How Your Salespeople Measure Up in the 21 Most Crucial Sales Competencies for Modern Selling
Over the years I've debunked a number of articles that cited nothing but junk science. The authors often relied on observation, anecdotal evidence and personal opinion while proclaiming traits, competencies, skills and differentiators between top salespeople and everyone else. Today those articles would qualify as fake news. My rebuttals to those articles, many of which can be found here, are always based on science.
Speaking of the difference between fake...
Why You Should Care That Sales Motivation Data Correlates Perfectly With Sales Effectiveness
What was your reaction when you saw that the water in Tampa Bay was sucked away by Hurricane Irma? How about when you saw the total eclipse? Or the Cajun Army rescuing thousands in Houston? Now, I don't want to equate my news with the enormity of Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma, but when I first saw the data, my reaction was exactly the same. I said, "Wow - didn't see that coming."
This summer, Objective Management Group (OMG) added and began testing for...
The Official 2017 List of 21 Sales Core Competencies
These days, changes happen faster than ever and the same can be said about professional selling. Selling is evolving, the rules of business are changing, there is more information available on line than there was last week and sales organizations must evolve accordingly.
Back in 2014, I introduced what was then the most current version of Objective Management Group's 21 Sales Core Competencies. But just 3 years later, we have again found it important to...
New Analysis Shows the 5 Biggest Gaps Between Top and Bottom Sales Performers
It didn't take very long for this to happen. When Objective Management Group (OMG) announced that it was making its findings data available to the public, we knew that it wouldn't take long for someone with a flair for analytics to dig in and come up with something cool. Last week, John Cousineau, creator of Amacus, got me on a video conference and shared what he came up with. Hint: Another way to differentiate top performers.
He...
Rebuttal to What Elite Salespeople Do Differently
Yesterday, the Sales & Marketing Analytics Blog ran this article on the 8 Things That the Top 1% of Sales Reps Do Differently. Cara, the author of the article, wrote that she extracted these 8 things from a discussion on Quora, a discussion where sales leaders contributed their opinions on what they believe the top 1% of all sales reps do differently. While the disclaimer was in the first paragraph, it is very clear to me that...
7 Reasons Your Sales Pipeline Sings Like an Old Meatloaf Song And Why Two Out Of Three Is Bad
by Cheryl Powers
There are enough sales lessons in this song to fill a chapter in a book. But for today, let’s focus on why your salespeople insist on keeping prospects in the pipeline who are never going to buy from you - - and what you can do to fix it.
Your sales pipeline should be the predictive determiner of future business but month after month and quarter after miserable quarter, CEOs and their sales leaders continue to play guessing games about how much business they can...
How to Avoid Hiring Bad Apples
by Cheryl Powers
Despite what I see in my news feed, my experience has shown me that most humans are decent, well-meaning, and kind. And when you agree to bring someone into your company as an employee, those are important qualities to screen for throughout your recruitment process. But let's be clear: it takes more than nice people to get the job done.
"The next thing you know, this CEO or business owner and their executive team is spending precious time and costly resources interviewing...
Game Changers: Reviving Stagnant Revenue Growth
by Cheryl Powers
This year our company's theme is Game Changers. We started the year by asking ourselves how we can help our clients in the most game-changing and innovative ways?
One of my favorite questions to answer for a CEO client is:
What are the three or four initiatives that, if executed in the next 90 days, would have the biggest impact on revenue performance over the next 12-18 months? Then we reveal the impact number -- the opportunity in dollars for executing on those initiatives...
Close More Sales With Emotional Intelligence
What is it beyond sales skills that exceptional salespeople and sales leaders possess that make them so successful? It's not just one thing but a set of factors that create a competency that make the difference between a good salesperson and and an elite sales superstar. You can think of it as the sales equivalent of Emotional Intelligence. The more of these factors your sales team has, the better they will be at keeping cool under pressure, forging meaningful connections with prospects and...
9 Critical Sales Performance Factors You Must Measure
by Cheryl Powers
How do you know for sure before you hire them that a salesperson or a sales leader can and will do what it takes to succeed? Their resume can't tell you. The headhunter doesn't want you to ask. The candidate will try to convince you in the interview and will likely be a more skillful interviewer than you are.
If you are serious about the success of your sales force and the success of your new hires, you simply can't wing it. You must know the specific sales skills, sales...
