Blog - Braveheart Sales Performance

More Coaching, Even Poor Coaching, is Better than None

I cannot impress enough the importance of sales manager coaching and doing it a bunch. I have stats to back me up. Check out this data curated by Objective Management Group on about 5,500 managers and their teams.

Ineffective coaching still yields significant improvement.

You can see, even if the manager isn’t effective at coaching their team, just spending 50% of their time doing it will increase seller effectiveness. And this increase is greater than what effective coaches can produce with their ability alone (without coaching at least 50% of the time). Crazy, huh?

So exactly what do I mean by coaching?

Think of […]

Depend on Recurring Revenue? Here’s How to Contain Creation Costs

This article is written with field sales teams in mind. However, if you run an inside sales team exclusively, don’t despair, you may still find a nugget or two of helpful information as well.

Containing costs is important in every business. But for businesses where the costs of creating new customers are measured by lenders to determine the health of that business, they are especially important to manage.

In the electronic security industry, as well as SaaS, telecom and other recurring revenue businesses, customer creation costs are a key component which determines the company’s ability to borrow for expansion.

Conference Panel Insights

While attending […]

Some Gloomy, But Fixable, Selling Stats

We have known for years that the percentage of salespeople who hit quota is pathetically low. Regardless of what statistics you check, all entities that track and report on it show the quota achievement around or below 50%.

In 2018, CSO Insights reported that 54% of all sales reps met their quota. And for the same year, Forbes stated that 57% missed their quota.

Regardless of which information you believe, the fact remains that quota attainment is low. If given a letter grade, it would equate to an “F.”

What’s causing it to happen?

Are leaders setting quotas too high? Or are […]

Hiring Right is Only Half the Battle

Something many companies do to accelerate growth is expand their sales teams. We often see ones we work with doing just that. While the climate can be challenging to hire the right salespeople with the economy hovering at close to full employment, the challenge doesn’t just stop with a job offer. Every new sales hire needs to go through a predictive on-boarding program to have the best chance for success.

Even the very best salespeople need some guidance to enable them to be successful.

Why do you need a sales onboarding program if you hire right?

Today’s Best-in-Class organizations see these high values […]

What Can Leaders Learn from LSU Coaches Steve Ensminger and Joe Brady?

If you aren’t a college football fan you may not know that Steve Ensminger is Offensive Coordinator and Joe Brady is Passing Game Coordinator of the recently crowned CFP National Champion LSU Tigers. While there are many takeaways from the team’s 2019 campaign that are applicable to business and sales, I believe sales managers, and leaders in general, can especially learn much from Ensminger and Brady.

Contrasting Coaches

Steve Ensminger is 61 years old. He’s been around the block. He’s been fired three times as a coordinator or assistant. He’s been a college, NFL and CFL player. And he’s been up and […]

Four Reasons Your Sales Training Fails

Have you spent money on sales training without seeing rewards? Are its promises of increased revenue and the vision of stress-free management evaporating? Well, you are not alone. And here are four reasons why:

1. Methodology Only

Many sales training organizations focus on tactics and strategies only. They teach a repeatable process which in and of itself is fine. In fact, getting everyone to use a repeatable process is essential and it absolutely will increase revenue some. Mapping out who the stakeholders are is also important. And establishing a sequential flow to any sales conversation is critical. These all make complete sense […]

The Harder the Questions; The Easier the Sale

Have you ever left a sales appointment and wished you had said something else? Or have you ever debriefed a sales rep’s call and find they didn’t ask the next logical question, and now critical information is missing?

Unfortunately, it’s a common problem. Most salespeople don’t ask enough questions.

Let’s examine some statistics. Only 11%* of salespeople ask the next, most important question when necessary. Further, the typical questions most salespeople ask are garden-variety ones; surface questions that are easily answered. Salespeople tend to accept too much at face value.

When the prospect says something like “This sounds great. Send me a proposal […]

Adapt or Die

I recently spent two days with about 40 sales leaders from across the country who primarily lead outside sales teams. It was exhilarating, intense, fun and, yes, I was exhausted!

Our theme was “Adapt or Die.” And for sales leaders this can be difficult – for they have tried and true ways of doing things.

Generally, sales managers come from the ranks of the sales staff. They know what worked for them when they were in the trenches. But, guess what? The marketplace, the people being hired, and the technology are no longer the same and will continue to change into the […]

Is the Pendulum Swinging Back?

If it isn’t obvious from my many posts using the Objective Management Group’s database, I love to mine facts on salespeople. I’m fortunate to have access to this large database and all the information it provides. And recently I’ve noticed a slight trend shift regarding how salespeople are motivated that needs to be shared.

Motivation Changes

In February 2019, the breakdown looked like this:

And as of November 2019, it looked like this:

To break it down, in just nine months’ time our data on over 550,000 salespeople indicates a 60% increase in the number who are motivated by rewards, recognition, and money from […]

Highlights and Lowlights from Real Sales Calls with Apologies to ESPN Xtra

Borrowing an idea from ESPN Xtra’s Greg McElroy and Danny Kanell and their college football show on SirusXM, here is a video blog covering a lowlight and highlight from actual sales calls we received this past week. These real sales interactions provide some great learning moments and takeaways that apply to every sales team.

https://braveheartsales.com/wp-content/uploads/Sales-Highlight-and-Lowlight-10.22.2019-1.mp4

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Sales Management Blog

Sales management tips and advice on how to improve your sales team.