“Are We Losing “People Skills?” Jonathan Farrington uses his March editorial column to bemoan the fact that personal traits or as he prefers to call them, people skills are no longer being taught and are, in fact, being relegated to the annals of history, as more and more of our commercial relationships are conducted online. That, in turn, is removing a very high percentage of the human element, which used to be so important in a seller-buyer interaction.
March 2019 – Interview – Tamara Schenk
“You Cannot Scale Sales Enablement Without Solid Foundations” Jonathan Farrington interviews Tamara Schenk, Director of Research with CSO Insights. Sales enablement grows up; that’s good news. But not fast enough. Enablement leaders should take the time to focus on HOW they approach sales enablement before simply pushing new “stuff” to the sales force.
February 2019 – Editorial
“Using Pareto’s Principle to Highlight the Current Malaise within the Sales Space” Jonathan Farrington provides us with some startling statistics, which go some way towards explaining declining levels of sales professionalism, abject sales leadership and a total disconnect between how buyers wish to be sold to and how sellers are insisting that they must buy.
February 2019 – Interview
In this edition, we interview George Brontén, Founder & CEO of Membrain.com – “Why Technology is Not Enough … Says Sales Technology Gold Winner” George is a life-long entrepreneur, and he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills and processes. We think you will enjoy his refreshingly frank responses.
Looking Backwards & Forwards
In his January editorial column, “Looking Backwards & Forwards” Jonathan Farrington reviews Top Sales World’s performance in 2018 and provides some pretty amazing statistics. He says, “Whichever way you choose to benchmark Top Sales World’s success in 2018, there is only one conclusion to be reached – impactful!”
The Power of Collaboration … in 2019 and Beyond
In this edition, we interview Dave Mattson, President and CEO of Sandler Training, and author of bestsellers such as The Sandler Rules and The Road to Excellence. Dave shares how 2019 is shaping up for Sandler and why he is particularly excited by the number of strategic alliances the company has formed.
10 Coaching Questions That Work in Every Conversation
When coaching, finding the right question at the most appropriate time is a skill, mindset and an art, which often makes the coaching process difficult.
Even with daily pressures and tight schedules, when supporting others, there are always baseline facts you need to know in every situation to ensure the coaching and advice you offer is relevant and valuable. If you want to learn how to coach in 15 minutes or less, these 10 questions will easily guide you on a clear conversational path to cocreating outstanding results…
Crushing Quota: Proven Sales Coaching Tactics for Breakthrough Performance
Jonathan Farrington Interviews Sales Coaching Expert and author of Crushing Quota, Vantage Point CEO, Michelle Vazzana.
JF: I understand you’ve just published Crushing Quota, Proven Sales Coaching Tactics for Breakthrough Performance. Tell me how this relates to your prior bestselling book, Cracking the Sales Management Code.
MV: Cracking the Sales Management Code was our blueprint for how to use metrics to manage the sales force. We defined how to create clarity for salespeople and how to use data to manage performance. Cracking the Sales Management Code is not a coaching book. Crushing Quota is. It’s an operating manual for sales managers who want to coach in ways that get more salespeople to quota.
JF: How is Crushing Quota different from the multitude of other coaching books on the market?
MV: Firstly, it is the result of two multiyear research projects into the coaching practices of high performing sales managers. It’s based on science, not anecdote. We went into the research with an open mind and were quite surprised by some of our findings. I’ll tell you more about that in a few minutes.
Secondly, Crushing Quota makes sales coaching tangible and executable. Many other sales coaching books either focus very narrowly on conducting better coaching conversations or are so broad that they attempt to cover all tasks within the sales managers purview. Crushing Quota does an incredibly deep dive into the critical decisions a sales manager must make to coach their salespeople to quota attainment.