Know Your Competition: 2010 Prep

Strategic sales managers know they must be creative when it comes to developing a sales strategy. With fewer opportunities in most pipelines these days, salesforce management is increasingly focused on executing brilliantly on each and every sales opportunity.  

One component in sales team training is to perform a semiannual competitive assessment. Here's a brief description of the steps to follow to accomplish this most important action to improve your win-loss ratios:

Posted by Ken Thoreson on October 08, 20090 comments

It's Time To Recruit, Not To Hire

After eight days and six cities, I hope to make sure this message is clear: It's been a busy week! I missed last week's blog because of some of that travel, but I hope you used that time to contemplate the ideas in the post on sales compensation planning for 2010 -- it's a critical component for building a high-performance and self-managed sales team.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on September 28, 20091 comments

Sales Compensation Planning for 2010

It takes time to get it right. From sales leaders to executives, everyone must be focused on exceeding the end of year sales quotas and budgets -- alas, it is mid-September and October will be quickly on top of you. Over the next few weeks I will be discussing the components that all companies must begin to work on during the 2010 budgetary and business/sales planning process.

The first step in overall business planning is to have the management team determine what percentages of overall revenue will come from net new clients vs. existing clients by product/service or practice area. Once that exercise is completed, then all budgets, marketing plans and sales compensation planning can begin.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on September 15, 20092 comments

Focus on the Finish

After seven days of recovering from minor foot surgery, I was pondering what others were doing this weekend that I couldn't: golfing, boating, grilling, hiking and partying with friends. Well I did do some partying with friends but it was more like hobbling.

As I relaxed reading four books and watching movies, my mind would drift as to what I should be doing and what other sales managers must be thinking about --- facing the next four months.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on September 08, 20090 comments

Adjusting The Recipe

Many of you who have known me over the years know I enjoy cooking and may have heard my cooking stories. Well, Saturday evening we decided to make a scallop recipe. The only challenge was my pantry did not contain all the necessary ingredients that recipe called for and living where we do, it is not a 10-min. drive to the store. So, I improvised.

Instead of dried, sour Michigan cherries, I used dried cranberries, probably from Wisconsin. In place of fresh clam juice, I added a small amount of chicken broth. After using most of the other recommended ingredients, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on August 24, 20093 comments

Re-Wiring the Sales Brain

In challenging times, the difference between high performers and average performers widens. This statement was very evident during last week's Sales Leadership Summit especially during our roundtables when everyone discussed their biggest challenges. The most frequent comments related to the need to build the right kind of motivation into their sales teams or, as someone suggested, the need to "re-wire their sales brains." What was meant by that comment was the need for management and individual salespeople to change the way they manage the sales process.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on August 17, 20093 comments

Sunday Night Sales Management

In the beginning, it was serious training. When I started in the tech sector many years ago, selling software/services/technology, I was lucky. The manufacturer that I worked had extended sales and product training resources, as well as active sales management that worked with small groups of salespeople. This was a sales-driven organization where you had to start fast, you could earn great money and you worked with sales professionals.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on August 06, 20090 comments

Standing Out, Who You Are

In my last blog, I mentioned I have been attending the National Speakers Association conference. What an experience! During three days we worked on keynote content, learned new ideas on platform delivery and observed some of the top professional speakers in the world. So, what does that have to do with sales management or my sales training programs?

Almost from the moment I arrived to the very last break-out meeting, the most common questions were: "What is your expertise?" or "What do you speak on?" It was wonderful to hear how many people could clearly articulate their value proposition or message. Unfortunately, there were others that simply struggled with expressing their message. It was absolutely clear who were the true professionals and who knew their business.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on July 30, 20090 comments

Conventions and Personal Development

I am leaving Saturday for Phoenix -- yes, in July! It is the National Speaker's Association conference and as a member, I decided to invest in my personal development.

During the day I will be listening to programs, attending break-out sessions and networking with my peers. At night I will be working on my client projects. 

Going to this event is always very interesting. Normally, I am giving the keynote or leading a break-out session at a vendor's or association's conference. With WPC going on this week and other industry events, it is important that even with the economic challenges that you may be experiencing and  even if cash flow is critical, attending these kinds of events must be considered a priority.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on July 16, 20090 comments

Salesperson Review Time

To set the stage for the second half of the year, now is the perfect time to perform a formal salesperson review. We've found that in many organizations, other than measuring the percent age of quota attainment, salespeople aren't formally reviewed as many other employees might be. Once we institute our programs, long-term sales success and less sales turnover occurs.

Effective sales-force management requires creating an environment for individual recognition, development and planning. In our "Sales Management Tool Kit" -- a library of sales management Word/Excel documents -- we use a process and tool to ensure that individual attention is paid to each salesperson. We encourage our clients to meet with each salesperson twice each year and complete a formal document that clearly describes the sales manager's opinion of the individual's performance, including actual sales vs. quota, but also attitude, sales training, sales professionalism, CRM knowledge, areas of strength and weakness, etc.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on July 06, 20090 comments

First Half of the Year is Over!

It's a wrap, but everything must continue to move forward with increased levels of urgency. In many situations, cash flow is tighter, pipelines have been impacted and sales cycles have grown longer. That's the reality.

But as sales leaders and executives we need to take this week to reflect on the first half: What went better than expected? What things didn't work? ...

Actions that need to be taken this week:

Posted by Ken Thoreson on June 30, 20090 comments

More Summer-Time Sales Management

Based upon the many comments I received on the last blog, I wanted to offer an additional idea to improve your sales management process. With summer time vacations and economic conditions affecting current budgets, strategic sales managers must ensure today that they have adequate pipeline values for July/August/September.

We have discussed in past articles and blogs the need to create a sales and marketing dashboard in order for you to always know the actual values, but what I am recommending is a thorough house cleaning or scrubbing of your sales team's pipeline.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on June 19, 20091 comments