SIMPLIFIED.

VIDEO COACHING SERIESGUIDEBOOK

SAMPLE

PAGES

2 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

My passion is helping sales teams win more New Sales, but seventeen years ago when I started consulting and coaching sales leaders and salespeople, I was naïve in thinking that I could transform sales organizations and create lasting performance improvement simply by coaching the sales force. I learned (the hard way) that unless you deal with sales team leadership, culture, accountability, talent, and the sales manager and/or sales executive’s role, focus, and priorities, it is just about impossible to effect long-term change and create a sustainable healthy, high-performance sales culture and a team that consistently delivers the desired results.

Let me borrow from the Introduction to Sales Management. Simplified., to further set the stage and your expectations for this series:

I love sales and helping salespeople excel at developing new business. But what I love even more is experiencing a high-performance, results focused, winning sales team with solid leadership, smart talent management, a strong sales culture, and a sound sales process. My primary goals in writing Sales Management. Simplified. (and creating this video coaching series) were to bluntly share the reasons so few sales organizations today exhibit these characteristics, and to offer a simple, actionable framework that sales managers and senior executives can adopt to create dramatic and lasting sales performance improvement.

I was compelled to write this book (and produce this series) because of what I’m observing in companies where I consult, coach, and speak. Everywhere I turn, sales managers are overwhelmed and often confused, and executives are frustrated. Managers are working harder and longer than ever, yet accomplishing less. The noise from supposed sales experts” is deafening. We have more sales tools, toys, gimmicks, and processes than any human being could possibly digest, and we are constantly being told that “everything has changed.” Instead of returning to the tried-and-true basics of sales management, sales leaders live daily searching for new answers.

That is exactly why I’ve spent the past decade working to better understand sales leadership and sales culture and have shifted much of my consulting and speaking toward helping increase sales management effectiveness. And…it’s working! Sales leaders who

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

SAMPLE

PAGES

3 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

have implemented the simple, practical, and powerful concepts from the Sales Management. Simplified. framework are seeing transformative change. The book is the most reviewed and highest-rated pure sales management book on Amazon.com, and in the past year, I’ve been asked to lead workshops for sales leaders on five continents. That is why I am so excited that you have committed to going through…

THIS VIDEO COACHING SERIES

The energizing experience of leading sales management workshops across the globe inspired and helped shape the format of this video series. Executives and managers receive tremendous value from listening to and interacting with other sales leaders, and the perspectives and experiences shared during facilitated discussions are a priceless part of the workshops. So, to capture the value of those types of interactions for this series, I invited nine of my favorite, most talented, most effective, and highest-performing client sales leaders to join me around the table for a facilitated discussion. This diverse group of leaders was not paid for their participation. In fact, they paid their own way (travel expenses) and took time out of their hectic schedules to be part of this. The opinions they shared are their own (not mine and not their company’s), and I’m convinced that after completing this series you will come to appreciate and respect these passionate, driven leaders as much as I do! I learn from workshop participants every time I lead a session and you will learn as much from these panelists as you do from my contribution to the discussion.

The panelists around the table hold a variety of positions for differing size companies representing an eclectic group of industries. From the gifted entrepreneurial CEO sales leader of the specialty plastics business he founded, to the brother-sister combination who brilliantly co-lead the sales team in their very successful SaaS-type family-run business, to the uber-talented sales manager for a large heavy equipment dealership, to a big technology company’s insightful senior sales executive for a large portion of the U.S. and that same company’s laser-focused and highly-effective head of global sales ops, to the passionate SVP and GM of a tech company undergoing a major transformation, to the wise head of sales development for a global specialty manufacturer, to the idea-a-minute VP of Sales of a major services company – you will benefit from the insight, ideas, and experience of the panelists – some who work in companies similar to yours and others in organizations very different from yours.

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

SAMPLE

PAGES

4 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

There are 12 modules in this series and you may review the modules in any order you wish; feel free to skip around. Although I would encourage you to begin with Module 1 to get acquainted with the panelists, their situations, sales management highlights and frustrations before jumping around to other modules. And it would benefit you to read the Introduction and Chapter 1 in Sales Management. Simplified. before beginning the videos.

USE THIS GUIDEBOOK AND THE HARDCOPY

OF SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED.

I strongly encourage you to keep a printed copy of this guidebook with you as you review the modules. Because we recorded a live, unscripted discussion, the conversations take twists and turns, just like most workshop sessions. Use the guidebook questions and exercises to ensure you maximize your takeaways from the course, and I encourage you to read the corresponding chapters from the actual book as you progress through the videos. The book nicely supplements the series and will provide detail on topics where the panelists and I may not have gone as deep as the book.

I’m truly excited to hear your takeaways from the Sales Management. Simplified. Video Coaching Series. Here’s to increased sales leadership effectiveness, tons of success, and to you and your team winning many, many New Sales!

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

SAMPLE

PAGES

5 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

Many senior executives and companies have lost sight of the sales manager’s primary job and highest-payoff activities. This often results in all types on non-revenue-driving and non-sales leadership tasks being placed on sales managers, and managers continually being invited (or required) to attend meetings that prevent them from focusing on leading the sales team!

Some companies (executives) have a very low view of the sales management role and treat the sales manager’s desk as a garbage dump for various problems that require solving.

The opportunity cost of keeping sales managers from their highest-payoff activities can be devastating.

Which non-revenue driving and non-sales leadership tasks and responsibilities prevent [you/your sales manager(s)] from focusing on the most critical sales management activities that drive results? Do not shortchange this exercise. Make a comprehensive list below:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

MODULE 1.2

YOU CAN’T LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

SAMPLE

PAGES

6 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

MODULE 1.2

LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP However, it’s not always the company that derails the sales manager. Oftentimes, it’s the manager who is at fault because he/she is quick to take off the sales leader’s helmet and replace it with the fire chief helmet – looking to jump in and solve problems that are not in their primary area of responsibility.

SALES MANAGER CHALLENGE QUESTIONS:

Where and when do you tend to take off your sales leader hat to don the fire chief helmet and grab the fire hose?

What is the consequence when you forget/ignore your primary job (leading the team and driving revenue) and instead work on other issues (service, quality control, operations, etc.)?

What situations or responsibilities must you extricate yourself from, or delegate, to free up more time to better lead your team?

SAMPLE

PAGES

7 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

To whom can you offload these tasks?

Who within your company needs to be re-educated about the sales manager’s primary job? Operations? Customer Service? The CFO? Maybe the CEO? The salespeople?

Who in senior management must buy-in and support freeing you up from these non-sales leadership Draculas that suck your time, energy, and focus? What is your plan for approaching these people?

COACH’S COMMENT:

I often see sales leaders propping up other departments to cover for weakness and inadequacies. While I applaud the passion and good corporate citizen mentality – in the long run, this actually hurts the business. When you continually “cover” for other areas, YOU become a crutch to struggling teams and weak managers, and the problem will not get addressed. What would happen if instead of helping other areas, you focused exclusively on your primary job (leading the sales force) and allowed those other weaknesses to be exposed?

MODULE 1.2

LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

SAMPLE

PAGES

8 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

This is your SINGLE HIGHEST-VALUE ACTIVITY! And when mastered and executed well, this one activity has the power to transform your sales organization. That is not an overstatement; I’ve seen it happen – multiple times in various industries.

It’s very trendy today to talk about coaching salespeople and sales teams, and I’m certainly not opposed to coaching and mentoring. I’m all for it and have personally benefitted tremendously from being coached and mentored throughout my career.

It is even more trendy for leaders to wax eloquently about how they are “enabling” their sales teams and you’d think bonuses were paid every time a confused executive or manager uttered the phrase “sales enablement.” I can’t make a specific argument against enabling sellers except to mention that I’m not sure you can find three people to agree on what the heck that means.

So while it’s popular to prioritize coaching and enabling over managing, let me offer this little anecdote after spending a ridiculous amount of time observing high and low performing sales leaders: Accountability, particularly when executed well, trumps coaching and enabling every day of the month and twice on the day that the sales report gets published! There is nothing dirty, politically incorrect, or demotivating when managers review a salesperson’s actual results against goal, examine the health of that seller’s pipeline, and (when necessary) ask about proactive activity against targeted accounts and prospects.

MODULE 2

THE 1:1 MANAGER-SALESPERSON ACCOUNTABILITY MEETING

SAMPLE

PAGES

9 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

THE SALES MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY PROGRESSION:

1. Results

2. Pipeline

3. Activity

NOTES FROM PANELISTS’ OBSERVATIONS & BEST PRACTICES:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

MODULE 2

LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

SAMPLE

PAGES

10 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

WELL EXECUTED 1:1 ACCOUNTABILITY MEETINGS WILL TRANSFORM YOUR CULTURE:

Chapter 20 is the most popular chapter in Sales Management. Simplified. and I have seen sales teams’ cultures and results transformed simply from managers implementing the best practice outlined for conducting effective one-to-one monthly accountability meetings. Something wonderful and powerful transpires when managers review a salesperson’s results, pipeline, and activity against named target accounts (in that specific order).

The very simple act of the sales manager sitting down formally with each salesperson every month—not for coaching, not to listen to excuses, not for reps to ask the manager to do their job, but for the singular purpose of forcing salespeople to answer for what they produced (results), what they are working on to produce results in the future (pipeline), and where they focused (activity) to generate and advance opportunities, is transformative. No tool, no trick, and no training will produce the kind of sales lift created by managers effectively doing their most important job—holding sellers accountable for doing their job. And the beauty of doing accountability well is that it doesn’t demotivate team members. Every seller understands that sales is about results and that results are a product of pipeline health (opportunity creation and advancement).

1:1 ACCOUNTABILITY MEETING CHALLENGE QUESTIONS:

How are your 1:1 accountability meetings (if you have them at all) most similar to the outline suggested in this module/chapter? And where are they most different?

What do you anticipate the outcome/consequences will be if you were to adopt this approach and regularly conduct 1:1 accountability meetings as outlined in this module/chapter 20?

MODULE 2

LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

SAMPLE

PAGES

11 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

THE TWO POWER QUESTIONS TO ASK EACH SALESPERSON EVERY ACCOUNTABILITY

MEETING:

1. What new opportunities have you added to the pipeline in the past 30 days? Inother words, what new deals have you created that were not listed here when wemet last month (or last week if meeting weekly)?

2. Which opportunities did you advance forward to a new (warmer) stage in the pastmonth? (or week – depending on optimal cadence for your business and sales cycle.)

MODULE 2

LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

COACH’S COMMENT:

Good management is not micromanagement! Don’t allow the complaints or visible frustration from your underperforming/insecure salespeople who bristle at these 1:1 meetings to derail you.

When a struggling salesperson pushes back against this type of meeting and plays the micromanagement card complaining about your desire for increased visibility, particularly into activity, hold your ground:

Remind the underperforming salesperson that the only reason you are asking hardquestions about Activity is because results are not what they should be and thisperson’s pipeline is weak/insufficient.

Make it clear that you are “not cool with failing” and until results and pipeline healthimprove, you have no choice but to dig into activity.

If they want to avoid your deep dive into their activity, they have a choice: they caneither a) hit their sales numbers, and maintain a healthy pipeline of opportunities, orb) they can go work somewhere else where it is OK to fail.

SAMPLE

PAGES

12 © 2019 Mike Weinberg | SALES MANAGEMENT. SIMPLIFIED. Video Series

YOUR TAKEAWAYS FROM MODULE 2:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

MODULE 2

LEAD A SALES TEAM WHEN YOU ARE BURIED IN CRAP

SAMPLE

PAGES