Articles for Sales Management Professionals

Save the Date for 2019! The 2019 University of Innovative Distribution program will take place March 10-13 at the JW Marriott Indianapolis in Indianapolis, IN. You will not find a better sales management training program in the country. I have been honored to be an instructor for the last 10 years. Since 1994, the University […]

How strong are the selling skills of your team? How consistent and effective are they in front of a prospect or customer? And when was the last time you checked them out to see if they could actually improve any of their skills and effectiveness? The Problem in Believing That “Experienced = Trained” Do you […]

What have you been doing recently to improve the selling skills of your team? With the growth of online sales newsletters, you now have an inexpensive way to conduct weekly sales training and coaching sessions with your team using the skill ideas being offered in these (normally) free newsletters. Though sales training tends to work […]

Utilizing the Four Core Values of Buying! Business-to-business buyers are influenced by your overall philosophy or approach much more than they are by the “parts and pieces” details of your actual products or services. Strategic selling involves continually communicating your overall philosophy, positioning or selling approach throughout your selling process and ongoing support efforts. One […]

The significant differences between your sales manager’s “Independent Gunfighter” leadership and selling style and your core values of collaboration and respect for the individual is the current struggle being faced by many companies (and industries) today. We are experiencing a generational shift in selling and sales leadership philosophies. The “old school” style of selling that […]

The job of a sales manager is to help each and every one of your people achieve more than they would have achieved if just left alone. How are you helping your people achieve even more by coaching and helping them increase their Operational or fundamental selling skills? How often are you riding along and […]

All sales managers eventually wind up needing to invest time and effort interviewing, hiring and training new members of their sales team. How effective are your interviewing skills and efforts? The majority of sales managers don’t interview and hire new salespeople on a regular basis so their interviewing skills tend to be weak or “underdeveloped.” […]

Are there valid reasons for recording a salesperson’s travels by GPS? Short term I am sure a team’s sales would increase due to the bottom performers running scared and working harder. But long term I believe a team will lose its top performers (or future top performers) due to their feelings of “Big Brother” and […]

Natural evolution of a dealership As dealerships get larger each person working there will tend to become more specialized. In the beginning when there are only one to three locations most managers are general managers getting involved in all major decisions. As they grow, usually by adding locations, they will need their top managers to […]