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My Sales Force Needs a Make Over

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: One reader emailed that he just inherited a radio station in Honduras, has never sold before, and he and his salespeople aren't able to book appointments. Another reader is the Sales Director for several well-known magazines and said that her top producing team is down 50% from last year. Yet another reader wrote and wanted to know how to chop her 2-3 year sales cycle down to 2-3 months. And one President fired all of his salespeople, is back on the road selling and wonders what he can do to thrive. What do all four of these scenarios have in common?

My Sales Force Needs a Make Over

For kicks, let's take a look at this week's Baseline Selling mail bag.

One reader emailed that he just inherited a radio station in Honduras, has never sold before, and he and his salespeople aren't able to book appointments.

Another reader is the Sales Director for several well-known magazines and said that her top producing team is down 50% from last year.

Yet another reader wrote and wanted to know how to chop her 2-3 year sales cycle down to 2-3 months.

And one President fired all of his salespeople, is back on the road selling and wonders what he can do to thrive.

What do all four of these scenarios have in common?

* they lack direction
* their salespeople are ineffective
* they are having trouble getting the attention of their prospects
* they have the wrong people in the wrong roles
* they aren't able to engage prospects and get them to take action
* they aren't proactive enough
* they aren't consultative
* they aren't very aggressive
* they don't have effective strategies
* they don't have effective tactics
* they may have hired the wrong salespeople in the first place

The bigger issue is that each of these four readers, even if they could come up with the list of issues above, (and they can't), has the ability to fix these issues. And this is the big issue that I see out there. Even when an occasional president, CEO, or Sales VP recognizes the limitations of the sales force, they aren't equipped to solve the problem. This is because solving the problem requires:

* superior development skills
* insightful diagnostic skills
* excellent training skills
* tremendous coaching skills
* powerful sales process in place
* potent sales management systems and processes
* top notch accountability
* awesome strategies
* unsurpassed tactics
* perfect selection skills
* consistent, predictable recruiting process
* proven ability to change behavior
* dynamic motivational skills
* mountain of time

How effective are you and your sales management team in the above areas? If I were to casually rate my personal clients, most of them were fairly ineffective in most of the above areas prior to working with me. It's very typical then, that these skill sets are not out there in abundance and, in order to sell through this recession, these are the skills sets that management must develop, execute and stay with.

What are your thoughts?

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Article Tags: accountability, baseline, book appointments, diagnostic skills, excellent training, honduras, magazines, mail, president ceo, proactive, prospects, radio station, sales director, sales management systems, salespeople, scenarios, top notch, vp



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