The thing with underperformers is that because of their failures to hit quota, they start to have a hard time picturing themselves on top. They know they’re performing way below their peers and like a baseball slugger in a slump, they start to lose confidence.

The real challenge for the sales manager is to help underperforming salespeople stop this destructive thought process. Not easy. But a salesperson whose lost confidence in their abilities cannot possibly perform at the level that’s expected of them.

And this is where the third rule comes in. (more…)

The best, high-performing sales managers are a different breed.

They notice stuff.

They notice what their salespeople are good at…as well as what they’re not so good at. They then leverage the stuff they are good at to coax even greater performance out of their salespeople. They largely minimize the weaknesses.

The average sales managers sees those same weaknesses and thinks that he can fix them. He spends all his time doing just that.

That’s why he’s an average sales manager.

Let’s show an example… (more…)

The third and final myth in this series of blog posts is also one of the most important topics in sales management. It concerns performance. But it is also about change, about trying to move away from an established routine in hopes of discovering something even better. Alas…

Myth #3 – Results must be reinforced for performance to change. (more…)

This is the second part of the article The #1 Myth to Sales Coaching Is…

In the first article, we discussed the difference between teaching and reaching out. As we discussed, the top sales manager studies and figures out their sales reps’ individual strengths and weaknesses, and adjusts strategy accordingly. Sales coaching as teaching is a myth because sales reps rarely learn anything from that method.

Which leads to…

Myth #2 – Most sales reps can assess their own strengths and weaknesses. (more…)

One thing’s for sure: Cork Walgreen REALLY knew how to sell.

In one of our previous posts, we talked about how Walgreen’s Drugstores figured out how to sell more stuff and become one of the top-performing stocks in the last forty years in the process, beating Intel, GE and Cisco! Their formula for success was simple: have the best, most convenient drugstores, with a high profit per customer visit. A simple formula, no doubt and that‘s the formula for creating the single most successful company in terms of market return in the past forty years.

What  Walgreens did is what you as a sales manager must do as well. If you are to fully distinguish yourself from the competition just like Cork Walgreen, then you’ll need to think about what you can be the best in the world at – and then funnel all your energies into pursuing that one thing. Figure out what one thing you do better than anyone else and teach that one thing to your salespeople over and over and over again. (more…)