Answers to 7 Critical Sales Management Questions

What are the top questions on your mind as a sales manager: How to lead change? Stay competitive? Sell faster and smarter?

Thanks to his eclectic business background (which includes holding C-suite executive positions at various Fortune 100 companies, authoring the best-selling book The Mirror Test, and appearing on Fox Business News and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump), Jeffrey Hayzlett has become a recognized authority on business turnarounds, customer engagement, and change management. We put seven pressing sales-management questions to this global business celebrity. Here are the insights he shared.

1) How can sales managers stay relevant?
Don’t be afraid to be a beginner. Evolve constantly. There are some selling techniques that were relevant many years ago that still work today, but the delivery has changed. What are you doing today to learn to adapt? I wrote about learning to be a beginner in my new book, Running the Gauntlet. A personal challenge of mine was learning to ride a horse. I was willing to get over myself and be a beginner. And in sales, sometimes you need to get over yourself and discover what others can teach you if you are willing to be a beginner.

2) How can sales managers lead change and get sales teams to adopt new habits?
Lead. Lead by example, be clear about the conditions of satisfaction, and be clear about how to sell it. Sometimes sales managers need to get out of the way and lead. You don’t need to get involved in day-to-day processes outside of setting the operating principles. You don’t need to know too many details; you’ve already been through a lot of this before, and you don’t need it all explained again. I tell my teams all the time, “I don’t want to know or hear about how sausage is made unless someone died. I get it. It’s sausage. Tell me what I need to know to get things moving.”

3) Which is more important in business, mental, emotional, or physical toughness, and why?
Emotional. Keeping your emotions in check is always difficult, even when you don’t want to. You should have a balance between all, but you should be more emotionally balanced than physically. When you’re clear in your mind and in your head, everything else follows.

4) What is the single most important step a sales manager can take to grow a sales team in 2012 and beyond?
A clear plan – as in, knowing what the promise is. Everyone needs to understand the promise he or she is supposed to be delivering, to whom, and how. Establishing this basic first step is key in driving change and sustaining successful longevity in any organization.

5) What do you think is the essence of selling?
The mutually beneficial relationship between the performer and the customer, and then delivering on the value proposition to that customer. The holy grail of sales and marketing is the one-to-one relationship, and this grail is easier to find if you are consistent, always persistent, and follow through with your customers. If there is a better way than this to grow satisfied customers, gain their respect, and close sales to generate positive revenue, then I am unaware of it. Strive to do this on a continual basis. Let’s use every tool we have to keep our products and services relevant to existing and potential customers.

6) What action steps would you recommend for sales managers who are struggling to implement change but don’t feel they have support from upper management?
Don’t stop till you get the buy-in, the acceptance of your conditions of satisfaction or promises. Persistence is key; be the change you want to see in the world. We already talked about sales managers leading by example. When upper management sees the results, they will recognize that the changes you’re driving are also driving profits.

7) Sales is full of disappointment and rejection; what’s the best antidote to both of these?
A realization that it’s just part of the game. There is a saying in sports, “No pain, no gain.” If it takes ten no’s to get one yes, then hurry up and get the no’s over.