On-demand webinar
Your sales culture will form anyway. Build it on purpose.
What you’ll learn :
- The three ideas behind Nick Saban's "process", and why Indiana's turnaround shows they can be repeated
- Why only 9% of the sales managers assessed show coaching, accountability and recruiting all as strengths
- How to run weekly sales meetings people would attend if they were optional, and one-on-ones that coach the pipeline instead of inspecting it
- Process before pressure: why accountability without a defined sales process is just frustration
Speaker :
David Mullins
Strategic Sales Coach · US
Frank Niekamp
Chief Growth Officer · USA
What's covered
Inside the session. Watch a clip, then get the full recording.
Systemised, repeatable, well coached, data driven? Or reactive, personality driven and hope fuelled? A culture forms either way. The question is whether you are creating it on purpose or getting one by default.
Alabama had five head coaches in the ten years before Saban arrived. He rebuilt it systematically around three ideas: do your job at a championship level, build a coaching culture, and recruit people who want to develop their talent.
Saban's former assistants say the same three things. Curt Cignetti took the losingest team in college football history and built standards of excellence for every position, a staff that develops three-star talent, and recruiting of overlooked players.
Objective Management Group data on hundreds of thousands of sales managers: 11% have coaching as a strength, 39% accountability, 37% recruiting, and only 9% all three. Frank on stepping up from top producer to sales leader.
A meat import client's proposal conversion went from 27% to the mid forties in about six months, its sales cycle shortened by over 30% and growth moved from single digits to over 20% a year. Plus what makes a weekly sales meeting worth attending.
A biopharmaceutical manufacturer wanted more accountability but had no defined sales process. With one in place, its pipeline was three times the size within about six months and revenue rose over 18% after three flat years. Why CRM stages are not a playbook.
A furniture dealership's experienced industry hires fell well short of a $2 million break-even target. Hiring for networking ability instead produced three salespeople who all beat it within twelve months.
Why weekly coaching matters, and why development is what attracts hungry, ambitious talent who may not yet know your industry.
Resources
Get the recording
Frequently asked questions
Common Questions
Three competencies: coaching, accountability and recruiting. David and Frank argue they are the same three things behind elite sports teams like Nick Saban's Alabama and Curt Cignetti's Indiana, and that a sales leader needs all three as a superpower for an elite sales culture.
According to Objective Management Group data cited in the session, only 11% of the hundreds of thousands of sales managers assessed have coaching as a strength. 39% have accountability as a strength, 37% recruiting, and just 9% all three.
Frank's acid test is whether anyone would come if it were optional. A good meeting celebrates wins, shows a scoreboard of activity as well as results, and includes development, such as the team working through a live deal in the pipeline. David adds that it should be quick, around 45 minutes and an hour at most, and not a product training session.
Start with a mindset check, then review the development you agreed at the last meeting, then coach the pipeline: is there enough in it, are deals at the right stages and moving at the right velocity. It is pipeline coaching, not pipeline inspection or babysitting that anyone could do by looking at the CRM.
Often because there is nothing defined to hold them to. The session's rule is process before pressure. A biopharmaceutical manufacturer that asked for more accountability first built a milestone sales process with metrics at each step; within about six months its pipeline was three times the size and revenue was up over 18% after three flat years.
Not as the first criterion, in Frank's experience. A furniture dealership kept hiring experienced industry people who missed a $2 million break-even target. Teaching an outsider the product took 90 to 180 days, while teaching experienced people to hunt had taken years without getting closer. Hiring for a proven networking trait instead produced three salespeople who all beat the target within twelve months.
The next step
Stop running on heroics. Start engineering revenue.
Whichever way you work with us, the same proven Revenue OS runs underneath. Book a growth session and we’ll show you where to start.