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How to turbocharge your sales team’s performance | Issue #225

How to turbocharge your sales team to achieve ambitious revenue goals

You’re planning for 2023. There’s a growth target you want to hit, so you’re looking at the sales you will need. A lot is riding on this. Hiring decisions for new staff, resource allocation and investments in innovation are all reliant on new sales. You can fail at many things in business, but you can’t afford to fail at revenue.

So it’s crucial to build a high-performance culture in your sales team. Yet too many businesses fail to meet their growth targets. As they get later into the year, they start to cut back. Salespeople get more and more desperate to sell. They win unprofitable deals that are a bad fit. These get poorly delivered – they’re an ongoing headache for support, and the customer is unhappy too. Referrals dry up, and you’re stuck in a miserable spiral to the bottom.

Contrast this with organisations with high-performing sales teams. It looks effortless. They target a smaller number of high-value customers that are profitable. New accounts are well-resourced, and customer satisfaction levels are high. Referrals pour in, and business spirals upwards.

So which one is your business? If you have more in common with the first scenario, you need a serious re-think. Recognise the importance of improving your sales function. Based on my experience training and coaching around sales, here are some ideas to turbocharge your team.


Building A Culture of Trust Through Vulnerability with Ronan Harrington

Building trust is at the heart of a high-performing team and a great culture. Sometimes, that trust comes from allowing vulnerability and honesty into the room and acknowledging our flaws, as well as our geniuses. Our guest this week is a huge advocate of using that vulnerability to strengthen the relationships in leadership teams. 

This week on The Melting Pot, we learned from Ronan Harrington, an expert in the neuroscience of resilience. After receiving a Master in Public Policy from Balliol College, Oxford University, Ronan then became one of the youngest executives in the City of London, as Director of Futures and Strategy at RPC. At the age of 24, he authored a report on the world of 2030 and how the British Government should respond. 

In this fascinating episode, Ronan shared his views on what it takes to develop a great business culture, how allowing vulnerability can help build trust in teams, and how power can impact cultural change in an organisation. He also talked about his experience working with Extinction Rebellion and how ethical power plays work in politics and business.

Download and listen to learn more.


TED Radio Hour

Exploring the biggest questions of our time with the help of the world’s greatest thinkers. Host Manoush Zomorodi inspires us to learn more about the world, our communities, and most importantly, ourselves. 


What Causes Inflation?

What causes inflation? There is no one answer, but like so much of macroeconomics it comes down to a mix of output, money, and expectations. Supply shocks can lower an economy’s potential output, driving up prices. An increase in the money supply can stoke demand, driving up prices. And the expectation of inflation can become a self-fulfilling cycle as workers and companies demand higher wages and set higher prices.

For job seekers, meaning is as important as money

According to PwC’s latest global workforce survey, when it comes to retaining employees, money is key, but it isn’t enough by itself to retain workers, who were almost as likely to cite intangible factors related to meaning.

Do You Really Understand Your Best (and Worst) Customers?

Most companies analyze financial performance by looking at geographic segments, product lines, or channels. These perspectives overlook the fact that aggregate revenues are dependent on individual customers, and that’s why analyzing the business by looking at its customers can provide managers with useful insights.


The 3 Alarms by Eric Partaker

We were all made for greatness. But so many of us end up chasing the wrong thing in life. We focus on work over family, and success over significance. And when our lives come to an end, we are filled with regret. What if the secret to living a meaningful and fulfilled life wasn’t as hard as it sounds? What if you didn’t have to sacrifice success to be present to your loved ones? What if you didn’t have to sacrifice your health to achieve success? What if focusing on a few key areas changed everything? And what if change was as simple as setting an alarm? Eric Partaker’s (who’s been guest on The Melting Pot) story will challenge you to remember what’s most important and start living a life that truly matters. Are you ready to set your three alarms and wake up to the challenge of living life fully alive?


Upcoming events

Assemble Your Dream Team – Free Training

Join Topgrading expert Chris Mursau, to learn how to 3x your hiring success by finding A-Players the 1st time. PLUS: get a chance to ask your burning questions to Topgrading Expert Chris Mursau and Scaling Up Coach, Daniel Marcos during the Live Q&A

Limited seats available.

Join 1st February at 11 am ET/ 8am PT/ 4 pm GMT


Quote of the week

“Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her to solve a problem, or achieve a goal, not to sell a product or service.”

Brian Tracy

Dominic Monkhouse

Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.

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