Upcoming Speaking Event
MXL Partner's Michael Griego will be speaking this month at the upcoming Silicon Valley eWomanNetwork Luncheon on January 21st at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Clara, CA, 10:30am - 1:30pm. $55 registration.

Michael will be speaking on the topic "Sales Effectiveness in 2010" and his recent book 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness.

Sales Competency Training - Month 1
Sales training is critical but needs tailoring, focus, and must go beyond product training. MXL conducts a lot of "Advanced-Fundamentals" sales training for savvy teams that need a reset and focus on selling in a difficult market modified for their specific market environment and competitive challenges. Do not assume that your veteran reps are above this - they all need it and can benefit from a modern training upgrade.

At MXL we break down our Strategic Sales Execution training into adjustable modules:

• Plans - 5 tools for territory planning, prioritization and account management.
• Regimens - 5 tools for maximizing and managing sales time and activities.
• Operations - 5 tools to manage performance, pipelines and forecasts.
• Communications - 5 tools to optimize sales and marketing pitch/messaging.
• Execution - 5 tools for sales call execution, qualification, consultative probing.
• Sales Cycle - 5 tools for clarifying sales processes and managing sales cycle.
• Skills - varied workshops in sales negotiation, presentations, etc.

Each trained team member gets a copy of Mike Griego's book, 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness.

Sales Activity Inventory - Month 2
Every salesperson conducts selling activities such as phone calls, emails, sales meetings, demos, proposals, to name a few. Not every sales manager or rep knows for sure how many activities are done each day, week, month or quarter. Oh, there are hunches, guesses and estimates, but few teams know accurate patterns and trends.

We maintain that this information is vital. It's on management and reps to understand and set appropriate goals and standards. It takes 30 days to track and understand this. It takes management commitment and attention to detail to correlate the data to performance and draw relevant conclusions.

This is a key part to our Upgrade a Sales Team in 90 days Program. MXL's Activity Metrics^Tool is a powerful resource here.

Sales Forecast Process Review
Forecasting at the rep and management level is both art and science. In many sales organizations the process is owned by management and tolerated by salespeople. Careful observation and dissection of the forecasting process often reveals a breakdown in bottoms-up rigor, calculated extrapolations based on dubious percentages, and CRM-driven views that often limit total opportunity visibility.

There are steps to take that can be tailored for any environment, be it a weekly, monthly or quarterly process. The key is developing a forecasting process that holds value for both rep and management.

The combination of a well-trained team practicing modern sales effectiveness, performing targeted optimized levels of selling activities, and conducting timely, helpful and rigorous pipeline/forecast management, makes for a sales organization that's developing into that ultimate selling machine.

How's your forecasting process? Give us a call to discuss and review.

Inspiring Actions
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams