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Developing People

Coaching An Effective Selling System

An effective selling system is a requisite for success in the world of sales. Follow those who are true leaders in selling, and you will find each has a system that allows them to excel. In order to have a productive sales team, one must consistently teach and coach an Effective Sales System (ESS). If your team does not have an ESS, and you rely on sales people to operate within their own system, you will have a difficult, if not impossible, time affecting individual skills and behaviors. An effective coach must clearly demonstrate what is expected of a sales person. At a minimum, one must be able to communicate how to employ concepts and tactics via stories, analogies and metaphors. Think of the athletic coach--while the coach may not physically demonstrate everything that is expected of an athlete, heshe must be able to communicate what is expected. To effectively coach sales people, you must do the same. You must truly know and understand the selling process and the Effecti...

The Coachs Role On Joint Sales Calls

Normally, when a manager attends a joint sales call, it is at the time of the capabilities presentation or closing presentation. Though attending these meetings can be helpful, they do little to help sales people close more business that late in the process. That is like coaching a baseball team by showing up in the final inning instead of watching the entire game. As sales manager, you may know the outcome based on the data, but you will not know how the game developed. Knowing how the sale develops is essential to effective coaching. This is why observing sales people in action is so important. Here are 4 steps to help you and your sales people have more effective joint calls. A Quality Phone Call- Remember, the quality of the phone call will determine the quality of the appointment. Your sales person must follow the 8-Step Phone Process to make sure that the joint call is taking place with a qualified prospect versus a practice call. 2. Conduct a Pre-Call Session. In...

Creating A Coaching Culture

Coaching is NOT managing. This is often the biggest misconception we have with clients. They assume weekly staff meetings or one on one appointments with employees can be classified as coaching. Staff meetings involve managing, and managing and coaching are two very different ideas. A true coach drives performance for individual employees as well as employee teams, while a manager is often content with sustaining the status quo. Coaching can be further described as the ability of the leader to inspire and motivate employees to improve knowledge, increase skill levels, and alter behavior to be more positive. In order to create a coaching culture it must be understood that coaching is about driving performance and should not be mistaken with traditional management techniques. There is certainly some gray area between management and coaching, and when each type of leadership is needed. Here is a rough example, if an employee is continuously late for work, reprimanding them is proba...

Building A High Performance Sales Team

A great salesperson does not equal a great sales manager. It seems natural for the best performing salespeople to become promoted to positions of sales managers. However, many sales managers struggle in that role because they lack the knowledge, skills, andor abilities to fully support their sales teams as they should. What made my former sales manager such a good one was that he knew how to MANAGE me. Focusing less on sales techniques and more on accountability, goal-setting, and time-management techniques. Those fundamentals are just as relevant today, in my work with Directors and sales managers within SMEs and MNCs. Heres a step-bystep process for building a high performance sales team by implementing the following five strategies: Becoming a sales coach Your sales team is looking to you for guidance, direction, and yes, coaching. There is one thing you absolutely must do to become a great sales coach for your team. Become a visionary. What is your vision for the depar...

Selling And The Dark Side Of Goal Setting

What drives you ahead or holds you back is in your subconscious mind. Make sure goals are high enough and set guidelines for your subconscious mind to accept your goals. Be sure goals are realistic and raise them as you find success. However overstretched goals often compromise efforts. If your subconscious mind figures out you cannot accomplish something, its likely to move on to new ideas. To get motivated is one thing but to stay motivated long-term is a different issue. Lofty goals can take additional time, extra effort, and strong persistence than simple accomplishments. Effective goal setting is mind-mapping success. Goals shouldnt trap you into unfilled commitments and potential failure. The Dark Side Of Goal Setting We set our goals for personal reasons. Companies set goals for their reasons. Setting sales goals has collective reasons. However, when sales goals are arbitrarily set without regard to realistic objectives, salespeople who fall short of goals ma...

Sales Development

Buy Or Build? How Your Customers Decide

Original Author: Matt Sharrers You are an experienced sales leader. It is Monday morning and you are on a forecast call. You know a few big deals determine if you make the number. You ask for the update on the Acme deal. Neither the Sales Manager nor rep speaks. The line goes quiet. You repeat your request. And then you hear: "The customer thinks they can do it themselves". You mute the line. You swear. And then you realize this is reality. A common hurdle you face is overconfident customers. They think they can solve their problem on their own. The customer asks "Can we do it ourselves?" The Buy vs. Build Guide will help your team. The guide will enable your customer to quantify the choices and answer this question. Four benefits you and your team will receive: 1. Increase the probability of the customer...

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Area

The challenge is to reduce the gap between your actual performance (inside the comfort area) vs. your potential performance (outside the comfort area). ____________________________________________ Outside the "Comfort Area" - Potential Performance ____________________________________________ (Gap) Inside the "Comfort Area" - Actual Performance (Gap) ____________________________________________ Outside the "Comfort Area" - Potential Performance ____________________________________________ The Japanese have a term for this called "Kaizen" or the implementation of continuous incremental improvement. Simply put, this is doing what you are currently doing but learning new ways to expand your ability to do it better. Applying this to yourself, you might look at the two of the basic skills for successfully conducting business over the phone. They are the Planning Arena and the Account Qualification Process. These skills have a number of components with room for inc...

Strategies For Leaving An Effective Voice Mail

Personally, I like voice mail. If the message is crafted correctly and left at a high level, it can be moved around a company electronically and generate a return call (See the comments below about what would it be worth...). There is no right or wrong answer. Three advantages for leaving voice mails include compelling messages can be moved around the company electronically. Compelling messages can be re-directed to the person who is responsible for evaluating the products or services you offer. Compelling messages that are referred by a superior to a subordinate usually result in a return call. Here is what I consider the nine key elements of a compelling voice mail message: " Greeting and referral from above " Company specialty " At least one key benefit (faster, better, easier or less expensive) and its result (an increase or decrease, more or less) " The reason or purpose for the call " Request for action " Repeat your phone number twice in a row, SLOWLY " Repe...

Ten Tips For Telephone Qualifying Success

Using the phone successfully to market your products and services to potential new clients often requires you to navigate through a labyrinth of people to find the correct individual(s) who can provide the information you seek. Whether for pre-sales research or to determine who has the ability to acquire your products and services, here is a quick summary of proven techniques for achieving these objectives from Ron LaVine, MBA - CEO of Accelerated Cold Call Training, Inc. a Live Cold Call Sales Training Company. Know the purpose of your call in advance. Before placing a call, have a clear and specific objective or purpose of what you are trying to achieve. Prepare a list of questions that need answers prior to your call. This will help you stay on track and meet your objective. Purchasing, Investor Relations or the CEOs office are all good places to begin when you dont have a contact within a company. Calling into multiple departments in a company or organization can not only ...

Turning Data To Dollars From The Information Operator

When calling 1-(Area Code) - 555-1212 for long distance or 411 for local information assistance, before you are transferred into the "heres your number" recording, ask the operator to stop and please help you. Since you are entitled to two phone numbers and at least one address, you can best maximize the value of this simple call by politely asking for as much free information as possible. You must be prepared to do this quickly. As soon as I hear a live voice, I say: "Hold it please! I need your help. First, I need the main number for the headquarters of ABC Company and Ill also need their address. How many listings, phone numbers or departments do you show listed? Do you show any other listings in the surrounding areas? Are they stores or factories?" After getting the two (or more if you are nice and pleasant), area codes (remember they change a lot) and phone numbers, be sure to ask for the street address including the zip code. Getting a correct address and phone number w...

Entrepreneurs

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Startup Weekend and Startup America Partner to Jumpstart Global Entrepreneurship

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U.S. Entrepreneurship Climbs to Highest Level in More Than a Decade (Infographic)

More than one in 10 Americans were developing their own business in 2012, according to the U.S. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor released today. Here's a look at the demographics of the community. ...