On the heels of the Top 5 Sales Leadership Articles of 2013 comes the Top 10 Sales Leadership Tips of 2013.
Each of these tips are article excerpts I wrote during the first 6 months of 2013:
- It’s not that cold calls don’t work; it’s that salespeople truly suck at making cold calls! Read Article.
- It is stupid for salespeople to worry that asking more questions will cause them to appear dumb! Read Article.
- While many successful salespeople have college degrees, salespeople never succeed because of their education. Read Article.
- Most other “sales assessments” are marketing-modified versions of personality assessments. The actual findings are the same as on their standard personality tests, but the names or labels of the findings have been modified to sound as if they are sales findings. As with costumes, you only need to take off the mask and you’ll see what’s underneath. No exceptions. No apologies. Read Article.
- The pipeline should be the single most accurate predictor of future revenue. Read Article.
- Salespeople change in direct proportion to the availability of immediate coaching feedback from their sales managers. Read Article.
- Salespeople believe that to differentiate and add value, they must come in with the best pricing and it will make them a hero. Unfortunately, it makes them just like everyone else and there isn’t much value in that. Read Article.
- Even if the data is sound, you would not be smart to target, recruit and select ambiverts! I guarantee that 74% of them will suck at sales too! Read Article.
- Difficult selling, with all of its challenges, leads to easy-to-achieve outcomes. ,Easy selling, while avoiding challenges, causes difficult-to-achieve outcomes. Read Article.
- Companies routinely mislabel salespeople as top producers when the reality is that they’re usually great account managers who’ve inherited the best accounts or territories. It’s often the less visible salespeople who are the best producers, bringing in new business, one deal at a time, but growing their revenue just the same. Read Article.
- Bonus: When managers fall in love with a candidate who is not recommended by OMG’s candidate assessment, it’s important to know that the findings are not inaccurate relative to a candidate’s history, but instead, accurate predictions of a candidate’s future! Read Article.
- Bonus: In many companies, some sales leadership categories are placed under the direction of people who aren’t qualified to lead them. In other companies, there are huge gaps where some or all of the categories are missing. Read Article.