Seven Steps to Success for Sales Managers: A Strategic Guide to Creating a Winning Sales Team Through Collaboration

Table of contents

1. About This eBook
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Contents
5. About the Author
6. Introduction
7. 1. First Step: Manage Yourself
   1. Self-Management Question Number One: Are You a Trusted Leader?
      1. Care Is a Vital Part of Trust
      2. Integrity Provides the Foundation for Trust
      3. Competency Fortifies Trusting Relationships
      4. What’s the Most Important Trust Factor?
   2. Self-Management, the Rest of the Story
      1. 1. Are You Advancing or Retreating?
      2. 2. Are You Stuck in a Rut?
      3. 3. Are You Really Using Your Brain?
      4. 4. Speaking of Adaptability, Are You an Adaptive Leader?
      5. 5. Are You Aware Enough to Be Self-Aware?
      6. 6. Are You Mentally Tough Enough?
      7. 7. Do You Have Bad-Boss Characteristics?
      8. 8. Are You a Sales Narcissist?
      9. 9. Have You Put Your Ego on Hold?
      10. 10. Can You Empathize?
      11. 11. Do You Have EQ? Are You Teaching It?
      12. 12. Are You Intoxicated by Power?
      13. 13. Are You the Smartest Person in the Room?
      14. 14. Have You Found Your Style?
      15. 15. Do You Have a Black Bass Strategy?
   3. Fourteen Aids to Self-Manage Successfully
      1. 1. Reverse Appraisals Make Smarter Leaders
      2. 2. Manage Your Expectations
      3. 3. Best Practices Help Stimulate Success
      4. 4. It Takes More Than Money to Motivate
      5. 5. Get Out of the Way and Let It Flow
      6. 6. Grab the Tool Kit; a Hammer Just Won’t Do
      7. 7. Stop Selling, Start Managing
      8. 8. Don’t Try to Sell a Salesperson
      9. 9. Develop an Effective Sales Culture
      10. 10. If You Want Followers, Lead by Example
      11. 11. Knowing Your Reps Builds Understanding
      12. 12. Understand Your Customers’ Needs
      13. 13. Shhhh...Are You Listening?
      14. 14. Make Yourself Promotable
8. 2. Second Step: High-Performance Teams Begin with Hiring
   1. First Goal: Hire Those You Know
   2. Recruitment: The First Step to Success
      1. Daily Contacts: Finding Diamonds in the Rough
      2. Networking Can Yield Top Job Prospects
   3. The Science of Selection
   4. Don’ts of Hiring
   5. Hire for Traits, Not Skills
   6. Who’s Your Best Candidate—Extrovert, Introvert, or Ambivert?
   7. Personality Analysis: Leave It to the Pros
   8. The Big Five as It Applies to Salespeople
   9. Which Traits Make the Best Salespeople?
   10. The Sixth Dimension
   11. The Best Predictors of Sales Success in Rank Order
   12. Body Language Helps Identify Success Traits
   13. Seven Tiebreakers
   14. Red Flags to Consider
9. 3. Third Step: Building a Winning Team
   1. Teamwork Begins with Partnership
   2. Filling the Wheelbarrow
   3. Teamwork Becomes More Important with Millennials
   4. The Unseen Team Will Make You or Break You
   5. What Makes an Effective Team Leader?
   6. Five Ways to Set the Stage for Team Building
   7. Building Team Momentum
   8. Values Help Create a Successful Sales Culture
   9. Creating a Learning Environment
   10. Best Practices Emphasized
   11. Teamwork Expected
   12. Finally, Set Ground Rules
   13. Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing
   14. Your First Meeting
   15. Understanding Team Dynamics
   16. Tips for Team Building
   17. Three Ways Sales Teams Enhance Managers’ Success
   18. Things to Expect from a High-Performing Team
   19. The By-Product of Teamwork Is Better Sales
   20. Care and Feeding of the Sales Team
       1. Give and Get Respect
       2. Engage Your People
       3. The Power of Asking
       4. Limitless Selling
       5. Tolerate Cockiness
       6. Build Team Confidence Through Ego Affirmation
       7. Prevent Sales Burnout
       8. Humor Can Facilitate Managerial Success
       9. Spouses Are Your Number One Support Group
       10. Beyond the Basics
       11. Is Your Gratitude Showing?
       12. Remember, Team Building Begins One Rep at a Time
       13. Teaching Moments Are Best One-on-One
       14. Training Beyond the Basics
       15. Create a Mentor Program
       16. Insist on Honesty, Not Positivity
       17. Encourage Your Reps to Vent
       18. Don’t Wait for Me
       19. Daily Assessment Keeps Everyone in the Loop
       20. Get Close to the Action
       21. Make Sales the Priority
       22. Be a Heat Shield
       23. Remember the Law of Opposite Results
       24. Carefully Criticize Your People
       25. Listen to What Is Not Said
       26. Selling Is an Art and a Science
       27. Make Pressure Work for You
       28. Positive Reinforcement Works
       29. Look for Reasons to Celebrate Success, and Then Step into the Shadows
       30. Beware of Unintended Consequences
       31. Great Results Might Not Be So Great
       32. “War Stories” Are Their Moment
       33. Don’t Let Failure Get in the Way
       34. Letting Go: When Change Is Necessary
       35. What’s Your Legacy?
10. 4. Fourth Step: Becoming a Successful Servant Leader
    1. Custom-Made Team Building
    2. The Inverted Pyramid
    3. Ethics and Servant Leadership
    4. Top Leaders Have High Expectations
    5. Leading with Grace Under Fire
    6. The Servant Leader as a Problem Solver
    7. Communication Is Vital to Servant Leaders’ Effectiveness
    8. Servant Leaders Create Flow
    9. Servant Leadership Improves Productivity
    10. Servant Leaders Improve Sales Retention Rates and Customer Engagement
11. 5. Fifth Step: Sales Empowerment, Beginning with Ownership
    1. Step One: Give Control to Get Control
    2. Step Two: Develop Buy-In
    3. Step Three: Empowering Your Team to Success
    4. The Benefits of Empowerment
    5. Empowerment Means Better Decision Making
    6. Fundamentals of Developing a Self-Managed Sales Team
    7. How Teamwork Facilitates Self-Managed Salespeople
12. 6. Sixth Step: Success Through Performance Measurement
    1. Daily Measures to Prevent Micromanagement
    2. First Priority, This Is a People Thing
    3. Types of Key Performance Metrics
       1. Output Measures
       2. Activity Measures
    4. Using the Numbers—Aha versus Gotcha
    5. Stretch Your Objectives, but Don’t Overstretch
    6. Selling Smart with Sales Opportunity Metrics
    7. Red-Flagging Your Database
    8. Sales Segmentation Is a Team Effort
13. 7. Seventh Step: Continuous Improvement, Maintaining Success
    1. Achieving Success with Six Sigma
    2. Using the Deming Cycle for Improved Sales
    3. Sales Excellence Is the Core Value of Continuous Improvement
    4. Tips for Implementing Continuous Improvement
       1. Think Deep and Wide
       2. At the Same Time, Think Small
       3. Avoid “It’s Not My Job” Thinking
       4. Invite Others to the Process
       5. Make It Your Own System
14. Conclusion: Leadership, the Sales Management Buffet
15. References
    1. Chapter 1
    2. Chapter 2
    3. Chapter 3
    4. Chapter 4
    5. Chapter 5
    6. Chapter 6
    7. Conclusion
16. Index