Is sales management the weak link in the revenue chain? Tony explores what he regards as the top three mistakes and how to avoid them:
 

• Retaining the wrong sales people costs huge amounts of time and energy, let alone lost revenue and brand damage internally and externally. How do you decide who should go and what influence should seller personas in The Challenger Sale (Corporate Executive Board) play in making your decision?
• Allowing sales people to pursue business they cannot win. Opportunity qualification is essential but how do you adopt a pragmatic process that also creates actions linked to strategy for deals that can be won?
• Failing to have close plans in place for all critical business. Poor process alignment with the buyer is the number one reason that forecast dates slip. How do you work in partnership with the [potential] customer to create accurate close dates?

Dave Stein has worked as a sales representative  sales manager, Director of Worldwide Sales Development, VP of Sales, VP of International Operations, VP of Client Services, sales strategist, and consultant. His hands-on work with businesses ranging from start-ups to the Global 100 provides him with a unique and pragmatic view of sales methodologies, sales training approaches, social selling, and the cultural, behavioral, and operational changes required for corporations to excel at the sales function. Dave’s  first book, How Winners Sell, was a highly-acclaimed commercial success, and he is considered an expert by Sales & Marketing Management, Fast Company,  the New York Times, BusinessWeek, Inc., Fortune,  the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.

Tony Hughes is Managing Director of RSVPselling which he launched in 2010 after publishing his book The Joshua Principle – Leadership Secrets of Selling which is now in it’s fourth printing. Prior to this Tony had an outstanding career in selling spanning more than twenty years which led to him becoming Country Manager for a number of leading software companies including Open Text and Sugar CRM. He has personally won massive contracts in the enterprise and government sectors and worked as global Sales Director for a publicly listed corporation. He knows how to lead sales teams and how to win very large complex opportunities.

Tony has taught leadership for Sydney University in the past and is currently working with Macquarie University’s Graduate School of Management to teach sales management.