The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

We just launched Season 2 of the Improving Sales Performance Series, which focuses on the data and analysis of the newly-released Media Sales Report. John Henley and Jim Hopes, managing partners at CSS, joined Matt Sunshine on the first episode of the season to discuss their key takeaways from the report, how sales management and leadership can use this data, and the feelings of the future and outlook of the media sales industry.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

At the beginning of a new year, it's tempting to set goals for the next 12 months. After all, you'll have your results from the prior year and can identify where you fell short and where you want your company to improve. 

However, try to resist the urge to create annual goals that are too detailed and contain too many action items. If you fall behind, it's hard to catch up. You can quickly lose momentum and focus on what you're trying to achieve.

Instead, quarterly goals make more sense when you're looking for action-driven results. At the end of each quarter, you can then set the appropriate goals for the next quarter. These can fit into some more general goals for the year but should also be aligned with the long-term strategy. 

Let's take a look at the steps to create a quarterly action plan, how to measure success, and how to plan for the following quarter.

- MOTIVATION -

"What you do has far greater impact than what you say."

-Stephen Covey

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

So much has been said and written about what top sellers do to set themselves apart from the average and low performing salespeople.

Let’s look at this from a different angle. What things do they make certain to NEVER do?

In order to fully understand what makes a high performing sales person, it’s helpful to recognize behaviors NOT exhibited by this elite group.

How would it feel to be part of the 1%? You have a flexible schedule and have a reliable, dependable, top-performing sales team. To many, that life will only ever be a dream.

That's because the 1% are willing to do things that others aren't. From creatively improving sales performance to being a leader and mentor, here's how you can join the 1% as a sales manager.

According to research, over $5 billion is spent solely on sales training and sales improvements every year in the US. If your remote sales team is not up to speed with the latest sales strategies and techniques, you could be costing your business a lot of money in missed opportunities.

Coaching a remote sales team has its perks, you have less overhead because there is no brick and mortar location, plus, everyone has a bit more freedom and flexibility.

That being said, there are also many challenges of coaching a remote sales team, including the lack of connection and distance. 

So the problem is knowing how to lead a remote sales team effectively so that you can increase your sales and get a major ROI on your sales training costs. The last thing you want is to spend a lot of money on sales training and not have it be well-received. 

Thankfully, we've created this article to solve those problems, keep on reading to learn more.

When it comes to digital marketing, there's a heightened focus on analytics to determine success.

Many businesses continue to place a heavy reliance on last click attribution models to determine which of their digital marketing tools are driving results. Last click attribution gives 100% of the credit for a conversion or a sale to the last click a visitor made before he or she arrived on the website to complete that action.

It's a model that has been used for years, but can be flawed if it's solely used to determine which digital marketing efforts are really driving results.

- MOTIVATION -

"What you do has far greater impact than what you say."

-Stephen Covey

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

John Quincy Adams

1 out of 3 employees say that the boss doesn’t care about the staff. Until recently, leadership has always been about position and power rather than empowerment.

A simple secret to leadership that no one ever talks about is that if you genuinely care about your people, everything else will take care of itself.

Showing empathy and compassion doesn’t classify you as a pushover. It doesn’t mean you’re not focused on results, sales, and company growth. What genuinely caring for your team means is that you prioritize your time to ensure you focus on communication.

It takes time and attention, but the impact is worth it.

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.