Sales Leadership Articles

1). Ethics & Leadership in Business Development By : William Scheessele
In the 25 + years of working with some of the best people in Business Development within the power generation industry, we have found some unique characteristics that separate these individuals from the rest. It doesn’t seem to matter what organization they work for, or the services, the client base or the economic climate. We find that these individuals are in fact the top 3% of the professionals in their field.
Article Related to: ethics, leadership, business development leadership, business, sales, ethical sales, sales leadership

2). What’s the Objective of Your 1st Sales Appointment? By : Jeff Hardesty
Have you defined what you want to happen at the conclusion of your 1st appointment? Only then can you actually set up a proficient sales methodology to achieve the defined objective more times than not. And with a pre-defined objective to your 1st appointment you can (1) set a realistic benchmark of success and (2) measure the outcome. It becomes part of your sales performance scorecard.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

3). Powerful Routines; Identifying Sales Scenarios and Developing Best Practices for Improvement By : Jeff Hardesty
Your sales day, week and month are full of scenarios. Each one is unique as to how, when and why they occur. But what's not unique is how often they occur in similar situations, similar prospect titles of contact and similar companies by industry. For example... Why do sales cycles get so drawn out, causing closing ratios to plummet? It's because salespeople fail to identify all significant decision-makers in line with their selling proposition.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

4). 10 Tips to Increase Your Referral Ratio By : Jeff Hardesty
Tip # 1 Discipline Yourself to a Routine of ‘Asking’ Here’s something profound. The reason most of us do not get referrals on a routine basis is because we do not ask for them on a routine basis. Well, it’s almost that simple. What would be the upside on your year-end W-2 if you asked for 2 referrals from each of your new customers? Let’s say you average 6 sales per month.
Article Related to: sales prospecting, sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

5). How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time; Part 2 By : Jeff Hardesty
In Part 1, we summarized that you may have the best service in the world and the best widget in its category. But if you can't physically get in front of your targeted business prospects on a routine basis you won’t meet your revenue objectives. And we discussed these (3) realities: • If you double your new appointments you will double your revenue.
Article Related to: sales prospecting, sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

6). 5 Tips for Finding Your Core Competencies By : Jeff Hardesty
1) Is it an essential component to your sales mission or just an ingredient in the recipe? List 10 actions, routines or tasks that are part of your sales day and considered essential components of your sales process. Now, ask yourself. How many of these are essential components to my sales mission are just ingredients in the recipe? Think about a professional golfer's essential competencies from tee-off to last putt.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

7). What's Your Magic Number? By : Jeff Hardesty
The most successful businesses — and certainly, sales departments — have identified their Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome of a particular process. Then they measure the competency ratios in line with them. Have you identified the KPIs in your sales process? A good KPI example in the sales process might be how many times you advance the first sales appointment to the next phase, whether that’s a demonstration, a site visit, a survey or a proposal.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

8). Magic Number Calculator - A Diagnostic Approach to Sales Performance By : Jeff Hardesty
We discussed the most overlooked Key Performance Indicator is the "magic number," which refers to how many new appointments a sales rep must generate each week in order to achieve their revenue goal. In early 2000 I walked into a VP of Sales mission with a sales organization consisting of 120 reps spread out over 12 sales regions. They were running at 38% of revenue goal for over 2 years.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

9). Sales Prospecting and a Targeted Selection Process By : Jeff Hardesty
What’s a Targeted Selection Process? As related to prospecting, it is a process or system of defining whom you want to call on and performing the due diligence of data procurement to understand who you are calling on and why you have chosen them. It can be as simple as choosing an industry, picking a company name out of the yellow pages, understanding the appropriate level of contact to call on, and investigating a name that goes with the title.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

10). How to Sell Your CFO on Sales Training By : Jeff Hardesty
Ask any CFO what their first impression is when they hear the words ‘Sales Training’ and they might communicate back their ‘Real world’ vocabulary of ‘un-accountable’ and ‘un-measurable’. Simply put, they know they’re wasting at least half their sales training budget dollars; the problem is they don’t know which half. And from a sales management perspective, if you don’t use your training budget, you’ll lose it.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

11). How to Double your Sales Appointments in Half the Time; Part 1 By : Jeff Hardesty
Sales organizations live by growth. And Sales Growth is measured by sales revenue. If you want to know how to increase sales revenue…there are only three ways to do it: 1. Increase the number of new sales 2. Increase the amount per sale 3. Increase the frequency of sales per account If you look at the first step in increasing our revenue, you see it involves finding new sales.
Article Related to: sales prospecting, sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

12). What a Nice Thing to Say; How to Give Daily Feedback for Sales Performance Improvement By : Jeff Hardesty
Remember the first time you walked into your sales office? How did it FEEL to you? Was it buzzing, energetic and upbeat? Did you sense a spirit of positive competitiveness? Or, did you notice that the air had a weight of negativity to it? Did you suspect a lack of joy or camaraderie? Maybe you recognized that the positive vibrations were simply missing.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

13). 5 Keys to Building a Dynamic Self-Management Sales System By : Jeff Hardesty
1) Identify Your Essential Competencies and Performance Metrics If I asked you to list all the essential competencies that YOU are in control of - the ones that are absolutely critical for you to be successful in your sales position…could you do it? For example… Essential Competency or not? " Converting conversations to appointments? (yes it is) " What about filling out paperwork? No! (That's a related task) " What about closing ratio? (Sure it is.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

14). What to Do When You Hit the Invisible Sales Revenue Ceiling By : Jeff Hardesty
Have you ever hit a level of revenue that you just couldn't seem to break through? If you have, then you know how frustrating it can feel. You may even spike above this ceiling periodically. But, like water seeking its own level, your revenue results seek a sub-par level. I once walked into a situation much like this. I assumed the position of Vice President in a relatively young company.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

15). How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time; Part 4 By : Jeff Hardesty
In Part 3, How To Double your Sales Appointments in Half the Time, we reviewed and remedied the first 3 sales prospecting errors that start us down the ‘Slippery Slope’ to low Sales prospecting conversation ratios. So let’s continue to address the final 3 sales prospecting errors, discuss some proven solutions that will head us toward our worthy goal of spending Less time to achieve more targeted ‘Top-down’ sales appointments.
Article Related to: sales prospecting, sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

16). How To Match Sales Team Requirements With Management Input By : Jonathan Farrington
In commercial terms we should seek to develop our teams in two specific areas i.e. Competence and Commitment. Competence consists of the combination of knowledge and skills whilst Commitment is a combination of confidence and motivation. The degree to which a person has achieved certain combinations of these factors can be defined as Development Levels.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales, sales management

17). A New Type Of Sales Approach For A New Type Of Customer By : Jonathan Farrington
The traditional customer call once seemed indispensable to the selling process; the time and expense involved were just a basic cost of doing business. In recent years, however, the business community has come to regard the sales call as an expenditure for which there are substitutes. For many companies telemarketing and direct mail have made the sales call a choice not an inevitability.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales, sales management

18). 6 Danger Signs You May Be Headed to Micro-Management By : Jeff Hardesty
1) Do you monitor and manage tasks or do you identify and train to essential competencies? Do you want to know the big difference between due diligence and a core competency? Here's a classic example: Collecting 50 business cards per day is an act of data procurement, while training to a 60% conversation to appointment ratio is focusing on an essential component to ensure your sales team's success.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

19). Stop Pointing at Me! Which Way Do You Point Your Accountability Finger? By : Jeff Hardesty
There are two kinds of people when it comes to accountability. •Those who point their index fingers outward •Those who point their index fingers inward We all know too well that most people are quick to blame others and slow to take responsibility. They make excuses or tell a long-winded story about what went wrong and why. Obviously these people feel their success or failure is "outside of their control.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training, appointment setter

20). Adopt the ‘T’ Method to Sales Performance Improvement By : Jeff Hardesty
What’s your approach to sales training? Do you have a process that defines which sales performance competency to train to and what impact it will have on selected performance silos if the training objective is successfully met? Or do you rely on ‘field feedback’ not associated with actual performance numbers and related ROI to decide where to put your training dollars? Here’s a simple blueprint to gain more revenue in less time while maintaining fiscal accountability to the ‘Top-floor’.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training, prospecting, sales appointments, telephone training

21). How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time; Part 3 By : Jeff Hardesty
In Part 2 we discussed how to determine if a sales action is a critical sales performance competency, and we determined the following: • It is an Action that is tied directly to the end result (Good or Bad) • It can be individually isolated and trained to for Improvement • It can be objectively ‘Benchmarked’ and Measured Next, we identified that the act of communicating one-on-one to a ‘Targeted’ prospect with the objective of setting an appointment as a KEY Core Sales Competency, because nothing happens until you get in front of someone.
Article Related to: sales prospecting, sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

22). How to Recognize Your ‘True’ Sales Performance Competencies By : Jeff Hardesty
Let’s first define what we mean by a “core competency.” We will then introduce the 3 Core Competencies, and spend our time understanding how they can dramatically increase your success. The term Core Competencies refers to those essential elements in the sales process that most directly impact your success. These elements are controllable and measurable, and sales professionals can be trained to be proficient in these areas.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

23). The 10 Most Important "To-Do's" of Any Successful Salesperson By : Jeff Hardesty
1) Define your Target Market 3 questions that set you up for success (or failure) 1) Who do I call on? 2) What do I call on? 3) Why should I call them? Here's why: 1) Your average revenue per account is directly proportional to what companies you decide to call on. 2) The level of responsibility you call on directly affects your sales cycle and first appointment to proposal ratio.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

24). Characteristics of a True Sales Leader By : Jeff Hardesty
In the average sales organization, successful sales reps get promoted to managers. These "new" sales managers are suddenly tasked with leadership and training. In these situations, there is one common liability. The salesperson's biggest strength now becomes the sales manager's biggest weakness in leading a team. Typically, top sales reps don't diagnose and document their sales routines and processes; rather, they “just do it”, as the sneaker commercial so aptly says.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training

25). Why Consider ‘Sales Prospecting’ as a Sales Management Training Course By : Jeff Hardesty
The last thing a sales manager wants to do is to go through a certification course in ‘Sales Prospecting’. They’ve been there and they’ve done that, or they’d not have been promoted to a sales manager level. After all, that’s up to the sales rep. That’s why they are hired on. In fact, I recently asked a Vice President of Sales in a competitive industry if he’d be open to looking at a ‘Sales Prospecting System’ for his sales managers his remark was “That’s what we hire sales reps for.
Article Related to: sales leadership, sales training, sales performance, sales management training, corporate sales training