Kurt Sima, on January 5, 2022
In his book The Goal—author and business management guru Eli Goldratt—focuses on a concept called the theory of constraints.
This theory states organizations have constraints (or bottlenecks) that negatively impact performance. The process of identifying the most significant constraint and utilizing resources to eliminate the constraint is part of the process to improve performance.
Kurt Sima, on November 22, 2021
Most sales leaders talk too much about new business development.
The truth is: they would be better off yapping less about selling new customers and yapping more about growing existing customers.
Kurt Sima, on November 9, 2021
As a sales manager, here’s an easy concept to get your head around: sales performance improves when sales managers set clear expectations with each salesperson.
Think about it, when sellers know what to do—and managers establish performance tracking metrics and leading indicators to monitor progress—life becomes easier for all involved.
Simply put, when life is easier for a salesperson, they perform at a higher level.
Kurt Sima, on October 6, 2021
Assuming a sales manager does need a training plan can be a costly mistake. Too often this element is overlooked, and revenue suffers. Creating a training plan that includes specific elements to be completed in the first 30-60 days on the job is a great way to avoid this.
Here are four areas that should be included in a sales manager training plan:
Keep reading for information on each to add focus to the area of creating and using training for a manager.
Kurt Sima, on August 24, 2021
The prospecting challenge is real.
Sellers face it every day when making the choice to go after prospects that appear to be low-hanging fruit or quick sales — or pursue prospects with greater spending potential that will take longer to close.
Kurt Sima, on May 20, 2021
Many sellers struggle to develop new customers. Often this has less to do with the seller’s ability to sell, and more to do with the seller’s ability to select quality prospects.
Some prospects are better than others, and qualifying them will help determine which of the prospects should be pursued and which prospects should not.
As you search for ideal prospects (future key accounts), use the following criteria to determine which current clients have the greatest potential for growth and deserve the most time and attention.
When it comes to the sales pipeline, a good rule of thumb is — having nothing in the top of your sales funnel today, means nothing to close in the future.
This means it is important to add prospects to a sales funnel, as well as ongoing engagement to move them through the funnel. Simply put, just because a prospect enters the top of the sales funnel, it’s not guaranteed they’ll move to the middle of the funnel.
Kurt Sima, on February 4, 2021
The old saying “when it rains, it pours” seems to apply to order cancellations, and it seems like when cancellations occur, they occur in bunches. Here’s what many sellers do when they experience a bunch of order cancellations:
1. Have a negative reaction and argue with the client.
2. Panic and go after any account they can sell.
3. Look for ways to close a quick deal to make up for lost revenue—including dropping the price to close a deal.
4. Sell new prospects whatever they can sell without worrying about delivering results.
All items on this list ultimately lead to short term sales AND more cancellations in the future.
Kurt Sima, on January 20, 2021
A heartbreaking ending, but a beautiful journey. If you’re a Cleveland Browns fan, then you’re like me, still brokenhearted after watching them lose yet another winnable big game.
Over the years I’ve written a few posts about this hapless team, and I’ll give the team credit for improving during the past season.
One thing still alludes the Browns, and that is winning the winnable big game. In short, something always gets in the way and they walk away with a loss.
Is your sales team winning the winnable games in the face of COVID and all the other obstacles that are thrown in their way?
Review the list below of winnable games—the games within the game of improving revenue performance and exceeding goals—to see how you are doing. The list also includes ideas on how to move from the losing side.
Kurt Sima, on January 12, 2021
"I see the value in spending time with my sellers in the field coaching them, but I just don't have the time."
We’ve heard this a lot from sales managers over the years, pre-COVID and during COVID. Finding time to watch sellers in the field is a challenge to time-starved managers. The average time to coach a seller on a typical 30-minute, face-to-face appointment is actually around two hours when you factor in things like travel time to and from an appointment.
One of the positive outcomes of COVID is the ability for managers to sit in on appointments with sellers when they conduct virtual meetings with customers. These virtual coaching opportunities—also known as Zoomalongs—provide an extremely efficient method of coaching at a fraction of the time of a face-to-face coaching call (30 to 45 minutes versus two hours).
Here are some thoughts and tips on how to get the best ROI on virtual coaching opportunities.
