Sales Leadership: It's time to gear up your recruiting! 

I have often stated that a sales manager should spend 15% to 20% of their time recruiting and interviewing, but as you move through October into November you need to increase your recruiting focus.

At this time of year, like it or not, every salesperson is assessing their current status, their organization, what they are selling and a pending new compensation plan in 2012.  By increasing your recruiting now you will capture the…

Fix the Economy:  Sales Leadership Must Be the Stimulus

By Ken Thoreson

While most eyes are on Washington DC and Wall Street to judge the health of the economy or to propose plans to that will "solve the problems", everyone that reads this blog knows nothing happens unless a salesperson sells something!

I am firmly convinced that the VP of Sales, Sales Director, or Sales Manager are the linchpins that drive the growth of any organization.  They set the direction, culture and create the…

Sales Leadership: Improving your Won/Lost Results

Last week I was speaking to a group of executives about improving their Business Planning process by increasing their consideration of: strategic issues, market dynamics and resource/employee development.  One of the other elements in effective business planning  is holding a formal quarterly review process where the management team evaluates the quality of business execution and the operations, marketing and sales scorecards. During the…

Take Advantage of the Opportunity of Lifetime

Take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime, during the lifetime of the opportunity! I use this phase in my keynote program on Gourmet Living; I have coined it as a Thoreson Theorem.  In each of our lives we all have special times or events that open the door to unique opportunities. They maybe a business that is taking off and bringing great rewards, or it could be a special time to share with old friends or relatives.    The important…

Take Advantage of the Opportunity of Lifetime

Take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime, during the lifetime of the opportunity! I use this phase in my keynote program on Gourmet Living; I have coined it as a Thoreson Theorem.  In each of our lives we all have special times or events that open the door to unique opportunities. They maybe a business that is taking off and bringing great rewards, or it could be a special time to share with old friends or relatives.    The important…

Gourmet Living:  Your Life's Pizza

Ahh summer is here, the fourth of July was celebrated with parades, fireworks and many family and community get togethers.  I hope your weekend was a terrific time to celebrate America.

On Saturday,  we spent the evening on the dock, cooling off with frequent swims and feeling the light breeze off the lake;   about 6pm I went up to the kitchen and took out my pizza stone and made a pizza, with pepperoni, mushrooms, 2 kinds of cheeses, fresh basil and Italian…