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 … Read full article
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 … Read full article
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 … Read full article
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; … Read full article
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 … Read full article
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. … Read full article
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 … Read full article
Inexperienced sales managers assume that if they solve the problems salespeople bring to them then sales reps will automatically sell more. Not true. Sales managers must expect salespeople to solve their own problems instead of doing their thinking for them. When a salesperson comes to the manager with “a monkey on his back” it is … Read full article
Questions every sales managers should consider in their strategic/team development plan include: Which salesperson is ready to step up and assume the lead role on this team? If I were to set a team goal to increase sales by 30% over the next 12 months, what obstacles would stand in our way? Is there anyone … Read full article
There are actually 29 specific time-wasters that a lot sales managers suffer from. Sales managers become buried in busy work, putting out fires and feeling overwhelmed. They’re working harder than ever–unable to catch up–and no time for their number 1 priority: sales coaching. The result? The individual on the team with the most highly developed … Read full article