Managing salespeople is never easy. The top performers who also do things in the approved fashion and the chronic under performers are relatively straightforward to sort out. It’s the awkward squad who are trickier. Below we offer a snapshot of four of the most common types. The Prima Donna. Very successful, comfortable in their position,… Read More »
Self-aware organisations recognise that anticipating the peak of their curve is a critical business issue, one which they need to have strategies in place to deal with before the apex is reached. Here’s some clues for you: The amount of cash the business is throwing off reaches unfeasibly high levels. There are no obvious things… Read More »
Any high value sales team will know all about procurement departments. They intercede themselves between the line management decision makers and the selling organisation. Their mandate is very clear – to cut the cost of their organisations’ purchasing expenditure. To do this they have to create a market for the product or service they have… Read More »
Whatever your product, there will come a time when your prospect raises an objection – a reason for not accepting what you offer. Customers use objections to play games with salespeople. They also use them as a way of expressing in a deal: “I don’t think we can use this…” can often mean “Tell me… Read More »
When a salesperson (or anybody for that matter), isn’t performing it’s useful to think about causes not symptoms. There are three root causes as to why somebody isn’t performing: Category 1 – Knowledge Skills Deficit The person isn’t effective because they don’t have the skills or knowledge perform to the required level. The most common… Read More »
One of the most dynamic areas of the sales process is Key Account Management (we’re using the term generically, there are differing variations like Global Account Management, Enterprise Wide Selling etc), and synonyms like Major Account Management etc. However, whatever the term or nuance, one change driver connects all these different selling approaches; that focusing… Read More »
The concept of value is an endemic factor of business life. Every organisation is selling ‘value’; every purchaser (whether another business or consumer) is looking to buy ‘value’. So what exactly is value? When helping clients with the development of their customer values propositions (CVPs) we a simple but powerful equation: Benefits – Costs = Value… Read More »
Business Law Number One: every commercial business has to grow its top line revenues over time unless it has found the paradise of declining costs year on year. This is the only way to maintain a profit margin. Therefore, it should follow that every business has a very clear idea how to grow its top… Read More »
If the talent of your sales organisation follows the usual distribution curve you will have a few star performers, a few poor performers and the majority there or there about occupying the middle ground. What if you could shift the curve towards the top performers? Think what a difference it would make if a sizable… Read More »
Over the last thirty years colleagues have been frustrated at organisations not supporting their employees in learning, managers who feel training their people is a waste of money and individuals who believe that attending training or having coaching is a waste of their time. It’s not surprising to hear that people complain about other people… Read More »
The tyranny that many sales directors face is one they struggle to articulate until you point it out, and then they have a lightbulb moment and say “absolutely!”. They go further and say if I could solve this problem I would transform the potential of this team. What is this debilitating disease that can sap… Read More »
Want to hear about scary sales people? Step this way… The sales guy who was spotted asleep at the wheel of his car outside a major customer (missing his appointment) with a copy of Covey’s 7 Habits shielding his face from the sun. The sales guy who couldn’t be bothered to attend the Power of… Read More »
Knowing more than your customers, before your customers, in a joined up way is now a business given. Below are the primary data sets any self respecting sales organisation should have a handle on: Customer Data The holy grail. A 360° view of what they are bought, buying, and thinking of buying by product/service line,… Read More »
Lean as a management tool is based on a simple to say, more difficult to do set of four principles; Create nothing but value adding processes (eliminate waste) Centre design around the people who add the value Flow value creation around demand (delay resource commitment) Optimise across organisational boundaries, structures, etc Lean is about looking… Read More »
Peer Group Pressure is the glue that binds high performing team together, creating a self sustaining level achievement within a supportive framework. The Benefits Management can spend less time checking and policing, more time developing building and coaching people A greater sense of belonging is achieved, the inclusiveness informing coherent and aligned behaviours The team… Read More »