The last few weeks have been pretty unique – I know I have never experienced anything like what is happening right now in my entire career. Sure, there were the downturns in 2000, 2008, 2011, but those were nothing like what 2020 is bringing us right now. That said, one thing is certain – just like previous downturns, this will end and we will recover.
The world has changed drastically over the past few weeks in many ways. While things are moving slower than usual, it’s a great time to reconnect with customers (virtually, of course), educate yourself, and sharpen the skills you’ll be able to use when the freeze starts to thaw.
“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” - Sheryl Sandberg
The ability to deliver the above is one, if not the, distinguishing characteristic of a great leader. Upon reading it, I began to think of what Sandberg’s definition of leadership meant for sales leaders.
During sales management training, I often tell sales managers they need to approach sales pipeline reviews with their sales reps like prosecutors in the courtroom. What exactly do I mean? To start, I’m not advocating that you look to “convict” your sales reps. Instead, I’m suggesting sales managers take an evidence-based approach to sales pipeline inspection. Doing so will remove the biases from conversations with sales reps, and make sales pipelines more accurate and data driven.
So, where do you find this evidence?
Sales Gauge, a leader in the sales training industry, today announced it has launched a new application for sales executives using Salesforce.com (SFDC). The app, which provides real-time insight into high value deals, is available at no charge on the SFDC AppExchange. In addition to full transparency into their sales pipelines, the new Sales Gauge High Value Trade Table app provides salespeople and managers a common language to discuss sales pipelines and forecasts.
We have been talking a lot about using the High Value Trade Table (HVT) to close deals. Sales professionals taking our eLearning have found the deal simulator that provides them insight on how to read the score of their deals eye-opening. That said, each organization is unique and requires an in-depth look at the best structure for the HVT. Keep in mind that the HVT spreadsheet we provide in the resource tab gets you started but each company will have unique trades to identify and call out in order to advance their sales along.
Many of the clients that Sales Gauge works with have formal sales onboarding and training programs. One such client put together a comprehensive launch program for their sales people that began with the basic skills that a sales person needs to have prior to going out into the field.
But while this company had an aggressive 5-day boot camp for people that covered product and soft skills, they discovered a lot of people (25%) would wash out of sales within 6 months. As you can imagine, coming to this realization meant that they were hiring the wrong people. The company recognized that they needed to make some drastic changes to ensure that they were not only hiring the right candidates but that these new hires have the skills required to successfully sell on behalf of the company.
Sales Gauge Launches Online Sales Training Platform
Premier sales training company launches Sales Gauge in the Cloud for Sales Professionals
BOSTON, MA – September 28, 2016. Leading sales training company, Sales Gauge, today announces the launch of its eLearning platform, Sales Gauge in the Cloud. With flexible options for individual sales professionals, small- to medium-sized sales teams, as well as enterprise sales organizations, the Sales Gauge online sales training program delivers an always on, cost-effective training solution.
