Modern Sales Management – Details, episodes & analysis

Tried and true sales and marketing strategies went out the door in 2020 when teams all over the world were forced to quickly adapt to remote environments, new technologies, and savvy customers. Now that the dust has somewhat settled, executives are focused on creating sophisticated sales and marketing systems that will best prepare their teams for what lies ahead. 

I talked with Dale Miller, Global Sales Director at OK International, about building a next-generation sales and marketing system on this episode of the Modern Sales Management podcast. 

With several decades of sales and sales management experience across various industries, Dale shares exceptional insights about what it takes to succeed in our current climate. More specifically, he explains his four-part sales and marketing strategy/framework that has a proven track record of growing market share and increasing sales revenue. 

We also discuss:

• How sales and marketing teams can best adapt to our new normal
• How customer engagement has changed over the past year and how to embrace the newest challenges 
• Why automated marketing should be a key part of your sales strategy in 2021 
• Tips on delivering value quickly and efficiently in your new and improved sales process
• The effect COVID-19 has had on sales teams, leaders, workloads, and closing rates
• Ways to keep your sales team focused on what matters most (the projects that move the needle)
• What a “true CRM” is and how you can use this tool to help your sales and marketing teams drive revenue
• How to both maximize and optimize your CRM to the best of its ability
• Why real time data is so important to your sales and marketing strategy
• How product education/content can help you gain loyal customers
• Why keeping your value proposition front and center throughout your customer’s journey is so key and how to do just that
• How to use your CRM to personalize leads and provide targeted messaging throughout your sales funnel
• Tips on building useful sales dashboards that highlight exactly what drives your business
• How to systematize a customer acquisition technology for your unique business/industry
• What the future holds for sales and marketing automation technology and how to harness its potential

Learn more about Dale’s four-pillar framework by connecting with him on LinkedIn. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com.

Companies everywhere found themselves ill-equipped to handle 2020’s barrage of pivots, curveballs, and pitfalls. Sales enablement, the discipline of providing real-time lead intelligence, more efficient processes, and shareable content to your sales team, became a major differentiator in many industries.

Arming your sales team with the proper tools and processes to face the uncertain future is what sales enablement is all about, but this strategy can be particularly difficult for startups. We talk about the challenges and opportunities of sales enablement for startups with Amy Looper, Founder of Relativity Consulting, in this episode of the Modern Sales Management podcast. 

Amy’s company specializes in sales advisory and enablement services for innovative technology companies. She feels that utilizing the right sales content, processes, and enablement tools will be the key to your company’s success in 2021. 

Our discussion also covers:

• How to focus on the right processes to make sales easier for your team
• Why sales managers in the tech space need to be liaisons between the sales and technology teams
• How to help your startup sales team overcome common barriers and pitfalls
• Tips on setting benchmarks and focusing on the right metrics to grow sales revenue
• How to seize the biggest opportunities in the startup world of sales
• Why startup buying and selling cycles can be so complex and how to cut through the noise on your path to success
• How to build a sales infrastructure that is designed to support your best possible outcomes
• Tips on sales team evaluation and development
• How to dial into your buyer and serve them continuously throughout the pre-sales and post-sales process
• How to determine if your startup is ready to hire a salesperson or team
• Sales forecasting tips and tricks
• How to test your client’s commitment to make sure you’re focusing on your ideal customer
• How to identify the benchmarks in your startup’s sales process that indicate it’s time to invest in sales leadership and development
• Why aligning your sales and marketing team should be a blue chip strategy for your company in 2021

Learn more about Amy’s company by visiting its website or connecting with her on LinkedIn. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com.

Being a successful salesperson doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make a great sales manager. After all, the customer-centric skill set that helps you close deals is much different than the team-focused skills needed to coach, motivate, and inspire a diverse group of salespeople. 

We talk about effective sales management tactics and sales rep coaching techniques with Chris Jordan, Vice President of Sales at CampusLogic, on a new episode of the Modern Sales Management Podcast. 

Chris has led sales teams of various sizes across multiple industries and shares valuable insight on building and managing successful teams. He emphasizes that personal development is just as important as pipeline development when it comes to motivating your sales team and driving revenue. 

Our conversation also includes: 

• Effective sales coaching frameworks and philosophies
• How to use sales team assessments/evaluations to develop salespeople and leverage their strengths
• Actionable tips for improving 1:1 sales meetings
• How to set realistic sales goals/quotas for your salespeople
• Measuring sales rep success through pipeline development and forward progression
• Why some sales reps have trouble talking about money/pricing with customers and how to help them overcome this hurdle
• Helpful interview tips when evaluating a prospective salesperson for your team
• What are some common challenges sales managers face when it comes to hiring and how to combat these issues
• How to encourage your sales team to follow the same sales process without killing their individualism 
• How to evaluate your sales pipeline to account for an individual rep’s strength and weaknesses
• How remote sales is changing sales leadership techniques
• What “Zoom fatigue” is and how you can re-energize your team when they hit a plateau
• How to embrace communication technologies (i.e. Microsoft Teams, Slack, Flock, etc.) to maintain connection on a remote sales team
• Why you should end every sales rep 1:1 with two questions: “How can I help you?” and “How can I make your life better?”

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com.

As a sales manager, you know it's easy to get overwhelmed - even when your team is performing well.  However, the weight of all of the data and all of those starting points grows exponentially when you have to evaluate and resolve a dip in sales. 

What if there was one place to look that would tell you almost everything you need to know about why your sales activities are not resonating with your buyers? If this tool would make your life easier, you’re not going to want to miss what I am going to tell you next.

We talk about the most effective starting point for optimizing your sales process with Charlene DeCesare, CEO of Charlene Ignites, LLC, on this episode of the Modern Sales Management Podcast. 

Charlene draws upon 25 years of experience in sales to explain how the best sales leaders focus on developing the right messaging, methods, and mindsets for their teams. 

Our conversation also covers topics such as:

• How to create messaging that focuses on making connections 
• Why the right sales messaging starts at the top - with the way sales leaders communicate to their teams
• What The Email Cemetery is how you can stop your emails from going there
• Why sales messaging should focus on the buyer and not the seller
• How emails can be used as diagnostic tools to see what is and isn’t working within your organization
• How salespeople can avoid being “ghosted” by a prospect
• Tips on sales coaching and running productive sales meetings
• Why an organization’s core values are so important in the creation of sales messaging/templates/scripts
• How to shorten the sales cycle without pestering or chasing prospects
• What mission osmosis is and how it can be a valuable corporate strategy
• Why salespeople and leaders should embrace being human and what that means
• Tips on motivating salespeople and staying positive in a negative world
• Why sales leaders need to lead with compassion and how that translates into revenue growth
• How to create an innovative and productive sales culture
• How to shift your mindset to make your job more enjoyable and become more effective

Connect with Charlene on LinkedIn and learn more about her work by visiting her website. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com.

Startup SaaS companies face abundant opportunities and tremendous risks when it comes to scaling revenue. Without high fixed overhead and fulfillment costs, SaaS leaders can direct more capital toward marketing and sales. However, if their sales and marketing processes aren’t streamlined and optimized, all that money will quickly go to waste and their investors will walk. 

We talked about the complexities of driving SaaS sales revenue with Kevin Mead, Owner of Salestream, on this week's episode of the Modern Sales Management Podcast. 

With an academic background in computer science (coding) and professional experience in sales and marketing, Kevin offered a unique perspective in sales leadership and process optimization. He emphasized the importance of aligning your sales and marketing teams and shared tips on improving the sales process using data and automation. 

Our discussion also covered:

• How marketing can best meet the needs of people before sales becomes involved
• What sales and marketing alignment (smarketing) looks like in a SaaS company
• Why the sales process itself is more important than the size of your sales team
• How inbound leads can cut the sales cycle by 50%
• How coding can be used to scale revenue at SaaS companies
• Why marketers should learn the commission structure of their company’s sales team
• How to create a CRM that is a tool for your sales reps and not an obstacle
• How to ensure the success of your entire sales team (vs. having one top performer and a few average salespeople)
• Why HubSpot is a double-edged sword and how to maximize its potential for your business
• How to build a steady flow of inbound revenue
• What are common pitfalls that sales leaders face 
• How to make the most of every hour of your sale team’s day

Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn and learn more about his work by visiting his website. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com. 

The most successful sales teams are made up unique individuals with different backgrounds, personalities, and levels of work experience. As a sales manager, you understand that working with and coaching a diverse group of talent can be as challenging as it is rewarding. 

The good news is that with the right approach, analysis, and execution, sales executives can optimize the performance of individual sales reps. Even better, by helping salespeople on an individual level, sales leaders will build better sales teams and grow more revenue. 

We talked about several ways of improving sales rep performance with Rick Roberge of Sales RockStars & RainMakers on a new episode of the Modern Sales Management Podcast. 

Rick explained the psychology behind sales coaching and how sales managers should focus on working one-on-one with salespeople in order to build stronger teams. 

We also discussed:

• What sales core competencies are and how you can evaluate your team on them
• How sales leaders can raise the game for sales reps on an individual level
• Why sales managers should talk with their reps every day (and not just once or twice a week)
• How to identify rock star salespeople
• How remote sales is changing the role of a sales leader
• How meeting cadence has changed as sales teams switch to remote settings
• Why inbound leads are still #1 in sales
• How modern sales has changed the cold calling process forever
• What self limiting beliefs are and how sales managers can help sales reps overcome them
• How to teach sales reps to have conversations with their prospects and not just sales conversations
• Why sales rep performance is more than just metrics
• How to motivate sales reps by understanding what motivates them
• How inbound leads often get wasted by sales reps and how to avoid this
• How sales and marketing is changing and how sales managers can best adapt to the modern sales landscape

Connect with Rick on LinkedIn and learn more about his work by visiting his website. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com. 

Technology is continuously improving the sales landscape, but the overload of options and information can seem daunting to even the most versatile sales leaders.

While they understand that AI-driven insights and relevant data based on machine learning can be valuable tools, top revenue executives also know that sales and CRM processes must be as simple as possible so that reps can sell quickly and easily. 

Fortunately, there are ways to harness the power of enhanced data without bogging down your sales reps with complicated tasks. I discussed some of these methods with Howard Brown, Founder and CEO of ringDNA, during an episode of the Modern Sales Management Podcast. 

Howard shared valuable information about how sales leaders can leverage AI and machine learning to simplify the sales process for reps. 

Our conversation also covered topics such as:

• How sales teams have shifted in the past few years
• Why new data can be intimidating to a sales team and how to distribute it in the most efficient and actionable way
• How to turn “big data” into “little data” 
• Why insightful data is crucial to your sales team
• How to evaluate sales technology and know if it’s right for your business
• Why the best technology allows humans to be lazy
• How sales leaders can become great coaches
• Why technology is important, but the customer is still #1 in sales
• How AI and machine learning can help sales reps perform better
• What role leadership plays in the introduction of a new sales tool set
• How to find the right sales reps 
• How to increase sales productivity with hyperfocus 
• Why using technology to track sales performance is about continuous improvement and not about micromanagement
• How machine learning and AI are changing sales organizations
• How social media is making everyone a journalist and what this means for your sales strategy
• How the sales landscape is changing and how sales leaders can best prepare for the future 

Learn more about Howard and his company, ringDNA, by connecting with him on LinkedIn. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com. 

Sales skills are one thing, but building a world class business development organization is a whole different ball game. From motivating your team to follow a unified process to aligning your sales and marketing teams, creating a business development engine is just as much art as it is science. 

So, how can you set up your business development team to maximize their success? 

This is the question I asked our very own Angela Hamilton, HubSpot Growth Specialist at Pipeline Ops. 

Angela draws on years of experience building business development and sales teams to share actionable tips managers can implement today to best align their teams for revenue growth and scalability. 

Other topics discussed in this episode include:

• How sales managers can teach sales reps to build, use, and grow their skill sets
• Why a “helping people first” mentality is more important than a “selling” mentality
• How the alignment of sales and marketing can make all the difference in your business development plan
• What kinds of systems sales managers need to have in place to best serve their sales teams
• Why hiring is only the first step in cultivating a talented team (hint: coaching and mentoring are the next steps!) 
• How the business development landscape has changed within the past few years 
• Why buyers are more informed now than ever and how this affects sales training, tools, and processes
• What are common mistakes sales managers make and how to prevent them
• How to get everyone on your team following the same playbook
• How to leverage reporting and metrics technology in the fight against micromanagement 
• Why the buyer is more important than what you’re selling and how to teach your salespeople to put the buyer first
• What is the best way to introduce a new process to an existing/experienced team
• Tips on transitioning a casual conversation into a buying conversation
• What sales and marketing alignment looks like and how to achieve it
• What executives can do to best serve business development teams

Learn more about Angela and her work by connecting with her on LinkedIn. 

You can subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com.

While many companies have been selling their products online with a remote sales team for years, sales managers that are new to this “COVID-19” sales model face tremendous challenges. Tasks such as keeping your sales team engaged, finding new ways to demo/sell products online, and promoting collaboration within a remote team can seem daunting to even the best sales executives. 

In the most recent episode of the Modern Sales Management Podcast, I spoke with Dayne Topkin, Content Marketing Manager at HubSpot and the creator of the new HubSpot Academy course, Online Sales Training: How to Move From Field Sales to Remote Selling.

Dayne provided valuable insights on how companies can pivot their sales processes and models to gain traction and thrive in remote sales. 

Dayne and I also discussed:

• What are the main challenges for sales managers in remote sales?
• What are some benefits of transitioning a sales team to a remote setting?
• Should we assume that the shift to remote sales is a permanent change for all companies and products?
• What are some tips and techniques for sales managers navigating the “new normal” of remote sales?
• How has COVID-19 changed sales interactions?
• Are some products (i.e. those with complex demo processes) harder/impossible to sell online?
• Is there anything in field sales (process-wise) that can not be done online?
• How can sales managers foster collaboration within a remote sales team?
• What are some ways to keep sales reps engaged and motivated while they’re working at home with countless distractions?
• How can you make critical information available to all salespeople at all times? 
• What are some mindset shifts sales managers need to make when moving to a remote sales setting?
• How do you keep sales reps connected and energized when they’re working alone at home?
• What is an urgency matrix and how can it help your remote sales team?

Connect with Dayne on LinkedIn and check out some of his most recent HubSpot Academy online sales tips at https://academy.hubspot.com/lessons/online-sales. 

Dayne is also part of a huge HubSpot training initiative that focuses on 2020’s unique challenges and opportunities. Learn more about this program at https://offers.hubspot.com/adapt2020. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com.

While product, markets, and messaging may vary, a successful sales organization always starts with plugging the right team into the right culture. The best people in an unhealthy culture will result in unproductive habits and slower than expected growth. And eventually, you’ll lose top talent. If you have the wrong people with a strong sales culture, you are not much better off.

The good news is that whether you are building a team from scratch or optimizing a team you’ve inherited, there are several ways you can position your team for immediate and positive results. 

I discussed some of these sales management strategies with Paul Schneider, VP of Commercial Sales at Higher Logic, on a recent episode of the Modern Sales Management Podcast. 

Paul shared tips on how sales managers can adopt a collaborative approach to building, improving, and motivating their sales teams. We also talked about creating a positive sales culture and what role it plays in driving sales growth and revenue. 

Our discussion also covered:

-How can you properly evaluate your team and its resources for optimal performance?

-How do you hire the right salespeople?

-Would a “lone wolf” salesperson be a good addition to your team? 

-Should you encourage mentorship within your team?

-What are some ways to promote camaraderie and connectivity on a remote sales team?

-When a salesperson gets “stuck” during a deal, what are some useful tactics for helping them get “unstuck?”

-What are the most important traits to look for when hiring salespeople?

-Besides money, what motivates salespeople?

-How do you encourage self motivation and accountability without becoming a micromanager/tough guy/enforcer?

-Is appreciation a necessary tool for motivating salespeople? 

-How can you build a strong sales culture within your organization?

-Should a sales manager focus on the numbers (or the people who drive those numbers)? 

You can connect with Paul on LinkedIn. 

Subscribe and listen to all episodes of the Modern Sales Management podcast on your favorite podcast app or by visiting ModernSalesManagement.com.