sales manager tips

What Makes a Great Sales Coach?

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A man in a suit sitting at a desk

While being a good coach might not be a bad thing, a positive trend that I’m seeing in the sales managers with whom I work is an aspiration for greatness. Here are five key traits that separate a good coach from a great one. 1) External focus – While a good sales coach has a … Read full article

Five Presidential Attributes Every Sales Manager Needs

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A podium with the presidential seal on it.

We are currently embroiled in a divisive election where each candidate harshly criticizes the weaknesses of the other. For a refreshing change, I decided to revisit the leadership attributes possessed by arguably our greatest president — Abraham Lincoln — and discuss why a few of Lincoln’s skills are so important for today’s sales managers to … Read full article

Does Your Sales Team Need “More Cowbell”?

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A close up of an old bell on a white background

Recently I watched the famous Saturday Night Live skit “More Cowbell,” one of the Top 10 best skits of all time on SNL. It originally aired on April 8, 2000 and if you haven’t seen it lately or at all, watch it here. The skit was a spoof on what was offered up as the … Read full article

Motivation Coaching: Mastering the 1-on-1 Sales Coaching Conversation

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A yellow line on the road with some writing


One of the biggest issues that sales managers struggle with is sales rep motivation. Perhaps that’s why sales managers often ask me, “what can I say or do to get my salespeople more focused on achieving their sales goals?”

Personal motivators differ from one salesperson to another. There is typically a primary motivator and a secondary one for each sales rep on your team. Once you understand a person’s motivators you’ll want to incorporate them into your 1 on 1 conversations and other interactions.

As a start, before your meeting with your salesperson ask him/her to identify their “money goal” for the next 12 months, and what they need to sell in order to hit their money goal. Then during the conversation:

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Getting Senior Salespeople to Use CRM

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A man sitting at his desk looking at the computer.


While seasoned salespeople are highly valued for their expertise, they can sometimes pose a challenge when it comes to change. Name any kind of change—in company structure, compensation, sales territories, product lines, ownership, etc.—and it’s likely that many seasoned salespeople hate it. It’s understandable to some degree. Successful salespeople have fine-tuned their techniques and are extremely reluctant to change anything about how they work.

It’s no wonder, then, that I often hear sales managers complain: “My seasoned salespeople haven’t yet bought in to using our company’s CRM system. What can I do about it?”

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3 Daily Decisions Effective Sales Managers Make

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We’re near the end of 2014, which makes it a great time for self-reflection. What can you learn about how you managed yourself and your time this past year as a sales manager that could help you better manage your time and your team next year? To get started, think back over the past year and rate yourself on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (great) on the following three statements:

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Great Sales Coaches Help Reps Learn from a Lost Sale

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Nobody, no matter how good they are at selling, has a 100% win rate. That means all of us have to learn how to deal with losses. As a sales manager, your job is to help your team learn from these lost sales. A lost sale is a failure only when we, individually and as a team, don’t learn from it.

Having a positive attitude is especially important in the sales profession. And when a salesperson loses a big deal, it is easy for them to get down. That’s a normal human reaction. But if your salesperson stays down, that’s not good. And one way to help salespeople process their lost sales quicker is to teach them how to “look for the lesson” in every lost sale.

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The 5 Biggest Mistakes New Sales Managers Make

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Your transition from salesperson to sales manager is one of the biggest challenges in the sales profession. It requires a complete change in thinking. Overnight, you go from being in control of your own destiny to having your performance ratings determined by the results other people produce.

In fact, the more successful you were as a salesperson, the more difficulty you will have in the transition. Successful sales reps-turned-managers have a very hard time giving up the things that made them successful in their original sales job.

Many new sales managers understand they’re facing a big change. What they lack is a clear understanding of “OK, now what do I do?” Without guidance, they’re prone to making five big mistakes. Here’s an overview of those mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

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