Mike Schultz's Blog, page 7
July 19, 2023
What Is Sales Management? Skills, Roles, and Best Practices
If you’re a sales or enablement leader charged with training sales managers, you’ve likely been asked, or asked yourself, “What are the core skills and competencies our sales managers need to effectively coach and develop our sellers?”
As you dig into this question, developing effective sales managers can seem like a daunting challenge.
What is Sales Management? Skills, Roles, and Best Practices
If you’re a sales or enablement leader charged with training sales managers, you’ve likely been asked, or asked yourself, “What are the core skills and competencies our sales managers need to effectively coach and develop our sellers?”
As you dig into this question, developing effective sales managers can seem like a daunting challenge.
What Does a Sales Manager Do? 10 Essential Management Roles
If you’re a sales or enablement leader charged with training sales managers, you’ve likely been asked, or asked yourself, “What are the core skills and competencies our sales managers need to effectively coach and develop our sellers?”
As you dig into this question, developing effective sales managers can seem like a daunting challenge.
July 5, 2023
Time Kills Sales: How to Speed Up Your Sales Cycle
Are you finding the sales cycle is getting longer? Increases in loss to the dreaded “no decision”? Difficulty selling in an uncertain economy?
You're not alone.
June 30, 2023
4 Ways to Take the Lead in Virtual Selling [Infographic]
Selling has changed significantly in just the last few years, and these changes are here to stay.
Selling virtually has proven to be a challenge for even the most seasoned sellers. It requires sellers to be more strategic, more deliberate, and more proactive than ever before. It requires a refocused approach because the rules have changed.
Our client work around the world, and our research in the area of virtual selling, has revealed a set of four keys that are most critical for virtual sales success:
June 21, 2023
Sales Training and Enablement Metrics That Matter
Don’t be surprised to bump into discussions around metrics at any gathering of sales enablement professionals. Measuring the success of sales training and enablement initiatives is top of mind for these folks, and rightly so.
June 14, 2023
How to Build an Effective Sales Territory Plan
Meet Morgan. A hard-working seller. Focused and productive. Morgan’s developed strong sales skills and knows what it takes to sell.
At the end of the year, does Morgan hit target? Beat it by 20%? Fall short by 30%?
Does Morgan know:
How many sales they need to win?
June 6, 2023
Trust Building in Sales
I received a call the other day from someone selling website tracking software. We already use a marketing automation tool like this. I mentioned it to the seller, who went on a rant about how he visited our website, recognized the tool we use, and how we weren't doing it right.
I didn’t know this guy. He knew nothing about our marketing and sales process or the types of customers we're trying to reach. Yet he felt he knew enough to tell me we're doing it all wrong.
There are always ways to improve, but this seller called me out of the blue—without knowing anything about my business—to tell me I was doing it all wrong.
The seller was soon speaking to a dial tone.
May 31, 2023
10 Tips for Selling in Economic Uncertainty
Closing sales in today’s environment is a real challenge.
If you’re in sales or sales leadership, I expect you’re nodding your head.
Sales cycles are getting longer, more opportunities are being lost to no decision, and the economy is unpredictable at best.
May 17, 2023
Infographic: 5 Ways to Win Buyers Over
There's such a thing as being too close to a problem, and we see that as a frequent challenge when it comes to improving sales performance.
In our recent study of nearly 400 sellers and sales leaders, we asked sellers how challenging they find various selling skills/behaviors. For the 16 skills we asked about, less than 55% of sellers found each very challenging. And when we take out the two outliers (prospecting and winning large deals), that number drops to less than 38%.
Is it simply that these skills come easily to sellers? Are they so well trained that they're able to overcome obstacles and excel?
Not exactly.
When juxtaposed with buyer survey data, we see a significant gap between what sellers find challenging and how effective buyers believe they are.
