In my work with sales organizations, I hear one question over and over again from sales managers and sales organization leaders:

How can I drive better results from my team?

My answer? You can’t. The problem lies in the question itself. To “drive” results infers that the sales manager has complete control over the situation. You don’t. You can’t force your sales team to make more sales calls. You can’t will them into being better at closing. You can’t wave a magic wand and transform your sales team into more charming and personable people.

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Let’s face it – your clients are lazy. And your prospects are lazier. They won’t reply to your follow-up emails. They never answer their phones. They indicated having interest in the next meeting, but they won’t commit to getting it on the calendar. How do you get them across the finish line if they won’t even take the next step?

The truth is that your clients and prospects aren’t lazy, even though it may seem that way sometimes. You simply haven’t given them a compelling enough reason to take that next step with you. You’re not a priority for them right now. They have work, family, and a ton of other obligations. For them to make you a priority, you have to give them a pretty solid reason to do so. [Read more…]

Sales coach Scott Edinger wrote an article for Harvard Business Review earlier this year that perfectly echoes and amplifies what I’ve seen in my 30-plus years of coaching experience. All too often, I’ll do a training session with a company’s sales team. They’ll be engaged and interested in learning, and I have no doubt that the group has a sincere desire to improve.

The truth is, though, that outsourced, short-term training can only get a person so far. Once you leave the confines of the conference room, the challenges of the real world set in. Before long, much of that great information learned in the workshop disappears forever. [Read more…]