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Will Noble

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Principal Consultant, Aegis Consulting, LLC

76 points

The recipient of three national sales awards from Hewlett-Packard; a national distribution award (Agilysys Corp.) and six other sales awards, Will Noble has a 25-year sales career which included founding and operating Hewlett-Packard's largest computer dealership in the state ...

The recipient of three national sales awards from Hewlett-Packard; a national distribution award (Agilysys Corp.) and six other sales awards, Will Noble has a 25-year sales career which included founding and operating Hewlett-Packard's largest computer dealership in the state of Oregon.

Will is currently the founding principle of Aegis Consulting, a full-service business consulting firm in Portland, Oregon, serving channel partners nationwide. Aegis' services include business planning, channel planning, demand-generation and soft-dollar management, sales management and sales training.

His award-winning sales-training method, 21st Century Sales, has assisted many high-tech channel partners in achieving growth rates of 30% or more.

He lives in suburban Portland. The author of two award-winning blogs, you may find him online at aegis-consulting.net.

His other interests include gardening, restoring a midcentury-modern home, restoring automobiles, SCUBA/snorkeling, flying and writing short-stories (science-fiction and alternate-history). He is working on his first novel.

You can drop Will a note at wnoble@aegis-consulting.net

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WEB: Aegis Consulting

March 19, 2011

Will Noble and 8 other people answered this question

Where does the disconnect between sales tools and sales people usually occur?

Lauren, the four-word answer is 'it begins with management'.
As was pointed out above by Nancy and Ellen, sales reps sign-on for 'tools' (usually CRM and management-reporting) when they see the value to THEM. Period.
Unless their management has delivered a solid value-proposition by way ... more

Sales Enablement

Sales Management

Sales Operations

Jan. 31, 2011

Will Noble and 10 other people answered this question

What are the top three things you would recommend to align sales & marketing?

There've been a lot of words posted here. I'll sum things up as I see them:
#1 - Implement the tenets of Sales 2.0 (collaboration being the main one) immediately.
#2 - Do away with the 'siloed' marketing and sales structure.
#3 - Recognize that there aren't enough ... more

Marketing Alignment

Jan. 31, 2011

Will Noble and 15 other people answered this question

Sales training "worst practices": What are some of the biggest mistakes made in sales training?

There's not much I can add to what's been said here - although I'll weigh-in with some of my favorites from the lists above:
#1. - Not fostering an ongoing culture of training, education, and improvement. Managers, *encourage your reps to read*. Most of what they ... more

Sales Management

Worst Practices

Dec. 21, 2010

Will Noble and 3 other people answered this question

Sales Team pay structure: Do they need commission?

The short answer is, 'that depends on the product.'
If you're selling toasters - no; you don't need to pay commission - that's because toasters sell themselves.
If you're selling anything complex enough to merit a real sales force, then yes, you have to pay commissions to ... more

Employee Payroll

Nov. 10, 2010

Will Noble and 4 other people answered this question

Where do you send your sales reps for training?

Tom, the first thing which comes to mind is this: If you're smart, you don't send them anywhere - you have the sales-development/training company come to *you*.
My approach to sales training is to get to know the people with whom I'll be working to create ... more

Sales Training/development

Nov. 5, 2010

Will Noble and 3 other people answered this question

Should I outsource my sales training?

Tim:
As a channel consultant who's spent more than a bit of time developing sales training materials, I'm hardly a subjective voice here - but my answer is a resounding 'yes!' - with one corollary.
If you've produced successful training materials; kept up on sales process/best process ... more

General Management

Nov. 5, 2010

Will Noble and 1 other person answered this question

Doug:
The first and probably most-obvious answer is this: The size of the organization, as measured both by personnel and transaction-volume, as well as the complexity of the company's product offerings would likely be the twin-determiners of this.
In consulting channel-resellers, two things leap out at me ... more

General Management

Sales Development

Nov. 5, 2010

Will Noble and 4 other people answered this question

What do you think is the single toughest question thrown at a salesperson? And the best answer?

Charles:
Daniel and Lori beat me to the punch on this one - the worst question a salesperson can be asked is, "Who are you, and why should I do business with your company?"
The answer is as varied as there are companies - but a salesperson ... more

Toughest Question

Nov. 5, 2010

Will Noble and 6 other people answered this question

How do you start formulating a sales training strategy?

Adam:
The single biggest reason for sales training is to improve the process. To that end, we're going to have to assume the following:
1. That the company has a written mission/vision/values statement and manages to that set of overarching goals.
2. That out of these goals the ... more

Sales Training/development

Oct. 21, 2010

Will Noble and 5 other people answered this question

You have a $1 to spend on development, do you allocate it to your sales reps or your sales mgt team

Spend it on sales - by way of demand-generation and training.
(I'm making the assumption that this extra-dollar is just that - extra; you have no needs in any areas, but rather 'wants'.)
If that's the case - then likely the management controls you have are fine ... more

Sales Management

Sales Managements Impact

Oct. 21, 2010

Will Noble and 14 other people answered this question

What are the 10 things sales managers should be most worried about in maximizing performance?

My own list, in no order, is this:
1. Hire hard - manage easy.
2. Organization - Ensure your company is organized to *sell*.
3. Reputation - You cannot expect your team to 'rehabilitate' a bad reputation.
4. Recognition - Ensure your team is recognized for what they do ... more

Oct. 21, 2010

Will Noble and 3 other people answered this question

Would people on your team benefit from more recognition?

One of the main things I've noticed in consulting sales managers and business owners is that there is a direct relationship between lack of recognition and low morale - conversely, organizations which value and recognize their sales representatives have high morale, lower turnover, and better ... more

General Management

Employee Engagement

Sept. 29, 2010

Will Noble recommends this answer by Matt Heinz

What successful metrics should I use to manage my inside sales reps?

Sales.
Everything else is a means to an ends. If your inside reps are responsible for closed business, they're measured by closed business. If they're primarily appointment-setters, they're measured by setting appointments (and also by how many of those appointments convert to closed business).
Below is a ... more

Inside Sales Metrics

Inside Sales Reps

Inside Sales Resources

Sept. 26, 2010

Will Noble and 6 other people answered this question

Shoud I be listening to my reps calls?

In a word, 'absolutely'!!!
Unless your reps are so telephone-smooth they can sell ice cubes to Arctic-dwellers over the telephone, there's a chance that a 'second set of ears' can help.
(I'm assuming here that there's a reason you asked the question, and the reason is ... more

Sept. 26, 2010

Will Noble and 6 other people answered this question

Have you ever put someone on a performance plan? If so, what are your recommendations?

First, consult an attorney in your area - the law varies *widely* from state to state regarding this sort of thing.
Generally; however...
#1 - Document everything -- this includes everything from the moment the person was hired. If you don't have a formal HR plan in ... more

Human Resources

Performance Evaluation

Performance Plan

Sept. 26, 2010

Will Noble and 21 other people answered this question

What is the most important technique, habit or principle that you would offer to a new sales pro?

I'm going to cheat, and offer three:
#1 - Organize yourself, and manage your time -- if you're not organized, the other two (below) are not going to work. Organization - especially paying attention to the details - is a skill which will translate into any ... more

Career Counselling

Sales - Small - Medium and Large Enterprise

Nov. 4, 2009

Will Noble and 9 other people answered this question

According to Salesforce.com, 73% of CRM users do not use 50% of the functionality available to them in their CRM systems. What do you think is the reason for this?

The thing that leaps out at me from the comments here is that one fact has been overlooked entirely, and is conspicuous by its absence -- CRM systems, by design, are intended to serve management, not the salesperson or the customer.
Before implementing any system within ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

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