Sales Wolf Blog

Sales efficiency is the objective.

When you have maximized sales with minimal friction and cost, you will have achieved sales efficiency. 

Sales efficiency is diminished when:

• Sales Talent - Poor sales hiring decisions are allowed to continue unchecked.
• Sales Systems - Sales systems are not habitually followed.
• Sales Culture -Behaviors contrary to an accountable, performance-driven sales culture are allowed unchecked.

There is always, always room for improvement.

Strategic CEOs and Sales VPs realize that true sales efficiency is something that is truly never completely achieved yet always pursued.

Mental Toughness requires...

The best sales talent coupled with solid Mindset habits.

"Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan." - Count Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944), The Ciano Diaries, 1939-1943, Vol. 2.

Long story short.  

Everyone loves winning but few are willing to embrace the journey that includes the requisite failures necessary to win.

There are four failure problems in sales:

• The right kind of failure is not tolerated.
• The right kind of failure does not occur frequently enough.
• The wrong kind of failure is tolerated.
• The wrong kind of failure occurs too often.

The short answer is, "Both."

The best salespeople are born AND made.

I have been in sales for 40 years. I have sold door-to-door as well as complex, long sales cycle solutions.

Throughout my career as a salesperson, VP of Sales and the last 17 years as a consultant, I have had the privilege of engaging many truly amazing Sales Wolves. We call the best salespeople, those who consistently sell in the top 20th percentile, "Sales Wolves".

Despite my extensive sales hiring experience, you would perhaps think I should have perfected the ability consistently identify top salespeople by merely shaking their hand and a brief interview, right?

Wrong.

Human bias usually leads to poor sales hiring outcomes. 

It much more than a handshake and brief interview to consistently identify and hire Sales Wolves.  

Consistently hiring the best salespeople requires a commitment to solid hiring process, a Job Benchmark, a hiring scorecard and a valid sales personality test to ensure only the Sales Wolves get hired.

Sales Wolves embrace conflict. 

Ever heard a salesperson get into a combative discussion with a prospect?

Frightening, right? 

If you are frightened by this thought, please go here.

I get excited by Challenger-level conflict. I mean really excited. 

I am excited thinking about Challenger-level conflict right now...

Positive dialogues are those that advance understanding and value for both the buyer and seller. Call me and debate with me. If you are increasing my understanding and creating value, I am going to engage you.   

The need to be viewed as nice is a serious barrier to winning in most sales environments. It is pounded into our heads at a young age and throughout our professional lives, "the nice guy/gal finishes first." 

You do not have enough resources committed to sales recruiting.

The painful truth is you do not have enough resources committed to sales recruitment.

The painful truth is your competitors could turn sales recruitment into a winning strategy if they really wanted to.  

Until you maximize your sales recruitment strategy, you will not be growing as quickly as you could and should.

Sales recruitment must become your moat.

Your competitive advantage must be the identification, hiring and retention of top sales talent.

Win this battle and you will win the war.

Unless you have been under a rock the past few weeks, you have heard the phrase, “Alternative Facts.” Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, coined this phrase when she defended White House
Press Secretary Sean Spicer's statements regarding Donald Trump's inauguration.

Chuck Todd responded by saying "Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods." 

“Alternative Facts” sounds very subjective, doesn't it? Are alternative facts an outright lie? A half-truth? Or, the perceived “reality” of the person providing the facts?

We aren’t here to go into the politics of the phrase, because that is irrelevant.  We would like to address how Alternative Facts damage sales hiring outcomes.

Mindset leadership is what separates winning sales teams from the rest.

The mindset of any team reflects their collective talent and belief.

Ever notice how some teams throw in the towel once they are behind while others never, ever give up?

Me too.

Is your sales culture worthy?

Is your sales culture worthy of the love from the best-of-the-best sales professional, the Sales Wolf?

Not so fast...  Don't assume you have a Sales Wolf on your team because it is possible but unlikely.

Reality check - A salesperson who outsells everyone on your sales team is not necessarily a Sales Wolf.

Sales Wolves are rare.

Most everyone wants to win at some level.

What separates Sales Wolves from everyone else is the level they will push themselves to win.

Sales Wolves are absolutely relentless.

When a Sales Wolf loses (which isn't often), they quickly look in the mirror at the cause of their lost sale. They autopsy to see where they can improve. They then make improvements and repeat.

Sales Wolves abhor excuses. They hate posers. They hate wasting time.

Sales Wolves LOVE the hunt and they LOVE results.

Now is the time for reflection and pain. 

Somewhere or perhaps everywhere, you screwed up. You could ignore the circumstances and hope history does not repeat itself or your can choose to learn from it.

I recommend learning from it.

The termination of a salesperson impacts far more than the bottom line. 

Behind every termination you will find a human being that you somehow failed.

You owe it to current and future salespeople to learn from your mistakes.

You owe it to your shareholders to learn from this experience.

You owe it to your Customers.

Let's get started.