24Aug/104

Should Sales Managers Focus on Top Performers or Low Performers?

It's a question we hear a lot:

Should I spend my time with top performing salespeople or bottom performers?

Aren't you better off investing your time with responsive salespeople? After all, a good coach brings value to great players and sub-par ones. The same is true in sales management. However, if the salesperson you're coaching won't heed your advice, it's a waste of everyone's time. Right?

Responsive salespeople are...

  • Humble enough to take criticism,
  • Smart enough to solicit it, and
  • Willing enough to act on it.
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13Aug/100

The Fine Line Between Confidence and Arrogance

There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Here's what I mean...

  • Confidence is the feeling or belief that someone can rely on you.
  • Arrogance is having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.

Here are some differences between the two.

  1. Arrogance is exaggerated, meaning it's "larger" than reality. Confidence is a suitable dose of reality.
  2. Confidence is given to you, over time, by others. Arrogance, on the other hand, is something you give off.
  3. Arrogance can be masked for a short time as confidence.
  4. Perhaps most importantly: Confidence is good. Arrogance is bad.
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22Jul/102

The Nine Most Significant Changes to Sales Since 2005

Recently, I was thinking about how much "things" have changed in the last few years. It occurred to me that just the last half decade has brought a lot of it. The time since 2005 has had some surprising impacts on sales…

1. New ways to maintain, manage, and multiply relationships.

Today, we’re able to remain in close contact with people we would have lost touch with in the 1990s. Sometimes, that can be a bad thing.  In fact, according to one study, as many as 20% of British divorces cite online social networks as a cause. This connectedness has serious implications for your sales team.

2. Social networks (online and off) as a critical source of info.

Not only are we able to maintain, manage, and multiply our relationships, but we can also now use them to get (and share) more information. People put much more value on the information they get from their friends whom they perceive as unbiased (or at least with their best interests in mind). This is true of our “online” networks, too. Think about the number of people a recent college graduate can contact because of her Facebook account! The average person has 130 friends on Facebook. Social media means people don’t lose touch with each other the way they did in the past.

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7Jul/106

Facebook’s Impact on Salespeople

I noticed a great post by Mark Hunter on his "The Sales Hunter's Sales Motivation Blog." It's about the influence Facebook can have over a salesperson's sales efforts. He makes the simple, but powerful point that its influence can be good (if, for example, your friends post positive comments on each others' walls) or negative (if, for example, your friends post demotivating things).

First, I believe strongly that social networking plays a critical role in today's selling environment. However, there are important considerations...

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26May/100

Recognizing and Reengaging a Disengaged Salesperson [Video]

Here's a webinar we recently put together on how to recognize a disengaged salesperson on your team. Be sure to check out Part 2, below.

Here's part two of our webinar series about disengaged salespeople.

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