Introduction

Because your time is limited, the material has been organized in easily accessible chapters you can refer to anytime. These in turn are divided into short, readable entries that give you proven tactics and strategies that work in every area of sales, from hiring and training to forecasting and revamping compensation plans.

To help you quickly summarize the most important points of a discussion or problem, checklists and worksheets accompany many entries. Some are for you to complete, while others are for you to copy and distribute to the people on your team.

To let you immediately apply new knowledge to your own situation, ACT NOW summaries reframe important points into quiz format that lets you deepen your self-knowledge, target areas for improvement, and develop strategies that will help you manage better and boost sales.

No sales manager has the time to read the Sales Manager's High-Performance Guide in one sitting. That's why our carefully organized Table of Contents lets you immediately turn to the sections of interest to you. (You can access more specific topics by checking the index.) But every area covered by this book is important to your future as a sales manager, and we recommend that you make time, over the next several months, to read it all.