"You now understand that the frontline sales management role is one of the absolute toughest jobs on the planet."
- Sales Management. Simplified., page 4
"Everything flows from culture. Culture is everything."- Sales Management. Simplified., page 119
Culture is defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. I believe wholeheartedly that culture is the ultimate competitive advantage in business today and Weinberg makes the case that’s even more so within a sales team. To start off, he asks leaders to think about the following questions related to their sales culture:
Moving on, Weinberg talks about a dream sales culture that he worked with a number of years back. It’s powerful so I’ll let you read it for yourself:
“The culture at this company truly was its key differentiator and competitive advantage. It also clearly dictated the shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices of the sales organization: We are elite. We strive to dominate the competition. We keep score and constantly look at and talk about the scoreboard – in the hallways, in our team meetings, and when we meet 1:1. We are loud and proud. We have each other’s’ backs. We have fun. We are careful about who we add to this team because we have something very special and we guard it protectively. We come to team meetings with great attitudes, expecting to participate. We check our ego and pride at the door. We tease each other in a good natured way because we’re like family; we have very high standards and, most important, we want everyone to win. In fact, we expect to win. When we flop in practice we get called out because it is not acceptable to flop in the real game. We believe in pushing each other hard and telling each other the truth. And when we win big, we celebrate big.”
Culture is the most important piece of the sales puzzle. It enables you to drive results in a way that few other organizations will be able to contend with, ultimately giving you a palpable competitive edge!
"How often do you formally meet 1:1 with each of your people?"- Sales Management. Simplified., page 128
Over the course of his sales coaching/consulting career, Weinberg always asks his clients: one question: “How often do you have a formal scheduled meeting (either by phone or face to face) with each salesperson specifically to review their results and their pipeline of future sales opportunities?”
Most often, the responses he gets involves a bit of stuttering combined with a lengthy circular answer. Holding these 1:1 meetings are critical for individual, team and organizational sales success. Through a story of his former sales manager and consulting partner, the author offers us a framework for conducting these 20 minute meetings. The following is his Sales Management Accountability Progression:
Through this framework, sales managers can help to create a results driven culture that is critical for individual and team sales success!
"Sales team meetings are critical to building a winning culture."- Sales Management. Simplified., page 140
Team sales meetings are vitally important to building a winning sales culture. Weinberg states that the goal for these meetings should “be for every salesperson to leave the team meeting better equipped and more energized to do their jobs.” A major struggle for sales leaders is how they can make these meetings more meaningful. The author offers us a menu of potential agenda topics for us to consider:
These meetings give leadership the opportunity to set the tone for their team and to establish a winning sales culture.
As is discussed throughout, the role of the Sales Manager is critical to overall organizational success. Fortunately for sales leaders, they have amazing resources like Mike Weinberg. Sales Management. Simplified. provides sales leaders with the necessary frameworks to succeed in all areas of Sales Management. Early in the book Weinberg shares with us these two powerful quotes:
Thanks for checking out my author page and my first book, New Sales. Simplified. I’m a sales coach, consultant, speaker and author on a mission to simplify sales. My specialty is new business development my passion is helping salespeople, sales leaders and professional services executives acquire new customers and increase sales.
