Weinberg - Sales management simplified ; the straight truth about getting exceptional results from your sales team

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Advance Praise for Sales Management. Simplified.

If you want a clear and concise overview of exactly what you need to do to run a superstar sales team, this is the book for you. Mike takes his years of experience and shares with you his best ideas on how to make successful sales management...simple. I highly recommend this book to anyone in sales.

John Spence, Top 100 Business Thought Leader in America, and author of Awesomely Simple

Weinberg has clearly and simply laid out the recipe for success in sales management in this easy-to-read and easy-to-follow common sense book. I will be distributing it to all my fellow business owners and clients as mandatory reading for growth and profit improvement.

Gina Hoagland, President, Collaborative Strategies, Inc.

This is the first blunt, spot-on sales management book that will unsettle you to the core about how you lead people. A must-read for every sales manager, for every salesperson to buy for their manager, and for anyone who wants to be a manager!

Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter, and author of High-Profit Selling

Weinbergs book drips with the common sense wisdom of experience. Topic after topic, he finds the sweet spot between sound theory and practical advice. The chapters on manager conversations and business plans are worth the price alone! Stock up on highlighter pens youll need them.

Charles Green, CEO, Trusted Advisor Associates, and co-author of The Trusted Advisor

Wow! This is the best book for sales leaders I have read in 20 years. If youre not afraid of the truth and serious about getting better, use this guide to transform your sales team. Merci, Mike!

Sebastien Zuchowski, Vice President, Marketing & Sales, ERP Guru

Mikes book does exactly what it needs to for executives: delivers a SIMPLE, straightforward plan to improve your sales team.

Bill Hinderer, President, Tacony Corporation

I have always believed you cant learn Sales Management from a book; you just have to get engaged and learn along the way. Sales Management. Simplified. has caused me to revise my thinking. You still need to get engaged, but you cant have a better reference to accelerate your learning than Mikes book.

Dave Brock, CEO, Partners in EXCELLENCE

Reading this book is like having a direct, no-nonsense conversation with Mike. He delivers fantastic advice and insights, and fills his chapters with takeaways that will benefit sales managers of all experience levels. I even found great strategies to use when managing my sales students! New Sales. Simplified. is required reading for my Advanced Selling class, and I guarantee that Sales Management. Simplified. will play a key role in the Sales Force Leadership class I teach.

Dawn Deeter, Ph.D., Professor & Chair of Relational Selling and Marketing; Director, Kansas State University National Strategic Selling Institute

Sales Management. Simplified. is the real deal for executives and sales managers. We know first hand from working with Mike that these principles work!

Jeff Haller, Founder and CEO, DataServ

Mike uses real-world practical examples of effective sales management and leadership principles seasoned with a good dose of humor to keep the reader engaged. Reading this book is a must for every sales leader who is serious about improving sales team performance!

Brian Layman, Vice President, Business Development, Mack Trucks

Mike Weinbergs Sales Management. Simplified. is going to start a sales management revolution. Every chapter I couldnt help but say yes! yes! and yes! I am going to recommend that all my clients get a copy and so should you!

Steven A. Rosen, Founder of Star Results and author of 52 Sales Management Tips3

SIMPLIFIED.

THE STRAIGHT TRUTH ABOUT GETTING EXCEPTIONAL RESULTS FROM YOUR SALES TEAM

MIKE WEINBERG

AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

New York Atlanta Brussels Chicago Mexico City San Francisco
Shanghai Tokyo Toronto Washington, D.C.

For Corey, Haley, and Kurt.
I love you and am more proud
of you than I can possibly express.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

In a recent LinkedIn Pulse article, a CEO in the tech industry declared that he would never again hire salespeople. The post went viral to cheers and jeers, and was viewed and shared hundreds of thousands of times on LinkedIn.

While the premise of the article was absurd, it clearly struck a nerve and brought to the surface highly charged emotions, including a deep animosity toward sales in general. It also revealed how desperate businesses are for a solution to the #1 problem plaguing twenty-first century companies: underperforming salespeople in dysfunctional and sub-optimized sales organizations.

Sadly, many of the problems that front-line sales management and senior executives face with their sales organizations are self-inflicted. In Sales Management. Simplified., Mike Weinberg does a brilliant job of laying this truth bare. And while doing so, he delivers an unequaled blueprint for both leading salespeople and building high-performance sales teams.

This is arguably the best book that has ever been written on sales management, and I dont say this lightly. Ive read virtually every book on the subject published over the last 20 years and have dedicated my career to building better sales leaders. When it comes to sales leadership, I know awesome when I see it.

With real-life examples, authenticity, honesty, and common sense, Mike conquers the three core pillars of sales leadershipleading, managing, and coachingand provides you with the concepts and tools youll need to be effective and proficient in each.

The first half of the book is loudso loud it will shake you out of your comfort zone as it delivers a blunt wake-up call that clearly illustrates why your sales team isnt delivering results. Youll come face to face with the destructive leadership attitudes and behaviors that are holding your sales organization back. The second half of the book then offers a simple model for sales leadership as well as practical advice on the essentials of sales management that you can begin using immediately.

Heres the brutal truth, though, that you must embrace. Regardless of your organizational role, as a leader, if your sales team succeeds, you succeed. If your team fails, you fail, your company fails, and all of the employees that work for your company fail. Without sales, without customers, you have no company. Period. End of story. Sales leadership is that important.

Sales Management. Simplified. gets you upfront and personal with the undeniable fact that your job as a leader is to create a healthy, results-focused culture where your salespeople can develop their skills, leverage their talents, and thrive. Mike reminds you that to drive long-term success, you must