Two handbooks for the first months of selling

One is for the person who has just become head of sales. The other is for the owner who sells and is building a first sales team. Each has five short chapters, and each chapter ends with things to do this week.

How to use it

Read the chapters in order, once. Then come back to the one you need on a given day: each chapter stands on its own.

Every chapter has a fictional example, labeled as fictional, and a small first step. It also points to one tool that fits. Nothing here promises a result: a threshold is a starting hypothesis that you test on your own numbers.

FOR NEW SALES MANAGERS

Your first quarter in charge of sales

You were promoted or hired to run sales, and everyone expects changes. Start by learning how things work, then change one thing at a time. These five chapters take you from the first week to a rhythm your team can keep.

CHAPTER 1 What to learn before you change anythingIn your first week, collect facts and leave the process alone. Listen to real calls, ask each seller where deals stall, follow three live deals and agree goals for day 30 and day 90 with the owner. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 2 The first talk with the ownerBefore you change anything, agree with the owner what you are there to fix. It takes one conversation and fifteen questions, and it ends with two written goals: one for day 30, one for day 90. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 3 A weekly rhythm your team can keepA rhythm is the same short meeting, the same few numbers and one decision, every week. Start with one meeting and seven numbers, and add nothing until the team has kept it for a month. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 4 A pipeline review that ends with decisionsUse the pipeline review to decide, and leave the status for the CRM. Take only the stuck deals, ask what should be true by now, and leave with one decision for each: move it, fix it or close it. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 5 One-to-ones that are not status updatesA one-to-one is the seller’s time. Keep it to 30 minutes, let the seller bring the topics and end with one thing they will do before the next one. 7 MIN READ

Open the handbook

FOR OWNERS WHO SELL

Your first sales team

You have been the only seller, and now you are thinking about a second pair of hands. These five chapters cover the order of work: when to hire, how to write down how you sell, how fast to reply, who owns which lead and what the first seller does in the first 90 days.

CHAPTER 1 When to hire the first sellerHire the first seller when you can describe the job on one page and when more inquiries arrive than you can answer well. If you cannot, fix the process first, because a hire only repeats it. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 2 Write down how you sell, in one pageA one-page description of how you sell gives a new seller a way to start and gives you a way to inspect. Cover who you sell to, where inquiries come from, the deal stages, the rules for usual cases and the next-step rule. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 3 The first reply rule for every inquiryA first reply that your team gives every time within a set time beats a faster one it gives on a good day. Pick a time you can keep, name who replies and write it down. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 4 Who owns which leadEvery lead has one owner at every moment. Decide how leads are assigned, what happens when the owner is away and when a lead moves to someone else, then make the CRM show the owner. 7 MIN READ CHAPTER 5 The first seller's first 90 daysA new seller needs a plan, a mentor and three checkpoints. Write what they do in 30, 60 and 90 days, who teaches each skill and how you will check it, on real work and not on feel. 7 MIN READ

Open the handbook