How to Coach B Players: Stop Bailing Every Bucket at Once Every sales team has one. He makes his number most months, rarely by much, and your sales manager has tried everything with him: more calls, a new opening line, ride-alongs, another product session. He’s still a B player, and the manager is running out […]
How to Coach B Players: Pick the Right Bucket Read More »
Effective Sales Coaching Lives Between the Five and the Ten Your sales manager rides along on a prospect meeting, and on the drive back he asks the question almost every sales manager asks: “How do you think it went?” The rep says it went well and the buyer is going to think it over. The
Effective Sales Coaching: Find the Interference Read More »
Last year I worked with a distributor whose comp plan paid a monthly bonus to any salesperson who put out 100 or more quotes. Six salespeople. Six hundred quotes a month. To what end? They hit it. Of course they hit it. And the average win rate across those six people was 8%. Yep, 8%.
Paper on the Street: What an 8% Quote to Close Ratio Is Actually Telling You Read More »
The question: When to fire a salesperson? The number is behind. The rep is the same rep he was in March. And you’re running arithmetic in your head at [5:40] on a Thursday: let him go now and you lose whatever pipeline he’s carrying — keep him and you pay for another quarter of exactly
When to Fire a Salesperson: GWC Is an X-Ray, Not a Checkbox Read More »
Month six. The number’s been soft for two quarters, and you finally sit the rep down to talk about accountability. You slide the Scorecard across the table. Weekly activity targets. Pipeline reviews. A 1:1 every other week where the numbers get read out loud. And the rep looks at you like you changed the deal.
Your sales team missed targets again. The excuses sound familiar. The market is tough. Competitors cut prices. Prospects won’t return calls. But here’s the uncomfortable truth. If your sales organization isn’t delivering, the responsibility falls on the leadership. Tough pill to swallow? Let’s dig deeper. Leadership Doesn’t Know What To Do Most executives I
Why Your Sales Team Isn’t Performing (And It’s Not Their Fault) Read More »
Have you ever had a perfect sales day ruined by something small and stupid? Last week, I lost a full hour of productivity because someone cut me off in traffic. ONE HOUR! Not because of the incident itself (that took 3 seconds), but because I couldn’t let it go. My mind kept replaying it. My
The 3-Minute Fix When “Little Things” Are Killing Your Sales Day Read More »
Have you ever thought about why some companies feel lively? Yet others seem to drain your energy as soon as you enter? The uncomfortable truth is your culture is a direct reflection of leadership behavior! It is not coming from your mission statement or office perks. Paint vs. Patina: What’s Your Company Wearing? During a
The Culture Mirror: Why Your Company Reflects Your Leadership Read More »
Early in my commercial real estate career in NYC, I lost a deal that still makes me cringe when I think about it. Not because the client was difficult. Not because we didn’t have the right space. But because my ego got in the way of serving the client. I was working with a major
The $15 Million Lesson in Humility Read More »
What’s the scariest sound sales? Silence, after you ask a rep an accountability question? Silence when you ask your team why deals aren’t closing. The silence when you bring up their pipeline projections in your weekly meeting. Or maybe it’s the endless noise of excuses, blame-shifting, and disjointed processes. Either way, these are red
Why Your Sales Team Is Stuck? (3 Ways to Fix It) Read More »