Sales Management. Simplified.
The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team
Author:
Mike Weinberg
ISBN:
9780814436431
Format:
Hardback
Price:
$27.95
Overview
Because managing sales doesn't have to be so complicated.
Why do sales organizations fall short? Every day, expert consultants
like Mike Weinberg are called on by companies large and small to find
the answer—and it's one that may surprise you. Typically, the issue lies
not with the sales team—but with how it is being led. Through their
attitude and actions, senior executives and sales managers unknowingly
undermine performance.
In Sales Management. Simplified. Weinberg tells it straight,
calling out the problems plaguing sales forces and the costly mistakes
made by even the best-intentioned sales managers. The good news: with
the right guidance, results can be transformed. Blending blunt,
practical advice with funny stories from the field, this book helps you:
Implement a simple framework for sales leadership • Foster a healthy,
high-performance sales culture • Conduct productive meetings • Create a
killer compensation plan • Put the right people in the right roles •
Coach for success • Retain top producers and remediate
underperformers • Point salespeople at the proper targets •
Sharpen your sales story • Regain control of your calendar • And more
Long on solutions and short on platitudes, Sales Management.
Simplified. delivers the tools you need to succeed.
About the Author
MIKE WEINBERG is founder and president of The New Sales Coach, a
consultancy specializing in sales management and new business
development. He is the author of the popular book
New Sales.
Simplified.
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Excerpt
Chapter 1: As Goes the Leader, So Goes the Organization
I can point to the exact spot on the Highway 40 exit to Ballas Road
where I finally gave in and called my dad. After an incredible ten-plus
year run as a top-producing salesperson for various companies and
another successful, fun four years coaching salespeople and sales teams
how to develop new business, I was struggling mightily in my first sales
management role.
For the life of me, I couldn't figure it out. How could I be struggling
so badly after so many years as both a top individual producer and a
highly respected sales coach? So, what does a 38-year-old clueless
executive do when he's out of ideas and tired of banging his head
against the wall? Darn right. He picks up the phone to call his dad. Not
just any dad, but the former big-time New York City sales executive dad
who'd forgotten more about sales management than I ever hoped to know.
The Real Life of the Sales Leader
My dad answered the phone and I exploded, cathartically blasting him
with a litany of challenges weighing on me. If only I'd had the presence
of mind to record the phone call that went something like this:
"I've never worked longer or harder yet spent so little time on what
moves the needle. I have zero control of my days. My weak salespeople
are afraid of their own shadow and need constant babysitting; the strong
ones are high-maintenance and nothing is ever good enough for them. The
CEO thinks he's a sales expert but continually deflates the sales team
with his overbearing pontificating about various topics. The CFO sends
me spreadsheets in a six-point font with embedded pivot tables to
demonstrate how we're over-discounting. I don't even know what a pivot
table is, let alone how to use one! The manufacturers we represent
continually pester me looking to schedule time in the field with my
people. I feel like a logistics manager, not a sales leader! The
internal marketing people are ticked that we're behind placing a new
line of displays. Our big competitor just stole our number one guy
because our compensation plan is too flat. Other department heads keep
inviting me to meetings that have nothing to do with generating revenue.
And some idiot customer service rep is giving out my cell phone number
to customers with technical questions that I can't answer. That's how
I'm doing, Dad. Glad you asked??
My dad waited about five seconds, which felt like an eternity, before
responding, and then he said one word: Congratulations.
I was none too pleased with his sarcasm. Huh? Come again big fella.
Then he continued:
"Congratulations, Michael. You now understand that the front-line sales
management role is one of the absolute toughest jobs on the planet.
Everyone wants a piece of you, just like you described. There's no way
to win without a solid grounding in your absolute priorities and a laser
focus on what's absolutely critical to drive the business. None of those
people placing demands on you and putting work on your desk understands
your job. And if you let them dictate how to spend your time, you'll not
only be miserable like you are now, but you'll also fail.?
Wiser words have never been spoken. And so began my next ten-year
journey - a mission to master sales management and help others do the
same.
You Don't Transform Organizations from the Bottom
Along with my painful yet formative first go-round as a sales executive
there was another strong motivator pushing me to unlock the keys to
successful sales leadership. During my initial stint in consulting and
coaching, I learned the hard way that while I could improve the
performance of individual producers by teaching and coaching my New
Sales Driver framework (highlighted in my first book, New Sales.
Simplified.), that was not enough to transform sales organizations.
Organizations don't change from the bottom by improving the skills,
techniques, and attitudes of their salespeople. To truly transform the
results and health of an entire sales team, the leader and the culture
must be transformed.
As you'll read in many of the true stories and anecdotes I share in Part
One of this book, the sales problem in many businesses I consult with
does not lie with the salespeople. The main challenge is typically how
the sales team is being led, and more often than not, the underlying
root cause issues are cultural, flowing down from senior leadership at
the top of the company.
That same CEO I mentioned in my call to my dad, the one who liked to
pontificate about sales, also happened to be a brilliant, well-read
consultant who had consulted dozens and dozens of business owners,
senior executives, and organizations. When it came to leadership and
organizational behavior, he was a hugely valuable mentor to me and
probably had the sharpest business mind I'd encountered. He taught me a
ton about leadership dynamics and performance, and there were two
powerful catch-phrases of his that left an indelible impression on me,
particularly as it relates to sales leadership.
The first phrase was: "As goes the leader, so goes the organization.?
Those are powerful and profound words. I feel no need to offer editorial
comments. Read them again and picture any organization and its leader
that come to mind. As goes the leader, so goes the organization. Pretty
much says it all, doesn't it?
The other expression that stuck with me is even more applicable to
sales management: "The level of the team rarely, if ever, exceeds the
level of the leader.? Let that sink in. Just think about the
implications.
How many zillions of dollars are spent on sales training to improve the
effectiveness of salespeople, but how little time and money are invested
to shore up the leader of those sales teams? Why do some companies
simply take it for granted that sales managers know how to lead? And how
about smaller organizations, where the founder or president who's a
techie, engineer, designer, or accountant by background leads the sales
team even though he or she is admittedly ignorant about creating a
healthy sales culture, selecting and managing sales talent, or helping
to shape sales process? And if leading the team is the single-most
important function of the person in charge of sales, why do many larger
companies bury that person with so much non-sales leadership work? If we
agree it is true that the level of the team will not likely exceed the
level of the leader, doesn't it become obvious that to increase sales
performance we must increase our sales leader's acumen?
And that is exactly why over the past few years I've intentionally
shifted the focus of my consulting practice to offering blunt, practical
sales management help to senior executives and sales leaders. Sure, I am
still uber passionate about new business development, and constantly
asked to coach and speak on topics from New Sales. Simplified. But the
cold hard truth is that unless we raise the game of those individuals
leading sales organizations, whether as senior executives or front-line
sales managers, we won't be making a sustainable impact on sales
performance. That fact is what compelled me to write this book. So let's
dive into some blunt truth from the front lines and look at many of the
reasons sales team are not succeeding at the level they should be.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Jeb Blout
Introduction
Part One Blunt Truth from the Front Lines: Why So Many Sales
Organizations Fail to Produce the Desired Results
Chapter 1 As Goes the Leader, So Goes the Organization
Chapter 2 A Sales Culture Without Goals is a Sales Culture Without
Results
Chapter 3 You Can't Effectively Run a Sales Team When You're Buried in
Crap
Chapter 4 Playing CRM Desk Jockey Does Not Equate to Sales Leadership
Chapter 5 You Can Manage, You Can Sell, But You Can't Do Both at Once
Chapter 6 A Sales Manager Either Wants to Make Heroes or be the Hero
Chapter 7 Sales Suffer When the Manager Wears the Fire Chief's Helmet
Chapter 8 The Trouble with One Size Fits All Sales Talent Deployment is
that One Size
Does Not Fit All
Chapter 9 Turning a Blind Eye to the Perennial Underperformer Does More
Damage
Than You Realize
Chapter 10 COMPensation and COMPlacency Start with the Same Four Letters
Chapter 11 An Anti-Sales Culture Disengages the Heart of the Sales Team
Chapter 12 The Big Ego Senior Executive "Sales Expert? Often Does More
Harm than
Good
Chapter 13 Entrepreneurial, Visionary Leaders Forget that Their People
Can't Do What They Can Do
Chapter 14 The Lack of Coaching and Mentoring Produces Ineffective
Salespeople
Chapter 15 Amateurish Salespeople Are Perceived Simply as Vendors,
Pitchmen and
Commodity Sellers
Chapter 16 Sales Leaders Chase Shiny New Toys Searching for the Magic
Bullet
Part Two Practical Help and a Simple Framework to Get Exceptional
Results from
Your Sales Team
Chapter 17 A Simple Framework Provides Clarity to the Sales Manager
Chapter 18 A Healthy Sales Culture Changes Everything
Chapter 19 Sales Managers Must Radically Reallocate Their Time to
Create a Winning
Sales Culture
Chapter 20 Regular 1:1 Results-focused Meetings Between Sales Manager
and Each
Salesperson Will Transform Your Sales Culture
Chapter 21 Productive Sales Meetings Align, Equip, and Energize the Team
Chapter 22 Sales Managers Must Get Out in the Field with Salespeople
Chapter 23 Talent Management Can Make or Break the Sales Leader
Chapter 24 Strategic Targeting: Point Your Team in the Right Direction
Chapter 25 The Sales Manager Must Ensure the Team is Armed for Battle
Chapter 26 Sales Managers Must Monitor the Battle and be Ruthless with
Their Time
Index
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