The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

It’s been quite a year of change for many salespeople and managers. What at first seemed like a temporary situation has slowly evolved into the potential for a new reality — working from home.

There are many benefits to working from home, such as no commute, which leads to greater productivity, better work/life blend, and looking professional from the waist up... just to name a few! Gartner's recent study shows that 74% of companies plan to shift some of their employees to working from home permanently.

In the past, many deals were built from the foundation of in-person relationships. The pandemic has shifted the sales cycle, and many salespeople have been forced to adjust. Mastering the art of both in-person selling and virtual selling is now a skill seller's must obtain.

As a sales leader, it’s important to ensure your sales team shifts their mindset and has the tools needed to perform at their best no matter what the situation holds.

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"Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

-Melody Beattie

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Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the United States who celebrate! We know this year has been rough, but we see your strength and wish you all the best this Thanksgiving.

Even with all the chaos 2020 has presented, there’s still so much to be thankful for this holiday season. One of the greatest gifts this year has given us is a new perspective on the things we’ve been taking for granted all this time. A new perspective on just how grateful we are for the simplest of things.

And while many are still struggling this Thanksgiving, we hope you’re able to take a moment and practice some gratitude for all the lessons 2020 has brought us.

Have you ever heard about Katie Francis, who shattered the 30-year-old world record by selling 21,477 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies in 2014?

On weekdays, Katie worked seven hours a day selling cookies. On weekends, she put in 12 hours a day. What started as a goal of selling 18,100 boxes, quickly raised to 20,000, and then to 21,000. Katie’s a goal-setter — and reaching a goal just motivates her to set a higher goal. She sold a record of 100,100 boxes of girl scout cookies in her seven years as a girl scout.

To be successful in sales, Katie quickly learned you can't take "no" personally. This young lady has a solid ego that rejects rejection along with an agile mind that readily learns and adapts.

Your role as a leader is to drive your people toward your ambitious culture. How do you do that? You must connect with people!

When COVID-19 closed gyms, 58% of trainers lost some of all of their income, and 23% were furlough or laid off (PR Newswire). How did one gym manage to gain more members now than pre-COIVD?

Episode 4 of the Improving Sales Performance series with Tony Hartl, founder of Crunch Fitness Austin and Planet Tan, provides listeners with a few secrets of how he’s getting new members and keeping existing ones amid the pandemic. He also discloses how he keeps his team focused and energized.

"If you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business." — Marcus Lemonis

"It's a numbers game, but I don't know which numbers" — Average Salesperson

Okay — I made-up the last quote, but it's still true. Too many times, I meet with sales managers and salespeople who firmly believe that sales is a "numbers game", but they have no idea what numbers they need to know or even what numbers they should be tracking.

Most sales leaders focus on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and while they are important, they do not help produce sales improvements. KPI's are like your scorecard after a round of golf, fun to see how you played, but they can't help you play better for the round you just finished. 

Rather than focus on KPIs, it’s time to concentrate on Leading Indicators so that we can effect change during the game that will help you and your team win. Think of leading indicators as data that allows you to make "in-game" adjustments, so that your team can keep scoring.

- MOTIVATION -

"Your failures make your successes so much more meanginful."

-Guy Raz

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Working with sales leaders and managers through a crisis like the pandemic is full of twists and turns — and new discoveries!

Significant transformations such as downsizing and restructuring because of things like COVID can disrupt the flow of a sales team, however, done properly, they can improve sales performance. Many sales organizations are discovering that removing unproductive sellers (and not replacing them) creates a more productive team.

Since early this year, many changes have been implemented, but an emerging hot topic among sales leaders now is sales staff size. As a sales manager, is this something you have been thinking about?

How do you define culture at your company?  How does culture tie directly to business and sales performance? And, what’s a fun brigade?

Episode 3 of the Improving Sales Performance series with Jay Bailey, founder and CEO of Reatro Ventures, was engaging, enlightening, and motivating. Host Matt Sunshine asks the right questions that tells you how to make company culture work, and Bailey provides three free and easy tips on what you can do right now to improve your company culture.

Creating a culture of engagement is more important than ever as we work in a virtual world.

Showing that you care and are invested in the growth of your people matters. And it’s important to remember that the relationships you develop with your people will directly impact productivity and profit. One fact found in the 2020 Talent Magazine states, “Organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.”

When should your relationship with people start? Before they walk in the door for their first day on the job.

However, if you’ve transitioned to a remote workforce and never conducted virtual onboarding, you may find yourself challenged on how to develop these relationships and help new hires get started off on the right foot.

- MOTIVATION -

"Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better."

-Bill Bradley

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We hear sales managers and execs talk all the time about the importance of sales strategy. “Strategy” is one of the words that gets used a lot. In fact, Webster’s Dictionary says it's in the top 1% of most popular words. After all, who gets heat for talking strategy?

The problem is that most sales “strategies” are not really strategies at all. If you look at that definition of strategy, you see, “a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal, usually over a long period of time.” That means a strategy doesn’t change (or if it does, it's not very often), is long-term, and describes a set of consistent behaviors.

Many sales strategies are more like tactics — making more calls in a defined period of time, approaching a new group of prospects, or introducing new offers to move the market forward. These things are not bad, but they're tactics, not strategies. Tactics are helpful IF they support a strategy.

Many large-scale surveys routinely find time management skills are among the most desired workforce skills, but also among the rarest skills to find.

It comes as no surprise that one of the biggest challenges sales leaders face is time management. And while there are many articles and time management tools readily available, there’s also the old-fashioned sales calendar.

In case you missed Episode 2 of the Improving Sales Performance series, here’s a breakdown of the conversation that host, Matt Sunshine and guest, Trey Morris had on what a sales calendar is and how it can help improve sales performance.

“Why interview if I can’t hire?” This is a frequently asked question this year — and understandably so. Recruiting top sales talent takes time and energy, and it feels pointless if you’re a company experiencing a hiring freeze. Let’s pause there for a minute.

While not under a hiring freeze, college football teams are limited to the number of players that they can have on the roster. However, that doesn’t stop recruiters from scouting more players than their roster can accommodate in search of top recruits. They’re actively recruiting the best talent to build a winning team for future seasons to ensure the best replacement for this season’s graduating players. Plus, they know that not every player to whom they offer a position will accept.

In the business world, the same rules apply. Building a winning legacy depends on having top talent on your staff and top talent ready to join in a moment’s notice. Because we know turnover is inevitable. It isn’t a matter of if it will happen; it’s a matter of when.

At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), we’re big proponents of thinking like an owner — in other words, getting into the minds of the decision makers and decision influencers you call on. 

One of the many ways to do that is uncover and understand what financial challenges are top of mind for them, especially as we head into a new year.

- MOTIVATION -

"Great leaders don't set out to be a leader. They set out to make a difference. It's never about the role - always about the goal."

-Lisa Haisha

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With dozens of episodes coming to our brand-new Improving Sales Performance series, sales professionals will soon have a plethora of insights and tips at their disposal.

The Improving Sales Performance series is hosted by Managing Partner Matt Sunshine who speaks with guests that are thought leaders, experts, and industry gurus, to share their insight, tips, and knowledge on various topics that help companies improve sales performance.  

Episode 1 recently debuted on our newly-refreshed YouTube channel with guest, Dani Buckley, talking to Matt about Sales Enablement.

Do you remember projecting 2009 revenue as we stared into the abyss of the Great Recession?

We all knew it was coming as it started with plenty of notice in the Fall of 2008. Many businesses projected negative sales growth, while others simply would not accept it. The organizations that intentionally gave their teams over the top numbers to hit lost a lot of ground on annual long-term business and blew Q1 because they demanded so much more than what the market would bear for them.

Setting clear and manageable goals is crucial for 2021.

For some, the benefits of working from home are plenty. However, working from home is not for everyone, and experts say there are potential negative side effects to consider, such as feelings of isolation, loneliness, and disconnect.

It’s estimated that 46% of employees don’t know what to do after a meeting — leading to confusion, frustration, and unproductivity. Additionally, 26% of employees feel pressured to respond to work emails outside of business hours — leading to more stress.

All of this contributes to morale, and morale is the driver for productivity and engagement. While your team is working remotely, you’ll have to find new ways to work together and communicate, ensuring your company culture thrives in the comfort of your team’s own home.

Clients calls, webinars, team meetings, staff meetings, one-on-one's with a coworker, prospect meetings — we're spending a lot more time online.

Video conferencing etiquette and attire are certainly not a new topic for many professionals, but it's a new reality for millions.

How you portray yourself, whether over the phone or on shared-screen calls, represents both you and your company. It’s important that we present ourselves just as well virtually as we do in-person. In an effort to improve your phone and video etiquette, and ensure the person on the other end receives an excellent experience, implement the best practices outlined below.