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SALES PERFORMANCE AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSIGHTS FROM AMY FRANKO
11 Sales Development Metrics That Drive Sales Growth
When I’m working with clients, there are varying degrees of maturity when it comes to the sales development metrics they track. I’ve found that by putting specific focus on 11 key sales development metrics, your sales professionals, and sales results will benefit in a few specific ways: Improved business acumen that comes with looking at the bigger sales picture, promoting an understanding of how high quality selling truly impacts the business Improvements in leading indicators like sales activities, pipeline quality, and territory planning Improvements in lagging indicators, such as average order growth and sales quota attainment Three Sales Enablement Strategies You Can’t Ignore For Sales Growth First and foremost, invest in a quality CRM and make sure sales managers and sales professionals are using it as the “central sales truth” for the organization. This will make your sales leadership job...
Win More Deals with Qualifying Opportunity Questions and Categories
You can’t win deals without ruthlessly qualifying opportunities. As I'm working with my clients in sales training classes, lead qualification tends to pop up as a frequent area for improvement. They may have opportunities in the pipeline, even late-stage deals, that they expect to close. However, many of those opportunities seem to get stuck. More often than not, the sales opportunities that languish weren’t well qualified in the first place, but were mistakenly identified as viable. They aren't alone. According to SPOTIO, 22% of sales people in a 2023 report say qualifying is the most challenging part of the sales process. In this article, I’ll share strategies for qualifying opportunities and increasing your sales success. Sales Process and Methodology: Foundation for Qualifying Opportunities First, let’s start by defining sales process and sales methodology. These two elements combine with your CRM to...
5 Ways You Can Grow Sales Through Sales Enablement
Your sales team and your customers are operating in a new environment, one that will likely never fully return to what it was. New mindsets and approaches are needed to master selling in disruptive times. Mastering these new mindsets and approaches will give your sellers and organization a competitive advantage. This is where your role as a sales leader becomes even more important. How do you pivot and then advise and coach your teams to success—to better serve your customers and further grow your organization? The answer lies in sales enablement. Very simply, sales enablement is helping your team sell more efficiently and more effectively. The pillars of enablement include both tangibles and intangibles: the culture of your overall organization and the sales team, training, resources available, content available, overall sales strategy, and the sales processes or framework that is in place. According to...
How Modern Sellers Win When Sales Growth Goals are Long Odds
There’s a concept in gaming called goal-setting theory, where a player working to win the game has greater success when there are goals involved, and when the goals have several core elements. Clear rules, realistic time horizons, clarity and specificity, the right level of challenge, and incremental success milestones. So much of this applies to sales growth goals-- there’s a competitive, game-like quality to setting and achieving success. In sales, sometimes the game parameters are such that the sales growth goals are long odds, and in certain cases unattainable. Consider these sales scenarios. Hero to zero. The year where a sales professional lands the biggest, one-time deal of his or her career and achieves 200% of quota. They’re the rock star, the hero. The following year comes a quota so large that the odds of duplicating it are minimal without a deal of the same magnitude, either with the same...
Board Development Podcast: Developing a Better Board
Amy Franko on the Conquering Columbus Podcast Conquering Columbus is a podcast covering the stories of those throughout the city of Columbus, Ohio who are doing extraordinary things in business, science, athletics, and more. In this episode of the Conquering Columbus Podcast, I joined host Josh Whit to talk Board Development-- both from the perspective of the board member and the organization. Having just completed a four-year stint as chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland, Board work is a topic near and dear to my heart. In my role on the Council's board, I oversaw a $16 million transformational initiative to build a new STEM and leadership center to transform workforce development. I also spearheaded a successful and innovative board development program. And recently, I was selected for the prestigious Deloitte “Board Ready Women” program. Thanks to Conquering Columbus...
Strategic Speed: Sales Growth Metrics for M&A and Investment Events
I’ve had several clients in the past year experience major ownership changes. A merger of like-sized companies. A full acquisition. Partial ownership changes with private equity investment. I’m an angel investor myself. In any of these scenarios, there are new stakeholders in the mix. How do CEOs, sales leaders, and sales professionals determine where to focus time, energy, and finances related to sales results? There are your short-term metrics and your long-term metrics, and much of this depends on the timelines and milestones set as part of the ownership change or investment being made in your organization. In The Modern Seller, I cite a concept called strategic speed, based on research conducted by Forum Corporation (now part of Korn Ferry). Strategic speed is the ability to balance both short-term and long-term initiatives. Leaders can maintain momentum for the long term (and not lose focus), while...
Elite Sellers Have Presence: How to Build your EP and EQ
Executive Presence Helps Sales Leaders Build Trust and Credibility Got gravitas? There’s a popular saying about executive presence. It’s hard to describe, “but you know it when you see it.” There’s also a widely held belief that you either innately possesses executive presence… or not. Yes, many people seem to exhibit executive presence in spades. I’ve also known many who have worked to cultivate it and grown into leadership roles. At the same time, it’s important to understand that executive presence isn’t just for someone aspiring to become a sales leader or executive. And it isn’t about performance, extreme extroversion, being center stage, or perfection. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, economist and the CEO of Hewlett Consulting Partners, is a leading expert and author on this topic. She describes executive presence as “the elegant packaging that attracts impressed attention, allowing your skills, accumulated...
Podcast: How to Help Clients Achieve Their Vision
Amy Franko on the Selling From the Heart Podcast "Selling from the heart" is centered on sincerity and substance. In this episode of the Selling from Heart Podcast, I joined hosts Darrell Amy and Larry Levine and shared how salespeople be genuinely consultative to help clients make decisions. They must also "bring the goods" and have the business acumen that allows them to make smart recommendations. I share tips so sellers can determine if their approach is actually consultative. Some highlights from the episode include: What "selling from the heart" means [5:53] Having the confidence to disagree [8:43] Getting decision makers to the table [15.33] How to start consultative selling [20:30] How to know if you are consultative selling [22:10] The Modern Seller mindset [27:51] Please watch below, and be sure to subscribe to the Selling from the Heart podcast for more great content from Darrell and Larry. ...
Are You Making These Sales Leadership Mistakes?
I often advise sales leaders and growth officers in their strategic, people, and operational efforts. There are some common sales leadership mistakes and pitfalls I observe, and in this article I’m sharing those, along with some ideas to help you build awareness of and improve them. Sales professionals, I encourage you to read as well if you aspire to become a leader or you want to focus on your self-leadership. 1. Lack of balance between leadership and management tasks. The first sales leadership mistake is lack of balance between leadership and management tasks. Leadership elements include activities like participating in and shaping strategy, creating a productive and performance-oriented environment, helping your individual team members develop their sales plans, identifying new markets and clients, and talent scouting. Management tasks are items like reporting, tracking activities,...
Sales Culture is the Key to Growing Next-Generation Leaders
Has your organization filled its leadership pipeline?
For success into the future, you’ll need more professionals selling as part of your succession planning practices. When your professionals are equipped to sell, you’ll create more client opportunities, you’ll generate stronger revenues and profits, and you’ll be in a better position to diversify your services.
In this week’s post, I share four strategies for growing your sales culture and developing next-generation leaders with the experience and know-how to generate revenue.
Our Strategic Selling signature sales training program is now available online. This online sales learning program is ideal for professional services and B2B sales. Get started with 2 free lessons.
