Improving Sales Performance - Making an Impact on Your Sales

Kicking off the new season of the Improving Sales Performance series, John Henley, Managing Partner at The Center for Sales Strategy, gives viewers an overview and behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Impact Leadership System: why it was created, who it was created for, and how sales leaders can make an impact on their sales performance by focusing on 4 key areas.

Tune in now to hear the Live broadcast or keep reading for a brief overview.

What is the Impact Leadership System?

Diving right into the interview, Henley explains that the Impact Leadership System is a framework that helps improve your sales from the top, and helps any organization improve sales performance.

“It’s like if you want to make a great Espresso – it doesn’t just happen – you need a strong bean, proper grind, correct tamping, and a quality machine,” Henley explains. “The same rings true great sales performance – it doesn’t just happen. The Impact Leadership System gives you the best ingredients and framework to make sales performance happen.”

The Impact Leadership System took 18 months and over 1,100 hours to build. And, as Sunshine and Henley discuss in the interview, these courses are not simply answering everyday questions and struggles, they bring a structure to the bigger picture and how to make quality decisions.

Who is the Impact Leadership System Designed For? 

The Impact Leadership System is made for sales leaders at all levels of organizations and experience.

• It’s beneficial for General Managers and CEOs who are involved in sales or who want to bring good thoughts to sales leadership conversations.
  
  
• It’s beneficial for Directors of Sales who want to dig deeper into annual sales planning and want to know unique ways to hold people accountable.
  
  
• And it’s also beneficial for local sales managers and digital sales managers in the media space that want to dig deeper into topics like sales calendar and Individual Focused Management meetings.

“We think of the Impact Leadership System as a training curriculum, but also an ongoing guidebook for sales leaders,” Henley states.

Why was the Impact Leadership System Built?

Our mission at The Center for Sales Strategy is to Turn Talent Into Performance and to help organization improve revenue performance.

CSS clients know us for Talent Focused Management (TFM), which focuses on talent as a top priority for improving sales performance. But managing sales is only half the job. The other half—leading people—is not something that comes automatically. Which is one of the many factors that lead to building the Impact Leadership System.

“We never had a framework and clients started asking what happens after that have great people and develop them – what do they do next?” Henley explains.

The Four “P’s” of the Impact Leadership System

The Center for Sales Strategy's Impact Leadership System is a simplified framework, broken down into the four areas/courses– People, Process, Plan, Performance. Tune in now for a more in-depth look at each “P.”

• People – This course was based on giving what we call our Growth Formula more power and structure. It’s about defining talent, but also how that connects to other areas.
  
  
• Process – Process is based on the idea of a pyramid because you have foundational things that you must get right, such as sales structure. Everything under your sales process – Individual Focused Meetings (IFMs), CRMs, sales enablement – none of this will work without a solid foundation.
  
  
• Plan – Plan is based on a puzzle because everyone can put a puzzle together in different ways and still get a final outcome. The topics in this section include things like annual sales planning and sales calendars, none of which you have to do first – just at a certain time of the year or when you change structures.
  
  
• Performance –Performance was created with the mindset of an airplane dashboard. You have a lot of indicators, and if you ignore any of them then it’s a problem.

Henley also lets out some COMING SOON information on workshops related to the Impact Leadership System. Tune in now to hear the information!

Favorite Courses from the Impact Leadership System

The Impact Leadership System features 32 total courses. Both Sunshine and Henley call out their favorite courses in the system and why:

Sunshine’s Top Picks (in no particular order):

• IFM – It’s the one meeting a week that both salespeople and sales managers can’t stand, but it should be the one that they can’t imagine not doing,
  
  
• Sales structure – Besides returning to the office, sales structure is the hot topic of every conversation,
  
  
• Pipeline management – The way its expressed, and explain the left side and right side of your funnel.

Henley’s Top Picks (by the course):

• People – Selection because his conversations are with client’s who are now are hiring and their talent banks are low.
  
  
• Process – IFM’s because if you want to drive quality activity, this course should you that this is what you need to follow.
  
  
• Plan – Sales play because he’s seen the power of crisp execution and a repeatable process.
  
  
• Performance – Accountability because it covers what needs to happen in certain areas to drive maximum performance and helps set the framework for what you need to hold your people accountable to.

If you’re a CSS client, all courses from the Impact Leadership System are readily available to you through the resource center.

If you’re not CSS client, you can still use this framework to get an understanding of how to get the right people in the right positions, making sure your systems are in alignment, and ensuring all your actions and plans have a purpose.

If you’re interested in a sample course of the Impact Leadership System, we have two – click here!

Don’t miss another episode of the Improving Sales Performance series where Managing Partner Matt Sunshine speaks with thought leaders, experts, and industry gurus, who share their insight, tips, and knowledge on various topics that help companies improve sales performance.  

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