Sales Blog with Sales Tips

Just about every sales professional I’ve ever worked with has thought of – and dreamed of – becoming a sales manager.

There are numerous reasons for this: boredom in current position, more income, get away from the monthly quota grind, etc. The following are four attributes that upper management looks for before promoting a sales professional into sales management.

The Four Traits Of Aspiring Sales Managers
1. Recently I heard an executive of a very large company say that the reason he promoted a certain individual into sales management was her receptiveness to feedback. Being open to feedback is critical.

2. People like working with people they can count on. Are we on time? Do we take care of important details? Can people trust us? A sales manager’s sales team and the VP of Sales need to know they can rely on the sales manager.

3. Change is something sales managers have to deal with on an hourly basis. If we can’t elegantly handle change, we should take ourselves out of the sales management candidate pool. A good sales manager copes with dramatic change while softening the impact to his or her sales team.

4. Sales professionals who want to become sales managers know they need to grow in their careers and in their industry. They want to grow. Sales tips blogs, magazines, podcasts, seminars, professional organizations and books are part of their ongoing learning regimen.

We need to demonstrate these four qualities in order to be considered sales management material.

It’s Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be
While you might fantasize about being a sales manager, let me warn you that it’s not all roses. Think carefully before you pursue this career path.

You’ll likely have to travel 50%+ of the time. Sounds glamorous. It isn’t.

Top sales professionals frequently make more than their sales manager does. When you factor in a compromised quality of life (e.g. travel), it exacerbates the compensation issue.

The sales budget assigned to a sales manager  is much more burdensome than that of the individual sales professional. Why? You have to rely on others to meet your budget. You’re really going to hate this if you’re a control freak.

The higher up the food chain you go, the less understanding (i.e. forgiving) sales management is of missed budgets. Your VP of Sales couldn’t possibly care less that four members of your 12-person sales team were out with hepatitis all last month.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
One last thought. We’ve all heard the axiom, “Good sales professionals don’t necessarily translate into good sales managers.” It’s true.

However, the opposite is also true. Don’t take yourself out of the running if you’re not the top producer in your company and want to pursue a career in sales management.

Further sales tips reading:
When Interviewing for a Sales Job, Look for These Things
When Interviewing a Sales Applicant, Look for These Things
Interviewing and Hiring Salespeople
Sales Management and the Four Levels of Sales Development

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>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
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Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
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—

When I was a little boy I used to play checkers with my twin brother. He always beat me. It made me mad. Then one day my dad observed us playing checkers and said, “Scott, you always lose because you expect to lose.”

Even though I was just seven or eight years old, his words ignited a 500-watt light bulb in my head. In my short life, I had never considered that my brother wasn’t beating me; I was beating myself.

Most Of Us Do This To Ourselves In Sales
It has been my observation, after working with hundreds of sales professionals over many years, that the majority of salespersons defeat themselves too.

What do I mean by defeat? We expect to lose the sale. We don’t see ourselves winning a sales contest. We know we’ll never be the number one salesperson in our region. We are sure our employer is not competitive in our industry. We have no faith in our sales skills. We question if our customers like us.

We’re not even confident we’re in the right career.

You’ve Undoubtedly Wrestled With Some Of These Questions
All of us deal with these kinds of doubts. It’s when an expectation of failure – or even mediocrity – becomes our modus operandi that we are in the danger zone.

There is no magic to sales success. There is no perfect personality or magical skill required either. I can tell you unequivocally that the two major differences between sales superstars and the also-rans are:

Diligence. Sales leaders keep doing the things that need to be done long after others have left work early. The last time I checked, diligence doesn’t require any kind of super power.

Planning. The big guns in sales always have a plan. They know where they’re going and how they plan to get there. You don’t need an MBA from Harvard in order to make and work a plan.

This Isn’t About Positive Thinking
Let me be clear, this sales blog post is not about the “Power of Positive Thinking.” Just thinking positive thoughts won’t make you successful. That is an enormously weak and outdated concept.

The precursor to success is always competence. Competence is created by hard work and having a clear course of action.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
You might look at the top producers in your organization and think you will never be in their position. Please, don’t take yourself out of the game.

You can be a sales superstar if you realize you already have what it takes. Tenacity and the ability to create a blueprint for success are the ingredients.

Just for the record, I started beating my brother in checkers on a regular basis soon after my dad ignited that light bulb in my head.

Further sales tips reading:
Don’t Let Confidence Be Your God, Let Fear Be Your Guide
Are You Convinced Sales Is The Right Profession For You?

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
—
Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
—
—

Sales forecasting is the curse of every sales professional. It’s an art and a science that we all struggle with.

Why Our Sales Forecasts Frequently Miss The Mark

• We feel forced to tell our sales managers what they want to hear.
• In our desire for more sales, we operate from a position of baseless confidence.
• We don’t understand our industry.
• We aren’t properly qualifying our prospects.
• To create the illusion of a full funnel, we hang on to dead prospects ad infinitum.
• We don’t develop our skills at reading a prospect’s buying/not-buying signals.

Sales Tips For Sharpening Your Sales Forecasting Pencil
1. Re-qualify them. Don’t be afraid to re-qualify prospects in the middle of a sales cycle. It’s a good idea to constantly check the cards your fellow gamblers are showing when betting in Vegas.

2. Understand the steps of your sales process. If your company doesn’t have a defined and effective sales process, create one of your own. This will act as a benchmark.

3. Get real. Look at your normal closing ratio and apply it to the prospects in your pipeline. After you do that, reduce it by 25% to take into account all the unexpected delays, budget problems and competitive moves you’ll undoubtedly encounter.

4. Look for signs of commitment from the identified decision makers. If there is not a shred of skin in the game from them, then let them die a natural death. Remove them from your funnel.

5. Know your industry. It’s hard to anticipate buyers’ next moves when we don’t know their game.

6. Be sensitive to the vibes your prospects are sending out. Once we establish a relationship with them, they rarely tell us when they are unequivocally no longer interested. We have to be sensitive to their vibe or meta-message. The biggest mistake I see here is when sales professionals don’t make eye contact with prospects. A prospect’s eyes rarely lie.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
Forecasting is an important part of being a sales professional. Your employer doesn’t want you to overestimate or underestimate the business you’ll be bringing in. Your proficiency at this art and science will enhance your credibility with your sales manager and within your organization.

Further sales tips reading:
4 Sales Tips For Managing Your Pipeline
Are You Asking This Powerful Qualifying Question?
3 Reasons You Need A Sales Process

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
—
Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
—
—

There is an avalanche of misunderstanding and disagreement when it comes to value propositions.

Since there is no absolute definition of value propositions, let me give you a brief history. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions as to what they really are and how you might use them in your selling efforts.

In The Beginning…Phase 1
It all started with salespeople doing nothing more than selling the features of their products. This kind of selling started before the industrial revolution and sounded something like, “Ivory soap is 99.44% pure.” Nothing more than a simple feature.

Things Evolve…Phase 2
Around the 1930’s, the advertising and selling world realized that prospects needed more than a feature. They needed a reason to buy. The benefit was born. Tell the prospect about a feature and then tell them why it helps them.

Significantly driven by automotive advertising, we saw feature-benefit statements like, “General Motors’ new Hydra-Matic transmission completely removes the work of shifting and operating a clutch.”

Circa 1970’s…Phase 3
The first hint of sophistication in features and benefits enters here. The marketing types realized (as we know today) that prospects couldn’t care less about the feature; they were interested in the advantage to them (i.e. the benefit).

The marketers fixed this by simply reversing the feature-benefit statement to a benefit-feature statement. Tell them the benefit first and then tell them how it is achieved.

“Give your children more of your time by using Duncan Hines’ 1-2-3 easy cake mix.”

The Birth Of Value Propositions…Phase 4
Transport yourself to the 1980’s.

It is arguable who actually “invented” value propositions. There is also little agreement as to what ingredients should be in a value proposition and in what order they should appear.

However, most value propositions include the following four basic components and normally in this order (but not always): need, feature, benefit, uniqueness/differentiation.

“Busy executives need to be able to work in comfort when traveling. American Airlines’ business class provides you the ability to conduct business in a luxurious environment. No other airline offers as many business class seats as American.”

One More…Phase 5
Sales and marketing is currently operating, for the most part, under phase 4. But there is a new wind blowing. Primarily driven by the Gen Y’ers.

This wind is called the New Authenticity. It throws out all of the above and simply asks the sales professional to be revealing, honest and direct with the prospect. No formulas. No games. No marketing (at least not overt).

Kind of refreshing sounding isn’t it?

Sales Tips Wrap Up
You’ve been through all of your company’s sales training and you’ve heard the marketers at your company tell you their story. Your sales manager uses “value proposition” or “value added selling” in every third sentence.

However, the most successful sales professionals have used the new authenticity approach for their entire sales career. They just didn’t know what to call it.

This new authenticity thing has legs.

Further sales tips reading:
Selling In A Recession, The New Authenticity
For A Change, Try Being Honest With Your Customers

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
—
Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
—
—