When do you do your best work? When you feel bad or when you feel good?

The obvious answer is when you feel good. No one feels like doing much of anything when they feel bad.

When people don’t feel so good, they end up doing very little….not a good situation for you.

So it begs the question: does the salesperson brimming with confidence sell more than the salesperson who lacks confidence? The answer may seem obvious, but why do so few average sales managers spend the majority of their time building their people’s confidence up instead of ripping it down?

It could be that many sales managers are former sales salespeople themselves and  “seagull sales management” (swoop in, dump on the rep, then fly away), is all they know.  In this case, unfortunately, ignorance begets more ignorance… (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…)