John Norris’ Post

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu’s wisdom emphasizes how the field commander is the link between strategy and tactics, victory and defeat. It's the same thing in sales. The VP or CRO can throw strategy at the front line Sales Manager, and the Account Executive can have a ton of tactics. But if you don’t have the Sales Manager enabled, they will fail to turn strategy into victory. So why is Sales Management training an afterthought at most organizations? Conventional wisdom says to train your sellers. And it makes sense, afterall, it's the sellers themselves who prospect (sometimes), talk to the customers, and close the deals. Why invest in training sales managers when all they have to do is hire competitive people who make 50 dials a day? Well, that simply doesn’t work anymore. Sellers need advanced skills to break through the noise and deliver value to clients. And where are they getting that from? Sales training that doesn’t stick? Every poll of sales people will say that sellers want coaching and development. Time to listen to your sellers and train your managers to be great coaches!

Sales Management Hack 💡 Forecasting and Deal Reviews. Simple and effective. Especially if you’re in a medium to high volume environment. Do you have moments when you’ve said “I wish I could get my reps to ask XYZ in their discovery?” Or “If only we had a better understanding of the buying process my team would win and control more deals”. There’s a simple way to get there, and it takes almost no preparation as a manager. Ready? Ask the same question in every single deal review. Have an AE who often is missing Decision Criteria from their prospects? During every 1-1 deal review ask them the Decision Criteria, every single week. I guarantee they will start asking their prospects about their decision criteria. This approach not only helps build habits but also highlights whether it's a training, coaching, or reinforcement issue. If they don't know how to ask effectively - train them. If they aren't sure why it matters - coach them to its importance and get their buy-in. Repetition builds habits. It’s on you to create the guardrails and systems for them to develop the right habits.

10-60-30 Developing sellers is not equally weighted I can give the same sales training to you and your competition I can share all the sales wizardry I can spend extra special time with you 1on1 John Barrows dropped these numbers and breakdown in my post Friday and cannot agree more The magic isn’t in the sales trainer It’s in the seller His words: “10% of you in the room are going to take what I tell you and execute at the highest level because that's the type people you are. 60% of you in this room are going to do something different because it's easy and it makes sense. 30% of you in this room aren't going to do sh-t different. it's not about how many people I can train, it's what percentage do you want to be in” — I was in the 60% group for a long time until I took ownership and accountability I studied my craft and implemented what I learned My numbers rose My titles rose My income rose Yes sellers need coaching, training and development But leadership and coaches cannot want it for you You have to want it the most You have to give a sh*t the most Or nothing will change — I’m Alex and provide training and coaching to founders transitioning out of founder led sales and into a repeatable sales process + sales led org

I am not able to figure out a way... How often do you hear a SDR, BDR or an AE saying this. I get it, I absolutely get it from their point of view. I know its not easy to go ahead and do what you are supposed to do when you are not getting desired results. Negative mindset pulls you down. And once you don't feel good about yourself in mind, you will not be able to give your 100 %. You know what ? Sales is a sport. Have you ever seen an athlete become successful in an year ? Definitively no. It all starts with a PROCESS, there you go, yes you got it. The hardest part of the process is to get the basics right in the beginning, then take one step at a time and with time and practice they will evolve as superstars. You have always seen great players attributing their success to their coaches. Through out the process, every sportsperson is closely trained/coached by their respective coaches. Now this is exactly why salesperson is not able to find his mojo. They should be well versed with sales process. And understand that they should master each and every step of the sales process to overcome their weakness and focus on the strength. An excellent coach can definitely act as a catalyst in the process of sales person becoming a sales superstar. Disclaimer: A coach is the one who stays with you in all stages of the process, not someone who stays once or twice a year. How important is sales coaching to the current salespeople? Do you think sales leaders have figured out the right methodologies to train their team efficiently ? Are leaders using the principles of neuroscience in the training to make it more efficient ? Please have your say on this. David Richards Jeff Wenz Janet Boss Christine Myer Neil Friedman

Sales teams are struggling. Deals are stalling. Quotas are being missed. What's going wrong? The problem is clear - sales training alone is not enough. We train reps on product knowledge, sales process and market understanding. But as soon as they walk out of the room, the learning starts to fade. Within one week, 90% of training content is forgotten. All that time and money down the drain. This is where ongoing coaching comes in.. The problem is that today, fewer than 1/3 of sales managers coach their teams. Coaching fills the gaps that training leaves behind. It reinforces skills through consistent 1-on-1 sessions. Reps get to practice what they learned with an expert coach by their side. But coaching is more than just review and practice. It's about asking the right questions to uncover gaps in knowledge. Helping reps think through problems and figure out solutions for themselves. This leads to true capability building. Reps develop critical thinking skills to apply in any selling situation. The results are clear: - Increased average deal size, win rates and ACV by 25-40% - Higher sales activity and productivity - Lower staff churn The numbers speak for themselves. When you combine training WITH coaching, sales performance skyrockets. So what's stopping you from coaching? The time has come to bridge the execution gap and unlock your team's potential.

Sales leaders, what are your thoughts about providing unsolicited advice to SDRs/AEs contacting you through cold outreach? The volume of poorly worded, irrelevant messages I receive makes me sad. The follow-up messages are even worse. As a sales leader myself, I want to see all reps succeed. Whether it is due to poor coaching, unrealistic targets, inexperience, or pure laziness, these reps need help. I have a strong desire to reply to every message with advice on targeting, research, messaging, or follow-up strategy. What stops me are a few things. ♦ The first is just the reality of time/resource constraints. This would be a full-time job on its own. ♦ The second is the fact that their managers are being paid well to do exactly this but are obviously not getting the job done. The coaching really needs to happen with their management. ♦ The last thing is that I do not want to reward laziness. This hopefully represents only a very small percentage of reps, so is the least of my concerns. How are you handling these situations currently? How would you want this handled if these were your reps doing the outreach? Leave a response in the comments.

Great read. Do you coach or teach? Do you have a defined sales process and follow it? What can you identify with in this article?

Beyond Closing Deals: How Sales Skills Propel Your Management Journey Are you one of those people who thinks that sales & business development skills (S&BD) are just about closing deals? That is not always the case because these skills can be a game-changer for your path to management career success. S&BD exposes you to the entire business landscape, from customer needs to market trends. This holistic understanding makes it easy for you to make strategic decisions and lead effectively within your organization. By understanding how to drive revenue and growth, you become a valuable asset, and are able to influence decisions across departments and maximize the organization's impact. Tell me you don't think how this would make you a valuable asset to the organization? Finally mastering S&BD equips you to coach and mentor your team, boost motivation and morale, fostering a results-oriented mindset with your subordinates and propelling their success as well. These provide you with all the skills you need to become a transformationational leader. If you can provide such value to your subordinates and also to those who are above you within the organization, isn't it obvious how paying close attention to sales and business development skills can enhance your career? You don't have to be the cadre of employee that is responsible for sales targets and earnings, yet utilizing sales and business development skills and principles will set you years apart from your contemporaries within the organization. Everyone in the company can benefit from sales and business development skills, even if you're not the one responsible for closing the deals. Invest in S&BD skills and watch your leadership potential soar!

Hot take: you'll be wasting your time if you spend your time equally with all of your salespeople. I've been in sales leadership for >25 years & learned that leaders shouldn't spend their time equally with all of their salespeople. There's only 4 types of salespeople and you should spend your time with only 2 of these types: 1. The Eagles. they march to the beat of their own drum, never follow the playbooks, hate the training and for some reason, they still hit or exceed their goals. Leave them alone. Most of the time they want to be left alone. NEVER let new people sit with them for "call shadowing." They are not examples you want other people to follow. 2. The Unsalvageables: they don't follow the playbook, never take direction, rarely hit goals. Spend ZERO time on these people over the long haul. 3. The Try-Hards: they're following the playbook but just not having the success just yet. Work with these people for a defined period of time, like 90-180 days. Some of these people will make it through, come around and start hitting goals but many will not. But give these people attention because they're trying. 4. The Boy/Girl Scouts: they follow the playbook and training, they're highly coachable and they hit goals regularly. Spend the vast majority of your time with these people. It's where you'll get the best ROI of your time. What do you think? If you found this post useful - here's something else that can help you. Check out this free Playbook for Running an Effective Salesperson 1 on 1 Avoid the mistakes I've made with 1 on 1s in the past and follow this guide. https://buff.ly/3tqYwGn

It strikes me that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be excellent in the world—and we very falsely, very temptingly, but very falsely, think that the core of excellence is knowledge. We seem to think this is true in the school system (what happens in Hamlet? Answer the content questions below…) and we seem to think this in business (I had someone come in to train the staff on how to improve their sales calls… I don’t know why the conversion rates haven’t improved…) and I’ve come to believe that knowledge is a small, small, part of the equation we are trying to make toward excellence. Knowledge opens a pathway—mastery comes from execution. Because execution, it strikes me, makes you deal with the nuances of the problem. If you’re in football (for instance, a Tight End…) and you learn that the ball coming on your outside shoulder will be caught more easily in a certain hand position—that’s only part of the issue—what the coach tells you is only part of the issue. Other parts are: learning how to balance yourself, establish the correct body position against the defender, making sure you get bothe feet in bounds? At what depth are you looking back for the ball? Using your eyes to deceive the defender on which way you’re breaking on your route? And all of that is, essentially, not taught. It’s doable. But it’s learned from experience. If football (or sales calls, or business strategy) could be transferred simply through information sharing, we’d all be experts in sales and all of our businesses would be operating at massive profit and valuations. But they don’t—because knowledge isn’t the key. Mastery comes from execution. More specifically: mastery comes from the subconscious optimization of the multitude of steps that are required to do a job. A football player doesn’t just need to know the route, but to adjust to the defender, lean the shoulder “just so” to create enough room for the quarterback to place the ball. The sales person doesn’t need just to know how to get someone on the phone, and keep them there, but how to create authentic relationships, deliver value, offer services in a way that seem generous—not salesy. Mastery is the optimization of every part of the process. Mastery skimps on no details. This is why excellence is hard. This is why some sales teams succeed, and others fail. This is why robust follow up training is necessary. This is why accountability matters. Mastery only comes in a certain package—and the package is simple not easy: Do. Reflect on doing Do again, incorporating reflections Repeat. When I think of businesses that are operating suboptimally, I immediately think of that prescription. There isn’t enough attention to execution. The answer is: do it again. www.dezclarkspeaks.com www.beardown-logistics.com