Should Your EOS Sales Leader be a Fractional Manager?
If you’re a small business practicing the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) and searching for an EOS Sales Leader, you have a few choices. As the owner, you can take the…
What is Fractional Sales Management?
In 2006 I discovered the practice of Fractional Sales Management before it became an emerging industry. I didn't create the term, but we've been doing the work. Fractional Sales Management…
6 Reasons Accountability is Missing in a Sales Team
Most salespeople are fine with being accountable. However, a sales manager might see it differently. It seems the team does not hold themselves accountable or meet expectations. There are reasons…
8 Reasons Sales Teams Resist CRM Implementation
To have the sales accountability most companies strive for requires a reporting system that measures and monitors the KPIs and process your team is expected to perform. For instance, when…
Accountable Sales Environments Require Clear Expectations
When accountability is lacking in a sales team, many leaders will resort to micromanagement and mistrust. However, this is the opposite of what's needed to develop an accountable sales environment.…
Sales Initiative Implementation Traps
I want to discuss two sales initiative implementation traps you can get into when you're implementing a new sales initiative. Maybe you're implementing our Part-time Sales Management system, or maybe…
Use Sales-Team Guidelines to Reduce Conflict & Uncertainty
Let's talk about creating sales-team guidelines so that you can reduce uncertainty, frustration and sales-team conflict. When rules have been agreed on and documented , you will reduce sales-team conflict…
The Part-Time Sales Management Assessment
The Part-Time Sales Management Assessment is designed for those who carry many responsibilities including your sales management role. It's the perfect compliment for those implementing the Part-Time Sales Management (PTSM)…
Sales Meetings Can Rock With The Right Rhythm Video
Sales Meetings can rock with the right rhythm and when you know the beat, melody, and lyrics to a song, it's fun and enjoyable to participate and sing along. The…
7 Tips to Improve Your Listening Skills Video
If we want to help and support our sales teams to be more accountable and self manage we need to up our coaching game. We don't need to improve our…
The Eternal Motivator Video
Motivating others comes easy for some and can be more challenging for others. But there are moments we can provide an Eternal Motivator, but only if we act on......watch the…
Sales Managers Bring CALM Video
We judge ourselves by our intentions and often judge others by their actions. You might believe (your intention) you are bringing CALM to your sales management, but could your actions…
Use a Sales Dashboard to Track Sales Activity Video
In today's Sales Leadership Quick Tip video, we're going to be talking about sales dashboards. A sales dashboard is a mirror that you can put in front of your sales…
5 Sins of Sales Leadership Video
Our best intentions don't always lead to our best leadership practices but they can blind us from what's not working. Here are 5 sales leadership sins you want to avoid. 1.…
The Power in Asking One More Question Video
As leaders, it's easy to share advice, solve problems or give directions. But if you want to spend less time fixing and more time watching your people become independent, find…
4 Tips for Effective Sales Activity Video
Working hard is a good thing..IF..it's combined with working smart. You can help your sales team get the most out of their sales activity by implementing the following four tips…
The Most Important Elements to Improve Sales Forecasting
We all want to increase sales. The benefit of sales forecasting is that it helps management determine and make new decisions based on the forecast that the sales team is…
How to Have Your Sales Team Use CRM Video
Salespeople will input CRM data consistently if there's value for them as well as management. Here's how to get there. https://youtu.be/gmezCgZ1mrE Before I get started on that, I want to…
5 Coaching Tips to Strengthen Your Sales Team Video
In this Sales Leadership Quick Tip Video I share with you the 5 coaching tips I use to coach and strengthen a sales team. For me, coaching is about developing…
Define the Role for the Right Fit Video
Hiring salespeople that are a good fit for your company's role will free you up from having to constantly motivate them. I had an owner of a company ask me, “How…
No More Guessing
Guessing about others' attitudes, motivations, or mindset is a waste of time. Listen how to remove guessing, false confidence, or doubts about your sales team. It's the same thing you…
7 Steps for Creating an Orientation Plan Video
Onboarding Success Part 2 of 2 What should you include in your Sales Onboarding Orientation plan to get off to a fast start? There is a group of people at your…
6 Keys to Onboarding Success, Part 1 Video
When you hire a new salesperson you only have one chance to get off to a fast start. Give it your best shot with a complete Onboarding/Orientation Plan. https://youtu.be/X8nB__8iYcg 1…
Risk Reward Principle For Designing a Sales Compensation Plan Video
Should I pay salary or commission? I have that questions asked of me often. It will take a little bit of homework for me to answer it for you, but…
5 Qualities I Look for When Hiring A Sales Person Video
There are 5 qualities I look for when hiring a sales person. Do you have a list of qualities you look for when you enter an interview? If not, it’s…
7 Keys to Leading a High Performing Sales Team Video
The Benefits of Team Goals and Bonuses Video
In this Sales Leadership Quick Tip video, I want to share the benefits of team goals and bonuses and why they will work for your sales team. In search of…
9 Must-Haves to Attract and Keep Sales Talent Video
How to Do a Book Study With Your Sales Team Video
When you do a book study with your sales team you get a low cost, high return way to bring education and training to your team. Let me share some…
How to Approach Poor Performance Video
In this Sales Leadership Quick Tip Video I explain how to approach poor performance in your sales team and how to build trust while delivering bad news. Have a Trusting…
Building Your Sales Culture Video
Most employees place personal value on the culture of their work environment and so building your sales culture can really pay off. There were times in my career that I…
How to Facilitate Learning in Sales Meetings Video
In this Sales Leadership Quick Tip Video I share a personal experience where I learned that pushing content material and over prepping for sales meetings is not always the best…
Balanced Sales Meeting Conversations Video
As the sales manager, finding balance in your sales meeting conversations will increase your teams' meeting engagement. Usually there are dominators who love to talk and can go on and…
Stay In Your Lane With These THREE Sales Leader’s Responsibilities
When a sales team is failing or results are inconsistent it’s easy for a sales leader’s responsibilities to be neglected and for the leader to fall into a trap of becoming responsible for the sales…
Develop A Sales Team with Three Questions
Holding a weekly sales meeting to develop a sales team is very important but keeping that meeting engaging and effective can become challenging over time. The meetings can become repetitive…
Engage Your Sales Team By Upping Your Facilitation Game
The weekly sales meeting is the hub of the Part-Time Sales Management System. Most salespeople love to talk, so when you engage your sales team by facilitating a discussion among…
Changing Disliked Sales Behaviors
Increasing sales is what most of our clients want when they call us, but what goes unsaid is they hope we can change disliked sales behaviors that are difficult to…
Building a Loyal Sales Team
A loyal sales team is required if you want to realize sustained success with the least amount of effort. To build a loyal sales team you might need to…
How to Pull Off a Sales Boost
Every now and then a boost in sales is called for. At times, you’re “feeling it”, and setting a new personal record might be up for grabs. Maybe you’re behind…
Selling Strengths Can Work Against You
While recently leading a webinar I mentioned how creativity, which I consider one of many selling strengths, can work against me. Being creative helps me solve client problems and present ideas…
Is Your Sales Compensation Plan Working For You or Against You?
Remember when your parents would say, “You’ll understand the value of this when you grow up?” They were trying to convince us to do what they were saying in hopes…
Sales Expectations: What Do You Expect of Your Sales Team?
How is your sales team doing at meeting your sales expectations? Are they hitting their goals, following the sales process, completing their admin tasks and meeting your activity expectations? …..Sorry,…
Sales Team Meetings That Work
Sales team meetings can be dynamic, productive, engaging, and fun if you organize and lead them to this end. More often than not, they aren't. A good indicator is what…
Is Your Company Culture Attractive to Top Sales People?
Are you ready for sales growth through top performing sales talent? If so, it’s a good idea to examine your company culture. If you’re looking for someone who will take…
High Return – Low Cost Sales Training
When I’m making a purchase I want the most out of the money I spend. Sometimes I’ll buy the most expensive choice and other times the least. But in either…
Who’s A Better Salesperson, You or Your Prospect?
Just for fun, imagine one of your prospects from a recent selling opportunity who has no sales experience is asked to join your sales team and sell in your place.…
Meaningful Selling Conversations Don’t Happen by Accident
Do potential client/customers trust you? Of course they do, right? How do you really know? Most of us base this answer on a gut feeling more than on factual information…
Retrofit Your Sales Communication Tools
We sell in a time that has an abundance of sales communication tools at are our disposal. The more tech forward tools include email, smartphones, text, and social media for…
Make The Value Connection
The value that matters most in a sales conversation is the one the customer can connect with. Are your prospective customers making a value connection with your offering, or is…
Selling Meetings – Prepare Twice and Meet Once
Dear Salesperson, I’ve seen the hard work you put in all day. I see you making calls, doing research, sending emails and making more calls. You put in this effort…
Desirable Sales Traits
It’s easy for me to write about sales people because I’m one myself. Being a salesperson provides me an insider’s perspective on who we are and what makes us tick.…
Increasing Sales Can Begin With a Yellow Sticky
I remember when Angie joined our team. She was just out of college and eager to do her job well. It was her first sales job and she plunged right…
The Selling Skills Blueprint To Strengthen Your Sales Team
If you're a salesperson, you’re usually measured on sales revenue or account additions. When you're ahead of the game it comes with a pat on the back and maybe a…
A Narrow Market Niche Can Lead to Preferred Sales and Profit
Most people will support the notion of having a narrow market niche as long as there is enough lead flow. Which sales person wouldn’t want to solely work with their…
Defining a Clear and Useful Sales Process
This article is an excerpt from our book, Part-Time Sales Management, For Small Business Sales Teams. Defining your sales process is one of four elements we suggest establishing to communicate…
You’re Paying Your Sales People HOW MUCH?
The HOW MUCH in this blog title could be describing overpayment or underpayment of your sales team. Where does your pay plan fall? Are you paying your sales people too…
Purpose and Profit: A Balanced Sales Approach
Have you ever heard the phrase, “he has dollar signs in his eyes”? It means the buyer perceives the salesperson’s more interested in their commission to be won or lost…
Quit Using Closing Techniques
My wife Carolyn, and I were discussing the topic of closing a sale. I said to her, “A salesperson doesn’t have to close sales”, and she quickly replied, “Sometimes I…
Whose Responsible for Sales Motivation?
I received a question on motivation today. "What’s the best way to motivate a sales team without high pressure?" Before going into the details and do’s and don’ts take a…
How Do You Change Sales Underachievement to Overachievement?
Revenue’s down, sales goals aren’t being met, it's classic sales underachievement and there’s one group to blame, right? Or is there? Sales people obviously need to carry the ultimate responsibility…
One Page Sales Proposal
I'd like to introduce you to an alternative approach to presenting and reviewing proposals with your prospective buyers. Picture the key elements of your proposal laid out on one page,…
Sales Plan – Work Smarter Not Just Harder
To plan or not to plan? Time to answer that question again. As the New Year approaches Sales Manager Now has been working on client sales and business plans for…
How Committed Are You to Your Sales Goal?
When unforeseen obstacles and challenges present themselves during a year, the commitment you have to your sales goal will be tested. Here's a story of a team that passed the…
Are You Being Referred to Decision Makers?
How successful are you at having your contacts make effective introductions to the right decision makers (being referred)? If you're not having as much success as you'd like, you're not…
Does Referral Selling Work?
On LinkedIn, a business owner asked, “Is business growth through referrals possible?” He further explained, “In B2B, is it possible to actively, and positively encourage client referrals?” He continued, “I’m…
Quit Sales Prospecting and Go Meet Someone
This blog is not about a new term for sales prospecting, it is more about what your mindset is when needing more prospective clients. When your mindset is to “find”…
Increasing B2B Sales Does Not Happen by Accident
Most of us have heard the definition of Insanity, “Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.” In most sales departments as well as in the company…
Five Keys To Improve Your Sales Closing Ratio
To improve your sales closing ratio you need to focus on working smarter and harder. Once you have proven to yourself you can produce consistently at an acceptable level most…
Sales Tip: Leave an Effective Voicemail Message
Should you leave a voicemail message or should you hang up when cold calling? I have seen both work, but with caller ID just hanging up becomes a little more…
Sales Manager Evaluation
I have received a number of searches seeking sales manager evaluation criteria. Here is a list to consider in your hiring and evaluation process. In addition we have a Sales…
Sales Tip: Disconnect and Refocus
Have you walked into a selling situation where the prospects seem completely sold on another vendor or approach and shows little interest in hearing about your solution? Sometimes it might…
Modern B2B Sales and Dangerous Leadership Gaps
Someone on Linkedin asked the question, "What is missing in the sales profession today?". The fact is I don't see much of a difference in today's B2B sales people as…
Build Direct Sales Motivation by Managing Persistent Sales Follow-up
Richard Saling on Linked in asked this great question. "When does persistence cross the line to diminishing returns. We all hear about the importance of persistence. That old saying "Persistence…
Reduce Your Selling Cycle and Maintain Sales Motivation
We are selling in a different time (2009). The economy is lagging or flat out bad in some industries. In general I have heard these trends. Decisions are being delayed,…
Outbound Expertise : Unify Your Sales Voicemail & Email
I sat in a sales meeting a couple of weeks ago and heard a great idea practiced by a rainmaker. His approach to prospecting generates interest and increases his email…
12 Tips on Selling in a Slow Economy
My clients and I have a motto, “Don’t Be Denied.” What a great time for the cream to rise to the top. When weaker salespeople worry about a slow economy…
Persistent Follow-up Leads to Sales
I am a firm believer that every contact I make is a potential sale waiting to happen. When a prospect says, not now, no or maybe it is only a…
Three Closing Sales Questions
In most buying or closing sales conversations price becomes a focus or at least it should. We must know what the buyers acceptance level is with our price. If acceptance…
Sales Tip: Referrals – Alter What You Ask For
Yesterday I was talking with Mike, a sharp CCTV rep about referrals. He has been working on increasing his referrals, mainly by asking for them, and it has paid off. …
Sales Management Tip: Answer Three Questions
Lou Holtz, retired coach and motivational speaker says employees or team members want to know three things about their manager or coach; 1) Can I trust you?, 2) Are you…
Simple Sales Process : “Making it Look Easy”
Developing Sales Professionals (SP) is what I love to do. Watching a seasoned professional in action is very exciting to me. Last week I had the privilege of doing just…
Sales Process Management : Rigidity vs Flexibility
To achieve peak performance with your sales team you need to be consistent with team systems and processes and unique regarding individual relationships. All sales people are not the same but most…
Sales Tip: Sales Compensation Guidelines
Cream rises to the top, oil and water separate and driven sales people will perform toward their compensation drivers. Early in my sales career a start-up wanted a fast increase…
Sales Team Motivation Checklist : Identify Motivational Drains
Finding a sales reps “motivation drain” is a skill every sales manager should sharpen. It is needed when specific sales activity slows or stops. I was working with a client…
Sales Tip: Use Analogies to Make Your Point
A simple and powerful tool to help prospects understand your message is an analogy. Yesterday a client sales rep was in a competitive situation, searching for a new way to…
Sales Tip: Sales Discovery and Client Business Objectives
In the last blog I stated that most sales people don’t inquire enough to understand core business objectives because they are uncomfortable asking business questions or don’t know how. We…
Sales Discovery Questions: Partner vs Sales Approach
Understanding your prospects business objectives will lead to a partnership relationship. This starts with a service oriented mindset that leads to asking valuable Sales Discovery Questions. Most, if not all…
Land Large Deals Through Consultative Selling
A lesson I learned about fly fishing relates to the sales process of landing a big deal. I was taught my chances of catching a big fish were increased not…
Staying in Control of The Sales Cycle
You’re out of control of the sales cycle when the next step is decided by the customer or prospect. When I debrief with a new salesperson I often hear them…
Scheduling Sales Appointments is Not Selling Time
You have probably heard the phrase too much information can be dangerous. It usually happens when a new rep is in training and his knowledge of sales and product is growing…