Wonderful Sales Advice

"If you're not making me money, you better be saving me money." That’s the rule that every CEO wants their sales people to live by!

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful. Most of you probably know him from the famous show “Shark Tank.” In addition to serving as one of the five industry titans on “Shark Tank,” he's also a very successful entrepreneur who owns, or has equity in, 32 other businesses. As I heard him talk, I found myself in awe of the simple but genius questions and advice he bestowed. While he seems like a shark on the show, Kevin is actually very down to earth and has a witty sense of humor.

When I asked him to name the first and most important leadership position in the company, his immediate response was “sales.” I also met Robert Herjavec a while ago and he gave me similar advice – “that sales is the cure to all problems.” They aren't the first two successful leaders who have given me those words of advice.

Here my Top Five Tips for Creating an Effective Sales Team:

1. Hire a strong sales leader and give them specific goals broken down by quarters. Set the expectations with your sales manager immediately so there aren't any surprises.

2. Build a sales team and make the leader responsible for their success.

3. Develop Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) that you can track weekly to gauge your sales leaders’ performance -- which of course includes the team.

4. Get back to basics --- get out in front of people in person and sell. Schedule at least five to seven appointments per person per week.

5. When calling on big accounts, ask for 15 minutes to meet in person and be a problem solver. Any CEO or decision maker will give you time if you can make them money or save them money.

For MXOtech, I have tirelessly invested in sales to make it the heart of the company. Everyone from our help desk administrators, to our network engineers, developers, and support staff understand the importance of sales and have a stake in the sales process.

Read the full blog post to learn how we’ve transcended sales from one department to our entire company.