Butch’s Mailbag: Tips For A Manager’s First Sales Meeting

Dear Butch, I’ve recently been promoted to a Section Manager at (my company) and will be holding my first sales meeting that I’m responsible for on June 1. I’ll have 9 reps there. Any tips or ideas you can give a newbie? Thanks and I enjoy reading your site. Kris J. Kris: Congratulations! This sounds like an exciting time in your career. Hopefully, I can give you a little something you can build on today. First, I noticed your sales … Continue reading →

Role-Playing: Making Your Formal Sales Training Programs More Effective

Too often companies invest significantly in a major sales training program only to see little improvement. Again and again sales managers say, “sales training programs are a waste; my people just do what they’ve always done sixty days later.” Of course one mistake many companies make is to treat sales training as an event rather than a ongoing process. There is one trend ESR is happy to see: the growing appreciation among sales managers that reinforcement is a critical part … Continue reading →

Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks!

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”-Author Unknown Ever heard that? Well, that’s another myth I’d love to dispel. You’re never too old to stop learning, growing and improving. In fact, when you stop doing so it’s usually a sign you’re not living—but dying. “Old dogs usually are the ones that get run over or put down.”-Butch Bellah If you are going to continue to run with the “young dogs” and perform at your peak level, you have to … Continue reading →

Mid May Goal Check Up

Yesterday was May 15th, the midway point of the month. So, where are you in relation to your May goals? It’s time to do a quick check and take stock of where we are and make any necessary changes. Obviously the first step is to get out your goals—you do have them written down, don’t you? Now, you should be A MINIMUM of 50% of the way to achieving your total monthly goal. But, here’s where your mid-month goal check … Continue reading →

The Best Sales Training I Ever Had

Some of you may know that for 10-years I toured the nation as a professional stand-up comic. I got to meet and work with some of the top names in the business and remain friends with many of them today. I never did it “full time” as my only job, but it got to the point around 2000 that I had to make a decision: either I was going to go for it or I was going to hang up … Continue reading →

A Valuable Lesson I Learned From My 15-Year Old Daughter!

I started training sales people years ago, speaking and writing in hopes of others being able to learn something from me. Not that I am any smarter or better than anyone else, but simply because I happened to enjoy the process of training and teaching—and I didn’t mind getting up in front of others and talking about sales. Through the years I’ve told salespeople to “keep your eyes and ears open” because you can learn something from EVERYONE. Well, I … Continue reading →

Mailbag: Know Your Numbers!

From Melissa J: Butch I really enjoy reading your weblog. Your articles and comments always make me think. I would like to know other than my closing ratio, what other aspects of my sales should I keep up with? Thx! Melissa: Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you enjoy the blog—I really enjoy writing it and getting emails like yours keep me inspired. Ok, to your question: I don’t know what you sell, so I’m not sure if you … Continue reading →

Exceeding Customer Expectations EVERY Day!

A few months ago I had the occasion to rent a car for a week-long trip that was to begin on New Year’s Day. I called one of the large, national car agencies a couple of weeks in advance to reserve the vehicle. On this particular trip I was going to be traveling alone, so all I needed was a mid-size car—nothing fancy, because I was going to be driving to three separate engagements over the period of the week. … Continue reading →

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