Managing a Sales Team: Empowering Performance

If you want to make a difference in leading, managing and bringing about desirable results for your sales team, what are some of the most important things to consider?

Let’s assume most of the following are in place:

• You have a CRM that is being used by your team
• You have established solid KPIs to track progress and performance
• You have a defined sales process with key milestones
• Your team understands the importance of these items and has knowledge of them

So, what now? Are you meeting with your team at certain intervals and for various purposes? Whether you answered yes or no, you might consider some of the following:

• 1-2-1 Meetings (weekly/bi-weekly)
• Team Meetings (bi-weekly/monthly)
• Team review meetings (quarterly/annually)
• Call recordings
• Joint sales calls/ride-alongs
• Role plays
• Team training
• Coaching – individual/small group/whole team

This probably seems like a lot, so consider what will work best for you, your organization, and what you’re trying to accomplish.

Read more on our website!

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Want to achieve results that matter and/or grow your high-performance sales team? We've worked with many businesses with managing a sales team in Ann Arbor, and we can help you too. Not located near Ann Arbor, Michigan? We also offer virtual services and can work with you no matter where you are.

Contact us today to schedule your complimentary discovery session! Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form and receive a free Sales Focused Organization checklist.

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

How to Use Sales Leadership to Train and Manage Sales Athletes

Do you have a sales athlete that isn't living up to their potential? 

Are small or bigger elements being missed?

Are they avoiding a critical area such as talking about money or budget?

Have you tried:

1. Let them know that you want to work closely with them to make gains and/or find area that once addressed with result in better outcomes
2. You may consider freeing their schedule of some responsibilities to allow more focused time on specific activities that will support desirable outcomes
3. Meeting with them weekly or more frequently to check in and course-correct along the way

As a sales leader, it’s no fun to resort to extreme measures, and none of what we have addressed is designed to lay blame or be utterly critical. If we make the comparison to top athletes in a sport and we want top sales athletes, we must adjust just as any sporting organization will do regarding their talent. Sometimes we may find that there is no culture fit with a given individual within our organization or that one person can ‘spoil the barrel’ for others. In many ways the solution is to evaluate, spell out expectations, support talent in achieving them, and cut your losses when supportive efforts don’t work.

None of what we have described above is easy and it does not happen overnight. If you have challenges getting your sales team to perform, maybe it’s time to consider a Sales Coach. Sales coaching isn’t one size fits all. Your sales coach may work exclusively with a few salespeople or with the team. They may work solely to support the sales manager to be more effective in their sales coaching role, or to complement their efforts as a sales manager. Engaging with a sales coach may begin with an assessment of your current sales team – one that identifies areas that will produce the greatest return on investment. If you are even a little open to the idea of sales coaching, what’s the harm in a conversation - one where you can determine if there is a good reason to explore whether sales coaching is or is not a fit for your organization… one where NO is OK.

Sales Leadership for Your Ann Arbor Business

As business and sales coaches in the greater Ann Arbor, Michigan area, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with your organization’s sales results, coaching can be a great option. This may be the perfect time to examine or re-examine your sales efforts, the process, stages, pipeline(s), language, and KPI’s you’re using. So don’t wait - proactively evaluating your entire sales function will lead to better results.

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Want to achieve results that matter and/or grow your high-performance sales team? We've worked with many businesses with sales leadership in Ann Arbor, and we can help you too. Not located near Ann Arbor, Michigan? We also offer virtual services and can work with you no matter where you are.

Contact us today to schedule your complimentary discovery session! Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form and receive a free Sales Focused Organization checklist.

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

How to Manage Poor Performance in Sales Athletes

You’re an existing sales manager, a new one, or someone who has been promoted to a sales management or sales leader position. You have an existing team and will likely hire more salespeople, and you’ve been charged with hitting a 20% year over year growth in sales results.

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s say the expected growth is in top-line revenue. Depending on your organization, the focus may also be on other KPIs, such as gross profit, net profit, and/or other important KPIs such as net new accounts, average revenue per sale or account, and more.

One of the first things a manager may do is to take stock of what is and isn’t in place, and then determine the level of effectiveness for each area or element. This may include a CRM, meetings, goals, individual performance against goals, and more. When it comes to salespeople and performance, it would not be unusual to find some at the top, middle and bottom of performance metrics.

A manager with this scenario may wish to keep the good success elements and people going without disruption and see if they can raise the level of performance of the less well performing people and or elements. Below are a few items that could be explored with those on the sales team who are not performing optimally:

• Take a close look at their ‘book of business’ in your CRM
• Summarize their results, pipeline, and their level of activity
• Look for areas where the KPIs are not likely to support success and desired results
• If the results and pipeline are weak, is there enough activity?

Read the full list on our website! 

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Want to achieve results that matter and/or grow your high-performance sales team? We've worked with many businesses with sales leadership in Ann Arbor, and we can help you too. Not located near Ann Arbor, Michigan? We also offer virtual services and can work with you no matter where you are.

Contact us today to schedule your complimentary discovery session! Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form and receive a free Sales Focused Organization checklist.

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

How to Hire High-Performing Sales Athletes

Have you been frustrated trying to hire the right person for your job opening?

Do you want to hire a high-performing sales athlete?

Consider these items as you look for a qualified candidate:

• Know what you’re looking for, what the position is and the KPIs it must impact once a successful hire is made
• Predetermine the characteristics that a suitable candidate must possess
• Create or revise an up-to-date job description 
• Determine your compensation plan
• Have a territory and/or ‘book of business’ plan

If you think about these items in the context of a sports athlete, it will help you come to a clear understanding of why they are crucial for a successful sales focused organization with top notch sales performers. Take ice hockey which has three basic positions – goal tender, forward and defense. 

Can you imagine hiring someone who is capable offensively for a goaltender position? It’s no different in sales – are you looking for business development, a hunter, or a farmer? What specifically must they accomplish to yield success for the company? The clearer you are about the role you expect someone to play, the responsibilities and the expectation that go with that role, the better set you will be for success.

With some of the complexities of developing Sales Athletes, maybe it’s time to consider a Sales Coach. Sales coaching isn’t one size fits all. Your sales coach may work exclusively with a few salespeople or with the team. They may work solely to support the sales manager to be more effective in their sales coaching role, or to complement their efforts as a sales manager. Engaging with a sales coach may begin with an assessment of your current sales team – one that identifies areas that will produce the greatest return on investment. If you are even a little open to the idea of sales coaching, what’s the harm in a conversation - one where you can determine if there is a good reason to explore whether sales coaching is or is not a fit for your organization… one where NO is OK.

Read more about sales leadership on our website!

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team, sales leadership, and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

Creating High Performance Sales Athletes

We all want top performers in our sales environment, right? It starts with a successful hire, someone who has the right ingredients, talent and/or potential. 

In order to hire the right person, we have to know what we’re looking for and be able to define our needs before we hire talent. Let’s say we’re looking for someone to manage customer accounts and create opportunities to grow customer accounts. This is hugely different than a position where we’re looking to add new business, grow a territory, break into a new market, or something else. This all has to be in place before we advertise that a candidate is wanted for a specific position and that interested parties should apply. 

Below is a list that may help with acquiring top candidates and growing them into sales athletes:

1. Know what you’re looking for, what the position is and the KPIs it must impact once a successful hire is made
2. Predetermine the characteristics that a suitable candidate must possess
3. Create or revise an up-to-date job description 
4. Determine your compensation plan
5. Have a territory and/or ‘book of business’ plan
6. Know how you will work with the salesperson (meetings, ride along, joint calls, reporting, etc.)
7. Have an estimate for how long it may take a new salesperson to get up to speed and deliver results
8. Know how you will handle subpar performance
9. Define the role for the position clearly
10. Define the responsibilities for the position clearly
11. Have clear expectations for the position
12. Manage all of the above early and often

Examine this list and note the items you are well-prepared for and those that you are less than well-prepared for. It’s not a disaster to make changes – even with an existing team or salesperson. Make the adjustments, announce them early, and declare that we’ll climb into this change together.

Learn how a sales coach can help with your sales leadership strategy on our website!

Sales Leadership, Management, and Coaching for Your Sales Team

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team, sales leadership, and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

When Should You Consider a Sales Coach for Your Business?

A major reason for working with a coach is scotomas – blind spots. If you’ve ever experienced a blind spot, you know that it literally didn’t exist until you became aware that it did. We’ve all experienced blind spots, and coaches point out blind spots in athletes during every practice, drill, or game. This concept is just as true in sales coaching, whether it be for business development, sales force management, strategic selling, or simply about sales conversions. A coach will see and notice things others can’t see – at least until they’re pointed out. Needing a sales coach is nothing negative, in fact it’s a positive - a safety net - providing opportunities for greater success.   

Inviting a coach to your sales environment and team doesn’t mean an instant fix. Successful sales coaching takes time, as success is built on the relationship formed between the coach and management, the sales team, and its individuals. That relationship can function at the top of your organization (alignment, strategic direction, etc.), with sales management, the sales team and at the individual salesperson level. The sales coach will advise, mentor, train, and coach in the gap areas that lie between current performance/results and those that are desired. A good coach will advocate for the success of the organization and provide resources that result in positive change for the organization’s sales team – its culture, function, activities, meetings, pipeline, and results.   

Sales coaching isn’t one size fits all. Your sales coach may work exclusively with a few salespeople or with the team. They may work solely to support the sales manager to be more effective in their sales coaching role, or to complement their efforts as a sales manager. Engaging with a sales coach may begin with an assessment of your current sales team – one that identifies areas that will produce the greatest return on investment. If you are even a little open to the idea of sales coaching, what’s the harm in a conversation - one where you can determine if there is a good reason to explore whether sales coaching is or is not a fit for your organization… one where NO is OK.   

Read more on our website!

Sales Management for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with your organization’s sales results, coaching can be a great option. This may be the perfect time to examine or re-examine your sales efforts, the process, stages, pipeline(s), language, and KPI’s you’re using. So don’t wait - proactively evaluating your entire sales function will lead to better results.

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution?

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

What's the Difference Between a Sales Coach and Consultant?

In recent months, we’ve written about many sales topics and why it makes sense to be process-oriented, thoughtful, intentional, and employ KPIs to enhance your sales efforts and results.

Where does a sales coach come into play and where can your sales organization benefit from a sales coach?

Before we try to answer this question, it’s important to make a distinction between a coach and a consultant:

• A consultant possesses expertise and can be considered a subject matter expert (SME). They will often provide a report or recommendations that they think will lead to a desired outcome. They are often not involved in the implementation and outcome of their work.
• A coach, by definition, means to train or to teach. A good coach will understand people's strengths and weaknesses while promoting and maintaining motivation for those that they work with. Unlike a consultant, a coach will be there through thick and thin to ensure that success is realized.

A major reason for working with a coach is scotomas – blind spots. If you’ve ever experienced a blind spot, you know that it literally didn’t exist until you became aware that it did. We’ve all experienced blind spots, and coaches point out blind spots in athletes during every practice, drill, or game. This concept is just as true in sales coaching, whether it be for business development, sales force management, strategic selling, or simply about sales conversions. A coach will see and notice things others can’t see – at least until they’re pointed out. Needing a sales coach is nothing negative, in fact it’s a positive - a safety net - providing opportunities for greater success.  

Read more on our website!

Sales Management for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with your organization’s sales results, coaching can be a great option. This may be the perfect time to examine or re-examine your sales efforts, the process, stages, pipeline(s), language, and KPI’s you’re using. So don’t wait - proactively evaluating your entire sales function will lead to better results.

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution?

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.