Sales Management Matters

Our members are thinking hard about sales productivity. Some are scrambling to react to unexpected growth; others to cratering demand. Many are re-aligning sales organizations as markets around them change unpredictably. They’re in turns exhilarated, terrified, or uncertain in the current economic environment, but their focus on making salespeople more productive is remarkably c ...

AchieveGlobal recently completed a comprehensive research initiative on sales effectiveness. The research is impressive in its scope: more than 1,000 sales and sales management respondents. AchieveGlobal Product Manager Mark Fears and study author Mark Marone will deliver a webcast on the research next week for the SMA community (the webcast is open to non members). We caught up with Fears and Marone to ask a few questions in advance of the webcast. [Join us Wednesday August ...

ES Research is researching virtual training practices, and is recruiting participants for a web-based survey. Participants receive a copy of the study findings, and some other nice freebies. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete, and is open to sales reps, managers, corporate L&D, HR, sales ops, and sales enablement professionals. Participate in the survey here. ...

Inside sales hiring and staffing is exploding. Sales Readiness Group's Norman Behar points out in a recent post on SRG's blog that inside sales is now "increasingly sophisticated and the preferred method of selling for many products and services that were traditionally sold by field based reps." He sites a growth rate of 17% for inside sales staffing growth. Technology underpins the trend - not only by enabling tele-selling, but by reshaping the expectations of buyers, ...

We've assembled three pieces of sales coaching content from our Resource Library, and we're making it available free to non-members! The kit includes slides from SMA's recent Sales Coaching Practices Research, a Manager's One-on-One Coaching Session Worksheet from AXIOM Sales Force Development, and a presentation from Callidus on Building the Perfect Sales Rep. Get the free kit, or (as an SM ...

Dave Stein lays down five fundamental rights for salespeople and their first-line managers. It's a post worth reading if you're serious about providing quality training to your sales organization. "You have the right to be: Assessed for your individual strengths and weaknesses, Educated and trained in areas where you need improvement in ways you learn most effectively and efficiently, Provided with the tools and support to sell, Sent back into the fi ...

We’re looking forward to our upcoming workshop in Chicago, Mastering Sales Management. Held in conjunction with DePaul University’s Center for Sales Leadership, the workshop will feature speakers from The Sales Management Association and Vantage Point Performance. The workshop offers an advanced survey of competencies shared by high performing sales leaders, practical insights in ...

Creator of Value The role of a salesperson has always been fundamentally the same – to create value for customers. The nature of that value has changed over time, from a distribution channel in the 1800’s, to a source of information in the 1900’s, to a problem-solver in the 2000’s. And no matter where the profession of selling goes from 2010, a salesperson ‘s role will always be to provide some unique value to their customer, else the buyer will go to a catal ...

A Perishable Good For many sales organizations, training their salespeople is one of the largest investments they make in performance improvement. From the onboarding of new hires to annual training events for the rank and file, billions of dollars are spent each year in the U.S. alone to improve the skills of our salespeople. Unfortunately, sales training is also one of the most perishable investments a company can make. Estimates vary, but it is generally accepted that between 60% ...

Two executives are given departmental budgets: one is a CIO, the other a Chief Sales Officer. The CIO buys a lot of software and hardware; the CSO a lot of sales training. What steps will each take in order to make sure they get a solid ROI on their departments’ respective investments? The CIO will almost always consult a research firm like Gartner or Forrester. These ...