Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Kickoff
We’ve been a part of making many sales kickoffs successful over the years. One early indicator of a SKO that drives the company’s core revenue objectives all year: front-line manager preparedness. Managers are a critical instrument to driving results after your sales kickoff, helping to reinforce new concepts and best practices throughout the year. Getting them onboarded early and preparing them to lead during and after your event can transform the outcome of your SKO. Here are three ways to support your front-line sales managers before the sales kickoff that will help maximize the impact of your event:
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Categories: Company Alignment | Front-line Managers | Talent Management
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle The best leaders in the world are successful because they are able to align everyday company activities to their core revenue objectives. How do they do that? The answer is the Management Operating Rhythm (MOR). The MOR is a major way that organizations support their sales managers, outlining the actions necessary for repeatable success and holding them accountable to perform them consistently and at a high level. The operating rhythm helps leaders connect their role to the company’s strategy and execute the plan of action without getting bogged down in administrative burdens. Unfortunately, most companies don’t have a Management Operating Rhythm to make sure that their sales managers and their sales teams can be successful. You may have a certain cadence set for manager reviews, but is there consistency across the company with how these are executed? Do your managers have a clear idea of how to lead planning efforts and coach deals to ensure maximum revenue in every opportunity? Without a strong operating rhythm, there may be revenue falling through the cracks.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Leadership
Win/loss analysis is critical to improving win consistency and growing revenue. You may know the reason why a specific deal was won or lost, but can you and your account teams reverse engineer that process to improve results on the next deal? Is your team currently leveraging those insights to repeat successes and avoid known setbacks? Don’t scream at the scoreboard, or just tell your people what to do. Help your managers provide the how. Define exactly what’s working and what isn’t so you can focus on the best opportunities to support your salespeople in improving win rates. First, you need to equip your managers to get beyond the data of why deals are won and lost.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Coaching Tools | Sales Leadership | Talent Management
Top sales teams differentiate themselves with a proven system for finding and attracting elite talent. But landing strong candidates is only the first step in the journey. The best organizations know how to retain sellers with the most potential and ensure they’re positioned to perform and excel as they advance up the ranks. Making the move from sales rep to manager is a common career pathway. Some individuals may not be ready for this transition today, but could become ready with time and development. Others may prefer to remain as individual contributors. Learn to recognize the difference so that you can make wise choices in offering promotions. Support your entire team by using the following tips to identify management potential and lay the foundation for new manager success. Here are six attributes to look for in sales manager candidates:
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Planning | Sales Process
Healthy sales pipelines and accurate forecasts are grounded in structured territory, account and opportunity planning processes. These processes provide sales managers with an unrestricted line of sight into their sales organizations. Without this line of sight, sales organizations often miss quota goals, forecast revenue inaccurately, and close the majority of deals late in the quarter – or year.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Leadership | Unicorn Companies
In 2013, a venture capitalist coined the term “Unicorn” to refer to privately owned firms valued at over $1B. Back then, only 39 companies fit the criteria. Legislation had cleared the path for private companies to pursue funding and Unicorns became less mythical. By 2020, there were over 600. The real Unicorn stampede occurred in the wake of pandemic-era restrictions, fueled by rapid tech adoption and an exuberant funding environment. During 2021 alone, 537 new Unicorns were minted. Today, there are over 1250. There is no roadmap for becoming a Unicorn, but there are common threads. Most have great timing with a disruptive idea, scalable technology and a relationship with investors marked by two-way trust. But once they've reached the coveted Unicorn status, how do companies maintain performance and continue their steep growth trajectory? For leaders at these companies who have reached great heights and want to keep the pedal to the floor, there are three critical areas they'll need to maintain and support continued success. First, fast-growing teams need a unified sales message to leverage clarity on the value they’re bringing to the market. Second, streamline your selling processes: qualification methods, deep discovery, capturing and sharing proof points – fine-tune each component into a repeatable process embedded in your operating rhythm. Third, maintain strong talent while emphasizing retention and development. Let’s examine these three focus areas:
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