Managers and executives fall into the dangerous trap of assumed knowledge. Given very little or no information at all, they assume and clearly know what is going on in a department; with a customer; or on the factory floor when in fact they are in the fog. Nevertheless, they create some version of the events because they must know- they are the boss and bosses are supposed to know everything. Read more

TEMAC Sales Rep Management Effectiveness Tip Read more

Do you get trapped fighting the fires of daily business crises? Your day starts out with hopes of working on that big, important project. Then you look at your email inbox and there are forty messages, ten of which have the dreaded “!”. Your voicemail has eight messages you don’t even want to bother with after being already overwhelmed by your email. You get a 9-1-1 text from a sales rep. You haven’t even had your first cup of coffee.  Read more

First, a caveat: This is not a political column, this is a business column. The meaning of Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts is a great metaphor for corporations. Given a “Massachusetts Shock Message” to a corporation (like snowballing employee turnover or customer defections), how many corporate executive teams and organizational leaders go into spin cycle- or worse yet- denial mode? Let’s face it: leadership isn’t just about giving a directional message (“I haven’t explained the message well. They don’t get it”.) That’s top-down management-by-directive, and the problem is the executive is in denial about which way the real message is being sent: it’s not coming from headquarters; it’s coming from the pickup truck- the street. Read more

Where do you find good salespeople? First, you have to define “a good salesperson”. With no college curriculum or extensive certification process for someone to be called a salesperson, a “good” salesperson is a highly subjective definition. Here’s the acid test for executives as to whether or not they know a person is a “good” salesperson or not: Can the executive make an accurate evaluation without looking at the sales numbers or track record- and will the sales numbers verify the executive’s decision to hire? Would an executive of a prominent electrical wholesaler hire a food server at a restaurant with the intent of making him an outside salesperson? John Walter of Walter’s Wholesale Electric did that very thing about twelve years ago. Read more

The following is a memo sent in January, 1965, from J.A. Sexauer to his 75 field salespeople. Interesting how some of his thoughts and philosophies are somewhat timeless: Read more

When it comes to understanding the role of sales and how to maximize sales performance, not too many business executives “get it”. Hint: Managing sales is not about dictating control. If your salespeople are totally controllable by you, then what are they like when negotiating on your behalf? Worse yet, if you have total control over them, then do they have to wait for you to tell them to do something before they do it? Two major characteristics of great salespeople are the strength to negotiate value in the face of a buyer’s price pressure and the self-discipline to get things done without adult supervision. Neither of these characteristics are those of someone who is “controllable”. In fact, another inherent characteristic of great salespeople is they are fiercely independent.  Read more

The predictability of future business through the eyes of the field sales force is critical to effective decision-making on the part of any executive. What is the trend? What is changing? What’s over the horizon? Knowing this can help make the necessary strategic decisions that keep a company in step with the changing marketplace and ahead of the competition. The problem is most organizations utilize an outdated business school approach to getting this information: sales forecasts. Read more

Where Are the Salespeople?

The following quote from the Harvard Business Review may have a familiar ring to it:

“More than 35 years ago, the insurance industry embarked on an intensive program to solve the problem of costly, wasteful turnover among it’s agents. ….

After expenditure of millions of dollars and 35 years of research, the turnover in the insurance industry remains (as it was)….What accounts for this expensive inefficiency? Basically this: Companies have simply not known what makes one person sell and another not.”

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