The Law of Reciprocity states, “If you do something nice for someone, human nature dictates that the recipient will feel compelled to do something nice for you in return.”

The philosopher Confucius simplified it when he said, “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.” This second definition is very important.

Selling is a two-way relationship. The same applies to managing a sales team. If the team wants to be able to grow beyond what it started out with, it needs to surrender under the guidance of its sales manager. If the sales manager wants to earn the respect of the team, he needs to work hard and earn his sales people’s trust one brick at a time.

I know this much is true: that the Law of Reciprocity is essential to a career in sales. (more…)

The best, high-performing sales managers observe their salespeople.

They notice that there are certain core talents each individual has. They make mental notes of their salespeople’s strengths as well as their weaknesses. They know that they can leverage their talents as a launching point to coax even greater performance out of their salespeople.

For example, lets compare two top performing salespeople, both having achieved the highest sales awards in their companies with great track records of success. (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…)

Richard Branson, the eccentric founder of Virgin Airlines and multiple other businesses is the epitome of  “unconventional” businessman. He does things HIS way, he does things the way he feels are right…and with a billion or so in the bank, he’s been more right than wrong.

How he lives and manages his businesses are by making massive goals, taking massive action and doing things “unconventionally” to achieve those goals. When everyone zigging…he’s zagging.  One of his famous quotes:

“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unconventional challenges and trying to rise above them…from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it.”

This unconventional style is how you need to think and act as a manager who craves top sales results. The truth is that there are so many management gurus who have written tomes and dissertations on exactly how to motivate people, all in search of the “one thing” that does it all with minimal effort. The real truth is that there is no ONE way to do it. Motivating to trigger explosive sales growth is the sum of hundreds, if not thousands of decisions that you make on a daily basis. (more…)

You have to be more popular than Howard Stern.

You also have to be cooler than Opie and Anthony too.

Why? Because one of the most critical elements to successful sales management is to always make sure you are tuned into the radio frequency of your salespeople.

Here’s why. There’s only one radio station that your sales executives like to listen to and that radio station is: WIFM. (You might say WIIFM, but let’s not get too technical here…).

This is the “What’s-In-It-For-Me” radio frequency. This is the only station they pay any attention to and if you’re not broadcasting on it all the time, 24-7, then your sales reps are gonna switch you over to some other station on XM or Sirius radio…or worse yet, turn off the radio completely! (more…)