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Sales Coaches

Sell it or Schedule it…or “You Do You.”

If you manage a sales team, your role is to have each of them make their goals and improve their performance… and if they do, then you make YOUR goal, which is the SHOWROOM goal.

(Yes, the showroom goal is YOUR goal.)

And to do that, you need structures and actions and a methodology to teach from, or you will be managing your team from your own behavioral preferences and your own selling autobiography.

That doesn’t mean that what you did when you were a salesperson was wrong or deficient, esp…

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June is…a good practice month.

It’s hard to imagine that less sales traffic would be a good thing…and yet it can be. 
If traffic is off, you can spend more time with each opportunity and increase the chance to close and to close for bigger tickets. 
What makes the difference is intention.
Intention to focus on creating an outcome with each and every opportunity. The intention is to sell it or schedule it. Not to sell it or follow up… to sell it or schedule it.

If you notice that you are not scheduling at least 20% of your…

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PerformNow and One by One

If you are a regular reader, you know that I have a commitment to sales managers and how they effectively execute their job and elevate their team performance. My “Sell it or Schedule it” has a sales manager training component and I easily spend as much time training and coaching sales managers as I spend training and coaching salespeople.

It’s with that commitment that I have joined forces with David and Wayne McMahon and their PerformNow Sales Manager Performance Groups. There are…

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Managing Distractions and Interruptions

We can do a fine job of organizing and planning our own actions and involving others when we schedule appointments with them. And even with all that, our best-scheduled actions can be derailed by the actions of others.

Take a look at how your time unfolds. Are your actions taken as you plan them…or do they get pushed back to accommodate the requests of others? Does this happen frequently? Do others interrupt you because you allow or encourage it or because you have a skill that they often nee…

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Opportunities for Growth

Imperfections exist, and acknowledging and accepting that fact is helpful in order to move with them and through them. 
When we accept them as part of the package, we can own them without defending, excusing, or avoiding…they just are.

From that point, we can expand our view and ask: How is this habit and behavior affecting me? How does it impact others? What do I gain from it and what does it cost me?

And we can choose new actions. 

If you are in a sales leadership role, and you have …

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Calling After Delivery

In home furnishings retail showrooms, we have done a poor job with this area; it is an industry shortcoming!

We even have a name for this action: a can of worms that shouldn’t be opened. Seriously. We treat it as something to be avoided at all costs.

And yet, I assert that we could raise our revenues by 10-15% with this action ALONE. And to do that, we need to align our expectations with what is likely to happen and upgrade our skill of managing it when it does.

What does that mean?
Ex…

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GRATEFUL SOLUTIONS

Consider the skill it takes to collaborate with a client/customer to find a solution that they can say ‘yes’ to. That skill takes practice to develop and a belief that the practice will enhance the interaction and the outcome. And that the practice of collaboration and problem-solving will lead to more effective outcomes.

If you are achieving that, it is because you chose to try something different… and were willing to be uncomfortable with the process (and yet trust it!) so that you could produc…

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Asking Confirming Questions

This step leads back to the first blog on this topic…assessing versus assuming.

Confirming questions solidify what was discussed and even decided, by asking a question that removed any doubt. As an example, a salesperson is working with a customer and asks them if there is anyone else who wants to participate in the project…as a way of identifying the decision-maker. The customer says, “I make the decisions about furniture.”

We all know that there are several elements to consider in making…

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Asking Clarifying Questions

Where assuming can bite you is when you are sure you know what the other person wants or means without really knowing... either because they haven’t fully offered that information, or because you haven’t asked enough questions to have enough information.

Ask questions that MAKE you sure you know what they mean: “Can you be more specific?” “Can you describe that to me in more detail?” “Can you tell me what that would look like to you?”

Don’t be afraid to slow things down so you can be sure…

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Asking Forwarding Questions

As one of my teachers, Sharon Drew Morgen said: “The person who is asking the questions is the person who is leading the conversation.” And she was right.

Questions keep the volley going and answering them without asking another question ends the volley. After answering a question, ask another one, like: “What is important to you about that?”

All questions don’t require an immediate answer in response. Ask a question in response, like “Can you tell me more about that?”

Consider that …

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