Building a Sales Team

Great sales teams have great support! Support means more than just a good product, a phone list and a commission plan. Great support provides your sales team with the tools they need to sell effectively ­– goals, plans, training, systems, processes, and collateral, to name just a few. At Wallace Management Group, we work with […]

In my last two posts, I’ve discussed the need to assess traits and skills when hiring new sales reps. A third factor is knowledge. Successful sales reps must know your company, products and markets. Knowledge is learned through training, experience and self education.  Typically, I place more emphasis on the candidate’s knowledge base when the […]

The skills every sales representative needs are basic selling skills: Prospecting Qualifying prospects Presenting Managing objections Closing, and Following up More advanced sales skills that should be developed in your experienced sales reps include: Solution selling Relationship selling Partnership sales Managing territories Managing customers Managing the competition Planning And so on Experienced sales representatives should have […]

When looking to hire sales representatives, there are three areas to evaluate in candidates, traits, skills and knowledge. This note looks at the traits you should look for. Sales representatives are the primary point of contact into your company for your customers.  Customers also tend to buy from people they know and like.  As a […]

When creating a global sales management framework, a company must balance corporate home office responsibilities with local office responsibilities in four areas: culture, strategy, metrics and sales/territory management. Last week I posted on balancing your corporate culture versus a local culture. Today, we take a brief look at strategy and metrics.  Strategy Corporate Guided by […]

The challenge businesses face today is how to maintain standardization and consistency across their global sales organizations while providing local sales management teams the autonomy they need to drive sales and meet goals in their local markets. Our recommendation: Create a global sales management framework that balances corporate home office responsibilities with local office responsibilities […]

Over the course of my career building and managing sales organizations, I identified 8 keys to effective sales management. I’ve recently published them in my new book, The Sales Executive Handbook: 8 Essential Elements of Sales Management, available on Amazon. Each week for 8 weeks, I am presenting one of the elements. Element 2: Create Your […]