Sales Blogging – Do As I Say, Not as I Do

It’s a big problem with many of the sales blogs you read.  One-person sales consulting firms, self-appointed experts, telling, but not doing, what they say.

If you were to read through each of the articles I have posted on this blog since 2006, and organize, sort, create a flow and edit it all into a Sales Management Bible, we would have one enormous how-to guide.  Although that was the original plan in 2006, it is no longer on my radar.  I have introduced, questioned, preached, urged, and forced a lot of issues, but I always check myself to make sure that my words do not fall into the “do as I say, but not as I do” trap of many consultants.

Keeping that in mind, Objective Management Group (OMG) held its quarterly Rockefeller Habits meeting this week.  We go to market through a global network of certified partners – our channel – and we spent considerable meeting time talking about them.  As we always do, we further refined our criteria for what constitutes a good partner, redefined our cut-offs and set the wheels in motion to say our goodbyes to those who don’t make the cut.  OMG is not a company that has tolerance for non-performers.

We also spent some time identifying where our best Partners come from and I was surprised to learn that most of them had been reading this blog and either decided to add our suite of world-class Sales Force Evaluation and Candidate Assessment tools to their offerings, or start their own sales consulting businesses.

If that describes you, please send me an email!

The rest of you should be doing the following at least on an annual basis:

• Evaluate your sales force.
• Identify the differences between top and bottom performers – request a sample Sales Force Evaluation.
• Replace bottom performers who can’t be coached up.
• Commit to hiring people who are better than your current top performers – request a sales candidate assessment sample too.  Register for this free June 5, 2014,  11 AM ET, webinar on the Magic of OMG’s Sales Candidate Assessment.
• Constantly refine your onboarding process, expectations and execution.
• Improve your sales coaching capabilities.
• Get tougher about accountability.
• Develop and refine strategies and tactics for improved effectiveness.
• Train, coach, train and coach some more.

It’s not very difficult to upgrade the quality of your sales force or channel.  But many find it difficult to start – to take action – to take the steps listed above that properly position them to upgrade the sales force or channel.  That’s because most people find it difficult to have the tough conversations, deliver the tough messages and put the tougher policies in place.  Accountability.  Execution.  Not what most people are best at.  But it’s never too late to start…

But before you can start, you need information – you need answers – you need to evaluate your sales force so that you know where your sales force could be more effective, how much more effective they could be, and what must change.  It means knowing whether you truly have the right people in the right roles, whether they are going about things in the right way, and whether the right things are in place to support a high-performing sales force.

Evaluate and thrive!

Image credit: photoman / 123RF Stock Photo