Training

Some of the worlds top female sales influencers answer "What is your one tip for women in sales ?"

Selling in a tough economy will separate those salespeople that ‘can’ and those that ‘can't’.

As a sales manager you need to know what to do when the economy starts to hit the brakes.

• How do you ensure your sales team achieves their sales targets when the market is flat?
• How do you as the sales leader plan to achieve your sales budget when there is so much indecision and fear in the market?
• Think about it, do you really know how each of your salespeople are going perform in these troubled times?

The trouble is that we start discussing things in January, finalise plans sometime around April, it then takes a couple of months to get people and budgets in place by which time we’re into the summer holidays. So it’s hardly surprising then that we really get going on our annual plan sometime around September, we haven’t a hope of delivering the income that our January discussions envisaged.

If you have ever watched or participated in dog training you may have realised that most of the training is actually focused on training the owner to behave in the right way, that then enables the dog to respond appropriately.

My Mum was a funny lady and during my youth, she was constantly throwing riddles at me.

Some of her riddles came in pairs and the pairs typically had a point.

One such pair of riddles has been a huge lesson for me as I have gone through life. Here they are.

Riddle 1: What did Tarzan say when he saw the elephants coming down the road? “Here come the elephants.”

Riddle 2: What did the elephants say when they saw Tarzan coming down the road? Nothing, elephants don’t talk.

Why? Why do we get up every day and go to work?

Because that’s what is expected: Really? In most companies, the last time you saw your job description was the day you interviewed and you don’t know what is really expected, do you?

Because employees depend on us: Really? Management books say a great manager implements systems that will operate well when management is not there.

Really it’s because Mum or Dad said so!

I am a terrible “bah humbug!” when it comes to “trick or treat” but I do take a keen interest in Ghosts.