Peak Sales Recruiting

Thought provoking video from Dan Pink on the relationship between incentives and behaviors with a couple of interesting observations that potentially relate to sales comp. According to Pink, studies show that for non-mechanical tasks that are complex and require conceptual and creative thinking, a basic amount of compensation must be paid or the person will [...]

We have spent our whole lives working with great salespeople and studying the traits of top sellers. We describe the Sales Superstars in terms of their sales DNA and these are the types we find for our customers. What defines a Sales Superstar? The specifics depend on the role, selling environment and company culture, with [...]

Most people don’t like to hear other people say “no,” but in sales it happens all the time. Does the ability to handle rejection have a direct relationship to sales performance? Absolutely! Insensitivity to rejection is one of the most critical attributes of highly successful sales reps. To continue reading this post, click here >>

When we get called in to help a company improve its sales hiring record or turn around poor hiring performance, the first thing we do is investigate what has worked and has not worked in the past. There are several mistakes that are commonly made and most involve poor preparation or lack of process. Given [...]

Most of our readers will be familiar with Stephen Covey’s great book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Basic stuff we know, but what percentage of your sales force has read this book and how many are practicing the habits? Junior reps, in particular, are good at being busy, however they are not always [...]

Some very good advice from Dave Stein about the importance of a structured approach required to consistently hire sales reps – Three Hiring-Related Truths About Sales Effectiveness. As always he is logical in his observations: 1. If you don’t have the right people in the right jobs, all the training, coaching, tools, technology, and support [...]

Neuromarketing has a great article with research that shows that people tend to believe confident people even if they have a track record of being wrong! Sales managers should take notice. This is not about learning to BS clients to stimulate orders, but developing true confidence that comes from believing in the product being sold, [...]

Stephen King said “Talent is Cheaper than Table Salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Isn’t that the truth! Here are three ways to encourage your sales reps to work hard and achieve their highest potential: 1) Keep reminding them why they need to win and [...]

Salesopedia.com published our article the Top Ten Challenges in Hiring Sales Professionals Here is a repost of the the article… A whopping 65 percent of sales hires fail when there is no systematic process in place to guarantee results. Even with process, sales teams with more than 40 percent of reps below target are the [...]

Instead of hearing about Jon & Kate Plus 8 (seriously, can we please stop that nonsense!) here are some ideas on successfully managing sales. The best reps intuitively know the tactics that work best and when to use them to create conditions that incent prospects to buy. Unfortunately these kind of reps are rare and [...]