Archive for November, 2009

Sour Cream Rises to the Top

November 11th, 2009


Sour Cream Rises to the Top

In challenging times, average sales managers tend to get exposed -- they can't hide. So why is the average tenure of a sales leader less than 18 months?

The reason for failure is simply that many sales leaders don't fully understand what their real job is, or have never been trained effectively to lead, manage and motivate their organizations.

The Top Sales Experts Roundtable, which takes place this Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 11 a.m. Eastern time, will address the challenges of sales management with a prescriptive approach to defining the duties and responsibilities of the position. I and four of the top sales leadership coaches in the world will discuss what really separates top sales leaders from the sour cream.

I'll be joined by Dave Brock, founder and CEO of Partners in Excellence; Steven Rosen, founder and CEO of Star Results; Danita Bye, founder and CEO of Sales Growth Specialists; and Jonathan Farrington, chairman of The Sales Corporation.

So are you ready for 2010? The sales "holy grail" of sustainable increases in revenue and profits --achieved consistently, reliably and by design -- is achievable. Join us to discover how! Reserve your complimentary spot at the roundtable here.

Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.

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

90 Days to Better Sales: A Few Tips for Sales Leaders

November 11th, 2009

90 Days to Better Sales: A Few Tips


At the recent Atlanta Sales Leadership Summit, we held breakout sessions titled "What Can We Do Now To Boost Sales in the Next 90 Days?" I've compiled the following list of tips from the various teams that participated. As always, the key is to "execute brilliantly."

If you have questions or have other ideas you’d like to add to the list, send me an e-mail at Ken@AcumenMgmt.com and I’ll compile them for next week’s blog.

  1. Conduct a thorough customer review and determine what you've sold to each client -- and what you have not sold to each client. Create a specific action plan to contact each customer with a special offering to show them your "other services or products." Make the plan easy (i.e., contact 10 a week). This is a great sales meeting idea.

  2. Create a weekly Blitz Day program, either by telephone or by cold-calling teams in selected areas of your territory. Set up a contest for the most “hits” and make it fun.
  3. Put more executives on every face-to-face sales call. Team selling will improve sales; more ears and eyes on every prospect leads to better strategy.
  4. Increase sales skills and product knowledge. Schedule intense training to improve objection handling, selling your firm and closing skills. An increase level of product knowledge builds confidence.
  5. Conduct a companywide contest with a focus on generating referrals. Create teams of sales, support and customer service personnel. The team with the highest number of referrals wins!
  6. Create new marketing campaigns with “special packages” (year-ending or new year offerings). Work your vendors for “specials.”
  7. Create a 90-day sales contest with a weekend hotel/dinner package. This could be for the highest percentage of quota for the period, sales or new customers.
  8. Host two executive forums with an “expert” to speak on business challenges (i.e., CPA, ROI on project management, business management ideas).
  9. Increase your focus on securing your existing opportunities. Make sure you have a visible list (on a whiteboard, for example) of the top 10 sales opportunities and hold strategy sessions with multiple people discussing each opportunity.
  10.  Create a Customer Appreciation Event at your office. Invite every customer, user and selected prospects to this event. Give tours and promote existing packages and new packages. (See No. 1.)


Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., "operationalizes" sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance. 3f4qb8v9ge

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

Top 40 Sales Management Actions for 2010

November 3rd, 2009

Top 40 Sales Management Actions for 2010

In the past few blogs, we’ve been covering various topics to prepare sales leaders for 2010. The strategic sales leader is already thinking of compensation, sales training, budgeting, and hiring and recruiting for next year.

To help our clients fully understand all of the components of job sales management, we’ve compiled a whitepaper describing the purpose of and the steps necessary to build a high-performance sales organization. Below is an excerpt of the document (to download the entire article, go here):

A Prescriptive Approach To Defining the Duties and Responsibilities

The ideal sales manager acts as a sales leader, a catalyst for change and continuous improvement, and a positive force within the entire organization. They understand their priorities and their team and have a vision for the future.

The purpose of this document is to define key actions that the sales manager (SM) must take to be effective, describe the purpose of each action and explain why it’s important. Note that the actions are not placed in any order of priority.

Sales Achievement

•Purpose: The top objective of sales management is to drive sales, capture new revenue, and exceed monthly sales and margin objectives. The purpose of the action list below is to keep the objective of sales achievement as a constant focus.

?Perform sales strategy development with each salesperson on Monday morning, at a minimum, and in a formal one-on-one meeting during the week.


?This action is to ensure the salesperson is focused, has effective strategies in place and is working on the right opportunities.

?The sales leader must use strategic tools and questioning techniques to ensure the prospects are qualified and the strategy is valid. This will also teach the salesperson to use the same tool set, how to think strategically and to work smarter.

?Attend key sales calls early in the sales process and help close sales opportunities.

?This action is to help the SM better understand the opportunity and the people involved; when the SM is involved at the end of the sales process, a relationship with the prospect is initiated.


?The SM’s role is important in establishing company credibility, if required; early visitations will help the SM be a better coach.

?Review pipeline analysis and qualification to ensure adequate values exist.

?This action is critical because the SM must be looking 90 days beyond the current month to make sure sales and marketing pipelines carry the necessary sales opportunities in units and dollars to meet goal…
To keep reading, go here.

And finally, as a parting thought, check out the comment reader Donald R. Hacker recently gave in response to this document:

In the fourth paragraph of your Sept. 28 blog entry, you summed up the attitude of #4 as, and I paraphrase, “telling your team(mates) that we can still win.” Nicely said! Leaders lead with attitude, followed by action. Such values cannot be merely taught; they must be caught! There must be buy-in to the principle that you can fail your way to success if you persevere. Perseverance takes character and character is earned through results-driven action. Albert Einstein said, “Genius is 90 percent perspiration, 10 percent inspiration.” In this vein, I have observed that those considered lucky tend to be those who also work hard, persevere and do not give up until they create a new opportunity.

Ken Thoreson, president of Acumen Management Group Ltd., “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory and platform services have illuminated, motivated and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead! Acumen Management provides keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.

Posted in Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management, Sales Management Consulting, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training, Sales Training | Comments Off