In this 3 minute episode with Paul Lanigan, I share how managers can make their deal and pipeline reviews more valuable that drives more sales, and how to avoid two of the most common traps they fall into when coaching their team that salespeople use to avoid being accountable:

1. Taking the "I don't Know" bait.

2. Taking the "I've tried Everything" bait.

Lean the two questions you can ask to have the person self-assess and arrive at their own answer, rather than you having to give it to them.

More than ever, it’s essential for managers to learn how to coach their team through difficult times of fear and uncertainty, something that only 18% of managers have actually been trained on how to do.

Check out these new statistics:

71.4% of companies reported that their sales process has changed as a result of transitioning to remote commercial trading.

74% confirmed they had experienced changes in the short or long-term competitive landscape that are affecting their business.

62% are finding it difficult or much more difficult to locate and sell to new prospects compared to before COVID-19’s arrival.

77.5% of sales leaders have not received training on how to lead remotely.

More than 52% of front-line sales professionals have not been adequately trained in how to sell remotely.

Join me and my colleagues for a riveting discussion and debate around what successful companies are doing to quickly pivot and adjust to our new world and the way they sell, manage and coach people.

Managers, if you're still managing and having the same conversations you had back in 2019, you're setting your team, and yourself, up for failure.

More than ever, it's essential for managers to learn how to coach their team through difficult times of fear and uncertainty. To do so requires mastering the new, critical conversations managers have never had before. How effective are you when it comes to coaching fear, confidence, attitude and ensuring that your team feels connected and supported, not alone?

World Class managers realize the importance of developing their coaching skillset and mindset so they can successfully lead their team in a remote environment. In this podcast, you'll learn what top managers are doing to build a remote team of happy, engaged sales champions, and the conversations you need to have with your team, today.

Customers have less time and patience than ever. For you to stand out, especially when delivering a presentation remotely, it's not about refining your presentation, but reinventing it, and the language you use to connect with your prospects and customers in a deeper, more meaningful way. Learn the critical conversations every salesperson needs to master in order to deliver the perfect presentation that wins more sales. Some of the questions I'll be answering are:

1. In a remote pitch environment, how can you come across as authentic, trustworthy and genuine, when investors can no longer take cues from body language?

2. Given the inherent distractions associated with a virtual setting, how can I make sure I maintain a structure, maintain engagement and, keep the attention of my audience for the entirety of my presentation even if I have to adjust in the moment? (i.e. combatting Zoom fatigue)?

4. How can I tailor my presentation to meet the needs of both quantitative and qualitative audiences, without losing the attention of one group? 5. How can you gauge the prospect's interest at the end of the meeting? Are there additional things we need to do to ensure we’re aligning our selling process with their timeline, due diligence, and investment process?

6. Is it overwhelming if too many individuals from my firm speak during the presentation, or is it better for the allocators to meet more people from my firm?

7. How do you advise handling virtual transitions and handoffs between speakers?

8. How should you handle responding to a question from a prospect that you don’t know the answer to?

9. How can I create a feeling of trust and reassure prospects, given my limited track record?

10. Given the length of manager presentations (35-40 minutes), what is the best way to maintain a structure such that the audience can easily follow along?

Watch my first live LinkedIn event in 2021! Managers, learn how to make coaching your 2021 selling superpower to develop a remote team of top-performing, engaged, and accountable sales champions! Be prepared for your mind to be blown 🧠!

You can't sell and manage effectively if you're still doing what you did last year. Learn what top managers and salespeople are doing to align their sales process with the way your customers are making buying decisions today. It's all about mastering the new sales conversations that win more sales.

Also, I'm humbled and deeply appreciative that my book, Sales Leadership, was just named one of the 100 Best Sales Books of All Time! Thank you for allowing me to honor my core value of making an impact and contributing to your success. I'm eternally grateful.

During this VIP event hosted by Salesforce, I discuss with a group of senior sales leaders what top companies are doing to transform their sales organization to sell the way customers want to buy today.

Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there's no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way, or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble.

Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that salespeople are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

For sales managers, developing others’ abilities is even more important – indeed, it’s the emotional competence most frequently found among those at the top of the field. This is a person-to-person art, and the effectiveness of counseling hinges on empathy and the ability to focus on our own feelings and share them.

Sadly, of all the skills and traits required to become a successful sales manager, one who is able to maintain their team performing at optimum levels, coaching is the one that is often lacking.

Enjoy this roundtable, as we discuss how companies today can still thrive when managers learn how to coach consistently and effectively. Listen to what today's companies and leaders need to do and learn in order to create and maintain their competitive edge today and tomorrow while maintaining and continuing to build their corporate confidence and the confidence, trust, and performance among their remote teams.

Since coaching is the epicenter of every successful business, companies are finally realizing they have to do something to further develop, coach and support their employees, now, rather than wait until things get back to normal. There is no normal. And there is no going back, only forward. Abnormal is the new normal!

And during every delivery of my remote sales leadership coach training program, there seems to be a few common themes that continually show up.

They are; being patient, managing fear, stress and uncertainty, feeling isolated or disconnected, maintaining confidence, and living in the moment to create the quality of life you want. And this doesn't only apply to managers, but to their employees as well.

Here's my response. If you're not present, you can't coach. And if you're focused on what's next, you're missing out on what's now, since life happens in the moment.

In this podcast that I extracted from one of the sections in my program, you'll learn how to stay focused and mindful of your goals, while living and being present, happy and grateful in the moment. I know, it sounds difficult to stop worrying about and focusing on the future goals, especially for managers and salespeople who have sales and performance targets on their back.

It's an occupational hazard to be result driven, so take the time to listen to this podcast and you'll experience a transformational shift in your thinking. I promise, it will be an investment of your time that will pay exponential dividends, both in your career and your life.

The New Sales Strategy - CARE. Regardless of industry, every company and sales team have been impacted by the shift in the marketplace. The best companies and salespeople aren't doing more of what didn't work yesterday. Instead, they're giving their sales process an overhaul so they can align how buyers are buying in today's climate, so they can sell more today. Doing so requires changing the conversations you're having with your customers in order to develop deeper relationships and the TRUST you and your customers need to thrive.