Why Top Sales Managers Are Always Learning

#IanMoyse is a veteran sales director of 25+ years experience with 13 years in #cloud #technologysales.

• What's impeding your sales team from achieving target?
• What are the obstacles the manager needs to help the salesperson overcome?
• How can the manager help the salesperson perform at their optimal level?
• Why aren't CEOs and CSOs getting out in the field with their salespeople to speak to customers and experience the challenges salespeople are facing day to day?
• How can you use executive bridging to help salespeople win business and make customers feel special and valued?
• What can CEOs do to uncover the reality of the sales role instead of perceptions and conjecture?

Senior leaders can learn significant lessons by getting their hands dirty by getting out in the field and in front of customers. That does NOT mean the senior manager takes over. The salesperson is the CAPTAIN, the senior executive is CREW. Both sides need to feel empowered to tell the truth, have the right to make mistakes and take risks without fear of being punished or diminished. This only works if you have planned the calls together, rehearsed the conversation and agreed clear demarkation of roles. Ian makes the important point that the salesperson needs to brief upwards and manage upwards.

We explore the power of the eye baton technique and the rules of any crew member being asked and answering a question so that the salesperson isn't undermined or loses power.

Ian explains the critical importance of simple dashboards that focus on the basics. What's in the pipeline? Is it stuck or moving forward? What information is being gathered as you advance? What is real and what isn't based on the quality of information being gathered?

He explores the importance of gathering quality information and documenting it so the salesperson and the manager know what needs to be learned or done

We touch on CRM hygiene and adoption. A huge mistake is investing in CRM to provide audit with better audit information instead of implementing CRM to help salespeople sell more, more often, for more money and do so more simply and efficiently. Building a sales playbook into the CRM will help raise the game of your middle 60% of your salesforce and assist managers with coaching their salespeople to raise their game. How is your CRM helping your managers understand what is happening, what's real, what isn't and how you're using technology to enable managers to get the best out of their salespeople?

Ian's coaching philosophy is built around his "Earning, Yearning and Learning" model which has helped him help his people perform to their potential. He has a strong track record of having salespeople work for him multiple times throughout their careers because he shows he cares, he helps them grow and develop, he invests in them and invests in external training and coaching. 

Ian makes an interesting point that using external coaches and trainers brings fresh insights, objectivity and best practices from other markets and industries. He is refreshingly vulnerable in that he recognises he is not the finished article. He is always learning which is infectious to his team. Failure to adapt to current conditions make most salespeople a spent force because they are stuck in the past using approaches and tactics that no longer work.

Ian makes the crucial point that even if you are on target, you can be better. You are NEVER the finished article.

We wrap up by exploring the common mistakes with sales and sales management hiring. Recruitment is such a critical element of every manager's role and it is done so badly, so often. Hiring managers WANT the candidate in front of them to succeed, yet so many salespeople are unprepared. Hiring managers have a problem and the candidate is a potential solution.

Ian's response to my golden ticket question is profoundly simple but on the money.

You can get hold of Ian via #LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/ianmoyse

Website: ianmoyse.brandyourself.com/  (Personal Website)