site sales management training. We customize our training materials and tailor our delivery to achieve your goals for sales performance improvement. We are proud to have worked with many great companies.

We look forward to working with yours!

Buy Learning Process in Sales

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:37:00 GMT

Buy-Learning Process consists of four stages with each stage made up of two steps. The four stages are:

1) Determining a Need
2) Finding the Best Solution
3) Committing to Buy
4) Evaluating the Outcome

For the sake of simplicity these four stages can be named Need, Learn, Buy and Value. The effective sales person will move through these stages with the buyer by personally identifying with the buyer's hopes and fears, problems and opportunities.

Define Sales Performance Standards

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:32:00 GMT

As a salesperson, you have a clear understanding of the sales quota results expected of you, but you're unsure exactly how to produce those results. So you do what you think you should. You "make it up on the fly." Then, because nobody tells you you're doing it wrong you assume it is acceptable behavior. So you keep doing it, and form bad habits. It's an unproductive cycle.

Every successful sale is the outcome of a series of behaviors (how something is done) as well as activities (how many times a behavior is performed).

When behaviors and activities are communicated and well defined by a sales manager, the sales team succeeds.

If you're a sales manager, work with your team to define sales performance standards.

Manage Behaviors and Activities

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:24:00 GMT

Many of us sales managers try to manage results. We wait until our sales rep has a bad month before we decide to get involved in "coaching" them. Then, when a rep produces a bad month, we rush over and smother them with our sales coaching trying to get their production back up quickly.

Sales managers who try to manage results are like a driver of an automobile who only looks in the rear view mirror. Chances are they will be surprised when they collide with something that is unexpected. Looking only in the rear view mirror is not an effective way to drive a car, but it happens to be the way that many sales managers coach their sales teams.

Sales results can't be managed, but behaviors and activities can. To be the best sales manager you must get in front of the result, and put in writing your expectations of the behaviors and activities that contribute to sales results.

Sales Training to Improve Sales Skills

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:17:00 GMT

Think of your top salesperson... what specific behaviors does he/she do that contributes to sales success? For example, "makes at least five new business prospecting calls every day." Then, what attitudinal qualities does he/she have which contributes to success? For example, "attempts to solve problems before seeking help."

Make a list of behaviors and activities that describe your top salesperson, and then share this list with everyone on your sales team. Have each of your salespeople assess themselves on a quarterly basis against these behaviors and activities: Meets, Exceeds, Needs Improvement. Then, sit down one-on-one with each salesperson, discuss his/her self assessment, and put a plan in place to improve on these sales skills.

Effective Sales Coaches Must Close the Sale

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:31:00 GMT

While delivering our Sales Management Leadership workshop recently, a medical equipment sales manager in the audience raised his hand and said, "I see myself as more of a "player-coach." I asked him to elaborate.

He went on to share a recent example when he was working with one of his more productive and experienced salespeople. They had just concluded a meeting with a physician in a hospital and were walking toward the exit. Their next appointment was not for another two hours, so the sales manager asked his rep, "Is there any reason why, now that we're inside this hospital, you aren't going to pick up the house phone over there and call a few more prospects for appointments?" Calls made from a hospital's in-house phone don't get screened like calls from outside the building.

The salesperson replied, "Physicians don't like to be interrupted in that way, so I don't do that."

Where-upon the player-coach marched to the nearby house phone, picked it up, and succeeded in scheduling an appointment with the first person who answered, a physician. "See, the house phone works," he said. He made a few more phone calls for the salesperson, and then the two of them went on their way to her next appointment.

Indeed, this sales manager was a player-coach. He did demonstrate to his salesperson that once in the hospital, the house phone is an effective tool for setting new appointments.

But the sales manager made a big mistake - he demonstrated how to perform an important sales task, but he didn't obtain commitment from the salesperson that she would start making these types of calls in the future. In sales vernacular, he made a great demo but he didn't "close the sale" by obtaining commitment.

Every sales coaching discussion should conclude with a request for commitment to change. And, every coaching discussion should include a follow-up step by you. By following-up, and inspecting what you expect, you show your commitment to helping the salesperson be the best he or she can be. And, you send the message to your sales team that your expectations of performance are not to be taken lightly.

Sales Training Seminar SOLD OUT

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:25:00 GMT

Our August 10-12 "Getting Into Your Customer's Head" sales training seminar is now sold out.

Please contact us regarding future dates and locations.

Another Successful Sales Management Training Seminar

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:02:00 GMT

July's Sales Management Leadership open enrollment workshop was a big success! The "overall effectiveness" rating from participants' program evaluations scored 4.75 out of 5, which equates to a rating of 95%. A few comments from program participants include:

A Director of Sales for a digital marketing solutions company headquartered in New York City says: "Kevin kept it lively and engaging. I think good instructors can make or break a session like this. In this case, Kevin knocked it out of the park! Great job."

A new sales manager for a medical equipment company says, "This class is great for new sales managers. The fundamental teachings are important."

A VP of Sales for an industrial manufacturing company says, "Held my attention – opened my eyes to new ways to look at leading, developing and motivating my salespeople."

With the success of July's workshop, we're really looking forward to our next Sales Management Training Seminar to be held on December 1-2, 2010 in Salt Lake City at the Airport Hilton.

We look forward to seeing many new faces at this great workshop for sales managers!

Click here to enroll today.

Great Salespeople Help their Customers Learn

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:47:00 GMT

When you view a signed deal from the customer's point of view, you are ready to engage Sales Role #7: The Teacher.

At this stage, you teach your customer how to achieve maximum value from the new product or service you have provided. Don't expect that one training session with a few end-users will be sufficient. It won't.

When a new product or service is introduced into an environment, it means change for the users there, and change is always difficult. For customers to achieve their expectations of value, they must first pass through a learning process--and learning can be annoying, frustrating and time-consuming. It is difficult at first, but gets easier.

If we walk through the sales process of helping customers learn, change, adapt and grow, we help them realize the value of working with us. The promise we made in the beginning of the sales process was: work with me, I'll do the best job for you.

Failing in the role of Teacher essentially means we fail to keep our promise by missing the opportunity to truly deliver all the benefits of our products and services.

It's like working hard for months to paint a beautiful forest landscape, but nearing completion of your work of art, you decide not to add any green, and walk away.

Questions to ask in your Sales Training Process

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:36:00 GMT

Is it easier to sell to a current customer or to a brand new prospect?
Do satisfied customers hammer you on price as much as new customers?
Do dissatisfied customers provide referrals?
Do you enjoy spending time with dissatisfied customers?

You know the answers to these questions!

If you are having problems, it's time to attend our Sales Training Seminar. Get on the road to success in sales.

Closing the Deal is Just the Beginning

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:29:00 GMT

Your prospect signed on the dotted line! All your hard work... the sales calls, the meetings, the sales presentations... it's a done deal! No it isn't!!!

Have you ever noticed your customers who are the most enthusiastic and pleased on day one are the most likely to suddenly be dissatisfied on day two? What precipitates this plunge from paradise to purgatory?

The root cause of most customer dissatisfaction is a difference in perception between buyers and sellers. For most sales people, the sales process comes to an end when the customer says "yes." For most buyers, the sales process is just beginning when they say "yes."

To keep customers for life, you must change your frame of reference, Get Into Your Customer's Head, and see things from the customer's perspective. You must start seeing the "close" of a deal as the beginning of a new sales process.