B2B Sales Pipeline

A website I try and frequent for timely and provocative information iswww.salesteamtools.com. This fantastic compendium of knowledge offers those of us who make a living in sales a vast portal of knowledge and ideas to incorporate into our thought process and stimulate our thinking.

Upon returning from the winter holiday’s, I went to salesteamtools.comand read a fascinating post, entitled, “How I Improved My 2007 Sales Results.”

This got me thinking. What were the things I did in 2007 that not only improved my sales results, but conversely, what did I do to to hinder my sales results?

One of the things those of us in leadership roles in sales try and do is take on too many tasks, instead of delegating assignments to other team members. Instead of trying to tackle every new project or starting work on an ongoing project that would have monopolized my attention and produced less than stellar results, it is sometimes vital to delegate that assignment to another team member. Offloading tasks can be the best way to ensure that:

A. You finish the tasks and jobs you currently have on your plate and give the proper attention to them that they deserve.

B. You learn where your strengths and weakness are and where to focus. If you have a task you feel you aren’t suited for, then the best idea is to delegate that duty to another team member.

C. Your relationships with your existing clients won’t suffer, as the days of trying to make everyone happy will be over. Let one of your team members help out.

D. Your time management skills will increase/ coupled with increases in productivity and efficiency.

E. You will energize your team members by improving their self-reliability.

It might be to late to work on offloading duties in 2007, but with the start of brand new year, implementing this approach to your leadership style will produce big results in 2008, not only for yourself and your individual goals, but also your company’s sales goals.