How much time and trouble would we save each other if we all committed to being 100 percent truthful 100 percent of the time?
It’s a crazy thought, but when you really think about it, it is amazing how often we don’t tell people the truth. Sometimes we are scared. Sometimes just too nice. Or we’re people-pleasers, peacemakers and conflict avoiders. Many of us just don’t want the hassle and rather acquiesce or avoid confronting others with truth. Other times we weigh the consequences, and particularly at work, the politics, of saying what we really believe (or know with certainty is correct). And, of course, today with have the “politically correct police” looking for opportunities to tell you what you cannot say because someone might be offended.
It’s been five weeks since I last published a blog post. That’s pathetic. I’m certainly not happy about it, and any content marketing guru would tell you I risk losing my audience. But, here’s the truth: I’ve been working my butt off criss-crossing the country speaking and consulting, and am not sure I can even count the number of airplanes I’ve been on. More truth: every spare moment not with clients, I’ve been promoting the heck out of Sales Management. Simplified. conducting webinars, submitting articles, and doing interviews. It’s been a blast! And one of the biggest takeaways from both my recent work with clients and promoting the book is that people are hungry for the truth and thankful when they receive it.
Last week, two provocative interviews with me were published. They are provocative because I told the truth, even though it’s risky to call out the people who typically hire me! Both pieces are incredibly blunt, and the interviewers/writers did a great job capturing my perspective, tone, passion about the sales leadership issues getting in the way of sales teams and salespeople succeeding.
Can I ask you to please take a few minutes to link over and read these interviews. They cover topics ranging from companies forgetting sales leaders and salespeople’s primary jobs and burying them in crap, to high-ego executives micromanaging sales teams and self-destructing on sales calls in front of key customers. I didn’t hold back calling out desk jockey sales managers, the stupidity of asking sales zookeepers to pick up a weapon to hunt for new business, or ridiculous compensation plans that reward complacency and babysitting accounts sold years ago.
This first interview is with Ann Lambert of Brainshark. She did fantastic work capturing the essence of my message and included pithy tweetable quotes like:
“If you don’t deal with the leader and the sales manager and the culture, nothing changes.”
“For the honor of the professional seller, Mike Weinberg points the finger back at sales managers and executives.”
“The best managers don’t want to BE heroes; they want to MAKE heroes.”
Click here to read the Brainshark article.
This next article relays an in-depth conversation about Sales Management. Simplified. with Eliot Burdett, CEO of Peak Sales Recruiting. We took the gloves off and minced no words discussing dysfunctional sales talent management, unhealthy sales cultures, the lack of mentoring and its effect on sales performance, sales compensation and more. Whether you’re a senior executive, sales leader or salesperson, this is a must-read piece that’s already been shared almost 400 times on LinkedIn. Click here for this no-holds-barred conversation between Eliot and me.
Hope you enjoy and are challenged by those two articles. Thanks for your patience since my last post. I appreciate your readership and support!
One last thing: if you’re not yet signed up for Insider Insights to receive these posts and occasional special offers and newsletters via email, let me encourage you to do that now. Next week I’ll be sending a “thank you” email to subscribers ONLY that will include special year-end insights along with some powerful free content, and offers for free copies of my books. You can subscribe here. My promise: no spam, your email will not be shared with anyone, and you’ll get content reserved only for Insiders. And you can easily unsubscribe with one click anytime you want – no questions asked.
