Colleen’s Blog

We were taught at a very early age to never make assumptions. However, I still encounter salespeople who make assumptions all the time. I want to, in particular, highlight two tales of woe from clients who I discovered were making damaging assumptions.

Today's global pandemic is an extraordinary public health crisis. As we get past the immediate challenge of doing what's necessary and wise to stay well and safe, the next big question is: "What must I do to keep going professionally?" Answer that by looking at the best practices of top sales leaders. The wisdom there is timeless. It applies to every tough situation—including this one. 

I’ve recently been involved in a pilot coaching project with a large organization where we are teaching their sales managers how to coach. These sales managers have been incredibly effective with their coaching and getting their teams to accelerate results. 

We recently experienced great success with our sales training programs. The customers involved received up to 200 to 400 percent return on investment just a few short months after the program was implemented—not after a year or multiple years, but indeed just a few short months.

Today, I really want to focus on sales leaders for this strategy. Specifically, any sales leader who has a team who needs to set targets or an individual who sets their own targets such as a business owner or an individual contributor.

Throughout this year, we’ve been talking a lot about the hallmarks, the characteristics, and the personality types of the top performers.

As you know, one of the best ways to learn is by making mistakes. Another (and much more preferable) way to learn is by learning from the mistakes of others. There are some great sales lessons to be learned in what NOT to do if you ever want to be a successful leader. I want to share with you an experience I had with a start up company a few years ago. Pay close attention to this leader’s mistakes, and make adjustments if you feel as though your approach is even remotely similar. At the time of our interaction, the company was less than six months old. They had hired a marketing rep who was then transferred to sales because the team leader felt she was good at building rapport. Another sales rep was hired shortly after, and at the time, no sales had been made. Here are a few of the expectations that the leader had set for the reps: