University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
SalesHood
Book

SalesHood

How Winning Sales Managers Inspire Sales Teams to Succeed

Elay Cohen
Greenleaf Book Group, 2014
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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Overview
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Selling is in Elay Cohen’s blood. His grandfather was a Cairo carpet merchant. His father had a furniture store. His mother sells real estate. As a boy, he sold first-aid supplies. As an adult, he sold investment products, web services and CRM applications. He helped build Salesforce into a $3 billion-plus enterprise. This taught him the pivotal role that sales managers play in all sales organizations. As “selfhood” concerns the “fully developed self,” “SalesHood” – Cohen’s term – helps sales managers, salespeople and sales teams attain their full potential and hit their sales goals. Entrepreneurial sales managers, he says, should act as the CEOs of their own sales operations. Cohen shares valuable experiences and knowledge, but his text is clumsy and burdened with proofing errors. An astute reader will be able to separate his sound, innovative advice from the slower, sort of banal filler. Cohen knows sales and, with a small effort, you can learn a lot from him. getAbstract recommends his solid guidance to sales managers, particularly novices.

Summary

Take Charge of Your Sales Teams

The most-effective sales managers have entrepreneurial mind-sets. They act as the CEOs of their sales operations. Like mayors, they get things done. In “mayor-speak,” they bring new value to their constituents, who are their customers. They develop marketing programs geared specifically to their company and their sales teams. They create customized sales-training programs and assume responsibility for their sales teams’ pipelines.

Leading sales managers understand the essence of “SalesHood,” the selling equivalent of “selfhood.” Top sales managers enhance their organizations’ relationships with customers. For example, they sponsor dinners and fund marketing and sales events. They stay on top of the numbers that directly affect their teams, such as, “pipeline, revenue, win rates...number of deals per salesperson,” and so on. Top sales managers make sure that their team’s activities mesh with their firms’ business goals. Their companies trust and empower them to be proactive.

Sales Values

As a sales manager, make sure your salespeople know your firm’s sales values so they support its corporate culture and business philosophy...

About the Author

Elay Cohen is a technologist, innovator and entrepreneur. He co-founded SalesHood and was a senior executive at Salesforce.com for eight years.

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