Episode 64 is not just for sales leaders! This is one you will want to share with your sales teams as Mike hosts a special guest, the brilliant Carole Mahoney. Mike declares that Buyer First: Grow Your Business with Collaborative Selling is the best-written book he’s read this year and is convinced that you and your sellers will enjoy and greatly benefit from this enlightening conversation as Carole shares the science behind the success experienced by those who sell collaboratively. Along with nodding, smiling, and shouting “Amen!” as Carole and Mike exchange #notaboutme sales philosophies, you will also learn… Why buyers experience a dopamine hit when you make them part of the process How managers often reinforce anti-collaborative sales approaches and behaviors From Carole’s experience as a sales coach for the Harvard Entrepreneurial MBA Program <span s

Episode 63 was inspired by Mike’s guest appearance on the Social Selling 2.0 Podcast and a 40-minute session he held with executive MBA students just before recoding this podcast. Carson Heady (featured in Episode 52) requested Mike’s take on the current state of “Social Selling” and how it has evolved since its inception. A fascinating dialogue ensued including Mike’s rant about the “founders” of the movement — none of which are still teaching/promoting social selling — and their absolutely false proclamation that “EVERYTHING in sales has changed!”  In the second half of the episode Mike recaps the sales management horror story faced by a group of executive MBA students who sought out his input on the situation at the real-life client they have been charged with helping. Enjoy hearing this classic case of senior leadership dysfunction and the effect on the sales team and results. <p class=

It’s that time of year, and in Episode 62 Mike makes a strong case for having each of our salespeople draft an individual business plan for the coming year. Referring to the most popular article he’s ever published, Mike offers nine compelling benefits (for both the salesperson and the manager) resulting from having sellers write and present their plans, and he also outlines a simple template you can adapt and use. RESOURCES TO HELP WITH BUSINESS PLANS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Blog Article - Why Salespeople S

Isn’t conducting professional, effective sales calls one of the main responsibilities of a being a salesperson? After all, the word sales is in the job title. If there’s one thing a “salesperson” should be able to do well, it’s to conduct a sales call! Therefore, isn’t it then incumbent upon sales managers to ensure that their people are indeed proficient at this essential skill? In Episode 61 Mike shares the most prevalent sins he regularly sees salespeople committing – whether it’s the “show up and throw up / spray and pray” approach entering the meeting in pitch mode, talking first, talking too much, not sharing an agenda and getting the customer’s buy-in, weak probing and discovery, or not fleshing out obstacles and objections and not securing and scheduling next steps – and challenges managers to raise their own game when it comes to coaching sellers to better prepare for sales calls. Mike makes the case that if managers would be more rigorous/focused/spe

While preparing to kick off a new engagement to help selling-sales leaders (player/coaches who are both producers and team leaders) increase sales management effectiveness, it hit Mike that the challenges these leaders face on a daily basis are almost identical to what new managers face when transitioning from individual contributor roles into team leaders. In this episode, Mike unpacks three big adjustments that first-time managers must successfully navigate… Shifting from being “responsible for one to being responsible for many” Learning to “win through others vs. winning on your own” Moving from a “selfish/individual mentality to a selfless/leader mindset” …and how those who are charged with driving both their own production/sales numbers AND leading the team must learn how to artfully bounce back and forth between these two very different (and sometimes competi

This is an episode like no other. It’s launch day for Mike’s new book and you can hear the excitement in his voice! Proclaiming with a smile that this book took 34 years to write, he remarks how odd it sounded hearing these words come out of his mouth in a recent interview: “This is my very best book.” Unprepared for the interviewer’s follow-up asking why he felt this way, Mike gave this unrehearsed, honest answer: “With no disrespect to Sales Management. Simplified. (because that’s the book that positioned me to do all of this work helping sales executives and front-line sales managers), the reality is I’ve basically worked nonstop for eight years and have had the opportunity to speak with, coach, and consult countless sales leaders on five continents. I learned a ton and with this new book I was able to distill my writing down to the bare essentials and include only what is abso

Episode 58 kicks off an exciting series around the launch of Mike’s newest book!   While the publisher asked Mike to write The First-Time Manager: Sales specifically for newer (and aspiring) managers, every. single. executive. who read an advance copy commented that it’s a must-read for experienced leaders too… Fresh perspectives and fresh stories from the field, along with simplified frameworks and uber-practical tips for everything from coaching, to addressing underperformance, connecting on a heart-level with your people, and even interviewing best practices. This new series features respected sales leaders whose best practices and wisdom were featured in the book. Mike will share more of the bac

You will be challenged by this fast-paced conversation between Mike and his special guest, Nick Hejna, who serves as Executive Vice President and National Sales Leader for AssuredPartners, one of the largest and fastest growing insurance brokers in the U.S. Mike has tremendous respect for Nick as someone who not only gets sales leadership at the highest level, but who also preaches and demonstrates the importance of sales process on a daily basis. In Part 1 of this interview, Nick and Mike discuss… Why focus is critical for a successful new business development focused sales attack That specialists often sell exponentially more than generalists The reality that it takes more activity to build a book of business than most new producers grasp and why managers must hold people accountable for opportunity creation and activity against target accounts How the “pushing the snowball up the hill” pays huge dividends onc

Mike pulls no punches wrapping up this mini-series covering the Ugly 8 Common Reasons Sellers Get Relegated to Vendor Status and Commoditized. Buckle up as Mike takes on salespeople who are either insecure about price or too quick to make it about price (Reason #7).  The blunt #SalesTruth is that THE JOB of a professional salesperson is to justify the difference between our premium pricing and the lower price of a competitor. That. Is. Our. Job.  Mike confronts sellers who whine that if their price was lower they would sell more with the reality that if they had the best price then we probably wouldn’t need them! Companies who are the low-price leader don’t deploy highly compensated salespeople, do they? Mike also reminds sellers that the SALES STORY is your most critical weapon and when your story (messaging) is boring, confusing, or

This brief series kickoff episode is classic Weinberg with simple, blunt observations about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to developing new business.   In introducing this series, Mike comes out swinging to set the stage for tackling one of the biggest challenges facing salespeople and sales teams today - getting downgraded in the customer’s eyes and perceived as just a “vendor” instead of the value-creator, consultant, professional problem-solver, and trusted advisor we so badly want them to be.   Mike was inspired to do this short series based on the feedback and reaction from sales leaders who wrestled with this topic at recent Supercharge Your Sales Leadership events where he shared these…  <

In the episode Mike confronts sales leaders with this very straightforward question: Are you the hero of your sales team or are you the hero-maker? While the question is simple, its answer has enormous implications. This topic is one of the most prevalent sales leadership issues today – one that not only damages culture, diminishes results, and derails careers, but it’s also a reason so many sales leaders are maxed out and exhausted. Prepare to be challenged as Mike doesn’t pull punches walking listeners through this four-part outline: WHY:  the common reasons sales leaders tend to play the hero HOW/WHERE/WHEN hero-mode manifests itself WHAT:   the awful consequences tha

In Episode 10 Mike hosts a super successful sales leader and executive, his friend Joe Tarulli. Be encouraged and challenged as Joe shares the keys to his success along with the key inflection points in his career as he progressed from individual contributor to sales manager to sales development leader to senior executive. Learn about the power of… Taking an annual sabbatical from social media  Sales managers understanding that they win “through” their people Focusing on making heroes of members of your sales team, not playing sales team hero Sales managers driving amazing results from focusing on the highest-payoff sales management activities A sales leader’s simple and highly effective approach to quickly turning around a struggling business