21. “So much selling effort is wasted on bad deals that
it would be comical if it wasn’t sad. Take the first 30
days to profile your ideal prospects and opportunities,
and then focus on them exclusively.” Jason Jordan
Partner, Vantage
Point Performance
22. “Sales leaders need to know their
company strategy, and then translate
it into relevant priorities, incentives,
and deployment in the sales force.
Many companies confuse strategy
with ‘vision’ or ‘mission.’ They say
things like ‘Our strategy is to provide
superior products/great service/
constant innovation,’ and somehow
expect a coherent response in sales. I
guarantee that, whatever else your
sales reps are good at, they are not
good mind readers.”
Frank Cespedes
Sr. Lecturer, Harvard
Business School
23. “Spend the first 30
days kicking the year
off with the sales team
with extreme clarity on
what everyone's goals
and milestones are
because they have to
hit the ground running
immediately.”
Craig Rosenberg
Co-founder, TOPO
Inc.
24. “Reps should discuss their clients’ strategic objectives over the
next 24 months. This will help them plan a roadmap as to how
their products/services can potentially be used to assist the
client in achieving their goals.”
Ken Thoreson
President, Acumen
Management Group
25. AGENDA
“Understand how you
plan to allocate your
people, money, and time
to make the revenue number.
Understand how you
market and sell differently
than the competition.
Understand if your sales
strategy is aligned to how
your buyers buy.”
Matt Sharrers
Partner, SBI
26. “Reps and managers
should create a detailed
sales action plan for the first
90 days of 2015. This is
really important in terms
of giving a rep a game
plan to execute in the first
quarter that will set the
tone for the rest of the
year.”
Andy Paul
Founder, Zero-Time
Selling Inc.
27. “Ask for one to three
referrals from each
client.”
Ken Thoreson
President, Acumen
Management Group
28. “Reps need to reach out to their existing
clients, and discuss their satisfaction with and
impact of the salesperson’s product/services.
This builds belief in the company, and belief is
the most important emotion a salesperson must carry
with them each day.”
Ken Thoreson
President, Acumen
Management Group
29. Q2. What’s your best piece
of advice for salespeople
going into 2015?
30. AGENDA
Connect the dots between their needs
and how your solutions meet those
needs.
Convince them the ROI of what you sell
is worth the risk.
Collaborate with them so they see you as
part of the team that drives them to
their goal.”
“Sales reps should do three things:
connect, convince, and collaborate with
their buyers.
Michael Schultz
President, RAIN
Group
31. “Reps can't afford to wait for
their employers to invest in
them. The business
environment is changing so
quickly that reps who want
to stay ahead of their
competitors must invest their
own time and money in
reading books, attending
online classes, and
receiving professional
certifications.”
Andy Paul
Founder, Zero-Time
Selling Inc.
32. “Do your admin stuff early in
the morning or late at night,
Dave Kurlan
CEO, Objective
Management Group
33. Learn to sell consultatively,
“Do your admin stuff early in
the morning or late at night,
Dave Kurlan
CEO, Objective
Management Group
34. Get more involved with
social selling,
Learn to sell consultatively,
“Do your admin stuff early in
the morning or late at night,
Dave Kurlan
CEO, Objective
Management Group
35. Get more involved with
social selling,
Learn to sell consultatively,
“Do your admin stuff early in
the morning or late at night,
And sell all day.”
Dave Kurlan
CEO, Objective
Management Group
36. “Be more responsive to buyers.
Customers want to make good
decisions faster. What's holding them
back? Salespeople. To be completely
responsive to a prospect you need the
knowledge, experience, and expertise to help
them progress through their buying
process. And you need a sales process
that will enable you to be the first seller
to respond to a lead, answer a question,
provide a valuable insight, or generate a
quote. In sales, usually the first seller
with the answers wins.”
Andy Paul
Founder, Zero-Time
Selling Inc.
37. “Have fun. I always say, if
it isn’t fun, it isn’t selling!
Have fun with each other
because it builds
teamwork. Have fun with
prospects and clients -- it
builds relationships.”
Ken Thoreson
President, Acumen
Management Group
38. “Performance reviews are
grossly underutilized levers
for influencing behavior in
many sales organizations.
Busy sales managers often
treat them as drive-by
conversations about
compensation. But the most
important coaching in sales
should happen in performance
review sessions. This is a
trainable skill and there’s lots
of room for improvement.”
Frank Cespedes
Sr. Lecturer, Harvard
Business School
39. “Make more sales
calls, do more
networking at
events and online,
and schedule
appointments. Stay
focused on your
customers and
prospects and
learn how you can
help them.”
Alice Heiman
Founder, Alice Heiman
LLC
40. “Who you know is more important
than what you know. Spend your
time purposefully building out your
social selling/networking capability.
To get in front of your ideal
customer in 2015, traditional lead
generation or cold calling does
not work. The reach a
salesperson has to generate
systematic referrals/introductions
at scale is the key to success.”
Matt Sharrers
Partner, SBI
41. “Read a great sales book or watch great
sales videos. There is so much
information out there. Use it to your
advantage. Make time to learn.”
Alice Heiman
Founder, Alice Heiman
LLC
43. Q3. What behaviors or practices should
salespeople change or adopt in 2015?
44. “Ask good questions and
listen. Be a problem
solver. Focus on what you
can do to help , not on your
products and your quota.
Be nice, be genuine, be
empathetic and be agile.”
Alice Heiman
Founder, Alice Heiman
LLC
45. “Managers find themselves in a
very reactive stance where they
don’t have time to do the things
they know are important -- like
coaching and developing their
reps. Identify the things that will
make the biggest difference in
your team’s performance, put
time on the calendar to do them,
and don’t let anything move those
meetings.”
Jason Jordan
Partner, Vantage
Point Performance
46. “Learn how to write
compelling content that is
focused on your buyer’s
market problems. How you
sell when you are not
present is critical. Too
many salespeople spend
time selling vs. facilitating
a buying process. Reps
work exceptionally hard to
get in front of buyers and
then blow it at the moment
of truth.”
Matt Sharrers
Partner, SBI
47. “2015 is change or retire
time for salespeople to
finally start focusing on
their buyers, not on their
products. So much
education has been
produced about taking
a buyer-centric
approach that there are
no more excuses now.”
Craig Rosenberg
Co-founder, TOPO
Inc.
48. “Analyze your conversion
ratios and determine where
opportunities are hitting
bottlenecks. Leads to
Conversations? Meetings to
Opportunities? Qualified
Opportunities to Closable?”
“Reps should also
develop their consultative
selling skills because that
remains the only way to
truly differentiate.”
Dave Kurlan
CEO, Objective
Management Group
49. “Follow up your sales leads. Effective sales
lead follow up is the quickest and easiest
way to amp up your sales. Today, they
are typically from companies or
individuals who have invested their time
to do research on the alternatives. When
they finally reach out to a seller it is not
because they are mildly curious -- they
are seeking information that will help
them make a purchase decision quickly.
Good sales reps will treat sales leads like
the keys to an ATM machine.”
Andy Paul
Founder, Zero-Time
Selling Inc.
51. “Develop five business
ecosystem partners --
organizations or
salespeople that sell non-
competitive but related
products/services into the
same marketplace. These
partners may know of new
opportunities or people
within certain accounts.”
Ken Thoreson
President, Acumen
Management Group