The Migala Report

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Sales Management

Tue, 02/07/2012 - 11:18
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Lessons from Lombardi

Legendary Packers and Redskins coach Vince Lombardi was further immortalized by a recent HBO documentary, “Lombardi,” reflecting on his life and career. Interviews featuring former players and family members provide fascinating insight of the man who is regarded by many as the greatest professional football coach ever. Lombardi won five championships including the first two Super Bowls and turned around a Packers franchise which at the time was in jeopardy of relocating. A must watch portrait of a legend, “Lombardi” provides many lessons that translate to working in sports:

Mon, 01/02/2012 - 16:50
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Helping sales reps identify successful days

How do we gauge a successful day for our sales representatives? Identifying successful days are so important because daily habits are formed. Those who recognize and engrain successful daily habits will be great over the coming weeks and months, while those that don’t won’t last. Obvious indicators include revenue generated or calls made, but consider the possible flaws in these daily gauges (at least in the short term):

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 11:36
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5 Tips for a Successful Sales Campaign

Every sales campaign has thousands of moving parts. Challenges abound to coordinate and communicate with all other interested parties. Have you ever tried explaining everything you do to the PR department? To ownership? I have and I’ve found explaining the complexity of campaigns to be very difficult. Therefore, I went back through all of our successful campaigns and synthesized five elements present in each. Regardless of how sophisticated the campaign may be, these five elements remained consistent. While the actions may change for each campaign, the steps do not.

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 15:39
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The Carrot or the Stick?

How do you motivate your sales staff?

Looking for new approaches, I’ve been reading a lot of articles, blogs, and books about motivation. As I’ve looked at the different paths we as managers take to motivate, the debate surrounding the carrot and stick analogy stuck out the most. The principle of combining rewards and punishment to manage people has been around at least since the industrial age.

Fri, 07/01/2011 - 12:44
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Managing top salespeople and "The paradox of excellence"

As managers we rely on our top producers every day. These individuals are high achievers, extremely motivated, and often driven by the fear of failure. They often find that one area of sales becomes their bread and butter. In ticket sales, this could mean many things: hitting home run season ticket deals, organizing and selling groups, or maximizing partial plan volume, to name a few. Top producers become comfortable in knowing their particular areas of strength, and may choose to focus solely on that expertise at the expense of growing their skills in other sales categories.

Wed, 06/01/2011 - 15:38
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What Motivates Millennials in the Sales Force?

Early in my sales management career I knew I had a lot to learn. But, one thing I knew was certain; all sales people are motivated by career advancement and cash.

It wasn’t until I surveyed my staff that I realized how wrong I really was. I had a staff of eight aggressive, driven and motivated sales people. I learned they were motivated by internal recognition, praise, and peer approval more than my standard answer of “show me the money.” Don’t get me wrong, most of these people wanted to gain a quick promotion and eventually did, but they also wanted to gain the respect of the organization and wanted to make a difference when viewed by their peers. I also realized that I was going to need to change the way I approached my business. I needed to meet these people at their comfort level and I also needed to ask lots of questions.

Tue, 05/03/2011 - 08:16
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How do teams control the secondary ticket market?

You don’t. There. That easy.

OK. Maybe it’s not that easy. I hear sports executives ask that exact question though. “How do we control the secondary market?” Maybe years ago, before Al Gore invented the internet, people didn’t realize the secondary market was there. It was. The internet gave transparency and allowed the free flow of information. With the internet, the secondary market exploded. Now buyers didn’t have to walk from scalper to scalper, asking the price for a ticket for that day’s game. You can just pull up real time prices for tickets on your computer, your iPad, or your mobile phone. And it’s not going anywhere.

Tue, 04/05/2011 - 15:02
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Develop Core Strength

I have always enjoyed hitting the gym. Since my high school days the majority of my work outs have consisted of lifting, lifting, and more lifting. I would often skip stretching and anything to do with core and/or cardio. That is, until about five years ago, when I was swinging a golf club and threw my back out. For about two weeks, I was on the proverbial shelf. After a tip from a friend I set an appointment with a physical therapist.

Tue, 03/01/2011 - 11:19
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How to empower your sales force

As the new department head of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Ticket Sales team during the 2009-10 season, I was chomping at the bit to implement what I thought were new and improved processes I had been dreaming of instituting during my years as a sales representative. It was finally my turn to show how my experience making cold calls, setting appointments and closing deals could result in making our team more efficient and effective and ultimately blow our sales goals out of the water.

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