Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales Receives AA-ISP’s TOP 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals in 2010 Award

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (15 May 2011) — MrInsideSales announced today that AA-ISP recognized Mike Brooks as part of American Association of Inside Sales Professionals Leadership Summit 2011 at an awards banquet held on May 11th at the Hilton Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Mike started his career in the financial and securities industry as an investment broker, and quickly became the top producer out of 5 branch offices in Southern California.  Promoted to Executive Vice President of Sales, he developed a Top 20% Inside Sales Training program that doubled corporate sales of private placements from 27 million a year to over 58 million in 1988, and then more than doubled that again in 1989 – to total revenue of over 112 million.

“It is an honor to recognize Mike as this year’s recipient of The TOP 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professional Awards. Mike has proven their dedication to growing the professionalism and performance of the inside sales industry, which is the mission of the AA-ISP,” stated Bob Perkins, Founder and CEO.  “We are confident that he  will continue to have an impact on this fast growing and exciting industry in the future.”

A complete list of companies and individuals recognized by the AA-ISP will be published on the AA-ISP website, go to www.aa-isp.org.

About MrInsideSales

Mike is the founder and principle of Mr. Inside Sales, a Los Angeles based inside sales consulting and training firm.  Mike is the best-selling author of, “The Real Secrets of the Top 20%” a book on how to double your income selling over the phone, and also publishes an internationally acclaimed weekly Ezine called, “Secrets of the Top 20%”. Mike works as an Executive Coach and sales trainer teaching the skills, techniques and habits of Top 20% sales performance.  He specializes in working with business owners who have under-performing outbound or inbound inside sales teams either business-to-business or business to consumer.

About AA-ISP

The AA-ISP is the only association in America formed and dedicated to advancing the profession of Inside Sales. It does this through promoting inside sales best practices and inside sales tips for business practitioners. It also promotes inside sales careers in what is already becoming the fastest growing segment of sales and marketing. For more information please visit: http://www.aa-isp.org.

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The 5 Secrets of Great Vacations

Have you scheduled your vacations for this year? I have, and boy am I excited!!

After I did, I remembered an article I published years ago, and I thought about all the positive feedback I had on it. So I decided to reprint it here.

If you follow the advice I give, I assure you you’ll enjoy your work more and you’ll be more successful at it!

Here it is:

At a company I consulted with a few years ago, there was a manager, Brad, who would never think of taking a full week away from the office. "Much too much to do, and I don’t really need it anyway." He told me.

"When was the last time you did take off on a real vacation?" I asked.

"Heck, I can’t tell you. Got to be over six years." He said.

"Aren’t you burned-out?" I asked.

"Naw. I take three-day weekends occasionally, and there are holidays. I get by I guess." He answered.

On the other hand, a woman I’d been coaching at the same company, Mirna, who is now a Top 20% closer, had just returned back from her first trip to Hawaii. She took her three kids and her husband, and when she came back to the office, she looked like a new woman.

She was tanned, relaxed, excited and she was energized! She talked about the fun her kids had, about how incredible Hawaii was, and about how she couldn’t wait to go on her next trip!

Vacations are the key to staying energized, focused, rested and motivated. And when you are energized and motivated, you perform better on your job and are happier overall. All work and no play make Jack, well, you know the story.

But just like in sales, there are guidelines and "best practices" to ensure that you get the most out of your vacation. After years of perfecting the vacation, I offer, "The 5 Secrets to Taking Great Vacations" — enjoy!

Secret #1 — Schedule and pay for your trips at least six months or more in advance.

Don’t wait till the last month to take a trip because it will never happen. You will always be too busy. By planning, scheduling and paying for your trips far in advance, you’re almost certain to actually take them.

July or November or March will always come and if you’ve already paid for a trip — you’re going!

Benefit: When you plan that far in advance, you get to look forward to it for months! It’s a great motivator.

Secret #2 — Go somewhere special.

Make a list right now of the six places you and your family would love to go to. Then enlist their help! It’s a great family activity.

Next, pick one special or exotic place this year and — that’s right — book it now. Go ahead, buy the airfare, book the hotel and car and pay for it. And then, have everyone mark it on his or her calendar.

Benefit: Watch the attitude of your family change — for the better. Suddenly there’s something bright, fun and enjoyable you are all looking forward to. Gee, the kids sure are nice to be around again!

Secret #3 — Don’t return to work until Tuesday!

Even though you get back Saturday or Sunday, don’t go right back to the office. Give yourself time to readjust, run errands, and settle back in. Nothing ruins of good vacation more than going back to work the very next day. Vacation? What vacation?

Benefit: Taking Monday off is like getting another "bonus" vacation.

Secret #4 — Take at least one mini vacation per quarter.

Besides your large vacation, plan to take at least one extended weekend, holiday or other three or four day break per quarter. Hitch a Friday and Tuesday onto a Memorial Day weekend, and voila! — you’ve got a bona fide vacation using just two personal days.

Try to go somewhere on at least one of these, and spend the others around the house getting things done or just relaxing.

But all the previous rules apply: plan, schedule, and pay for it in advance!

Benefit: Even more to look forward to!

Secret #5 — Don’t work while on vacation.

Your vacation is exactly that — a vacation! Leave your laptop, blackberry, and paperwork at the office. Resist the temptation to check in with your office. This is your and your family’s time.

Train your sales manager, VP of sales, or assistant to handle all business while away. They will do fine without you, and it will all be there when you return.

Benefit: You will actually feel like you’re on vacation and you’ll enjoy it even more!

So there you have it — the 5 Secrets to Great Vacations. I guarantee that if you follow these rules, you will not only enjoy your life more, but you’ll be more productive at work as well.

Imagine that — more successful and happier!

When is your next vacation?

If you found this article helpful, then you’ll love Mike’s NEW book of phone scripts, ?The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts."  Buy now and get over $500 worth of free bonuses from top sales trainers like Tom Hopkins, SalesDog, Stan Billue and many others by taking advantage of this Special Offer: http://mrinsidesales.com/booklaunch.htm  Find out why Brian Tracy calls this the best book on inside sales available today!

Do you have an underperforming inside sales team?  Talk to Mike to see how he can help you and your team reach your revenue goals.  To learn more about Mike, visit his website: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

The Biggest Mistake Sales Managers Make

If I were to ask you what the most important thing a sales manager can do to drive business, what would your answer be?  Hire the right reps to begin with?  Properly train them? Keep them motivated?  Help them close deals?  I’m sure you thought of these and many others, but I wonder if you thought about the one activity I’m going to share with you today.

That activity is to monitor and ensure adherence to best practice selling techniques.  You see, in  a nutshell, a sales manager’s job is to give his/her team the most effective core selling skills or best practice techniques, and then monitor to make sure their team is using them on each and every call.

It’s like a professional sports coach.  What do they do?  They design the best plays and then coach each athlete to use the best techniques and skill sets on every play.  That’s why they study and break down game film so much.

It’s the same with recording calls.  As sales managers your most important job is listening to (monitoring) your sales reps during the sales process to make sure they are using the most effective skills.  The bottom line is that if they aren’t making their numbers, it’s almost always because they are delivering poor presentations to unqualified leads.  And that is a direct result of not using best practice core selling skills.

So…the biggest mistake sales managers make is monitoring and measuring the results (the revenue numbers) rather than the sales process itself (the actual skills used to drive those results).

If you want to improve the sales performance of your sales team, then you need to stay focused on and monitor what is driving those results – what your reps are saying and doing during their qualifying and closing presentations. 

And here’s how you do that:

Start scoring adherence to your scripts (or outlines or presentations, etc.).  Break down each script into sections and assign a number value to them that add up to 100.  Then listen to the recordings of your reps and score their adherence to following the script.  Anything under a 90% adherence and you’ve got work to do. 

Bottom line – by staying focused on the most important part of the sale – adherence to best practices – you?ll avoid the biggest mistake most sales managers make, and in turn you’ll become one of the few managers whose team actually make their revenue numbers. 

How great would that be?

If you found this article helpful, then you’ll love Mike’s NEW book of phone scripts, "The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts."  Buy now and get over $500 worth of free bonuses from top sales trainers like Tom Hopkins, SalesDog, Stan Billue and many others by taking advantage of this Special Offer: http://mrinsidesales.com/booklaunch.htm  Find out why Brian Tracy calls this the best book on inside sales available today!

Do you have an underperforming inside sales team?  Talk to Mike to see how he can help you and your team reach your revenue goals.  To learn more about Mike, visit his website: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

How to Overcome the Brush Off When Cold Calling

Almost everybody I know hates cold calling. And who can blame them? Everyone they call hates it, too. Receptionists hate getting sales call, prospects hate taking calls so it?s no wonder that sales reps hate it, too. In fact the sales industry as a whole hates it so much that it invented an entirely new way of making contacts called Sales 2.0. The problem with that though is that eventually you still have to pick up the phone and make a call.

So we’re back to the beginning, aren’t we? The only real solution is to learn how to make cold (or warm) calls effectively, and once you learn that, you’ll finally learn the secret of Top 20% performance. You see, the Top 20% don?t mind making cold calls. In fact, many of them (myself included) actually enjoy connecting with potential prospects and uncovering buying opportunities. And you can do this too if you learn to be prepared for the common brush offs and blow offs you get over and over again.

Here are three proven scripts you can use the next time you get any of the following initial brush off objections. Work with these and adjust them to fit your personality, your product or service. And once you do, begin using them on each and every call. I’ll tell you now, once you know how to handle these common brush offs, and once you begin actually connecting with potential buyers, you?ll not only make more sales, but you’ll actually enjoy making those calls.

How great will that be?

"Just send/fax/email the information (and I?ll keep it on file/have a look at it, etc.)"

"I’ll be happy to get this out to you in the next hour, but while I have you on the phone, let’s first see if this can actually help you and if there?s a real need on your end for this. How are you currently doing (Ask about a process related to your product or service). And if I could show you how to (Ask about how your benefit would help them), would you seriously be willing to consider using our solution to help you?"

"We’re already taken care of"

"I understand _________. And isn’t it true that if you could get the same or even better results for less than you’re spending right now, it’d be silly not to at least listen to how that might happen? You see, many of the clients I work with now told me the same thing but were happy they found out about our (introductory package, new client special, side by side comparison, etc.)"

We just don’t have the budget/money/etc.

"Where do you usually get budget from when you find something that you absolutely must have?"

While these rebuttals won’t help you handle all the selling situations you get when cold calling, they will help you overcome some of the most common ones. If you’d like over 100 effective scripts to handle the rest, and over a 100 closing scripts as well, then invest in my new book: The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts.

People like Jeffrey Gitomer, Tom Hopkins and others are recommending it and giving away a special gift if you get it now. See it here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/booklaunch.htm

5 Closing Questions You Must Be Asking

-    By Mike Brooks, www.MrInsideSales.com (Taken from my new book, “The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts”)

I get a lot of ezine topic requests each week, and the majority of them are requests for different questioning techniques to use during the qualification stage. I’m glad to see these requests because it means people understand the importance of identifying and then spending time with buyers.

I’ve written many articles over the years that address these kinds of questions, and if you’ve missed any of them I encourage you to visit my blog here.

Recently, however, I got a request for questions that could be used during the close or presentation stage. That was a good question, and I’m going to cover 5 of my favorites right now. These questions will vary from taking a prospect’s pulse to see if they are with you, to finding out if a benefit you just listed would work for them, all the way to a trial close.

All of these questions are crucial to ask during the close, and after you read them I encourage you to put these into your closing scripts and outlines. They will give you the feedback you’ll need (and don’t get because you’re not in front of your prospect) to close the sale. To get the most benefit from them, begin using them today:

#1 After giving any part of your presentation, you should ask, “Are you with me so far?” You can vary this with, “How does that sound?” Or, “Do you see what I mean?” and, “Does that make sense?”

Always listen carefully to not only what they say, but to how they say it. And always allow a few seconds after they respond to give them time to add something else.

#2 Any time you give a benefit, ask, “How would you use that?” or, “Could you use that?” Or, “Would that work for you?” Or, “Would that be of benefit in your situation?”

Again, LISTEN to what and how they respond…

#3 Another good question to ask throughout your presentation is, “Do you have any questions so far?”

This is one of the best questions to ask, and it’s also one of the least used. You’d be amazed by the kinds of questions you’ll get, and each one reveals what your prospect is thinking. You must use this question often!

#4 Trial closes are always good – “Does this seem to be the kind of solution you are looking for?” or, “How is this sounding so far?” or, with a smile in your voice, “Am I getting close to having a new client yet?”

Even though that sounds cheesy, you’d be amazed by how it will often break the ice and get your prospect to lower his/her guard.

#5 When you’re done with your presentation, always ask, “What haven’t I covered yet that is important to you?”

This is a great way to end your presentation, because if they tell you they don’t have any questions, then you get to ask for the order! If they do have questions, you answer them and then ask for the order!

The bottom line is that asking questions — and then shutting up and listening — is still one of the most important things you can do either during the qualification stage or during the close. Use the above questions during your next presentation and watch your closes get stronger and your income get bigger!

If you found this article helpful, then you’ll love Mike’s NEW book of
phone scripts, “The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts.”  Get over 220 Brand
New Scripts to help you easily get past the gatekeeper, set appointments,
overcome objections and close more sales. Visit:
http://mrinsidesales.com/ultimatescripts.htm to find out why Brian Tracy
and Tom Hopkins call this the best book on inside sales available today!

Do you have an underperforming inside sales team?  Talk to Mike to see how
he can help you and your team reach your revenue goals.  To learn more
about Mike, visit his website: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

4 Ways to Get Out of a Sales Slump!

Let’s face it – every now and then sales don’t seem to be going our way and we can begin to get into fear about making our numbers, making our mortgage, taking that vacation, etc. While we may not be able to control the ebb and flow of sales, what’s important is that we keep control of our attitude and expectancy level. In other words, keeping positive, reflecting on wins, and expecting success is what always drives a top producer through the seemingly slow times in sales.

I like to compare keeping my attitude up to how a pilot tries to stay on the radio beam when he’s flying. A directional beam is projected to guide the pilot to his destination, and as long as he stays on the beam, he’s safe and he’ll make it through just fine. It doesn’t matter that the weather may be temporarily blinding him or that he may not be able to see where he is or where he’s headed, as long as he can locate and stay on that beam, he’ll be all right.

It’s the same thing in sales. If things are temporarily not going your way, or if you have to start prospecting again, or if that big client or if those deals didn’t close, that’s OK. All you have to do is to get back on the beam of being positive, expecting to close more sales, and continue to reflect on your sales goals. If you can do that (and that may sometimes be a tall order given the temporary appearances), then you’ll be fine in the end.

What you can’t fall victim to is negative thinking. That only leads to deflated attitudes, less activity, and poor sales skills. It tends to feed itself and you start looking for reasons to fail, and you often find them! You know you’re “off the beam” if you’re in fear, if you get agitated easily, if you become resentful of others or if you begin feeling depressed in any way.

If that happens, here are 4 ways to get back on the beam:

1) Reflect back on your previous wins. Get quiet and begin reliving all the times when you closed big deals, when you made your goal and when you got new clients and closed deals. Remember those feelings… This will immediately move you back towards the beam.

2) Remind yourself that your very next phone call could result in the biggest deal of your career. This is not only true, but by dwelling on it you’ll begin to want to make more calls, and you will actually begin attracting that success to yourself.

3) Review your financial goals and begin imaging how you feel now that you’ve achieved them. Relish those feelings. Get excited about what you’re enjoying now that you’ve reached your goals. This is visualization 101 and remember that your subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between a real event and one vividly imaged with feeling.

4) Change your attitude into one of absolute service to others rather on if you’re going to get a deal. Start each phone call with the thought, “I’m here to be of maximum service to this person.” That will not only take the pressure off of you, but your prospect will feel it – and respond to you.

Any one of these techniques will get you back on the beam. If you combine all four of them you’ll be out of your temporary slump in no time and you’ll be closing deals like the top pro you know you are.

A Better Way to Sell Over the Phone

Would you finally like to know exactly what to say in any selling situation when you call prospects and clients? Well now you can?

My new book, ?The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts,?  has over 220 word for word, proven scripts to help you deal with all the blow offs, put offs and objections you get day in and day out when prospecting, setting appointments and closing sales over the phone.

Check it out here.

This book is packed with script after script of real world, effective come backs and rebuttals that will help you easily handle situations like:

  • Overcoming initial objections like, ?We?re not interested? and ?I?m too busy,? and ?We already have a company/supplier for that,? and many, many more;
  • *Learning how to build crucial rapport in the first 5 seconds;
  • *Connecting with gatekeepers and getting through to the decision maker;
  • *Knowing what to do and what NOT to do when prospecting and qualifying;
  • *Dealing with smokescreen objections like ?The price is too high?;
  • *Getting your prospects to return your emails and voice mails;
  • *Overcoming common objections like, ?We just need to think about it,? and ?I can get it for less money,? and many more.

Let?s face it ? you get the same objections 90% of the time, so why not be prepared in advance with the absolute best scripts and techniques that really work. These scripts are focused on helping you connect with and engage your prospects instead of talking and pitching at them. That?s why Brian Tracy calls this book, ?The absolute best book on inside sales I?ve seen in a long time.?

Also, by taking advantage of this book launch, you can get over $795 worth of free bonus gifts including valuable e-books, and recordings from authors and experts like Tom Hopkins, Jeb Blount, Wendy Weiss, and many others when you order this new book today.

Go here right now and get details about purchasing the book and receiving your special free gifts.

Mike Brooks,
Mr. Inside Sales

P.S. The Chapter on cold calling alone will instantly change your experience of prospecting and will easily pay for the book within the first day! Check out Ultimate Scripts Here.

The One Email Guaranteed to Get You a Response!

Ever had a client or prospect never get back to you?

If you’re in sales, then I know it’s happened to you (or is happening with several of your clients or prospects right now).

If you have ever find yourself in a place where you’ve qualified a prospect, sent information to them on your product or service, and then find that they just won’t return your calls or emails, then I’ve got a guaranteed email that will get you a response.

In fact, don’t take my word for it. Check out this word for word email I received last week from one of my readers who used this technique himself:

“Mike, just wanted to drop you a note and say thanks. I have been working the phone for 25 years and Stan Billue has been my hero for many of those. You are now one of my hero’s as well. Just one tip I took from you about your ‘guaranteed email’ worked so well I needed to say thanks.

‘Should I stay or should I go’

I had a 30% response from a group of prospects I could not get on the phone a second time and did not want to chase. It worked like a charm and of the 42 responses I picked up 2 sales I would not have gotten otherwise. I also made several people smile that day. Thanks again for the technique! – Eric K.”

You’re welcome, Eric!

OK, so if you’re ready to learn and use this technique, here it is:

(Note: this email technique was one I learned last summer when I spoke at the L.A. Chapter of the AA-ISP. One of the participants shared it with us and I’ve been passing it along ever since!)

Subject of your email: “Should I stay or Should I go?”

“_________ While I’ve tried to reach you, I haven’t heard back from you and that tells me one of three things:

1) You’ve already chosen another company for this and if that’s the case please let me know so can I stop bothering you,

2) You’re still interested but haven’t had the time to get back to me yet

3) You’ve fallen and can’t get up and in that case please let me know and I’ll call 911 for you…

Please let me know which one it is because I’m starting to worry…

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing back from you.”

Is that great or what?? This works on so many levels including using a “Clash” song everyone can relate to in the subject line, to giving them options and an out in case they’ve decided not to work with you.

And, of course, you give people a reason to smile and that always relieves the pressure from the sales situation.

Use it this week and see for yourself how it works to get your prospects to get back with you and how it gets you deals. And then email me yourself with your results – I’d love to hear them!

4 Secrets to Attracting What You Want

People ask me if I believe in the Law of Attraction.  I tell them that not only do I believe in it, but I use it every day to attract the kind of life I want.  In fact, using the Law of Attraction is as important a part of what I do as is picking up the phone and speaking with clients, conducting training programs, creating products, etc.

Actually, it’s more important than all that.  You see, I believe that it all starts in my mind first, and then that vision is what drives the actions and decisions I make and it brings the opportunities and situations into my life that allow me to fulfill my vision.

People then ask exactly how I use the Law of Attraction to bring things into my life and I tell them I have and practice a simple 4-Step process that ALWAYS works for me in my life.  And today, I’ll share it with you.

Step One: The first thing I do is get somewhere where I can be quiet.  I have a meditation space in my office, but I’ve done this in my car, in the parking lot, at the park, even in the lobby of companies.

The important thing is to just sit somewhere and get quiet.  Don’t try to think about anything.  Don’t try to think of the right thoughts or of what you want or what you don’t have or what you’re afraid of.  The point here is just to clear your mind for a few moments.

I do this by just counting five breaths.  Once you’re quiet, then you:

Step Two:  Shift your mind and think about either: God.  If you’d rather think of something else bigger than you, then great!  You can think of The Power of the Universe, or The Great Spirit or The Law of Attraction, or the power that drives the waves in the ocean.  Just think about a power greater than yourself.

Concentrate on this power and think about all its attributes.  I like to think about how God is all around me and everybody else.  I like to think of the infinite resources God has, the knowledge and power and how God always wants the best, the highest for me and all others.

Once you concentrate on this for a few minutes, then you:

Step Three: Think about what it is you want to accomplish.  The key here is to think about what it feels like to have already attracted or created or achieved what it is you want.  Think about how you feel, how others feel, and what it means to actually be living and being what it is you desire.

Feeling and emotion at this point are crucial.  If you’re able (and you will with a little practice) to actually believe that you’ve achieved your goal, then you’ve succeeded here at this step.

After a while, this will be a really fun step, and you’ll want to do this exercise over and over because it feels so good!

Step Four: Give thanks to God, or the Universe or whatever power you’ve thought about for brining this goodness into your life.  This is an important step and learning to live in thanks and gratitude will change your life.

I’ve found that this last step has been the most important to help me maintain the feeling of “being” at the new level of achievement I am seeking.  And it is this feeling of “being” that acts as the magnet bringing in the circumstances and opportunities into my life.

If you’re looking for a way to create the life you know you are capable of achieving, then I highly recommend trying these “4 Secrets to Attracting What You Want.”   I know first-hand that they work, and I know they’ll work for you, too.

If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mike’s bestselling book on inside sales: “The REAL Secrets of the Top 20% – How To Double Your Income Selling Over the Phone.”  (Recommended by Jeffrey!)  Get a Special Offer and read about it by clicking here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/secrets_and_CD.htm

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance.

He offers a FREE audio program designed to help you double your income selling over the phone, as well as an internationally acclaimed FREE Ezine. If you’re looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

The 3 Keys to Successful Sales Management.

If you are a business owner or sales manager responsible for getting your team of sales reps to make their numbers or achieve sales quotas, then I feel your pain. If you’re like many of the sales managers and owners I work with, then I know you’re being pulled in many different directions. You’re busy; you have endless meetings to attend to, reporting to do, and on top of it all you have many different personalities to deal with on your team, and each of them have different skill levels, motivation levels, etc.

It can seem like an overwhelming job.

Add into that you’ve probably never had any real sales management training or reinforcement, and your actual sales training that you are supposed to give your team probably isn’t very highly developed either. I can just see you nodding your heads and thinking, “Yeah, you got that right. Now what?”

Well, here’s what. Sales management is actually real easy and straight forward if you break it down to its three most important elements. If you concentrate on these three keys and actually make it a priority to implement them, your job will get so much easier, and, more importantly, you and your team will actually start closing more business and making their numbers.

Here’s what they are:

1) Define your sales process best practices. Provide your team with clear, easy to follow best practices as far as sales techniques and skill sets go for your specific sale. Give them the specific scripts and rebuttals to follow, specific qualifying questions, proper closing tools, and make sure they are unambiguous.

In other words, identify what actually works in your selling cycle and what the best approaches are and then develop them into a solid selling system and make it company policy that this is the best way to handle every part of your selling process from the first call, to qualifying, to leaving voice messages and emails, to getting back to your prospects to closing the sale and handling objections.

You absolutely must make this selling system clear enough for anyone to understand and follow. Once you have this, then:

2) Implement and monitor the use of your best practice system. Think of a great football team. What do they do? The coaches come up with the best game plan (the system), and then they teach it to their players and practice every formation, every play and every technique. They drill it in over and over and they watch film of each practice and game to make sure their players are following the plan and using the best technique.

And that’s what you need to do with your sales team as well. Once you’ve given your team the best practices, it’s up to you to train them on it and reinforce adherence to it. You do that by observing your sales reps as they are on the phone with their prospects and customers. You record their calls and review them with them, and then you make sure they are using the best practices. If you do that – actually get your team members to use the best practices that you know work – then they will without a doubt get better and make more sales.

3) Discipline your team members when they aren’t following your sales best practices. First, let me say a word about discipline. Discipline comes from the Greek word that means “to teach,” not “to scold or make others feel bad.” The proper role of a teacher, coach or sales manager is to point out when a student or sales rep isn’t following the proven tools to succeed, and then to help them, or “teach” them to do it better. And that’s where your skills as a manager (and where your time) will be most efficient.

You can do this in your one on one’s with a rep, and you can do this in sales meetings where you can play recordings of reps who are doing it correctly, and you can do it by feeding lines to a rep while they’re on the phone, or by instant messaging while you’re listening in, etc.. The bottom line is that it’s your job to give your team the right tools to succeed, manage them to implement them, and then to monitor and teach them to use them.

If you implement all three of the above keys in your selling environment, you will see the quickest and easiest return on your time and investment. If you miss one of these keys, then you will spend all your time wondering what’s wrong, and your frustration with the team, with your company and with your efforts will only get worse.

Look at your current selling environment and see which one of these keys is missing. Once you find it, you’ll now know what to do!

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