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Tag : sales habits

By Marguerite Zimmerman

Best skill testing question when hiring a sales manager

When hiring a sales manager ideally you want someone who is wired to coach and grow your team.

Many sales people are wired to compete and win, not to be nurturers and coaches. When interviewing for sales managers, I’ve found this one question is a tell all.

The fact is, I’ve had only a small handful of candidates answer this question really well.

By Marguerite Zimmerman

Why sales performance goals can be costly

So why would a leader discourage curiosity in a business or a sales force, when both employees and leaders know it is so important?

Are you curious to know why?

Shocking as it is, leaders discourage curiosity in a business or a sales force, when both employees and leaders know it is important

Turns out according to research by Francesca Gina, a professor at Harvard Business School (HBR Journal September-October

By Marguerite Zimmerman

How to become curious and increase your sales results

Fear

Fear plays a big role in why we don’t ask enough questions or the right questions

Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a reluctance amongst sales people to ask questions that are provocative Provocative questions are essential when helping a prospect or customer to consider change, yet some sales representatives are uncomfortable asking these questions Why is this?

After discussing it with a few Momentium coaches, we

By Marguerite Zimmerman

Powerful Questions

Abraham Maslow said in 1966: “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

My observations when working with sales teams is that they know they need to ask questions, yet they have rarely thought a lot about their questions. While they may use some open-ended questions, most of their questions aim at getting information about the current state of the prospect. Without realizing it they have one tool and they are treating every question like a nail.

The outcome is simply this – few of the questions are powerful.

By Marguerite Zimmerman

Why I see training as the key ingredient to organic growth

No matter what your organic growth strategy is, having well-trained talent to support that strategy is a key ingredient.
Recently, I read a Harvard Article, How We Made our Sales Training More Effective by Making it Harder by Jeff Winters, it made me chuckle. So many companies view training as simply a box they need to check. It looks good if I give my team some training, or I’m expected to give them training, etc. Consequently, companies typically chose training that is easy for everyone involved.

By Marguerite Zimmerman

Continuous Improvement – Protecting Margin

Protecting margin is one of the key aspects of “perform” for a sales force.

Recently we were gaining insight into one of our customer’s sales goals. To do this we explored the current Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) they used to measure sales success. We then asked them to share how top performers were doing against the KPI’s.

What we heard was not as uncommon as you might think. The senior team shared that they were having challenges around defining their top performers. Why? There are several reasons top performers are mislabeled. In this case, it was one of the most common mistakes.

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Best skill testing question when hiring a sales manager
Coaching on effective communication
How advanced communication skills impact productivity
Why sales performance goals can be costly
How to become curious and increase your sales results
Powerful Questions
Why I see training as the key ingredient to organic growth
Continuous Improvement – Protecting Margin
3 Ways to Avoid the Price Vortex
The 2 Most Important Questions to Ask When Hiring Sales Talent