{"id":1544,"date":"2015-12-08T13:27:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T18:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.comblog\/sales-management-simplified\/"},"modified":"2016-10-11T19:41:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T19:41:03","slug":"sales-management-simplified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peaksalesrecruiting.com\/blog\/sales-management-simplified\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Management. Simplified: One-on-One Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sales<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many sales books that\u00a0help develop selling skills and provide inspiration. Few, however, focus entirely on sales management and Mike Weinberg\u2019s<\/a> latest book, Sales Management. Simplified<\/a>., does just that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Packed with actionable advice and hard-earned sales wisdom, the book reminds its readers\u00a0to go back to the basics of sales management and focus on what really matters \u2013 leadership. Ultimately, the book is a\u00a0common sense prescription for building and managing high performance sales teams, with no silver bullets, short-cuts, or fads \u2013 it\u2019s blunt and reinforces the idea that less is more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peak Sales Recruiting\u2019s CEO and Co-founder Eliot Burdett<\/a>\u00a0caught up with Mike to discuss\u00a0what effective sales leadership means, causes of sales team underperformance, sales compensation as a motivational tool, and, of course, sales recruiting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike, what was your inspiration for writing Sales Management. Simplified.?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

I did not want to write this book, I felt compelled to write it. I was tired of being called into companies by senior executives to fix their \u201csales problems\u201d, only to discover that it was a leadership problem. It was out of utter exasperation and frustration\u00a0with senior executives, who don\u2019t understand sales management or bury sales managers in all kinds of crap, that I felt like I had to write this book. I was compelled by\u00a0the various messes\u00a0sales managers and executives often found themselves in.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first got into consulting, I was young and naive and thought if I coached everyone to sell like me that I could transform sales performance and change companies, but, I was wrong. I learned the hard way that you do not transform sales organizations from the bottom by training and coaching enough sales people; you have to deal with leadership and culture. If you do not deal with these two things then you do not transform anything. As a result, I felt like I had to get my frustrations off my chest and write this book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eliot: I always joke that when I was younger I made every mistake in the book and then some. If most people who read your book are like me, it will take them back to their early years and cause laughter and probably some cringing. I love the stories you go through including the different influential people you\u2019ve met and the experiences you\u2019ve been in. I liked your saying \u201cas goes the leader so goes the organization\u201d, the level of a sales team rarely ever exceeds the level of the sales leader. It really is a powerful quote.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I was mentored by some really great people, and one of the favourite expressions I came across was: \u201cIf it\u2019s broken at the top then it\u2019s broken and the team will never do better than the leader.\u201d As most sales leaders spend their time living in reactive mode, cleaning up messes, sitting in corporate meetings, and doing everything but high value activities, they ultimately model that same behavior for their sales people. People ignore the fact that sales managers or executives of small companies are key leverage points\u00a0for growing sales. Too often, time and money is spent training salespeople but none is spent on upgrading the sales leader \u2013 no wonder why executives are routinely frustrated with the sales team.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s broken at the top then it\u2019s broken and the team will never do better than the leader.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The book is a model for how organizations can overachieve and drive continual\u00a0sales performance. What would you say are the top causes of inferior sales performance and team under performance?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

My first book<\/a> has a chapter dedicated to the \u2018not-so-sweet\u2019 16 reasons salespeople underperform: they can\u2019t tell\u00a0the story, they live in reactive mode, they babysit their existing customers, they don\u2019t run good sales calls and, they don\u2019t know the customer\u2019s calendars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Due to the popularity of that chapter, I decided to dedicate the entirety of Part One of Sales Management. Simplified. to laying out the leadership reasons that sales teams underperform. That\u2019s why Part One is so brutal; it\u2019s very transparent about the challenges sales leaders are facing today.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s packed with\u00a0stories about real executives, managers, and companies who have been struggling to drive revenue. Now, there are a ton of\u00a0reasons as to why sales teams underperform, but, if I had to give you a couple, I\u2019ll start with the big ones: 1) The\u00a0one size fits all approach to sales talent management and sales compensation. 2) The reality that\u00a0sales managers across verticals are being distracted and diverted from their primary job because the company buries them with the wrong activities and does not truly understand what the sales leader\u00a0should be doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sales compensation is a huge issue, and as you can imagine it plays a large role in enticing people to make a career change. In spite of some of the popular research that would\u00a0argue\u00a0otherwise, our experience tells us\u00a0that great sales people rank it\u00a0right up at the top of their list when\u00a0deciding\u00a0whether or not to listen to a new\u00a0opportunity. So let\u2019s start there \u2013 what are the top issues with sales comp plans today?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

I think there are a\u00a0couple of big issues. Generally, these issues arise\u00a0because the compensation plan does not drive the desired behaviors and results that executives want them to. It boils down to the two big compensation plans sins: 1) The plan is too flat, meaning there is very little difference from what top and bottom producers earn. 2) Compensation plans are not\u00a0structured correctly to motivate reps to perform the right activities and behaviors that drive sales results.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the first issue \u2013 comp plans being too flat. Unfortunately, plans like these accomplish the exact opposite of what compensation plans should. Executives and senior sales leaders should be\u00a0overcompensating their\u00a0best people \u2013 this is assuming that their behavior drives results and not just care-taking a territory that was going to produce whether they got up in the morning or not. <\/em>And since there is such a shortage of \u201cA\u201d players, the last thing sales leaders\u00a0want to do is have one of their\u00a0top producers question whether they are appreciated; so the goal should always be to\u00a0overpay top people for what they produce, and create a discomfort for those who are underperforming because they should be hungry, uncomfortable, and embarrassed. The goal shouldn\u2019t be for underperforming salespeople\u00a0to\u00a0live on what they\u2019re taking home if they are not producing \u2013 the compensation plan should be structured\u00a0to\u00a0force a change in\u00a0behavior to drive better\u00a0results, or force the rep to quit and go fail somewhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n

So when there is not a big enough earning delta between the top and bottom, you cause the best people to think about leaving which is the last thing sales leaders want.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cthe goal should always be to\u00a0overpay top people for what they produce, and create a discomfort for those who are underperforming\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eliot: Do you think that some of these compensation plans are an intentional effort to create equity across the sales team?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a brilliant question but I really don\u2019t know.\u00a0I think that there are some politically correct, egalitarian people designing comp plans that prefer when everything is the same because they don\u2019t understand sales. The unfortunate reality is that not enough thinking goes into how the plan is designed, and how powerful it can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

I see a lot of plans that don\u2019t move \u2018the needle\u2019. Plans should incent the rep to behave a certain way and a lot of plans fail to\u00a0do that. For example, let\u2019s look at commission. Commission is only commission when it is earned and, unfortunately, a lot of times commission is in name only.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few years back I had a client where\u00a0a big part of their revenue was a consumable product. New reps\u00a0would only have to do the hard work to find a large buyer of the\u00a0consumable, then for years and years rely entirely on the revenue derived from this customer to hit their\u00a0sales number. The truth is that if the customer was having a great year and production levels were good, whether that salesperson did anything or not, he or she was going to earn a fat commission check since that company kept buying the consumables. A compensation plan like this creates a big disincentive to sell; it gives the sales rep\u00a0no reason to move \u2018the needle\u2019 if they can get away with doing nothing but\u00a0babysit customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second point that needs to be made about effective sales\u00a0compensation is that a dollar is not a dollar when it comes to commission. I have no idea why so many companies pay the same commission rate for a sale to a customer that was\u00a0acquired years ago \u2013 which only requires salespeople to babysit that account<\/em> \u2013 and the same rate to the salesperson who puts in the\u00a0hard work to acquire a new customer. The logical question sales leaders need to ask themselves when structuring their commission plans is: Why would my rep go the distance to do the hard work of hunting, when they\u00a0can babysit and get fat, dumb, and rich off their client base?<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying to not serve existing customers, but why would anyone want to do the hard work when it does not pay any more money? The challenge for sales leaders is to think of this problem at the simplest level:\u00a0What would happen if they overpaid for new business and, over time, reduced the commission to provide incentive for reps to hunt so they could not reap the rewards off the new customer and\u00a0be forced to go out and find new business?<\/span><\/p>\n

Eliot: I couldn\u2019t agree more. At\u00a0Peak, we see a surprisingly high number of comp plans that are overly\u00a0simplistic and appear to have been an afterthought in terms of their ability to drive sales results. Surprisingly, there are often eureka moments when we walk through comp plans with our customers and they realize that their comp plans\u00a0don\u2019t necessarily incent the desired results.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I tell this story in the book. I was getting ready to talk to a group of about 15 business owners that met once a month. I was putting a PowerPoint slide together about compensation and complacency and I typed in compensation and complacency into the slide and it hit me like a ton of bricks: they start with the same 4 letters!<\/em> Nobody ever talks about that but if you have complacent sales people you should start to look at your compensation plan. This is as\u00a0blatant of a tie-in as it gets, and yet so many executives don\u2019t want to go there \u2013 they don\u2019t want the hassle or HR risks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the one size fits all approach to sales recruiting and hiring:<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

We were all made differently;\u00a0we all have different DNA \u2013 some of us are wired to kill, care, be detail oriented, problem solve, and\/or manage. It is rare to find all those gifts and talents in one person, and yet at so many companies have oversimplified the sales role where one person does everything. My argument is that this approach creates a very miserable average.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best story I can give you is from my own career. I was the #1 person selling 3-4 more times than what other salespeople were because\u00a0my manager looked at me and said, \u201cyou\u2019re a good hunter but you\u2019re pretty awful at this whole project management thing. You\u2019re one of the few guys that knows how to go out and actively acquire a\u00a0new customer, so we\u2019re going to put an incredible team of support people around you. These people will strictly\u00a0manage\u00a0the\u00a0ongoing customer relationships so that\u00a0you can spend 80% of your time hunting \u2013 not 20%.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So, if sales leaders were to\u00a0take a rep\u00a0who\u2019s wired like a hunter and quadruple the amount of time they\u00a0could spend prospecting, making friends, getting on airplanes, doing inside or outbound sales, what do you think would happen to results? What would happen if the sales leader\u00a0took the very few good hunters they\u00a0had and freed them up to do what they\u2019re best at?<\/span><\/p>\n

Now everyone likes to talk about hunters and farmers, but I talk about hunters and zookeepers. You have people who are wired like zookeepers \u2013 they love to nurse the baby animal, pet them, feed them, clean the cage, and spend time nurturing the\u00a0animals. What if you tell that person that they spend too much time with animals? What if you were to go on and ask them to\u00a0go pick up a rock and go kill an animal out in the field? People with these instincts\u00a0do not succeed at these tasks for a simple reason \u2013 they hate it. They are not wired like that. They hate the conflict, they hate the risk, and they don\u2019t want to pick up a weapon and kill. They are nurturing, caring, supportive, and do an awesome job when you give them the opportunity to care for the animal.<\/span><\/p>\n

So imagine if executives actually took the time to properly evaluate their sales team\u2019s DNA and assigned\u00a0people to tasks that they were gifted at.\u00a0When that happens, everyone wins\u00a0\u2013 the sales person wins and the company wins since they operate in their area strengths.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What would happen if the sales leader\u00a0took the very few good hunters they\u00a0had and freed them up to do what they\u2019re best at?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eliot: The majority of the projects that we would take on are\u00a0for hunter roles. Companies come to us because it is\u00a0very difficult to find individuals that\u00a0possess that specific skill set AND have an incredible track record in selling. We are very familiar with the DNA of that person and how different it is from a farmer, or as you call it, a zookeeper. You don\u2019t have to spend a long time in sales to be able to determine whose DNA is more for nurturing relationships, as opposed to the hunter who\u00a0needs to kill to feel that adrenaline. Try putting the zookeeper at desk and ask them to make\u00a0cold calls\u2026 it\u2019s like they have broken arms \u2013 they just won\u2019t do it. It\u2019s something that we see a lot and is a huge challenge for companies and sales leaders with aggressive sales targets.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Peak Sales Recruiting is so important \u2013 recruiting great sales talent is no easy task and it takes specific expertise to recruit the best. In fact, I just finished with a local client and we needed a hunter to join the sales team. I told them that they needed a search firm. They\/we needed a firm\u00a0that was going to do the job right, because there are no unemployed good hunters \u2013 they are incredibly rare. My client\u00a0needed someone who understands recruiting, and how to find and attract a candidate who is not actively\u00a0looking for new opportunities. I\u2019m a huge fan of search and recruiting when done properly because there is nothing more important than getting the right talent, particularly when the requirements are so specific.<\/span><\/p>\n

While we are on this line, you said that there is a sales talent shortage and you talked about the ratio between \u2018A players\u2019 versus \u2018non A players\u2019 on a sales team. Can you speak about why great hunters are so rare?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SalesI\u2019m a little confused myself. My gut tells me that, for the most part, when you look at the last 25 years in business, we have mostly had good economies. If you take out the internet bubble burst in 2000 and 9\/11, and the slow down as a result of that, we\u2019ve had a great run through the 90\u2019s and most of the early 2000\u2019s (mostly fuelled by the housing bubble that didn\u2019t burst till 2008). If you take those bubbles out (finance bubble, internet bubble), I think the economy has been strong. So many sales people benefited from being in a strong economy or working in a \u2018hot\u2019 industry, that you could be a zookeeper or a farmer and do really well because nobody needed you to hunt. So, nobody realized that you weren\u2019t a salesperson; you were great at managing, or because you were relational, knew your industry, or product, you got by. And it wasn\u2019t until the \u2018tide\u2019 went out and you were standing there naked and no one was calling you anymore to buy something, that sales leaders\u00a0realized that these people weren\u2019t going to hunt.<\/span><\/p>\n

So maybe it\u2019s always been a certain percentage of hunters that were always \u2018on top\u2019, but I don\u2019t know that sales leaders really<\/em> understood the difference between reps when things were good and everybody had enough business. So when things got bad, the smoke finally cleared and the contrast between the good, great, and bad sales people became blatantly\u00a0obvious.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a\u00a0lot of truth to what you are saying. So how can companies do a\u00a0better job at attracting the right sales people?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

When recruiting, you promote the fact that you have a healthy, pro-sales culture. You promote the fact that the company has a leader who wants each member of the sales team to be successful, and who is more interested in making others a hero instead of being \u2018the\u2019 hero. You also promote the fact that there is a\u00a0great comp plan that is structured to reward people for great\u00a0performance. I mean, let\u2019s be honest, that\u2019s the reason that most people leave their jobs: they don\u2019t like the plan, manager, or culture. Culture is huge; you cannot overstate the power of a pro-sales culture versus\u00a0an anti-sales culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is sales culture so powerful?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Because it is the ingrained behaviors and attitudes of the whole sales organization, it flows down from the top, and is almost<\/em> impossible to change. Unless you change the people, you cannot change the culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my early career, I only worked in healthy pro-sales cultures. I did not know there were things such as an anti-sales culture until I went to work at a little tech company and discovered that my life was very bad. They did not understand sales, the emotion of a salesperson, and the environments where salespeople work well and excel. It took a few consulting engagements on my own to realize that a healthy sales culture is more rare than I ever imagined. There are a\u00a0couple different chapters in the book that unpack the elements of an unhealthy sales culture, and in\u00a0one chapter in the second half of the book, I take the time to describe this one company that had the single most healthiest culture that I have ever seen.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if i\u2019m running my company or sales team and thinking that I have to make sure we have a pro-sales culture, what are the top 3 things I have to make sure I\u2019m doing?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"SalesI think one of the biggest detractors\u00a0in a sales culture is a high ego \u201csales expert senior executive\u201d who is either the founder or really involved in the business at the \u201cmicro-manager, control-freak\u201d level. This is the founder who has not let go, even though his company is still producing revenues in excess of $40M. He still wants to see\u00a0call reports from all 15 sales people; not just sales reports, pipeline reports, but activity reports. Even if there is a vice president of sales, the owner or founder can\u2019t or won\u2019t let go. It is the same guy that comes to sales team meetings and pontificates and tells you what to do and how to do it, and this is the same high-ego idiot executive that comes into meetings with customers and brags about how smart he is and says stupid political things. This is the guy who tells you to ask a lot of good questions on sales calls but when you take him in front of a customer\u00a0he\u2019s talking 80% of time about benign or in appropriate things.<\/span><\/p>\n

As sales people read this article or my book, they applaud because they are thankful that I would say this. So part of the sales culture problem is the guy at the top is clueless; he\u2019s an ego manic and needs to let go. It is the biggest destroyer of sales morale you can imagine. So, the biggest factor in a great sales culture is having an executive that is pro sales and who is committed to helping the sales team. He or she\u00a0needs to invest the time\u00a0mentoring the sales manager to spend time on the right things. At the end of the day, it is the executive who changes everything!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cpart of the sales culture problem is the guy at the top is clueless; he\u2019s an ego manic and needs to let go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So how should the sales manager\/leader spend his or her time to create the sales culture that everyone wants? I would argue that the 3 most powerful ways to create a pro-sales culture and a high performing sales team are 1) The manager needs to meet one-on-one with his or her people regularly. Accountability and coaching meetings are absolutely critical and it\u2019s usually not happening enough! 2) Conduct productive sales team meetings. Too many meetings are about operations and have nothing to do with sales, and the sales people are often permitted to show up late and with bad attitudes. 3)\u00a0The sales manager has to get out from behind their desk and stop living with their head buried in the CRM screen and in spreadsheets. They also need to stop managing people by email. They need to get out of their office and sit with the sales team, and spend time with their\u00a0team on the front lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Effective sales managers debrief after visiting with prospects to\u00a0discuss what the sales rep did well\u00a0and what could be done differently to be more effective next time. The best sales managers\u00a0focus on the results of their reps and ensure they hold\u00a0them accountable. They\u00a0are committed to coaching their reps on the\u00a0skills required to penetrate accounts and close\u00a0deals.<\/span><\/p>\n

In your book, you outline the format for effective one-on-one meetings and sales team meetings. What are the elements sales leaders need to focus on?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Instead of talking about nonsense, leaders need to start with results \u2013 what was added to the pipeline and what was moved?\u00a0Then, talk about activities if the results aren\u2019t there. Sales leaders really have no choice but to ask about activities if their reps aren\u2019t producing.\u00a0And, I don\u2019t take credit for this, but my old sales manager and my good friend, Donnie Williams, modeled that for me when I worked for him and it was the best thing that I have ever seen. He would come to my office, go through my sales results and ask why they weren\u2019t better. And if they were not stellar then we\u00a0would look at my pipeline and he would ask why I did not close certain prospects. He would ask targeted questions about my approach, and ask what I had in store for the upcoming month and remainder of the quarter. So, the formula for effective one-on-one sales meetings is simple: Focus on\u00a0results, then pipeline, then activity. Nobody can accuse a manager of being a micromanager if you start with results, pipeline, and activity levels since nobody wants to be asked how they\u00a0manage their\u00a0time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cthe formula for effective one-on-one sales meetings is simple: Focus on\u00a0results, then pipeline, then activity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You mention mentors and their impact on your selling career. Talk a bit about the importance of mentoring from a sales context.<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"MikeI don\u2019t know if I could put a quantitative value on how mentors have impacted my\u00a0life. From my dad, to the CEO of Slim Fast, to my first sales manager; these guys invested in me, worked with me, talked business with me, modeled behavior and then held me accountable. We all need mentors, whether it\u2019s in your personal, spiritual, or business life.<\/p>\n

Imagine if a newly married couple had an older couple with a healthy marriage around. A couple that they could watch to see how they interacted with each other and how they live life. Imagine the benefits the couple would realize;\u00a0it would be huge! It\u2019s the\u00a0same thing in business. What\u2019s sad is in the name of being lean, so many companies have decided that everyone should do three jobs, which is why so many sales managers are dying. Companies today are making the sales manager do so many other things that have nothing to do with sales leadership, like conducting product reviews or being apart of meetings that sales really has no business participating in. At the end of the day, the sales leader can\u2019t even breath \u2013 they have 250 emails to return and don\u2019t have time to\u00a0mentor anybody. But when they\u00a0get yelled at for unreturned emails, what do you think they\u2019re going to be spending their time doing?<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the things you mentioned is that the best mentors hold their reps accountable.\u00a0Do you come across organizations that tolerate perennial underperformance from their sales people? Why is that a problem?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Not a lot, but enough. If you let a rep\u00a0who\u2019s not delivering\u00a0stay around for forever, then you\u2019re missing out on results that someone else could be delivering. The other issue is that you damage the sales culture by communicating to everyone else on the team that it is okay to fail here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I\u2019m often brought into\u00a0companies that have \u2018niceness\u2019 issues \u2013\u00a0they\u2019re a family business, they have no turnover, the ownership is generous\u2026 now don\u2019t get me wrong,\u00a0these are great aspects, however, sometimes the leaders of these companies act\u00a0like more of a charity than a business. So when I have to get a point across to a president, I\u2019ll ask how many months in a row they would you let their controller be late with financial statements and tolerate them being\u00a0inaccurate. Everyone of them says \u201cI need accurate financials every month. I\u2019d have zero patience for this.\u201d OK, so you have no tolerance for under performance from your accounting department, so how come these six\u00a0sales people out of your 12 have never hit their goal and they still work here?! They aren\u2019t on a plan and nobody\u2019s coaching them up or out and the\u00a0executive never has an answer for that. Why is it OK for your salespeople to fail and not the accountants?<\/span><\/p>\n

The argument I would make is that everyone else\u2019s livelihood in the company is\u00a0dependent on very few salespeople doing their jobs because nobody else creates revenue. It is exactly the reason why companies need to only recruit\u00a0top performers. I am the last guy that wants to fire people and I\u2019ve lost sleep over it since\u00a0letting people go is hard. But, if you are managing people like I talked about in the book, and you have one-on-one meetings, and you\u2019re clear on goals and results, and you publish sales results for the entire team to see, the rep shouldn\u2019t be surprised when they are called out for missing their number. The sales manager needs to frame that conversation in a certain way \u2013 something like:\u00a0\u201cHey Joe, you know why we are having this conversation \u2013 your results are not acceptable. Right now I am going to help you\u00a0put a plan together to change that. We have 60 days to turn this around and we cannot keep you here if this is the level you are going to produce.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I talk in the book how to remediate and coach up\/out an underperformer, that is, if you think that they\u2019re a keeper. This requires\u00a0a lot of energy from sales managers and, in fact, I have a client right now that I\u2019m instructing on how to coach up a rep who has not been hitting targets. They\u2019ll know in 60 days whether or not the rep is up to the task. Having this type of conversation with a rep is not an\u00a0emotional kind of conversation, it is a legitimate business conversation. Unfortunately a lot of managers don\u2019t want to deal with it and put it off until its too late, and then they have perennial failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a concept in your book about the\u00a0professional vs amateur sales manager. What is the difference between the two?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Think about amateur salespeople. Amateur salespeople are not coached, so, the same logic applies to sales managers. You see a ton of new sales managers making it up as they go because they have no idea what good sales management looks like since they grew up in an era where nobody showed them. Once CRM systems and email became popular, a lot of sales management best practices were thrown out the window, which is why you could call this book \u2018old school\u2019. Once sales managers\u00a0put the principles found in Sales Management Simplified into practice, they realize the benefits of sticking to the basics and keeping it \u2018old school\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peak Sales Recruiting would like to formally thank Mike Weinberg for taking the time to share his unique insights on effective sales management.\u00a0Click here<\/a> to\u00a0learn more about\u00a0Sales Management. Simplified. or if you are interested in purchasing the book, and we recommend that all sales managers do,\u00a0click here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

About Mike:<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"Weinberg\"Mike Weinberg<\/a> is a consultant, sales coach, speaker and author on a mission to simplify sales. His specialties are New Business Development and Sales Management, and his passion is helping companies and individuals acquire new clients. Prior to launching his own firm,<\/span>
\nMike had been the top-producing salesperson is three organizations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Forbes, OpenView and several other publications have named Mike a Top Sales Influencer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike is also the author of two Amazon #1 Bestsellers. His first book, \u201cNew Sales. Simplified<\/a>.\u201d \u2013 The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development, spent a full year as the Top-Rated book in its category. And his latest book, Sales Management. Simplified.<\/a> is being called \u201carguably the greatest book ever written on sales management, and an unequaled blueprint for leading salespeople and building high-performance sales teams.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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