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Questions Every CEO Should Be Asking His Sales Managers

Written by: Peter Gilbert

Article Overview: High impact sales questions for CEOs

Questions Every CEO Should Be Asking His Sales Managers

Are you gaining/losing market share? If so, why?

Are your margins eroding? If so, why?

Is your cost of selling too high? Or is it too low?

What percentage of your sales team are meeting or exceeding quota?

Do you know that half your sales force is out there trying to win business you do not want?

Is your sales organisation respected even admired in the marketplace?

Is your sales approach a distinctive source of competitive advantage? If not, why not?

Can your sales force create and sell business solutions?

Do they know how to get paid for the value these solutions deliver?

How do your customers rate your sales force?

How solid is your sales pipeline and how accurate is your sales forecasting?

Is slippage in your forecast a recurring problem?

What is your sales force turnover—is it too high or too low?

How effective is your sales compensation plan? Does it drive the right kind of behaviours?

How effective is your sales management—do they have the tools, skills and systems to deliver results through a sales team? Have they been properly trained?

How well are sales and marketing integrated?

Do the salespeople see marketing as an asset that helps them sell more effectively?

Do you routinely conduct win/loss reviews?

Do you have a clearly articulated an effective Go-To-Market sales strategy?

Could all of your executives explain it succinctly and with the same message?

Do you have a defined process for identifying, hiring and retaining genuine sales talent?

Do your salespeople know how to sell to senior executives?

Why do over 50% of our sales force fail to meet quota.

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Article Tags: behaviours, business solutions, compensation plan, competitive advantage, distinctive source, margins, market share, marketplace, quota, sales and marketing, sales compensation, sales forecasting, sales management, sales pipeline, sales strategy, salespeople, senior executives, slippage, turnover



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: Hello from Missouri - [quote="MichaelH":gxmrz8rk] If anyone in those markets in a managerial or owner capacity would like to offer some simple numbers help I would be greatly appreciative. To be honest, I've actually posted an ad on my local Craigslist for help, and offer $5 PayPal to anyone willing to help... haven't had any results yet! [/quote:gxmrz8rk] Unfortunately, to get people to respond to anythign these days, you probably need to up the ante to at least $10. Managers to whom time is money aren't going to take even 5 minutes out of their day to answer questions and then just get $5 for it!
Re: Marketing ideas? - Questions will set you free... And make you Rich [quote="KH_Global":349pds7c]Just ask ask ask. That is it.[/quote:349pds7c]
Re: Contact Information - Another idea would be to have an email form in place to accept "ticketed" inquires (if people are afraid of spammers seeing their email address). However, I hate how some sites try to persuade you out of sending an email by bombarding you with lists of "Frequently Asked Questions & Answers" as I find they're rarely helpful.


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