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Cross Sell & Up Sell Strategies for Summer
Published on 2012-05-21 12:54:21
Sales Leadership: Increasing Wallet Share with Cross Sell/Up Sell Strategies During a recent meeting with a new client’s sales team we began discussing ideas to drive additional revenue, during the meeting I began to poke at what products/services they currently have to offer and then we began a discussion on the concept of cross sell [...] > read more
Are You Facing Sales Fatigue?
Published on 2012-05-14 08:51:59
Are You Facing Sales Fatigue? The past three years have been a challenge for most partner organizations. The economy has caused sales teams to face declining prospect budgets, more competitive bidding, fewer opportunities, lower incomes and general personal stress. As someone that works with partner organizations on a daily basis we have seen all of [...] > read more
Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers for 2012
Published on 2012-05-07 09:23:02
Top Sales Magazine Names Consultant to Cisco and Microsoft Partner Programs a Top 50 Sales/Marketing Influencer **revised Posting KNOXVILLE, Tenn., May 7, 2012—Ken Thoreson, author of the award-winning Your Sales Management Guru blog, articles and book series for sales leaders, renowned consultant, columnist and speaker, and Acumen Management Group Principal, was named to Top Sales’ [...] > read more
Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers for 2012
Published on 2012-05-06 21:12:38
Top Sales Magazine Names Consultant to Cisco and Microsoft Partner Programs a Top 50 Sales/Marketing Influencer (this is a press release we just sent out) KNOXVILLE, Tenn., May 7, 2012—Ken Thoreson, author of the award-winning Your Sales Management Guru blog, articles and book series for sales leaders, renowned consultant, columnist and speaker, and Acumen Management [...] > read more
Are you a Sales Manager or a Sales Leader?
Published on 2012-04-30 06:55:24
Are You a Sales Manager or a Sales Leader? By Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Today, I have a guest blogger, Mark Hunter. His new book is on my recommended list for all of you., Ken Thoreson, www.AcumenManagement.com Take a moment and answer this question: “If you are a sales manager – or when you think about [...] > read more
Sales Leadership: “Looking Forward”
Published on 2012-04-23 09:51:12
Sales Leadership: “Looking Forward” Many individuals have commented on my Outlook signature block, before I have my personal signature and where many people say “sincerely”, I have the words “Looking Forward”. Why do I use those words? They mean several different issues to me. First, I am a positive person. Looking forward is always better [...] > read more
Sales Leadership: Creativity is Critical
Published on 2012-04-16 08:16:12
Sales Leadership: Creativity is Critical In many of my sales leadership workshops and in my writings I have often spoken on the need to hire creative salespeople and the need for sales management to offer creative solutions to the many problems you face. The good news is “creativity” can be learned and enhanced in everyone! [...] > read more
Sales Leadership: Work Out Time
Published on 2012-04-09 06:30:24
Your Sales Leadership Workout May 9 & 10, 2012 Atlanta, GA A Proven Regimen for Getting Your Sales Organization in Shape Build a proactive approach to sales management that creates predictive revenue and a self-managed sales team. Learn how top performing sales leaders muscle up their teams to pump up predictable revenues. Here’s what they [...] > read more
Sales Leadership: Gaining Insight & Accountability
Published on 2012-04-02 10:46:29
Sales Leadership: Gaining Insight and Accountability Most sales leaders have a lot of confidence-which is good, but many have never experienced what many CEO’s have, that is an insights and help from other CEO’s. Also many organizations never gain real insights from their customers or even help from their customers. What can you do to [...] > read more
No Foolin-Sales Mgmt Should be Thinking Summer
Published on 2012-03-26 08:16:49
No Foolin-Sales Leadership Should be Thinking Summer This past week during a consulting session with a client, with both the President and their sales manager we discussed several points that I thought would be good items to bring up in this week’s blog. April 1st is right around the corner and I want all of [...] > read more
Sales Leadership and Management in a Recovering Economy
Published on 2012-03-19 22:24:49
Sales Leadership and Management in a Recovering Economy I am speaking this week in Houston on the title of this blog, it is March 19th, 2012 and during the past few months the stock market has taken off and the papers shout out about the positive economic indicators that are being recorded: rents are heading [...] > read more
The Sales Manager that Does It All…
Published on 2012-03-12 09:09:40
The Sales Manager that Does It All First of all, the title of this blog is impossible and second of all, it wouldn’t be right. No matter what size of sales organization you manage the sales leader that assumes they are responsible for everything or solving every problem generally fails to achieve the ultimate objective. [...] > read more
Take Advantage of the Opportunity
Published on 2012-03-05 08:28:16
Take Advantage of the Opportunity Several years ago, I was speaking in Puerto Rico at a sales conference and while I was waiting for my return flight I was relaxing and started to speak with another flyer. He was British and just finishing his holiday. We discussed mutual occupations and experiences, when he learned that [...] > read more
Sales Management & The Impact of Social Media
Published on 2012-02-27 07:40:40
Sales Management and the Impact of Social Media Ken Thoreson While in the process of writing a future magazine column on the future of sales and social media I interviewed three people and posed several questions in order to get their view points. I thought for this week’s blog I would also introduce you to [...] > read more
You Don’t Just Hire a Sales Team: you build it
Published on 2012-02-20 08:12:06
You Don’t Just Hire a Sales Team–You Build It Developing a great sales organization involves more than just bringing the right people on board. It requires providing the right opportunities and creating the right culture. By Ken Thoreson (This is an excerpt from my latest book: Your Sales Management Guru’s Guide to: “Leading High Performance [...] > read more
Executive Toughness
Published on 2012-02-12 11:01:15
Executive Toughness This week’s blog is a book review: Executive Toughness: The Mental Training Program to Increase your Leadership Performance by Dr. Jason Selk published by McGraw Hill. Why am I adding this to my blog site? My objective in addressing sales leadership issues is to provide you ideas, tools and concepts to increase your [...] > read more
Secrets of Hiring Top Performing Salespeople
Published on 2012-02-06 08:29:01
How to Take Emotion Out of the Sales Hiring Process and Hire the Best Salespeople It’s the number one job of sales management and it is the most difficult, if you hire effectively the job of sales management becomes sooooo much easier. If you are serious about building a high performance sales team I have [...] > read more
The Future of Your Sales Team
Published on 2012-01-30 08:43:30
The Future of Your Sales Team This year, I anticipate we will see a reduction in external sales positions of around 20%: 10% will be lost for good, and the other 10% will move inside. I believe that this pattern will continue for the next three years, until we are left with less than 10% [...] > read more
A Sales Manager’s Recipe: What is Cooking in 2012
Published on 2012-01-23 08:18:08
A Sales Manager’s Recipe: What’s Cooking in 2012? Last week after a keynote program called Gourmet Living, an attendee came up to me afterwards and discussed her challenges as a sales manager. The last three years have been tough and she was looking for new ideas for 2012 to excite her team and also to [...] > read more
CRM: 15 Years Later, now a friend
Published on 2012-01-15 17:54:30
SFA/CRM 15 Years Later: Now It’s Every Rep’s Best Friend This week, I thought you might like to read someone else’s article and my comments regarding the article. My comments are first. As a Sales Leadership consultant, I think the article below hit on many valid points; the Cloud and CRM usability are key elements [...] > read more
A Walk Through a Broken Organization
Published on 2012-01-10 09:46:43
A Walkthrough of a Broken Organization Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. For the past 14 years I have been working all across North America and internationally, meeting, speaking and consulting with organizations of all sizes and [...] > read more
Your 2012 Sales Plan
Published on 2012-01-03 07:08:30
Your 2012 Sales Plan It’s a little late to begin planning your 2012 Sales Plan, but in a conversation last week with a reader of this blog, I realized there maybe others who have not formalized their 2012 plan. I have included below the various “categories” you should consider in building a plan. Other questions [...] > read more
Merry Christmas and Have a Great Holiday Season
Published on 2011-12-19 07:01:59
The Times are a Changing, Are You?
Published on 2011-12-13 07:27:59
The Times are a Changing or Are You? At the end of each year I write down my personal and business goals for the new year in seven different categories. The challenging part of that exercise is I have to review the goals that I had set from the past year and grade my performance. [...] > read more
Make 2012 Your Best Year EVER!
Published on 2011-12-05 07:19:31
Make 2012 Your Best Year EVER! Is the market going to be better for your products/services in 2012? Or will your sales team face another tough year to achieve their sales objectives? Recently I have been writing/talking about an issue facing everyone-your salespeople, your management team and your customers/prospects=sales fatigue. After three challenging years and [...] > read more
Gourmet Living: Your Life’s Pizza
Published on 2011-07-05 09:22:46
Gourmet Living: Your Life’s Pizza Ahh summer is here, the fourth of July was celebrated with parades, fireworks and many family and community get together’s. I hope your weekend was a terrific time to celebrate America. On Saturday, we > read more
Building Culture to Increase Profits
Published on 2011-06-27 09:01:55
Sales Leadership: Building Culture to Increase Profits Did you know that when you lose a salesperson, it costs you 4 times what you paid that person during their employment? These costs include not only salary, but benefits, lost sales/profits, t > read more
The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs!
Published on 2011-06-20 08:11:52
First let me state this: I did not write this week’s blog. As sales leaders we have 3 aspects to our job. We must focus on the “role” we play, we must focus on the “strategic” side of our job and we must focus on > read more
Guidelines for Effective Management Performance
Published on 2011-06-13 10:14:24
Guidelines for Effective Management Performance Share this with your management team As I was refilling my book shelves (see previous blog) I found the following bullets from Dale Carnegie & Associates, the copyright was 1967 and updated 1 > read more
Sales Leadership: a lack of resources may limit success
Published on 2011-06-06 09:39:04
Sales Leadership: A Lack of Resources May Limit Success Date Line: Las Vegas, Nevada I have spent the last 3 days/nights in Las Vegas on vacation prior to speaking at a conference this week. During that time I toured few new hotels, saw a show, din > read more
Sales Leadership: Cleaning Your Book Shelves
Published on 2011-05-31 10:00:18
Sales Leadership: Cleaning Out Your Book Shelves On Monday afternoon I found out the painters were coming on Wednesday! That meant I had time to clean out my office, shuffle furniture around and generally make room for them to paint the walls. On > read more
Sales Management: benchmark you business
Published on 2011-05-23 09:14:12
Sales Management: “benchmark your business” During the past three weeks I have visited three partner organizations, each of varying sizes in revenue, products/services offered and operational effectiveness. I also had a wonderful conversation w > read more
Sales Mgmt: How much time do you have left?
Published on 2011-05-16 08:02:19
Sales Management: How much time do you have left? Generally most sales teams have until the end of June to achieve your quarterly objectives, these objectives maybe measured as quota attainment, headcount, CRM utilization or even certain levels of tr > read more
Sales Leadership: Why Winners Win!
Published on 2011-05-09 08:36:49
Sales Leadership Thoughts: Why Winners Win! Last week after speaking at a conference a person mentioned to me she really enjoyed the topic; Why Winners Win. It is one of my favorite parts of the keynote and the four points I make wrap up man > read more
Sales Leadership: Be Prepared!
Published on 2011-05-02 09:53:22
Sales Leadership; Be Prepared As an Eagle Scout, I have always considered the Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” in all aspects of my life, this past week as the South felt the destructive power of massive tornadoes and rain it was a difficult ti > read more
Sales and Sales Management Resources for Everyone
Published on 2011-04-25 07:58:26
Sales and Sales Management Resources for Everyone This week’s blog is unique; first I am excited to announce that our blog was recently rated #19 out of the top 50 sales blogs in the US. This list is a great resource any salesperson or sales mana > read more
Sales Leadership: Ready for July & August?
Published on 2011-04-18 07:59:02
Sales Leadership: Ready for July & August? I maybe already too late, hopefully you aren’t? I often state that it is the salesperson’s responsibility to make quota not the sales managers, it is your responsibility to hire, train and put the > read more
Leadership: High Performance Sales Management
Published on 2011-04-11 06:45:30
High-Performance Sales Management Building a strategic and effective sales management system is just like building anything else: It takes time, refinement and follow-through In the 14 years that Acumen Management Group has been consulting with partn > read more
Creating a Vision for Your Life or How to Develop: Gourmet Living
Published on 2011-04-04 09:30:30
Creating a Vision for Your Life or How to Develop: Gourmet Living After speaking at a sales conference this past week where my title was: Gourmet Living, Creating a Menu for Life an attendee asked me a great question. She said: “you spoke about > read more
NCAA Sales Management: Developing Winning Sales Strategy
Published on 2011-03-28 08:30:18
NCAA Sales Management: Developing Winning Sales Strategy Last week it was about golf and putting, this week after indulging in men’s and woman’s NCAA games all weekend it’s all about strategy. In my view there are several levels of strategy to > read more
Putting for Par’s: Are you practicing properly?
Published on 2011-03-21 09:44:54
Sales Leadership: Are you practicing properly? Putting for Par’s I happen to be in Florida this weekend, taking a few days off to visit relatives, play golf and enjoy the weather. We played 36 holes the past two days, my first real golf of > read more
Sales Management Thought Leadership: The “Linchpin” for Business Growth
Published on 2011-03-15 14:56:19
From Webster’s dictionary: Linchpin: “something that serves to hold together the elements of a situation” The reason I focus on the role of sales leadership and management is I have found where there is strong sales management there are high > read more
The Difference between Average and Top Performers
Published on 2011-03-07 08:33:29
The Difference Between Average and Top Performers In preparation to speak at a sales award banquet this week I was thinking about what kind of message I wanted to leave with the audience and in thinking though a variety of ideas I realized it m > read more
Sales Management is the Hardest Job in Sales.Period
Published on 2011-03-01 08:09:19
Sales Management is the Hardest Job in Sales. Period. By Jeb Blount, Author of People Buy You Ken’s Comment: This week’s blog is a guest blog: When I saw this article published I knew you would enjoy it. It hits the mark and reinf > read more
What a Grand Week for Personal Leadership!
Published on 2011-02-21 09:26:36
What a grand week for Personal Leadership! Last week in my blog I wrote about the importance for sales leaders to focus on building belief and the need for your sales team have emotional commitment to your company and your products/services. On T > read more
Building Belief-a key job of sales management
Published on 2011-02-14 07:49:36
Building Belief This week’s blog is an excerpt from my latest book: Your Sales Management Guru’s Guide to: Leading High Performance Sales Teams. You can purchase the book on Amazon or at http://www.yoursalesmanagementguru.salesgravy.com Are > read more
Vince Lombardi as a Sales Manager
Published on 2011-02-07 07:56:02
Vince Lombardi as a Sales Manager I promised myself I would not do a blog on a Super Bowl theme, I promised. But since I grew up in a small town in western Wisconsin, that actually had a “packing house” or to everyone else a meat plant and live > read more
Sales Management: January is over; how do you feel?
Published on 2011-01-31 08:17:57
Sales Management: January is over; how do you feel? On Friday I had my two year eye exam. The doctor went through the usual tests with eye charts, drops in the eyes and checks for cataracts/glaucoma-good news he said I passed and was ok for another 5 > read more
The Importance of Sales Management in a Recovering Economy
Published on 2011-01-24 11:37:22
The Importance of Sales Management in a Recovering Economy During the past two weeks I have been in Miami, Phoenix and this weekend I have been speaking in San Antonio. We have met with Sales Leaders from around the world, lead workshops, presented > read more
Sales Management: The Need for Creativity
Published on 2011-01-17 07:26:19
Sales Management: The need for creativity! This past week I had opportunity to work with a great client at their worldwide sales conference in Miami. During the two days, I spent several hours with their sales management team and four hours with thei > read more