The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later."

-Og Mandino

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According to a DePaul University study, the average turnover cost per Account Executive (AE) is $97,690 when you add up recruiting costs, training costs, and lost sales. So, if you lose five AEs in one year - you’re close to losing nearly a half a million dollars. 

Couple that with the fact that in a Glassdoor survey, only 19% of AE’s have no immediate plans leave their companies, but 68% of AE’s plan to look for a job within the next year.  

Why do sales reps leave? And what can your sales organization do to stop your top sellers from leaving?

Throughout season 2 of the Improving Sales Performance Series, we’ve focused on the data and analysis of the newly released Media Sales Report.

In this episode, Beth Sunshine, VP of Talent Services, joined Matt Sunshine to discuss the Sales Department Structure section of the Media Sales Report, specifically looking at data on hiring and talent.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

How are you working to improve sales?

When it comes to sales, what do you value? If the answer to that question is hitting the numbers, then people are simply stepping stones. When you value people first, you'll watch the numbers stack up. The goal is to invest in people. The return on that investment is huge, because people account for a quality sales operation.

We all have strengths, and we all have weaknesses — and like fingerprints, each of our talent combinations is entirely unique.

Human nature drives us to focus on our weaknesses, so as individuals, we expend a lot of energy trying to master behaviors that will never become natural. Managers get stuck in that trap as well, wasting much of their time coaching in a way that feels like teaching a fish to climb a tree. These futile efforts greatly lower employee engagement and only result in marginal improvement (about 10%).  On the other hand, when people focus that same time and energy on their strengths, their level of engagement shoots up, and they can improve by as much as 10 TIMES!

We help managers understand their people's unique strengths so they can apply the right coaching strategies and improve their performance. That leads to a strong return on investment for both the individual and the manager!

- MOTIVATION -

"If not us, who? If not now, when?"

-John F. Kennedy

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Season 2 of the Improving Sales Performance Series focuses on the data and analysis of the newly released Media Sales Report. Partner and VP Senior Consultant Stephanie Downs and VP Senior Consultant Emily Estey at The Center for Sales Strategy, joined Matt Sunshine to discuss the Sales Department Structure section of the Media Sales Report, specifically looking at data on sales department size and compensation of sellers.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

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Hiring decisions can be some of the most critical decisions a company makes, and it's essential to start with talent. When a new hire has the right talents for success in the role, they learn and grow quickly, more easily achieving success.

But it’s not enough to make great hires. Even the most talented people need coaching and development to maximize their strengths and reach their full potential. When a manager hires top talent and then invests in their development and engagement, both the individual and the company grows.

You hear the terms "hunters" and "farmers" thrown around a lot in the sales world. Sales leaders are always looking for "hunters" — as they should. New business is the lifeblood of any sales organization. Without salespeople that know how to "hunt" for new clients, a company can and will be in trouble.

Of course, companies must also have salespeople who are "farmers." Reps need to be able to cultivate clients by building relationships and growing accounts. Organizations must ensure that their key accounts renew and develop.

- MOTIVATION -

"Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

-George Bernard Shaw

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By embracing technology such as lead intelligence, marketing automation, and effective use of a CRM, salespeople can waste less time doing data entry, understand more about their leads, and document all of this information so it's shared across the organization. 

In this post, we'll review each one of these productivity-enhancing technologies, enabling you to be one of the companies that gains a substantial advantage over competitors and develops a more productive sales team.

Tom Brady is one of those figures that draws emotional responses ranging from adoration to outright disdain, often depending on whose team has had their playoff hopes crushed by him during his long tenure in the NFL. 

But, say what you want, there is plenty for all of us to learn about how to be an effective leader by observing what Tom Brady does. 

What he accomplished on Sunday is indeed one of the most profound successes in professional sports as he transformed a young, talented team in Tampa Bay that had been underperforming for years into world champions in one season, learning a new team and a new system all without the benefit of mini camps and preseason games. If you look beyond the hype, here is what you would see.

Season 2 of the Improving Sales Performance Series focuses on the data and analysis of the newly released Media Sales Report. Trey Morris, VP Senior Consultant at The Center for Sales Strategy, joined Matt Sunshine on the second episode of the season to analyze the data around the effects of COVID-19 and its impact on the media sales industry.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

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"Nothing will work unless you do."

-Maya Angelou

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Often, clients come to us when their sales are not where they want to be, and the first thing they say is that they need us to come in and do sales training.

Yes, sales training will help, but alone, it won't be the only thing that helps improve sales performance. 

In this video, I discuss four words you need to remember to help your team improve sales: 

• TRAIN
• REHEARSE
• COACH
• MEASURE

We just launched Season 2 of the Improving Sales Performance Series, which focuses on the data and analysis of the newly-released Media Sales Report. John Henley and Jim Hopes, managing partners at CSS, joined Matt Sunshine on the first episode of the season to discuss their key takeaways from the report, how sales management and leadership can use this data, and the feelings of the future and outlook of the media sales industry.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

At the beginning of a new year, it's tempting to set goals for the next 12 months. After all, you'll have your results from the prior year and can identify where you fell short and where you want your company to improve. 

However, try to resist the urge to create annual goals that are too detailed and contain too many action items. If you fall behind, it's hard to catch up. You can quickly lose momentum and focus on what you're trying to achieve.

Instead, quarterly goals make more sense when you're looking for action-driven results. At the end of each quarter, you can then set the appropriate goals for the next quarter. These can fit into some more general goals for the year but should also be aligned with the long-term strategy. 

Let's take a look at the steps to create a quarterly action plan, how to measure success, and how to plan for the following quarter.