Sled dogs work in teams. Just like your sales team. The human giving directions to the sled dog team is called the “musher”. And the musher is much like the CEO, MD or General Manager giving the orders about which direction the company must travel. However, for the sled dog team it’s actually the lead […]
How to ask clients the personal, direct questions you really need to ask
In a sales conversation sometimes it can be really difficult to ask the exact questions you need to. That was the situation facing a team of financial planners I recently spoke with. They were facing a particular segment of unengaged clients and they wanted to know how they could create more engagement and generate interest […]
How to structure a sales conversation for success
In my work with technical specialists and professionals across many industry sectors there is one thing I have seen time after time that undermines their ability to successfully ‘close the sale’. That is, not following a plan. Having a structured sales conversation is critical to win more clients The structure of the conversation enables you, […]
Improve sales by having your team reflect on performance
Some things sound too simple to be true. Can you really improve sales results just by having your team think about what they have done? The short answer is yes. Studies in the real world have shown that effectively using the practice of personal reflection can produce significant performance improvements. For example, in the Harvard […]
5 steps to help younger sales staff overcome fears and improve performance
Younger members of your sales team – or individuals who may have come from a non-selling discipline – often have fears you wouldn’t expect. Sidebar: If you’re the Founder, Principal or business owner who has built the business, you may be surprised that anyone on your team actually has these concerns (as you probably don’t). […]
The twin sisters of killer sales performance improvement
When most sales managers and business owners think of improving results from their sales team they usually jump to ideas based on the ‘carrot or stick’ approach. But there are two other supportive behaviours that have much more potential to increase sales than either carrots or sticks. The beauty of carrots Within the sales profession […]
Why your sales team should be overconfident
Most people will tell you that being overconfident is a bad thing. In fact the definition of overconfident is: “more confident than it is sensible to be, often in a way that is annoying”. But that’s not always the case. In scientific research published in 2012 it was found that being overconfident helped people to […]