This is NOT Training

Most sales managers think "training" is the following:

• Asking their team to make more cold calls

• Pulling up the CRM with their team and analysing numbers

• Telling the team to give discounts to win a deal

• Asking their team to invite them to their next call and then dominating the conversation

This is all madness!

You can check your CRM and numbers in your own time.

End of quarter discounts make your product look cheap and like you oversold them in the first place.

Selling a deal yourself instead of teaching your team how to sell is short term thinking.

So what’s the alternative? Let’s take a low number of calls as an example.

Typically it means 2 things:

1) There's a fear of dialing and ultimately rejection

2) They are successful on other channels - LinkedIn, email, SMS, direct mail or video, and can hit their targets without lots of calls

To help tackle fear, ask your team:

"What scares you about cold calling?"

Then share your own ways of dealing with fear. I tell everyone I train that:

"I still get terrified of cold calls. Now more than ever as I typically only cold call once a week. What calms me down is making the goal to learn something new, NOT to book a meeting."

That vulnerability has always helped build credibility with people I train.

For those hitting their targets without picking up the phone, here's some advice:

Leave them the F alone.

If they're hitting target, micro-managing and pissing them off is insanity.