Sales Management

Question 1

What is the key differentiator and competitive advantage.

Answer 1

Culture.

It also clearly dictated the shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices of the sales organization: We are elite. We strive to dominate the competition. We keep score and constantly look at and talk about the scoreboard – in the hallways, in our team meetings, and when we meet 1:1.

Question 2

How to transform sales culture?

Answer 2

A formal scheduled meeting (either by phone or face to face) with each salesperson specifically to review their results and their pipeline of future sales opportunities

Question 3

Sales Management Accountability Progression

Answer 3

Result, Pipeline, Activity

Question 4

Goal of team sales meetings

Answer 4

Every salesperson to leave the team meeting better equipped and more energized to do their jobs.”

Question 5

Sales meeting agenda topics

Answer 5

Personal Updates
Review Sales Results and Highlight Outstanding Performance
Success Stories
Product Training
Best Practice Sharing
Deal Strategy Brainstorming Session
Executive or Other Department Guest Presentation
Book or Blog Review
Sales Skill Coaching/Training
Business Plan Presentation (or Review)
Brief, Controlled Bitch Session
Non-Sales Related Inspiration
Takeaways

Question 6

Manage your talent (4Rs)

Answer 6

Right people in the right roles: Specialize your team into dedicated hunters, farmers (account managers), and sales managers

Retain top producers: training, tools, and recognition

Remediate or replace underperformers

Recruit by spending dedicated time on referrals and asking for specific during interviews, including (i) details of a successful past deal & (ii) how they plan to approach the job

Question 7

Coach and mentor salespeople by:

Answer 7

Conducting regular, results-focused 1:1 meetings by examining (IN ORDER!)
Results relative to quota

Pipeline (movement of existing opportunities; new opportunities added)

Question 8

Spending time in the field (or in side-by-sides for inside sales) covering:

Answer 8

Pre-call planning (names, personalities, & meeting expectations of prospects; call flow; expected challenges; primary meeting goal)

Post-call review, letting the salesperson share her impression first

Question 9

Selfishly productive

Answer 9

They maximize their time on high-value, high-payoff activities.

Question 10

Five aspects of opportunity creation

Answer 10

The Right Attitude
Intentional Calendar Management
Strategic Targeting
Compelling Messaging
Commitment to Prospecting

Question 11

The Right Attitude

Answer 11

When your motivation is to deliver the best possible outcome and help the customer win, and you believe with certainty that your proactive efforts to contact prospects will be effective, good things follow.

Question 12

Intentional Calendar Management

Answer 12

Maximizing selling time, which requires minimizing their involvement in everything else.

Question 13

Strategic Targeting

Answer 13

Seek input. Talk to others in and outside your company. If you are a salesperson, schedule time with your manager, and possibly even others in your company, who can offer wisdom, experience, and perspective

Question 14

A Compelling Message

Answer 14

A solid, usable case study has three very simple components:

The customer’s situation when we found them or became engaged
What we did
The outcome

Question 15

Commitment to Prospecting

Answer 15

Salespeople who struggle with proactive calling tend to make prospecting into something bigger, scarier, and more difficult than it actually is.

Question 16

An Inferior Product Is Not the Excuse

Answer 16

When you live by the product, you die by the product.

Question 17

Accountability

Answer 17

What they produced (results)
What they are working on to produce results in the future (pipeline), and
Where they focused (activity) to advance opportunities is transformative.

Question 18

Two Iron Laws For Recruitment

Answer 18

First, recruit ahead of the need.
Second, never hire a candidate who is not better than the average person on your team.

Question 19

Stop rushing to demo your product/software or conduct a presentation.

Answer 19

There is no way to be perceived as a true professional problem solver, consultant, or value-creator when you show up in pitch mode before doing solid discovery work.

Question 20

Motivation for prospecting

Answer 20

You (and/or your company) are experts, problem-solvers, solution-providers, and value-creators for the customers/markets you serve.

Question 21

Time blocking

Answer 21

Time blocking is the discipline of making appointments with yourself to work on your highest-value, highest-payoff activities.

Question 22

Top producers prioritize the top of the sales funnel because they know that doing so ensures a healthy, balanced pipeline.

Answer 22

The top of the sales funnel because they know that doing so ensures a healthy, balanced pipeline

Question 23

Engage customers early on

Answer 23

How to adapt products and services to provide better solutions.

Question 24

Although buyers claim that price is the most important buying factor,

Answer 24

when we observe how supplier ratings affect share of wallet we find that service and sales experience are the most important buying criteria.”

Question 25

Advocating your product prematurely always leads to a price discussion later on

Answer 25

Starting with what the customer needs givesthe sales rep an opportunity to learn directly from the customers about their pain points and what they value in a solution, before putting on the table the products and services the company has to offer.

Question 26

Application marketers

Answer 26

developed integrated value propositions by combining hardware, software, and services modules from across divisions.

Question 27

Needs and benefits database

Answer 27

Updated after each offer. This gave account managers access to a library of value propositions that could then be tailored easily to new customer situations.

Question 28

established a sales process around cross-functional workshops

Answer 28

involved account management, marketing, and engineers.

Question 29

let sales reps sell, releasing reps’ time from non-selling activity,

Answer 29

and let support staff support.

Question 30

“A smoother and faster sales process can boost loyalty,

Answer 30

even if it may require some adaptations to customers’ own operations.”

Question 31

Kknowledge-sharing system

Answer 31

Where salespeople can easily access best practices, insights based on win-loss reviews, and competitive-positioning analysis.

Question 32

6 Why’s of Buying

Answer 32

1. Why Change
2. Why Now
3. Why this industry
4. Why your company
5. Why your company solutions
6. Why spend money

Question 33

Answer why change

Answer 33

1. What problem
2. Scope of problem, what if we don’t change
3. Make problem hurt

Question 34

Answer why now

Answer 34

1. Change now is better than change late
2. Give them a choice

Question 35

Answer why your industry solutions

Answer 35

1. the problem of choosing other people industry
2. what problem can our solutions solve while other can not

Question 36

Answer Why your company

Answer 36

1. Expertise
2. Communicate confidence

Question 37

Answer Why your company solutions

Answer 37

1. what matter to the buyers
2. why you are better than your competitor
   3.

Question 38

Answer Why spend money

Answer 38

1. Desire for gain
2. Fear for lose