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How to Build
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Core Insights from Executive InterviewsI'm working on a new book project and currently interviewing innovative and original thinking Sales Executives, Managers and Training experts to determine how organizations are turning average Sales Professionals into Top Performers.
I wrote the 17-week LA Times best seller, "If You're Not Out Selling, You're Being Out Sold." In 1996, I started OutSell Consulting which grew to a 60-person, international consulting firm with clients including Google, Morgan Stanley, Avis, PIMCO, American Funds, Bank of America, Time Warner, Cox, Direct TV, Convergys and many others.
Before OutSell, I was with Dale Carnegie and ran National Sales, Global Accounts and New Product Development and was a national speaker, sharing stages with top business personalities including Tom Peters, Jack Welch, Harvey McKay and Anthony Robbins.
“Michael's team helped us develop the most effective sales and coaching programs we've ever had. We fell into the trap of tolerating too much mediocrity as we got bluffed out into thinking all the answers were in better technology. Now, our sales team is doing the stuff that matters. They're talking with more high capacity buyers and using the absolute best consultative sales process out there. Dycoco is the best..”
Robert S. - Director of Sales - Large Internet Technology Firm
New Book Project - Interview Phase
Interviews with Sales Executives, Managers, Training Experts
"What we've found after studying about 5,000 Sales People at our company is that the relationship the Sales Person has with their direct manager, their Sales Coach, is the key to everything. If you want to keep more top performers, improve that relationship. If you want more medium performers to improve, you have to work on that front-line coaching relationship. All too often, Sales Managers spend way too much time in their offices, analyzing numbers, generating reports, responding to problems and reacting to requests from Sales Executives. When this chokes the time spent coaching, results nearly always are hurt. We have learned to protect the Sales Coach / Sales Person relationship and one-on-one interaction time."
- Kelly R. - President Sales - Media Sales
I am actively looking for successful and interesting Sales Executives, Managers and Sales Training Experts to interview and be quoted in this book.
We interviewed dozens of Top Performing Sales People for "If You're Not Out Selling, You're Being Out Sold" and it made a big contribution to the success of that book.
All the quotes will be approved by the individuals being interviewed prior to being used/published and It is up to the person being interviewed whether to use his/her full name or the company he/she is working with. I would like to make it as easy as possible for the right people to participate.
If you or someone you know would be interested in being interviewed and quoted in the book, please contact me at msl@dycoco.com.
The focus of this book is to identify what it is that the best organizations are doing to create more top performing sales people and sales teams. Many of the best Sales Professionals have unique talent or skill at building rapport and staying motivated, but many don't and still develop into top performers. Some are "born that way" and some aren't. This book is about how organizations build, train, support and sustain the people that LEARN to become top performers. Specific topics include:
- Which skills, habits and attitudes of top performers are transferable and which aren't.
- What sales team top performers tell us that Sales Managers and Execs should be doing more of... and less of.
- Is it lack of skill or lack of will that holds most middle of the road performers back? What the research reveals.
- Who the most neglected and important members of the sales team are in terms of training and what to do about it.
- How critical the front-line Sales Coach/Manager is and how to leverage this important facet of the sales team better.
- How the better sales organizations define sales coaching and create the environment for real coaching to take place.
- Where the balance is in terms of technology and person to person selling interactions. How to find it.
- How data screens and the enormous investment of time and energy to maintain them are impacting sales performance.
- The ravenous appetite for sales data in large sales organizations and how it impacts the quality of interactions between Sales Managers and their sales teams
Dycoco LLC
Dynamic Communication Coaching
More Intel for Sales Execs
Michael St Lawrence - 17-week Times Best Selling Author and Founder of Dycoco and OutSell Consulting, Inc.
Example Quotes from Executives Interviewed for this book
"We really thought we were training our Sales People to be effective. However, when we went out and watched them sell, way too many of them, people we had spent a lot of money on, couldn't engage the buyer in a natural and effective way. They talked too much, asked questions that were obvious and simply were not listening and recognizing opportunity when it popped out. We had to re-evaluate completely how much training and practice was necessary to get our middle performers effective on sales calls. Once we accepted this and stopped blaming the Sales People, we started making a lot of progress and quickly. We practice a lot more than we ever did and it's paying off many times over."
- Bill S. - SVP Sales - Financial Services