Andy Miller is the CEO of www.BigSwiftKick.com, an international sales strategy and performance consulting firm specializing in helping middle-market companies accelerate sales, as well as the author of the bestselling book ‘The Science of Hiring Quota Busting Sales Teams.’
‘The Science of Hiring Quota Busting Sales Team’ has hit #1 bestseller in multiple categories and has become a huge hit with readers looking to up their sales game, as well as seasoned reviewers. It is the first book written on hiring salespeople based upon 85 years of organizational psychology research, data analytics on 2.1 million salespeople and the best practices of top performing sales organizations. Miller has put this book together with the purpose to help companies hire stronger salespeople. Research shows there is a huge gap between what science knows and what businesses do! This research is easily available for you in this excellent piece of work.
We are so excited to share what Andy had to say about his book and his plans for the future!
What would you say is the one of the issues that company’s face hiring new salespeople?
Andy – The companies would say sourcing good candidates. I say it’s understanding what the job really is and making sure they get the right person since 73% of new hires say the job was misrepresented.
In your opinion how important is it for a corporation to have CRM software in place to prioritize leads and develop marketing campaigns?
Andy – CRM is important but too often key stakeholders are missing in determining the requirements and purpose of a CRM. Is it marketing campaigns, lead management, deal management, forecasting or something else? If you get the requirements correct, CRM is powerful. Unfortunately, an evaluation from MIT found that 55 to 75 percent of companies fell short of their expected ROI from their CRM systems
Describe your company’s culture. As a sales guru, how did you encourage your team to get involved?
Andy – that’s a great question but I’m not sure it’s a fair question. All my folks have 20 – 25 years of experience and are highly motivated. Think of a law firm where everyone is a senior partner and is responsible for their personal production. Even though we are all hard charges, we have great relationships, lots of collaboration and help each other on deals and accounts.
How would you manage critical recognition for top salespeople, support staff and most improved sales performances?
Andy – Interesting question. The world of positive psychology has known this answer for years but its never made it to the business word. Books like, “Have A New Kid By Friday ” or the TV series by the Dog Whisperer called “Better Human, Better Dog” stress that it’s the parents, dog owner or in this case the sales manager that makes the difference! More emphasis on recognizing and rewarding the positive and what is going right. We also need to do it more frequently.
What are some examples of how you got to know members of your team well enough to assign priorities to sales leads effectively?
Andy – Let me answer that with what sales managers should be doing. They should know what the personal goals are for each of their salespeople and they link those goals to sales performance. Are they saving for their kid’s education, money to help their parents, a vacation home or something else? Then how much more commission do they need to make to reach those goals? As for lead assignment do you want to assign by rep most likely to close it, or territory/market or something else?
