How Mistakes Make You a Sales Management Genius

sales management mistakesI have a very close friend who is an incredibly successful internet entrepreneur.

Despite the fact that he toils in a highly competitive and cut-throat market, he has achieved an unprecedented level of success his peers could only dream of.

Last month, he made an enormous mistake. It was actually a catastrophic mistake. He was doing a project for one of his clients and documenting its success on his blog and he took his eye off the ball and just plain screwed up.

Instead of hiding from it, burying it, never mentioning it, he did the exact opposite of what most people would do:

He discussed it openly on his blog for his thousands of readers to see.

Curious about this decision to publicly “come clean”, I asked him why.

His answer: Continue reading

Essential Skills To Becoming A Top Sales Manager: Sales Planning

sales manager holding a building planDo you remember Robert Goizueta? The “visual leader“?

Robert was a different breed of leader. He knew how to rally his troops into working together to achieve a singular vision. He had talent.

But Robert also had one thing in common with many of today’s successful sales managers – he always had a plan. Robert Goizueta recognized the power of good planning and modern sales managers must do the same.

Good sales planning is done before the call—not during and not afterward. Too many average sales managers show their faces during sales calls without a cohesive plan of their own in mind. They may figure that since they are believers in sales rep empowerment that the sales reps has it all taken care of everything.

Top students of sales management know that this is a recipe for disaster. Continue reading

Get Your Sales Reps To Sell Like “Corky”

24What is the highest performing stock in terms of total return over the course of the past 40 years?

Its not Microsoft. No, its not Cisco Systems. Its not GE. It’s not even Intel.

You ready?

Its Walgreens Drug Stores.

Walgreens? You gotta be kidding me! The drugstore chain? Yep, its true. How they did it is even cooler than that fact that they did it in the first place.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins investigates how they actually did it. And the answer is very simple. All that Cork Walgreen, the founder of Walgreens did is that he took a long hard look at what his business did really well and then channeled all his energies into that one thing. In essence, he figured out exactly what Walgreens could be the best in the world at and channeled all of their efforts into achieving that one thing. Continue reading

Are You A “Visual Sales Leader” Like Robert Goizueta?

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In explaining the near infinite growth opportunities  for the Coca-Cola company, the late great former CEO of Coca-Cola Robert Goizueta would oftentimes tell his troops:

“Each of the world’s six billion people drink on average SIXTY-FOUR ounces of fluids a day…of which TWO ounces is Coca-Cola”

This “sixty-two ounce upside” captured the essence of his message and reinforced the core belief that Coca-Cola had a near limitless growth potential. Goizueta was especially skilled at capturing a complex idea and communicating it in a clear visual, yet inspiring way.

He was a true “visual sales leader“.

Do you do the same with your sales team?

Visual sales leaders use memorable simple concepts to make it perfectly clear what needs to get done. They do it in easily understandable terms. The simpler…the better. But they make it unforgettable.

If you can distill your entire market down to its essential visual elements, and then MONETIZE it so your salespeople understand it without question…then, watch out.

Let me give you an example:

*You sell a specific kind of women’s dress

*The total market did $24 million for your sales district
in 2008.

*Your total 2008 sales were $4 million.

*Your market opportunity = $20 million

*Each of your ten salespeople has a $100,000 quota to achieve
their sales goal.

(Although I have never sold dresses in my life), a visual sales leader might say something like:

“When you place one of our dresses in the hands of ONLY one out of every 200 women dress shoppers in your entire geography then, congratulations…you hit quota”

“But…if you put one of our dresses in the hands of one out of every 100 women dress shoppers in your entire geography, then congratulations…you hit sales stardom”

Basic?

Yes.

Effective.

Most definitely.

In this example, you are simultaneously “leading visually”, while simultaneously “Setting the Bar Higher” (Course 2 in
the Sales Management Mastery online program – coming soon). Visual leading cuts through the crap…while reinforcing the predominant sales messages so your reps keep their eyes focused on the prize.

And the prize is the “sixty-two ounce upside”…

To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.

After you do that, post a comment to this post as to how you lead your salespeople to get the best from them?