I recently wrote about the five most important KPIs when tracking a sales pipeline. One question that keeps coming up in discussions with sales managers is how to shorten the sales cycle. 

I have an obsession with strong Selling Processes. It’s an important, but misunderstood aspect of sales effectiveness. One of the things I’ve discovered as a result of my diatribes, is many sales managers really don’t know how to reinforce the sales process in their coaching and development of their sales teams. I’ve gotten a lot of questions on this topic from sales managers, and I suspect there are a lot more that are embarrassed to ask about this.

To improve your sales team’s efforts, you need to keep an eye on your key performance indicators (KPIs). At a first glance, measuring sales appears very simple – just look at the results, right? While it’s true that the achieved business result is easy to measure, the difficulty lies in knowing how we got there and how to improve moving forward. How much could we sell for if we organized sales efforts better? Are we leaving money on the table? Which levers can we pull?

Sales managers work hard to transfer the success skills that made them a top producer. They deliver training and coaching on key account management, running consultative sales meetings and overcoming objections. All of the above require another selling skill that is becoming obsolete in our multi-tasking society: focus.

Every sales person knows how difficult it can be to walk away from a deal. That’s why 25% of all deals end up in “no decision”. So, how do you know when to walk away?

According to a Forrester study, only 15% of sales people are capable of articulating their offering in terms of solving a business problem. It is clear that the skill to understand and communicate value is in need of huge improvement.

As you think about planning for the upcoming year, it’s likely that your thoughts turn to sales growth. Frequently, I hear from CEOs and business owners who are concerned that their sales team will again not produce the sales growth results they would like. But, frequently they aren’t willing to do anything different. Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

It's said that the human species has risen to the top of the food chain because we have the ability to ask "why" and solve problems in teams. In complex sales especially - mastering the art of finding the why and collaborating is key to success.

Sales DNA describes a salesperson’s underlying strengths and weaknesses. Using athletic traits as an analogy, they are comparable to good hand-eye coordination, quickness off the line, acceleration, and balance.

The world is changing for sales people. When information is available in abundance, buyers no longer need sales people to purchase commodity products. Harsh estimates say that the number of sales people will drop with as much as 75% over the upcoming 5 years.