Your Sales Management Guru

The Future of Your Sales Team     

This year, I anticipate we will see a reduction in external sales positions of around 20%: 10% will be lost for good, and the other 10% will move inside. I believe that this pattern will continue for the next three years, until we are left with less than 10% of the total sales population working externally. The reasons for this are obvious: Advances in technology mean that we can communicate just as easily from our desks, using video conferencing etc.

Jonathan Farrington www.topsalesmanagement.com

If Jonathan is right, your current sales process, current sales team and management systems will begin to change over the next 18-24 months.   He interviewed me regarding this topic last week and you can listen to the entire interview at the www.TopSalesManagement.com 

Briefly, I discussed how metrics will change, how sales training will be altered and that the efficiency ratios and cost of sales will be improved based upon the utilization of existing and new technologies.  As customers become more comfortable with technology, new salespeople come into the workplace and costs of running a sales organization grow (Gas=$4.50 Gal), sales leadership must consider new alternatives.

You will find the interview on the left hand side of the website. You will also find this site to be a wonderful resource for information on sales leadership from a select group of 15 sales leadership consultants from around the world, including myself.

I thought you might like to see the quote above to begin to stimulate your future thinking on your sales organization.   Jonathan is a global sales thought leader; the quote is from an editorial he wrote in our Top Sales World magazine. (You can download this free sales magazine at www.TopSalesWorld.com   It is on the left hand side of the website.

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training, Sales Training | No Comments »

A Sales Manager’s Recipe: What’s Cooking in 2012?

Last week after a keynote program called Gourmet Living, an attendee came up to me afterwards and discussed her challenges as a sales manager.  The last three years have been tough and she was looking for new ideas for 2012 to excite her team and also to simply change up the routine.

Since my keynote program had been about creating a Menu for Your Life with many metaphors around cooking I  started thinking about what her sales management recipe should be, for about 30 minutes we discussed a variety of ideas. So if 2011 left a bad taste in your mouth, use the following ingredients to create a new recipe to make 2012 your best year ever.

Become a Detective: In sales management workshops we always talk about “inspect what you expect”.  Once a week; review your sales teams CRM system to ensure they are using it properly and casually ask each team member about their certain activities within their key accounts.  Once they know you are actually reviewing their accounts they will be more precise and begin to be more accurate. Next, make two extra sales calls per month with each sales rep.  Validate they can sell your firm and they are using the proper sales tools. These actions are not micro-management, they are designed to provide you greater opportunities to coach and grow your team.

Reduce Fatigue:  Recognize your sales team might be tired or somewhat challenged based upon the last three years of tight budgets and stress.  Fire them up with new products or packaging/pricing, change the game with new times for sales and sales training meetings-even re-arrange the sales offices.  Once a month, take your sales team on a “field trip” to visit a customer, let the customer “sell” your team on your products/services.

Find Creative Dust:  Read a book on creativity and share it with your team.  The truly great salespeople are the most creative and it is true that creativity can be learned!  As a sales manager, creative sales strategies will push you over your quota-get your entire team into a creativity fix.

Become an SOB:   That is a Student of the Business. Invest in sales management training, books, DVD’s. Create your own network of other sales managers where you can discuss ideas, learn what is working for others and explore new sales management concepts. Push yourself to become a professional in 2012, consider visiting other offices and view how their sales managers run their sales teams. At our website you will find free video’s on “hiring and training salespeople” and other articles I have written on sales management, you might also go back and skim through our blog to look for other ideas.

While these are just a few ideas, I would enjoy reading your reactions or other recipes for success below.  As a team of readers, let’s build up a complete for each as we work to make 2012 a feast we will always remember.

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. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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Posted in Books, Keynote Programs, Leadership Management, Sales Kick Off Meeting, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 2 Comments »

A Walkthrough of a Broken Organization

Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. 

Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. For the past 14 years I have been working all across North America and internationally, meeting, speaking and consulting with organizations of all sizes and areas of focus. While every client engagement is unique, some problems are common to many corporate cultures and tend to prevent a company from reaching its business potential.

This month, let’s take a walk through a hypothetical client site that illustrates many of the problems I’ve encountered over the years. We’ll use “Law and Order” rules: “Although inspired in part by true incidents, the following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.”

 Walking into the front office, there are a few chairs, a few outdated vendor awards on the walls and employees pass a visitor without offering a greeting or showing much expression or enthusiasm. This is not a good indicator for the type of reaction the office evokes from prospects who visit.

President

I ask for Bill, the president. I am warmly greeted and taken to the back office, where we begin to chat about his business, his vision, his frustrations and the lack of business profitability. My experienced ears hear: “they” just don’t get it, “they” really don’t work hard enough, “they” really don’t know how to sell what we do and “they” don’t seem to care about the business like I do. Bill is also concerned that his sales manager is focused on functions that have nothing to do with sales.

Vice President
Bill introduces me to his vice president of professional services: During the first 10 minutes of a 45-minute interview I hear a lot about how much time the sales engineers have to take to help the salespeople in every engagement and that the sales teams get all the credit. “They never take the time to learn the products. If it wasn’t for my team and their expertise we would have no sales.” When I ask when was the last time the VP held a training session for the sales team, I get a shrug.

 Salespeople
As I conduct interviews with each member of the sales team, either face-to-face or on the phone, I begin to connect the dots between what they’re saying and my meetings with the president and the vice president. The salespeople say things like: management always seems to dominate every opportunity; they’re always micro-managing what I do; the sales meetings are brutal, everything seems so disorganized; proposals are a joke; management seems to change what we do every 90 days; and they never seem to know what is going on. Something else emerges from my recordings of each salesperson. Every representative tells a different story when asked, “Why do people buy from you?”

Assessing Your Own Company
While these scenarios are graphic, these are conversations that sadly take place among many clients we have served.

Does anything here ring a bell about your company? As you read this in January 2012, it is an excellent time to assess the morale within your current organization and create a plan for the remaining portion of the year to fix elements in your company that need to operate more effectively.

A few concrete steps can go a long way. Create an ongoing sales training program; run monthly company meetings for all employees to bring teams together, increase communication and recognize achievement; make sure management meetings are organized to improve the focus on achieving corporate objectives; and make “soft” cultural improvements to increase morale and teamwork.  In some cases the list of projects can be quite long, take a few each quarter and focus on those topics.

Creating a great organization takes time, vision, energy and a commitment to continuous improvement — which, by the way, is the definition of leadership.

As you skim our past blogs you may pick up other ideas that will enhance your organizations performance.

About the Author

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. His latest book is titled: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken Thoreson provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Training | 1 Comment »

 Your 2012 Sales Plan

It’s a little late to begin planning your 2012 Sales Plan, but in a conversation last week with a reader of this blog, I realized there maybe others who have not formalized their 2012 plan.  I have included below the various “categories” you should consider in building a plan.

 Other questions you should consider:

 •         What went well in the past year?

• •         What did not go well?
• •         What are the key drivers?
• •         What are the key metrics?
• •         What are the risks?
• •         What are the opportunities?

 •         What are some of the specific factors you will be
facing in 2012?

• •         What assumptions are you making about the market in 2012?
• •         What assumptions did you make about your
  offerings in 2011? Still true?
• •         What assumptions did you make about your company
  capability in 2011? Still true?

 Topics:          Table of Contents for the Section

 Executive Summary

1. Company Mission and Strategic Alignment

2.1.1     Company Mission statement

2.1.2     Company Goals

2.1.3     Company Strategy

2.1.4     Company Critical Success Factors

2.1.5     Key measurements (Market share, profit, growth, etc)

3. Sales Goals

3.1.1     Revenue

3.1.2     Profit

3.1.3     Units or Product Groups

3.1.4     Target Customers

3.1.5     Market Share

3.1.6     Other Goals

3.1.7     Sales Organization

3.1.8     Personal Goals

4. Market Coverage Strategy

4.1.1     Market definition

4.1.2     Territory definition

4.1.3     Target Accounts

4.1.4     Customer buying process

5. Sales Strategy

5.1.1     Channel strategy (link to Sales Strategy player)

5.1.2     Partners and Alliances

5.1.2.1.1    Strategy

5.1.2.1.2    How to leverage relationships

6. Sales Cost Model

6.1.1     Compensation targets for sales organization

6.1.2     Travel and Entertainment

6.1.3     Discounts, promotions

6.1.4     Reward and Recognition

7. Develop Human Resources (Link to Build an Organization)

7.1.1     Candidate profiles for each position

7.1.2     Job Descriptions

7.1.3     Hiring Process

7.1.4     Growth Plan (hiring plan)

8. Training Plan

8.1.1     Sales skills

8.1.2     Product Service

8.1.3     Sales Process

8.1.4     Sales Certification

8.1.5     New Hire Training Plan

9. Compensation Plan (Link to Reward and Recognition)
10. Sales Process/ Sales Cycle definition:  Key milestones, %Probability to close (Leads, Qualify, demo, proposal, close, revenue recognition, customer care)

10.1.1  Productivity Model,

10.1.2  Model Pipeline

10.1.3  Activity metrics

11. Sales Tools (Q-screens, proposals, standard documents, contracts, sales collateral kits, case studies, ROI/justification calculators), section?
12. Support systems (HR, Marketing, administration, IT, Engineering, Manufacturing)

12.1.1  Sales Force Automation/ CRM technology

12.1.2  Marketing support:  Collateral, lead generation, PR events, trade shows, Press releases

12.1.3  Competitive Analysis

13. Execute

1. a.    Prepare for launch, (internal buy-in to plan, communication)
2. b.    Launch (Kickoff meeting), move to Tools to execute
3. c.    Pipeline Development process
4. d.    Commission and performance reports
5. e.    Customer Relationship programs 

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.  Ken’s latest book: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

 Ken Thoreson provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com (website)

www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com  (blog)

Posted in Leadership Management, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Training | 1 Comment »

The Times are a Changing or Are You?

At the end of each year I write down my personal and business goals for the new year in seven different categories. The challenging part of that exercise is I have to review the goals that I had set from the past year and grade my performance. I have saved these sheets from the previous 20+ years and it’s a telling experience, I have found there are always good goals, just sometimes unrealistic timeframes.

 I would suggest you review your past 12 month’s performance; ask yourself: “have I changed or improved my organization?”  If you are a new reader make sure you review all of the previous blogs for idea’s and tips to improve your personal or professional performance.

 As I look forward into 2012 and think about current topics and potential new blogs, it occurred to me that asking you to evaluate your current status on a few basic sales management topics might be a great spot to get ready to leap into the New Year.

Please score these 1-5, 5=highest

  Total Score                                      _________

 Confidential Property of Acumen Management Group, Ltd All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Authorization

 Many of these topics are critical for building a high performance sales team as well as increasing the predictability of your revenue.  I believe it’s critical that a sales manager or owner know a few basic ratios of their business, as in the ratio of potential revenues in the pipeline to the defined  sales quota vs actual attainment. Over a 6-9 month basis of tracking these information you will find your closing ratio’s, the value of how much potential revenue must be generated each month to enter your pipeline and what you need at the beginning of each month to attain your sales quota.

 I also like the idea of “out of sight-out of mind”. If you have major accounts-you must have a written plan of action, for each account, for at least three months. If you have major sales opportunities to sell each month-you must have their name and action plans visibly defined on your wall or desk. This will ensure you are consistently aware of your important prospects.

 Since recruiting and interviewing are the number one most important aspects, making sure you do it right becomes critical! View my free video on www.AcumenManagement.com

Depending upon where you scored or in what area you didn’t score as well as you thought, stay tuned to this blog as we move into 2012. I will be touching on many of these topics and others in greater detail as the year moves along.  If you would like to suggest specific topics for me to cover in one or over several columns please send me your ideas too!

 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!

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Planning, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training | 2 Comments »

Make 2012 Your Best Year EVER!

Is the market going to be better for your products/services in 2012? Or will your sales team face another tough year to achieve their sales objectives?  Recently I have been writing/talking about an issue facing everyone-your salespeople, your management team and your customers/prospects=sales fatigue. After three challenging years and now that we are about to enter  2012, all the sales numbers go back to zero and with confusion in the market, most everyone I have interacted with seems both physically and mentally  tired.

Last week I was speaking to a group of sales leaders in New York, as we discussed this topic, the question was asked regarding what as sales leaders can we do to counteract this condition.  I suggested the following idea’s (you can find more detail in past blogs on these topics).

1. Build belief in your company & products/services: invite a happy customer to a sales meeting and let them tell your team how great your company and products are and what they have done for their company.
2. Make a change: repackage your products/services, alter pricing, even move the desks in your sales offices. Another idea, create a new company sales presentation that changes your messaging. Any short term change will alter the chemistry and make something new and fresh.
3. Focus on increased levels of training:  build a sales training plan for the first 90 days that includes sales skills, product/services knowledge, CRM, etc.  Next, build an individual salesperson development plan where twice each year, hold a formal salesperson career development discussion and mutually, you and a salesperson, create an individual plan to increase their professionalism.  In our “Interactive Sales Manager Tool Kit” we include a Salesperson Development Tool.  If you would like a free Salesperson Development Tool, send me an email request.  Ken@AcumenMgmt.com

There is always a lot to do but planning this  week for 2012 results will greatly move you ahead of your competition and prepare you for making 2012-Your Best Year Ever! 

Here’s another tip: December 15th, 2011: Make 2012 Your Best Year Ever:  50 Business Tips in 50 Minutes

Join a panel industry experts for a fast paced webinar where you will learn 50 great ideas on the following topics:
• How to build a high performance sales team
• How to create long term profitable client relationships
• How to leverage the power of social media networks
• How to align your entire organizations sales and marketing initiatives with your customers’ needs
• How to set focus your business on success and profit

Find  out more and Register here or  http://tinyurl.com/bl4zoq8

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.      

Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Keynote Programs, Leadership Management, Sales Kick Off Meeting, Sales Management Training, Sales Motivation | 2 Comments »

It’s Time to Vote

This is your opportunity to contribute and vote for the top sales and marketing thought leaders, software tools and resources.

I am delighted to announce that the 2011 Top Sales & Marketing Awards finalists have been chosen, and the voting polls in all fourteen categories are open – http://www.topsalesawards.com

You will need to register to vote – but only once – and you will also be able to vote once in each category every 24 hours. The polls will be open until midnight (Eastern) on Friday December 9th.

The live online awards ceremony takes place on Thursday December 15th, from 12 noon (Eastern) The competition in every section is of the very highest quality, and I am looking forward to an intriguing contest.

I have been nominated in 2 categories; I have been nominated and made it through the finals of the Top Sales & Marketing Book category: “Success Simplified” and in the Top Sales & Marketing Blog Post category and voting has begun: http://www.topsalesawards.com

Please take a few minutes to vote and let your associates know too!

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!

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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Posted in Books, Sales Management Training | 1 Comment »

The death of the salesperson has been greatly exaggerated

The art of selling: “The death of the salesman has been greatly exaggerated” is the name of a recent article in the Economist magazine: http://www.economist.com/node/21533371 . After reading my blog, then read the article, I would enjoy reading your comments.

When I read the article I had so many emotions; as a salesperson for many years, a sales leader for 15 years and a sales management consultant for the past 14 years, this article went right to the point that many of us write about, speak about and attempt to impact the organizations we consult with on a daily basis.

Quick example: recently I purchased an iPhone from AT&T; first call, I walked into a retail facility: Result: great service, welcomed me to the store, shared friendly conversation, they helped me save money on my existing account, the salesperson even “walked” me to the door on each of my two visits.  They even responded to my emails. They had a well organized retail customer approach. Just yesterday I was in NYC, I walked into an AT&T store to purchase a carrying case for my new iPhone, still the same solid attitude, same sales process and training and follow through-they walked me to the door! They had a sales process & system and they were trained in the same mode that my Knoxville TN salesperson was trained. This approach showed me a strong sales focus and the power of salesperson impact on the transaction. BTW: I drove to the store to purchase the phone-rather than buying it over the web.

Sales is built on trust and confidence, in some minor products this can be accomplished by smart marketing, however, where the special B to B consumer or business person are involved someONE must impact them emotionally enough to cause them to take action. Where organizations are lead by an analytical they look at sales as Cost Centers, not Profit Centers. Professional salespeople do drive emotions if properly hired, trained and managed and should be the Profit Center of any organization.

Growth focused companies look at how to capture market share, grow net new clients and increase client penetration levels, however the point the article misses is why have some companies failed or why have some organizations grown? Those organizations that have focused on their front end-(sales focused)- have penetrated their existing customer base at higher levels and added net new clients at higher rates through a well crafted salesperson or sales process map.

HOWEVER: It is my belief that lynch pin for organizations, like Wurth, the company in the article, is that their sales leadership team must be focused on success. They have built a belief in their mission within the sales team and their products and have created a sales training system that reinforces their sales strategies, sales process and prospect buying emotions.

In my blog I have often written about the need for sales leadership to set the tone for the culture of the organization as well as the level of expectation. In fact recently in my blog I wrote that sales and sales management are the Critical Success Factors to lead us out of the negative economic conditions that exist today.

Bottom line: To make salespeople and their impact relevant, sales leadership must take a proactive approach not only with organization’s executives-to drive the need for salespeople, but in the day to day management of their team’s ability to execute.

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Systems, Sales Management Training, Sales Training | 1 Comment »

Sales Leadership: Making Monday’s Marvelous

In past blogs I have commented on eating pizza, Gourmet Living and many ideas that are designed to improve the operations, culture and productivity of your sales team –as well as you the sales manager.  As I am sitting the airport, on this Monday morning, on my way to New York City to speak at an event it occurred to me that those first two or three hours on Monday morning are critical to set the tone for the week. However, as a sales leader you need to be prepared before that alarm goes off on Monday.

On Sunday afternoon I printed off my boarding passes and that evening I packed a bag, packed up my computer/business folders and placed them in my car along with my overcoat. I had also set aside my clothing for Monday and after a final packing of few items, I was on my way.  A short 30 minute drive and I was easily in the airport and through screening.  That organization made it easy for me to focus on the work for the week and time to prepare without a hectic event that may have started off my week on a negative note. 

So the question is… are you and each of your salespeople prepared for the week?

Several months ago I wrote a blog on “Sunday Night Sales Management”, while I may not suggest you call each of your salespeople every Sunday night as my first sales manager use to do, (see blog for details), you can set the tone several ways. These are not in priority order.

Start on Friday afternoon.  Depending upon the maturity level of your sales team, many organizations hold their “Monday morning sales meeting” on Friday afternoon. Everyone can discuss the past week and review their plans for the coming week.  This will reinforce the need for activity, planning and on Monday everyone is ready to go. You might the time to simply review everyone’s schedule for the coming week with a brief one on one also.

Start over the weekend.  Take minutes and simply scan CRM/Calendaring and review each salesperson’s planned activity and key prospect activity. By sending a few emails to each of your salespeople over the weekend, they will come to realize they will need to be prepared for Monday and following week. Inspect what you expect!

Start on Monday morning.  If you have a Monday morning sales meeting, be prepared. Have your information ready, make the meeting worthwhile, positive and set the tone for your desired culture.  Be organized.  If you would like a copy of my “Sales Managers Sales Meeting Agenda’, contact me. Ken@AcumenMgmt.com

 The rest of the morning be active, upbeat and accessible; don’t lock yourself up in other management meetings or be out of the office.  Get everyone feeling “beat” and help them find the rhythm.  Your goal is to make Tuesday Terrific, Wednesday Wonderful, Thursday Tremendous and Friday Fabulous.

 Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

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

Sales Leadership: Zen and Art of Golf 

One of my more popular blogs last winter was “Zen and Art of Snow Shoveling” based upon the famous book: Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and after yesterday I thought I might leverage that title one more time.

Yesterday was a lovely fall day in the Smoky Mountains.  The sky was bright blue, no clouds, the leaves are changing into brilliant colors, the air was warm and I had a 1pm tee time. Unbeknownst to me another couple had signed up to play with my wife and me.  As a not a great golfer I started becoming concerned when I saw the other man begin to boom his shots on the driving range. On the first hole I was somewhat nervous, but made a double bogey on a long par 5. Moving to the second hole I hit a great drive-the next thing that happened was what began to make the afternoon a wonderful experience.  Ed began to compliment everyone’s shots and form as he continued to be a long and accurate ball stroker. My second shot hit the green, the first time I had ever done that! On the third hole I began to get on a role. By the end of the day, I had a few pars, a birdie and scored my best round of the year!  Even with losing 5 balls I shot a 93! Now while that might not be good for many of our readers-for me it was a positive experience.  What does this have to do with Sales Leadership?

As I reflected on our game, conversations and even after the game 19^th hole discussion I came away with what made the difference.  From the first hole, which I didn’t pick up until the second, Ed was setting the tone for the day-compliments, some laughs but setting a standard on distance and accuracy. He would pick up broken tees, cleaning the tee box and fixing ball marks on every green.  Pretty soon, all four of us were encouraging each other, managing the course and enjoying the experience.  I found myself concentrating more clearly, working my shots better and even when Ed gave me a tip-I appreciated his concern to make my game better

 As a sales leader are you setting the standards of expectations?  Doing the little things (like cleaning a tee box) to make sure your team is executing more professionally? Making sales calls with your team and providing strategy and sales tips to your team to make them better? It was the entire approach-by everyone- to the afternoon that made the difference.  Is your team helping each other, is everyone in the organization encouraging and pressing for excellence?

  In my recent newsletter “Why Sales Managers Succeed!” I covered the topic of Organizational Excellence and the need for sales managers to lead their organizations during challenging times. If you are not receiving the monthly newsletter, you can sign up at www.AcumenManagement.com (new website too!)

Have a great fall, focus on the details, push your team for more, but set the tone with positive strokes and perhaps you will finish 2011 as your best year ever!

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Posted in Leadership Management, sales leadership, Sales Leadership Training, Sales Management Training | 1 Comment »