Your Sales Management Guru

It seems like every workshop, webinar or new book that deals with our challenging economic times, in my analysis the most critical element to understand in effective sales management is the term “leading.” This past weekend was Memorial Day in the U.S. and a few of the TV channels played many of the famous war movies, celebrating our heroes and remembering those who served. I came away with one major theme: From generals to privates, in individual situations certain people stood up and assumed a leadership position, making the hard decisions, giving everyone a sense of direction and purpose.

In many business situations, we see executives and sales management/ leaders everywhere standing frozen or scared and not taking action to “direct the troops.” While every sales leader should be scared or concerned, taking action is important. The fundamental rules for sales leadership in uncertain times are:

1. Understand human motivation. Now, more than any other time, you must seek to know each person in your command and work to provide them with the proper motivation in order for them to perform at their maximum level. This is the essence of sales force management.
2. Have a plan. With a plan or vision for action and clearly communicating it, people will follow you. This plan should include an 18-month plan with 90 days of actions focused on sales, marketing and office efficiencies. One of the five styles of sales leadership is a “selling style”; use this power wisely.
3. Move closer to your clients and vendors. Schedule meetings with your “A” clients, make a plan to meet one a week! Schedule regular vendor reviews looking for new ideas and enhancing your relationship. Strategic sales management knows that customers and vendors always provide fresh ideas.
4. Move closer to your employees. Depending upon the size of your firm, monthly company meetings are a must. Hold departmental roundtables or a Friday lunch — do what it takes to listen to them and take the opportunity to share your plan.
5. Improve, innovate, stabilize process. Now is a great time to focus on improving everything about your team, your sales process, and packaging — seek to do things differently and change the game on your competition. The definition for sales leadership is acting as a “catalyst for change and continuous improvement.”

People need to believe in you and your services/products; take advantage of this opportunity to be a leader.

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In challenging times we are finding sales people “qualifying” more gently, which is not a good thing. Here’s what I mean: We are finding our clients with good levels of pipelines, but with weak prospects. We are finding that salespeople are busy in motion, but not in direction. That is, they are busying doing things that salespeople should be doing, but not with the right prospects. Bottom line: They’re just happy being busy.

As strategic sales managers, our job is to make sure salespeople are working enough opportunities and to assist them in highly qualifying the right opportunities and providing coaching on the right strategies to win the business. Here’s what you can do:

1. Everyday you see or talk to members of your sales team, ask them what their number one priority is for the day and then ask them what their number two priority is. If they are not meeting a prospective client to move a sales forward or prospecting, it’s time to straighten out their priorities.
2. Spend extra time strategizing on every opportunity. And one way to focus that strategy is to read my sales management strategy planning guide from Acumen Management (send me an e-mail if you want one). My clients worldwide use this guide to analyze a sales opportunity — what has been done, what can be done, what information we know, what information we don’t know. It will help you increase your win/loss ratio.

Everyone must focus and execute at higher levels of intensity in tough times, keeping your team on their toes, with the proper mental attitude and with a focus on winning — it’s the job of a professional sales leader.

Free sales management videos and white papers here

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With many of our clients, we are working with their sales teams on learning how and what business questions-focused questions to ask during a sales call. These strategic questions are designed to uncover existing and potential future business challenges; the questions also make the client think about how they run their business.

If the people you are speaking with can’t answer your questions, then you are attempting to sell the wrong person. You must be speaking with BDMs today. We stress focusing on increasing business efficiency, cost reduction and optimizing selling opportunities — what people are investing in today are mission-critical applications, so your teams should avoid “talking techie.”

This level of professionalism demands role play and excellent pre-call planning. Learn to stand out in the marketplace by asking strategic, focus questions.

Send me an e-mail for our Pre-Call Planning tool that will increase the professionalism of your organization.

And don’t forgot  the Free MSFT SharePoint Sales Clinic #4: Interactive, sales tips, partner interviews from MSFT and our Interactive Forum too! Register here.

Posted in Sales Kick Off Meeting, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management, Sales Management Consulting, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Training, Sales Training | Comments Off

Last week I suggested a few ideas on sales management training. Now we need to provide a few quick ideas for salespeople — that is, professional salespeople. The definition of a professional:

A professional has a commitment to a calling — the education, training, and expertise that an amateur does not have. This commitment to become a true professional is a key to differentiating yourself in the marketplace. 

In challenging times we find the sales difference or the spread expanding between average performers and high achievers. Why? True professionals always seek to increase their edge, improve how they sell and how they market. An IT salesperson told me about his commitment to professionalism. He makes a dozen face to face calls per week, spends one hour a day cold calling and a makes it a personal drive to sell more than last year, which was $4 million. 

What is your commitment? Here are some ideas for things go do to gain that competitive edge in tough times: 

• Expand your network and marketing. Use LinkedIn to tap into technology groups in your area — become a resource.
• Read a new book on sales skills and discuss with your sales team.
• Listen to motivational CDs during the day and keep your attitude strong.
• Access Microsoft’s sales resource site; to learn more, go here.
• Register for MSFT BIZ Builder Sales Clinics and use the interactive forum to ask sales strategy questions.
• Role play your phone voice mail.
• Rehearse every sales call you make — focus on being unique.

And finally, listen to my sales tips podcasts at www.msftiwbusinessbuilder.com.

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