What Does It Cost To Make A Sales Mis-hire?

Think about how much time and energy it takes to hire a good sales person. Think about how much it costs to carry a good salesperson on your payroll, and then think about the amount of revenue needed for your company in order to help you accelerate your sales. Finally, add in the opportunity costs for your company if during a given period, particularly a long one, instead of selling a million dollars a year, you have an under performing rep. When you add in all of these factors, it’s very costly to make a mistake when it comes to hiring sales people.

Management’s Mixed Messages: We’re High Achievers, But I Love Average Producers!

I was conferring with a reasonably successful manager in the Banker's Life system. Within the space of a few minutes, he disclosed two things to me: (1) He is doing everything possible to create a high-achievement culture; and (2) He loves his moderate producers because they are steady and reliable. Of course, as you might detect, these statements are contradictory. As a sales manager or a business owner, you don't want to send mixed signals to your people. Are you overtly asking for (1) but secretly hoping for (2)?

Sales Managers: DO YOU CARE About How Well Your People Handle Inbound Leads?

I’ve been doing a cold calling campaign to increase my consulting business and to refine my training materials, and it’s nothing less than exhilarating. You might wonder why someone like me, a best selling author of classic titles such as YOU CAN SELL ANYTHING BY TELEPHONE! and REACH OUT & SELL SOMEONE would bother making his own calls. Practice makes me better, I can tell you that. Moreover, when I immerse myself in cold calling, my scripting abilities soar, and of course, I make a lot of great sales! One of the best questions I ever crafted is: DO YOU CARE? You're going to have to try this one!

Present with Passion, Compassion and Purpose

Long gone are the days of counting on the subject matter to speak compellingly for itself, compensating for your inadequacies as a presenter. Nowadays, you've got to get inside of your prospects' minds, and you've got to get there fast-before you're even into the heart of your message. When asked what they thought made their managers most effective, 90 percent of all respondents mentioned communication and presentation skills. This tendency reveals how truly critical a life skill effective communication really is.

How to Increase Your Sales - Part II

Increasing sales is the culmination of many small but fundamental actions repeated on a daily or regular basis, here's one of those actions you MUST do if you want to increase your sales.

Tough-Love Sales Management

Like transforming coal into diamonds, salespeople require pressure to become wealth producing. Either salespeople pressure themselves, or managers pressure them, or both. But left alone, like most things in nature, salespeople die on the vine, wither, and shrink from view.

Sales Managers: When Should You Fire Your Best Salesperson?

There are just some topics that you shouldn’t bring up in polite company. I could name them, but I’d be out of line. Yet I can’t resist speaking about this one topic of special relevance to sales managers everywhere. When should you fire your BEST salesperson? This is a question that comes up more than you might think, though it is as taboo to openly ask as “When is the boss going to croak?”

No Web Site, No Voice Mail, No Problem!

Can you imagine wiping out your web site and your voice mail system on purpose? One well-known publisher has done this, and you'll find it hard to argue with his success, says Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, best-selling author, and Fortune 1000 consultant.

Sales Managers: Should You Prove Yourself By Selling In Front of Your Team?

As a sales manager your primary job is selling your salespeople on selling more. But the longer you stay away from selling the more you, and those who report to you, doubt your ability to sell. Should you prove yourself by selling in front of your team? Dr. Gary S. Goodman, top speaker, best-selling author, and Fortune 1000 consultant shares his insights and experience in this article.

Sales Management Styles; Iron Fist or Emotional Empathy Efforts

There are many different sales management styles, but which one works the best? Well most experienced practitioners recommend a tough love approach. What is tough love? Well hopefully it is the same type of management your parents and early teachers or sports coaches provided.

Managing Team Sales at the Counter

Despite popular belief all counter operators at a cash register for a business are sales people and they are very much part of your sales force. Indeed I myself never really realized this until I was 14 years old and working at a McDonalds and they taught us to up-sell customers and we watched a video on how to do this.

Emotional Types Mastery

Over the centuries, philosophers have tried to categorize the very many complex emotions of humanity - no easy task. Philosophers argued emotions are largely influenced by one's time period and culture. In the persuasive process, you want to eliminate negative emotions while constructing positive emotions.

Internal Pressure Is the Secret

Most of us feel more harmony in our lives when everything is consistent: our jobs, our homes, our habits, even our soft drinks. Consistency is the glue that holds everything in our lives together, thereby allowing us to cope with the world.

Environmental Expectations

Your environment and the expectations of that environment should be persuasive. In a theory they call the Broken Window Theory, James Wilson and George Kelling suggest that a building full of broken windows will cause people to assume that no one cares for the building or its appearance. This in turn will spur more vandalism. In other words, the environment's condition gives suggestions that lead people to hold certain assumptions, and people then act on those assumptions.

Are You Ready For New Thinking?

Are you ready for the relentless changes that are coming or are you stuck in your paradigms refusing to see that there may be another way to look at things? Let me give you 2 simple examples: