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SALES PERFORMANCE AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSIGHTS FROM AMY FRANKO
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.
Podcast: Creating a Sales Enablement Center of Excellence
The Sales & Marketing Management Podcast Featuring Amy Franko Sales enablement is defined as the strategic, ongoing process of equipping sales teams with the content, guidance and training they need to effectively engage buyers. On this episode of The Sales & Marketing Management Podcast, I joined host Paul Nolan to dive into an article I wrote for SMM Connect about Creating a Sales Enablement Center of Excellence. Some highlights from this episode include: What is a sales enablement center of excellence and why sales enablement is "hot" today. [2:43] How to create a sales enablement center of excellence. [6:37] Where does sales training come into it? [8:43] The three pillars of sales enablement. [11:00] How to implement channel partner development. [19:24] Connecting the dots. [20:34] Please listen below, and be sure to follow Sales & Marketing Management for more great content! For more...
Sales Training for Next-gen Sales Managers
Guest Article for Training Industry It's not easy being a sales manager. In fact, you could argue they have one most challenging roles in any organization. Are your next-gen sales managers receiving training to build their capabilities? To succeed, next-gen sales managers need solid sales training and guidance. Unfortunately, they don’t always receive the ongoing development required to build and lead successful sales teams. Learning leaders and practitioners have a significant opportunity to change this with approaches that build current sales managers and the future pipeline of sales managers. In this article for Training Industry, I share: Sales Growth Obstacles Facing Sales Managers 8 Capabilities of Next-generation Sales Managers Strategies for How L&D Can Lead the Way Read the full article here. Does Your Sales Training Program Hit the Mark? Amy Franko is the leader in sales training and sales...
Podcast: Inspiring Women
The Modern Seller on the BradyWare Inspiring Women Podcast Too many sales organizations don’t use sales metrics effectively. On this episode of The Inspiring Women podcast, I joined host Betty Collins to discuss primary misconceptions that services providers have about sales, imposter syndrome, delivering value, negotiating, and much more. The show is presented by Brady Ware & Company. Some highlights from this episode include: Why I credit coming from a large family with my success in sales What “modern selling” means What misconceptions exist in today’s selling situations My observations about women in sales What I have learned from my successes and failures Three pieces of advice Please listen below, and be sure to subscribe to the Inspiring Women Podcast for more great content from Brady Ware and other Inspiring Women! For more information on sales strategy and methodology, download my eBook. And...
Podcast: Sales Metrics are for Mapping
Using Sales Data to Create the Outcomes YOU Want Too many sales organizations don’t use sales metrics effectively. On this episode of The Sales Leadership podcast, I joined host Rob Jeppsen to share how you can create value for members of your team with some tools you can use immediately to make a difference. Rob helps sales leaders leverage the four levers that lead to predictable, sustainable success at Xvoyant. Some highlights from the Sales Metrics episode include: 12:30 How should sales leaders be thinking about data? (Amy's data philosophy.) 16:15 How we can use data to empower teams. 23:00 Understanding if your working with your best customers and clients. 27:50 Why you need to have an expectation of what growth can look like. 33:50 What does good look like? 39:45 Using data to have a partnership conversation. 42:00 Two things sales leaders should do right now. Please watch below, and be sure...
Does Your Money Language Sabotage Your Sales Success?
Does your money language sabotage your sales success? The answer is likely yes. Your language around money impacts you more than you may realize. It can be your competitive advantage or your biggest saboteur when it comes to sales success. When you’re aware of how this is showing up in your customer interactions and your overall sales strategy, you can put better approaches in place to maximize your success. How Your Money Approaches Show Up in Sales Your language around money is both about the words you choose and how financial conversations occur in your sales process. For example: Are false growth metrics making you complacent? Examples of how this manifests itself include relying on price increases to grow or...
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