This is the time of year where many organizations are finalizing changes to their 2012 compensation plan for the sales force.  While it can be a tricky time (as we must always be careful to avoid misunderstandings from the sales rep community around the new plans) – it really doesn’t have to be… When it comes to structuring an effective compensation plan, the first thing to know is that communication can be even more important than the design of the plan itself. That said, from time to time, we still need to drive communications from the organization around compensations plans.  MORE >>

Do you ever feel like your salespeople forget almost everything you coach them on? There are few things more frustrating than a seller repeating the same mistakes over and over, no matter how hard you try to show them the better way. Why does this happen? An easy conclusion to draw might be that our salespeople are simply hard-headed. As one sales trainer recently joked to us, “The term ‘adult learner’ is HR-speak for ‘excruciatingly-slow learner.” And while there may be some merit to this suggestion, our research also tells us that there is another side to this story. MORE >>

Is your sales force experiencing increasingly stalled business, extended cycle times, and inaccurate forecasts? If so, it’s time to revisit your sales process and take a hard look at how your customers buy. Traditionally, companies have taken an inward approach to developing their sales processes—they typically only consider internal senior management requirements that make management and forecasting easier (or so they thought…). Unfortunately, the glaring problem with this approach is that it does not take into account where customers actually stand in the sale. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. MORE >>

A recent blog post on Harvard Business Review titled, “ I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore ,” was unfortunately very relatable.  The core of the article explored how business conversations have evolved into bits of nonsense (e.g., synergy”, ”value-add”) that make understanding each other much more of a challenge than anything else. We all fall victim to the  excessive use of acronyms from time to time.  Customers almost universally never experience their expectations being met, much less exceeded. was at a [hotel] a few weeks ago. They had taken this absurdity to its logical end. MORE >>

“I don’t have time for another one of these!  I’ve got to be in-front of my customer!”. Have you heard that from your sales force lately?  Maybe someone’s even said it today.  The “these” referenced above are the multiple internal tugs at a sales force’s time…things such as meetings, surveys, reviews and trainings that internal partners hold. Why are these things so problematic? Because time spent fulfilling internal company requests is time NOT spent selling. So, what results did Schneider Electric see with this communications screening process? decrease in overall volume of requests. MORE >>