Jeff Schneider

Think about the last time a complete stranger called you on the telephone or walked into your place of business and started selling their product or service.

How did that make you feel?

Managing a sales team is one of the hardest jobs in any organization. You're required to bring in the revenue for the organization…but often, due to workflow issues, strategic decisions, or maybe even factors that are beyond your control, you don't see the salespeople as much as you'd like to. Here, then, are three tips that can help you become more successful as a sales leader in creating a predictable operational rhythm – a cadence – if you find yourself responsible for the performance of a remote sales team.

The STORY:

Mr. Ross, a local antique dealer, stopped by John’s car dealership to look at SUVs. John had a great looking, previously owned SUV with low mileage and many attractive features that appealed to Mr. Ross.

Have you ever gone out shopping for something and run into a salesperson who was a little too eager to show you exactly what you were looking for?

You are the executive, the leader of your organization. Executives make decisions all day, every day. The decisions you make affect everyone and everything in your organization. Whether consciously or not, you base your decisions on something; it could be intuition, gut feeling, experience, hopes, dreams, or goals. My belief is that your decision must be based on something more substantive, like a plan.

The STORY:
“Show me a salesperson,” stated Bob, “that tells a prospect he isn’t going to buy and I’ll show you a salesperson who starves.”

Jack, a new sales hire, was having lots of problems in initial meetings with his prospective buyers. Vera, his manager, sat in on a sales call with him to determine why Jack was closing so few of his prospects in what was supposed to be a one-call close, and why he was discounting so heavily whenever he did close a deal. The answer, she saw, lay in the way Jack conducted his sales interviews.

It’s early in the new year, with new goals, new challenges, and new opportunities. Each sales team is unique . . . but every team leader in every industry is, we believe, likely to be interested in the answer to a critical question about the year 2020: What can we do to improve closing ratios and margins this year? Here are three proven strategies to consider from the Sandler leadership playbook.

The STORY:
Tim had mentally decided that the prospect he was talking to was never going to buy. For the past 20 minutes Tim had tried all of the trial closes that had worked in the past.

Carlos was in a great mood. Forty minutes in, the meeting with his top prospect’s senior staff was going great. He was getting nothing but engagement, smiles, and positive body language from everyone around the table, including the CEO of the company. He knew what that meant. He was about to close his first big deal! The timing couldn’t have been better. Because this was a potentially major account, Carlos' manager Charlene was in attendance. Today, she would get to see him work his magic first hand.