Episode 75 continues the string of recent shows where Mike shares real-life examples from what he’s observing with sales and sales management teams.

In this case, Mike was blown away leading a follow-up workshop with a large team that had done the heavy lifting to sharpen their “sales story.” Rep after rep testified to the difference in how customers were perceiving them and positively responding to their new customer issue and outcome-focused messaging.

Listen in for a quick refresher on the amazing benefits a compelling, differentiating, issue and outcome-focused “sales story” delivers and a few tips to help you upgrade yours (and how your team will be perceived)!

Mike wraps the episode with a few predictions about changes he’ll be making following his current sabbatical.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Sales Management Foundations Virtual Workshop Series

LinkedIn Post announcing Mike’s sabbatical

Chapters 7 and 8 in New Sales. Simplified.

Chapter 10 in Sales Truth

Your Sales Story online course

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This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you are looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike’s friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg

As Mike shares starting off this power-packed episode, every once in a while, a client challenges him to create something new. In this case, a passionate enablement leader requested something quite specific: How can sales managers take what they are learning from conducting excellent 1:1 accountability meetings to coach their people more effectively?

In Episode 74 Mike overlays his three favorite sales verbs (Create. Advance. Close.) on top of the Sales Management Accountability Progression (Results. Pipeline. Activity). The result is a powerful, prescriptive guide to help managers ask exactly the rights questions and provide more effective coaching to salespeople based on specific gaps/shortfalls uncovered during accountability meetings, depending on whether the salesperson…

• Lacks sufficient total pipeline coverage (not enough deals or dollars in the funnel), typically because they are not CREATING enough NEW OPPORTUNITIES
• Is not ADVANCING existing OPPORTUNITIES
• Is NOT CLOSING

Resources Mentioned In This Episode:

The Sales Management Foundations Virtual Workshop Series (get more info and register now for the June 24 launch)

Episode 39: Underperformers Should Leave the 1:1 Manager-Salesperson Accountability Meeting with an Uncomfortable Feeling

Supercharge Your Sales Leadership – October and November event info and register

This thesis of Episode 73 is that the world works much better (particularly in sales) when everyone focuses on, and worries about, their primary job! This episode was prompted by stimulating conversations in two recent sales leadership sessions.

First, at the VIP Q&A during Day 2 of the recent Supercharge Your Sales Leadership event, an operation-minded CEO asked Mike to elaborate on a bold (and controversial?) statement made in response to a manager asking how to keep salespeople selling when they’re worried about outselling capacity and overloading the operations/production/delivery people.

The second conversation (while kicking off a six-month manager cohort) revolved around what Mike refers to as “Smart Sales Talent Management,” and the importance of getting the right people in the right roles. The managers were describing the differences between sellers with hunter DNA compared to those wired more like zookeepers who love to nurture relationships, put out customer service fires, and jump in to help out with delivery and operations.

In both cases, Mike quoted the strong, direct words that his sales management mentor regularly used to remind salespeople to focus on Job #1 – driving revenue!

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

Episode 72 – Who’s on Your Team?

Episode 57 – The #1 Reason Your Sales Team Is Not Bringing in More New Business

Sales Management Foundations Virtual Workshop Series –

• Download the PDF info document
• Read more or register HERE

Supercharge Your Sales Leadership October Session at The Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta. More info at mikeweinberg.com/events. Join Mike on October 8 for the full-day intensive or October 8 & 9 for the VIP experience!

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This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you are looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike’s friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg

Episode 72 is different. Instead of talking about leading your sales team, Mike challenges listeners with this important personal question:

Who is on YOUR team?

This episode was inspired by several factors, including a personal breakthrough Mike is experiencing in his own life, combined with a well-timed Netflix docuseries episode that perfectly depicts the transformative change you can experience from making the right additions to your personal team.

Who is rooting for you? Who is challenging you? Who are you going to for outside perspective or expert advice? Who is helping ensure that you win…at work, at home, at health, at life? Who is cheering you on? Or confronting you when you play the victim? Who is whispering encouragement in your ear? Or speaking hard, constructive truth (hopefully in love), when you need to hear it?

Take a listen and be challenged to consider who might add to your personal team to help you experience a breakthrough.

Resources Mentioned:

Podcast Episode: Practical Wisdom from a Highly Rated Financial Advisor, Golf Instructor, and Sales Coach to Help You Win Big in 2024!

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This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike’s friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg

Episode 71 was inspired by a message Mike received from an executive whose sales team was not securing enough meetings with prospective customers. The executive shared two specific frustrations:

• The sales team’s lack of effectiveness at getting prospects to agree to an initial meeting
• The number of prospects cancelling at the last minute or “no-showing” for a meeting they had previously agreed to attend

In this episode, Mike shares his initial response to this request for help and offers up a list of potential causes for ineffective prospecting – ranging from impersonal, automated approaches, to the model being deployed, the focus of the messaging, the DNA of the salespeople, sellers not properly pushing past resistance or overcoming objections, the weightiness/reality of virtual vs. in-person meetings, and more.

Take a listen to see if any of these obstacles are preventing you or your sales team from securing meetings with targeted prospective customers.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

YOUR SALES STORY online course

Supercharge Your Sales Leadership full-day intensive

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This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you are looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike’s friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg

Mike recently led a workshop for a group of talented, hungry, driven, young sales managers who were falling into an all-too-common trap – “doing” instead of coaching, developing, and holding sales reps accountable. During the session Mike challenged this group of managers with a question he had never thought to ask before:

When making joint sales calls with your people, is your primary purpose to…

A) Proactively develop your salesperson, or

B) Advance and close the sale

The healthy discussion that ensued inspired this episode. Listen in as Mike shares more of the story, promotes the importance of proactive, developmental, nonurgent coaching, and offers thoughts on best practices when managers ride shotgun with reps on sales calls.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The First-Time Manager: Sales book

Supercharge Your Sales Leadership event, October 8-9, The Porsche Experience Center, Atlanta

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This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike’s friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg

In this episode Mike tackles a critical sales management topic that does not receive enough attention.

Too many sales managers allow underperformance to go unaddressed for way too long!

Episode 69 is granular and prescriptive as Mike shares exactly how to start the conversation with a struggling salesperson and begin the all-important process of coaching that seller up, or if necessary, out.

RESOURCES MIKE REFERENCED IN EPISODE 69:

The First-Time Manager: Sales book (Chapter 8)

The free guide on increasing accountability and creating a high-performance sales culture: Mikeweinberg.com at the top of the page.

Supercharge Your Sales Leadership October Event: The April event sold out very quickly so we just secured The Porsche Experience Center for our next sales leadership event on October 8th (& 9th for the VIP option). Check out all the details, the packed agenda, and the powerful outcomes here: www.mikeweinberg.com/atlanta2024

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This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike’s friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg

During Week 1 of the 2024 Sales Kickoff Meeting Season, one of Mike’s clients included a live Q&A to conclude a virtual session. The questions from the salespeople and sales leaders were so good, and so different from what Mike is typically asked, he decided to share them (along with his answers) in this episode.

You’ll want to share this episode with your sales team! 

Take a listen for Mike’s answers to these eight great questions:

1. At what point do you move on to the next opportunity? How many NO’s do you need to get before giving up, or how long do you continue to pursue a prospect who has stopped responding?
2. How do we get your training to stick? What would you tell salespeople and managers to ensure that what you’re teaching gets implemented…and makes an impact?
3. How does using the business plan help the salesperson and manager set short-term and long-term goals, and also help to achieve those goals?
4. How can your training (and approach) help our ecosystem develop both a better sales culture and also help us deliver a better customer experience?
5. What is necessary for us to be successful going “upmarket” (selling solutions instead of hardware) and getting into higher-level customer contacts?
6. After winning a deal and handing it off cleanly, how can we get salespeople back to selling instead of having them continuing to come back to make sure the project is moving and/or installed?
7. What do you think is the number one sales sin of the Ugly 8 Reasons Sellers Get Viewed as Amateurs, Relegated to “Vendor” Status and Commoditized?
8. Can you speak about the most resistant sales organization you have dealt with? Were you able to get them to change, and through that change, what was the outcome?

Resources Referenced by Mike in Episode 68:

The New Sales. Simplified. Video Coaching Series

Ugly 8 Reasons Sellers Get Viewed as Amateurs, Relegated to “Vendor” Status and Commoditized (PDF)

Mike’s wife’s irrational, but wonderful, response to her gorgeous new putter (blog post)

A Foolproof Framework to Guarantee Consistent Deal Flow and a Full, Healthy Pipeline (podcast episode) 

9 Powerful Reasons to Have Salespeople Write Individual Business Plans (podcast episode)

5 Fundamental Focus Areas for a Successful Sales Attack (podcast episode)

This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike’s friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg