Sales Progress Blog

Sales management is not always easy. We expect a lot out of salespeople because we want to succeed, and we always want to see better performance and increased profitability. Coaching is tough. Most of the time, sales managers delegate instructions and expect to see their employee’s automatically hit their goals and make their bottom line, but what we really need to be doing is coach. Business coaching is not just telling people what to do. It’s about asking and discovering. Sales managers need to sit down with employees and ask them to define their strengths and weaknesses. We need to clarify any issues that sales people have when it comes to selling. Once the issues have been discovered, managers need to define ways to enhance performance and help employees.
So, for example, if a sales rep has a tough time actively listening, then a sales manager needs to take the steps to fix this. Have your employee come back to you each week with two points of interest that they learned about their customers. This will force them to not only sit back and listen but it will also help them to engage with their client.
It is important to stop managing and start coaching. To get free coaching tools, download this free pointcast and learn our three step sales coaching methodology.

FREE Pointcast.

admin Sales Management business coaching, coaching tools, linkedin, Sales Coaching Methodology, Sales Management

The old method of using cold calling to prospect is well on its way out, and you don’t want to be left behind. While your inside sales team had to have excellent communication skills to engage with someone over the phone, they need to be even more refined online. They need to be able to connect with friends and clients and post blogs and whitepapers to get their company in front of potential clients. Managers need to become business coaches and teach their inside sales teams to harness the new social media tools for their own benefit.

Most of us know the outstanding stats when it comes to how many people are actually involved in sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but did you know that 41% of all businesses receive leads from social media? This is huge for most sales teams. However, not everyone knows how to take social media and turn it into profits. Managers need to step in and tailor sales training to the new tool. Social media is a great tool for sales people.  It can help easily gather information, increase lead generation, allow for warmer introduction calls and much more. The trick to successful use of social media in selling is to remember that despite the new channels of communication, you are still selling. You still have to get the right message to the right decision maker at the right time.

There are three main social media sites that can be used to increase sales and create more leads:

Click here to read more.

Click here for a free powerpoint and whitepaper.

admin Sales Training business coaching, cold calling, communication skills, effective coaching, Facebook, inside sales team, lead generation, linkedin, management leadership training, prospecting, Sales Managers, social media, social networking, training reinforcement, Twitter

Writing thank-you notes has been an idea that has been so reinforced throughout my life that it has just become second nature. As a child, my mom made me write a thank-you card as soon as I opened a gift. There was no exception to this rule. In college, my business classes taught me that it is extremely important to write a card after a job interview. I was told that it would give me an extra edge when the company sat down to consider applicants. We have been taught these things growing up, but it seems that we forget this simple rule the longer we are in the business world.

If writing a thank-you note could possibly help you get a job, what’s to stop it from landing that potential customer or closing a sale? Writing a note is a simple and effective way to impact the amount of sales that your reps make each year. There are multiple different reasons to write thank-yous to clients:

Read More…

admin Sales Management business coaching, effective coaching, inside sales team, linkedin, prospecting, Results, revenue, sales, sales coaching techniques, Sales Representative, Sales Success, sales techniques, thank you

Throughout most of our blogs, we have discussed the importance of learning reinforcement. It important to know as much information about your product as you can, and it is equally as important to learn new techniques that are arising in the sales world. We have always stressed that you should constantly be learning, and it has become apparent that this old adage is necessary as more and more younger generations come into the workplace.

We all know by now that there are four generations working side by side in most businesses, but what does that mean from a learning standpoint?

Generational Learning Requirements

As a society, we have slowly progressed into an era where technology is starting to become the forefront of most industries, and as this transition is happening, generation X and generation Y are being taught how to successfully harness the tool. Veterans and baby boomers should be given online training because technology is second nature to the younger generations, as professional speaker Garrison Wynn puts it,

Read more and win Summerfest tickets…

admin Sales Management, Sales Training business coaching, business coaching tools, effective coaching, Employee Coaching, Enhance Performance, Facebook, generation gaps, Leadership, learning strategies, learning techniques, linkedin, online learning, Sales Manager, sales techniques, training and development, training reinforcement, training techniques

From infamous to famous, as most sports writers put it, Ron Artest has certainly made quite the comeback. It has been a long road for Artest ever since that brawl in Detroit, but it was one that he traveled well. There were many steps that the new NBA champion had to take to restore his superstar status, and many of these steps can be applied in the sales industry.

When it comes to coaching, there are many methods that you can take, but one of the most effective, is the peer-to-peer coaching. Before he went to the Lakers, Artest was a fantastic defensive player, but he tried to play every role and that was not always possible. When he paired up with Kobe Bryant, Artest immediately settled back into his defensive game, since he now had a partner that would create balance. By having employees sit down with one another, they can open the lines of communication and target areas of development. It will also foster team development and build performance levels.

Read more…

admin Sales Training business coaching, effective coaching, Employee Coaching, Enhance Performance, linkedin, management leadership training, management training, sales skills, sustained learning, training and development, training reinforcement, training techniques

How to be the Doc Rivers of the Sales World

So, you want to have a high performing sales team, but you don’t know where to start. You could try reading hundreds of books and learning different methods, you could send your employees to a seminar or you could have turned on the TV and watched the NBA playoffs.

The Boston Celtics managed to transform from an average regular season team that was thought to be too old to compete into a stellar playoff team that was a force to be reckoned with. How did they do it though? Simple. Practice, determination and the non-stop coaching of Doc Rivers.

Every team has the same the same type of players: find out more…

admin Sales Training basketball, business coaching, Celtics, effective coaching, Enhance Performance, free sales training, Leadership, learning strategies, linkedin, management leadership training, sales, training reinforcement, training techniques

A recent survey done by Right Management, looking into employee suggestions in the workplace, shows 57% of employees regularly make suggestions for improvements at their job.

Why does this matter?  According to employee engagement, business coachingSchroeder-Saulnier  "the two top drivers of employee engagement are feeling valued by senior leaders and having employee opinions count." This insight comes straight from their research, so if your employees aren’t talking, or you aren’t listening, you could be in trouble.

This becomes easier when there is a strong business coaching program in place, this vital feedback comes easier when employees are being coached. If you are communicating and effectively coaching your employees, these suggestions will come freely and naturally as positive ideas for improvements, not as complaints.

Employees are in the trenches with prospects and customers, if they have an idea they feel is worthy enough to share, it deserves consideration.  Not only will this improve employee morale but you may also improve productivity along the way by improving processes with new insight.

If the employees at your company aren’t offering suggestions you should be worried.  The release points out that a team that is offering suggestions is engaged, interested and involved with the success of the company.  Ideas show they care and want to see the organization get bigger and better.  No suggestions will rarely mean that the company is doing everything well, instead it regularly is a sign of a workforce just there to receive a paycheck with no interest in going above and beyond to create a stronger, more profitable company.

So next time you have a suggestion, share it!  And the next time you hear a suggestion take a minute to consider it’s impact, just the acknowledgment and consideration of the suggestion can be enough to improve morale.

We would love to hear any examples of improvements that came from employee suggestions, if you have one please share it in our comment section below.

Tim Hagen Sales Training business coaching, employee engagement, professional coaching

The economy is picking up, and Sales Progress wants to help you hit the ground running.  Get a jump start now by taking advantage of all of Sales Progress’s FREE resources and special promotions.  During the entire month of April Sales Progress will be offering multiple opportunities for FREE sales training, employee coaching advice, strategy tips, presentations, and more.

• Starting today get free employee training information, coaching tips, or advice by becoming a fan of Sales Progress on Facebook . After becoming a fan, post your question on the Sales Progress Fan wall or send an inmail message to receive free advice, tips, and strategies from sales and adult education expert, Tim Hagen.  Responses will give you real world advice and speak to your specific issues.
• Facebook not your thing?  Check out our blog, and website for offers all month long including FREE presentations, FREE whitepapers, FREE Sales Competency quizzes and more.

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Tim Hagen Sales Training business coaching, business opportunities, employee training solutions, Enhance Performance, free employee coaching, free sales training, sales skills, Skills, tailored sales training, Training, training and development, training techniques

How many times have you heard that you should eat 4-6 small meals a day in order to get better results in weight loss and energy?  Yes many times, but what does this have to do with training employees?

Think of typical training (a workshop or seminar) as a huge dinner.  When it’s over you feel uncomfortable, groggy, and maybe a little overwhelmed.  A typical training session can take any where from a half today to even a full week, and at the end you feel uncomfortable, groggy, and don’t remember half the information taught.

Now think about how great and energized you feel after eating smaller meals or snacks through out the day, (Ok for most of us we will just imagine).  This is also how training is best digested, in small portions.

Research shows adults remember and learn more in the long run when information is fed to them a little at a time over an extended period. When considering your next taste of training, pick a program that will have great results and make you feel great not groggy when you’re done.

Tim Hagen Sales Training business coaching, coaching, effective coaching, Enhance Performance, Manager, training reinforcement

recently read a great and very short post from the blog of Seth Godin, titled
The relentless search for "tell me what to do". The post read:

If you’ve ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.
People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I’m safe."
When asked, resist.

We typically think of people NOT liking being told what to do, but think about your staff and fellow employees, and even yourself, how many times a week do we indirectly ask, “What should I be doing.”  We may say, “what tasks should I be completing today,” or “I have the following problem, how should I fix it?” but all in all we are saying, “tell me what to do.”

This frame of thinking not only becomes a way to push off responsibility as Seth suggested above, but it can also breed laziness and a lack of accountability.

Managers can use coaching techniques to get employees to come up with their own solutions to problems.  Use questions like, “What do you THINK you should do,” or “If you were me, what would you tell yourself to do.”  These questions allow for a dialog to open, and you can now lead your employee to a suitable solution they essentially came up with on their own.  When your employee owns the solutions they will work harder to make it work because it is their own butt on the line.  If you simply give them a solution, they can half-heartedly attempt it, and if it fails they can blame you.  Don’t play the blame game; make your staff responsible for their actions.

If you are an employee, and you have finished your work for the day, proactively seek additional projects you can work on.  Go above and beyond, but keep your manager in the loop to ensure you are not wasting time.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training business coaching, coaching, effective coaching, Leadership, Manager, sales coaching, Sales Coaching Methodology, Sales Manager