Articles for Sales Management Professionals

How aware are you of the physical comfort zones you have between yourself and your customers? Being too far away from a buyer could be seen as being aloof. But if you stand too close, you could be seen as pushy and aggressive.

Is there any seasonality to your team’s selling efforts? What can you do prior to a season’s start to coach, remind and fine-tune your team’s selling skills and messaging? 

Do the presentations being given by your sales team to your independent distributor or dealer salespeople have the best information possible so they can do their job more effectively? 

What caused your buyer to not see your extra value? It could be you have a weak message when buyers ask “Why do I want to buy from you?” It could be your reps are not proactive in how they work your buyer through the evaluation and proposals offered. What about reps not focusing on the buyer's challenges and are just pushing their products?

What caused your buyer to not see your extra value? It could be you have a weak message when buyers ask “Why do I want to buy from you?” It could be your reps are not proactive in how they work your buyer through the evaluation and proposals offered. What about reps not focusing on the buyer's challenges and are just pushing their products?

How buying decisions are made has changed dramatically in recent years. It used to be if you wanted to buy something, like a hot tub, the first thing you’d do is stop by a hot tub store, talk to a sales rep, pick up some literature and pricing and then go home to talk with your family about your options.

What can you do, as the leader of your sales team, to discuss with your reps the difference between solving symptoms and solving actual problems? Today’s video talks about this challenge of only solving symptoms and missing the real customer problems. When you can sell to your buyer’s problems, and not just their symptoms, you’ll sell even more!

Where are your sales reps positioned in the eyes of your customers? Too many salespeople are not functioning as trusted advisers in their customers eyes but are just seen as order takers and fulfillers of what their customers need. This is a key differentiator in selling today between the successful reps selling as trusted advisors and those struggling as order takers and reactive responders.

How many of your reps go to their customers asking the same questions of “Anything you need?” “Anything coming up?” “Anything I can help with?” And “How's the family?”