Sales Training Connection

JULY 10, 2013

Attackers. “The world of business really separates into two groups: the Attackers are the entrepreneurs who disrupt the status quo, try to change the world, take the hill, and who possess an anything is possible attitude.” And, they’re probably not in that group that would take a shine to the Challenger Sale model. Let’s take a look.

Territories 108

Territories Maximizer Groups Training 108

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 25, 2013

A report on Sales Managers by the TAS Group was quite telling. But there is one additional group that must take some responsibility – sales reps. It has been a well-established truth for at least 20 years. The bad news is too many front-line sales managers in too many companies are still spending too much time on low priority tasks.

Sales Management 132

Sales Management Coaching Pivotal Sales Coaching 132

Sales Training Connection

MARCH 26, 2012

Millenials are not some group apart. Leaders can best manage a multigenerational workplace if they understand and address the special interests and needs of each group but first and foremost focus on creating an organizational culture that supports all employees regardless of when they were born. ©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Hiring 114

Hiring Incentives Incentive Compensation 114

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

Therefore pre-post control group type research designs are not applicable. Those companies reporting that their sales training exceeded expectations also reported both lower competitive loses and less loses to “no decision” as compared to the other two groups. So you are not going to find cause and effect RIO studies.

Training 108

Training Quota Study Report 108

Sales Training Connection

MAY 5, 2014

Can you justify taking a group of front-line sales managers out of the field to spend time in the classroom realistically playing the customer roles and providing feedback to a group of sales reps during training? Who are these top sales performers? Let’s start with using front-line sales managers.

Construction 117

Construction Training Groups Buyer 117

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 29, 2014

Recently the TAS group in partnership with SalesforceWork.com published a study on how well things are going out there. In assessing whether this is a problem worth addressing it is informative to look at some success statistics. One of the telling statistics was – 67% of professional salespeople do not obtain their individual quotas.

Sales Management 131

Sales Management Top of Funnel Face-to-face Funnel 131

Sales Training Connection

MAY 25, 2012

Millennials – a/k/a Millennial Generation, Generation Y, Generation Next, Net Generation, Echo Boomers – describes the demographic group following Generation X (the cohort that followed the Baby Boomers). A Sales Training Connection Classic. The “Cadillac” of this method is sales simulations.

Training 110

Training Exercises Face-to-face Demographics 110

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 15, 2012

One overall observation stood out … As a group, the sales reps didn’t do as good job on the fundamentals as one might have expected. Recently we had a sales training project where we had the opportunity to observe a 50 rep sales team making a series of sales calls.

Face-to-face 115

Face-to-face Objections Training Sales 115

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 24, 2011

As reported in a recent article by the Date Decision Group there were 77 major merger and acquisitions in 2010 – a 50% increase over the 2009 level. The new angle is GPOs will not only be more active in the traditional commodity market but also “extending their reach to capital equipment and medical devices” (Date Decision Group).

Health Care 61

Health Care Account Territories Face-to-face 61

Sales Training Connection

JUNE 4, 2014

Make it a group when it isn’t. These sorts of cryptic messages drive people crazy because they don’t know what the manager wants to talk about. Many people assume the worst and spend the rest of the day trying to figure out what their manager wants to discuss.

Sales Management 123

Sales Management Face-to-face Pivotal Sales Leadership 123

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 9, 2013

Regarding innovation the authors suggest: “More focused collaboration among multiple functional groups notably marketing and sales , operations, engineering, R&D, and procurement.” McKinsey explored this question and suggested the answer is not just about doing a better job doing what they are doing.

Margin 119

Margin Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Lead Scoring 119

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 10, 2014

When a manager recognizes an employee’s strengths in a personalized way before the group, it lights up the same regions of the brain as winning a large sum of money.” “Neuroscience explains the importance of the personal touch in delivering recognition that matters. This type of recognition encourages people to repeatedly behave the same way.

Sales Management 100

Sales Management Motivation Face-to-face Research 100

Sales Training Connection

JULY 15, 2013

Gaze grabbers who intensely look into others’ eyes when talking can make the listener feel like the salesperson is trying to dominate the conversation [ideally, holding eye contact for 7 to 10 seconds in a one-on-one conversation and 3-5 seconds in a group setting is ideal].

Sales Coaching 121

Sales Coaching Coaching Analytics ACT 121

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

In additional to the multiple buyers inside the hospital, there are powerful outside groups in the market – GPOs (Group Purchasing Organizations who contract with suppliers to pool the purchasing power of a consortium of member hospitals) and independent consultants (who promise to identify cost savings.) Rise of new influencers.

Health Care 99

Health Care Sales Process Decision Maker Influencer 99

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 29, 2012

The idea is to designate a group of sales people as Hunters – responsible for generating business in new accounts. A second group is assigned to the Farmer role – charged with maintaining and growing the business in existing accounts. A Sales Training Connection Classic.

Strategy 84

Strategy Microsoft Account Territories 84

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 11, 2014

The buying processes involve more group decisions, senior-level involvement, keener competition, and more price pressures making this sale more challenging than ever. Transformational shifts are occurring. In many markets, like healthcare, transformational shifts are occurring in the buying environment.

Sports 97

Sports Negotiation Competition Training 97

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 24, 2012

But, could you justify taking a group of front-line managers out of the field to spend time in the classroom realistically playing the customer roles and providing feedback to a group of sales reps during training? Who are these top performers? Let’s start with the idea of using front-line sales managers.

Face-to-face 100

Face-to-face Lead Rank Coaching Training 100

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Maximize the power of the group. So, it makes great sense to use the peer group as an additional source for coaching and feedback. Sales managers need to provide their teams with a simple post-call protocol for analyzing the results and then periodically review insights gained. .

Hiring 99

Hiring Wireless Coaching Journal 99

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 12, 2011

The panel included: Dave Brock (Partners in Excellence), Jack Malcolm (Falcon Performance Group), Paul McCord (McCord Training), Andy Rudin (Outside Technologies), and me. The 45 minute conversation was recorded and is now available for you to listen to at: [link] #. The panel of experts discussed those ideas and debated others.

Conversion 76

Conversion Competition Face-to-face Social Media 76

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

But, could you justify taking a group of front-line managers out of the field to spend time in the classroom realistically playing the customer roles and providing feedback to a group of sales reps during training? . Who are these top performers? Let’s start with the idea of using front-line sales managers.

Face-to-face 109

Face-to-face Lead Rank Training Buying Cycle 109

Sales Training Connection

MARCH 19, 2012

Externals – This group is composed of the wide variety of external people or groups of people who may influence the decision maker either directly or indirectly. Their primary concern is about specifications. Their influence can vary significantly. Sometimes it is a behind the scenes type impact and in others, it is more direct.

Lead Qualification 115

Lead Qualification Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 115

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Yet, whether presenting to a buying committee or making a sales presentation in response to a request for a proposal (RFP) or participating in a competitive shoot out, presenting to a group of people is never easy. A winning presentation is not a “product pitch” either.

Proposal 129

Proposal Sales Training Groups 129

Sales Training Connection

MARCH 13, 2015

Whether a company is preparing to implement a planned strategy, merging groups or responding to a problem or opportunity, organizational structures are put in place before new work is made visible to the outside world. Teams of required skills are assembled, specific skills are reassigned or grouped, and units are disbanded or reduced.

Lead Generation 50

Lead Generation Lead Rank Lead Scoring Ideal Customer Profile 50

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 7, 2012

Could we imagine a small group of individuals who know a lot about sales trying to partner with a university that is already offering programs in other areas to do something in sales? A couple of questions to guide the discussion: Should sales training companies, either large or small, individually or collectively try to get involved?

Scale 94

Scale Education Training Google 94

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 30, 2015

In times of disruptive change a new group of winners and losers emerge – upping your sales coaching efforts is a great way to be among the former. While skill coaching is usually done individually because of the observation and feedback elements, strategy coaching often lends itself to small groups.

Maximizer 50

Maximizer Coaching Strategy Sales Coaching 50

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 12, 2017

It is safe to say that it is near impossible to have a superior sales force without having a great group of front-line sales managers – front-line sales managers are the pivotal job for driving sales excellence. This can be difficult for a new sales manager but the sooner it happens the better. ©2017 Sales Momentum® LLC.

Sales Management 63

Sales Management Top of Funnel Funnel Pivotal 63

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 6, 2012

So get a small group of them together and ask the group what is going on and what needs improving. Front-line sales managers can provide an excellent snapshot of the sale team’s exiting skill level and where they need to be. The second point about where they need to be is particularly interesting.

Face-to-face 97

Face-to-face Training Sales Leadership Groups 97

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Join their associations, get their newsletters, review their websites, read blogs, and join LinkedIn groups. If you typically sell to a certain industry, immerse yourself in the literature of that industry.

Face-to-face 114

Face-to-face Ideal Customer Profile Decision Maker LinkedIn 114

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Without a solid group of front-line sales managers it is not possible to build and sustain a superior sales force. In the long run, it will build employee capacity and, more importantly, save you time — time you can use to create new opportunities for your business. They are the pivotal job for driving sales effectiveness.

Sales Management 96

Sales Management Journal Lead Rank Pivotal 96

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 20, 2012

The first step he took was to locate a group of the very best executives he could find. Way back in 1955 when the average cost of a new car was $1,900 and a gallon of gas was 23 cents, Louis Mobley was given a blank check by Tom Watson, IBM’s CEO, to create a school for training IBM executives.

Sales Leadership 125

Sales Leadership Lead Rank Lead Scoring Face-to-face 125

Sales Training Connection

MARCH 25, 2015

Sales training is a social not a physical science so classic control group pre-post test designs are difficult to execute; however, there is vast room for improvement using other summative and formative evaluation designs. Due to the disruptive changes in the buying environment there is more of a need for sales training than ever.

Training 50

Training Exercises Survey Case Study 50

Sales Training Connection

JULY 25, 2011

The idea is to designate a group of sales people as Hunters – responsible for generating business in new accounts. A second group is assigned to the Farmer role – charged with maintaining and growing the business in existing accounts. Companies have used the Hunter-Farmer framework for a very long time to configure their sales force.

Strategy 65

Strategy Microsoft Account Territories 65

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Now, if we were to assemble a group of senior level sales executives, what would they say about that? Let’s take look at the implications for top level strategic sales planning and then translate it all to sales reps.

Strategy 120

Strategy Exercises Competition Training 120

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 24, 2014

This group of products is called the Consideration Set. Geting Your Product or Service into the Customer’s Considersation Set. Customers generally seriously only consider a handful of products before deciding which one to buy. We took some of Dawar’s ideas and added a few of our own.

Competition 98

Competition Strategy Training Sales 98

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

However as a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) notes the strategy for generating those outcomes is no longer sustainable. Medtech sales. For years MedTech companies have enjoyed strong gross margins and top-line growth. BCG suggests changes will be required throughout the value chain.

Health Care 108

Health Care Pharmaceuticals Margin Report 108

Sales Training Connection

JULY 25, 2012

Ask this question to a group of senior sales managers and almost unanimously you’ll get the same answer – “Not Necessarily.” Sales Management. Yet, when companies review their sales force and identify those with high potential the assumed next step is first-line sales management.

Sales Management 109

Sales Management Coaching Sales Coaching Training 109

Sales Training Connection

JULY 25, 2014

While coaching sales skills is usually done individually because of the observation and feedback requirements, strategy coaching can often be done in small groups. Another way to leverage time is to consider alternatives to one-on-one coaching sessions.

Coaching 99

Coaching Sales Management Strategy Face-to-face 99