Are your sales meetings productive or a time waster? I’ve been consulting at many sales meetings where sales professionals report the status of their prospects. What I hear too many times is, “This deal is going to close. Soon.” Instead of a discussion of what “soon” means and why, the sales manager accepts this report as an indication of … [Read more...]
Don’t Make Yourself Crazy When You Sell
Do your decisions make you crazy when you sell? You may have noticed that sales can be a stressful occupation. You don’t know what mood a customer might be in before you present. You might have to deal with an unfair situation. It’s unfair when the brother-in-law of the buyer sells what you sell. Yet salespeople often make their own stressful situations. Here’s what you … [Read more...]
Do you work for a great sales manager?
Is your manager a great sales manager? Business scorecards are useful to improve performance. These scorecards set the criteria that are important to determine success in business. You may intuitively know that you work for a great sales manager. Here’s what you can evaluate if you want to be sure that you do. You’re paid … [Read more...]
Selling Is Really Common Sense
“Well, that’s common sense.” Have you heard someone tell you that about something that’s so obvious to them? I hear it a lot. Selling is really common sense. Unfortunately, I notice that common sense is not all that common. That’s why some salespeople aren’t making their sales numbers. They need more common sense. You can only sell when a customer needs to buy. My definition … [Read more...]
Sell All Alone? No way. Management Should Help You Sell
You may make sales calls all by yourself. That may be the reason why you think you work all alone. You really don’t. Your management has a role to play in your selling. They also have a responsibility to help you sell. How should you sell? Some managers think that when they hire a salesman he should know how to sell. It’s almost like thinking someone will figure out how to … [Read more...]
Really Good Idea for Time Crunched Salespeople
Do you ever wonder how some people look well-rested and relaxed? They seem to have more time for their work. It's not that they have other people do their work for them either. It's that they avoid the distractions and needless work that keeps them from being productive. I just read a book review of Deep Work by Cal Newport. Newport is a computer science professor at … [Read more...]
Student Protesters Would Make Lousy Salespeople
You might have noticed that college today isn’t what it used to be. It used to be that students went off to university to learn about themselves and others. They experienced new things. They might have been exposed to another point of view and changed their minds. That no longer seems to be the case. Here’s why these student protesters would make terrible salespeople. They’re … [Read more...]
Women Experience Subtle Discrimination at Work
Just imagine you were working in an organization and you were being marginalized. Only you didn’t know it. Women are often unaware of the subtle discrimination at work. I was meeting with a prospect. He told me that as a manager his subordinates would often suggest that he golf with them. Not wanting to show any favoritism, he would suggest that the group golf together. In … [Read more...]
What makes a great salesperson? A great sales manager.
Behind many great sales professionals are great sales managers. A sales manager is someone who can make selling much easier---or a whole lot harder. Management defines the process. Too often management expects salespeople to do the impossible. They hire salespeople and say, "Go sell." You wouldn’t expect someone on the assembly line to figure out how to assemble a product. Why … [Read more...]
Questions a Sales Manager Should Ask When the Sale Does Not Close
There’s something wrong with a sales process when a sales manager sees a prospect sitting on a prospect list month after month and there’s never a sale. The reason is the manager is asking the wrong questions and the salesperson is reporting history, not creating the future. Here are the questions that sales managers should be asking. Why should the customer buy? The first … [Read more...]