Last time, I mentioned the three ingredients that sales managers should have in their leadership pantry to maintain sales focus:
- Discipline: Orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior.
- Accountability:"Obligated to give a reckoning or explanation for ones actions.
- Control: A standard of comparison for checking the results of an experiment or process.
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on March 10, 20090 comments
I enjoy cooking, and that spirit, we'll build these next three blogs as my secret recipe for creating a wonderful and satisfying entree.
Last time, I listed three ingredients for success:
Discipline: Orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior.
Accountability: Obligation to give a reckoning or explanation for one's actions.
Control: A standard of comparison for checking the results of an experiment or process.
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on March 03, 20090 comments
At a recent workshop, "Building a Business in Challenging Times," we discussed the role of sales management. I started to describe the various job functions of a sales manager, or what we believe at Acumen Management are the actions that must be focused on to build a high-performance sales organization.
I covered the concepts of training, metrics management, hiring/interviewing, sales coaching/mentoring, marketing campaigns and general operational management items that make up the day/week of any sales leader. The result of the discussion brought out Acumen's theorem on "the rigors of cadence."
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on February 23, 20090 comments
During the past few weeks as we have been leading our clients through developing potential business contingency plans for challenging times and during our workshops at the IW Business Builder programs "Build and Growth your Microsoft Practice in Challenging Times" (see
Sharpening Up Your Skills
), we have stressed the following element: Focus on brilliant execution.
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on February 04, 20090 comments
As I prepare for a my road trips, off to Philly, NYC, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis and then Detroit and Dallas, I thought I would list a few thoughts that I hope will help you be better prepared to succeed in 2009:
- Go back and read your entire calendar, whether it's paper based or Outlook or both. Look for missed appointments, a suspect that might need to be followed upon again, a networking partnering and events that you attended. Look and evaluate your time management, the number of appointments you made, the contacts you established and then make new resolutions based upon your "inspection."
- Clean your desk. It's a great mental exercise. Throw away papers that have simply accumulated, empty file drawers, create new 2009 files and throw away any folders that you have not used in two years. Take the same time to cleanse your PC. Delete old e-mails, update software and make a 2008 back up.
- Take a mental break. Force yourself to step away and reflect on your successes of 2008, focus on the good things that happened and write down your goals -- both professionally and personal. Then do something that you want to do, but have not had time to do: sleep, golf, cook, read a fun book, spend extra time with family ... just release your tensions.
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on January 26, 20090 comments
We have two bits of information to pass on. First we are naming the blog: YourSalesManagementGuru. We felt this gave us a fun name, but more importantly a context to continue to explore both sales and management topics that affect Partners today. Keep up the positive notes and keep the new ideas flowing. I am enjoying this experience of communicating often to the community.
Our theme currently with many of our clients is focus on brilliant execution. Our second bit of information is designed for owners and managers with that theme in mind.
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on January 14, 20091 comments
Last week, I was interviewed for an hour on a talk radio program about small business and the current and future economic conditions. We started by simply discussing the FUD factor -- how fear, uncertainly and doubt have crept into our lives and impacts decision making, purchasing patterns and budgeting. I spoke to the need for leadership at the executive level. Whether you have five employees or 500, the game face is as critical as is sound planning. We discussed the topics I noted in my earlier blog entries, but at the end I gave the listeners four action steps to take:
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on December 16, 20080 comments
"How do you get all those ideas for your articles?"
I get this question every once in a while when a partner contacts me or speaks to me after an industry conference or meeting. And it's the reason we have started this blog.
The easy answer is that the ideas normally come from the many partners we have worked with over the past 10 years at Acumen Management Group. The fuller answer is that the ideas also come from the past 25 years of working as a salesperson, a sales manager or a vice president of sales. I have been fortunate to experience great organizations and those that are more than messed up and great leaders and those that were less than professional. Toss in great economic times and four bad economic ones and I have the perspective and memory that generates ideas and hopefully accurate recommendations for others to leverage.
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on December 04, 20082 comments
So, it's official: According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, we've been in a recession since December 2007. In our Acumen Management Group workshop/webinars, we provide our own top 10 tips for working through economic tough times. I won't go through all of them here, but there are a few key elements to understand in order to keep building your business during the next 18 months.
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Posted by Ken Thoreson on December 04, 20081 comments