Ep.18 Issues with Sales Management

Mike Weinberg loves sales!  He is a consultant, coach, speaker, and bestselling author who has become one of the most trusted and sought after sales experts in the world today.

His specialties are new business development and sales management, and he’s on a mission to simplify sales and create high-performance salespeople and sales teams.  Mike is a #SalesTruth-teller known for his blunt, practical approach and that he calls it like he sees it.  He works with companies in all industries ranging in size from a few million to many billions of dollars and has spoken and consulted on five continents in the past year.

Mike’s books have seriously upgraded my sales game over the past few years and I can definitely attribute his book ‘Sales Management:Simplified’ for having a truly profound effect when I began managing a sales team. Thats why I wanted to have Mike on the podcast and why it was important for me to hear direct from Mike about the issues around sales leaders and more importantly, the false truth in bringing ‘sales heroes’ into your sales team only for them to blow up and flop.

This is the premiere episode of Season Two of the SalesChange podcast and its instantly a favourite for me!

This episode of The SalesChange Podcast covers –

• The problem with Sales Management in todays sales environment
• The risks associated with recruiting a ‘sales winner’ from an outside company
• The issues with social selling
• The common mistakes that sales people make in the field
• Why you need (as a sales manager) to take responsibility for your team, not your own numbers.
• Answers to the ‘SalesChange 5’ questions.

On every SalesChange Podcast – we ask the guests to answer 5 standard questions – here are the responses from Mike Weinberg.

• What was the last book you read?

Mike – Inked by my very good friend Jeb Blount – its a great book about negotiating and getting that commitment. I would highly recommend it. Who is the leader you look up to the most? Mike – Not to pander to your UK audience but around 2 years ago, I studied Winston Churchill – I read a lot of books and watched a couple of movies and his ability to have set direction despite ridiculous circumstances was truly inspirational!

• What did you want to be when you grew up?

Mike – A professional baseball player – specifically for the USA baseball team, that was my dream

• Whats the worst job you could imagine doing?

Mike  – An architect or an engineer! I would give up on everything within the hour – I just don’t have the eye for that much detail!

• What’s the worst sales mistake you’ve ever made?

Mike – I talk about this in my book but early on in my career I went into a new prospect and rather than going through a period of discovery, my colleague and I delivered a presentation to the prospect and we were promptly shown the door. I vowed at that moment that never again would I present to a client without doing proper discovery and I would never let anyone else tell me how I should run a sales call. Links

• Connect with Mike Weinberg on LinkedIn
• Mike Weinberg’s Website
• Sales Truth on Amazon
• Sales Management Simplified on Amazon
• New Sales Simplified on Amazon