With everything going on around us…the pressures of the end of the year sales, the craziness of December in general, the senseless tragedy in Connecticut, and the continued stupidity of the party-entrenched Washington politicians carrying on ivory tower debates over what will determine the economic stability of our country for years to come, it’s hard sometimes to maintain focus on the things that really count.
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales plans
With now just 16 selling days (and that's stretching the reality of real sales time) until the end of the year, the pressure’s on, everyone is heads down, and totally focused on that one simple thing-QUOTA-before the end of the year. Statistics tell me that in a B2B world, only 67% of salespeople make their quota every year, which I always find curious…and shocking…since in my companies, on average, that number is up in the mid 80’s. With only 67% as the average, that means that there must be a lot of salespeople really struggling down in the 30 and 40 percentiles. No wonder the turnover rate is so high among salespeople taken as a total.
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, improved sales management, sales management training, Sales quota, sales jobs, jobs, finding sales jobs, how to close sales
With a long weekend of maxed-out football from Thanksgiving Day high school to the Pats, I realize that I'm constantly comparing professional sports teams to professional sales organizations on the basis of....
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales jobs
On my way to NYC on the Acela this morning. Door to door, three hours, and I’m then plunked into the heart of Manhattan after working in an uninterrupted environment, having a not-so-bad breakfast and doing some quiet soul searching. A perfect trip.
Tags: sales management effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, sales management training, Sales quota, sales training, sales listening
Most days, I commute back and forth from the NH beach on the left to our sales office in Boston. For most of the year, the commute is not an issue since I leave early and can usually squeeze in a quick walk on the sand at dusk. For the rest of the year, I come and go in the dark, but since that particular seasonal shift also marks the snowboarding season, I know I'm headed to the mountains at the end of the week anyway, which takes the edge off the commute.
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales enablment, sales jobs
With the big Vermont “Cut Down Day” behind me last weekend and a refrigerator list of only 14 items to complete before the end of the month and the first of the November snows, the daunting tasks of getting ready for another Vermont winta’ seem to be relatively contained. But then, this is Vermont, and just like my perfectly-planned schedules at the beginning of every month always look, well… “perfect”, shortly into the fall season or into every business quarter, there’s always reshuffles and “squeeze-me-ins”, and the only thing that I can really control is how many hours I can work.
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales jobs
Every good sales organization is charged with tension...especially right now. Here we are only a couple of days away from closing Q3. Friday night will define the tale of the tape against which we measure both our company's objectives and our own personal quotas. Then, just to punch the tension up a notch, next Monday morning, at the crack of dawn, with a turn of the page and a click of the mouse, we're immediately thrust into the super-critical 63 selling days of Q4.
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales jobs
This past weekend was spent at my high school reunion. With an open house reception at the town library Friday night extending to a Town Day parade, receptions and a town hall party on Saturday and finally to a “See-Ya-in-5-Years” brunch on Sunday morning, the town of Arlington welcomed back its returning artists and dancers, pilots and soldiers, nurses and docs, professors and teachers, business leaders and tow truck drivers with open arms.
With high school yearbook pictures hung around our necks, each of us bravely entered the uncertainty of greeting friends and lovers who we may not have seen since graduation decades ago or at least since the last reunion. And what did each of us learn and take away from those three days of sharing stories and pictures, laughs and tears and absorbing an overall superb experience? I think that it is that real friendships never go away. No question, you can go home again, take a trip back into nostalgia and history and then jump ahead to the fullness of exploring that newly kindled relationship one more time. Why? Because it’s part of the DNA that exists in our head and is baked into who we are and not what we are.
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales jobs
It’s been a superb summer! Simply…superb…no better word.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans
Lots of interesting comments from my last blog on the Rolling Stones. Everything from “You’re showing your age”, to “How can you put the Stones ahead of the Beatles…Bruce…Zeppelin…Hendrix…Black Eyed Peas...and so on?” Since I wanted to get everyone thinking about how to keep themselves and their sales personas young, it looks like from all of the emails that I received that I hit a cord. Sometime this fall, I’ll follow up with my favorite/most successful individual artist. Someone who, like the Stones, is highly successful, always on the edge and keeps reinventing themselves...but is much younger.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans
