Sales Coaching

Problems That Sales Coaches Can Solve

Are you as a Sales Leader or Manager facing any of these issues with your team?

Sales training often isn’t enough to produce long term change in your sales team.

Read this list to see if you might benefit from a sales coach:

Having trouble with:

 

  • Generating new customers
  • Increasing returns on marketing campaigns
  • Failure to consistently achieve sales revenue goals
  • Reduce ever-lengthening sales cycles
  • Increasing costs of maintaining an effective and productive sales team
  • Keeping the sales team motivated
  • Shrinking margins – mounting pressure to discount
  • Protecting and developing dwindling key accounts
  • Increasing erosion of market share
  • Increased failure to forecast revenue with any degree of accuracy
  • Increased quantity and ferocity of competition and being outsold by competitors
  • Limited product knowledge in the field
  • Declining customer satisfaction and increasing customer expectation
  • Global market rationalization Increasing number of stalled sales opportunities
  • Finding and keeping good people
  • Managing salespeople who plan and manage their time and territory by the seat of their pants – they don’t seem to have a game plan or a strategy as to how they are going to win
  • Reducing the “last three weeks of a sales quarter” syndrome where everyone scrambles to try and pull in as much as they can to hit sales targets and we end up giving away our margin
  • The current economic crises are impacting on sales team’s ability to consistently achieve their sales quotas
  • Operating in markets where there seems to be more and more “gatekeepers”, buying committees, tendering processes, RFPs, etc., all of which prevent the sales team from gaining access to decision makers
  • It is becoming increasingly tough to get to talk to the people who matter about what they really need and want when it comes to buying our services
  • We struggle to speed up the buying process and close more deals more often
  • Sales teams that needs constant motivating. They seem to lack passion, focus and commitment
  • “Give us a quote” is a common response my salespeople are hearing. So what I find is that my salespeople often invest large chunks of their time putting together proposals for prospective clients that have no real intention of buying from them
  • The message we hear from our customers over and over is, “Your competitor can do it faster and cheaper.” And they are right! How do we sell against that?
  • No predictable and accountable selling process that moves the sale forward smoothly
  • Constantly grappling with costly, wasteful, and ineffective sales practices (e.g., low yield on direct marketing, low close ratios, high costs for branding, tradeshows, or product development)
  • I don’t have a clue where to start to get sales back on track!

 

If you or your sales team are facing any of these common issues, you should consider getting coached!

As one of Australia’s leading authorities and coaches in sales management, Ian Segail has been involved in the coaching, training and development of sales managers and salespeople for over two decades.

Drawing on 25 years of experience in sales, sales management and leading an HR and training team, Ian brings a strong dose of fiscal reality and practicality to his works as a Sales Performance Coach.

Engaging directly with business owners and both novice and experienced sales managers alike, across a wide variety of industries and selling disciplines, the focus of Ian’s work is to transform sales results for companies by improving sales management practices. Ian is the author of “Bulletproof Your Sales Team – The 5 Keys To Turbo-Boosting Your Sales Team’s Results” and a number of business articles, business reports and white papers including “The fish stinks from the head!” and “Why Sales Training Doesn’t Work.” Ian has an insatiable hunger for studying selling and people management and has passionately pursued answers to the question “How come some people can sell and most can’t?”

Check out sales resources and Ian’s blog at [http://www.salestutor.com.au]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2231945

Business Strategy, Innovation, Internet, Market News, Start-ups

EBay Plans IPO for Skype in 2010

Great News. Okay, so how much for 400+ million loyal Skype users worldwide? And for the the market leadership position in VOIP? Lots of value for sure. Will it be more than the $2bn they paid for Skype? That’s we can’t say yet. But we can say this: its probably a good time to buy EBay stock, because they will surely earn back a good amount on Skype.

Here are the details. Continue reading →

Leadership

Leadership Development – A Strategic Need?

Leadership is vital for any organization’s sustained success. A great leader at top makes a big difference to his or her organization. Everyone will concur with these statements. Experts in human resources field mention the importance of leaders at all levels, and not just that of the leadership at the top. Rightly so. It is not without reason that companies like 3M, Proctor & Gamble, GE, Coca Cola, HSBC etc. have known to put in place processes for developing leaders continuously.

Mention this subject, however, to a line manager, or to a sales manager, or any executive in most organizations and you will probably deal with diffident responses.

Leadership development -a strategic need?

The subject of leadership is dealt with in a general way by many organizations. Leadership is usually understood in terms of personal attributes such as charisma, communication, inspiration, dynamism, toughness, instinct, etc., and not in terms what good leaders can do for their  organizations.  Developing leaders falls in HR domain. Budgets are framed and outlays are used with indicators like training hours per employee per year. Whether the good intentions behind the training budgets get translated into actions or not, is not monitored.

Such leadership development outlays, that are based on only good intentions and general ideas about leadership, get axed in bad times and get extravagant during good times. If having great or good leaders at all levels is a strategic need, as the above top companies demonstrate and as many leading management experts assert, why do we see such a stop and go approach?

Why is there skepticism about leadership development programs?

The first reason is that expectations from good (or great) leaders are not defined in operative terms and in ways in which the outcomes can be verified. Leaders are expected to ‘achieve’ many things. They are expected to turn laggards into high performers, turn around companies, charm customers, and dazzle media. They are expected to perform miracles. These expectations remain just wishful thinking. These desired outcomes can not be used to provide any clues about gaps in leadership skills and development needs.

Absence of a comprehensive and generic (valid in diverse industries and conditions) framework for defining leadership means that leadership development efforts are scattered and inconsistent in nature. Inconsistency gives bad name to leadership development programs. This breeds cynicism (these fads come and go….) and resistance to every new initiative. This is the second reason why the objectives of leadership development are often not met.

The third reason is in the methods used for leadership development. Leadership development programs rely upon a combination of lectures (e.g. on subjects like team building, communications), case studies, and group exercises (problem solving), and some inspirational talks by top business leaders or management gurus.

Sometimes the programs consist of outdoor or adventure activities for helping people bond better with each other and build better teams. These program generate ‘feel good’ effect and in some cases participants ‘return’ with their personal action plans. But in majority of cases they fail to capitalize on the efforts that have gone in. I must mention leadership coaching in the passing. In the hands of an expert coach a willing executive can improve his leadership skills dramatically. But leadership coaching is too expensive and inaccessible for most executives and their organizations.

Leadership -a competitive advantage

During my work as a business leader and later as a leadership coach, I found that it is useful to define leadership in operative terms. When leadership is defined in terms of what it does and in terms of capabilities of a person, it is easier to assess and develop it.

When leadership skills defined in the above manner are present at all levels, they impart a distinct capability to an organization. This capability gives a competitive advantage to the organization. Organizations with a pipeline of good leaders have competitive advantages over other organizations, even those with great leaders only at the top. The competitive advantages are:

1. They (the organizations) are able to solve problems quickly and can recover from mistakes fast.

2. They have excellent horizontal communications. Things (processes) move faster.

3. They tend to be less busy with themselves . Therefore they have ‘time’ for outside people. (Over 70% of internal communications are about reminders, error corrections etc . They are wasteful)

4. Their staff (indirects) productivity is high. This is one of the toughest management challenges.

5. They are good at heeding to signals related to quality, customer complaints, shifts in market conditions and customer preferences. This leads to good and useful bottom-up communication. Top leaders tend to have less number of blind spots in such organizations.

6. It is easier to roll out programs for strategic shift and also for improving business processes (using six sigma, TQM, etc.). Good bottom-up communications improve top-down communications too.

7. They require less ‘supervision’, since they are strongly rooted in values.

8. They are better at preventing catastrophic failures.

Expectations from good and effective leaders should be set out clearly. The leadership development programs should be selected to develop leadership skills that can be verified in operative terms. Since leadership development is a strategic need, there is a need for clarity about the above aspects.

Hemant Karandikar advises companies on business & brand strategy, on business transformation, and for achieving breakthroughs in business processes. He leverages this expertise in product creation projects for companies along with his design associates. He coaches business leaders and executives for developing leadership skills. Hemant founded Exponient Consulting and Learning Leadership.

Previously, Hemant was Managing Director, GWT Global Weighing (now Sartorius Mechatronics) and held position of General Manager at Philips India. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.

For Onsite and online coaching for leadership development, please visit [http://www.learning-leadership.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Hemant_Karandikar/300806

 

Sales Coaching

An Effective Sales Strategy That Will Deliver Results in 90 Days

There is no question about it- these are very trying times and sales coaching needs to focus more on innovative if not shrewd approaches in order to maintain present levels of performance. Sales gurus contend that the professional must be dynamic and flexible as he faces the challenges and threat in the market. They have to be a lot more imaginative and persistent in their approaches in order to win additional share in an already tight and shrinking market. In this prevailing sales arena, only the resilient and persistent ones are expected to survive.

There is a fundamental sales strategy that when implemented would definitely hit the jackpot for the professional. This tried and tested technique will deliver positive results within 90 days.

This sales strategy is as simple as it can possibly get. When you are finished covering it, you may ask how this can possibly help your cause. But then again, this strategy has repeatedly been tried and tested and has continued to ring success to a lot of salespeople. Further, this technique is also a popular solution adopted by most experts and is extensively used in sales coaching sessions.

It has been proven in many instances that one-on-one sales performance mentoring is the fastest way of getting results from your assets. This approach affords the opportunity for a two-way interaction between the mentor and the protégé as they explore ways to improve on the performance. The mentor provides the overall framework and roadmap to a successful undertaking. On the other hand, the professional integrates the techniques shared to him by the sales coach while he considers the overall situations in the field. He may or may not advocate some modifications with the close supervision of his mentor. This technique encourages the collaboration between the sales coach and the sales professional by observing a two-way type of mentoring.

To become successful as a mentor, there are certain guidelines that have to be followed. We will focus on the most essential of all the guidelines that can deliver the strongest impact on the performance.

Spend sufficient time with each of your sales representatives. You can do this either by phone or in person. The frequency of the interaction must be a least twice a month. Depending on the nature of your business, you may even choose to have weekly one-on-one consultations with the members of your team. The meeting shall cover the “what was” and the “what will” of your activities. Generally, you will do cross referencing of actual results in the field and compare this with the established action plan or program. Results of the comparative analysis of the previous events will serve as the basis on the action on the plans for the succeeding week. You then have to decide if there is a need to adjust the sales target or make room for some intervention activities in order to meet the target for the upcoming week.

Chuck Stewart recently spent time researching business with a sales coaching [http://www.aburaconsulting.com/] specialist. He found it extremely helpful with building a sales strategy [http://www.aburaconsulting.com/] for his marketing team.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Chuck_R_Stewart/191394

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2180090

Automotive

Anchor Tools

1. Account Info:
First Name: Sujad
Last Name: Rashid
——————
2. Business Info
Business name : Anchor Drills & Tools Ltd
Preferred Category : Industrial, Metal Working, Tools
Description : Suppliers of diamond core drills,TCT core drills,diamond glass drills,plumbing tools,welding magnets,Lathe tools,knurling tools,tool holders,carbide cutters,rotabroach cutters,magnetic drill bits
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