The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

The most successful leaders understand business and are conceptual thinkers.

They naturally see the bigger picture of what is ahead and consider the cause and effect of their actions. Their natural curiosity leads them to be forward-thinking, taking chances to adapt to what is needed for future success.

With this ability, their analytical thinking affords them to make sound decisions and learn from mistakes made along the way.

As a sales manager, your time is valuable, and managing your sales team tops the list of priorities. How much time and with whom you spend your time is critical to achieving sales goals.

But where to start? Most of us spend time with those we think need the most attention, those not meeting goals. Our instincts are to “fix” people. But take a minute to consider if this is a good use of your time.

What if you spent time with your top performers instead? Focusing on people development is a key to employee engagement and retention, which leads to bottom-line growth.

Creating an environment where employees can develop is important to both their personal and career growth.

When you create a work environment that fosters a culture of learning for you and your employees, you will reap many positive returns.

At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), we are a team of extremely high achievers. We’re always looking for ideas for self-improvement. So much so, that in our annual Employee Engagement survey each year, learning and development are always at the top of the list of what our team craves.

Knowing this, we add learning opportunities in multiple ways. One important development opportunity comes through the CSS Quarterly Book Club.

Managers often reach out to us looking for creative ways to recruit top-talent to their companies.

Unfortunately, most wait until they're in need, when in reality, consistent searching and recruiting to keep their talent banks full would not only prepare them for the future, but also save them money and time when the time comes to fill a position on their team.

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.

“More than ever, future hires will come from within the company. In an increasingly tight talent market, organizations will rediscover the benefits of internal hiring and work to better understand how their employees want to learn and grow.” — 2020 Talent Magazine

Recruitment is all about finding and attracting the right employee to your company. But sometimes, the individual you need to fill a vacant position already works within your existing business structure.

At The Center for Sales Strategy, we’re firm believers in always searching for talent. However, we’re also advocates for using empathy to better understand how people want to learn and grow. This is why one of the top recruitment trends in the 2020 Talent Magazine is internal recruitment.

Have you ever participated in a trust building exercise?  They have been the craze for years.  There have been a few fun ones, like Escape Rooms, but there have also been a few you wish to forget, like “trust fall.” Seriously, who enjoys blindly falling backwards hoping someone will catch us?!   

Team building exercises are a great way to form relationships and build reciprocity. But developing trust takes time—much longer than one afternoon—and activities alone are not how a foundation of trust is established. Building an effective team starts by asking thoughtful questions. Those questions spark conversation, providing team members an opportunity to share bits of information about themselves, and over time, leading to more trust and engagement—improving team productivity along the way.

Whether you’re a veteran in your career or just starting out, one of the most helpful things you can do is continue your professional growth. Our team enjoys many forms of professional development, and we find one of the quickest ways to grow is by reading.  At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), you’ll find a book in our hands most of the time. 

Reading helps you develop empathy, gain valuable exposure to other perspectives, and increases verbal intelligence—all of which make you a better leader. Some of the most influential leaders make reading a top priority and understand the importance reading has on their success. Bill Gates reads at least 50 books a year! He is instrumental in getting other business leaders to jump on the “reading bandwagon.” If you’re ready to broaden your mind and expand your professional development, take a look at these books that our team recommends.

Telecommuting, flexible work environments—both fancier terms for working remotely—is the new normal for many of us. By now, you’ve gotten a taste for what working from home entails. And whether you choose to admit it or not, some of you have decided that remote work isn’t as great as it sounded just a few weeks ago.

At first, working quietly in your pajamas seemed enticing—even productive—then the silence set in, and you missed all the chaos. Most people do! Knowing how important socializing is, how do you keep that feeling intact with your team in a time of social distancing?