C-Level, Relationship Selling Blog

C-Level Sales Management - Who’s Ready for More Sales

The other day, a board member was lamenting on the poor performance of his company. So I said, "You should hire me to help your company get more sales." To which he replied, "Not right now, Sam. The timing's not right." So I said, "Timing?? Let me ask you, if you could get more sales, would that help your company's performance?" He of course said, "Yes."

 

So I ask you, and every other business person -- Is now the right time to seek help? “Yes it is.”  Why, because you need it. If you didn’t and you knew what to do, you would have done it, and more sales wouldn't be an issue

Reasons Management Doesn't Seek Help

 

I scratch my head daily and wonder why in this time of sales shortfalls most don't invest and seek selling help. In fact, it's just the opposite. All consultants are terminated. Marketing budgets are slashed. Prices are cut, and sales people and managers are laid off.

 

Here are some reason’s why and what to do about it at C-Level Sales Management - Who’s Ready for More Sales

Sales Management for C- Level Selling - 6 Steps to Make Your Sales People Better

Sales goals are made or missed because of management. How would you rate the skill level of each of your sales people?  In other words are your sales people as good as you think they should be?  If not, here's the process I used to coach sales managers.

 

Read Sales Management for C- Level Selling - 6 Steps to Make Your Sales People Better and take advantage of my free book offer.

C-Level Sales Management -- Helping Salespeople Handle Gatekeepers

Sales managers can shorten sales cycles substantially because sales people charge ahead until they are stopped by gatekeepers.  That’s when sales starts to drag.  This C-level sales management article provides proven coaching to prepare sales people to dodge the blocks that stall closing sales.

Read on ...  C-Level Sales Management -- Helping Salespeople Handle Gatekeepers

Preparations for C-Level Presentations Make Perfect

Your final test to win contracts is your presentation.  How professional you look based on what needs to be heard will determine your success or failure.  Remember these voters want what they want - not what you think they should want.  They also want no risk and maximum gain.  Therefore you’ve got to be believable and on target.  Confidence exudes believability and the best way to become confident is to rehearse.

 

So here is the best way to put your presentation together.

 

Read the full story at Preparations for C-Level Presentations Make Perfect

Sales Manager Training, Proposals: Strategies for Writing Proposals

The proposal document is an expensive, time-consuming, yet necessary document.  Therefore it better hit the right buttons with the client so it takes you to the shortlist or gets you invited to do a presentation.   So some thought should go into what you’re going to say, how you’re going to say it, and the format of your written document.  Here’s what to consider.

 

The Line Items

 

Every line item in the spec must consider three factors. (1) You must show you understand why that line item is in there and what it means to project success.  (2) You must show you can handle/deliver it. (3) You must know who this line item is important to or who is worried about it. 

 

Competitors

 

Everything above is about the voters and getting their desires met.  Many sales people and companies are focused on what the competition will say in their proposals. This is a major mistake, yet competition cannot be ignored. Winning a proposal is not like a sporting event where you have to beat the competition.  It is an election where you have to win the votes of the powerful. 

 

Numbers, Names and Details.

 

Numbers are believable. They are also easy to visualize and understand.  “13” is more powerful than “many times”.  21 years of experience is more understandable than very experienced. Details of how you accomplished a line item for another project are important to the people concerned about that spec item.  Names validate you.  They provide concurrence and favorable associations. 

 

Red Flags and Strengths,

 

For each line item or section of the specification, you must consider your red flags (areas of weaknesses) and your strengths. Now just because your competitor is “better” than you in certain areas doesn’t mean it’s a weakness for you.  That certain area has to be important to one of the powerful voters for it to be a red flag.  Many people get hung-up on some capability of the competition that is meaningless to the voters.  Remember it’s all about the voters.  The same applies to your strengths.  They have got to be of significance to a voter.  Being global is not a strength to someone looking for local service.

 

The No Contact Clause

 

Since most people are off limits after the spec has been issued, the best after-the-fact way to learn about an individual voter’s desires is to use your network of people that know the voters. If you open your mind and do some asking, you’ll realize you know people that know these voters and they will help you if you ask.  However, you’ve got make the mental effort and then make the calls.  Most people dislike asking for help and come up with every reason not to.  You’ve got to get over it.  People will help if asked.

With this level of knowledge you’ll now be able to put pen to paper.  But wait.  How your words get’s interpreted will make or break your proposal.  So next section we’ll discuss the written words that build the feeling of trust and confidence in the belly of each reader.

 

For the full article Sales Manager Training,  Strategies for Writing Proposals click this link.

Proposals And Presentations: Choosing the Right RFP’s and Avoiding the Wrong RFP’s

In this part we will focus on selecting the types of clients and the types of projects where you have the best chances of winning.  Keep in mind all RFP’s, clients and projects are not good for you.

 

Knowing what RFP’s you can win before you bid is critical to your success ratio.  Keep in mind winning a bad contract is not good for you or your company.  Certain clients are amenable to your way of doing business and these will be the easiest for you to capture and do well with. Sounds obvious, but you must be conscious of the characteristics of those clients so that you can gage new clients /RFP’s against this criteria.  There are also certain types of projects where you excel and the characteristics of these also need to be very clear. These characteristics are your ideal client and your ideal opportunity.

 

These characteristics are based on past performances. Not desires. In other words, who are the customers that you’ve had good experiences with and what is it about them that made the experience good.  For example, they were value shoppers, rather than price shoppers. They respected your input, rather than knew it all. They were easy to work with.  You had access to their key decision-makers, etc.

 

Conversely, there were customers who were a nightmare to work with.  What made them difficult to work with?  Your task is to identify these characteristics so you can avoid new ones with those same traits and select those with the opposite traits. The same applies for projects.  What were the characteristics of RFP’s you lost and what where the circumstances of projects you won, but ended badly?

 

Read on about the easiest way to do this in the full article Choosing the Right RFP’s and Avoiding the Wrong RFP’s

C-Level Selling: 40 Winning Strategies for Proposals and Presentations - Strategy 10, Show It To Win

10. What You Must Show You Have to Win

The 3 key factors you must show to win a proposal are that you (1) understand the project and all auxiliary elements, (2) you have expertise and knowledge as it relates to this type of work, and (3) you can give all the voters and their bosses their personal results, and social expectations. 

The real trick is to know all that will be involved from each decision makers perspective.  The only way to learn it is to get to those people and ask about project expectations, personal results and social fears.  Once you do that, you’ll be able to show them you have the expertise and knowledge and you can deliver exactly what each wants.

Always keep asking yourself, “What will it take to win the buyers and bosses individual vote?”  If you don’t know, figure out how you can find out.  Keep in mind it is not just one thing.  It is a bunch of deliverables that are different for each person.  Use a chart to track voters and their desires and check them off as you feel you’ve satisfied each.

Bonus Tip:   To get to the leaders you’ll have to deal with the obstacles so here is a FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”.  Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link http://www.sammanfer.com/GatekeeperEbook.htm . Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.

C-Level Selling: 40 Winning Strategies for Proposals and Presentations - Strategy 9, Creating Your Ideal Profiles

9. Creating Your Ideal Profiles

Analytical criteria are mandatory to gage pursuits before you commit to chase them.  There are certain customers that work well for you and gravitate to your type of company and services.  These are the ones and similar ones you want to pursue.  There are those that don’t and these you want to avoid.

There are also certain types of projects, situations, contracts that you perform better at than others.  These are also the ones you want to pursue with prospects mentioned above.  So, you must develop operational characteristics, base on past successes and failures, in order to accurately gage your chances of success.

The way you determine these operational characteristics is to look at a few successful projects you’ve worked.  Take them one by one and ask, “What made that bid and project successful?” List the elements.  Maybe you had access to senior managers and decision makers.  Maybe they were open-minded and valued your inputs and suggestions.  Maybe you have an expertise that makes this type of work profitable.  Do it for the few you selected and compile the results.

Then do the same for deals you lost or deals you got but turned out badly for you.  Compile the characteristics and take the opposites.  For example, they just wanted low price and kept wanting more for free.  Well, the opposite would be they were valued oriented and were willing to pay for extras.  Do it for the few you selected and add these converted negative characteristics to the positives above and you’ll see a trend.  Pick the 5 most frequent characteristics for the clients and the 5 most frequent for the opportunities.  These will be your 1st attemp gages.

When the next project comes along, rank it against each gage on a scale of +5 for a perfect fit to -5 for a terrible fit.  Add up for client and opportunity and plot on an X-axis, Client; Y-axis Opportunity scale (-25 to +25).  Those in both positive quadrants are great pursuits and ones you’ll have a good chance of winning.  Those with a positive and negative are questionable.  Those in both negatives you need to avoid.

Now gage and plot all the proposals you’ve bid over the past year, 6 months, etc. on a chart as described and you’ll be amazed at how accurate this is.  Then after every bid - win or lose- ask the same question and see what characteristics were in play.  There may be new ones.  This will help you refine your criteria going forward.

Another benefit to this analysis is that each criteria will indicate a strength (+3, +4, +5) you have or a red flag (any negative) you have.  This information will help you plan your strategies and actions for this pursuit.  It’s great information all around.  Do this and your forecasts will improve greatly.  You’ll be able to select the ones you can win and avoid the losers. 

For more on this process see Part II of My Winning Strategies for Proposals and Presentations .

C-Level Selling: 40 Winning Strategies for Proposals and Presentations - Strategy 8, Take Drastic Actions

8. Take Drastic Measures Before Necessary

You hear you’re not favored and will probably lose the project contract.  What would you do? 

It amazes me that during the bidding process everyone claims they can’t talk to certain people and the rules/specs are what they are.  However, when they hear they might lose, all sorts of creative ideas abound.  So before the bid hits the street, and or during your preparation of the proposal, assume you’re going to lose.  What can you do to win it back?  Then do those things before the 11th hour.

Bonus Tip:   To get to the leaders you’ll have to deal with the obstacles so here is a FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”.  Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link http://www.sammanfer.com/GatekeeperEbook.htm . Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.

C-Level Selling: 40 Winning Strategies for Proposals and Presentations - Strategy 7, Chance of Winning

7.      Calculate You Probability of Winning

Your chances for winning a proposal are 1/ Number of Bidders if you have not done the pre-work to develop relationships with key decision makers for this project.  So if there are 5 bidding, your best chance of success is 20%.  The one with the relationships has a better chance of success.  Therefore, the chances for the ones without the relationships dip below 20%. 

These are terrible odds.  Successful sales teams run with 70% success rates or they don’t even bid.  Matter of fact, on average, anyone, just pounding the pavement,  can close 33% of the time.  So 20% is something to avoid.  Chances of success rise quickly with (a) relationships, (b) match to ideal profiles, and (c) quality of the sales person/team, (d) pre-work with decision makers and their bosses.

Bonus Tip:   To get to the leaders you’ll have to deal with the obstacles so here is a FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”.  Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link http://www.sammanfer.com/GatekeeperEbook.htm . Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.

8 Way to Get C-Levels and Gov’t Exec’s to Start Spending in this Depression

8 Way to Get C-Levels and Gov’t Exec’s to Start Spending in this Depression

Right now corporate and government officials are keeping spending and capital investments to minimum because they mostly feel it’s not right to spend now.  In a year or two this depression will be a memory 99% of all will be doing business as usual.  This means that between now and then they still have to produce - spend to survive.  This is your opportunity.  Find out what’s really important.  Then you’ll know what they will spend money on and you may be able to get them to spend with you. 

So here are 8 steps to get them to open their wallets.

1.      Network to key executives and decision makers to find out what’s important now for survival. 

2.      Open your thinking.  They may tell you things that you can’t help with, but if you open up your mind, you may see new opportunities that extend your solution portfolio.

3.      Wave their magic wands.  Ask them to creatively and openly think about what they would spend money on now if there was no depression, or they had tons of capital available to them

4.      Be creative yourself.  If they can’t think of anything, or only mention a few, throw-out ideas you feel they should be thinking about and see if they feel the same as you.  What you’re trying to do is understand their path to success. 

5.      Up and out is my motto.  Be sure to do the above with all the key staffers and executives.  The more key executives you talk with the more you’ll learn and the real story will evolve. 

6.      Get to the profit-center leader (PCL) or the ultimate funds releaser for government - and it’s not the CFO or comptroller.  Conduct the interview in the same manor as above similar questions about concerns, what would s/he do, magic wand, etc.

7.      Wrap-up all your conversations with you’d like to review it with other experts in your organization and put together an information piece. Ask if s/he would be interested. 

8.      Do this process with your best customers.  Even if you met with someone last week, set up a new meeting. The more people you interview, the more you’ll see the real story evolve and this is what will show you the path to their pocketbook.

See the full story at 8 Way to Get C-Levels and Gov’t Exec’s to Start Spending in this Depression or

 

http://www.sammanfer.com/Articles/8WaytoGetSpendinginDepression.html

 

Sales Management: Differentiating Your Business during This Recession

It’s amazing to me that most sales people, mangers and corporate officers believe they know what their prospects and clients are thinking and wanting.  On the surface and/or in general terms they may be correct sometimes.  However, it’s not the vague generalities that win sales.  Besides, when in a selling situation you don’t know if you are working with the rule or the exception.

As I’m mingling at a networking meeting an elderly gentleman stops me and offers a hello.  He asks me who I’m with, so I say, “I help people develop business.  So what are your major issues as it relates to business development during this economic down time?” And he says, “Getting more business.”

Then I ask him, “Do your current clients have business that you’re not getting?”  At first he says yes, but then quickly moves to tell me how he’s getting all the business from one of them.  So I say, “What about getting more from the others?”

Well, somehow he dodges this question and tells me what his company has that others don’t.  “We can react within a day,” he says.  “Our competitors need 1-2 weeks.” 

So I tried to say, “What if your other customers are not in a hurry, then what?”  But he didn’t answer this.  He just kept bragging about what he felt made his company special. 

For the two key points to learn from this story click here for the full article Sales Management:  Differentiating Your Business during This Recession

Sales Management Training: Selling in This Recession - Improve Your Sales Teams Performance

We limit ourselves when it comes to selling and business development. Here is another story from my networking association meeting the other night.  This article can help you or your people overcome self limiting sales beliefs and develop more business faster.
 
Back to the two ladies I talked about in my previous story, after I asked my favorite question.  “So ladies, what are your major issues as it relates to business development during this economic down time,” here is what happened.

I started giving my suggestions about what they could do about the low price issue (see previous story.)  As I’m talking, one lady is sort of listening as the other is checking out all the other people to see if there is someone better that she can network to.  As people walk by she actually starts talking to them as I’m talking and then comes back to my golden nuggets of selling wisdoms.  Obviously she wasn’t interested in hearing what she could to do about her issue.  The other paid a little closer attention, but then wanted to tell me why the customer was wrong.  Basically, without words, she told me she was going to continue doing it her way.

Now here is the irony.  These people need to win more deals.  Their business floats with the economy, meaning good economy, more business and bad economy, less business - always the same share or the pie.  Yet, their employers want business - no matter good or bad economy.  This means in a bad economy their share has to get bigger or they have to beat the competition more often.  So why don’t these people want to get some tips and try to use them?  Here are 2 reasons why.

Read the full article Sales Management Training:  Selling in This Recession - Improve Your Sales Teams Performance

C-Level Relationship Selling: Sales Managers Must Teach C-Level Selling and Use Effective Listening to Cross-Sell and Territory Sales Will Skyrocket

 

Sales people are hindered cross-selling because they are out of their comfort zone.  Some would argue that it’s the money. 

 

Anyone who has been involved with my coaching knows I strongly encourage prospecting extensively in existing accounts.  It is the easiest place to get more business.  So if sales people are uncomfortable or don’t like the money they get from the cross-sell, what is an astute sales manager to do?  I suggest “Effective Listening” which relieves the burden of promoting products / services and emphasizes interviewing and listening for key words and phrases. 

 

If a sales person uses his contacts to get to the senior executives, and then asks questions to elicit remarks that reflect challenges, problems and unmet opportunities, relative to the sales person’s total solution portfolio, he will learn a lot about other opportunities ripe for cross-sells. 

 

For example, one of my clients sells civil engineering and construction services.  Many of the people are very knowledgeable with environmental engineering and are connected to some powerful people in government agencies or corporations.  To get these people to sell roads, buildings or other engineering services is not going to happen and if it did they’d botch it up.

 

Now if this environmental person was conditioned to ask and trained to listen for problem words and phases, he could spot trouble areas and then report them to a sales manager who would assign an expert to assist.

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This being said, however, sales management has to set up training with the cross-sell services to teach people the keywords and phrases (not how to sell their service) and second, management has to have a process of assignment and follow-up. 

 

So what about the money piece?  This will go away if the team can close.  The biggest motivator for sales people is getting the order. It is a real rush and very satisfying. 

 

Sale managers have to get out of their routine. Telling sales people they have to cross-sell more, doesn’t make them do it.  Showing them how and enforcing the training does.

 

For examples and the full article – seeC-Level Relationship Selling: Sales Managers Must Teach C-Level Selling and Use Effective Listening to Cross-Sell and Territory Sales Will Skyrocket

 

C-Level Selling Requires Hiring Super Sales People and Sales Managers

Hiring successful sales people and sales managers requires a scientific process, not a resume and interview ritual.  You’ve probably been fooled many times from a great impression at the interview, and then the person didn’t cut it.  S/he either quit, got fired or worse yet, s/he is still with you under producing.  Well these mistakes can be avoided, along with all the lost customers and associated expenses for training, salary, etc., by using my recruiting process.

  

There are certain elements present and/or absent and/or mixed in proportions that determine selling and sales management success.  So in order to hire super sales people companies must:  Measure the amounts of each element; determine what mixes and what doesn’t; decide what can be changed or improved in the time allotted to change it; analyze findings; Interview candidates that tested positive and make your selection. 

                                      

This science is 96% accurate for selecting successful sales people for any industry.  That’s better than 9 super sales people for every 10 you choose.  Selling success means the person is an over-achiever and/or a top producer on your selling team.    Think of all the sales people you’ve hired and determine how many of them stayed with you and turned out to be top producers.

 

For the more click this link for the full article C-Level Selling Requires Hiring Super Sales People and Sales Managers

 

Bonus Tip:  Free White Paper “The Modern Science of Sales Person Selection”.  Just click this Free White Paper for Hiring Sales People link .  Sam Manfer improves sales and Business Development for companies determined to win-over more accounts despite competition, price and market conditions. 

C-Level Relationship Selling: Account Mangers Are the Life Blood of Your Company - Especially During a Recession

I just read a blog from a sales expert that I respect highly.  He is on a board to select the Sales Person of the Year Award for an association.  So he commented on account managers vs. sales people. His conclusion was that account managers are not really top notch sales people in the context of hunting for and closing new business.

Well, I strongly disagree.  Account managers need to be your best hunters, networkers, interviewers, presenters and C-level relationship sellers. 

Account managers have to be aggressive sales people.  They have the best potential to grow company sales way beyond what a sales person prospecting for new accounts can.

Account managers need to be cross-selling new products and services to sold contacts, and also networking to new divisions and profit centers within the account to sell more of the same or new products and services.  They have the best opportunity to make those sales.

Aggressive selling for an account manager is what will sustain and grow companies - especially in this economic downturn.  Account managers need to be "Spreading Like a Virus" to C-levels/Profit Center leaders and their staffs to learn issues about their business related to the solutions they provide.

Account mangers are the best source of proactive selling for an organization and should be measured primarily on the increases in sales they generate.

So if your account managers are not great sales people, it's time to upgrade them.  If you’re a sales person and have good customers, it time to start getting more sales from them.

For more on getting more sales from existing accounts see my article on Large Account Management at  and other related articles on my Advance Sales Training website.

C-Level Relationship Selling: A Process That Has to Be Developed and Honed

I was with a friend this weekend that I haven’t seen in many years.  He is now an SVP of Sales for a pharmaceutical company.  So I talked to him about reading my blog and articles and he got very defensive.

                     

“Ya’ know Sam,” he said.  “We use to do all our sales training using outside consultants, but now we do it all internally.”  Well, that’s good, but what does that mean?  Does it mean shut out any other ideas or schools of thoughts?  Mind you, I wasn’t asking or even implying that he should hire me.  I just suggested here is some free information that might be useful for you and your people.

Now my friend isn’t alone in his reaction.  Sales managers become extremely defensive whenever they learn what I do.  There are a whole lot of reasons that I could assume, but bottom line, they fear losing something - time, status, money, etc. 

 

However, there are two lessons to be learned here.  The first is that if someone isn’t interested, you’d better back-off.  Obviously, this person doesn’t seem to have a problem as it relates to sales that he wants to do anything about with me.

 

That last sentence contains three relevant concepts pertaining to prospecting.  Does the person seem to have a problem?  Does the person want to do anything about it?  Does the person want to use someone from the outside?  This is what you’ve got to determine in the first 10 minutes of your interview with prospective targets.  Keep in mind however,  s/he does not speak for the company, unless it is the Profit Center leader.

The second lesson is to never be closed minded to someone that might be able to help you.  You have got to stay on top of your game.  And to do that you’ve got to be constantly exploring.  Ask questions.  Get some tips or different perspectives.  You don’t have to accept what’s being offered, but you’re a fool not to listen - unless you’re being caught at a bad time.

So let me ask you, “Do you have some issues, problems or want more as it relates to selling?  Do you want to do anything about it?  If yes is you answer to both.  Then the final question is how will you do it? - by yourself, with someone else or with me.  Be careful trying to coach yourself.  It doesn’t really work well.  If you knew how to be better, you would have modified your approach or whatever long ago.  There is plenty of free help and valuable paid help available. 

Now if you answered no, and you feel content with your level of knowledge, just remember, “Keep it fresh.  Otherwise it might start to stink.”

If You Want More Sales, Then You Need Advanced Sales People.

Orders are lost (or not obtained) not because of price, or better performance, or delivery, or …., but because you or your sales person has been out sold.  When a prospect doesn’t commit to you, that prospect has out sold you.  When a competitor wins, that competitor out sold you.  I hear every reason why the sale was lost and how I don’t understand the business from sales people and managers.  What I don’t hear is, “I was out sold and I need to do something about that.”

When one is up against sophisticated business people, savvy buyers and competitors’ advanced sales people, the basics are not enough.  So in order to win more often your sales people and sales managers or you have to do something concrete to get better.

Advanced Selling vs Basic Selling

Everybody is a sales person and so everybody knows the basics of selling - Present, Ask Questions, and Listen.  As with any process, advanced selling requires the basics, but ramped up to higher levels.  Here’s an analogy.  Baseball basics are about fielding and hitting.  Anyone can play catch or hit baseballs in a batting cage, but can anyone play competitive baseball without skills training and practice.

Since there is no skills training or selling education in high schools or colleges, most sales people and sales managers are stuck with the basics.  To make matters worse people rarely seek further education (especially in sales) once they get a job. 

So your sales people and managers (or you) are as good as they will be without doing something to get to the next level.

To become a better seller or sales manager click these links - advanced selling and relationship selling and getting to the lead decision makers - and study the articles, buy the books or CDs or manuals.

Sales Management Must Enforce Change for More Sales

As I continue to evaluate and train more sales teams, it becomes painfully obvious that sales managers spend too much time selling.  Now we all know that’s wrong – give a fish vs. teach how to fish.  More painful is what sales managers seem to do the least, and that is coach their sales people on the what’s and how’s of selling – ride-alongs, show by example, feedback, etc. 

Sales managers know it’s wrong to keep selling, yet they continue to do it.  They use to do it.  They feel comfortable doing it.  They’re afraid what could happen to goals and quotas if they stop doing it.  And they don’t trust that others will be able to do it.  So they have a tough time changing because it’s all about the “doing”. 

People resist change because they are afraid to stop doing.  They feel comfortable doing, even if it leads them in the wrong directions.  For sales managers to be effective, they must stop doing and show others how to do. This is change, but to create change, one must focus on not doing.  Don’t focus on the change. 

For more on this sales management concept and sales training click either link.

Sales Is the Most Management-Ignored Part of Any Company

Are you satisfied with your level of sales?  I’m not satisfied with mine, and I’m a sales expert.  I want more, and here is the next qualifier.  Are you willing to do anything about it.  In my case the answer is, “yes”.  I’ve hired a mentor to help me with marketing.  I attend seminars on selling, training, consulting, etc.  I read selling books and magazines and try to incorporate other experts’ ideas.  Finally, I track my progress to see if my changes are producing beneficial results.

My observations indicate this usually doesn’t happen in corporations for the sales departments.  This is the most management ignored area of a company.

Here are some more observations and I’ll use the word “most” to preface them, but don’t kid yourself, that this doesn’t apply to you.

1. Most sales people that are employed will do nothing to improve their selling skills.  If you whip them, they will do more of the same, but the efficiency will be the same.

2. Most sales managers know how to sell, but don’t know how to manage sales people.  As you whip them, they will sell more and possibly enable the company to make quota.

3. Most profit center leaders (presidents, CEO’s GM’s, owners) pay very little attention to the selling function.  They certainly react to sales information, but do not get involved.

For these reasons life is good when customers are buying and as your market sector slows, your life gets miserable.  That’s because you’re not selling.  Customers are buying.  For example, does your market share grow during bad times or good times?  Do you know what’s holding you back from selling more and over-achieving?  Probably not.

So here are some suggestions:

1. Profit center leaders: Start getting involved with the sales process and start holding sales managers and people accountable.  That means, once they tell you what they are going to close, and how it’s to get done, accept no excuses for failure.  Establish consequences.  See my article Sales Management article, Lay Consequences on Lost Sales and Sky Rocket Your Market Share .  However, you must reward for successes, but only the ones that were forecast.  http://sammanfer.com/SalesManagementArticles/ConsequenceCommissions.htm

2. Sale managers:  Learn a selling process.  Teach your sales people what the process requires.  Then show them how to implement it.  Be careful about using your own seat-of-the-pants methodology.  You’re people are not you and may struggle with your techniques.  See the Sales Management section of my articles and selling tips. http://sammanfer.com/articles.htm

3. Sales people:  Well, if you want to get better, start with my selling articles page   Every aspect of selling is covered.

So if you’re not satisfied and want to do something about it, reread this and start working on getting better.  Hoping, accepting excuses and doing nothing is not going to make it happen.