The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

You did it! You finally built a great sales team! They are destroying their budgets, the team challenges each other but gets along beautifully and they are a delight to manage. And then… someone quits. Maybe more than one. What happened?!

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of May 31, 2023, there were 9.8 million job openings across industries, and the number of people voluntarily quitting their jobs rose to 4 million.

In April 2023, LinkedIn reported a shocking 61% of American workers are considering leaving their jobs in 2023. This number is especially high among the younger generations, Millennials (66%) and Gen Z (72%).

Perhaps worse from a management standpoint, top sellers are being headhunted more than ever. One top seller I know said it was a bad week if they got less than three job offers. Competition for talent is fierce since the talent pool over the last few years has not fully recovered from COVID and “the Great Resignation.”

With those terrifying statistics in mind, let’s discuss ways to keep your top talent happy and wanting to be long-term employees.

Every sales manager has an onboarding procedure for new reps, beginning with day 1.

Do paperwork, have lunch with the boss, shadow some veteran salespeople, start building a prospect list, etc.

The first 30, 60, and 90 days of onboarding new sales reps are pretty standard. (Of course, we recommend that you follow the CSS Onboarding Checklist). 

However, what are your plans on Day 101 for your new sales reps?

In the fast-paced world of sales, where the name of the game is, well, selling, which involves sealing the deal, it seriously makes me cringe when I catch salespeople dropping their in-house lingo in front of clients.

Let's talk about three power-packed words that could seriously put a wrench in your plans when you're in front of potential clients. So, do yourself a favor and ditch these words when you're chatting up a client or a promising lead.

Sales meetings are more than just a routine; they have the potential to inspire, motivate, and educate your sales team.

A productive sales meeting introduces your team to new information, solutions, and opportunities, ultimately driving revenue. But a poorly executed one? It can demoralize and waste precious time and resources.

Have you ever met with a prospect for the first time and felt like the entire conversation was like pulling teeth?

Maybe they took a couple of calls or answered some urgent emails while you were waiting to ask your next question. Maybe you couldn’t meet in person, and you could sense they were distracted and not focused during the little time you had. 

In these situations, it's common to leave the appointment with little to no valuable information, no follow-up direction, and when you look at your notes it feels like a waste of your valuable time.

Not all first meetings go well, but you can prevent the train wreck first appointment with better pre-planning.

Leaders today are facing an ever-increasing number of complex scenarios that demand their attention. In the fast-paced world of business, the conveyor belt of challenges never stops moving, and no two situations are ever the same. 

But for effective leaders, this is just another day at the office. They possess the ability to quickly assess the situation and give themselves the right instructions for success. They are skilled at thinking on their feet and making split-second decisions that can make all the difference. These instructions that they give themselves are the Mindset, and combined with their Talents, or natural abilities, they have become superheroes of the business world. 

As a leader, when you grasp and harness your Top Talents, coupled with the appropriate Mindset - which can change through continuous learning and growth - you are empowered to steer the situation towards success with ease.

Think back to the last time you were truly moved by a story you heard. Maybe it was a heartwarming tale that tugged on your emotions. It could have been a story about overcoming impossible adversity. Maybe it was even a tragic tale of loss and redemption. Whatever the case may be, stories have a unique power to evoke emotion and connect us with others.

Most ideas are presented using data. While data has the potential to persuade people, stories have the power to move people.

Storytelling isn’t just limited to books and movies. It is a powerful and underutilized tool that can help you achieve your business goals. Whether you're trying to motivate your team, connect with prospects and customers, or win the close, try tapping into the power of storytelling.

Strong selection is about identifying an individual whose talents, skills, and experiences best align with what leads to excellence in your job role.

Much like looking for a round peg to go in a round hole, great hiring begins by examining the open position and considering which candidate is the best match for the company, the team, and the open position.

Hiring is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in a leadership position because, with the right people, you can do almost anything!  And with the wrong people… well, you know.  The fact is when you put the right people in the right roles, they thrive, and the organization grows.   

As Peter Ducker said, "If I have put a person in a job and he or she does not perform, I have made a mistake. I have no business blaming that person, no business complaining. I have made a mistake."

Are you tired of traditional recruiting methods that don't seem to work for finding top-performing salespeople?

It's time to shake things up and think outside of the box. With Millennials and Gen Z not as interested in traditional sales roles, relying on hiring retreads from your competition is no longer a viable option.

It's time to get a little crazy in your search for your next sales superstar. 

Few things in business these days are more important than finding, and retaining, the right talent.

Without talent, companies can quickly lose their competitive edge. But while most companies are focusing heavily on the recruitment side of the equation, many are ignoring the equally important job of retention. All the while the job market continues to become more competitive, and employees have increasingly specific preferences and expectations around how they want to work.

One of the easiest and best recruitment strategies might just be retention.

In this episode, we’re wrapping up our season-long coverage of The Center for Sales Strategy’s latest Talent Magazine.

Today, we’re taking some time to discuss a group of people who too often get the short end of the “development stick.” That’s right; we’re talking about leaders.

Joining Matt to uncover the ways in which leaders can most effectively tap into their innate strengths is Beth Sunshine.

Beth makes so many awesome points, like:

• How 360 Executive Coaching allows leaders to see both where they are using their strengths as well as areas where they could stand to develop their strengths even more.
  
  
• Why, even if you have raw talent, you still need to focus on developing it into an actual skill.
  
  
• And, finally, why leaders who aren’t intentionally focusing on their strengths are missing out on opportunities to develop not only themselves but the teams they manage as well.

A few years ago, the idea of hiring a candidate without an in-person meeting seemed ridiculous. Since hiring the right person is vital to a team's success, the idea of not being in the same room, shaking hands, and making an in-person connection was, at best, a last resort and, at worst, unthinkable.

But whether you embraced video conferencing or were dragged into it kicking and screaming, over the last three years we have developed the technology, know-how, and experience to conduct most interactions online. Here are some ways to get the most out of your recruitment.

As a sales manager, imagine how much better your life would be if you were consistently able to:

• Forecast with better accuracy
• Improve the sales performance of your team

These elements are important, and delivering one or the other is not an option. When you have a healthy sales pipeline that is regularly monitored, both can be easy to achieve.

In this episode, we’re once again consulting the latest Talent Magazine by The Center for Sales Strategy.

Today, we’re focusing on Engagement with Kate Rehling and Deborah Fulghum, joining Matt to help break it all down. Kate and Deborah both provide super valuable insights, like:

• How a company culture is like a garden. If you regularly tend to it, what you plant will flourish. If you don’t, weeds will start sprouting in no time.
• Why the success of your organization doesn’t depend on WHERE you work but HOW you work.
• And, finally, why engagement and satisfaction are in no way the same thing.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Center for Sales Strategy Launches Sales Accelerator Ai, a Custom AI Chat for Sales Professionals 

(August 8, 2023) — The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), a leading provider of sales training and coaching solutions, proudly announces the launch of Sales Accelerator Ai, a groundbreaking custom AI chat designed to empower salespeople and sales leaders, revolutionizing the way they enhance their sales performance.

In today's competitive B2B sales environment, it's more important than ever to have a strong sales team that can close deals quickly. But hiring and training new salespeople can be a costly and time-consuming process.

That's why getting new salespeople up and running quickly is so important.

Here are 10 strategies for getting B2B salespeople up and running quickly.

Finding a candidate with top talent to fill an open position is a good feeling. You’ve found someone that possesses the skills and experience necessary to perform the job at hand and do it well. Box checked! 

During the interview process, you focused mainly on their qualifications and professional background, but it was hard to get a sense of who they are and what they are about. You tell yourself that it’s not too much of a concern; with their skills and talent, it should all work out.  

Sometimes it does work out, but many times it doesn’t. Don't overlook this one key factor when hiring a new candidate!

Finding and hiring top talent is one of the most important tasks for any organization.

With the job market more competitive than ever, it's crucial that organizations stay on top of the latest trends and data to build an effective hiring strategy.

In this post, we'll highlight 10 data-backed facts and statistics that every recruiter should know in 2023 and moving forward. From the power of employer branding to the priorities of Gen Z, these insights will help you attract, engage, and hire the best candidates for open roles.

We'll also look at data on job seeker frustrations, how to improve candidate experience, retention risk factors, and more. Whether you're looking to fill one opening or overhaul your entire recruiting process, this information will ensure you have the right approach backed by data.

Use these key learnings to make more informed decisions, stand out in the talent marketplace and build a high-performing workforce.

In this episode, we’re taking a good look at the Development section of the latest Talent Magazine from The Center for Sales Strategy. Here to help Matt determine the best ways to go about developing your people are Stephanie Downs and Kelly George.

Together, Stephanie and Kelly highlight some amazing points to think about, like:

• Why employees want to be coached rather than managed.
• How AI tools may soon be helping leaders build personalized learning paths through the identification of employee skill gaps.
• And, finally, why you should never assume that development is solely for new hires alone.