This is the seventh in a 10-part series, How to Be a Better Sales Manager. It’s my belief that the sales manager is underserved. There’s plenty of training and coaching available for sales people, but managers, the unheralded heroes of sales success, are all too often left to their own devices. These posts are designed […]

Wouldn’t it be lovely if every business conversation started with,
Hello, my name is ________. How can I help you?
Simple enough, but how often do we hear it when we call in to customer service or invite a sales person into our office?
The first thing a customer hears will set the tone for the conversation and […]

Robyn McMaster of Brain Based Biz does not like procrastination, as she made clear on a comment on a recent post of mine. The post was about why sales managers should take swift action, and Robyn’s post got me thinking about why people put off unpleasant work.
Why indeed? Well, here are a few theories — […]

This is the sixth in a 10-part series, How to Be a Better Sales Manager. It’s my belief that the sales manager is underserved. There’s plenty of training and coaching available for sales people, but managers, the unheralded heroes of sales success, are all too often left to their own devices. These posts are designed […]

Valentine’s Day is come and gone, but customers expect every day to be Valentine’s Day, don’t they? Are you giving your customers the love? If not, they may be looking elsewhere — especially these days, when companies are under lots and lots of pressure to buy cheaper and cut costs at all cost.
How do you […]

Suppose you have two sales people, Jack and Jill. Jack is incredibly polished and professional. He makes fabulous presentations, works like dog, follows up diligently, and is virtually self-managing. Jill, on the other hand, is rough around the edges. She’s unprepared, disorganized, and high maintenance.
Jack is consistently 85-90% of quota.
Jill is consistently 110-125% of quota.
Which […]

Few people work effectively when they are being suffocated. If you ever had a boss who looked over your shoulder 24/7/365, you probably felt as though you were being buried alive.
Nonetheless, there’s a tendency in sales management to bury sales reps alive with call reports, forecasting reports, lost business reports, new business reports, business assessment […]