Mastering the nuances of sales management on the job can have its pitfalls. Here are ten things that I wish I’d known before I started managing a sales force. 1.…
Find New Meaning in Life and Work
‘Spiritual intelligence’ or ‘spiritual IQ’ (SQ) helps you live a life of wisdom, compassion and authentic leadership. It’s the focus of a new book, SQ 21: The Twenty-One Skills of…
Use Trigger Events to Shorten Sales Cycles
James (a hypothetical sales person) keeps getting what sound like positive buying signals during his prospecting calls. Somehow, though, he’s not getting very far. "People tell me to call back…
Run Effective Sales Meetings
Sales meetings are a fact of life and business and they are important for a variety of reasons. They allow larger companies to address the entire sales team as a…
The Real Cost of Losing Customers
Companies spend a lot of time and money to attract new customers, but less effort goes into figuring out why they lose customers. However, the cost to business of losing customers,…
Staying the Distance
Vital stats Andrew Haynes, 50 Designation: Senior director, commercial information solutions Company: TransUnion Credit Bureau Sales Team: 20 national field-based sales staff and four managers, 16 telesales staff and three managers Offering: Credit and…
Moving Towards Adaptive Leadership
Leadership always occurs within a context. The type of leadership required – the leadership that will be most successful – is that which best reflects the context within which it…
Infiltrate Your Competitor’s Sales Funnel
Building a sales funnel can be a lot of work: You need marketing and sales collateral, you need to get out there and aggressively fill your sales funnel with contacts,…
The Risk of Dead Knowledge to Sales Leaders
Knowledge is only as good as it is current and useful. Think about that for a moment. If the knowledge you have isn’t current — and by that I mean…
Do Something!
Stop mistaking being busy for actually being productive. As Henry David Thoreau said, "It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we…