Pressure, Pressure, Pressure. Those of us in our 40s may be thinking of the Billy Joel song. Those of us that carry quotas or rely on sales to put food on the table or pay a mortgage (or two), understand pressure. Or more like what it is to be in a pressure cooker.
Good Sales Managers relieve pressure by recognizing that bad news early in a sales cycle is GOOD – it frees up time to hunt, fish, harvest (pick your metaphor) elsewhere.
This thought is further illuminated by Sales Guru John Holland HERE.
So, Managers use pressure a different way: Encourage your reps to scrub out stale, losing, unqualified opportunities and work on the good well-qualified ones. Expect closes from un-qualified opportunities and what you will get is a burst pipe!