Colleen’s Blog

I'm currently working on a large project where I work closely with several sales managers. Unfortunately, I have been disappointed with their managerial qualities. This is because they don't practice coaching and exhibit leadership—skills that all of these sales managers are more than capable of displaying. However, instead, they make excuses, hang on to existing customers, and get engaged in customer service or delivery work—work that isn't their primary responsibility. As a result, their sales team suffers.

Some sales reps give up too easily. That is, they'll reach out twice, perhaps three times to a prospect before throwing in the towel and moving on. 

Over the last few years, I have been working with a number of companies who have all formalized and institutionalized this process of demonstrating tangible return on investment with their sales teams by building return on investment calculators.

Sales is one of those professions that often require a heavy travel schedule, so I thought sharing my top 4 travel tips could save you time and help you avoid headaches! After all, showing up tired or even worse, late, can end a meeting before it even starts. And, our energy levels as well as how punctual we are can often depend on our travels. So, without further ado, here are my top 4 travel tips:

How can you ensure that you’re hiring the right people to join your sales team? Many sales leaders have been asking me how to hire new sales reps and build a profitable team. I often suggest taking a step back before conducting interviews and hiring a new team member. There are a few things you need to do before you proceed with interviews in order to ensure that you hire the right person and create the best team possible.

A good sales organization centres around a good sales coach. In fact, coaching is what drives top performance in sales teams. More importantly, sales teams with coaches—who are being coached on average 3 hours per rep or month—see anywhere from 15 to 30 percent performance improvement compared to the organizations that don't have a coaching program.

Your mindset is typically one of two things. It can either be one of your greatest tools or one of your worst obstacles. The good news is you get to choose which side of the spectrum your mindset sits. If there’s one quality every successful salesperson can share, it’s their overall mindset for success.

Ultimately, your clients are looking for solutions to their obstacles or problems. The perfect solution presentation follows a series of steps to help facilitate this. You never want to present solutions to a client without being strategic!

Get creative. That's my advice for any business owner or sales leader about to embark on a new phase of recruiting. Far too many leaders stick to the same old, same old when it comes to their recruitment process and trying to find great talent to join their team.

In today's world, you either decide to be digital or you decide to be dead. What's your choice?