Look for opportunities to show interest in all team members. Ask about their life outside of work. Make an effort to learn about their families, their hobbies, their recent vacation, etc. Inquire but never pry. Keep track of names, dates, and events that are important to them, such as birthdays and anniversaries of employment with … Read full article
Involve your best sales people in hiring decisions. Ask team members to participate in interviewing new-hire candidates, when appropriate. This gives your producer a say in how the team works – a significant involvement in something that truly matters. Make sure you provide pre-training on effective interviewing. Such preparation not only gives team members a … Read full article
The best Sales Managers turn failures into teaching lessons. A failure is a failure only when we don’t learn from it. When people make mistakes, encourage them to share their experiences in order to help others avoid similar problems. This can be a great motivational tool because you focus on learning rather than assigning blame. … Read full article
Listen to others. Listening shows respect… that people and their ideas are important to you. When people know you’re willing to listen, they will share their ideas as well as their frustrations. Listening enables you to build trust, which is essential for creating an elite, high-performance team. Clarify your expectations. Meet with your individual sales … Read full article
Get in the habit of inviting team members to challenge your ideas. Encourage them to constructively (and positively) criticize your plans. Make it okay for people to disagree with you. This lets people know you value their input, and ensures that implemented ideas will be well thought out. By giving your sales people permission to … Read full article
What are your Sales Coaching strengths? Areas to improve? There’s something I want you to do: define what your sales coaching strengths are, and what coaching areas should you improve? Next, I want you to tell one other person in your organization, two of your coaching strengths, two things that you do really well. One … Read full article
Selling is the process of uncovering urgency, and defining it, in the mind of your customer. The more momentum you generate early on in the process, the greater the probability that you’ll make a sale.
Concessions are an essential negotiating tool, but use them wisely. Consider the future impact of potential concessions. Today’s concession becomes tomorrow’s customer expectation. So don’t give away the store today or you’ll have nothing to give tomorrow. Make sure you get a concession for every one you give. Instead of saying, “Yes, I can reduce … Read full article
Occasionally, buyers skip the Fear step altogether. In fact, this is the only step of the buy-learning process that may not occur. If your customer is fearless, it’s time to celebrate! Very likely you will proceed directly from the sales presentation into a negotiation of terms. However, today most customers have more fear about buying, … Read full article
Coaching “symptoms” instead of underlying causes does more harm than good. Accurate diagnosis of a performance problem means looking for the common threads, then applying a bit of detective work to consider: Is this a skill problem? If so, teach. Is this a willingness/motivation problem? If so, help the rep understand the reasons why they … Read full article