Superstar salespeople have a unique combination of talents that lead to excellence, and this combination of talents is very rare. It can be tough to find the people with all of the right "stuff" who have the potential for greatness.
Mindy Murphy, on February 19, 2018
Superstar salespeople have a unique combination of talents that lead to excellence, and this combination of talents is very rare. It can be tough to find the people with all of the right "stuff" who have the potential for greatness.
Shaye Smith, on February 16, 2018
We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.
Kurt Sima, on February 15, 2018
A client of mine recently told me about the departure of seven salespeople from his organization. All seven of the sellers had been hired in the last year — all seven departed before their one-year anniversary. One other thing related to the departed seven; they were all millennials!
My client immediately came to the conclusion that there is something different about millennials that caused them to leave his organization. My client was partially correct and partially incorrect.
Below are five reasons millennials quit sales jobs:
Deborah Fulghum, on February 13, 2018
As a sales manager, do you expect your sellers to conduct a Client Needs Analysis routinely with their clients? I’m sure you do. Because you know that customer needs change all the time. What a client focuses on this quarter may vary in the next. The only way to know their goals is to ask regularly.
That same focus on uncovering needs and goals applies to those you manage as well, as it leads to greater loyalty and retainment of your staff. How often do you take time to ask each person on your team what they want in their job, what they need from you, from the company? Wouldn’t it be nice to know these things so that you can engage, develop, and retain them?
Matt Sunshine, on February 13, 2018
As a successful salesperson, you’ve probably spent years perfecting your strategy. But picture this: You’re going on three discovery calls a day, and suddenly there’s no follow-up, no next step, and no sale.
Beth Sunshine, on February 12, 2018
Shaye Smith, on February 9, 2018
We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.
LeadG2, on February 8, 2018
I have a confession to make… I absolutely hated cold calling. It’s been a few years since I was in outside sales, but I still have flashbacks to some of my worst cold calling experiences. You know the ones where you’re treated like a complete nuisance, talked down to, or hung up on.
Necessary Evil
Like most salespeople, cold calling for me was a necessary evil. It was evil because of those nightmare experiences, though pretty rare, but it was necessary because sometimes cold calling actually worked – especially if you did it often enough. Some of my best clients started with a cold call, or 10. While it was a numbers game, I found that the better I got at identifying the potential of a prospect and utilizing valid business reasons, the more success I would have.
However, despite the “wins” that occurred on occasion – I spent a lot of my precious time cold calling, and if you’re in media sales or many other B2B sales industries then you probably do too. The downside to that was the fact that I wasn’t great at cold calling, I was great at selling. I was great at identifying needs, creating customized solutions, developing integrated marketing campaigns, and building relationships – yet I had to spend at least a quarter of my time doing the former.
John Henley, on February 7, 2018
I wonder if we could all treat people better if we replaced human resources with a department focused on human flourishing (HF). People are certainly more human than they are resources, but I wonder if there is a better way to think of them than merely resources. One of the dictionary definitions of flourish is "to thrive or grow luxuriantly." Pretty cool way to think of your people.
Trey Morris, on February 6, 2018
As an Account Executive, we hated when it happened.
As a Sales Manager, we might have done it a few times... ok... we probably did it a lot.
We turned an email into a sales meeting (or for us older guys... a memo).
