What piece of advice would you give to a newly promoted sales manager in his/her first role leading a team?
1. Have a 90-day plan in place before you start.
2. Create your "mindset" speech where you clearly outline how you think about the sales profession, about how committed you are to learning from everyone. You want to shift people from unilateral control thinking to a mutual learning mindset where everyone's ideas count. Explain your views on leadership and spell out what's important to you. Goals, innovation, collaboration, vision, process, fairness, commitment to growth, keeping things real, not "playing office", focusing on the customer, the value of fair metrics and high motivation. Your mindset will be reflected in your sales people's behaviors.
Thinking back over your career, what would you rank as the biggest/most important innovation in sales and/or sales training?
1. Google, 2. Social Media, and 3. Sales technology.
What’s the biggest/most common sales challenge your clients/colleagues are facing this year, and how are you helping them address it?
Sales cycles are getting longer. Buyers are harder to reach. Customers change their minds as frequently as travelers change their reservations. 29% of forecasted deals end up with "no decision." More buyers enjoy shopping because the process is educational and it is free. Salespeople need to ask better questions to weed out the tire kickers.
Have you had a professional mentor who was especially influential in your career? If yes, what lessons or advice have proven to be most impactful for you?
I studied many, many role models. Today, high-performance athletes have several coaches. Sales people who have two or three coaches (speaking, video rehearsal, elevator pitch script writers, telephone skills, etc.) hone their skills, increasing their chances for success.
Are there sales/training leaders you feel are doing an exceptional job in their organization/market? Why and what can their peers, specifically, learn from them?
I personally like Sandler training because they offer ongoing reinforcement training all over the country and overseas.
See Gerhard's video interview with Qstream CEO and co-founder, Duncan Lennox, as they discuss the Top Selling Trends to Watch.
Gerhard Gschwandtner is the founder and CEO of Selling Power, Inc., a media company that produces Selling Power magazine. Over the course of three decades, he has interviewed some of the most successful leaders and experts in sales, business, sports, entertainment, and politics, including Mary Kay Ash, Marc Benioff, Michael Dell, George Forman, Seth Godin, Jay Leno, Bill Marriott, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, and Colin Powell. He is the author of 17 sales management books and has trained some10, 000 sales people worldwide.
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