Shade's Mills Group
 By Tom Fournier
It is strange how you gather a number of similar experiences and begin to sense a trend. For me, all of sudden I have encountered situations where sale representatives either do not like to sell or are not capable of selling! I will offer some thoughts but I would really like to receive some feedback to hear peoples’ thoughts on why this occurs.
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 Box of Donuts By Tom Fournier
Through years of working in business to business sales, many of these years as a sales representative and many out working with countless other sales representatives, I came across many sales representatives that considered themselves the relationship seller. They were the route salesperson who would regularly check in with their customers, with ready access to the customer’s store room to see what needed to be reordered, they always had time for a chat, they were quick to share a funny story or joke and for a really good customer they would bring in a box of donuts.  By Tom Fournier
Having a sales pipeline should be a given for any sales representative and monitoring pipeline health should be an absolute for any sales manager. It should be, but it seems it is not. It reminds me of the old joke/adage, “the problem with common sense is that it is not that common!”  By Tom Fournier
Now is the time to be thinking about your approach to sales! The world is rapidly changing and amongst those changes are shifts in how business to business (B2B) customers are looking at sales people. I share some shocking statistics from a study published by Forrester Research: 60% of B2B Buyers prefer not to interact with a sales rep. [1] 68% of B2B Buyers prefer gathering information online on their own[2]  Anatomy Image An organization’s sales manager is an extremely critical role. It may be one of the most difficult jobs in an organization but it is often the one role where there is no training investment. When there is a need for a sales manager, an attempt is made to promote the best sales representative. Often the top performing sales person does not want the role as they view it as too much responsibility and aggravation for too little pay.
What should a company expect from the person put into a sales manager’s role?  Photo by Rolf Gollin November 3, 2018, Tom Fournier
This will likely be more in the form of story-telling but it does offer some insights into ideals that have guided my own leadership development journey. There are courses, books, blogs and countless websites that all talk about how to develop leadership. To me, the best way to develop leadership is to put yourself into positions where you will need to exert leadership but it is not a work role! I will speak of two of my more formative experiences and I believe they both follow the same theme. That theme is to give and to be in a leadership role without the impact or influence of a “boss card”.  October 26, 2018, Tom Fournier
This post excites me for a strange reason. It is because I get to use a photo taken on the hiking trails in the Shade’s Mills Conservation area! I do think it is an appropriate image. For a business to succeed, there must be alignment. Different functions and different aspects of the business strategy must align or there cannot be success. Let us take a quick look at some areas that come to mind.  October 19, 2018, Tom Fournier
I have been exposed to several throughout my career: Professional Selling Skills Dialogue Consultative Selling The Challenger Sale I suppose I could think about this as one for each decade of my sales career! October 11, 2018, Tom Fournier
I spent over three decades working in the field of sales. I thought I knew sales pretty well, that is until I had an opportunity to lead a seminar as part of the onboarding for an MBA class. During some of the breaks I had students come up to me and ask some questions about a career in sales. I was startled to find myself unprepared to talk about what it meant to work in sales.  September 25, 2018, Tom Fournier
To know me is to understand that I love history. I also very much enjoy the community in which our family has lived for nearly twenty years now. These things influenced the selection of the name for the Shade's Mills Group. |
AuthorTom Fournier, founder of the Shade's Mills Group, history enthusiast and happy walker! Archives
January 2019
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