Tag: accountability

Yesterday, a sales leader asked me a question that sales leaders should ask more often: “How do I get my salespeople to prospect?” In this case, the leader explained, his sales force didn’t believe they should be calling their clients and…

There are many reasons salespeople and sales organizations struggle to produce better results. There aren't any secrets that allow some sales organizations to perform better than their peers. Because what you need to know is already known, what…

A leader is one who imagines a better future and is accountable for delivering it. Vision comes first, a result of an unwillingness to accept things as they are now, and a desire to improve them. Accountability follows, ensuring you vigorously and…

In the foreword to the book, Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card writes about finding the concept for the book in a three-volume set on the United States Civil War, titled, The Army of the Potomac by Bruce Catton.

The insight Card gained from reading…

Ideas are easy. Execution is difficult. Much of the time, extremely difficult. Whether you are trying to stand up a high-performing sales organization or an operation that serves clients, execution comes with a set of challenges of its own.…

The competencies and character traits that make one an effective leader are too many and too varied to compile on a single list. While there are as many ways to be an ineffective leader, this list of ten missing ingredients is a good start to what…

It isn't easy to create or maintain a culture of accountability, one where people are responsible for their results. Most organizations have too little accountability and struggle to create an environment where it can take hold. Autocratic leaders…

An exhaustive list of all the reasons your sales results aren’t what you want them to be would require a vast number of posts. The menu here is what I see right now with some ideas about what you might do to eliminate them. None of these are easy…

Andy Grove and Gordon Moore of Intel were struggling with a severe challenge to their business. As foreign competition grew, their memory chip business was becoming unsustainable, and their margins were eroding. Grove suggested that the Board of…

There are ideas a sales leader must refuse. Allowing these ideas to take hold can decelerate growth, distract the sales force from their real work, and result in a poor sales performance. They can also start a vicious cycle, a downward trend that…