Sales thought leader Dave Brock and I are in the homestretch of a series for sales managers we’ve been writing for OpenView Labs / Venture Partners. I was honored to contribute at Dave’s invitation, and we’ve had a lot fun sharing the straight truth about sales management, offering guidance to new managers, and attempting to shake some old veterans out of a slumber!
Simplifying sales management has been top of mind as I’ve worked on Sales Management. Simplified., and I’m excited for its release in October. [Reminder to those who subscribe to my Insider Insights that I’m going to make you a crazy offer once Amazon is fully in-stock…so don’t run out to buy your copy yet. If you are reading this post and not yet signed up to get my posts and special insights via email, you can do that by clicking here, and then you’ll also receive the offer for the new book.]
The five posts I wrote for the OpenView series got more traction and attention than I was expecting, particularly the one about increasing accountability without coming across as a micromanager. And the latest post on the power of your (anti) sales culture garnered a ton of play and comments on social platforms. Since many of you may not have been aware of this series, I wanted provide the opportunity for you to see the topics and if any of the articles might be helpful to you or sales team right now.
Stand figuratively with me at the five-way intersection pictured above and take a look down the various streets. Below I’ve provided a brief description of each post. If one sounds intriguing or particularly relevant, just click on the title to link over to the original post on OpenView’s blog.
Do Not Underestimate the Power of Your (Anti) Sales Culture – pulls back the covers revealing the ugly traits of organizations with prominent anti-sales cultures, and also offers a brief description of the single healthiest sales culture I’ve ever seen. I do my absolute best to make the case that culture is not a “soft” topic, but something that deserves a lot more senior management attention.
A Double Dog Dare to Relook at Your Sales Roles – points out that a significant percentage of the sales performance issues I observe in companies revolve around lack of sales role clarity and not having the right people in the right roles. The truth is that a salesperson is not a salesperson. There are as many different types of sales roles as there are colors of crayons, and like the title of a chapter in Sales Management. Simplified., a one-size-fits-all approach to sales roles typically produces ineffective teams and poor results because when it comes to sales positions, one-size does NOT fit all.
3 Ways Sales Managers Are Made (and Make Themselves) Completely Useless – is a bold reminder that your job as the sales leader is to ensure your sales team produces results, not to do work. You are not judged on the amount of work you do, the number of emails you send, or meetings you attend. Your job is to get your sales team to produce results. Period.
How to Have Sales Team Meetings That Aren’t a Waste of Time – looks at why most sales meetings are painful and seen as a burden by the sales manager and drudgery to the salesperson. It doesn’t have to be that way; sales meetings should engage, energize, equip, and align the team. This post provides three tips to help you create that type of meeting and also a handful of potential agenda topics to get you started.
A Foolproof Way to Increase Accountability without Micromanaging Your Salespeople – was the most viewed and shared post I wrote for the series. It contains a very, very simple best practice that has the power to transform your sales culture and increase accountability and results-focus without demotivating the team or causing the manager to be perceived as micromanaging. The key is understanding and implementing a proper “sales management accountability progression.” Read it. I think you’ll like it, appreciate the perspective, and want to dive right into Chapter 20 of Sales Management. Simplified. when it arrives 🙂
Hope you find one of these articles valuable. If you there’s one you’d like me to unpack further, shoot me a note and I’ll tackle it in a future post here.
