The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Imagine this scenario: You’re managing a seller who is excellent at developing close relationships with their clients, but you’ve noticed they've been running late to several prospecting meetings in recent weeks. You want them to be on time for their meetings and are preparing to give them feedback on this issue. 

Which style of feedback do you think would motivate them to be more punctual? 

Option 1: “You are so good at connecting; I bet you could utilize the 5-10 minutes before your meeting starts to get to know your clients on a more personal level. What do you think?” 

Option 2: “Don’t be late for meetings; it’s unprofessional.” 

Most of us can agree that Option 1 is likely to feel better for both the manager and the seller, but will using this style of positive feedback lead to more on-time meetings?  

The answer? Yes, absolutely.

Have you ever heard music that was so brilliant, you couldn’t even carry on a conversation while listening? 

I had a friend in college who played like that. Her audiences would be nearly silent as she played, mesmerized by the sound, until her last note when they would go nuts!

She practiced both the piano and the guitar often, simply because she loved it, and she often played for us upon request. I’m not much of a musician myself, and I don’t know a lot about the business, but those who did were certain that she could be one of the few who actually made a career for herself in music. 

You have a salesperson who has a great, positive attitude. The clients love them and they do a great job at getting that first appointment and building a relationship with clients. 

BUT they tend to use the same few solutions over and over.

And when clients or coworkers come to this person with an issue, it ruins their day — it gets them completely off track, and they just can’t seem to find the way back. What’s the problem?! 

Is the individual's positivity not as high as it should be? Is discipline the issue? Actually, what you're witnessing may be their lack of ability to problem solve.

Our team spend hours a day talking about talent:

• How to recruit talent
• How to hire talent
• How to develop talent

There's no doubt that talent is the foundation for success in any path we choose! But talent alone is not enough; the fit has to be right, too.

We encourage hiring managers to consider fit as carefully as they consider talent because talent is a strength only when the fit is right.

If your job involves growing a department or organization, the only way you can do that is to grow each person on board. How do you do that? Follow this Growth Formula.

This article on how to hire a great sales hunter stirred up great conversations about how to coach and develop those hunters once they are onboard. Great stuff, so we want to share it!

The best way to grow an organization is to grow each of the people within that organization, including your sales hunters. Great managers do this by keeping the natural behaviors of these people top of mind and committing to a handful of strategies to maximize their strengths. 

At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), our mission and reason for being is to Turn Talent into Performance. Talent is foundational, but it’s not the only element.

It starts with talent, but you must also develop. After you’ve selected the person, you must commit to growing and developing them if you really want to turn talent into performance.

How do you grow someone?

When you focus on a natural strength, magic happens. They say that when you spend time practicing and honing a strength you have, you can grow in that area by as much as 10xs!

Investing that same effort in an area that’s not a natural strength pays little return.

Imagine the improvement that a salesperson could see if they had the innate ability to ask probing questions and uncover meaningful information—and then spent time practicing and developing that ability! The potential would be huge!

But what if they were too busy to spend any directed time or energy developing that talent? Or even worse, what if they were simply unaware of their incredible potential for growth? That is a wasted opportunity that keeps us awake at night.

30% of job seekers have left a job within 90 days of starting.

Staffing and HR experts say onboarding new hires at an organization should be a strategic process that lasts at least one year because how employers handle the first few days and months of a new employee's experience is crucial to ensuring high retention.

Beyond the basics, what else does a new hire need?

You already know that turning talent into performance requires a true understanding of talent. Spotting talent, hiring talent, developing talent, and coaching talent. . . it’s mission critical.

Talent assessments are an excellent tool for understanding the way your candidates and current salespeople are wired. The difference in approach with each group is key to productive new hires and successful coaching.

To successfully manage and lead others, you must understand what makes each of your team members unique and individualize your approach. It’s important to understand the innate talents of each person and consistently coach them to maximize their strengths, work around their weaknesses, and turn talent into performance.

Gallup's research in the bestseller It's the Manager proves that this strengths-based approach to being a coach, not a boss, is essential to leading a high-performance team.