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Why do we have salespeople that can’t hack it? How do people who don't belong in sales wind up running a multi-million dollar territory for a company? We have discovered the most prevalent hiring mistake was the poor performers were hired for their industry knowledge. Conversely, we have found that the majority of the top tier salespeople in most organizations have experience in at least one other industry or another company department. They are real salespeople- whether selling a product or a new way to be more productive in their department. What they sell is just a detail. Sales ability trumps industry knowledge more often than not in sales performance. Much more often than not. Read more

Checking the articles that are downloaded monthly from this website, the consistent winner is the article titled “Sales Compensation Systems That Work”. It’s safe to say that sales compensation is a hot topic. The problem is most people downloading this article will be disappointed because most executives and business owners are constantly seeking that “silver bullet” compensation package that drives successful results. There is no silver bullet in “Sales Compensation Systems That Work”. Rather, there is a frank discussion on creating a compensation system that works for the sales personalities you hire, the market base you are chasing, and the systems in place that measure and compensate sales performance. Read more

Hiring Right, A Three-Part Series
Part II: Hiring Right Read more

The Los Angeles-area September 2008 head on collision of a passenger train with a freight train that killed 25 people was a horrific event. The first thing that comes to many people’s mind must be, “How can two trains have a head-on collision in this day and age of technology?” Technology apparently was- and wasn’t- the culprit. The train system technology was working quite well. It unfortunately was competing for mind-share with personal technology- cell phone usage. Accident investigators are honing in on the theory that the engineer of the passenger train was text messaging his friends and may have missed a red signal as a result. Whether or not this proves to be factual, the following is food for thought. Read more

Everybody’s busy. No time to get anything done. Is that actually true? Or are we so psychologically busy? There are people who are basically overwhelmed when they get out of bed. They sit there at breakfast, wringing their hands, rubbing their eyes, and fidgeting in their chair about their dreaded workload that awaits them. They slump their shoulders, drag their feet, and move at a pace that would make a snail yawn. Slogging their way through traffic, they make it to work- even more tired than when they woke up. Eight trips to the break room for coffee, and they’re still not feeling better. Overwhelmed, they pass their day fidgeting as more work piles up and they roll their eyes. Having accomplished nothing, they go home, totally stressed from their work day. And didn’t do a damn thing. Every story that follows is true- I couldn’t possibly be this creative with fiction. Read more

Richard Teerlink, turnaround artist of the Harley-Davidson miracle was the keynote speaker at the MAFSI (Manufacturers Agents Association for the Food Service Industry) in San Diego. It’s interesting to watch the auto industry laying off so many people when you have to wait months for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that will set you back no less than $14,000. And the wait isn’t due to slow production or a lack of customer care. It’s slow because everybody wants one. Detroit still doesn’t get how Harley-Davidson pulled off their miracle just like the airline industry can’t figure out how Southwest Airlines is successful (hint: it’s NOT cost-cutting with employees and NOT being cheap with customers). Read more

In 1999, we started working with an startup division of a $3.5 billion company. The division added value to the company’s several main product lines by creating sub-assemblies of the company’s various division components. Starting out at about $7 million in annual revenues, the division continued to grow both revenues and profits through 2008, hitting over $65 million in annual sales. Of course, the economic downturn of 2009 has caused a decline in revenues- as it has industry-wide and company-wide.  Read more

Following is an excerpt from the book, Words to Action: Building A Leadership Legacy, by Paul Pease, PUBLISHED SEP 7, 2001 Read more