The ballad of John Maynard tells the story of him at the helm of a steamship on Lake Erie. The ship catches fire in the middle of the lake, and John steers it to shore. John Maynard was a leader. Because leadership is earned.
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The customer had researched and told us that he could buy the same product for half the price. I quickly congratulated him, told him we would never change our price, stood up, and left. It was not the end of my career … and a great learning experience on how to recognize and avoid traps.
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Speaking to a friend of mine recently, he lamented that - what was a promising opportunity a few weeks back - was now just a stone wall of “We have no money.” I commented that he was simply not their priority, and he had the choice to either walk away, or make himself a priority.
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Searching for 'Sales is a numbers game' on Google delivers over 23,000 results. By my count, 95% of the authors agree with this statement. I do, too, but why? The list is long, so here are three very basic reasons: Pipeline size, call conversion, bonus plan.
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Company-centric organizations suffer from omphaloskepsis, the preoccupation with themselves to the exclusion of everything else. Way more time and energy are spent internally than with customers. What is your organization like?
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The good, the bad, and the ugly of Sales Management is a very personal view. My list is the summary of observations over decades of working as and with Sales Managers. The list is long, so here are just two "highlights": Unresponsiveness and Low Emotional Intelligence.
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