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 »
At your most recent L10 the pipeline number was red. You ask why, and one of your reps says the thing that ends every conversation about prospecting: “Nobody answers the phone anymore.” Is cold calling dead? Well, your team has already answered that question in their minds. They answered it by not dialing. And here’s
Is Cold Calling Dead? Or Did Your Reps Bury It? 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 revenue report says he’s your best salesperson. Is he doing what you need a salesperson to do? Is he a hunter or an account manager? What do you need? Biggest book. Longest tenure. Every account in that territory has his cell number, and half of the accounts, he knows their family. When somebody says
Hiring an Account Manager: The Seat You Lost Control Of Read More »
Why the HR Handoff Keeps Pulling You Back In You did everything right. You defined the seat. You rewrote the job post to repel the wrong fit. You ran the structured interview with a rubric. You verified the Will to Sell, Sales DNA, and Tactical Skills with a Predictive Sales Assessment. You found the candidate
Why a Capped Sales Compensation Plan Keeps Pulling You Back In The offer letter went out Tuesday. Strong base. Modest variable. A cap on the variable to manage the budget — your CFO’s idea, and you signed off because that’s what a responsible sales compensation plan looks like on a spreadsheet. By Friday, the candidate
The Sales Hiring Blind Spots Series #7 | Why a Capped Comp Plan Repels Top Reps Read More »
Industry Experience Trap Keeps Pulling You Back In The candidate had twenty years in the industry. Knew every product, every competitor, every distributor by name. Could quote the spec sheet from memory. You hired them in three weeks because the resume was a fit and the interview confirmed they spoke the language. Six months in,
The Sales Hiring Blind Spots Series #6 | Industry Experience the Trap that Repeats Read More »
You hired the rep eighteen months ago. Strong interview. Strong references. Strong start. You called them a self-starter and let them run — that was the plan. You don’t have time to babysit a senior salesperson, and you shouldn’t have to. Q1 they hit their number. Q2 they were close. Q3 they missed. Q4
You walked out of the conference room after thirty minutes and turned to your sales leader. I like him. Three words. The decision was made. The two remaining interviews on the schedule became formalities — questions designed to confirm what you’d already concluded. The reference checks were perfunctory. The offer went out the next
Your hiring manager wrote the job post. You skimmed it. It looked fine. Professional language. Competitive compensation. Growing team. Great culture. It went up on LinkedIn and three job boards on Tuesday. By Friday, you have eighty-three applicants. By the following Tuesday, you have a hundred and twenty. Your hiring manager is drowning. They can’t
The Sales Hiring Blind Spots Series #3 | How to Write a Job Posting Read More »