Employers have never had to compete with so many distractions as they do now. In fact, it is estimated that each and every person is exposed to between 6,000 to 10,000 advertisements a day. People are so good at sourcing and consuming content that we are becoming information obese. The content overload is real, and people struggle to apply it, to the point it is distracting people’s lives. That’s a lot of noise for employers to compete against to keep their people focused, engaged and on the task at work. Although it has never been harder to maintain engagement it’s also never been more important with employers needing to make sure every employee is achieving their goals.

Businesses cannot afford employee disengagement
Lack of motivation and satisfaction can cost organisations millions of dollars a year due to lost productivity, high staff turnover rates and low business performance. It’s critical that HR teams effectively manage workplace culture and practice to encourage employees to be more engaged and productive. Organisations with enthusiastic teams tend to perform strongly, managers are respected by staff and are on average 21 per cent more profitable.

In the age of COVID-19 and work from home, employee engagement has never been trickier to achieve, yet more critical for business success. The recent economic downturn highlights why businesses must ensure their employees are treated as their most valuable assets. Good business leaders have leveraged the individual strength of people to make the change to remote working successful that people became productive creatively. It is only with a committed and loyal workforce that firms stand a chance against disruption and can emerge unscathed into the post-pandemic world.

Read the full article at: www.insidehr.com.au

Business leaders will long be remembered for their response to the coronavirus crisis. Some such as Marriott President and CEO Arne Sorenson will be applauded for their authentic leadership in these challenging times, while others including Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will be recognised for putting their employees’ job security first. However, according to the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, the majority of leaders might not be remembered quite so favourably; fewer than one in three people questioned (29 percent) think CEOs are doing an outstanding job responding to the demands placed on them by the pandemic.

As lockdown restrictions ease and businesses transition to the next phase in their Covid-19 response, it is important that finance leaders learn from the last few months to help them support their people in the right way. What more should they be doing and where should their focus be? Research from Tiger Recruitment (Tiger) provides some of the answers.

The employee perspective

In April 2020, Tiger polled more than 1,100 employees to find out how they were feeling about the coronavirus crisis, how well they thought their employer had responded and what more they could be doing to support them. Below are three ways they said leaders could improve on their performance going forward:

1. Communicate more effectively

When asked what their employer could have done better to support them during the pandemic, employees were most likely to say that internal communications could have been improved.

Now more than ever, businesses need to provide clear and authentic communications to demystify the situation for employees and reassure them.

Crucially, this communication should come from the top. As Paul Argenti, a professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, writes in Harvard Business Review, “In my study of crisis communication after 9/11, many employees described how important it was to hear the voice of the leader, whether live or through email, phone messages, or social media.”

Given the uncertainty and fast-moving nature of our current situation, communication should be regular. Edelman’s Trust Barometer found that 63% of employees are looking to their employers for daily updates on the virus. As for communication channels, employees say they prefer to receive information via email or newsletter (48 percent), posts on the company website (33 percent) and phone/video conferences (23 percent).

1. Provide better support for remote working

As a result of the coronavirus crisis, remote working has gained widespread acceptance from employees and employers alike. With social distancing measures still in place, many financial institutions say that staff will be able to continue working from home for the time being – some even see home working as an integral part of their future.

Royal Bank of Scotland says that more than three quarters of its staff will continue working from home until at least the end of September, while Mastercard has told staff they can work from home until they’re ready to return. Barclays’ boss Jes Staley has gone a step further in suggesting that remote working is the shape of things to come.

However, employees surveyed by Tiger say they need more support in certain areas to be able to keep working from home effectively.

Close to a third (29%) said that they didn’t have a dedicated workspace at home, while over a quarter (27%) felt that their employer could provide more technical and ergonomic support.

1. Invest in employee mental wellbeing and mental health

Despite 95% of employees saying that they see clear benefits in working from home, there are signs that their mental health and wellbeing could be suffering.

Many financial services professionals are working longer hours during the crisis and may be feeling more anxious than usual due to concerns about their job security and the prospect of returning to the office. This stress is no doubt exacerbated by being physically separated from colleagues and friends.

Almost a quarter of employees (23%) said they felt their employer could do more to support their mental health, while half of employers surveyed Tiger acknowledged that they could be doing more for staff mental health and wellbeing.

Read the full article at: www.globalbankingandfinance.com

The most sure-fire way for aspiring CFOs to attract the notice of CEOs and boards is to bring a strategic mindset, communicate well and showcase a background in operational finance, recruiters say.

The days of rising mostly through corporate accounting ranks are declining and taking that path can even be a detriment to the extent it makes your background seem too-tailored to your previous employer.

Coming up through the public accounting or consulting ranks, by contrast, practically sells itself, because it tells potential employers you’ve mastered the technical aspects of accounting from a best-practices standpoint.

"If you have a CFO who spent the first four or five years of their career at, say, KPMG, you know those numbers are the numbers," Peter Crist, chairman of Crist|Kolder Associates said. "You can trust the financials you're receiving."

Many leadership paths

The newer path to CFO is through investment banking. Once almost unheard of, about a quarter of CFOs today started out working on the deal-making side of capital raising, and the percentage is bigger for those in tech.

"I think a lot of it has to do with having first-time founders who are wicked smart who are looking for someone who can go toe-to-toe with them on strategy," Rhoda Longhenry, a partner at technology-focused True Search, said. "Not all finance executives can do that."

Of 53 software-as-a-service (SaaS) CFOs that CFO Dive covered over the past year, almost 30% started out in investment banking. Often, they either join a company with which they worked on a deal, or they move to a company in the sector they covered.

Lanny Baker, CFO of EventBrite, is a case in point. He started out in the late 1980s researching technology companies for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, then for Morgan Stanley, and then for Salomon Brothers before jumping to the corporate side as finance head for the online job-search site Monster. From there he took leadership roles at a number of high-profile Internet companies, including ZipRealty and Yelp.

"What really prepared me was the time I spent on Wall Street," Baker said. "I got to work on [Google's] IPO and the merger of AOL and Time Warner."

Maynard Webb, a Silicon Valley veteran who was COO of eBay during its rise and today sits on the boards of Salesforce and Visa, and was chair of Yahoo!, says CFO candidates who are strong on the investment banking side but weak on operations and accounting, can be attractive from a strategic standpoint but they must be upfront about gaps others will have to fill.

“Do you have the wherewithal to actually build the operational muscle that the company really needs?” he says. “Hopefully it will be communicated during the interview process. You don’t want to find out that’s not his strength after you’re in the job. The people who are self-aware enough, as most CFOs are, would say what their weaknesses are in the interview process.”

Public accounting widest path

Outside of the tech sector, investment banking remains a relative rarity as a path to CFO. The widest path by far is public accounting and consulting.

In CFO Dive's research, just under half of all CFOs, and exactly half of SaaS CFOs, came up through public accounting and consulting. What's more, at least three-fourths of these CFOs maintain their CPA, or the United Kingdom equivalent, certified accountant designation. (View research results at the bottom of this story).

That's the path taken by Ken Stillwell, CFO of PegaSystems. Early in his career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, he provided audit advisory services and then M&A advice to his corporate clients, many of them outside the United States.

"I think that really helped me see different companies of size and verticals and international cultures," he said. "I think that gave me a good acceleration in my finance acumen."

With public accounting or consulting experience, recruiters say, candidates can tout the rigorous training they got in the latest, most thorough set of standards companies must meet.

"It's like Navy Seals or Delta Force," Shawn Cole, managing partner of Cowen Partners, said. "You just know they're good at their job."

Although the traditional path through corporate finance departments is declining, developing your skills on the operational side of finance remains a crucial benchmark, and for many CEOs and their boards, it's a must-check box for any candidate.

"Operating finance skills is the key measurement phrase CEOs and boards use," Crist said.

In CFO Dive's research, just over a quarter of CFOs come up through the traditional corporate finance route, about half the percentage that come up through public accounting and consulting.

Among Fortune 500 companies, operational finance is a must, and preferably with another big company, Tricia Clifford, a consultant in Spencer Stuart's financial officers practice, said.

"The most common route for a public company CFO is a previous role in divisional finance, or a deputy finance role," said Clifford, who co-authored a survey on Fortune 500 CFO job paths. "About 80% of externally hired CFOs took that as their primary route up. Behind that is FP&A, treasury and accounting and control. That's a big shift from accounting and control being the primary foundation for a public company CFO."

To get that operating finance background, Crist said, you want to work as a group or division controller.

Read the full article at: www.cfodive.com

The end-goal of every good product or service is to meet a need but that need may not necessarily be physical. Luxury brands are most sought after for emotional satisfaction. They pander to the consumer’s emotion and create a feeling of prestige. In most cases, having a luxury brand gives the consumer more satisfaction than the product’s economic value. Louis Vuitton and Gucci have maintained a consistent position as the world's most valuable luxury brands —for years with current market values of $15 billion and $10.8 billion respectively. Although both brands have different aesthetics and marketing techniques, they understand the psychology of perception and exude a larger than life persona that consumers aspire to be. A recent report found that the personal luxury goods market was worth over $308 billion in 2019. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures were predicted to have surged this year. 

In a word, the customer service experience is one of a brand’s most powerful marketing tools. Henceforth, luxury fashion retailers are committed to enhancing the customer’s experience and exploring digital technology to cater to their physical and emotional needs. 

Protecting customer interest

In short, the luxury retail market had been had been thriving— catering to the crème de la crème in society, long before the advent of the internet, The elites were driven by a “feel good” factor classified as “esteem needs” in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and would many times spend a fortune to acquire luxury items. But times are changing.

Timothy Hancock, 33, became the country’s youngest luxury print publisher in 2017 after publishing Deluxe Version, a lifestyle magazine based in Las Vegas. Hancock gained an affluent readership starting online in 2014 using a digital magazine platform and a successful event following at high-end resorts. I believe the reason it works well is because the publication serves source for luxury shopping, travel, entertainment, and wellness for readers to become the best version of themselves. In my fashion research, I often find that consumers prefer to dial it back and find the source to guide them.

For the most part, “high-taste customers aren’t worried about price tags when shopping, they know exactly where they are. A true fashion enthusiast sees style as an expression of themselves, a gesture of their intentional flair. You can’t put a price on that kind of personal appreciation,” says Timothy Hancock.

The luxury market consumer base is shifting from Baby Boomers and Generation X to Millennials. Both Baby Boomers and Generation X have the advantage in time for wealth creation and can comfortably afford luxury brands. 

Millennials, on the other hand, are younger and have not created enough wealth to comfortably afford luxury items. Nonetheless, they believe that luxury is attainable and aspire for it. They create an illusion of luxury, paying little attention to the economic value of the product. Why save up so much money for an item when they can get a knockoff at a lower price? The likes and comments they get from posting images of their luxury items on social media are all that matter. 

Always one to be seeking additional information on the millennial marketplace, I decided to contact an e-commerce marketing expert to get advice. Speaking on the affinity of the millennials to technology, Kas Andz, Founder of e-commerce marketing company, Kas Andz Marketing Group (KAMG) said, “Millennials have grown up with technology as almost a parent figure to them. They learnt, laughed and loved through their screens and now with the ability to ‘to walk into a store’ while sitting in their bedroom in boxer shorts, technology has completely broken all social purchasing fabrics & rebuilt them. This is especially true in the luxury market where people are no longer ‘buying the experience’ in-store, but rather on a digital front. Ultimately meaning luxury brands now need to go the extra mile to push their desirability & feel across”

It is also important for me to express that the massive interest to belong to the luxury brand consumer base has seen a surge of counterfeits within the luxury market. In my spare time, I teach at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. The research library for faculty has aided me tremendously in my research. According to the Counterfeit Market and the Luxury Goods report, the luxury market accrues a $12 billion loss every year. True luxury brand consumers are not oblivious to the fakery. They are now more conscious of their buying decisions. Putting a luxury tag on a product is not convincing enough. These days, consumers want to know more about the products including its origin, authenticity, and economic value. Luxury retailers are leveraging new-age technologies like blockchain to allay the consumer’s fears and concerns. Blockchain technology offers a centralized network that allows both sellers and consumers to engage themselves about products on the market. A digital identity is assigned to each product for verification and tracking. A consumer on the network can look up a product to check its authenticity and other variables before making a buying decision. It is so amazing because as you delve into fashion blockchain, it can bring data to you dating back from the weather during the growth and harvest season.

Personalizing the customer experience 

With about 80% of luxury sales happening in the digital space, technology is a huge part of luxury retail. Consumer data are significant to luxury retailers in offering the best customer experience. Luxury brands are no longer on the top of the Eiffel Tower in their interactions with the consumer—they have come down to the consumer’s level to create close relationships. They want to know the consumer down to the basics. The two world’s most valuable luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Gucci mentioned earlier are also the most popular luxury brands online. They create a balance between a great customer experience in their physical and online stores. I am an advocate for the importance of a strong sales force and good customer relations.

Several luxury brands were skeptical about moving to the digital space due to fear of losing the personal touch and connection they have with the customer in their physical environments. Machine learning allays these fears by streamlining big data with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offer a personalized touch and experience. 

Every visit a consumer makes to a luxury brand’s online store is an opportunity for the brand to know the consumer better. It's like getting acquainted with someone—telling them about yourself including your likes and dislikes. Data Science and Decision Intelligence firms such as Data Innovation Labs (DIL) help businesses online in the collection and interpretation of big data to create custom communications in the customer’s online interactions. Its digital solution Klen that connects communities and commerce through data management can help luxury brands weather the storm during the COVID-19 pandemic by communicating the COVID-19 compliance to their customers with ease to reduce consumer fears when shopping in stores.

Read the full article at: www.forbes.com

In my sales career I had 22 different sales managers (not counting a few interim ones) over time and experienced great, amazing leadership - and also horrible, disappointing leaders – from “awesome” to “awful”.

When you are an individual contributor, your direct manager - often the Sales Manager – someone who did well in sales so they got promoted to lead others - is the first link to representing the culture of the business to you. Traditionally we’ve done a poor job training these folks for leadership and in representing our companies mission, vision, and goals well.

In my estimation, after talking with dozens of companies and hundreds of reps and leaders, we have a shortage of sales teams leading with a healthy, strong, defined, inclusive sales culture and that leaves us with reactive, win-at-all-cost corporate sales organizations. 

Many companies and teams I’ve talked with have leaders who are frantically working on deal closure, identifying new potential buyers, hiring, and ramping up reps. 

Leaders in sales have a short tenure, which has to factor into the way teams operate. Many miss the heart of the team - strong, healthy, encouraging, respectful to all sales culture. 

Sales culture is a phrase often tossed around. Is an incredible culture - one where everyone thrives - simply a “nice to have” in the midst of process, methodology, people and leadership? 

A strong sales culture is critical to a team’s success. 

A strong sales culture starts will values - your corporate values, clarified. What we all stand for, and what we won’t stand for. Great companies post them on the walls of every office and share them in onboarding and virtually so buyers can understand what is important to the company. 

It’s the points mentioned within the “We’re hiring” part of your website, but it is much more than that. It’s what the individuals on your sales team, and sales leadership say it feels like to be part of your sales organization. 

It’s a code of conduct - HOW we want every person representing our team to act when the boss is not present. 

More than anything, it is the heartbeat and soul of your sales team. It is why team members come in early and think over the weekend about a deal, and collaborate with others to solve tough problems. 

We now know that a healthy culture encourages retention of team members - that means real dollars when you look at the cost of replacing a seller. A healthy culture encourages diversity and inclusion - which also grows revenues. 

Here are the fundamental steps to take to ensure your team has cultural roots. 

VISION and VALUES

Be VERY clear about what you stand for in the company and on the team. This means that you can also say what you do not stand for. It is more than words on the wall, though - it is demonstrated. 

A VP of Sales was walking through the sales team area and he heard comments from the guys about a woman one of the guys was dating. He was horrified at the lack of thought these two particular reps had in speaking in front of all of their peers. He stopped in his tracks, and said,

“This isn’t a locker room - it is a professional place of business - no one talks that way about anyone in this room - got it?” 

That is what leaders do - they live their values. It’s more than writing them down and sharing. 

What do you and your company stand for?
Would I find it if I looked? 

LEADERSHIP

A strong culture has strong high-performing leaders. They carry the flag for you, and they help instill vision and values in those they oversee. 

TRANSPARENCY

I need to know what my career path is as an SDR or an AE. What might the future hold for me when I’m successful and can achieve and exceed goals? We know from research that we’ll retain more women on the team with clear career paths and professional development. If you are in a male-majority industry that is important for inclusion. 

SHARED STORIES

When you can tell your new reps why the company does what it does through stories it helps people learn. 

METRICS

Measure everything you can, and come from a place of data rather than gut feel - this goes to hiring. Stop hiring on gut feel! 

A successful, over-achieving female rep recently left a sales team (brand you’d recognize) for two reasons - she felt she was not appreciated (consistently over quota and currently at 150% of quota and she didn’t see any women in senior leadership - so in her mind, she knew (felt) that it wasn’t a smart long-term place to be. She moved to another big name brand where her immediate boss is a strong coach (she asked lots of questions to determine this) and the team has a culture of high performance and transparency. 

Read the full article at: www.scoremoresales.com

Sales management is the coordination of people and resources so that the desired goal can be formulated effectively. These long-term goals can be broad, although they typically result in increased sales volume, increased profit, and continued growth. To achieve these objectives, the key responsibilities of sales managers include, but are not limited to: demand / sales forecasting of quotas / objectives, budget, organization, recruitment, training, compensation and sales performance evaluation. At the end of the day, however, the most important role of sales management is not to manage sales, but to manage salespersons.

Why is it important?

Sales managers have the most important role in any organization. Without one, a sales team will most likely be dead in the water. A good manager organizes and operates his sales team to achieve his goals of increased revenue and productivity. The tone and culture of sales teams, created by sales management Software, can help cultivate passion and enhance ethics among the personal representatives.

Important functions in sales management:

1. SALES PLAN

This area of ​​sales management involves setting objectives for which the sales team will work. Some of the individual tasks involved are determining overall sales targets, quotas, demand / sales forecasts, and strategies.

2. RECRUITMENT OF SALES STAFF

An integral part of sales management. Sales managers are tasked with managing the personnel under them. This extends to recruitment and recruitment of employees, through training and to a coaching. When it comes to hiring employees, sales managers must analyze open positions, create job descriptions and qualify applicants.

3. SALES REPORTING

Sales management is also tasked with developing and analyzing KPIs for their sales team. By understanding these indicators, managers are better at adjusting and tracking to improve productivity. Reports said that allows the ladder to personally evaluate the sales manager’s performance, along with overall management of sales.

What role does the sales manager play?

Being a good sales representative does not directly translate into becoming a good sales manager. It does not depend on them to make their sales; Successful sales managers must build sales through the development, motivation and management of competent teams. Managers must create an environment based on comrade and common goals.

1. SHARE ORGANIZATIONS VISION

Sales managers should establish a shared, organization-wide vision in a sales team. This will give Vision Reps a sense of what the company is trying to achieve and will lead everyone to that goal. Having a shared vision ignites the fire under sales teams as they move forward.

2. COMMUNICATE THE MISSION STATEMENT

The mission statement is trying to hire new ones for any company. This creates a path that employees can prevent from entering an organization. Employees will not have a clear direction by clearly stating what a company is trying to achieve.

3. BRING THE GUIDE PRINCIPLES TO THE SALES TEAM

Managers are provided with guiding principles that are understood and supported throughout the organization. These principles shape how decisions and overall policy will be made and changed.

4. ESTABLISH COMPANY VALUES

A good sales manager should establish core company values ​​in their sales team. These values ​​will guide how they handle situations and make decisions down the line. It is important to hire people who hold personal values ​​that are consistent with company values.

What skills do you need to be a successful sales manager?

Ability to communicate clearly and concisely

The ability to communicate clearly with the sales team is an important skill for a sales manager. Managers should be able to articulate the expectations and goals of sales teams.

Effective in handling tasks and responsibilities

Being able to delegate responsibility is absolutely necessary. Managers need to be able to spend time on the things that make the most powerful impact, not wasting time on menstrual tasks. By passing through some responsibility, they are able to focus on what is most important. Managers need to be able to trust the employees they have hired and trained to perform necessary tasks.

Understand how to train and help other team members

Coaching can be the most important activity for a sales manager. As a result, they need to know how each representative will react to coaching, and when it will have the best effect. A good coach knows when it is best to respond and when it is best to leave the teams alone to do their job.

Have an eye for talent and ability

Creating a competent team is dependent on the manager. It is therefore essential that managers be able to obtain talented prospects and maintain high performance. Along with this, good managers should know that poor performers should coach or loose them.

Read the full article at: realclobber.com

In an increasingly competitive sales landscape, companies are searching for fresh tactics to stay ahead. We see a lot of focus on topics like cold outreach, sales objection management, and networking. "Pipeline" and "sales enablement" are trending. Sales teams want to know the best strategies that’ll drive the best sales results.

Diversity in sales is a topic with less buzz, but it could hold the most exciting future of all. Creating a more diverse sales team could be the key to more revenue, higher returns, and better client relationships. What sales organizations would not want that?

In this article, we're going to explore gender diversity within sales teams: how we should look at diversity, concrete benefits it can provide your company, and ideas on how to make progress in the new decade.

Let's jump right into it.

Diversity as a methodology

I like to think of gender diversity in sales as a methodology or model, similar to Challenger Sales, customer centric selling, or change management. With something like Challenger Sales, companies see the benefit and go on to implement it in order to maximize success and profit. It’s a no brainer when the process is systematic and the benefits are easily correlated.

But when it comes to diversity in sales, companies are slow to adopt. It's seen more as a "wish-list" item rather than a core principle to live by.

A survey by CEB Global showed that women only make up 19% of sales leadership roles. When compared to 16 other major job functions, it sits at the bottom of the totem pole, only beating out “supply chain/logistics” by two percent.

There's more corporate awareness of diversity than ever, but unfortunately it has yet to be translated into practice. Looking back at the last decade, the percentage of women in sales has only increased by three percent. One reason for this might be the way we perceive diversity: it's an optional "would-be nice to have" goal rather than a crucial model that provides real and measurable benefits.

Diversity means additional profits

Gender diversity in sales is not simply an ethical decision — it can have a real effect on your bottom line. CEB Global reports that companies who had sales teams made up of 45% or more women, drove more profit than less diverse sales teams.

In addition to profit, closing the gender gap can provide more stability within your sales team. Women tend to stay in their roles about 1 year longer than men, according to Xactly.

Not only will there be less shuffle within your sales organization by adding more women to the team, but it'll also save your company money long term. Accounting for hiring costs and training, a new salesperson can cost your company up to $35K.

Diversity can bring new perspectives

In her book ‘Braving the Wilderness’ Berne Browne mentions the tendency people have to want to surround themselves with people that share similar ideals and views. The danger of this, in a corporate setting, is that it can handicap your company's progress: It creates an echo chamber. It protects the status quo. It leads to stagnation.

More diversity in the workplace means more diversity of ideas and perspectives. This can be extremely valuable for developing new strategies, challenging outdated practices, and reaching a broader customer base.

We should want to be part of a team where people are different from one another. A sales team should not only be built on talent and merit, but also on the unique mix and contrast they can provide — whether that be sales views, experience, culture, age, etc. More women on your sales team can help achieve this.

Empathy in a diverse workplace

Entrepreneur and author Minter Dial explored the idea of workplace diversity and empathy in “Heartificial Empathy: Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence”, a 2019 Book Excellence award winner.

In his quest to see if we can give AI empathy, Dial uncovered a number of empathy based principles that can be applied to improve human interaction as well:

• Mirroring speech patterns
• Exhibiting transparency to gain trust
• Using a modern style of communication
• Recognition of indirect expressions of emotion
• Sharing control with others

In sales, empathy is imperative for closing deals and understanding customers, but also aids in the development of a more successful sales team.

Through his study of empathy, Minter asserts that to be successful we need to “explore our differences and immerse ourselves in the diverse experience of others.” This thinking can clearly be applied to gender diversity in sales teams. By celebrating individual strengths across a team, we can create a more collaborative and productive work environment.

Read the full article at: blog.close.com

Quick quiz for sales leaders: Over the past three working days, how many total hours did you devote to expanding your pipeline of qualified sales applicants?

If you’re like most of the leaders we talk to, the answer was either a small number, an embarrassed silence, or both.

Deepening the talent bench by attracting qualified job applicants is, as a practical matter, not a critical priority for most of today’s sales leaders. That’s a problem, because by overlooking talent acquisition, and focusing instead on short-term problems (like revenue shortfalls and deals you need to help team members rescue in order to make your target), you are basically ensuring that those same short-term problems keep landing on your doorstep.

The most effective sales leaders focus on keeping their talent pipeline full. In fact, they take that just as seriously as they expect the members of their sales team to take keeping the opportunity pipeline full. Salespeople who ‘hug their pipeline’, are afraid to ask tough questions or have ‘happy ears’ are often the ones without a robust pipeline.  They don’t want to disqualify because they are hoping and praying that one or two deals they think “look good” will close.  Similarly, many sales leaders mistakenly hold on to poor applicants and poor performers way too long, because of the same kind of thinking. Having a robust pipeline of truly great candidates has a profound impact on the manager’s mindset … and on the willingness to ‘disqualify’ people who are wrong for the team and the organization. 

In reality, the only effective leadership strategy here is one that incorporates talent acquisition and retention. Here are four best practices that we have noticed that the most successful sales leaders observe in this area–best practices that leaders of underperforming teams tend to neglect, minimize, or overlook.

• Create, or update, your formal candidate profile for each position you are likely to want to fill over the next twelve months. Don’t wait until there is an empty slot to fill. Do this now. If you haven’t yet taken the time to create a candidate profile – a summary of the traits and attitudes that you see in the top performers that you would hate to lose – take the time to draft this document immediately. De-emphasize specific skills or the number of years of experience in a given field that you are looking for; these are relevant, but if you make them your primary criteria, you’ll be fishing out of the same pond that everyone else is. Focus instead on personal traits (like accountability and tenacity and transparency) and on cultural fit with your organization. Once you have a clear sense of who you’re looking for …
• Create a pipeline tracker. Add a certain number of interviews per month to your cookbook (personal behavioral plan); set up a spreadsheet or table that allows you to track likely possible candidates as they move through the process from initial contact to hired. Identify the right number of people who should be in this pipeline at all times. Then … network and keep your pipeline full! Check in on your totals monthly or weekly. You expect the members of your sales team to do this with sales prospects, right? Why on earth wouldn’t you expect the same thing of yourself when it comes to prospective sales hires? And why wouldn’t you want to have four or five good leads to call in for an interview when the need arises?

Read the full article at: www.sandler.com

The need to work remotely has never been more pressing than it is now. Unfortunately, COVID-19 is spreading around the world, and as a result, many companies are asking their employees to work from the safety of their homes. Supporting remote employees is nothing new, but when it comes to managing inside sales teams that almost entirely work on the phones and are used to being together, it can be a new challenge. It’s important to maintain a lively sales culture even as your team transitions into working remotely. To help, here are some useful tips to manage remote sales teams and build a stronger team culture than ever before!

Challenges inside sales team face when working remotely

Inside sales teams usually work together in the same office, providing plenty of opportunities for communicating and celebrating new sales. Inside sales teams thrive on camaraderie and healthy competition, and teams that now find themselves mostly working remotely can struggle to keep motivation high.

Any inside sales rep who has recently switched to working from home will face unique challenges such as dealing with distractions that don’t exist in an office environment, difficulty maintaining fluid communication, and even a sense of isolation from the rest of their team. These challenges can lead to loss of motivation and even dips in performance levels.

Recognizing and identifying these challenges for your employees is the first step your organization can take towards addressing them and successfully managing a newly remote inside sales team.

Tips for managing a successful remote sales team

Here are a few steps managers can put into place to help make the transition as smooth as possible:

Encourage social interaction

Isolation can be a real problem for employees who typically don’t work remotely, and often has a negative impact on employee engagement. For this reason, creating a space for social interactions among team members is very important. Designate a group chat for your whole team to use as a general communications channel. Make it a space that’s friendly to work-related messages as well as interpersonal socializing. This will help keep up camaraderie. 

In addition, be aware that you may need to check in more frequently with your reps on a one-on-one basis. Your sales reps may be struggling with elements of work from home and they might not bring it up. As a manager, it may be helpful to recognize the challenges of the current situation and ask your team to be open about how it is affecting them. If anything it is important to help your team feel heard and supported. Now more than ever, we all must take care of our mental health and well-being.

Encourage collaboration

Maintaining communication and collaboration within your sales team is vital. It is also important to consider how collaboration with other departments may be affected as everyone is working from their homes. You will need to develop a strategy to keep up communication and continued follow through on projects with other departments such as marketing, customer support, collections, etc. Designating a point person in each department to spearhead communication about a project or ongoing issue can be very helpful. Try to also keep up regular meetings via video chat so everyone stays on the same page.

Establish clear processes and document everything

Having clear daily procedures for teams and individuals to follow provides a framework for each day. This helps reduce ambiguity around what reps need to be doing throughout each day. More structure is often helpful for reps who are not used to working from home. Here are some processes you may want to consider for your inside sales team:

• Ask your reps to write in the all-team group chat when they start their day and when they end so everybody knows when they are logged on and available.
• Designate a point of contact for any issues with computers, vpns, logins, etc. so reps don’t waste time trying to find help with technical glitches.
• Set clear daily expectations, define priorities and the roles each person has within their team and the tasks they are responsible for. Since they all know what’s the standard and what they should strive to achieve, you can increase productivity and motivation.

Empower your remote sales team with the right tools

One of the common issues for any company moving to remote work in a short amount of time is making sure employees have access to the technology they need to complete their day-to-day tasks. This means having the right equipment, good internet connection, and a range of other tools to share, collaborate, and communicate every day.

Read the full article at: crmgamified.com

With Women’s History Month behind us, we have paid tribute to the many women leaders across politics, science, and the arts that have shaped our world today. And a crucial part of preserving their legacy is positioning the next generation of women to be leaders who build on their progress. As a woman who has been in financial services for more than two decades, I believe we must commit to cultivating the next generation of leaders. This is particularly true, given the systemic lack of diversity in early STEM education and STEM careers.

The financial industry has long attracted top STEM talent and is well positioned to lead the charge in cultivating future STEM leaders by actively and intentionally promoting diversity. Here are three goals organizations can set and achieve that will propel this important evolution and nurture the next generation:

Goal 1: Create hiring and work procedures that put diversity at the center of your organization

Financial services firms must make clear efforts to create environment that are flexible and attractive for today’s diverse workforce. Millennials, and those representing Generation Z, are now entering the workforce and do not see strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and robust D&I initiatives as a “nice to have,” but as a basic requirement for employers they wish to consider.

Read the full article at: diversityjournal.com

I’ve been interviewing a lot of candidates for Director of Sales lately, and there is one question I always ask. “What will you focus on in your first 90 days?”. Of course, the obvious answer is “results”, but there is a lot more to it than that.

There isn’t one right answer to this question. But generally, what I am looking for is a candidate who can articulate the importance of focusing on these six things, in this order.

1. The team

A sales leader has to understand the tools they have to work with, and the most important tool they have is their people. There are no sales without salespeople. I want a sales leadership candidate who innately knows that the first thing to focus on is the team. Their strengths, weaknesses, style, coachability, motivation—everything. It is the most important part of leadership and it’s the first thing to put your attention on. A sales leader must be able to quickly get to know their team and build trust and respect from the beginning.

2. The buyers

A leadership candidate who doesn’t know they need to prioritize understanding our prospects and customers is a red flag. Really knowing the ideal customer profile, why they buy, what they care about, what their pains are, what problems they are trying to solve, and what their goals are is equally as important as getting to know the team. A sales leader needs to understand their buyers. Period.

3. The product(s)

In some ways, a product…is a product… is a product. A sales leader needs to believe in their product and what it can do for their buyers. But that’s the easy part and it comes after knowing the team and the buyers. A great sales leader can get up to speed on the product without too much fanfare. It’s just table stakes.

4. The metrics

A sales leader has to have their arms around their metrics. From the top (how many calls to get a connect, to get an opportunity, to get a customer), all the way to the bottom (stage conversions, sales cycle, average contract value, win rates, closed-won reasons) and everything in between.

5. Their plan

A leader who comes into a function and applies a pre-formulated plan, without first understanding their team, buyers, product, and metrics is destined to fail. I have seen this many times. Someone comes in with a prescribed idea of how they will configure the team and run things. They try to overlay that over an existing department. At best it causes friction, distraction, conflict, and annoyance. At worst it blows things up that didn’t need to be blown up. The best leaders adapt what they know to work well from their history to the current situation in front of them in a thoughtful way without a pre-conceived notion of how that will be applied. They learn and assess before acting.

And what is a plan, you may be asking? A leader who comes and gets their arms around their team, their buyers, their product, and their metrics will naturally move into planning. At a minimum, the plan will include recruiting, funnel metrics needed to hit quota, and key initiatives to execute, such as skill development or sales process adjustment. If deeper change is needed it may include positioning and messaging shifts, new sales enablement, pricing recommendations, and more.

Read the full article at: arthurventures.co

There is immense importance of leadership in sales jobs. Most of the salespeople who are successful attribute their success to their sales leaders. Good leadership can make or break the sale of the company. When the term leadership is used, many people think of it as management, when both of them are entirely different. Leadership is not seniority or rank or position and designation, that is just management of the organization. The first thing you have to understand is that sales leadership is very different from sales management.

Management is concerned with setting the vision and mission of the organization and its more of a setting a direction to the organization. Sales leadership, on the other hand, is more strategic and is a result of a sales leader working and setting the strategy. It is also about defining the culture of the organization. It is as a result of setting objectives, top priorities and goals for the company and then enabling and empowering the sales managers and representatives, so they succeed in their work.

The sales leaders do this by setting a company-wide sales strategy for the year and also by developing Annual Sales Target or Plan.

Sales leaders communicate the drivers of Sales effectiveness. And to understand sales leadership, it is essential to know what makes a good sales leader. Many leaders have many common qualities which make them a good leader.

Common habits of effective Sales Leaders

1. Giving feedback:

Good sales leaders provide constant feedback to their sales colleagues all the time. The feedback can be on every aspect of the salesperson right from his sales skills, negotiation skills to his communication, body language and overall behaviour. Good feedback has three parts, first the issue, second the repercussions and third how to improve it.

Feedback must be taken constructively. The person who is receiving feedback should understand that it is given for his benefit and should not take it as a complaint or an argument.

There is a fragile difference between giving feedback and being annoying. Feedback is given to improve someone, but nagging can be destructive and can destroy the relations between the senior and junior. Feedback if given every day persistently and continuously feels like nagging but if positive reinforcement coupled with feedback is given, it works very well and these qualities are found in every successful sales leader.

2. Speaks for the team

The manager should be comfortable to approach. He should be available to help his team with issues related to the business. He should encourage the team to speak up related to the problems and should present them to higher management. He should not only act as a mediator but should act as a secure link between the field force and management.

Sometimes, the sales leader have to speak to the management and percolate the decisions of the management to the team. Still, it is essential that this communication goes the other way around, and even the management gets feedback about the front line sales team. This feedback should not be necessary the negative or only related to the business issues. The feedback can be about high performing person on the field or promoting a performing employee.

3. Weekly one-on-one’s

Another great habit of sales leaders is they have weekly one-on-one meetings with the salespeople. Many managers believe that weekly sales meetings are a waste of time, and the CRM reporting is good enough to stay at the top of the funnel and understand the performance of the salesperson. But truly great sales leaders use one on one meetings so that they can build a deep connection with their salesperson and the team which may go beyond business on a more human level. This is not only to discuss about the company but also for personal coaching.

These discussions sometimes also go beyond the company and reach the personal lives where salespeople ask suggestions or ideas regarding a problem and sales leader happily provides them.

4. Inspire them

Part of being a sales leader is to hire great people. Sometimes you have to hire people and then make them great. It is impossible to achieve exceptional results if there is no talent in your team. Not everybody is born talented, and that is where the role of the sales leader comes in. Every sales representative will try to operate from his comfort zone. Most of them try to achieve 80% of the target, but a truly great sales leader will motivate them to go beyond a hundred per cent.

Read the full article at: www.marketing91.com

Every sales manager has some degree of legitimate dedication to both their company and professional development. That's a big part of how you get to be a manager in the first place.

Those qualities are almost a given in sales management, but the very best managers don't stop there — they exhibit some other key traits and behaviors that take their management skills from good to great.

Here, we'll review six of the most crucial qualities that every ambitious sales manager should fold into their day-to-day operations and broader aspirations to take their management skills to the next level.

1. A Consistent Commitment to Personal Improvement

The best sales managers lead by example. They inspire their teams through their own dedication and, in turn, get more from their reps. That's why exemplary sales managers never stop trying to improve.

Complacency is a detriment to effective sales management. As a manager, it's on you to fight any inclination to remain stagnant in how you take on your responsibilities. You have to want to be better and consistently deliver on that motivation.

Attend sales management seminars. Make a conscious effort to better understand and approach the aspects of your job that extend beyond directly managing your team. No matter what you do, remain grounded, open, and ambitious when it comes to your ongoing professional development.

2. The Ability to Identify and Hire Quality Candidates

The sustained success of your team rests primarily on the talent you bring in. The best sales manager in the world can only get so far with a rep who lacks the ambition, skills, or cultural fit to thrive and actively contribute to their team.

Onboarding and ultimately letting go of an ineffective hire is a massive drain on time, effort, money, and company resources. So you need to be able to get ahead of that potentially disastrous process. That's why sound hiring skills are so crucial to your success as a sales manager.

Understand the skills and attributes that you want to hire for — as well as the questions you need to ask to uncover them. You can learn those by touching base with and learning from your more experienced colleagues.

Once you have a firm picture of those components, relay those ideal traits to your recruiters. That way, you'll ensure that the crop of candidates you bring in is more likely to successfully pan out.

3. A Willingness to Construct and Commit to a Sales Process

Cohesion and consistency are a sales manager's best friends. They're central to maintaining a tight ship and keeping operations as fluid and efficient as possible. You need your whole team to be on the same page so it serves you to give them a solid framework to abide by.

That's where a well-structured sales process comes into play. If you can establish, monitor, and facilitate an effective sequence of steps for your reps to follow when conducting their sales efforts, you can make both your and their jobs easier.

There should always be some degree of rhyme and reason to your team's sales efforts. The best managers know it's on them to define and enforce what that will look like.

4. A Firm Understanding of Relevant KPIs

Managers need to understand how both their and their teams' success will be gauged and measured. You have to understand how to interpret and apply relevant KPIs like average sales cycle length, average deal size, and discovery-to-close rate.

You'll also need a firm understanding of how those metrics will be reported. Being able to read and make something of the necessary reports you'll be referencing is key to identifying areas for improvement in both your and your team's performance.

In some cases, you might have to work with your managers to get a solid feel for this aspect of the job. Don't be reluctant to touch base with them about the how and why behind the KPIs and reports you need to have a grasp on.

No matter what it might take to get there, you have to know the ins and outs of the figures used to measure your performance.

5. Objective, Fair Conflict Resolution Skills

Sales reps don't always get along. Conflict is natural in the workplace, and as a manager, it's often on you to resolve any potential clashes between your team members.

When confronted with that kind of situation, the best sales managers know how to remain calm, impartial, and objective. Conflict doesn't have to mean confrontation, and effective managers can ensure that that kind of tension doesn't boil over and interfere with how their team functions.

They know how to hear every side without playing favorites and make sure that disputes get resolved constructively — minimizing friction, sustaining high morale, and ultimately making their operations run smoother.

Read the full article at: blog.hubspot.com

The highlight of any sales operation is the act of closing a deal. 

Revenue is generated, high fives are given, bonuses are awarded. It’s truly a glamorous production. 

But what about the not-so flashy side of things? Like the people who hired the rep that made the sale, or the team members that created the strategy that made it all possible, or the sales analysis that proved the value to higher ups. All of that, and more, falls into the realm of sales management. 

A sales team includes a ton of moving parts, and the sales management department is there to ensure every strategy, action, and result is serving the customer and working toward the greater mission of the company. 

Sales and sales management must work closely together to ensure both teams are successful. While they both have different goals, sales to close deals and management to support that, alignment is going to be key in that relationship. 

Why is sales management important?

It might seem as if a sales management strategy is a nice-to-have. However, if your sales organization’s functions stop at closing deals with customers, it’s inevitable that other important aspects will be overlooked. 

First off, sales management can help gain insight into your own sales force, which requires more deliberate action than it may seem. When done correctly, your sales management strategy will help answer the hard hitting questions, for example: 

• Is our sales team well-equipped to close deals and reach their goals?
• Are our strategies effectively working to support the overall mission of the company?
• After analyzing the outcomes of our sales efforts, is there any way we can optimize our processes to improve? 

After diving into your sales organization to answer those questions, sales management can identify any issues early on and determine methods to fix them beforehand. 

Secondly, sales management can effectively keep a finger on the pulse of your industry. Whether it sees growth, new regulations, or threatening competitors, external factors can and should affect your sales team’s strategy, techniques, and goals. Without a team dedicated to managing that, important details might be overlooked. 

Essentially, if your business generates revenue, a sales management strategy is a must-have.

Factors of sales management

There are three key factors of sales management that make up the entire system: sales operations, sales strategy, and sales analysis. Your business might call them something different, but overall, those terms describe the main purposes of having a sales plan and management strategy. 

Sales operations

First comes sales operations, which includes a lot of the preliminary work in managing your sales team. This strategy, or perhaps even the entire department, works to do everything in their power to help the sales team sell to customers as efficiently and successfully as possible.  

Sales operations effectiveness becomes apparent by how well the above actions help make the lives of sales reps easier. Metrics like new hire ramp-up time, quota achievement rate, conversion rate, average deal size, sales cycle length, weighted pipeline value, and forecast accuracy can all be used to measure their efforts. 

Overall, the sales operations team takes care of all of the behind the scenes work so the salespeople can focus on building relationships with the customers.

Read the full article at: learn.g2.com

A lot of the tactics and responsibilities effective sales leaders need to understand and fulfill aren't exactly intuitive. They can be tough to nail and navigate — especially if you're just settling into your role.

While there's no be-all-end-all playbook for effective sales leadership, there are some tricks and strategies you can employ early on to set yourself on the right track.

That said, resources that cover that kind of insight can be hard to find. That's why we asked some HubSpot managers to offer their perspective on how new sales leaders can get the most out of their first six months. 

Here are the tips they came up with. 

1. Get to know your team, and set standards early on.

Sales leadership is a personal game. You need to get to know who you're managing — being too distant might undermine your ability to properly direct them.

Diarmuid Walsh, HubSpot Principal Sales Manager, said, "You need to get to know the team you manage, and make sure you start to build trust with them early on."

HubSpot Senior Director of Sales Ed Barret agreed — and also stressed the importance of making early inroads with your team.

He said, "For a sales leader to succeed, they need their team to be skilled, motivated, and clear on their objectives. That's why getting to know your team — understanding their strengths, and feeling out their weaknesses are critical to helping them (and you) succeed."

And once you establish that trust, you need to let your team know what you expect from them. Walsh advised that new sales leaders "set expectations early and begin to understand what they need to be more successful."

2. Assume positive intent, and try to get the same out of your team.

Encouraging positivity is also important for managers who want to keep morale high and build a sustainably constructive team culture. As Walsh put it, "It’s always easy to blame someone for doing something that doesn't sit right with you. When that happens, you need to pause and ask yourself the question, 'Why have they done this?'"

He suggested that "new sales leaders should take an empathetic approach with their teams. Don't immediately assume the worst of an underperforming team member."

Walsh said that "[a rep that made a mistake is] doing their job, so you should give that person the benefit of doubt. Then, talk to them and resolve your issue. Negative energy does not help a team sell more!"

3. Don't be afraid to ask your peers and higher-ups for advice.

Being a sales leader doesn't mean you don't have room to grow and more lessons to learn. One key to being an effective sales leader is projecting authority that's tempered by humility — you also need to maintain a commitment to consistent personal improvement.

That often means asking for advice. Walsh said, "Don’t be afraid to lean in and ask questions from your peers. Ideally, you'll be able to get aligned with a buddy manager who can help guide you as you grow into your role."

Your professional development doesn't end with your ascension to sales leadership. You can always be doing better — particularly in your first few months. Don't be reluctant to talk to your peers and superiors. Many will be happy to help and set you on the right course.

4. Develop an understanding of relevant data and what you'll be reporting.

Knowing how your success will be measured and the KPIs you need to focus on is central to thriving as a sales leader — and Barrett advised just as much.

He said, "Know your key funnel metrics. What's the lead-to-opp rate? What's the discovery-to-close rate? What's the demo-to-close rate? What's the sales cycle? What's your average deal size? With these figures in mind, you can plan your business and help your reps understand how they can improve theirs."

Going over reporting with your peers can also be central to nailing your first few months as a sales leader. As Walsh said, "Reporting is a key. If you have a buddy manager, work with them and sales operations to understand all necessary reports you'll be referencing. Data — like conversion rate and discount rate — is key to helping identify areas that can be improved."

He also suggested you work with your managers to better understand and approach reporting. He said, "Work with your boss, make sure you have a clear understanding of the metrics you're going to be measured on. And seek actionable feedback."

5. Start to master the art of hiring.

Your sales leadership skills will only go as far as your team can take them, so you have to surround yourself with the right kind of talent. That's why developing hiring skills is crucial to your success as a new sales manager.

As Walsh put it, "You'll need to understand and become an expert in hiring as quickly as possible. Hiring is key to success as a manager. A wrong hire can be very expensive in terms of time, effort, and money. So you have to believe in and understand the hiring process."

But how do you get there? What does it take to become an exemplary hirer? Well, as Walsh framed it, the necessary insight often comes from your peers. He said, "Pay close attention to your colleagues' feedback when they interview candidates for your team."

You also need to know your sales org and the qualities that define the reps that keep it running smoothly. He argued you need to "understand the skills and attributes that you want to hire for — as well as the questions you need to ask to uncover them."

Once you understand what you want out of a candidate, Walsh suggests "working closely with your recruitment consultant and giving clear instruction on the qualities you are seeking."

Read the full article at: blog.hubspot.com