TopLine Leadership Sales Management Blog

Successful sales managers recognize that while they likely have the best sales skills of anyone on their team, the key question is not how good a salesperson they are. Instead, the crucial question is how effective that sales manager is at coaching salespeople to learn what the manager already knows about selling. Here are 5 important things that successful sales managers do differently to achieve better sales coaching outcomes. Say [...]

Every experienced sales manager knows how costly it is to make a bad hiring decision because that bad hire takes a lot of your time and attention and then doesn’t contribute anything. Here are six “must-have” techniques that successful sales managers can use when hiring salespeople. Ask for a “Memo of Understanding” from the Candidate A VP of Sales for a company with over 500 salespeople told me recently [...]

Sales coaching can get over-complicated. Here are four easy sales coaching tips, any one of which can help you become a more successful sales manager.

I have a challenge for you. The next time you’re talking with your salespeople, ask them to describe the steps of your company’s sales process. Chances are, most of them will have an answer. Then ask, “What are the steps of a customer’s buying process?” If your company is like many others, the odds are good all you’ll see what I call the “dead fish look.” That’s because even [...]

The goal I am championing includes re purposing one-on-one reviews with sales team members so they become a consistent, reliable component of a sales management system. When used this way, a monthly 1-on-1 turns into a developmental coaching conversation.