New Sales Enablement Ideas – SAVO’s AMPs, Part 8 – First-Line Sales LeadershipThe first-line sales manager arguably has the most important role in any organization. Key performance indicators such as percent to plan, growth, close ratios and employee engagement can almost always be linked to the leadership, coaching and mentoring provided by the sales manager. Read more
Failing Forward Step Five: WhySpecific tools for performing root-cause analysis can be applied to get past the symptom and focus on the disease. The root-cause analysis concept originated in manufacturing and is often referred to as “the five whys” because Toyota discovered that, on average, it took on average of five “whys” to get to the root cause. Read more
Failing Forward Step Four: Let Go and Move OnConscientious professionals always want to learn more, but the amount of useful knowledge that can be gleaned from revisiting the same ground over again diminishes after a certain point. Strong leaders know when to stop. It will be easier to move on if the analytical work of figuring out what happened and the follow-up work of changing whatever needs improvement are completed. Read more
Failing Forward Step Three: Take ActionThe next in our series (see below for links to previous posts) builds on the work entailed in Steps One and Two, and is demanding on many levels. Yet it is not worth doing unless the organization is prepared to follow through on the remaining steps. Read more
Failing Forward Step Two: Determine CausalityIn a continuation of a series on learning from failure (start from the beginning), the second step is to determine the underlying reason or reasons for the loss. This means going through the long list of events assembled in Step One and determining which actually caused the loss. Determining causality is not the same as conducting root-cause analysis. Read more
Failing Forward Step One: Find out what happenedIn a series of posts, I’m outlining how to learn from a loss. Read part 1, oulining why failure is an effective teacher. Today’s post, detailing step one, finding out what happened, may seem straightforward. In fact, it is an emotionally challenging and intellectually demanding task. The team must dispassionately review the entire history of the procurement. Read more
Failing forward, part 1No one wants to lose, and no one wants to talk about losing. It is like talking about death. But, failure can be an effective teacher. Many sales are losing sales—a statistical fact that is often ignored. However, this does not mean the participants are losers. Read more
Sales process for the starving masses, part 2Earlier this week, I described an exercise from Michele Rochon, a business development and marketing professional in the engineering industry designed help instill process into your selling program. This cake-baking exercise provides your sellers a real understanding of how to address customers’ needs and sell successfully. Be sure to read part 1! Read more
Sales process for the starving masses, part 1Can you use baked goods to improve your sales process? While “letting them eat cake” did not work for Marie Antoinette, it may work for you. Michele Rochon, a business development and marketing professional in the engineering industry describes a fun exercise for instilling process into your selling program. Read more
How to create stories to drive actionGreat storytellers can cut through the noise and produce tremendous value for organizations at a very low cost. Telling a solid story is just as essential as developing a great product. One of the most important roles to fill when trying to build a passionate community is that of the storyteller. Read more