What Sales Managers Can Learn From Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong at the 2005 Tour de France. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

More precisely, what can sales managers learn from what happened to Lance Armstrong?

Is it don’t be a winner? Perhaps, don’t be a cheat? Maybe, don’t lie? Certainly, don’t get caught. And when you do get caught, carry the can, walk away. Fighting for your corner will just get other people hurt.

A New Role For Sales Managers

There's a new role waiting for sales managers, provided they're ready to lead their businesses in driving innovation.  

Markets, in just about every industry, are more chaotic now than they've ever been. In business, very little of what we used to know remains true today, and it'll be worse tomorrow. In the flatter faster world of the 21st Century, innovation just keeps coming. 

It seems everybody out there is intent on changing the rules, so they can spoil somebody else's party. New thinking, in terms of business model, product, marketing and distribution and sales models, has become the point of competition.

Why Are Sales Forecasts So Difficult To Get Right

Sales managers face lots of different challenges in their work.  One, if not the, most difficult is the tricky business of sales forecasting.  That's why articles addressing the subject are amongst the most popular in our blogs.  And why it features prominently in our eBook Reengineering Sales Management.  

The reason sales forecasts are so nerve wracking to make, and so difficult to get right, is the traditional sales model, which most organisations use in one way or another,  assumes a confrontation between buyer and seller.  

Weighted %age Probability Sales Forecasting Explained

Weighted probability, or percentage probability, is a technique sales managers use to manage the uncertainty inherent in sales forecasting. It's a complicated concept. Most people have trouble understanding why it works, which means they can't figure out how it works.

Sales Forecasts 12 Dimensions To Get Right

Sales Probability Process Management

Forecasting sales is tough. Actually forecasting anything is tough, but sales is particularly difficult, because of the number of variables. Most sales are multidimensional and in each dimension there's a degree of uncertainty. And then there's the overall risk of something going wrong  - the ubiquitous Sods Law 'if something can go wrong it will'.

Getting Sales Forecasts Right For The CEO

Well, that's a relative term.  Nobody gets sales forecasts right, but there are ways of getting your sales forecasts more right than wrong.  And, perhaps more importantly, there are ways of explaining to the people who rely on your forecasts just how you deal with the complexity of your situation.

The CEO has a number.  To be fair, the analysts don't cut her a lot of slack.  In that job missing one number might be bad luck, missing two suggests you aren't in control.  Missing three means you aren't up to the job.  This is an unforgiving world, and the further up the tree you climb, the less forgiving it becomes.  Control is everything, and if you aren't in control, what are we paying you for?

Simply Sales Management for Business Owners

Sales management is a tough job. There are too many challenges, and not enough helping hands. When things go right somebody else gets the credit. When things go wrong, the sales manager gets the blame. The CEO wants the sales forecast to guarantee revenue. Sales reps don't want to make promises.  The sales manager, in the middle, somehow takes up the slack, and carries the can.

What is it that makes sales management so hard?  What makes a great sales manager?  Where can business owners, worried managers, and aspiring reps go to find out what's the best of best practice for the role? 

The Sales Manager Review Process Explained

The sales manager's review is the most important part of the job. It's the quality control over the critical business process - creating revenues, happy customers, referrals, publicity case studies. It's the management control over the life blood of the business - cash flow. It's the best source of market intelligence. It's where anything going wrong gets noticed first.