 Your new post is loading...
It’s no secret that quality business relationships are important, especially for the bottom line. The more sales professionals communicate with their customers, uncover needs, and present relevant solutions, the more likely they are to retain them and grow revenues. When you think about great quality business relationships, what are some words that pop into your mind? Maybe trusted advisor or win-win. Utilizing the concepts represented by the JADIK Matrix will accelerate the development of customer relationships to attain qualities like the ones that just popped into your mind. Read the full article at: www.carew.com
Managing virtual sales teams is becoming a common theme in the workplace. As times change, so does the average worker. Many companies are turning to virtual sales teams to save money on office space and create a flexible working atmosphere. This trend will most likely continue to increase with the advancement of new technologies and the current social distancing measures. However, many managers tend to worry that their team is either binging on Netflix shows, doing laundry or otherwise goofing off – while in their pajamas. Guess what? The truth is employees tend to perform better when working from home. Here are some tips that will help you manage a productive and high-performing virtual sales team. 1. Select the Right Candidates for Remote WorkWhile the data supports the idea that remote teams are effective, not everyone is effective when it comes to remote work. Before you allow a current employee to go remote, you should evaluate their work patterns and ethics.
Read the full article at: www.vanillasoft.com
In today’s current market conditions, leaders need to accept that the success of their teams and their companies will rely heavily on striking a collaborative, coordinated balance between creative strategic thinking and effective implementation. The previous model of leadership through top-down, silo-driven ‘command and control’ thinking will no longer suffice. Here are five steps we see collaborative leaders taking right now to adapt to, and thrive in, the extraordinary circumstances we all face – a rapidly changing marketplace where there is no “normal.”
1. Support the sales leaders. Of course, we need to prioritize revenue generation. That means we want to double down on sales management.
Read the full article at: www.sandler.com
What is a team?In nearly every organisation, you will find that work functions require teams. We have sales teams, marketing teams, IT teams, temporary teams, project teams – the list goes on. The group of leaders at the top are usually referred to as the executive or leadership team. In this uncertain and rapidly changing environment teams are becoming ever-more dynamic in their structure. A team can be defined as a group of people with complementary skills who work together to accomplish something beyond their individual self-interests. The belief that working in teams makes us more creative and productive is so widespread that when faced with a challenging, new task, organisations are quick to assume that teams are the best way to get the job done.
Read the full article at: www.globalbankingandfinance.com
Motivation is more than Vince Lombardi quotes and quirky posters on the wall. It’s one of the most important components of sustained sales success over time. As a sales manager or director, you can only influence your team’s sales performance in two dimensions: Their skill set (what they can do) and their motivation (how repeatedly or passionately they do it). Improving your team’s skill set is a largely objective process. By evaluating current performance metrics and comparing them to a successful end state, you can diagnose what areas need improvement and act accordingly. But motivation is far harder. Not only are there are many external factors that affect motivation, every person requires different incentives and motivational tactics.
Read the full article at: blog.hubspot.com
An article from OpenView Ventures found that north of 25% of sales reps will fail in their role. HubSpot found that it takes 18 or more calls for the average salesperson to connect with the average lead. Further, callback rates are south of 1 percent, and less than one in four sales emails are ever opened. Suffice it to say that effective B2B sales is an uphill battle. As you begin putting together your high-impact sales team, here are five key steps sales leadership should keep in mind. 1. Hire Quality Salespeople from the Outset—and QuicklyAs you begin to scale, it is critical that you hire high-quality people from the get-go. Every week that passes without your adding a new account executive to your team is another week where your competitors are making inroads against you.
Read the full article at: salesnerds.atriumhq.com
Most business leaders have grown accustomed to the comforting concept of “normal” market conditions. Today, when these leaders talk about the “new normal,” they are usually talking about the anticipated return to something closely resembling previous market conditions – a predictable status quo that will allow them to focus on administering and fine-tuning various elements of the go-to-market strategy. When we think about recovery, we, too, may think about the days when we had a high degree of confidence that our basic assumptions would stand unchallenged. Charting a path on the roadmap to recovery in the current environment will depend, increasingly, not on skills that brought us success in the past, but on a very different set of capabilities to help us to navigate the future. With that shift in required skillsets and capabilities comes a period of major disruption.
Read the full article at: www.sandler.com
Everyone has a set of factors that influence their performance at work—some of these factors are work related, but many are not. The same goes for motivation; what motivates one employee might discourage another. Many managers gravitate towards complicated reward systems, accountability strategies, or other similar tactics that promise to inspire your team. However, these complex strategies can often do more harm than good. Instead, we recommend that you take it back to the basics. Five Sales Team Motivation Essentials For Sales ManagersBuild trustThe success of your sales team is highly dependent on the level of trust they have in you as their manager.
Read the full article at: salesgravy.com
Ask any sales leader whether they want to build a high-performing team, and the immediate answer will be “Yes.” But what are the specific best practices that support this goal? Here are three that we have seen in organizations that are thriving in 2021. First and foremost, create clarity about the salesperson’s role. A simple and effective way to begin to do this is to invest a little time in a KARE analysis. Is the role you are looking at primarily responsible for KEEPING existing customers, for ACQUIRING new customers, for RECAPTURING customers who have been lost, or for EXPANDING business within a current account? These are four very different priorities, and a written job description should clearly identify for you and for the sales professional exactly what the expectations are for the role in question. Next, identify the high performers on your current team. Taking the role you have just identified into account, ask yourself these questions: Who would you most want to hold on to? Who would you replicate if you had the power to do that? Who would you most want to serve as a role model to other sales professionals in your organization?
Read the full article at: www.sandler.com
Working in sales is a roller coaster ride, and so is managing a sales team. But considering the pivotal role of sales in a company’s success, it’s essential to contrive measures to enhance the efficacy and performance of your sales department. Around 50% of sales representatives miss their targets every year. So, what can you do to make sure your sales team delivers consistent results? Read along as we’re discussing some of the best sales team management tips for business owners and managers. The Importance of a Sales TeamSales is to businesses what water is to humans. Without sales, your business won’t survive.
Read the full article at: www.softwaresuggest.com
The world of virtual business, including virtual selling, is here to stay. It’s an adjustment, but there’s no doubt that it’s happening. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations have seen the ongoing value of working from home (WFH), and 74 percent of CFOs have already indicated that WFH will become part of their staffing strategy moving forward. To increase sales, tactics have to evolve to suit the new world of virtual work, and using outsourced support for B2B selling can help. Understanding the Virtual WorkplaceAlong with more employees working remotely, corporate priorities and structures are evolving.
Read the full article at: impact.marketstar.com
A strong sales culture supports collaboration, fosters trust and develops a high-performing sales team. Who’s responsible for creating a high performance sales culture? Well, everybody – but as a sales leader, it’s your job to create and nurture an environment that enables your team to succeed. This doesn’t happen by accident, so it’s important to be deliberate in shaping it. Building a sales culture plan can help. Some organizations have a plan that's laden with too many words, pages and documents. Mapping your sales culture plan on a single page will help you stay focused on the key levers to pull as a leader. We use our practical one-page template at DoubleDigit Sales, and we share this template with our clients, too.
Read the full article at: resources.doubledigitsales.com
Quick quiz for sales leaders: Over the past three working days, how many total hours did you devote to expanding your pipeline of qualified sales applicants? If you’re like most of the leaders we talk to, the answer was either a small number, an embarrassed silence, or both. Deepening the talent bench by attracting qualified job applicants is, as a practical matter, not a critical priority for most of today’s sales leaders. That’s a problem, because by overlooking talent acquisition, and focusing instead on short-term problems (like revenue shortfalls and deals you need to help team members rescue in order to make your target), you are basically ensuring that those same short-term problems keep landing on your doorstep. The most effective sales leaders focus on keeping their talent pipeline full. In fact, they take that just as seriously as they expect the members of their sales team to take keeping the opportunity pipeline full. Salespeople who ‘hug their pipeline’, are afraid to ask tough questions or have ‘happy ears’ are often the ones without a robust pipeline. They don’t want to disqualify because they are hoping and praying that one or two deals they think “look good” will close. Similarly, many sales leaders mistakenly hold on to poor applicants and poor performers way too long, because of the same kind of thinking. Having a robust pipeline of truly great candidates has a profound impact on the manager’s mindset … and on the willingness to ‘disqualify’ people who are wrong for the team and the organization. In reality, the only effective leadership strategy here is one that incorporates talent acquisition and retention. Here are four best practices that we have noticed that the most successful sales leaders observe in this area–best practices that leaders of underperforming teams tend to neglect, minimize, or overlook. - Create, or update, your formal candidate profile for each position you are likely to want to fill over the next twelve months. Don’t wait until there is an empty slot to fill. Do this now. If you haven’t yet taken the time to create a candidate profile – a summary of the traits and attitudes that you see in the top performers that you would hate to lose – take the time to draft this document immediately. De-emphasize specific skills or the number of years of experience in a given field that you are looking for; these are relevant, but if you make them your primary criteria, you’ll be fishing out of the same pond that everyone else is. Focus instead on personal traits (like accountability and tenacity and transparency) and on cultural fit with your organization. Once you have a clear sense of who you’re looking for …
- Create a pipeline tracker. Add a certain number of interviews per month to your cookbook (personal behavioral plan); set up a spreadsheet or table that allows you to track likely possible candidates as they move through the process from initial contact to hired. Identify the right number of people who should be in this pipeline at all times. Then … network and keep your pipeline full! Check in on your totals monthly or weekly. You expect the members of your sales team to do this with sales prospects, right? Why on earth wouldn’t you expect the same thing of yourself when it comes to prospective sales hires? And why wouldn’t you want to have four or five good leads to call in for an interview when the need arises?
Read the full article at: www.sandler.com
|
It's the beginning of the month. You're ready to help your team crush their sales goals. Sometimes they need a reminder of why they love what they do or a little help to boost their morale after a lost sale.
Well, there are many things you can do to help your team improve sales performance and reach their sales goals, and here's something that can help boost morale, inspire, and increase productivity: motivation.
Read the full article at: blog.thecenterforsalesstrategy.com
What motivates us? It’s a question we rarely ask ourselves. You might have read Steve Jobs’ biography four times cover-to-cover or have a motivational sales quote or two on your coffee mug. Beyond that, our motivation often feels like something slightly vague, even to ourselves. Are we sweating toward our sales target for the bonus? For kudos from our boss? For the joy of feeling like a crucial team player? For the glory of making our companies stable and secure in an unpredictable market? If you’re a sales leader, it’s a question you should be used to asking your sales team. Motivation might seem simpler these days than it once was — we want to help keep our company afloat in difficult times. We want to keep food on the table. We want to show our worth in case any unfortunate staffing cutbacks have to be made. Whether times are good or bad, a motivated sales team is a successful sales team — and a successful sales team will keep your company together.
Read the full article at: www.chorus.ai
Hiring the right salesperson for your team can be a hassle. They can have all the right experience, results, and seem like an ideal fit during an interview. But, there are few things worse as a sales leader than investing time, money, and energy in hiring someone only to realize down the road that they’re likely not cut out for the role. The good news? You can take a few preventative measures to better your chances of hiring the right fit for your team.
1. Get Clear You need to know what you want if you’re going to have any chance finding who you want.
Read the full article at: www.engageselling.com
In the previous article, we talked about how to hire a phenomenal sales team. However, hiring sales representatives is no piece of cake and mistakes are bound to happen. As a sales honcho, you need to be extremely cautious and prudent while onboarding new sales personnel because wrong hiring decisions can jeopardize your sales. As the saying goes, one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel. Likewise, the risk of hiring the wrong person is high, and the cost even higher as they can leave a lasting negative impact on the company name as well as on the revenue. There is no guaranteed process for successful recruitment, but if you're thinking about hiring sales reps, avoid these sales hiring mistakes and start hiring smarter. Sales Hiring Mistake #1: Inaccurate Job DescriptionHiring a candidate based on a poor job description is a mistake many sales managers make.
Read the full article at: www.incentivatesolutions.com
In sales, you are only as good as your last deal. Every day, week, month, or quarter is a fresh start where, once again, your team needs to gear up and deliver. Great sales leaders are able to push or pull a team whether they are at 120% or at 50% of their goal, and they are able to recruit and maintain high-performing sales teams over a long period of time. There is no silver bullet for sustaining a high performing sales team, but here are a few things that I think are important: You win the battle on the battlefieldAny great sales leader has had to be a top self-contributor in the past, which means that she or he has what it takes, and, deep inside, loves the kill.
Read the full article at: thenextweb.com
In order to cultivate relationships with existing clients and expand the influence of your brand, you need talented, dedicated salespeople out there generating excitement about the work you’re doing. But sales is a high-pressure industry, and most departments see a significant rate of attrition and new hiring every year. Reducing turnover rates is essential if you want to get the most out of your team and foster the kinds of deep relationships that drive long-term success, so if this is an issue for your sales department, here is a 4-point plan that can help you build a resilient, tight-knit team that will deliver results.
Read the full article at: www.entrepreneurshipinabox.com
Remote work is here to stay for many companies, especially in the technology sector, as we’ve seen public companies like Twitter, Dropbox and Square, and startups like GitHub and Upworthy commit to making work from home (WFH) a permanent option for every employee. More broadly, post-pandemic, about two-thirds of all companies plan to make WFH part of their employee handbook. This reality holds a huge opportunity for organizations that are hiring in 2021. They can bring in a talent bench that’s built not just for this moment but for the digital-first decade ahead. For sales organizations in particular, the talent they hire today must understand how to build a pipeline and close deals through digital channels, and they will someday be sales managers who can pass on their online expertise.
Read the full article at: about.crunchbase.com
If you’re new to sales management, you need to develop the skills to lead your team. Adding a few sales management strategies to the mix can help you motivate the team to achieve the goals you’ve committed to. In this post, we list 10 sales management strategies to consider. Expectation ManagementIs the long-term plan in your organization evolving to a remote-work business model? Your employees may cheer about not having to deal with a grinding commute. They might also miss the camaraderie of the department lunches and in-person meetings. One way to keep your team interested and engaged is to properly manage expectations. You may not yet have a date for when you can work together in the same location. But you can certainly explain the specific goals and objectives you expect them to work toward during the next quarter. And to ensure they feel accountable, ask your team members to participate in setting the goals.
Read the full article at: salesfuel.com
I've been managing and leading salespeople and advising sales organizations for over 30 years. During that time, I've identified two trends. - Sales technology and sales force automation has increased in prominence, price, and company investment.
- Sales rep productivity — the time salespeople actually spend selling — has decreased.
Research shows that today, good salespeople spend less than a third of their time selling. On the other hand, more and more time is spent managing various administrative tasks surrounding sales and demand generation. Basically, salespeople spend more time managing their sales than making them. Whether you’re a salesperson, sales executive or other investor or stakeholder in a growing organization,I don’t need to tell you the direct and collateral damage done when salespeople aren’t selling.
Read the full article at: blog.hubspot.com
Maintaining a sales team is no simple task, particularly if you respect the value of its position in your business progress. On top of meeting target metrics, you’re additionally in charge of taking the best people on the bus, teaching them, and supporting team spirit. Then how to manage a sales team? As the sales team manager, your primary objective is to create or develop your sales business. This role comes with a lot of stress, but by developing sales teams to control best practices, you can easily set yourself and your sales crew up for success. Running a sales team is a fairly difficult job, no matter if you are a newly-promoted or a veteran sales manager. While it may appear to need relatively small effort, in case, strong sales team management is a responsibility that can be managed only with perseverance and devotion. We’ve selected some tips for you on how to manage a sales team. Why is your sales team not working at its top level?According to a study given by Hubspot, 66% of sellers are not reaching their quotas. There are plenty of causes why your sales team is not working at its top level.
Read the full article at: sokrio.com
If you are like most inside sales managers, handling the day-to-day operations and achieving your goals is a battle. First, you have to hire the right salespeople. Then make sure that sales reps are trained properly, performing well, and accurately reporting information. In the meantime, you’re constantly dealing with the pressure of replacing under-performing sales reps, and in the middle of all that you need to ensure you’ve got the right sales strategies and the right tools in place so that your inside sales organization runs efficiently. Whew! That’s exhausting. So when you’re managing an inside sales team, how do you find time to breathe but still ensure that your team is achieving maximum productivity and running efficiently? Research shows that fifty-five percent of salespeople would rather be doing something else than working on the sales floor. So hiring the right candidates is half the battle.
Read the full article at: www.vanillasoft.com
As an entrepreneur, you’re probably no stranger to wearing a multitude of hats to see projects through. This is especially true if your business is in its infancy, when new partnerships or investments play a pivotal role in keeping the lights on. Eventually, though, your clientele will grow to a point where you can’t handle the influx yourself. You simply won’t be able to answer every request for your products and services in time to avoid leaving money on the table. This is why you need a carefully curated sales team to back you up and lock in new business as it rushes in. Whether you conduct the search in house, or delegate it to a world-class sales recruitment agency, your potential hires should fit a profile of excellence that shares these major tenets.
Read the full article at: myventurepad.com
|
