Hello and welcome to the Sales Insights with Sarah podcast. In this episode, Sarah Downs talks about strategic succession planning in sales. This is something Sarah has been doing more research into recently because we do understand that an effective succession plan can help us reduce the impact of change while boosting team morale. But also it is very clear that there is way more to planning the future of your sales team than just promoting your best salesperson.
In this podcast, Sarah will openly share the good, the bad, and the ugly of her entrepreneurial journey to date and also interview others to share their own sales insights.
♦️CONNECT WITH SARAH https://linktr.ee/SarahDowns
♦️KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Top 3 tips for succession planning in your salesforce…
1. Ensure key customers aren’t reliant on one salesperson.
2. Be prepared and have a clear strategy for developing your people.
3. Don’t assume that a great salesperson will make a great sales manager or leader.
♦️ EPISODE QUOTES
"86% of business leaders believe that succession planning isn't urgent or an important priority, but only 14% of them believe that they are doing it well."
"By asking some of those what-if questions we can help identify scenarios that might leave us n a sticky situation"
"The process of identifying and nurturing sales leaders of the future and successful salespeople who are performing well is important, but how do we go about this?"
♦️ABOUT THE HOST:
I am the Co-founding Director of Doqaru Ltd, a data-driven sales and marketing consultancy for engineering, technology and professional services companies.
I've directly served over 85 companies in a sales consultancy capacity in the past 5 years, and have indirectly supported hundreds of businesses through online workshops and various content. My company, Doqaru, were nominated as finalists for Start-up Business of the Year by the Federation of Small Businesses and Great British Entrepreneur Awards in 2019 and 2020.
I'm a Fellow of the Association of Professional Sales (APS) and care about helping organisations to grow revenue and drive the performance of their sales teams. I have a passion for people and have recently co-authored Amazon No1 Bestselling Purposeful People, an anthology about finding purpose and purpose-driven leadership.
As an ex-trauma nurse I’ve learned a lot about how to truly connect and engage with people, even during the most emotional and vulnerable points in life. I now use this knowledge and experience to help my clients to ‘Sell Like a Nurse’ and build human connection that makes a difference in business.
So, I know a thing or two about strategy, making meaningful connections and building relationships with purpose….just what you need in Social Selling!
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