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Sales Management Strategies for Leading with Integrity

Sales managers aren’t the only ones that often struggle with leadership credibility.  In fact, you don’t have to look any further than the nightly news to feel the sting and of corporate violation, corruption and erosion.  The nightly news depicts the story of a nation with an abiding sense of collective anxiety, understandable and certainly NOT easy to talk about. 

6 Secrets You Can’t Afford to Ignore
 
One of the most powerful skills (and sometimes the hardest) is truly listening to prospects and customers (and anyone else for that matter.)  Or, as Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People would say, “seek first to understand then to be understood.” 

In other words, get off your own agenda if you want to win more business!  Your goal – especially in a sales situation is maximum, mutual understanding. 

Here are 6 secrets you can’t afford to ignore if you want to truly stand out in the eyes of your customer or prospect.

SELLING BELOW THE PRICE LINE™

One of the foundational ideas in our sales training program, Selling Below the Price Line, is the importance of attitude. 

You can have great skills and terrific knowledge but if you don’t have an attitude that exudes confidence and enthusiasm, you will fail to reach your true potential.  It’s also important that you have a strong positive attitude about the value of your contribution to customer satisfaction.  So what exactly constitutes a good attitude?

Sales Training Secrets from the Diving Board of Life

Every now and then I come across a thought provoking prose that stirs and awakens me with it’s stark simplicity.  Here is one I love from wild, crazy, brilliant, author and management guru Tom Peters who says, “it’s always better to try a swan dive and deliver a colossal belly flop than to step timidly off the board while holding your nose.”

Isn’t that true?! 

How are you doing on the swan dive/belly flop continuum of your sales career?  Do you risk enough? Dare enough?  Dream boldly enough?  Or, do you sometimes play it too safe, waiting for the “conditions to be right” or, “things to slow down?”

In his best selling book Good to Great, Jim Collins tells us that good is the enemy of great.  Let’s take a look at the 5 habits that separate the “good” from the “great” when it comes to selling. 

Margin of Victory

Excellent salespeople are only about 3% better at a number of important things.  There is only a small margin of difference between mediocre and outstanding.  These sales people are masters at the basics:

Sales Training Strategy  #1:  Adaptability

I’ve been a gym goer all my life.  Scratch that.  Most of my life. OK, truth be told, I’ve had a goal of going to the gym 4 times a week for most of my adult life.  

Until recently, my workouts have been relegated to tae bo kickboxing, lifting weights and an occasional yoga class.  That is … until I found my first SPIN class! (definition: stationary bike, dark room, sweaty bodies, iron man instructor, loud music, pure torture).

Selling during challenging times presents two choices - reinvent yourself and enjoy huge success or don’t and enjoy mediocrity.

What I’ve noticed over the years is that 7% of the sales people in most organizations produce 93% of the results. So why is it that some sales people consistently achieve their goals while others constantly struggle?  They do things differently. 

Here are 11 motivational sales strategies for reinventing how to sell during challenging times:  

In life and in the sales profession, there are no ordinary moments.  If you are reading this post, you’ve picked a career where one minute you can be at the height of exhilaration, the next – the phone rings, a cancellation happens, and you can hit the depth of depression.  You have selected a career that ranks one of the most stressful of all careers.

You have a few clients that create enough stress for you and everyone around them that if you harnessed that energy – you could provide enough energy for the state for a month!  You’re in a business that demands that you constantly reinvent yourself so you don’t become obsolete overnight.