I recently asked a group of salespeople to tell me about their #1 sales challenge. One common theme in their answers was the timing of pricing discussions. A customer keeps pressing the salesperson for a price early on during the discussions and won’t budge until they hear an answer from the salesperson. This situation is ... Read full article The post Why and How to Delay Price Discussions appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

Whenever I talk about “accountability” with salespeople, I see a lot of eye rolls. Not surprising, given that accountability is a word that gets tossed around when sales managers want to blame someone for something that has gone wrong. Over time, if accountability means blame it can destroy morale and undermine sales results. Instead, sales ... Read full article The post How to Create an Accountable Sales Team appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

The questions sales managers ask their salespeople have an effect on the questions salespeople ask their customers. If you want your salespeople to ask better questions of customers – you the sales manager need to ask better questions of your salespeople! Here are my five favorite questions to ask of a B2B salesperson. By asking ... Read full article The post 5 Best Sales Coaching Questions appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

Here are four of the biggest differences I see in sales managers that consistently get the best results from their sales teams. 1. The best sales managers rigorously control their time by continually asking themselves, “What can do right now to have a meaningful impact on the development of my team?” Sales managers always tell ... Read full article The post 4 Things the Best Sales Managers Do Differently appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

In my online sales management programs, I tell sales managers that they should spend at least 20% of their time—8 hours a week—coaching their salespeople. The predictable reactions are a mix of incredulity (“Where am I going to find that kind of time?”) and skepticism (“My salespeople get a lot of training. How is that ... Read full article The post Why Sales Managers Thrive in a Sales Coaching Culture appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

Should sales managers focus on results? Absolutely, but problems with sales teams arise when sales managers focus ONLY on results rather than observing and improving the inputs of the sales process. Sales results are an inescapable metric of the sales profession. But sales managers who want their teams to improve results have to pay attention ... Read full article The post Where Results-Oriented Sales Managers Go Wrong appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

This article provides five sales coaching strategies designed to maximize your team’s sales results.  Good, structured sales coaching has been found to increase your team’s win-rate by as much as 30%! High quality sales coaching helps your salespeople better understand each sales opportunity, identify gaps in their thinking or approach, and develop more skillful plans ... Read full article The post 5 Sales Coaching Strategies for Maximizing Sales Results appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

Sales managers can claim to have a healthy sales team when they reach 80% to 90% of their sales team members performing at or above their individual sales quotas. The trouble is, sales managers often have only 30% to 40% of their salespeople at or above quota. That means that on a team of eight ... Read full article The post Sales Coaching – How to Get More Salespeople Above Quota appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

With the Great Resignation happening in today’s business where a wave of people have quit their sales jobs …  it means that sales organizations are having to do more hiring and often having to accept candidates with less experience than past hires. New salespeople, especially those with only a year or two of experience, need ... Read full article The post 3 Obstacles to Installing a Sales Coaching Culture appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more

This article provides six reasons why online sales training is better than in-person training for improving sales performance. Any company considering a sales training program in 2022 should read this article. Over the past months, sales organizations of all sizes have experienced an increasing number of salespeople who quit. As a company’s number of salespeople ... Read full article The post Why Online Sales Training is Better than In-person appeared first on TopLine Leadership ..read more