Sales Wolf Blog

Your most valuable asset is not your equipment, nor your real estate, nor your trademarks nor your intellectual property.

Your most valuable asset is the mindset of your sales team. 

The Cambridge Dictionary describes mindset as: "A person's way of thinking and their opinions."

There is a direct correlation between the strength of your sales team's mindset and your sales.

If your sales team has the mindset of playing to win, they will win more sales.

The best way to increase sales is to maximize your sales team's mindset.

Long story short.

If you are like me, you are never satisfied with the status quo.

And chances are you do not do well with "happy talk".

"Happy talk" is what well-meaning sales authors, consultants and training "experts" espouse to the masses. Their target audience is salespeople - the majority of which shouldn't be in the noble profession of sales.

Sales pundits share pithy boring statements like, "Listening is the ESSENTIAL selling skill for salespeople."

If real salespeople - Sales Wolves - engaged Prospects who POSSESSED the capacity to care about their salesperson's value proposition, the world would be a better place!

Long story short. 

Private Equity (PE) Firms are failing to optimize their sales teams from the very beginning of ownership.

It seems that PE Firms fail to grasp that the Net Present Value (NPV) of every acquired portfolio company is a DIRECT REFLECTION of the quality of their sales talent - both salespeople and sales management. 

Objectively-measure sales talent potential.

Every portfolio company sales team should be measured to provide the appropriate catlayst to allocated resources to address deficiencies. 

What gets measured gets improved.

Long story short.

Most salespeople cannot sell value because they lack key "sales personality" elements that drive them to understand and sell value.

If salespeople lack the capacity to understand value, they will be unable to sell it.

Long story.

My statement, "Most salespeople cannot sell value" may be viewed as bold and perhaps overly-harsh by some.

It is the truth.

It's a well-known fact: a good assistant is worth their weight in gold.

The value of a good assistant is maximized when they complete the tasks they are most-qualified to handle.  

However, there is a fine line between utilizing your assistant and having your assistant do your job.

Let's discuss a few scenarios.

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."