Sales Coaching without Secrets or a Hidden Agenda One of the challenges that sales leaders face is recognizing that their job isn’t just to make their own targets, but also to support five, ten, or twenty people -- their entire sales teams -- in achieving their targets. And, if these sales reps aren’t making their numbers, it’s up to the sales leader to help them figure out why and identify ways to improve performance. There are two major pieces of information needed to make this happen: What does it take to achieve the target? This involves the organization’s sales process and the skills and behaviors that salespeople need to use on the job. How can you, as the sales leader, help your team use this process and these skills and behaviors in the most effective way? The answer: coaching. The secret of the sales coaching process at Richardson is that it shouldn’t be a secret. As a leader, you should tell your sales reps that you’re using a coaching process so that it’s not a secret. This shows there is no hidden agenda. And, even share what the process is with them so that you can use it together. Sales coaching is not about you looking like the world’s most successful manager and leader; it’s about you sharing and transferring your knowledge and experience to people who don’t have it, collaborating with them in a nonjudgmental way -- in a safe space -- about what they want to work on. The first step is to give them a chance to share with you what they know. What do they do well? What do you think they do well? It’s as important to remember those factors and continue doing it as it is to improve. The Richardson process is like a seesaw between questioning and dialogue, between you and your sales rep. You might say, "Let’s talk about (fill in the blank -- like creating customer dialogues and questioning skills) and the first thing I’m going to ask you is: What do you think about your skills in that area? What are your strengths?" Then, you listen. It’s the sales rep’s side of the seesaw now, his/her chance to express his/her views. You drill down a little bit, giving the sales rep an opportunity to really talk about his/her strengths in more detail. You might probe further and ask a few additional questions, now that you know fully what the sales rep’s view is. Then, as sales leader, you share your perceptions of this area -- in this case, questioning skills and strengths. Now, it’s the sales rep’s side of the seesaw again. You ask the sales rep what it is that he/she thinks he/she needs to develop in the area you are discussing (in our example, customer dialogues and questioning skills). You continue to drill down, encouraging him/her to share views about areas that he/she might need to develop. Now, it’s your turn again, as you share your perceptions about what the sales rep might need to develop; then, together, you agree on what the sales rep needs to work on to correct these weaknesses. Now, ask the sales rep his/her view of obstacles that stand in the way of being successful in this area. Share your views. Then, ask the sales rep his/her view of ideas to improve, and share your views. Finally, ask the sales rep what his/her action plan is or what his/her commitments are to improve. Share your ideas. It’s an easy process, especially if you lay out what you’re doing upfront. Making the process transparent shows that there’s no hidden agenda, no secret. At Richardson, we even encourage leaders to take a copy of this framework when they meet with their sales reps. Tell them: "We’re going to start doing this, and we’re all going to work together at getting better, because we all need to get better -- and that means me, too." The framework makes coaching easy because it lets everyone know what’s involved. It allows everyone to better prepare and perform. Learn more about Richardson’s Developmental Sales Coaching Training Solution Developmental Sales Coaching Programs The post Sales Coaching without Secrets or a Hidden Agenda appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Why Consultative Selling Is Still Relevant There will always be someone proclaiming that their New! Improved! sales model tops all others in getting through to today’s ultra-informed B2B buyer and in winning deals. Maybe it’s the pressure and stress of an increasingly competitive business environment that creates a kind of desperation around the search for new answers. In looking for the next silver bullet for successful sales, we must be cautious not to get distracted from proven fundamentals. Sellers do not need a radically new way of selling that contradicts or retires the principles of consultative selling. The goal of consultative selling is to focus on client needs vs. your product to ensure that your solution is relevant. If being relevant to clients still matters, then consultative selling, by definition, is still relevant. We must remember that the philosophy, underlying psychology, and skills of consultative selling are timeless. They enable the seller to deeply understand the client’s unique situation and to tailor a solution that is in the client’s best interest by approaching the buying situation through the client’s eyes — and in doing so, the seller earns the client’s trust and business. What is different today, in light of changes in the selling environment, is the need for sellers to have a higher-order level of skill in consultative selling to effectively leverage their knowledge, experience, and expertise to engage clients in insightful dialogue. These higher-order skills help in the following areas: Building credibility and earning the right to gain the information needed to tailor their insights and ideas to ensure relevance Creating value in the buying experience by helping buyers to have better clarity and depth of thinking around relevant business issues and solutions so that they can achieve their business goals Guiding the client in making the best buying decision by understanding root causes and navigating options Fostering trust by focusing on the client’s needs rather than on selling a product Developing buyer urgency and driving opportunities to closure With command of a higher-order level of skills, sellers can effectively differentiate themselves based on the quality of the sales dialogue itself. The moment of truth happens in the dialogue: how the client feels about the seller and the seller’s organization is the output of the dialogue. Preparation and strategy are key, but if you do not create an exceptional client experience in the dialogue, you are doomed to fail. Dialogue is the vehicle through which you create value. The best-of-the-best sellers have always used this higher-order skill set, and in doing so have achieved trusted advisor status with their clients, in addition to exceeding their sales goals. They recognize that dialogue helps them to gain a more nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing their clients. Only then can they offer their best advice, insights, and ideas in an environment of mutual respect among business equals. Consultative selling is the way to engage the client in a productive dialogue. And that’s something that never goes out of style. Learn More About Richardson’s Consultative Selling Solutions Click the image below or the following link to download a brochure on our award winning Consultative Selling sales training solutions! Or you can contact Jim Brodo, SVP of marketing directly at Jim.brodo@richardson.com   The post Why Consultative Selling Is Still Relevant appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Five Misperceptions about Consultative Selling In a world of dramatically changed B2B buying behavior, Consultative Selling remains one of the best ways — if not the best way — to focus on the client’s business issues and needs (not products for sale) to ensure that the proposed solution drives the needed business outcomes for the client to achieve his/her goals. But, because it’s not the shiniest, newest sales approach on the market, there are some misperceptions about its relevance today. Following are five common misperceptions. Consultative Selling is not assertive enough. Consultative Selling dialogue skills are used to create an environment of openness and mutual respect — ingredients that are necessary to stimulate thinking and gain a deep understanding of the client’s unique situation, diagnose root cause, and recommend the best solution. The seller may need to challenge the client’s thinking in the dialogue but certainly must do so without challenging the person. The only way to do this is to create an environment of openness and mutual respect, which is only created through the use of Consultative Selling skills. Consultative Selling leads sellers to go native. It’s unusual, but not impossible, for sellers to focus on their clients at the expense of their own company. However, the objective with Consultative Selling is to win profitable business. If an individual is not behaving as necessary, it becomes a coaching opportunity for sales leaders. Consultative Selling makes the seller subservient to the client. Not true. The approach and skills of Consultative Selling are designed to establish an environment of mutual respect and productive dialogue that can be used to reduce stress in the moment, resolve conflict, and hold the line on price and other terms. The Six Critical Skills are at the heart of a healthy, respectful business relationship where the needs of both buyer and seller are met. Consultative Selling focuses on asking questions, but sellers need to do more teaching. Sellers help to facilitate learning with clients, but teaching doesn’t mean the seller foregoes learning in the process. The idea is to facilitate learning on both sides to understand the client’s unique situation, generate ideas, and validate possible solutions. Insightful people bring a high level of curiosity to consultative conversations with a willingness to be both learner and teacher. Consultative Selling is not relevant in light of newer selling models. Sellers do not need a radically new way of selling that contradicts the principles of Consultative Selling. The goal of Consultative Selling is to focus on client needs, rather than positioning product, to make sure the solution is relevant. Sellers do need a higher-order level of skill in Consultative Selling to engage clients in insightful dialogue that builds credibility, creates value in the buying experience, guides the client in making the best buying decision, fosters trust, and assertively identifies and drives opportunities to closure. Click the image below or the following link to download a brochure on our award winning Consultative Selling sales training solutions! Or you can contact Jim Brodo, SVP of marketing directly at Jim.brodo@richardson.com   The post Five Misperceptions about Consultative Selling appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

New Richardson Research Study Identifies Biggest Sales Challenges for 2015 Philadelphia, PA — March 25, 2015 — Richardson, a leading global sales training and sales effectiveness company, announced today the launch of a new research study, 2015 Selling Challenges. This study, written by Michael Dalis, a Senior Consultant at Richardson, and SVP Marketing, Jim Brodo, highlights results from a survey that Richardson conducted at the end of the 2014 with field sales representatives, senior sales professionals, and sales leaders to gauge what they felt would be their biggest selling challenges during 2015. The survey received more than 370 responses globally, mainly from B2B industries. The survey focuses on prospecting, retaining and growing client relationships, and pricing/closing. The results from the study allow the reader to gain insight into the potential challenges that his/her sales organization may face in 2015 and plan how to overcome these obstacles. Some of the critical challenges that respondents felt they would face include: 18.59% of respondents said gaining appointments is the biggest prospecting challenge in 2015. 30.11% of respondents said providing insights and challenging clients is the most difficult challenge in expanding relationships in 2015. 30.61% of respondents said competing against a low-cost provider is the biggest challenge to closing a deal in 2015. "The results of the survey support what we see in the market, working with thousands of sales reps and managers each year. It validates sales leader concerns about how they are going to drive new business and retain and grow existing client relationships," says Michael Dalis, Senior Consultant.  "Many of the challenges they expect are created by continued changes in buying patterns largely driven by financial pressures, risk management, and technology changes. This reinforces the work that we do with leading sales organizations, enabling them to leverage newer technologies and information while getting up to speed on selling strategy, process, and skills to gain relevance and win in today’s crowded marketplace." To download the study, please click here. Michael Dalis facilitates highly interactive Richardson workshops for sales and sales management professionals in a variety of industries. He is also a highly skilled Executive Sales Coach who utilizes the practical insights and strategies that he has gained throughout his career to help sales teams strengthen customer relationships, increase qualified opportunities, and grow revenue. About Richardson Richardson is a global sales training and sales force effectiveness company. We have more than 30 years of experience in creating customized sales training solutions that build organizational ability and improve the individual skills necessary to grow profitable sales. Our approach is highly collaborative with a focus on enabling the right sales activity and effective customer dialogues. To help you achieve your goals, we partner with you to develop a culture of continuous learning to help drive improved organization performance. We partner with some of the largest and most sophisticated companies in the world, providing an emphasis on developing the necessary skills and talent to execute in the sales process and achieve organization results. The post Richardson Launches New Research Study: 2015 Selling Challenges appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Consultative Selling Process: Resolving Objections about the Economy A Sales Professional who recently completed a Richardson Consultative Selling course wrote in an e-mail: "Dear Richardson Team: I have been enjoying success in applying the Consultative Selling Process in my work with clients, and I definitely think my skills have improved since I completed the training! I especially learned a lot from the model for resolving objections. But, I am running into one big challenge that I can’t seem to address: my clients are STILL objecting that the economy is down, which is why they can’t move ahead on opportunities. With all the economic indicators pointing to an improving economy, I just don’t know how to resolve this objection. I can’t very well tell them they are wrong about the economy, but what else can I position in response? Please help." With the volatility that the financial markets have shown over the past 15 years, it is no wonder that decision makers across a broad spectrum of industries would continue to show concern about the economy and take a conservative approach to spending. Even as the economy continues to improve, companies still may remain cautious about choosing investments and expenses wisely for fear of another economic downturn. There is good news, however, because the key to addressing this situation is already right in your hands: the Consultative Selling Process. The writer of this e-mail is already on the right track in wanting to apply the model for resolving objections: Neutrally acknowledge the objection. Ask a question to understand what is driving the objection. Position a response based on the client’s answer to your question. Check to be sure that your response satisfied the client’s concern. However, as for most objections, this one typically has other, deeper issues at its foundation. By focusing on what to position, the e-mail writer misses the chance to uncover those deeper issues. Yet, there is great benefit to you to uncover these issues because, while you cannot control the economy, you often can work with the client to address the underlying reasons that drive the client to raise this objection. Such reasons might include: The client has budget constraints. The client has competing priorities. The organization has a low-risk tolerance. Revenues and/or profitability are down at the client organization. The organization has instituted cost-saving measures. Fortunately, there is a simple solution available to you through the Consultative Selling Process, which is the skill of Questioning. By acknowledging the objection and asking the question, May I ask how the economy is affecting your business? you will be able to surface what is really driving your client. That way, there will be no need for you to contradict your client. Instead, you can position a response that is specifically tailored to your client’s unique needs and situation and increase the likelihood that the client will be open to continuing the dialogue. Success is already in your hands! What approaches have you used to resolving objections about the economy? Share them in the comments section below! Click the image below or the following link to download a brochure on our award winning Consultative Selling sales training solutions! Or you can contact Jim Brodo, SVP of marketing directly at Jim.brodo@richardson.com   The post Consultative Selling Process: Resolving Objections about the Economy appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

  Sales Leaders Have a Role in The Retention of Sales Training "Only 32% of respondents rate their organization effective at sustaining the impact of their sales training program." That sobering statistic comes from a recent research report by Richardson and Training Industry, Inc. As a sales leader, you can have an impact on the retention of sales training, and it’s not as hard as it sounds. All you have to do is ask. If you send a group of salespeople to sales training, and you want them to retain and use that training, you need to ask them what worked for them and how they’re using it. And, you have to do this repeatedly. People will give you what you ask for. You might ask, "What is your plan is to use this particular piece of the training this month?" Then, the following month, you ask how it went — and what things are they going to work on next month. The thing about salespeople is, if you give them a target, they’ll nearly kill themselves to achieve it. The same is true about retention of training. If you ask them to apply it, and then ask them to share with you how it has worked — and then to give you additional examples of how it worked — that lesson will become embedded in the day-to-day workflow. Then, you move to the next skill area that they want to work on. Retention can be quite easy if you, as a leader, make it an issue that you ask about. Conversely, if you send salespeople to training and then never ask how it went or about the skills that they should be applying, they’re going to follow your lead and focus on other things instead. If you really want results from your investment in training, you have to put in that extra effort to get it. Just ask for several examples of how it’s working. At Richardson, we can offer supplemental strategies like eLearning or the Richardson QuickCheck™ mobile gamification app. But, if sales managers don’t know what the salespeople are supposed to be trained on or what the salespeople are expected to do differently — and if they don’t reinforce the need to do that — it just won’t happen. I often make the case for training sales managers first, so they can help train the salespeople and sustain the learning. If the sales managers don’t know the right way, and that’s what’s being taught to the salespeople, it’s not going to be as effective. That’s because sales managers will say, "No, that’s not what I want you to do. I don’t care what they told you in sales training, this is what I want you to do." So, train your sales managers first. Then, when the salespeople return from their training, they should find a receptive and supportive leader back in the workplace. That has the biggest benefit to the sales organization because both groups will have been trained. There won’t be any disconnect between what sales managers know and what the salespeople have been trained to do. The best result of all, what you really want from your sales training: Sales will go up, you’ll be more profitable, and conversion times will be reduced! It truly is achievable! COMPLIMENTARY BROCHURE - RICHARDSON QUICKCHECK - To Learn More about Richardson’s  mobile sustainment tool, QuickCheck, please click here or on the image below.           The post Sales Leaders Have a Role in The Retention of Sales Training appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

The Best Sales Leaders Understand Their Dual Roles It’s fair to say that most sales leaders got promoted to their jobs because they were good salespeople. And, as we all know, being a good salesperson isn’t the same as being the best sales leader. In fact, sometimes the best salespeople don’t make good sales managers; and sometimes, the best sales leaders were not good salespeople. The trick is to recognize the difference between being a super salesperson and being a leader of salespeople. To understand your role as a sales leader, you also have to understand your role as leader because they’re intertwined. A leader is someone who shows the way. A sales leader shows the way and helps his/her salespeople to get there on their own. The problem with this dual role is the tendency for sales leaders -- who were super salespeople -- to take over. They want to step in and solve their sales reps’ problems by doing it for them rather than coaching them in the skills needed to do it on their own. The sales managers feel that salespeople will learn how to succeed through observation. In the sales leader role, there’s quite a lot to grasp about what it really means to achieve results through others. If you want the accelerated impact of sales success from ten people vs. just yourself, you have to start by thinking about what you did that made you successful. Also consider some of the best practices that others do that make them successful. And, learn what best practice means at your company. Then, look at the things that your salespeople do that work -- and what they do that doesn’t work. Find the gaps, and help develop skills for each person in his/her weakest areas. Your next step should be to help your salespeople see their strengths and weaknesses: to develop self-awareness about their capabilities. You have to help them figure out what areas they need to develop, and then help them along the way. Again, this doesn’t mean telling your people what to do. It means discussing the subject with them, collaborating with them, giving them examples, and maybe even teaching them to some extent. It’s not about saying, "You need to use better questions with your customers," assuming that will get the job done. It’s about agreeing that better questioning skills are needed and then together determining how to improve them, practicing and evaluating results. The Richardson sales coaching process gives sales leaders the tools they need to have these kinds of discussions. We understand the challenge that sales leaders face in recognizing that their job isn’t just about sales, so we help them to learn about their sales reps. The goal is to treat these reps as people with needs and to help them solve those needs, just as the sales reps help customers. In effect, sales leaders need to treat their team as customers, gaining insights into their needs and helping them to be better salespeople. COMPLIMENTARY BROCHURE - DEVELOPMENTAL SALES COACHING - Click the following to download a copy of our Developmental Sales Coaching brochure The post The Best Sales Leaders Understand Their Dual Roles appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Get Post-Sales Training Visibility with Learning Analytics Your salespeople are effusive in their praise of the new sales training.  Sales Managers are feeling confident that the new sales training will help their teams achieve (or exceed!) their numbers.  The Senior Vice President (SVP) of Sales, the sales training initiative’s executive sponsor, is publically calling the program a "game changer" for the sales organization.  Your learning and development staff is feeling great — all of their hard work has paid off with an amazing three-day event. As a seasoned Learning and Development Leader, you are glad that the training was so well received within the sales organization.  However, you know that the initiative has now entered its riskiest phase.  One question haunts you:  What will salespeople actually do differently in their day-to-day interactions with customers as a result of the training?  The sales organization’s whole investment in behavior change will be made or broken in the next three to six months — either behavior change takes off, or it does not.  In nine months, when your CFO begins to ask the SVP of Sales, "What did we get as a result of all that sales training?" you need to ensure that you and your executive sponsor have a fantastic story of success to tell.  That story began as soon as the salespeople left the new sales training. At Richardson, we see the scenario described above play out over and over again with sales organizations.  We regularly counsel our clients that sales training cannot be an event; it has to be bigger than three days of relevant learning and great facilitation in order to get behavior change back on the job.  One of the first steps to getting behavior change is to invest in knowledge retention immediately after training (see this blog post about the pernicious effects of the "forgetting curve").  Post-training knowledge retention is only the first step on the journey to get sustained behavior change in your sales organization.  However, like most first steps, it has an outsized influence on later results.  Retaining key skills and knowledge in long-term memory is foundational to applying those new skills and knowledge.  Strong knowledge retention is a prerequisite for strong sales performance with customers.  And yet, knowledge retention is nearly invisible!  How can you be held responsible to something that is invisible? Even more importantly for a progressive Learning and Development Leader, there has to be a way of proving that knowledge retention has taken place across multiple sales teams and topic areas.  Anecdotal information is not going to be enough (or should not be enough) to satisfy your executive sponsor.  This is where learning analytics becomes vital to the early success of your organization’s sales training investment.  Measuring knowledge retention and visualizing that data enables you to do three things: Demonstrate how well salespeople have retained key knowledge and concepts three months after training Determine where to focus limited sustainment resources to close the remaining, post-training skill gaps Identify lack of engagement and reinforcement early so that critical conversations with front-line sales managers and sales leaders are fact-based In order to get these three benefits from your learning analytics, they need to be (1) easy to collect via technology and (2) extremely granular — down to the individual salesperson, sales team, and topic area.  Without this level of visibility into the invisible process of knowledge retention, you are very unlikely to know what is actually going on in the first 30-90 days after training.  It is in this period that the battle for behavior change is either starting to be won or your investment in training is rapidly being lost.  Learning analytics ensures that you know how the battle for behavior change is going.  As a result, you and your executive sponsor can make smart decisions that set the sales organization up for consistent behavior change and outstanding business outcomes nine to twelve months in the future.  That is a data-driven story worth telling any skeptical CFO. New From Richardson Richardson has just implemented a new reporting and analytics platform for Richardson QuickCheck. The platform includes real-time performance heat maps, online performance dashboards, and snapshots of user engagement. Click here  or on the image below to learn more about these new enhancements for this award winning reinforcement tool.     The post Get Post-sales Training Visibility with Learning Analytics appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

8 Attributes of a Highly Successful Salesperson You may recall that oh-so-70’s TV series called The Six Million Dollar Man, in which a secret government agency rebuilds former astronaut Steve Austin after an accident into a spy with bionic speed, strength, and vision that make him unstoppable. Leaders and sales managers, when faced with a steep goal or taking on a new business, will naturally look at their sales team and think, "How am I going to hit this new goal with the same team?"  First, you come to terms with the goal and that, reluctantly, surgery and bionic implants are out — budget, OSHA, HR issues, etc.  So, you turn your attention to less extreme methods, such as strategy, recruiting, sales training, and coaching.  And then, you begin to focus on the question what are the "8 attributes of a highly successful salesperson?" Consider the following sets of personality qualities: A B Social Insightful Vocal Soft-spoken Aggressive Patient Gregarious Empathetic Quick on their feet Thoughtful Funny Serious Question #1:  From which column of qualities would you choose if you were: Throwing a party? Hiring people most like you? Seeking people to do a lot of outbound calling, meetings, and presentations? Question #2:  What if we turn around the question to instead ask:  If you were a buyer, responsible for making a significant and complex purchase for your organization, under great pressure and visibility, which column of qualities would you choose for your sales contact or account manager? In 2012, Susan Cain authored a best-selling non-fiction book titled, Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking.  She described qualities like those listed in Column A as the "the extrovert ideal" — those we tend to see as representing success.  And yet, while these qualities are common among many salespeople, are they the ones embodied by your most effective, client-facing professionals? Many sales leaders graduate into their position after gaining success as a salesperson.  So, it is tempting for them to assume that people similar to them will perform as they did.  This was illustrated well by Vivek Gupta, CEO of Zensar Technologies, in a New York Times interview on March 8, 2015.  He shared:  "There was a young girl, straight out of college, who walked into my office and said, ‘…I want to be in sales.’  I was quite nervous that she couldn’t handle the job.  I had spent a rough five years doing sales, traveling all over the country.  How would she be able to do that? … I gave the job to her, and she turned out to be the best salesperson in the company."  Consider those gems on your team who, though quite different from you, share your ability to consistently retain important clients or generate new business. While society values Susan Cain’s "extrovert ideal," consider how Column B qualities — those traditionally attached to an introvert — might be differentiators and highly valued by buyers.  The truth is that the continuum between extrovert and introvert is a wide one, and effective salespeople are found between the extremes. In my 30 years working among and coaching salespeople, here are the 8 Attributes of a highly successful salesperson that I see consistently.  They are: Client-loyal: They are driven to understand what success means for their clients and to actively contribute to that success. Win-driven: They have a self-derived motivation to win (or not lose) that transcends compensation plans, campaigns, and coaching efforts. Team builders: They cultivate and leverage people and resources — inside and outside of their organizations — that allow them to help clients reach their goals and to win. Efficient: They are master qualifiers, willing to walk from opportunities that they feel they can’t or don’t want to win. And, they are willing to invest outsized amounts of time and energy in developing what they consider to be the really great opportunities — and, in building teams that prepare and practice to win. Impatiently patient: Though professionally driven, they exude patience when they are with a client, prospect, partner, or referral source. Passionately sincere: This goes beyond basic honesty. They are sincere in finding the solution that will best accomplish the client’s goal, even if that runs counter to their organizations’ latest campaign. They display high conviction in making their case to a client about why their solution is the right one. Attentive listeners: They talk far less than they listen, bringing a high degree of humility and curiosity to their client interactions. Dedicated: They see sales as their craft and, as such, seek knowledge, coaching, and resources that will allow them to do it more efficiently and effectively, seeking and incorporating feedback to continuously sharpen their approach. To stay focused on these attributes, managers — as you recruit, restructure, and coach — you will be well served by the following reminders: Avoid looking for you in them. He will always be him, not you. Seek the attributes that made you effective, even if the personality couldn’t be more different from yours. Don’t try to turn them into you. Be willing to coach them to become the best version of themselves. Seek the attributes above as must-haves, while the packages in which they come may vary. Highly successful salespeople come in all shapes and sizes and may not always be the life of the party.  If, however, they are long on the 8 attributes above — Six Million Dollar Salespeople — they will outrun the competition in retaining and growing clients and finding new ones.  Still, budgeting next year for bionic implants is an interesting thought… Learn More About Richardson’s Consultative Selling Solutions Click the image below or the following link to download a brochure on our award winning Consultative Selling sales training solutions! Or you can contact Jim Brodo, SVP of marketing directly at Jim.brodo@richardson.com The post 8 Attributes of a Highly Successful Salesperson appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

What Do You Really Expect from Your Front-line Sales Managers? Do They Know It? Anyone who has climbed the ranks of a sales organization can appreciate the complexity of the front-line sales manager’s job. It is usually the most critical position in any sales organization and can make the difference in determining success or failure. So, reach out to your sales managers today, and ask them this: "Name the two most important things we pay you to do." If their answers don’t align with your expectations, then it’s time for some course correction. Great sales managers are not always top-ranked salespeople. Clearly, the job requires an above-average level of selling skills, but it also requires a unique blend of multiple skills. It can be like wearing the hats of coach, parent, counselor, advisor, sounding board, and psychiatrist, all at once. The job gets more complicated because of its location in the corporate food chain. A sales manager is caught between the front line, client-facing salespeople, and upper management. Many times, the view of reality on the front line varies greatly from that in the ivory tower. Successful navigation within this food chain can be challenging, even for the most successful sales managers. So, what are sales managers’ primary points of focus? There are many things to expect from sales managers, but none are more important than these two: To drive results To develop people Which one is more important? The right answer is both; they are equally important. A sales manager can’t have long-term, sustainable results without developing team members. A sales manager who spends too much time as the best presenter and super closer usually can’t scale; he/she eventually runs out of bandwidth. Conversely, a sales manager who spends too much time developing sub-par talent will often miss targets and fail. It’s all about balance. Drive results by engaging in the day-to-day, front-line activities. But, remember that great sales managers don’t make quota for their sales reps — they make quota through their sales reps. The key to staffing your team with the right sales managers begins with a solid understanding of the skills and competencies required for the job. World-class sales organizations begin the staffing process by establishing a competency model that clearly identifies the attributes needed to successfully drive results and develop people. Coach the managers to hire "A"-level players and, in the worst case, "B"-level players who are coachable and competent to reach the "A" level. Never allow a sales manager to staff the team with, or hold on to, inherited "C"- and "D"-level players. Sales managers’ time is too valuable to waste in trying to coach low-potential sales reps to achieve a level of mediocrity. A talented sales team led by a competent, focused sales manager who drives the right activities and behaviors is a recipe for sustained growth and success. Make sure you have the right sales leaders setting the pace and culture that you desire. Front-line sales managers are often the position with the most leverage to make or break your revenue targets. Learn more about Richardson’s Developmental Sales Coaching Training Solutions Developmental Sales Coaching Programs The post What Do You Really Expect from Your Front-line Sales Managers? Do They Know It? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.