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Ask a Better Question

November 17th, 2017

 

 

All business owners would like their salespeople to close more sales, consistently blow away quota, and create more predictable, profitable growth.  Most would also like to interject scale into their business.

 

Every week business owners and sales leaders ask me questions like “can you train our salespeople to sell more?” and “how can we find sales candidates that can actually sell?”

 

While we are always more than happy to provide the training and coaching required to address these questions in order to improve selling and sales recruiting effectiveness, there are at least 2 questions that could likely unleash an even better return and value.

 

Before I share these golden questions, let me share some facts…

 

1.     Sales training IS important and you certainly cannot win a race with a team slow horses, so choose wisely.  

 

2.     Study after study reveals that approximately 75% of all salespeople fail consistently.  I’ve written extensively on the reasons and solutions to these problems, so won’t go into them here.

 

3.     The vast majority of salespeople have never had an ounce of effective, formal sales training.   Pilots, accountants, engineers, cops, and fireman all train.  Most salespeople just wing it… 

 

4.      Most sales managers are former salespeople.

 

5.     Most sales managers don’t have a clue about what effective sales management entails.

 

6.     Effective sales management and leadership is a major force multiplier.

 

7.     Although most organizations invest little in sales training, sales management training is the area that is addressed with the least frequency. 

 

 

In light of these facts, you may have already concluded that Sales Management and Leadership lie at the core of building a consistent, predictable, scalable sales effort.

In the absence of competent sales management, your strategy is simply one of hope.

 

Your best salespeople require effective management and coaching in order to optimize results and ensure growth.   Weaker salespeople are guaranteed to fail without it.

 

A proficient sales manager will coach, hold salespeople accountable, reinforce training, and improve the results of all your salespeople.  They will swiftly release non-performers and will motivate and develop your A-players, creating a dramatic improvement in your company’s revenue, profit performance, and scalability, leading to a much stronger company.

 

An effective sales manager will also direct a productive sales-recruiting process and continuous improvement of the team.

 

Effective sales management changes everything.

 

Sales training is an essential part of any sales improvement initiative, but you will likely find the investment in developing sales managers to carry a much greater ROI.

 

So the next time you look to upgrade your sales organization, you might start by asking…:

 

“How can we develop our sales management and leadership?”

 

or

 

“What steps can we take to build a world-class sales organization?”

 

 

 

Continued Success!!!

Joe

 

 

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2017.   All Rights Reserved.

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