Understanding the Sales Force

Got you on that title, didn’t I?

Did you ever find yourself in a position where you needed to hire salespeople? Of course you did.

There are many keys to making the the sales hiring process work effectively yet most companies fail to get these keys right. Some of them are obvious, while some are more subtle. And most of all, the integrity, or in this case, the outcome of the process is only as strong as the weakest link. Ignore or fail to complete any one step the way it is designed and the entire outcome will be in jeopardy, as in, another salesperson that fails to launch, doesn’t meet expectations, or succeeds at being utterly mediocre.

When you coach a salesperson, which words should you hear that would tell you the session was effective?
Not “Thanks” or “OK”.

Has this ever happened to you?
A salesperson asks for your advice and it’s opportunity specific, important, and time sensitive.

You schedule a time to talk, provide the coaching, ask if it helped, receive acknowledgement, get commitment for follow through and wish them luck.

Your system for coaching – the frequency, duration and process – should remain consistent, but it is important to remember these variations. All of the people whom you coach or should be coaching are unique individuals and need you to work with them in a way that is most beneficial to them, not you.

One confusing component of effective sales management is that great sales management skills don’t always translate into great sales results. This phenomenon is most obvious when a company hires a terrific, new sales manager, who possesses all the desired skills, and the manager fails to have an immediate impact.

Last week I posted an article that linked to two additional articles I wrote for EcSELL Institute and Top Sales World. [Speaking of Top Sales World, they just published a page showing all of the greats (I’m honored to be included) that have been inducted into their Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame in the past 3 years.] Apparently there were issues with those links from last week because I got dozens of emails letting me know that you couldn’t get to those two articles. I will share the article I wrote for EcSell below.

Today is your lucky day! I have secured the webinar audio from which that coaching session took place. The trimmed audio containing the moment in question runs about 5 minutes but it is so worth the listen.

You know all about reverse engineering, right? The Chinese do…that’s how they’ve copied all of the products that others have created and sold them into the mass market, gray and black markets too.