The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

The dreaded condition - burnout. It creeps through your office like a slow fog. It’s easy to miss at first, but once burnout sets in, it’s nearly impossible to navigate forward. A recent study by Gallup found that 70% of employees either sometimes or often feel burned out at work.

Burnout isn’t just “needing a break” from work. It’s a state of chronic job stress that results in overall frustration, exhaustion, and defeat.

One burned-out employee leads to another. And worse – burnout can lead to turnover…which can lead to additional burnout in your remaining employees. As a manager, it’s up to you to recognize the signs of burnout and ensure you have practices in place to prevent it from taking over.

For any sales manager, it's incredibly frustrating when their salespeople don’t seem to be able to close the deal. A successful sale often depends on the product and customer knowledge of the salesperson, but what happens when the hard work isn’t translating into results?

Let’s take a look at some of the top reasons why your team may not be closing deals - from common hurdles like difficulty establishing credibility and understanding client needs to more nuanced issues like forgoing preparation time before meetings or failing to ask questions throughout conversations.

Here's our breakdown on how you can help your team move past these sticking points and finally start seeing those eagerly awaited closed deals!

Success in any field is not only a matter of skills or talents but also of mindset. How we think about ourselves, our abilities, and our potential can profoundly impact our success in life.

Psychologist Carol Dweck identified two types of attitudes: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

Those with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities are fixed and cannot be changed, while those with a growth mindset believe that their abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication.

This blog will explore the power of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset and how it can impact your success in life, work, and beyond.

As a former sales manager and c-suite executive leader, and now working alongside sales managers to help them grow their teams, I know that a sales management career can really make an impact.

Sales managers are your frontline leaders. They work with their teams to focus on goals and objectives for the organization. Sales managers direct expectations, show people and instruct people in ways to achieve the company goals. Being a sales manager is extremely trackable and measurable. Their job is more about administering the work and ensuring the day-to-day activities are getting done as they should.

If you're like most sales managers, driving revenue consistently and efficiently can be a daunting task. But there are ways to maximize the success of your sales efforts through managing each stage of the funnel properly - from top to bottom.

In this blog post, we'll discuss how proper management at each stage of the funnel is an essential part of developing a consistent pipeline with reliable and successful returns. You'll learn how incorporating targeted activities related to each step in the process can help ensure more satisfying results for everyone involved.

Accountability falls under two categories: the things we do and the things we do not do. We often discuss accountability related to what’s accomplished, but do you truly take the time to hold yourself accountable for what doesn’t get done?

As a leader, accountability begins with you. You set the example. So, do you hold yourself accountable as often as you hold your team accountable?

Here are three quick tips to “up” your internal accountability game.

Are you looking to stay on top of the latest trends and strategies within the sales industry?

It’s no secret that successful businesses need a strong sales department in order to be competitive. To give your team members an edge, it pays off to follow leaders in the field who have proven themselves as thought leaders: those individuals who can share insights and advice with inspiring stories, passion, and expertise.

In this article, we’ve rounded up some of the most influential sales gurus out there today – so if you want to know how to get ahead of your competition, join us as we explore our list of must-follow sales thought leaders!

As a sales manager, you understand the benefits of sales coaching. Not only does it help your sales reps close more deals, but it also improves communication, builds confidence, and enhances teamwork.

With so many different coaching styles and techniques, how do you know what's effective in today's fast-paced, ever-evolving sales environment? Here's what effective sales coaching looks like today and how to implement it in your sales organization.

Email is a critical part of a prospecting strategy, as long as it’s used in the ways in which it’s intended for. HubSpot defines a prospecting email as an outreach email a salesperson sends to a potential customer to introduce themselves, their business, and how they can help their prospect.

Email prospecting is not for building relationships, communicating a strategy, sharing an idea, or conversation in general. Create your prospecting email the right way, integrate it into a sound prospecting plan, and then you can dramatically enhance the cold calling process by getting your first close—the appointment.

So, what is the line between persistent and pest when it comes to securing appointments? Two calls? Three calls? Six?

A national study published in the Harvard Business Review recommends at least six approaches. After six approaches are when 90% of appointments are set. So, how many salespeople make six approaches?

About 4%. Yes, 4%. The majority of salespeople give up after two. To put that into perspective, making six contacts will give you a 70% increase in new appointments.

If you're looking to grow your business, prospecting is a crucial part of the process, as it allows companies to identify potential customers and clients and generate new business opportunities. However, many companies make mistakes when prospecting that can hurt their chances of success.

Let's talk about some of the most common mistakes companies make when it comes to prospecting and how to avoid them.

Culture is defined as a way of life for a group of people. When in doubt about what to do, the members will fall back on what they have learned from their culture. They don’t even think about it—they know what their culture would tell them to do.

Business organizations all have a culture, and when you walk into a business and take an instant like or dislike to being there, you are experiencing their culture. Sometimes they don’t even have to say anything—it’s an attitude you can almost feel.

Business-to-business organizations don’t often have potential customers walk into a physical location. Often a salesperson is how the client and prospect experience your organization’s culture. What is your sales culture telling them?

Finding the right talent for your company is vital to its success. A comprehensive recruitment process is essential to attract, select and retain the best employees. However, many companies struggle to create an efficient and effective recruitment process.

But there is hope.

From creating a job description that accurately reflects the position to utilizing modern recruitment tools, these steps can help you attract and retain the best employees. With the right recruitment process in place, you can be confident you are hiring the right people for the job.