Most people in sales management were promoted because they were high performing salespeople. They are highly skilled, extremely confident, and motivated to succeed. After starting their new role, sales managers began doing what they assumed was the right way to drive their team’s [...]

Certain things are fairly predictable in the sales world. One is that sales leaders are expected to raise their performance every year. Another is that they’ll likely resort to the same familiar methods they’ve used in the past to try to achieve that improvement. These tried–but not [...]

Sales managers are always on the lookout for a better, faster, or smarter way to drive sales. They consistently turn to familiar solutions—sales training, technology tools, recognition and incentive programs, or sales processes. What they fail to see, however, is how they unconsciously sabotage [...]

Motivating salespeople has always been one of sales management’s primary roles and one most managers felt competent to tackle until the Millennials hit the scene. Many leaders are finding traditional sales management tactics don’t engage this younger generation or inspire the desired effort or [...]

Have you ever had a best practice you know is great but you just can’t get others to give it a chance? Or have you returned from a conference or meeting with valuable new ideas only to have them shut down before they are fully understood? Are you frustrated with your efforts to lead change […]

Can managers of sales managers who possess strong coaching and leadership skills really be blind to their key opportunities to have impact? Yes! While most are doing what they believe makes a difference, their efforts and good intentions aren’t necessarily improving their sales managers’ [...]

Every year organizations invest in sales training, believing it is the answer to their sales performance challenges. They buy or create programs that teach sales skills and sales process, product knowledge, and/or customer and business acumen. Yet most sales executives are frustrated with the [...]

It’s that predictable time of the year: the time to stop pondering all the possible ways to grow sales for the next year and make a decision. You know what’s expected: MORE new clients and sales from existing clients, HIGHER retention and customer satisfaction/loyalty rates, BETTER margins. The [...]

Sales leaders know getting a foot in the door with target prospects is essential but increasingly difficult. With cold calling becoming less and less productive, referrals and introductions are the most efficient, effective way to gain access. And although sales people may acknowledge the value [...]

It’s a textbook reaction: the moment a merger or acquisition is announced, panic runs up and down the sales organization. Resources are immediately dedicated to integrating products, operations, IT. But what about all the things that impact the morale, focus and productivity of the sales [...]