Jeff Hicks

🚀 Just like an NFL team relies on its practice squad to prepare for game day, sales engineers must embrace enablement sessions to stay sharp and ready. The practice squad’s job? To simulate real opponents, identify weaknesses, and keep the team on point. For sales engineers, enablement is your practice squad. It’s where you role play, refine techniques, and prepare for the real customer interactions that matter most. Remember, even the pros need practice. By continuously honing your skills in a safe, supportive environment, you ensure that when the stakes are high, you’re ready to perform at your best. #SalesEnablement #PracticeMakesPerfect #SalesEngineering #ContinuousImprovement

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Conversation with EVP of Sales of a $600M remanufacturing company. Over 150 outside sales reps. "As sale leaders, we are taught to look for folks that played sports growing up. They had goals, they worked hard to succeed. When they failed, they got feedback from coaches to help make them better. Better yet, let's get graduates that played sports at the college level. Afterall, they balanced academics and sports and a social agenda. They were held accountable to performing at a high level in the classroom and on the field / court. Sadly, the prevailing leadership models in most outside sales driven orgs these days - remove the competition. We remove the expectation of excellence for fear of being seen as big brother. When they remove accountability, they lower the bar of excellence and they settle for mediocrity. You get what you settle for. And then they wonder why their team doesn't take pride in their work." The best leaders, get the right folks on their team. Set the right expectations by measuring what matters. Holds the team accountable to what matters. You do that - and your team will storm the hill with you. #outsidesales #fieldsales

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Sales professionals can learn a lot from athletes...Jalen Brunson's from the New York Knicks statement after losing game seven really resonated with me (even as a Celtics fan): "I go into the summer every year looking back on how I could be better as a player, to be the most complete player I can be...The most important thing that I need to do is to continue to just strive for perfection, just strive for perfection, and knowing that I'm never going to get there." As a sales person, whether you are just starting your career, you lead a huge team, and everything in between, the message here is simple: you are never done developing and if you want to be #elite you have to keep working to get better. You will never be perfect but you can chase perfection and get better every. single. day. Things you can focus on getting better at: -discovery -follow up -mirroring/labeling -negotiating -presentations -researching -writing .... #development #hardwork #practice #masterofthecraft #getgoodatgettinggreat

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