The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion."

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With the current talent shortage, it's difficult to recruit, select, and develop top talent.   

Hiring and developing superstars can be really hard, but there are a few steps you can take to bring the right people on board and develop their talents, so they stay with your organization.  

The best managers follow three important steps when identifying and developing top talent.  These are not the only steps, but these are three crucial steps.  

Technology has disrupted the traditional techniques we have used to approach prospects. Today, the most successful developers of new business have a smart and focused prospecting strategy.  They concentrate their efforts on a disciplined strategy that provides more appointments and more revenue. 

The shotgun approach of yesteryear is dead. Before technology disrupted our approach, we could sit down, call 100 prospects, and get ten appointments. Any mention of not having enough appointments was met by your sales manager with, “This is a numbers game! Sit down with the phone, and don’t quit calling until you get ten appointments.” 

Today that strategy is total folly. 

If you’re in sales, there’s a good chance that you will soon close another deal.

But why? Why do clients buy what you have to sell, and then, why don’t they buy?

First, you need to follow a logical process; ours is the Sales Accelerator, but today we’re going to look to Ancient Greece and what Aristotle believed were four main causes of how things come to be. In this case, how your sales or lack of it came to be.

For managers wanting to grow and develop high performing teams, there's one thing they should never do: micromanage.

Often cited as the top turn-off for new hires, it’s important for leaders to know how to coach their people in a way that is motivating, and not stifling.

- MOTIVATION -

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

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Perhaps you got excited when you read the first part of the headline.

I got excited too, wishing there was a list of “magical” questions that could be asked of any prospect with a great result. The problem is, such a list does not exist.

Sorry to burst your bubble.  

Have you ever heard a seller complain that there just isn’t enough paperwork to be completed?

How about that they wish your CRM was more complex?

Or that there aren’t enough departments involved in their sales?

As a manager, it's likely that you have heard the exact opposite from most of your salespeople. Hunters like to hunt, but many don’t really like to cook or clean up after their kill. What are ways that you can let your sellers sell and minimize the roadblocks they deal with?

BBQ and business acumen.

Traditionally, those two items don't go together, but for this story, one is the key to the other.

I started in sales in 1993, straight out of college. I didn't have a lot of work or life experiences that I could draw from as I worked with business owners helping them to improve their businesses' performance.

I did my best reading the Wall Street Journal, the business section of the local paper, and reading the latest business books to help grow my knowledge of business.

We're used to hearing “it takes a village” when we're talking about family, but what if that “village” theory is true in business as well.

Well, it sure helps!

Finding the right mentor can help you navigate your career and give you a village of knowledge instead of going at it on your own.