Sales
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Most Topular Stories
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'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.3
SymVolli Blog RSS Feed24 Jan 2012 | 4:01 am -
Don’t Propose. Close.
Sales 2.0 Blog8 Jan 2012 | 7:43 amI don’t care how many proposals you have out. Truth be told you probably don’t really care either. What you care about is how much money you are going to put in your bank account this month, this quarter and this year. Proposals are not going to get you there. Deals are. Closed deals. Once you’ve got a signed contract you’ve got a shot at sending out invoices and after some duly annoying amount of time getting a check back that with some good fortune will clear and finally you reached your goal. The problem with proposals is they are all about proposing. Proposing is a lot about you… -
Your Questions Make a Difference in Sales Success
Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management16 Jan 2012 | 7:56 pmDid you call on the decision maker? Where they unhappy with their current banker? Do they have a budget? Will you follow up next week? Are you sure this is a client that we want to have? Is there a way to get in front of the committee? These are all questions I have heard sales managers ask their sales people during post call debriefing sessions. When our sales development experts, Mark, Chris or Walt deliver a sales management session on coaching or a session on the "Art and Science of Asking Questions" they focus a great deal of attention on asking closed ended questions. They… -
Five Attributes of Top Sales Influencers
Score More Sales24 Jan 2012 | 4:41 pmBeing recognized this month as a Top Sales Influencer made me wonder: What IS an influencer, and how can this help build a business or a brand? I mean, it is a great thing to have happened – quite an honor – but what is it, really? Wikipedia talks about identifying influencers: Market research techniques can be used to identify influencers, using pre-defined criteria to determine the extent and type of influence. For example, Keller and Berry propose five attributes of influencers: Activists: influencers get involved, with their communities, political movements, charities and… -
Why Young, Male Salespeople are at a Huge Disadvantage
Understanding the Sales Force26 Jan 2012 | 2:08 pmUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanIf you have been reading this Blog for a while, then you may remember my requests during the last half of 2011 to complete a survey for my Trust Project. My goal was to understand to what degree people did not like and/or trust salespeople and integrate that information into our future work. I thought it could signify the importance of additional findings in Objective Management Group's Sales Candidate Assessments, and it could influence how we train salespeople in the future. The research has been completed, a white paper has been…
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Heavy Hitter Sales Blog
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Top 7 Critical Sales Trends for 2012
1 Jan 2012 | 11:53 amTop 7 Critical Sales Trends for 2012 What are the top sales trends for 2012? Here’s my list based upon my experience of studying and working with some of the world’s greatest sales organizations last year. 1. Sales Linguistics – For 2012, it’s not only what you say, but equally important, how you say it. “Sales linguistics” is the revolutionary new field of study about how customers and salespeople use and interpret language during the decision making process. If you are in sales, you make your living by talking. If you were a pilot, you would attend years of flight training… -
Why Year End Deals Don't Close: THE CESSPOOL!
15 Dec 2011 | 7:27 pmHere’s one of my favorite year end stories that you do not want to miss… READ BRIAN'S STORY BELOW! Brian was presenting his forecast in front of his teammates and was explaining why a deal that he had originally forecasted to close in the fourth quarter came in three months later. Here’s his story. Brian was excited that the account he had worked on for nine months had selected his software… -
IT Sales Strategy: Software, SaaS & Hardware Sales
25 Nov 2011 | 7:30 pmIf you are involved in selling an enterprise software or technology solutions, you already know the importance of understanding the inner workings of the various departments within the prospective customer’s company. Your solution might be purchased by the information technology department and used by accounting and human resources. It might be selected by engineering (with the IT department’s help) and used by manufacturing. Or it could be selected by finance and bought by the IT department. Almost every enterprise software purchase decision requires multiple departments to become… -
Best New Sales Book of 2011
3 Nov 2011 | 10:58 amI am excited to announce that the newest book in the "Heavy Hitter" series is now available. HEAVY HITTER SALES LINGUISTICS: 101 ADVANCED SALES CALL STRATEGIES FOR SENIOR SALESPEOPLE is the first book that truly explains "sales linguistics," the revolutionary new field of study about how customers use and interpret language during the decision-making process. Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics provides communication strategies that enable salespeople to rise above their competition and impactful psychological suggestions that compel customers' rational intellect and… -
If Sigmund Freud Was Your Sales Manager
4 Oct 2011 | 5:25 pmHere's an excerpt from my book Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy. Sigmund Freud is the most famous figure in all of psychology. If he was your sales manager I think he would ask you one very important question, “Why are you in sales?” While your conscious mind might rationalize that you got into sales through a calculated career move or even happenstance, Freud would probably argue that your decision to become a salesperson was made many years ago. This is because your subconscious mind has had…
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Score More Sales
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Middle of the Sales Pipeline – Acceleration
25 Jan 2012 | 6:52 amMost everyone focuses on the front of the sales pipeline, and there is much written about all of the things that happen early on. But what about once you have potential sales opportunities? How are they moved forward to closure, and what happens during that “dark phase’ when your once-wonderful prospective customers are not returning your calls or e-mails? Welcome to the middle of the pipeline, or for those of you using a funnel approach to track sales opportunities, welcome to MoFu (as coined by Hubspot, for middle-of-the-funnel). This less talked about period is where your prospects… -
Five Attributes of Top Sales Influencers
24 Jan 2012 | 4:41 pmBeing recognized this month as a Top Sales Influencer made me wonder: What IS an influencer, and how can this help build a business or a brand? I mean, it is a great thing to have happened – quite an honor – but what is it, really? Wikipedia talks about identifying influencers: Market research techniques can be used to identify influencers, using pre-defined criteria to determine the extent and type of influence. For example, Keller and Berry propose five attributes of influencers: Activists: influencers get involved, with their communities, political movements, charities and… -
B2B Sales Podcast With Michael Boylan on Value Propositions
19 Jan 2012 | 8:58 amLast week we shared a recent interview with Michael Boylan, best selling author of The Power to Get In, Accelerants , and TEETH – Does Your Value Proposition Have Any? Michael is an award-winning keynote speaker at hundreds of conferences and Fortune 500 company meetings. Michael can take any organization through the sales process with dramatically increased results. We were honored to speak with him not just once but twice. Today’s conversation shares how once you gain access to the C-level decision makers you wanted to get in front of in the first place, now what do you say to… -
Build the Front of Your Sales Pipeline
17 Jan 2012 | 12:21 pmIn conversations about managing sales opportunities you need to reference either a pipeline or a funnel to really understand that it takes many more potential deals than what will come to actual closure. All of the things you are working on won’t close – even if you think they will. Deals get stalled, especially if they are complex sales that take more than one meeting to close. Even with the best of intentions and promise of a new customer, things slow down. They even go silent. The power of using steps or phases to track your sales opportunities is huge for three reasons: 1. If… -
Thirty Thousand Dollar Haircut – Power of Referrals
14 Jan 2012 | 1:18 pmIt was a random salon I chose when I first moved to Boston - I simply went to the internet and did a search, which back in 1998 yielded just a few results. As soon as one relocates, you need to find certain services, and a hair salon with a great stylist was at the top of my list. Assigned to a stylist named Roz, I happily showed up and quickly became a loyal customer. The salon was OK, but Roz was amazing. Her sense of style, competence, lightheartedness, and wonderful Irish brogue had me hooked. A few short years later, I moved away, but before I did, I raved about her to my friend…
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Understanding the Sales Force
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Why Young, Male Salespeople are at a Huge Disadvantage
26 Jan 2012 | 2:08 pmUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanIf you have been reading this Blog for a while, then you may remember my requests during the last half of 2011 to complete a survey for my Trust Project. My goal was to understand to what degree people did not like and/or trust salespeople and integrate that information into our future work. I thought it could signify the importance of additional findings in Objective Management Group's Sales Candidate Assessments, and it could influence how we train salespeople in the future. The research has been completed, a white paper has been… -
Are Your Salespeople Still Cold Calling? The Ugly Truth
25 Jan 2012 | 7:20 amUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanCold calling. It sounds so...20th Century. Some industries still break-in their salespeople by putting them on the phone and having them dial - more than one hundred times a day - and attempt to schedule appointments. You still receive calls like this from new, and sometimes not so new salespeople selling insurance, investments, copiers, office supplies, commercial real estate and long distance phone services. Today, more salespeople are using the Social Network to find opportunities. Whether it's incoming leads from Blogs,… -
You Can Help Salespeople Burdened with Sales Weaknesses
22 Jan 2012 | 10:59 pmUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanIf you have been reading my Blog for a while you know that there is more to selling than just utilizing skills to execute the sales process, sales model, and sales methodology. The big, hidden, 600 pound gorilla in all this is the combination of hidden weaknesses that prevent salespeople from executing. Objective Management Group identifies five big ones and a dozen or so additional weaknesses that cause problems for salespeople. Most salespeople have at least 3 of the big ones and average a total of 9 weaknesses all together. Sadly,… -
The Future of Selling - Is it Good or Bad?
20 Jan 2012 | 9:50 amUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanSales has changed a lot in the last five years and indications are that it will continue to evolve over the next five years. Technology, the economy and the internet have dramatically changed the way people buy and sell. Monday, four sales experts will join Michael Nick in a round table discussion to talk about the Future of Selling. Join us for this free teleconference by registering here. We'll be discussing tools, technology, sales process, changes, and everything else the modern salesperson must be aware of and prepared to face in… -
10 Reasons - Don't Worry When Sales Candidates Don't Take the Test
19 Jan 2012 | 5:15 amUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanWe instruct clients to have their sales candidates take the Sales Candidate assessment very early in the recruiting process. It's the first step after the client receives their resumes. Clients carefully spell out exactly how the entire process will work and explain that the assessment is simply the first step. Recent statistics show that only 34% of the candidates are taking the assessment without additional prompts. Isn't that awful? Maybe - let's explore it further. We should consider that the following ten scenarios are…
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Fresh Sales Strategies Blog
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Dealing with Oops! Moments: Sales Lessons from Rick Perry
26 Jan 2012 | 7:27 amThis not meant to be a political statement. It is simply commentary about what a candidate did - and what we, as sellers, can learn from it. When Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the presidential race, he immediately soared to a front-runner status. But, it didn't last long due to his performance during the Republican debates.For those of you who don't follow American politics, during the recent debates Perry stated that he'd eliminate three federal departments. When asked which ones, his mind went blank. He came up with two, but the third eluded him. For 55 seconds, he wracked his brain,… -
[Audio] 3 Big Sales Problems I See Today
22 Jan 2012 | 11:04 pmRecently I was interivewed by the Sales Lead Management Association about some of the biggest problems I see today that are having a negative impact on sales -- and what can be done about them What was my key focus? - Management's failure to understand changing customer/behavior.- Lack of sufficient digital assets to attract & nuture prospects.- Improper training & tools for salespeople to help them succeed in the new sales environment. You can listen to the download the interview below. Download this episode (right click and save) -
[Video] How to Get More Prospects in Your Pipeline?
12 Jan 2012 | 9:05 amAs sellers, we want to keep as many options open to us. We want to be able to pursue business with anyone who has the potential to buy from us. But doing this actually has a boomerang effect and reduces your sales effectiveness. Here's what you need to do to get more hot prospects in your sales pipeline: You must focus, focus, focus. Focus on certain types of customers. Put together a campaign and go after law firms. Or, think about what the school districts might need. Or how about mid-sized manufacturing firms. The more focused you are the better your message resonates. You can also… -
[Video] What If You Couldn't Get Any New Customers?
4 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amToday's video is designed to get you thinking. Seriously thinking. If you're on a sales team, talk about it together. If you're on your own, explore the ramifications. What you discover may have a huge impact on your success this year. And when you're done, please add your thoughts & comments below. Your ideas may stimulate us all to think at a higher level. Check out the video now >> Video Script: If you've been in the sale profession for any length of time, you probably have a whole laundry list of assumptions about what it takes to be successful. But our marketplace is undergoing… -
Shocking 2012 Sales Prediction
29 Dec 2011 | 8:21 pmThere's no pussyfooting around it. I feel pretty strongly that I'm right on about this. My prediction? In 2012, we will see the total demise of nice salespeople. And here's why. Today's crazy-busy decision makers have absolutely no time nor interest in working with sellers whose main focus is on building relationships & providing great service. Instead, they want to work with savvy professionals who bring them high value on a regular basis. To avoid extinction in 2012, sellers need to: Sharpen their personal expertise in areas relevant to their customers. Proactively bring them…
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C-Level, Relationship Selling Blog
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C-Level Selling - The Great Customer Experience Happens When the C-Level Executives Are Satisfied
27 Jan 2012 | 7:06 pmThe Great Customer Experience requires making C-level executive constantly feel you are helping them succeed. Learn what’s required in this C-level selling article. -
C-Level Relationship Selling – Good Work Won’t Win the Next Sale
19 Dec 2011 | 8:53 pmTo win sale after sale from the same customer, you must do more than good work. You must associate yourself with the winning solution and show that you’re special to the C-level executives. Read and learn how. -
C-Level Relationship Selling – How to Differentiate When Selling
5 Dec 2011 | 7:50 pmDifferentiating is a good talking point, but it doesn’t close sales. Showing you’re competent does. Use numbers, names and details to show your difference makes you competent in what matters to the C-Level buyer. -
C-Level Relationship Selling – 4 Style Checks to Exude Trust and Believability
19 Oct 2011 | 5:13 pmLearn a simple 4 step check to make all types of prospects immediately feel comfortable with you. To be successful in sales, one must be able to adapt his or her style to effectively interact with everyone. -
C-Level Relationship Selling - 9 Active Listening Steps to Effortlessly Sell Prospects
30 Aug 2011 | 8:09 pmWhen someone opens up, it’s a major step in selling them or building your relationship. Some people require more effort than other to open up. That’s why you have to have a strategy to get people talking. But no matter how much effort is required, when that prospect starts talking, it’s time for you to start listening, gathering information without interrupting
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Caskey Sales Training - Sales Strategy - Leadership - Indianapolis
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Are You Bringing ‘Presence’ to Your Prospects?
25 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amNot donuts…or lunch…or coffee mugs. But are you bringing your ‘full self’ when you meet with people? In this video, Bill tells you a story of how he and his team are brought in to interview sales people upfront before an offer is made. What they see is not good. And it all gets back to the little word with big implications: Presence. He tells you what he looks for in those interviews and how you can think about what you bring to prospect meetings. Video Transcript: You know, in our work with organizations, we are asked to come in and interview people and so… -
Why Saying “It’s Really All About Price” Is Career Suicide For Any Salesperson
24 Jan 2012 | 7:36 amLogic is your enemy here. Think how many times you say or think, “This deal is all about price.” Every time you say that, think that and believe that you endorse the idea that having a sales person involved in a deal adds absolutely NO value. The more you convince yourself of this idea (and tell your sales manager or CEO), the more they should be thinking of firing the sales staff and hiring customer service reps at $15/hour to take orders from their online catalog. When it’s all about price, it ain’t about you. Low price = no need for sales people. Proceed with… -
How To Talk ‘Money’ In The Sales Process
23 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amIn this episode, Bill and Bryan address the ever-emotional topic of money. Many facets to money like: 1. Cost of problem 2. Money in customer budget 3. Money they’re willing to spend to change 4. Your belief in your own value They have addressed this recently in the area of “positioning.” How you are positioned will determine the fees you command. Also mentioned in this podcast: Seth Godin’s Blog Join our Linkedin group Follow Bill Caskey on Twitter Follow Bryan Neale on Twitter -
Embrace The Ultimate “Money” Question
19 Jan 2012 | 10:11 pmI’ve seen salespeople avoid having the money conversation entirely, or jump right into lowering their price at the first sign of discomfort from the prospect. Please remember: It’s never about money! It’s about their belief they have a problem, they want to invest money to fix it and that you are the lucky dog that gets to help them do that. When you brush past their money questions, or discount your value because it’s easier than educating the prospect, you’re screwed—trust lost, your value depleted, conversation over. -
Aristotle Taught Us But We Weren’t Listening – 3 Ways To Improve Your Sales Strategy
17 Jan 2012 | 12:36 pmOK, sales folks. You got some advice from your friend Aristotle in 350 BC and I don’t think you were listening. It was while he was being taught by Plato and just before he hooked up with Alex the Great. His advice was very simple. In order to be a great sales person, you have to have 3 parts to your strategy. In this video, Bill calls up some Aristotle wisdom and shares what those are.
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Sales Training Motivational Speaker | Gavin Ingham
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If I Sold Cars I Wouldn’t…
16 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amYesterday I visited several car showrooms as I am thinking about changing one of the cars. I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of it and it doesn’t matter what makes they were or what companies but they were executive brands / companies and there were 4 of them. It inspired me to have a little rant about a few of things that I wouldn’t do if I sold cars! If I sold cars I wouldn’t… Sit comfortably in the showroom whilst potential customers looked at my cars on the forecourt – no matter how cold it was! Chat with my 3 mates in the “sales”… -
Sometimes You Just Have To Say “No”
6 Jan 2012 | 4:07 amThe more amenable you are and the more you help others, the more they will like you. And the more they like you, the more they will buy from you. Right? Maybe not. A paper co-authored by a University of Notre Dame professor shows that moderately disagreeable men earn an average of 18 percent, or $9,772, more than the average of moderately agreeable men. Both groups of men, though, earn more than the average salary for women — regardless of their workplace disposition. And while women are still lagging behind men in pay, disagreeable women earned 5 percent, or $1,828, over their more… -
Ignore Doom-Mongers & Naysayers! Have Dreams, Set Goals & Take Action…
4 Jan 2012 | 3:46 amYesterday I made some changes in the way I run my business. They’re not significant changes in many ways but in others they will make positive differences for my clients, my prospects and my readers. Hopefully, HUGE ones! There will be more tips, more strategies, more inspirational stories and more ways for you to read, listen, watch and get involved and get better results in your sales and in your life. One of the things I am going to do more of this year is blog posting. I already do quite a lot some might say but it’s something that I enjoy and I know that it is one of the key… -
Can Your Dad Dance?
3 Jan 2012 | 9:58 amCan your Dad dance? Most can’t. I’m sure they could once but they can’t now! Music tastes changed, dancing styles changed, your Dad aged and somewhere down the line he lost touch with his ability to dance. For many Dad’s, the answer to the problem is to do their bad dancing more enthusiastically, more energetically and more desperately… No matter, I don’t suppose that dancing is all that important in the grand scheme of things. But business is. And life is too. And in business and in life everything changed over the last few years. The economy changed. The… -
Take Stock, Take Charge & Take Action!
7 Nov 2011 | 10:10 amWhy do some people achieve so much more than others? Why do some people seem to have all of the time in the world to get things done whilst others constantly seem to be frazzled? How can some people win new clients every month, service existing clients amazingly, manage sales teams, become industry go-to resources, deliver awesome lectures, write books, climb mountains, run marathons, have fabulous social activities? And live the life of their dreams as well? And yet others struggle to remove themselves from firefighting, admin and dealing with challenges and spend their mornings, noons and…
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turrisiassociates.com
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How to Increase Your Sales in 2012… Part One
17 Jan 2012 | 12:44 pmMy conversation with Bill went like this. Bill: Hi Al, I wanted this session with you because while I had a good sales year and hit my quota, I feel I can do better. I don’t know how much to increase my sales numbers, sales quota and how many more business opportunities I can capture. Al: Well Bill, you certainly have a positive attitude, can you expand on that? Bill: Sure, I have a vision of improving my sales process, not to be overly challenging and yet increase my sales performance. I want to increase my sales volume, do a better job of pipeline management and have a sales plan that… -
6- Sales Tips -How to Get Out of the Quoting Game
11 Jan 2012 | 1:18 pmSusan called and wanted to know how to get out of the quoting game. The conversation went as follows; Susan: Al, when I am cold calling and find a business opportunity how do I get out of the quoting game and still win my market share of the business? Al: Susan, if you needed a product or a service and you had a good friend who was a sales person who sold that product or service would you go to them to make the purchase? Susan: Sure. Al: Would you go out and get a quote from someone else? Susan: No. Al: Why? Susan: Because I have a relationship with them, I respect them and trust that they… -
How to Shorten Your Sales Cycle Part - 2
5 Jan 2012 | 9:38 amI received a call from Peter asking if I would debrief a prospect sales call. Peter was having difficulty getting in touch with the decision maker to book another sales appointment. Our sales call debriefing session went as follows: Al, I had a great first prospect telephone call. During the call I was able to determine the prospect had some issues that I could address for him successfully. From there we booked a first meeting two weeks out. When I arrived I met with the decision maker. During the sales call I made sure not to go into a premature presentation. Most of the prospect call was… -
Three Ways to Shorten Your Sales Cycle
3 Jan 2012 | 12:33 pmLong sales cycles or longer than expected sales cycles are one of the many causes of companies not hitting their sales quotas, and profit quotas. It will also determine whether they capture their market share within a specific time period. Three sure fire ways to shorten your sales cycle close more sales and profits and improve your selling systems. 1-Make sure you are dealing with the decision maker and/or understand the decision making process for that prospect. These selling skill concepts will help you avoid dealing with someone that is just gathering information for someone else. Dealing… -
Should Sales Quotas Be Raised?
20 Dec 2011 | 5:39 amI received a call from John. I could tell by the tone of his voice he was upset about something. The conversation went like this. “Al I am really upset with my company. They are never satisfied. No matter what I do it is never enough.” I replied, “John, slow down you sound like you are going to have a heart attack!” “Yeh, they are raising my sales quota again this year. Every time I hit it they raise it again. I am getting tired of this.” Here is what John missed: Sales people sometimes get upset when quotas are raised. This is an indication of a…
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The Sales Wars
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So we are re-launching
31 Dec 2011 | 3:56 pmWhile the popularity of the first generation of the Sales Wars exceeded our expectations in popularity, fun, and the ability to connect with new people; we decided it was time to relaunch the site, and update it with more best practices and productive discussions laced with relevant, yet slightly-disturbing humor. So we are starting with a clean slate, a new case of beer, and some friends of ours who made parole. We will be launching soon. Thanks for your interest. The Sales Wars Team Filed under: Business Humor -
The Back Button
23 Sep 2011 | 4:27 pmYears ago, one of my Sales Engineers was involved in a bake off at financial services firm in Manhattan. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a “bake off”, in the world of enterprise software is used to describe when a company, evaluating solutions, brings in a multiple vendors and submits their systems to a series of scripted tasks. The company’s evaluation team monitors the performance and attempts to get a handle on what they can reasonably expect from the system, and look for those hidden gotchas that may come back to bite them in the butt. Out of ten initial vendors, we… -
Top Ten Signs One of Your Reps is about to Leave the Company
21 Sep 2011 | 4:37 pmSo you are a sales director or a regional manager and you have suspicions that some members of your team may be looking for a career switch. Here’s a quick reference to help you decide who is staying, and who is not. Signs Your Rep is About to Leave During sales demo, explains that, while not proven, he suspects that your new software has contributed to global warming Shows up to work, exceedingly happy, like a lifer whose just been given parole During cold calls, refers to your cutting edge solution as “that crap we sell” On casual Fridays, shows up wearing “Atlanta… -
Text Slang – Learn It, Love It, Use It
5 Jul 2011 | 9:20 amI am old enough to remember a time when if you needed to talk to someone, you had to pick up the phone. But now Internet chat, texting, twitter, etc., allows virtual teams to communicate just as effectively as those in the same office. And while these technologies have been great for communicating with team members in otherwise remote markets, it has introduced its share of challenges and has forced us to change the way we communicate. While the key to effective communications is brevity, chat-based communications has taken it to an extreme. For example, when someone types “BRB”,…
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Sales and Sales Management Blog
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In 2012 the New Normal in Sales Is . . .
27 Jan 2012 | 1:20 pmAs with the beginning of almost every year we have a number of commentators and pundits proclaiming what the “new normal” is. We’re told that the old normal was the government strove to keep unemployment below 5% and that the “new normal” is going to be to try to keep unemployment below 7%. We’re told that the old normal in the auto industry was to try to increase the miles per gallon on a manufacturer’s fleet by selling enough high mileage units to raise the fleet average, and the “new normal” is no longer trying to sell large numbers of high mileage internal combustion… -
Guest Article: Avoiding the Activity Trap, by Jeb Brooks
24 Jan 2012 | 10:01 amAvoiding the Activity Trap by Jeb Brooks Many salespeople make the assumption that activity leads to results. “As long as I’m doing something,” they argue, “results will come.” This is a mistake. It’s the best way to get stuck in the activity trap. The activity trap occurs when you begin working too hard to make the sale. Sales is much more simple than a lot of salespeople make it out to be. Above all, your interactions must be meaningful. If all you’re doing on a call with a prospect is saying ‘hello,’ all you’ll hear is ‘hell no.’ Instead,… -
Dealing with Uncomfortable Questions from Prospects and Clients
23 Jan 2012 | 11:20 amOnce again we are in the middle of the presidential political season. For the next few months the Republicans will have center stage as candidates wrestle with one another to gain the Republican nomination to run for President. Once that contest has been decided the focus will shift to a tussle between the Republican nominee and President Obama. Whether we tend to be politically active or not, we will all have opinions about the candidates and issues involved in political combat this year. We’ll also have some—hopefully just a very few–prospects and clients make comments about… -
Guest Article: Recovery: The Conflict Resolution System, by Dr. Tony Alessandra
18 Jan 2012 | 1:11 pmRecovery: The Conflict Resolution System by Dr. Tony Alessandra No matter how good the relationship is, people are going to run into problems. Consequently there should be a system in place to make it easy for customers to tell you when they have a problem as early as possible. The earlier you find out about a Moment of Misery (when you fall short of the customer’s expectations), the easier, faster, and less expensive it is to solve. Once you are aware of the problem, you should have techniques, systems, and procedures in place to resolve it. Your communication skills definitely… -
Are You Too Fat and Happy to be Successful?
12 Jan 2012 | 9:24 amIt may surprise you to learn that I speak to a number of sellers and sales leaders every month who although they mouth the right words, their actions say they’re fat and happy and way too contented to become successful. What I hear most often in today’s economy, of course, is the complaint of not enough business, no one is buying, the competition is cutting prices to the bare bone or some other form of the statement that business is tough and in order to be successful you have to be sharp, aggressive and willing to put in long, tough hours. But that’s not the only message I’m…
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Inside Sales Experts Blog
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Building Inside Sales in Europe [New Ebook]
25 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amJudging by the constant stream of job postings in the Inside Sales Experts LinkedIn group, the market for Inside Sales talent in Europe is hot. Recruiting a German-Speaking Inside Sales Specialist in (Reading, UK) Looking for Dutch-Speaking Business Development Agents for an IT Co. (Barcelona, Spain) Hiring Multilingual Inside Sales Reps Based in Dublin (Ireland) Through numerous conversations with clients, we've been hearing anecdotal feedback about the challenges US & Canadian companies are facing when building inside teams targeting the European market: the more active role of… -
Scoring our 2011 Inside Sales Predictions [for golf lovers]
12 Jan 2012 | 8:50 amIt’s 2012 and high time to revisit 9 predictions that Laurie Page and I made early in 2011. I thought it might be interesting to see how well we did. We’ll be scoring our predictions like a 9-hole round using this point system: Hole-in-one (1) - when a prediction hits the nail on the head Birdie (3) - predictions that are in the area, but aren’t quite holes-in-one Bogey (5) - those that landed near the truth, but missed par Snowman (8) - those that just didn't come close No longer will the Inside Sales Rep be a “jack of all trades”. -
Things I'm Wishing For In 2012
3 Jan 2012 | 9:55 amMany thanks to Peter Shankman for inspiring this post (see his Things I’d Like to See Happen in 2012). Here's a list of things I’m wishing 2012 will deliver. May 2012 be the year we embrace social media for sharing - not endless self-promotion. I’m bored with hearing how busy and wonderful we all are. Aren’t we boring ourselves too? We can learn so much more from what didn’t go perfectly and how we adapted, improvised & overcame. May 2012 be the year that Inside Sales Reps embrace the fact that they are “the new black” and show us what they can… -
Quick Thoughts for a Pre-Holiday Week
20 Dec 2011 | 7:59 amFirst things first. Thanks, for real! Thanks for reading our thoughts and sharing your comments this year. We hope that, in some small part, our perspective (and occasional snark) made your job a little easier and your business more successful. Your vote is your gift As part of our 1/1/1 integrated philanthropy program, we are looking to make a year-end contribution to two charities. Please take a quick moment to vote for your top choice. We’ll be donating to the top 2 charities. 2011 Best Of! As we love to do, here’s our official The Bridge Group 2011 Year in… -
Recruiting, Motivating & Retaining Inside Reps [new research]
8 Dec 2011 | 7:59 amRecruiting, motivating & retaining great Reps is a critical component of any Inside Sales strategy. One thing that has largely been absent in the process is feedback from the Reps themselves. With that in mind, I am very excited to announce the launch of a new research project with our good friends at Vorsight: Inside Sales Motivation Research Survey. We are asking Inside Reps (& reps only) to share 3-minutes on a web survey about what motivates them professionally and how their current role is stacking up. In exchange, participants will be entered into a drawing where…
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Selling Financial Products by Michael Roby
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Announcing The PraxMax Project™!
12 Jan 2012 | 4:36 pmA short podcast! The PraxMax Project by Michael Roby Episode 1 -
Top Wholesaler Mistakes #6 – Drive-By Wholesaling
7 Sep 2011 | 12:01 pmWholesalers face aggressive activity objectives. Today’s standard is 25 in-person contacts per week. When covering larger geographies this proves challenging. As a result of insufficient scheduling, some wholesalers stop at an advisor’s office after calling to say, “Hey, I’m just down the street…” or – even worse – totally unannounced. “Do you have a few minutes?” turns into 30- 60 minutes. The wholesaler attempts to tell his or her story with little regard for the schedule of the advisor. Recently a coaching client called me about a wholesaler dropping in unannounced and… -
Top Wholesaler Mistakes #5 – Slamming The Competition
24 Aug 2011 | 4:27 pmWholesaling is competitive; VERY competitive. But what business is not competitive? Competition is a fact of life. Unfortunately, so is slamming the competition. “Slamming the Competition” questions the integrity and truthfulness of the competitor, and differs from comparing and contrasting products or services in both substance and tone. Being a Master Wholesaler™ means you never slam the competition, and you act as a professional in every respect. Recently I attended a broker-dealer conference, which as is typical, was attended by a large number of product partners. Unfortunately, one… -
Top Wholesaler Mistakes #4 – Improper Gifts
22 Aug 2011 | 8:50 amWe are a society of gift givers. “Never arrive empty handed,” applies to business as much as it applies to social settings. Recently I dropped off some dry cleaning, and asked the impossible: Could I get it in an hour? Usually – in fact, almost ALWAYS – the answer would be “NO!” One-hour dry cleaning has gone the way of the full-service gas station. However, this time the answer was YES, because the owner is a customer service fanatic. In addition, I drop off cookies once a month. Gifts make a difference. However, a gift protocol exists in business that says gifts should not… -
Top Wholesaler Mistakes – #3
6 Aug 2011 | 8:19 amThis is a series of ten major faux pas’ made by wholesalers, ideas on how to correct them, and suggestions for advisors on how to deal with wholesalers who make these mistakes. Wholesalers are driven, competitive, outcome focused and BUSY. They focus on the next call; the next appointment. They follow up on calls. Wholesalers order kits and illustrations. They book travel and events. They entertain. Wholesalers watch sales figures, sales penetration reports, and market statistics. They SELL! However, sometimes they walk right by the biggest asset they could have in getting advisors to sell…
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Sell More, Word Less Blog by Colleen Francis of Engage Selling
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Guest Article: Establishing Trust & Rapport in NON Face-to-Face Situations
25 Jan 2012 | 7:56 amEnjoy today’s guest post from Engage Private Coaching Client Doreen Ashton Wagner, Chief Strategist, www.greenfield-services.ca Establishing Trust & Rapport in NON Face-to-Face Situations When I was approached to write this article by my friend Janice Buttle I thought, “sure, no sweat.” After all, I run a company that has helps meetings industry organizations grow their business through phone and email lead generation programs. I’ve been teaching my clients and employees how to build trust and rapport for the last 14 years we’ve been in business. But things are seldom as… -
Making Money Monday: To channel or not to channel
23 Jan 2012 | 8:30 amManagers and owners of early-stage companies are often tempted to adopt a channel program versus having a sales team, thinking it will generate sales quickly without staffing headaches. However, it’s not always a silver bullet. I firmly believe company founders and in-house staff need to do the initial selling themselves. When you let someone else run the sales of your product, you risk losing control of the sales cycle, your reputation and your revenue flow. Also, a channel will never be as passionate about your product as you are. They’re looking for the easy win and will give up on… -
Making Money Monday: How to defend against a price-lowering competitor
16 Jan 2012 | 8:26 amIn a tough economy, many businesses panic and start competing on price alone. You don’t have to make that same mistake. Fight back by concentrating on your strongest asset—the value and benefits you offer to your customers. Tony Cram of Britain’s prestigious Ashridge Business School (and noted author of “Smarter Pricing”) recommends conducting a “benefit audit.” Here’s what that entails: Examine whether there are innovations you can offer in your product line. Consider how you can improve the range of choices you offer your customers. Reconsider customers’ needs. Are… -
You Can’t Make this Stuff Up
11 Jan 2012 | 7:08 amI had a Diner’s Club Card 15 years ago when I worked for PS Software and before we were bought by OpenText. The card was cancelled when we switched to OpenText processes. Did I mention 15 years ago? Since that time Diner’s Club has been sending me monthly statement. Most of them I missed, because I thought they were junk mail. This week opened one and found it was a statement. So I called, thinking maybe I had a case of stolen ID and someone opened an account in my name. I was assured it was my card, from 15 years ago that had never been cancelled. I asked them to cancel it and… -
Creating a Culture for Sales Success: Steps You Can Take Now to Ensure Success in 2012!
10 Jan 2012 | 7:05 amI am very lucky. I get the chance to work with a variety of sales groups in a variety of industries. Through that, I get to see first hand what works and what doesn’t. And as we kick off the New Year, I want to share what top sales organizations do as they start their year to set the stage for success. The specific actions they take now to create a culture of sales success that will drive their team to top revenue performance. I’ll be reviewing these specific strategies to making 2012 your team’s best year yet, this Thursday at 1pm Eastern on my brand new, complimentary…
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Marketo B2B Marketing and Sales Blogs
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Tying Facebook Leads Directly to Revenue: A Marketo Example
25 Jan 2012 | 2:22 pmby Jason Miller Want to know the ROI of social media? So do we. With our latest Facebook campaign, we are doing just that; tying leads generated by Facebook directly into our revenue pipeline via Marketo. How did we do it? We developed a custom Facebook application that generates a special offer and is powered by a Marketo form. Sticking with our Revenue Rockstar theme, we designed three limited edition “Marketing Rockstar” decals. Visitors to our Facebook page are prompted to “Like” our page which then lets them select their favorite decal. Once they make their selection a form pops… -
How to Measure Engagement of Your Thought Leadership Program
24 Jan 2012 | 9:17 amby Jason Miller I’m pleased to welcome Heidi Bullock, Sr. Director of Marketing at Ingenuity Systems as a guest blogger. She discusses thought leadership and how she developed a successful campaign to overcome the challenge of accurately measuring her thought leadership efforts. For b-to-b organizations, thought leadership is a critical component for driving awareness, sparking excitement, and creating engagement within a very skeptical market. While thought leadership has always been part of Ingenuity Systems’ marketing mix, in the past it had never been a formal program. This… -
Can B2Bs Use Social Media to Improve Marketing Effectiveness?
19 Jan 2012 | 11:42 amby Maria Pergolino Have you ever stopped to think which segment of marketers hold the bag on marketing effectiveness when it comes to social media? Many might think that B2Cs clearly leverage social better than B2Bs. However, the numbers show that B2Bs are making up ground. A study by Accenture found that while B2Bs lag in integrating social media into marketing plans, they are realizing the value of social media use. Nearly two thirds of marketing execs questioned said they believe social media is an important way to reach customers. Even though there hasn’t been a huge explosion in… -
How to Use LinkedIn to Generate and Qualify B2B Leads
18 Jan 2012 | 12:43 pmby Jason Miller LinkedIn is often considered a jobseeker-only social media platform. As a result, B2B marketers sometimes overlook the professional social media site’s ability to support lead generation and qualification. LinkedIn enables brands to offer bite size chunks of content that support business objectives. To better understand LinkedIn’s value, it’s useful to understand its usage patterns. At first glance, LinkedIn’s main usage appears to be during the workweek across the U.S., with less activity on the weekends. This is in contrast to Twitter and Facebook, which seem to have… -
5 Tips for a Social Media Profile Extreme Makeover
17 Jan 2012 | 12:04 pmby Jason Miller It can be difficult to stand out in the fast paced world of social media, but having a well branded cohesive design across your social profiles can help differentiate your business from the masses. Doing so will help reinforce your brand with existing customers and give a fantastic first impression to new prospects. We just finished a complete social media profile redesign across all of our channels and we are thrilled with the results. Here are five tips to help your business do the same. Have a running theme – It’s a good idea to unify your social profiles with a…
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S. Anthony Iannarino
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What If You Were Great at Cold Calling?
27 Jan 2012 | 10:07 pmWhat If You Were Great at Cold Calling? is a post from: The Sales Blog | S. Anthony Iannarino “I hate cold calling.” “Cold calling is dead.” “Cold calling doesn’t work.” It’s interesting the effect a core set of beliefs can have on your sales results. Many of the salespeople I know that struggle to produce results prospecting have a very negative set of beliefs about cold calling. The salespeople I know that produce the best results have a different set of beliefs about cold calling. Many of them know that they are good at it, and they prefer to pick up the telephone and call… -
Why You Have Low Wallet Share and What To Do About It
26 Jan 2012 | 8:34 pmWhy You Have Low Wallet Share and What To Do About It is a post from: The Sales Blog | S. Anthony Iannarino If you are going to exert the effort to go and win a client, why not put forth a little more effort and win the whole account? Sometimes we can succeed in winning orders and do so in a way that makes it more difficult to get what we were really after. Below are a few reasons sales organizations have low wallet share and some ideas about how you can increase it. Transactional Selling There are differences in selling transactional business and selling more strategic accounts. The… -
Owning the Outcome Means No Hiding
25 Jan 2012 | 9:25 pmOwning the Outcome Means No Hiding is a post from: The Sales Blog | S. Anthony Iannarino Your brand new client is upset. Your team is having trouble executing. They aren’t getting the results that they need, and your team is having trouble getting things right. Your client calls you to discuss the issue, but you are on sales calls and available. You call your team, you pass on the message, and someone from your team calls to resolve the issues. That’s all well and good, but it isn’t enough. You own the outcome. Problems Are Inevitable It’s inevitable that you are going to have… -
How to Defend Your Price
24 Jan 2012 | 8:50 pmHow to Defend Your Price is a post from: The Sales Blog | S. Anthony Iannarino It’s okay to lose on price. It’s okay—and it’s necessary—to walk away from business where you will lose money. Your company’s business strategy requires that you walk away from this business. While there are still plenty of buyers that buy on price alone and refuse to admit that they buy on price, there are even more salespeople that have trouble defending their price and that don’t make the effort. You Must Believe: If you don’t believe you are worth paying more for, neither will your clients. It… -
Making Do With What You Do Have
23 Jan 2012 | 7:11 pmMaking Do With What You Do Have is a post from: The Sales Blog | S. Anthony Iannarino It’s easy to look at other sales organizations and believe that they have advantages that you don’t have. This is especially true when the sales organizations you compete against are larger than yours. When you look at them as someone outside their organization, you believe that selling would be easier if you had some of what they had, namely more resources. You don’t need what they have. You can make do and win. More Money Equals Some of your competitors have more money. More money translates to more…
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RainMakers on Sales & Marketing Integration / 21st Century Sales
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Sales Growth Question....
22 Jan 2012 | 8:25 pmToday is January 22nd.Is 2012 going the same way that 2011 went?Can you bill $20,000 in April?Can you be at a million dollar pace by the end of the year?Is it your head?your heart?or your plan?Although imitation is flattery, plagiarism is not. Feel free to use it as long as you give proper credit and a link to my page. -
21st Century Sales Misconceptions
21 Jan 2012 | 8:31 amI've been out and about this week and had several conversations with business owners and managers that (I write this with love in my heart.) are confused and don't get it. A regional sales manager for an international consumer products wrote, "Our meeting is going to be centered around using technology more and how we can engage our customer base through Facebook etc. I am not the "Hi-Tech" guy....". It's not about technology. It's about knowing where your customers are 'hanging out' and being there with an interesting piece of information. It's also not something that happens overnight. So,… -
The Coaching Difference
19 Jan 2012 | 1:04 pmIt's not unusual for me to draw criticism for the way that I sell. Rick's way or the highway. Start with "No". Don't blow them up. About an hour ago, I received this email from a former client. Hi RickSo, a recent mailing prompted a few calls from "the dead." One of them wanted to get started at last, but wants to take a real go slow approach. I could have just blown him off, but I did want to have some fun first:Here's some interesting history: I see that the two-year anniversary of our original conversation is in two days. That absolutely blew me away. When I reviewed my notes and the… -
Is Free Sales Training Good or Bad?
16 Jan 2012 | 6:57 amI saw an email recently that started with, "Learn Our Advanced Sales Methodology in a Free, Eight-Week Webinar Course!" and closed with, "We'll dive deep in to the tactics and tools which have resulted in over 5,500 customers to date for our company and our partners." Huh? Wait a second here! Some companies have been boasting transparency lately. Glass is transparent. Have you ever seen anyone walk into a glass door. It's funny to watch, but the person walking into the door might break their nose. People with big glass picture windows often watch birds fly into the glass and kill… -
Chicken/Egg Question for Entrepreneurial Salespeople
10 Jan 2012 | 8:47 pmYou know the question, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?"If you're starting a business, do you learn how to market to get leads first or do you develop a sales process and learn how to sell first?If you've got $1,000, $10,000 or $100,000, to invest, do you put it into marketing, sales development, split it?Anybody know what Brian Halligan told Mark Roberge?Want to know what I think? Get on the waiting list for Sales and Marketing Integration.Although imitation is flattery, plagiarism is not. Feel free to use it as long as you give proper credit and a link to my page.
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Sales 2.0 Blog
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How Sales People Should Use Email – Part 2
26 Jan 2012 | 4:42 amMost of us sales people these days use email a lot. I recently got to sit down with a bloke that knows a lot about how sales people do and should use email. This is part 2 of my discussion with that bloke, Matthew Bellows, CEO of Yesware. Part 1 of the interview is here. NE: Matthew in your research you found that sales people should NOT wait for a reply to their email? Can you tell me more about what you found? Yes, we found that after an email had been sent, the chances of it being read decreased dramatically after the first hour and then fell incrementally lower from there. After 24 hours,… -
How Sales People Should Use Email – Part 1
19 Jan 2012 | 11:39 amMost of us sales people these days use email a lot. I recently got to sit down with a bloke that knows a lot about how sales people do and should use email. If you use email and sell, this is well worth a quick read (hint: he even did research!) That bloke is Matthew Bellows, CEO of Yesware. Here are some questions I asked him and his responses. NE: Matthew can you tell me a little about “your story”? I know you’ve been in sales and a sales manager and I think it gives a great perspective on what you are up to. Yes, I’ve been a sales guy and sales manager for about 10 years. Prior… -
Prospecting the Hard Way
12 Jan 2012 | 3:55 pmPhoto by delphaber va Flickr I’m not that keen on banging my head off walls. But some sales people are. Mostly sales people that have been trained in “old school selling techniques”. The ”old school” maintains that “sales is a numbers game” and the numbers that matter are all about effort. All about volume. One of the key indicators of success is the number of cold calls you can make. Unfortunately the way “more” comes out for many sales people is more calls to the same person. Many sales people have been told that they should “call high”. That they should figure out who… -
Don’t Propose. Close.
8 Jan 2012 | 7:43 amI don’t care how many proposals you have out. Truth be told you probably don’t really care either. What you care about is how much money you are going to put in your bank account this month, this quarter and this year. Proposals are not going to get you there. Deals are. Closed deals. Once you’ve got a signed contract you’ve got a shot at sending out invoices and after some duly annoying amount of time getting a check back that with some good fortune will clear and finally you reached your goal. The problem with proposals is they are all about proposing. Proposing is a lot about you… -
Prospect Lists a Social Selling Way
29 Dec 2011 | 4:05 pmFrom my research and analysis of thousands of prospecting calls, I’ve found the three biggest factors that super-charge your chances of getting into a busy prospect’s office are: Prospect profile: who to call Triggers events: when to call Relationships: how to use your relationships to get in by referral or affinity But at the end of the day if I had to take only one of these to a desert island, I would take relationships. Because relationships are the biggest factor of all. Nothing beats social capital and the fact that someone wants to help me. I can do the most bang up MBA (and…
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Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management
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Be a top 10% Sales Managers To Drive Sales Success
23 Jan 2012 | 4:05 pmHere is an article posted by Bill Eckstrom from EcSell Institute - an organization dedicated to helping sales managers do more of the right stuff, the right way at the right time. Your sales management job is not an easy one so it comes as no surprise to me that Bill identifies some research indicating that 90% of the sales managers are doing 'stuff' wrong. To put my spin on this - read his article - assess how you are doing - ask yourself; what you need to keep doing, stop doing or start doing and then take action. Enjoy Your job as a sales manager is to get things… -
Pre - Call Practice if You Want Sales Success
19 Jan 2012 | 1:12 pmI am currently at the Grand Floridian getting ready for a Keynote. My topic is: Accountability - the 14 Letter Word for Sales Success. My process has been the following: Talked to the client to discuss what they want the participants to leave with when they leave the conference Asked the client what the theme was for the conference so that I could tie my content to their theme Asked the client for any information they could provide me so that my presentation would be credible and support their objectives Created the deck for the presentation Had our staff review to make suggestions… -
Your Questions Make a Difference in Sales Success
16 Jan 2012 | 7:56 pmDid you call on the decision maker? Where they unhappy with their current banker? Do they have a budget? Will you follow up next week? Are you sure this is a client that we want to have? Is there a way to get in front of the committee? These are all questions I have heard sales managers ask their sales people during post call debriefing sessions. When our sales development experts, Mark, Chris or Walt deliver a sales management session on coaching or a session on the "Art and Science of Asking Questions" they focus a great deal of attention on asking closed ended questions. They… -
Achieve Greater Sales Success in 2012
5 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amWhat are the key focus areas for sales success in 2012? According to a recent article from Mark Gibson at Advanced Marketing Systems which sites a recent survey from Chief Sales Officer (CSO), the following five are the path to success this year: 1. Ability to show benefit/value 2. Optimizing the sales process 3. Reaching people with power 4. Increasing customer loyalty 5. Differentiation from competition I see the value in each and every one of these and over the last 20 years that we've had our sales development practice I can tell you that not much has changed as it relates to what… -
Demonstrate Effective Selling - Keys to Successful Sales Coaching #3
16 Dec 2011 | 9:08 amAs I think about successful coaching at almost anything I have to believe that the coach must at some level be able to demonstrate successful execution of what they are asking the participant to perform. If the coach cannot do that then they must have a resource that they can count on to demonstrate the ideal execution of a skill or behavior. Imagine for a second that you are about to take flying lessons only to discover that your trainer has crashed several times. You would not be too likely to hire that trainer. And so it is with sales manager and being able to effectively…
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Fill the Funnel
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HTML or Plain Text Email – Which Do You Prefer
8 Jan 2012 | 9:23 pmTake Our Poll I had the opportunity to get caught up in some reading over the holidays and one of the topics that I have been pondering is the question I asked in the poll above. Derek Halpern of Social Triggers wrote a post about this recently and he concluded that “people prefer text emails”. He conducted his polling in an email vs. a poll, so curious what your vote will say. I have asked many of my contacts over the holidays and the response was leaning more toward the graphically rich HTML type emails. What did come across loud and clear is that if you are going to… -
“Let’s Do Lunch” Has Never Been Easier
4 Jan 2012 | 7:30 amJust in time for the new year, the answer to who is available to meet for lunch is just an App away. Back in 2005, Keith Ferrazi (@keithferrazzi) introduced Never Eat Alone which quickly became a sales classic with it’s premise that every lunch meeting has the opportunity to move your career, your performance and your friendships ahead. Now there is an App based on the core principles of Keith’s book called LunchMeet. NOTE: iPhone Version only at this time but they say Android version on the way. LunchMeet leverages the information from your LinkedIn account and several search… -
Sales Person Email Tool for Customer Communication
28 Dec 2011 | 9:13 pmI have set up hundreds of accounts with Email Service Providers (ESP’s) including services like Constant Contact, AWeber and MailChimp for clients and individuals. Each has it’s own strengths and ideal customer. I am a big believer in the power of email communication when done right. An advantage that each of these services brings is the requirement that your customer or prospect ”opt-in”, to request to have you send them email. It used to be that a new employee came into the company with an empty customer list. Things have changed and now even those newly hired… -
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year
24 Dec 2011 | 10:12 pmPlease accept my very best wishes to you and your family this Christmas season. Take some time off, unplug and recharge. I know many who have had a tough go of it over the past year. Don’t lose faith, keep your vision and goals at the very top of mind, and keep moving forward. With that effort, 2012 cannot be anything but an improvement over the past year. ©2012 Fill the Funnel. All Rights Reserved.. -
Combine LinkedIn and Outlook To Improve Productivity
8 Dec 2011 | 1:04 pmLinkedIn has provided a free, easy to install web tool that connects your LinkedIn connections with Microsoft Outlook. Think of the convenience this adds by being able to: Build your network from frequent contacts Manage your LinkedIn contacts in Outlook Stay connected to your network In order to use this new web tool, you must have Outlook 2010, 2007, or 2003 installed. To download this free tool directly from LinkedIn, click the button below. Get more info about your important contacts, see what they’re doing, and stay in touch. If you are like me, you have Outlook open all day and…
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Latest Sales Machine Headlines - CBS News
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3 tips to make your digital profile look good
25 Jan 2012 | 9:01 amMake sure Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ reflect your best aspects and qualities -
5 killer interview questions you should be asking
24 Jan 2012 | 9:02 amCome out looking like a winner in the interview process with these 5 killer questions -
How to hire like Warren Buffett
20 Jan 2012 | 12:40 pmLearn how to hire like the expert -- focus on intelligence, energy and integrity -
You only need 2 things to start a company
17 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amIt takes less than you'd think to start a business -
7 tips on how to apologize in the business world
13 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amWhen it comes to the professional apology, a simple, "I'm sorry," doesn't cut it
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Social Media Podcast and Sales Training Blog by Shane Gibson
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11 Social Media Trends for 2012
27 Jan 2012 | 5:32 pmToday’s podcast is on 11 Social Media Trends for 2012. Here’s the outline for my podcast – I would love your feedback and thoughts: Key trends How not if TV on everything and social on everything Location based marketing will continue to grow Social cultures will evolve out of social use Social CRM will move mainstream India is rising A return to engagement Rewards versus contests Filters will dampen the noise Social networks will become more fluid and mobile Corporate social intranets Potential pitfalls App overload Lack of conversation management No policy, training or… -
Too Many Band-aid Solutions for Systemic Problems
3 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pmNo problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. – Albert Einstein This is not my typical post. It consists of more questions than answers and what I really want to know is how you feel about these images. This is today’s 24H News frontpage. It seems that what makes the headlines is not food shortages at the food bank or that we have the most chronically destitute skid row on the planet. It’s about the fact that we have an abundance of crack users and not enough crack pipes. We have a systemic problem not just and addiction problem. -
How to Hire the Right Social Media Manager the First Time
22 Dec 2011 | 12:08 amHiring a social media manager, social media coordinator, chief tweeter or whatever you might call it is a challenging endeavor. There are many brands which have experienced great success and many who have also shot the foot off of their brand on the internet. Social media is not a department or a cubicle, it represents the most powerful word of mouth (or word of mouse) channels that have ever existed. Too many organizations aren’t strategic about who they hire internally or how they intend on implementing social media and integrating it into their business processes. Today’s… -
The New Rules of Engagement in Social Media
28 Nov 2011 | 11:35 amThese are the 7 Rules of Engagement from Sociable! (http://fb.me/sociablebook) that Stephen Jagger and I developed almost 2 years ago… and the rules are now more important than ever! Enjoy! – Shane Gibson. -
How to Make a Facebook Like Box
17 Nov 2011 | 12:06 pmMany people ask us how to do this. Here’s the answer:
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Keith Rosen's Executive Sales Coaching Blog on Selling, Leadership, Management
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Creating Sales Team Buy in Around Their Goals: How Managers Can Facilitate an Effective Conversation With Their Salespeople Around Attaining Their New Year’s Goals and Commitments
13 Jan 2012 | 12:12 pmAt this point, a good number of managers have already set their yearly sales goals and commitments for themselves and for their sales team. Whether these goals were sanctioned from the top, developed through a mutual collaboration between the salesperson and the sales manager, have been calculated by a formulaic process based on the salesperson, the marketplace and their territory or were developed and disseminated to their salespeople with a more reactive ambiguity, (“Just get out there and sell more this year!”) the majority of managers are thinking about making this a better… -
10 Coaching Questions Managers Use That Work In Any Conversation
9 Nov 2011 | 7:02 amWhether you’re a seasoned manager or just starting your career in management, one thing is for certain. When it comes to coaching, and more specifically, guiding a conversation with the artful and strategic use of well crafted questions, managers, regardless of age, location or experience, struggle with the right questions to ask when coaching. After coaching thousands of managers and thousands of salespeople across the globe, I’m overly sensitive to the fact that great coaches coach from their heart, not from their head. However, just like learning anything new, such as how to… -
I’m already a Master Coach- NOT! The Danger of Positioning Yourself as Super Coach and the Power of Being Human. Part Three
24 May 2011 | 7:23 amIn my last post which you can read here, I shared a template that any manager can use when beginning the process of enrolling or re-enrolling their direct reports in a coaching relationship. And as I had mentioned, after reading the template, you, like many of the managers who read this, may have one of these three common reactions, which we will explore in great detail here, in order to illustrate a potential trap managers fall into which you can avoid by turning a potential weakness into one of your greatest strengths. To recap, here are the three common reactions to the template I… -
How to (Re) Enroll People In Coaching. The Initial Conversation. Dissecting The Template. Part Two
20 May 2011 | 2:26 pmIn my last post which you can read here, I shared a template that any manager can use when beginning the process of enrolling or re-enrolling their direct reports in a coaching relationship. And after reading the template, you, like many of the managers who read this, may have one of these three common reactions. 1: “This template sounds great! I can’t wait to use this.” 2: “It sounds good, however, I would tweak it a little bit so it sounds more like my style.” 3: “The message sounds good, however, I would never tell my reports that I’m first… -
Managers, Experiencing Coaching Resistance? How To (Re) Introduce Coaching To Your Team That Creates Buy In and a Safe Environment for Employees – And For You. Part One
19 May 2011 | 3:50 pmAs a manager, you may believe in the importance of coaching. And in my line of work, I know lots of managers who see the value in coaching their direct reports. However, there’s another population of managers who not only see the value of coaching their team but also realize how important it is to deliver effective coaching, which means learning how to do it right. These managers realize that delivering bad coaching can be more damaging than delivering no coaching at all! And for many of these managers, especially after reading my book on coaching or attending my management coach…
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Get Clients: How to Attract and Win More Professional Service Clients
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Need Something Interesting To Write About? Try This.
24 Jan 2012 | 1:55 pmMy core marketing strategy is to produce valuable content to showcase my expertise and build relationships with potential clients long before we ever meet. And whether it’s blog posts, longer articles, podcasts or videos – the core challenge for anyone following such a content strategy is coming up with interesting stuff to “write about”. In fact, the number one reason I hear from people who want to get into blogging or content marketing but have struggled to do so is that they just can’t imagine producing enough interesting material. Or they’ve tried and… -
The Rise of Cynicism and Suspicion (and what to do about it)
23 Jan 2012 | 4:01 pmDo your eyes roll whenever you get yet another email or see yet another ad claiming they can “bring you a flood of clients”, “double your conversion” or “take your business to the next level” (I’m not even sure what that last one means, but I see it a lot). Me too. One of the side effects of being subjected to so much more advertising than before is that we’ve grown immune to it. In fact, I’d go so far to say that we’ve grown allergic to it. Whenever I see an ad, or hear someone making a claim about the wonderful results I’m… -
The Twin Track Strategy For Startup Professional Firms
21 Jan 2012 | 11:24 amOne of the stories I hear the most often from struggling solo professionals or small firms is that they did well for a couple of years after starting up and then just kind of plateaued. Usually what’s happened is that work came in easily in the early days. Ex clients and colleagues heard they were now out on their own and sent work their way. They did a good job and got repeat business and a few referrals. But eventually, they ran out of steam. The close circle of people who knew them well enough to feel confident sending work to them ran dry or was hit by recession, retirement or other… -
The Magnificent Seven Ride!
18 Jan 2012 | 2:58 pmAre you part of a mastermind group? If you are you’ll know they can be incredibly valuable to your business. You get helped (and challenged) by a team of other business people with complementary skills to your own. I’m part of a couple of mastermind groups and I credit them with triggering some of the deepest insights and biggest breakthroughs in my business over the last couple of years. And now you can benefit from the insights and knowledge of some of my mastermind partners. All free. Six of the guys I regularly talk with to work on MY business have all agreed to to join with… -
Win a Free Website
7 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pm** The competition is over – the winner was Rob Worth of Worth Solutions – congratulations Rob ** As you know from my many blog posts on the subject, for me your website is probably your most important marketing asset. In my Client Attracting Websites course, I show you how to develop your own site using WordPress and some simple tools. But many people, of course, would prefer to get someone else to create the site for them. The trouble is, it’s tough to find a decent web designer who doesn’t cost the earth. So to solve that problem I’ve teamed up with web…
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Edgy Conversations with Dan Waldschmidt!
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It’s Not About What You Do.
27 Jan 2012 | 9:23 amBusiness experts will tell you that if you think hard enough and plan long enough that you can generate ideas and strategies that avoid obstacles and end up leading to your success. But that’s just not reality. And you shouldn’t waste a second believing it. The hard truth is that success isn’t a series of actions. It is an attitude. It’s not about what you do. It’s about who you are. You can’t fake it. You have to feel it. You have to live it. You have to be consumed by it. That’s what makes you successful. And what is “it”… -
Creating Angry Mobs.
26 Jan 2012 | 10:45 amThere’s always a reason to complain about something. There is always a big guy picking on a small guy. A monster doing depraved things to unsuspecting victims. These plot lines run through our business speak on a daily basis. It’s in our newspapers, our newsletters, and our news shows. And it makes for a dramatic plot line. Especially when you put yourself in the role as the small guy that is getting taken advantage of unfairly. But there’s a danger in building conversations solely focused on anger and discontent. You run the risk of building a business of angry and… -
Avoiding Accidental Awfulness.
25 Jan 2012 | 8:55 amIt’s easy to excuse away mistakes that you make. Especially when someone gets hurt. “It was an accident” you find yourself saying. And magically, because you claim that it was an accident, everybody around you is supposed to be okay. But they’re not. They are still hurt. Sometimes badly. Which always leads to an important question. Could you have done something about it? Could you have taken steps to prevent the accident from happening? The stark conclusion is that there are no accidents. Just unprepared intentions. You didn’t intend to hurt someone,… -
Better Than Them.
24 Jan 2012 | 8:55 amYou’re already better than them. You are. They try a little and you try more. They win sometimes and you win more. They’re smart, but you’re clearly smarter. It’s clear. You’re better than them. Which brings up a bigger question: Who are they? You can always find someone that you’re better than. It’s not that hard. You might be a better businessman than the homeless person sitting outside your office. You’re probably a better athlete than your child. Chances are, you know more than a fifth grader. You’re better than them. And while… -
Emotional Choices.
23 Jan 2012 | 12:26 pmThe politics of business are all emotional. The “biggest” player in your industry isn’t necessarily the company with the largest advertising budget or the company with the latest technology advancements. Is something a little more subtle. The company controlling the conversation. Think about how you assign credibility — even cavalierly. Think about the gut instinct that drives how you rate things. And while there’s a logic to how you prioritize things; when the community as a whole agrees about the same priority, you can assume that the “biggest”…
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Dealmaker365 Blog
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Which B2B Social Network is Most Valuable?
14 Jan 2012 | 10:01 amIn my blog post My Social Media Experiment, I bemoaned the fact that most of the focus in reporting on the Social Universe has been on B2C examples, and B2B use-cases are extremely rare. Also, it has been hard to know where B2B customers actually ‘hang-out’ in the Social Universe. Over the last 18 months or so I’ve been trying some B2B models. The core philosophy has been to shape thinking, cultivate customers and earn permission to engage. We now have the answer to Which B2B Social Network is the Most Valuable? (see below) and through our various activities we have also… -
Avoid the Delta of Disappointment
8 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amIn a previous post, I recounted the returns companies get when they deploy a sales methodology, and also the reasons why many companies invest in methodologies only to see them languish in the abyss of poor adoption. I’ve written also about the value of a sales process, and the need to integrate both methodology and sales process in the CRM system. Through the work we have been doing with the Dealmaker Index Global Sales Benchmark study, we can now report the impact of applying all of these best practices together. Dealmaker Index is a global sales benchmarking service that is free to… -
The One Sales Trend that Demands Attention
4 Jan 2012 | 9:18 amGuest Post: Bruce Wedderburn, EVP Channel & Enablement, Huthwaite Inc. As we kick off 2012 with a heightened sense of optimism after the past few years, we all hypothesize what the new year will bring to our organizations, our people and our clients. And typical of this time of year there are no shortages of prognosticators who are allegedly spotting the trends that are going to take the sales and business world by storm. Having read many of these predictions and having had a chance to cross reference them against what we are seeing at Huthwaite as we look into 2012, there is one… -
Dealmaker Index Example Report
2 Jan 2012 | 11:01 amThe Dealmaker Index has been running now since early November 2011 and we have been learning a lot from all of the participants. Here is sample report so that you can see the kind of information you can get if you participate in this free study. The report comes in four parts: Summary Infographic, Executive Summary, Detailed Analysis and Personal Dealmaker Index Report. The Executive Summary and Detailed Analysis components each relate to the company Dealmaker Index score, and the Personal Dealmaker Index Report is tailored to the individual who completed the study. Summary Infographic The… -
Which B2B Industries are active on Twitter?
1 Jan 2012 | 10:39 amIt is almost impossible to have lived through 2011 and not get all caught up in the social media frenzy. The launch of Google+ was one of the most talked about events of the year among the technorati. Was this to be the end of Facebook? How would Twitter react? Even though Google+ amassed a user base of more than 10 million in three weeks (including the Dalai Lama), Facebook didn’t collapse, but pretty much just copied the Circles feature from Google+, and Twitter changed its approach to be a broader service instead of purely being a micro-blogging site. How all this will pan out in…
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SymVolli Blog RSS Feed
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NEW 'SymVolli - The Product' brochure - Sales Performance Management (more than just CRM) - now available
26 Jan 2012 | 8:22 amIn preparation for the launch of SymVolli 8.0 we are and will be releasing new datasheets, brochures and documentation, the first of which is now available. Click here to download 'SymVolli - The Product'. The brochure 'SymVolli - The Product' looks at SymVolli and highlights some of the key features within the system. It is an overview document aimed at given a concise portrayal of SymVolli. In the coming weeks leading up to the launch further datasheets, brochures etc will be made available: NEXT WEEK 'SymVolli - Features & Benefits' Click here to download 'SymVolli - The… -
Garbage In, Garbage Out: The question is how do you keep the garbage out?
25 Jan 2012 | 3:23 amI came across an article on the Sales Benchmark Index website entitled ‘Sales Performance Management: Getting A Fighting Chance'. It was an very interesting read and furthermore I completely agree with the key finding that viewing your data in different ways is not the most important thing and that attaining and maintaining accurate data is the basis of any decision making process. There is the traditional method of ‘carrot and stick’, the carrot being remuneration dependant on the level of accuracy of the information that is entered into a system whether it be contact details or… -
'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.3
24 Jan 2012 | 4:01 am -
'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.2
17 Jan 2012 | 3:41 am -
'Shoot The Salesman' - Sales Comic - No.1
10 Jan 2012 | 4:14 am
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Jonathan Farrington's Blog
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Now available – Smartr Contacts for iPhone by Xobni
27 Jan 2012 | 6:27 pmRegular visitors here will know that over the past couple of weeks, I have been talking to some great fellow thought leaders and I am really enthused about all that is in store for 2012 – and the years to come! But today, I have some exciting news that you don’t have to wait for .. I am pleased to announce that Smartr Contacts for iPhone is now available in the iPhone App Store. Many of you, like me, have been using Xobni’s products on Android, Gmail, Outlook and BlackBerry and have been waiting patiently for the iPhone version of Smartr Contacts. The wait is over, it… -
Professional Selling – Will it Soon be the Survival of the Fittest?
27 Jan 2012 | 5:06 amIn recent weeks, I have been discussing the future of professional selling, and amongst other predictions, I have suggested that in my humble view, within five years, just 5% of external salespeople will remain. It will therefore come as no surprise that I have received a number of emails asking if I will clarify what these survivors will look like, what will be their characteristics, and what will differentiate them. Over the past twenty years I have trained, developed and mentored almost one hundred thousand sales professionals - from foundation right up to “master… -
Are We Witnessing the Dawn of a New Type of Leader?
25 Jan 2012 | 7:17 pmOld ways of doing business no longer work: the increasingly intense competitive challenges of the world economy challenge everyone, everywhere, to adapt in order to prosper under new rules. In the old economy, hierarchies pitted labour against management, with workers paid wages depending on their skills, but that is eroding as the rate of change accelerates. Hierarchies are being replaced by networks; labour and management are uniting into teams; wages are coming in new mixtures of options, incentives and ownership; fixed jobs melt into fluid careers. As business changes, so do the… -
Schhh! Can You Hear the Silence?
25 Jan 2012 | 3:19 amYes, me too. Nobody – well hardly anybody – is talking about “Sales 2.0″ anymore, and yet less than twelve months ago, you couldn’t hear yourself speak above the incredibly loud din that rose to a deafening crescendo. So what happened? Has it gone away? Have we moved on to “Sales 3.0″ and everyone forgot to tell me? Was it all a figment of my imagination, or perhaps a bad dream? It is now more than five years since Nigel Edelshain first coined the term, on a balmy Sunday afternoon way back in 2006, and perhaps we all now accept that actually,… -
The Nature of Dynamic Leadership
23 Jan 2012 | 6:48 pmPeople have been debating the nature of leadership for as long as records have been kept – certainly as far back as Homer and his peers: The topic continues to fascinate and enthral us today, but the way in which we assess leadership roles is changing. Where once we looked to military and political leaders for inspiration and insight, now it is increasingly business leaders who hold our attention and provide role models. Ask someone to name a leader whom they have admired and they are just as likely to name Richard Branson as Winston Churchill; Bill Gates as Margaret Thatcher. This…
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TeleSmart Communications
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Year of the Dragon- Sales Qualities
16 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pmEconomy class, middle seat, San Francisco to Singapore. Help! It wasn’t that bad, after all, but the food situation was less than thrilling. After 6 hours of not serving food, the flight attendant came by and gave everyone a little bag of pretzels, a mini Kit-Kat bar, and one lemon cookie . . . I’m in Singapore this week on a project, and this is a cool town — very decorated this time of year because Chinese New Year is around the corner. This year celebrates the Year of the Dragon, so there are LOTS of gorgeous dragons around. If you were born in 1952, 1964, 1976, or 2000,… -
Bringing the Phone Back
14 Jan 2012 | 4:14 amI’m putting my trend reports together, and I am so happy to see the return of the phone call ranking as one of the 12 Easy New Year’s Resolutions. There’s an inside sales hiring trend of recent college grads — Millennials, the expanding generation that now includes those born from 1980 – 2000. They have grown up with technology, so the phone is not their primary tool. They opt for texting or IMing instead of picking up the phone — mostly because they are just not wired that way, but also because they also see it as pointless. After all, they point out, … -
Multitasking versus Unitasking
9 Jan 2012 | 12:38 pmMy audience for training programs consists of the twenty-somethings, the Millennial set of new hires flooding the inside sales organizations. I like training this group. They are quick, they are not afraid to try something, and they are not afraid of trying try everything all at once. In the first few minutes of my training program — after we go through introductions and the course overview — I slap on the rules: No texting or laptops during the session. I am generous with breaks, but I have a stiff penalty if you don’t come back from break on time. Why? Because they have… -
Inside Sales Resolutions for 2012
3 Jan 2012 | 12:35 pmNew sales quotas are already hitting your inbox . . . it’s time to shake things up refresh your sales habits. I will be talking about more of this with Kevin Gaither live on This Week in Sales this Wednesday at 2pm. Here are some smart resolutions for 2012: 1. Power up your prospecting efforts with the triple threat. If you feel like 2011 took the life out of your prospecting efforts, give it a power up om 2012. You may have a robot caller, but you are not a robot! Practice the triple threat: vm + em + social. 2. Double monitors = Double productivity: Set yourself up right for the new… -
Seconds That Changed Lives in 2011
29 Dec 2011 | 12:41 pmRemember this years’ events, stories, and scandals? Some are silly, some are fun, and a few have significantly changed the fabric of our lives. Some news is the kind that makes you always remember where you were when you first heard about it. Like the text I received from my daughter telling me that Amy Winehouse had died, or the phone call I had with a friend one night who ended the conversation with, “I guess you’ve heard that Steve Jobs passed away today.” It was definitely The Year in Crazy — but we are still here! Here are some things that changed lives…
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Chris Whyatt thinks...
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Is your organisation truly ‘sales-ready’? Sales readiness explained!
16 Jan 2012 | 11:03 amWhat’s the key to selling your company’s capabilities to the customers you want? Sure there are many factors – having products and services customers will want to buy, for a start – but there’s a critical success factor overlooked by way too many businesses; it’s sales readiness and it underpins all the ‘people, processes and information’ that will drive your sales execution. Let’s be clear; sales readiness is not optional. Only organisations that are truly sales ready will achieve optimal sales effectiveness. So what does your organisation need to do to be sales… -
Bidding to Win: the Ten Critical Success Factors
16 Mar 2010 | 12:37 amBidding for opportunities is an expensive and often unrewarding process, with low win ratios and high cost of bidding being typical across most market sectors. For example, if it costs £20,000 per opportunity to bid and your win ratio is 1 in 5, your cost of winning one opportunity is £100,000, so before you bid for an opportunity it is important to recognise the following factors: 1 If the first thing you know about an opportunity is when the tender is issued you are most likely too late because... 2 the majority of tenders are issued with a potential winner already identified because… 3… -
Is your organisation ‘sales ready’?
16 Mar 2010 | 12:31 amSuccessfully selling your company’s capabilities to customers depends on many factors. I have spent a lifetime looking at this subject, focusing on what many people call sales readiness. Sales readiness underpins everything that sales and marketing does, including people, processes, and information. To help consider where you stand, I have broken it down into 5 segments and 13 key elements... Getting ready Fundamental to sales readiness is understanding your market; sounds simple doesn’t it, but these days ‘your market’ changes by the day, or even the hour. … -
Writing persuasive and effective customer proposals
16 Mar 2010 | 12:29 amAs someone who has spent ten years helping people produce high quality, persuasive proposals, and who is frequently asked to do the same to win business for my company, I strongly identify with the results of a recent survey highlighting the level of discomfort experienced by people when ‘writing a document (like a proposal, sales letter or brochure) which is designed to persuade people to buy you, and your products / services.’ However, we all recognise that one of the critical success factors in winning new business and developing existing customers is how effectively and persuasively… -
Overcoming the barriers to change...
16 Mar 2010 | 12:28 amThe need for change There are numerous books and famous speeches on the subject of change and the need to change is universally recognised as essential, if ‘things’ are to improve. To quote Albert Einstein, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So why is change so difficult to achieve; and what are the barriers? The barriers to change The barriers to change are numerous and are open to never-ending debate; however, it is widely agreed that these are the headline issues: 1. Getting the people involved to agree what the problem…
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Sales Dodo
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Never Encounter the Price Objection Again … Guaranteed!
28 Jan 2012 | 4:05 amMost of you run into the price objection every day that you are in sales. In this episode of the Sales Management Minute, learn how to never experience the price objection again.View episode convert this post to pdf.Social Bookmarking: -
What Every Sales Leader Should Learn from Moneyball
28 Jan 2012 | 4:05 amThe movie Moneyball teaches sales leaders a great lesson. In this episode of the Sales Management Minute, find out what every sales leader should learn from this movie. View episode convert this post to pdf.Social Bookmarking: -
The ONE THING That Sets Top Sales People Apart From the Pack
28 Jan 2012 | 4:05 amWondering what top sales people do that the mediocre don’t? In this episode of the Sales Management Minute, learn what rainmakers do that makes them top earners.View episode convert this post to pdf.Social Bookmarking: -
The ONE Factor That GUARANTEES Sales Managers MISS Their Revenue Quotas
28 Jan 2012 | 4:05 amThere is one factor that causes sales leaders to miss revenue targets…and it is not the sales pipeline. In this episode of the Sales Management Minute, learn what this factor is and how to avoid its peril.View episode convert this post to pdf.Social Bookmarking: -
Your Sales People Will Miss Quota – Unless You Give Them This…
28 Jan 2012 | 4:05 amThe beginning of the calendar year is a milestone in the sales manager/sales person relationship – marked by the issuance of sales quotas. In this episode of the Sales Management Minute, learn the key to ensuring your sales people are armed with the tools they need to achieve quota.View episode convert this post to pdf.Social Bookmarking:
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EyesOnSales.com
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VIDEO : Every Presentation Ever: Communication FAIL
27 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amTruely funny and worth sharing. We've all had to sit through endless and boring slide show presentations. They always seem to be the same: lame opening joke, long boring quote, wry comments. This awesome PSA is out to get you to forget the old boring slide shows and learn a new way to effectively communicate with your audience! Making a presentation interesting is an art form, and unfortunately, very few people can do it right. What are some of the worst presentations you’ve ever had to sit though? What are some traits of the best? Have you ever felt like their presenter? -
Four Sales Crimes You Must Avoid in Today's Economy!
26 Jan 2012 | 10:20 amTimes are tough for sales professionals everywhere. Customers are slashing budgets, shuffling business priorities, reorganizing internal responsibilities and avoiding almost every unnecessary risk. Today's business climate has many prospects running scared and spending time with a salesperson is not exactly at the top of anyone's list.So what can you do to increase your chances of sales success in this turbulent economy?Hint: The answer is right there in your mirror. That's right. . . it's YOU!It's easy to blame the weak financial markets, the relentless competition or even the boss's… -
Six Reasons Why Sales Managers Fail
25 Jan 2012 | 9:15 amI have put this report together to help sales managers and their employers maximize the results that a sales manager and his/her sales team produce. This information is based on my personal observations of over 5,000 business-to-business sales forces during the past twenty-seven years. While no company manifests all six of these, most companies manifest most of these challenges on a frequent basis. Reducing or eliminating the impact of these issues will have a direct and positive impact on your company's top line.1. Lack of ProcessToday's sales manager is handicapped by the fact that few, if… -
What Makes a Successful Sales Team?
24 Jan 2012 | 12:41 pmI am often asked just what it is that makes a highly successful and effective sales team — what differentiates them from an average one? Actually, the answer is simpler than you might imagine — all roads lead back to the leader! The role of a sales leader is to translate the organisation's vision, mission and values into a meaningful context that sales teams can relate to and feel excited by. If this is achieved then the sales leader will have created a sales team with a shared mental model. This transforms an ordinary sales team into a high performing one. For clarity, here is a… -
No One Makes Excuses When Winning
24 Jan 2012 | 9:49 amWhen a sales team (or salesperson) is making quota, you don't hear excuses like: “Cold calling doesn’t work” “Prospects don’t respond to voicemails” “Gatekeepers won’t let me speak to the decision maker” “No one has any money right now. Budgets are frozen” “Our pricing is too high / our competitors pricing is better” “The leads are old and have been called 100’s of times” etc. But when we are failing to reach our goals, and the pressure to identify and correct the situation get’s turned up,…
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The Accidental Negotiator
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Plan Your Next Negotiation, Negotiate Your Plan, Be Successful
27 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amImage Credit In order to be successful in a negotiation, you need to have a plan When I’m working with negotiators who are trying to become better, they always ask me what the secret to moving to the next level is. For years I always told them that there was no “silver bullet” that would allow them to make the jump. It was just going to take a lot of hard work. Lately I’ve decided that I’ve been wrong. It turns out that there is one thing that any negotiator can do that will allow him or her to move up to the next level. This secret turns out to be something that… -
Sales Negotiators Know That The Devil Is In The Details
20 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amImage Credit The devil is in how you set up the negotiating room … What is it going to take to make your next sales negotiation work out the way that you want it to? Do you need to go buy a bunch of negotiating books to learn the latest negotiation styles or negotiating techniques? Do you need to bring in a hired gun? Or maybe all it will take is something so simple that it often gets overlooked – setting up the negotiating room correctly? Sometimes It’s All About The Supplies I know that you’d like to have a talk about the best way to seize and hold onto power in your next… -
5 Tips For Selecting The Right Location To Negotiate In
13 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amImage Credit The outcome of your negotiation may depend on where you are meeting What’s your goal for your next negotiation? If you are like 99.9% of the other negotiators out there, you want to have the other side agree to your requests while at the same time not having to agree to too many of their requests. Hmm, how best to make this happen? It turns out that one of the keys to having the negotiation process turn out the way that you want them to starts long before the actual negotiations do – it happens when the room where you’ll be doing your negotiation is selected. -
Get What You Want By Bringing A Purple Monkey To Your Next Negotiation
6 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amImage CreditThe purple monkey will help you get what you want in a negotiation How did your last negotiation go? Did you and the other side of the table spend your time working through a long list of demands that the other side had made? Did you end up feeling as though you had negotiated for a very long time? The next time that you prepare for a negotiation, you need to come up with a way to streamline the process so that you can reach an agreement quickly. It turns out that you can make this happen by bringing a purple monkey to the negotiations. Don’t Let The Other Side Control The… -
Merry Christmas – Take The Week Off!
29 Dec 2011 | 10:01 pmHere's Hoping That You Name Shows Up On The "Nice" List This Year! Loyal readers & subscribers, here’s hoping that this upcoming Christmas season week is a great week for you – I’m taking it off! Blogging will resume after the holidays… Everyone seems to celebrate something different this week, but I’m hoping that no matter how you choose to spend your time, you will enjoy yourself. The world can wait, let’s spend time with friends and family and we’ll get back to the madness when the new year begins… Have a happy and safe week…
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Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog
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2 big reasons why you still need to coach your best performers
23 Jan 2012 | 10:05 amOne of my inside sales training course clients just had a breakout quarter. We trained their team in the summer, and the numbers went through the roof in calendar Q4. They still feel, however, that they could do even better, so we discussed how to make that happen. We trained their inside sales managers to coach their team members, but we found that they had only coached the reps needing to get over quota. They weren’t coaching their star performers, so I told them to start doing that as well, for two reasons: 1) Even star performers have holes in their games. I don’t… -
How do I pump up my team? 4 strategies from one terrific working model…
9 Jan 2012 | 10:02 amI just came back from a two-week telesales class I delivered in a very remote town, and met one of the most energetic, excited inside sales teams with whom I’ve ever worked. I’m going to tell you the story, because you can replicate it, as it’s a formidable model of team communication that leads to success. I’m not going to give you the company name, because what I’m going to relate gives it incredible competitive advantage, and the company isn’t going to want its competitors knowing how it manages to secure so much business. But here’s what I… -
Top 5 Most Popular Inside Sales Blog Posts of 2011
3 Jan 2012 | 10:02 amFor the past several years, I’ve been publishing roughly one blog post per week on inside sales effectiveness. Every year end, I publish my most popular blog posts created during the previous year, and here are my Top 5 for 2011, in terms of visitors. Price negotiation, stalled proposals, and selling dilemmas are inherent issues to just about everyone carrying a quota in inside sales, but affect business development reps too, who often get commission “bumps” when the order is closed, or when a suspect converts to a prospect. Among my customers, 2011 was a… -
‘What’s in your closet?’ and other ineffective interview questions
19 Dec 2011 | 10:02 amIt’s that time of year when a lot of interviewing for inside sales positions is happening, so I’d like to weigh in on some questions those of you in management shouldn’t ask. I just recently taught one of my inside sales management classes, and this subject, which I cover, generated the usual spirited conversation. This post is mainly for inside sales management, but will be of interest to those of you looking around, too. If you’re in either category, be sure to read my Getting Hired for Your Ultimate Inside Sales Job whitepaper, as it tells both managers and reps… -
Communicate better by avoiding gender-specific words
5 Dec 2011 | 10:02 amThis past week, I’ve been working with a number of very talented reps that are taking my inside sales course. Among the behaviors we’re changing are the usage of gender-specific words and phrases. The most common so far? “You guys” and “who’s your right-hand man?” These reps are selling to a prospect base that includes a large number of women. Their territories are all over the country, and include many university towns. Like everyone else, these reps grew up learning a language at home, and honing it in conversations with friends throughout…
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The LEADSExplorer Blog: Lead generation - Website visitors - CRM - B2B
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Why publishing expertise & knowledge will increase sales
27 Jan 2012 | 10:41 amHoarding expertise and information is history All the information and expertise of a salesman that allowed getting an appointment is now available on the Internet. This can be provided by your competitors or by peers on social media (forums, LinkedIn, Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc). If you keep your expertise and information to yourself then your potential customers will find it on the Internet from another source. Thus bypassing you completely. This could make your company and its’ products obsolete as people won’t find you on the Internet. Not getting found increases missing… -
How bonding Marketing and Sales
25 Jan 2012 | 2:19 pmLeads in funnel – Sales deals Marketing needs to prove their marketing spending’s by showing as many leads as possible. Although Marketing will qualify the leads before entering them into the funnel they have the tendency to let more leads qualify. On the other hand the more under-qualified leads the Salesman gets the more time he waists by qualifying each of the leads in his sales funnel. Hence the lesser time he can spend on the really well qualified leads. This creates the perception with salesmen that the marketing leads are of lesser value. In the worst case the salesmen will… -
Completing Content Marketing for the Complex Sale in B2B
23 Jan 2012 | 1:09 pmContent marketing As people are fed up with interruption marketing (ads, emails) it seems that content marketing is the way to go as people prefer to search online for solutions and products. Content marketing will drive your inbound marketing for the complex sale in B2B. Having just a few text documents, presentations or video’s might be sufficient for starting the process of generating interest, however you need to cover the entire purchase cycle and address to all of the people involved in the purchase decision. Your content needs to support the purchase process just like a salesman… -
Should the salesman be liked or trusted ?
19 Jan 2012 | 11:56 amBeing liked versus trusted The customer might like you as a salesman or sales rep. but that doesn’t mean they trust you. People might buy from you because they like you, but that will be limited to smaller amounts of money as they need to trust the salesman for larger purchases. Getting sympathy or being liked might be a first step in the right direction which might lead to being trusted. On the other hand being trusted doesn’t mean you are being liked. The customer can trust someone without liking him. Being trusted will help getting larger sales deals closed. A trust… -
The marketers’ diet for a recession
17 Jan 2012 | 1:08 pmCutting marketing expenses The current recession will require companies to scale back and decrease their operating costs. Cutting back on: - Sales can only be achieved by less salesmen and staff. - Administration will require to lay-off administrative employees - Research and development is again about firing and is a risk for the future - Production quality will come back as a boomerang One of the most obvious and most convenient to achieve is to decrease marketing costs as these involve third parties, hardly involves firing people. It’s the easiest but maybe not the best to do as…
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Shameless Sales Tips from Shamus Brown
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Getting the Secret Truth on Every Deal
23 Jan 2012 | 10:55 amWoody Allen once said… 90% of life is just showing up That might be true for him. But it aint true in sales. Just showing up isn't enough. Sure. You gotta get in the game. And you gotta ask. Because if you never ask, then no one will ever say yes. But in selling, we always have competition. And usually lots of it. In every deal, there are lots of losers who just "showed up", and only one winner. The secret to winning 90% of your deals is knowing the secret truth about every deal. You see there's the "information" about the deal that your prospects tell you… -
How I Focus and Keep Distraction at Bay
16 Jan 2012 | 6:11 amHere's my Sales Thought for the Week… You get what you focus on. Every day I make a short focus and action list. I mark only 1-3 items as must-do actions to focus on. The rest are nice to do (and I sometimes get to them as "break-time" from my must-do work). Otherwise I put those off to another day… By focusing on the must-do actions, and keeping those limited to 1-3, I get a LOT of things that I WANT to do, done. This is how you make the reality you desire, one-day at time. Sell with Pride, -Shameless Shamus Brown -
The Wrong Way to Ask Sales Questions
11 Jan 2012 | 8:56 amQuestions asked the right way, lead you closer to the sale. Questions asked the right way, uncover opportunity. Questions asked the right way, create a bond between you and the prospect based on a belief that you can help you them. Ask questions the wrong way, and you will accomplish none of this. What's the wrong way to ask questions? Well there's one way I know of that can be really damaging… It's where the seller asks a question, but he's really just pushing features he has to sell. I was thinking this morning about approaching a potential new business partner to… -
A Right Time to Sell and a Wrong Time to Sell
10 Jan 2012 | 10:19 amThere's a right time to sell And there's a wrong time to sell. The right time to sell is when you have earned the right to sell. Sounds simple enough. But lots of people screw this up. You don't earn the right to sell just because the customer has asked you for information, for a pitch, or a demonstration. You earn the right to sell when you uncover the driving reason behind the sale. You need to know the reason WHY people want to buy what they want to buy. Knowing this is your leverage in every sale. Once you know the reason why someone is buying, you typically also will… -
Be Proud of Being a Salesman!
9 Jan 2012 | 9:24 amHere's my Sales Thought for the Week… Be proud of being a salesman! Be proud, because all business activity starts with the sale. Sales IS business. The people who create the products you sell NEED you to get their products to the customer. Without you, there would be no business. Sell with Pride, -Shameless Shamus Brown
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retaildoc.com
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Why and How To Do A Physical Inventory On A Shoestring Budget
27 Jan 2012 | 11:10 amMerchandise on the floor can look pretty but it is your money sitting there. While you can do an inventory of your store any time, traditionally it is the last weekend of January when your SKUs are potentially lowest.Three reasons to perform a physical inventory:Counting your inventory isn’t just for insurance reasons, but a major determiner of your store’s health.You can get buy-in from your employees that, once completed, will mean less out-of stocks and having more of the best sellers.You are also bound to find items you didn’t know you even had.I’m sharing a system… -
Where To Find Customers For Quickserve Restaurant [Retail Consultant Results: Case Study]
25 Jan 2012 | 7:34 amThe Los Angeles Times called on me for several business makeovers as a retail consultant. This blog highlights one aspect from one of those business makeovers on targeted marketing for your location.The challengeA husband and wife were looking to grow their all natural sausage sandwich sales in an upscale strip center. The owners were frustrated by the long lines at fast-food joints on either side of theirs.The windows, walls and menu at their stylish eatery were plastered with nutritional analyses that proved the private-label links made with ground turkey, chicken, spices and cheese… -
If Target Can Target, Why Not You?
24 Jan 2012 | 8:25 amTarget last week made news with a joint letter from their Merchandising Chief and Chief Executive to their vendors.According to the WSJ, “Target is reaching out to vendors to help craft a more competitive pricing strategy as it seeks to battle rivals and the lower-priced online market.”In that letter, the retailer says it is not going to let online-only retailers use its stores “as a showroom” for their products. The result is an undercutting of Target’s prices “without making investments, as we do, to proudly display your [the vendors’] brands,” the… -
Retail Consultant Results: How to Attract Customers to Your Retail Store [Case Study]
18 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pmAs a retail consultant, I get a wide variety of challenges to help retailers make more sales, attract more customers and become more profitable. I’m sharing ten case studies from some of the largest fortune 500 companies to some of the smallest mom and pops with lessons on your physical location, merchandising, branding, marketing and of course, retail sales training – all of which you can use in your stores. First up, leveraging your location. The situationAron Lieberman of Rockland Window Fashions purchased a historic home in a prime neighborhood to showcase his products.After… -
Should You Offer Incentives to Bricks and Mortar Employees to Embrace the iPad?
12 Jan 2012 | 7:57 amThird in a series of posts on technology and humanity in retail sales trainingNancy, one of your best customers, comes into your store to view your new spring shoes.Your number one salesperson, Bill, works with her to find just the right shoe, just the right style, just the right color.Just one thing…When they find the perfect shoe, you are out of Nancy’s size. Now it used to be OK for Bill to just say, “Sorry,we’re out, but you might try online” leaving Nancy frustrated and headed home to her computer to try to find it at another store.But nowadays, as soon as those words,…
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Stevens Consulting Group
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Video: Chiropractic Marketing Success
27 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amFriday Video: Chiropractic Marketing Success! -
Tips for Stopping Sales Failure
26 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amIt is unbelievable that so many people think that they can sell. Selling like any other profession requires tenacity, patience and professionalism. Suggesting that anyone can sell is similar to saying anyone can be a surgeon, fly a plane or become an Olympic champion. Everyone has a certain set of innate qualities that allows them to excel at craft. And similar to any profession there are those that have these skills for selling and some that don’t. This is the reason why so many sales people fail and why so many companies fail to make revenue targets. When there is a common belief… -
Monday Motivation – If You Lack Confidence
25 Jan 2012 | 5:28 pmMonday Momentum Monday Focus – While awaiting a recent flight home a passenger befriended me speaking of all the ills in their business.The first question I asked was, “What activities are you using to market the business?” The answer nothing. Folks, you cannot blame the economy, the weather, the president, the price of beef, local soybean growers etc for bad business if you are not doing anything to attract consumers to you! Stop becoming a victim of business and start becoming a creator of it. There is a quote from one of my favorite movies, Shawshank Redemption, “I guess it comes… -
Podcast: Success Tips Reminders for the New Year. (After one month, how is your new year going?)
25 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am -
Using Sales Methods to Find A Job
24 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amWith the dawn of a new economy and a new year there are many individuals that continue to suffer and seek work. However there is a reason why some continue to struggle while others fight for positions. The rationale is sales and marketing. Business professionals must represent themselves as products. This requires the use of branding techniques similar to the big boys. It is incumbent to create key messages that establish value and get the others to become attracted to you. Here are a few tips. Never send a blind resume without reading the job specifics. It is a requirement to…
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Paul Castain's Sales Playbook
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Confessions Of An “Orphaned” Client!
25 Jan 2012 | 8:42 pmI was opening the mail the other day when a message struck me as odd. It said something along the lines of . . . Mr. Castain, We value your business and wanted you to know that we have moved to blah blah blah. I have no clue what it said after the “We have moved part” because I [...] -
When A Potential Client Requests Pricing Via Email
24 Jan 2012 | 6:09 pmSo there you are minding your own business when an email lands squarely in your inbox! It’s a potential client who would like a quote on your services. Pop Quiz: If its simple enough, do you send them a quote or even a ball park number or do you at least attempt to bring this discussion to [...] -
Should We Give Full Disclosure When Quoting?
23 Jan 2012 | 7:28 pmI’m not ashamed to admit that I run my startup lean! So if it means I take a shuttle instead of a car service . . . so be it! Recently, I decided to treat myself and book a car service. It was at the end of a really long day of airports and I could [...] -
What Do You Reach To When The Road Gets Tough?
18 Jan 2012 | 11:41 pmI remember watching the “Wanted Dead Or Alive” video back in the day and shaking my head. Here’s this great song and the whole time they’re portraying the band as worn out from the road but still embracing the “the show must go on attitude” I remember thinking “poor f’n rock stars making all that money and [...] -
Being True To “You”
12 Jan 2012 | 7:17 pmI was channel surfing the other day and just happened to catch Emma Stone’s acceptance speech at the People’s Choice Awards. She said something along the lines that its important that we are true to ourselves and that she would not be there accepting that award if she hadn’t made that decision 8 years earlier. I had [...]
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Sales Training - SalesPractice.com
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How do you present price?
27 Jan 2012 | 3:20 pmFor example after you have discovered there needs, wants, etc. and offered your solutions, have gotten mini commitments, and so on. What words do you use to present price and close from there? -
Outcome Centric Selling
26 Jan 2012 | 6:58 pmQuote: Originally Posted by Gary A Boye What does excellence in selling look like? Excellent question. In the context of my previous post I would suggest that the answer to this question becomes more evident when the desired outcome sought by the Seller references the Buyer's subjective "Buying Experience" and "Exchange of Value". -
Is a lack of confidence the main reason why people fail with their sales efforts?
25 Jan 2012 | 8:32 pmQuote: Originally Posted by Jeff Blackwell (Post 51527) Hello Rich. Generally speaking, Sensing comes before Thinking which comes before Feeling which comes before Wanting which comes before Doing. Generally speaking Confidence is a Feeling. Well said. I'll add to this topic that although lack of confidence could be a reason for some failure in selling, it could hardly rank as th -
Cold call for pest control service
25 Jan 2012 | 8:23 amQuote: Originally Posted by edprobudi (Post 51512) Gary, would you be kind enough to help me paraphrase what I am saying about having the appointment, to avoid the customer from sensing that we are untruthful or dishonest even before we are getting started? I appreciate it very much. Absolutely! I share your passion for learning. First, these were your words:[indent][i]Alright, many thanks for your time and infor -
Needs and Wants Questions
24 Jan 2012 | 9:18 amQuote: Originally Posted by John Voris (Post 51514) Yes, to paraphrase Hume; logic and reason are slaves of our passions. No one buys anything for a reason but rather for the preceding intuitive feelings funneled into wants and falsely expressed as needs. John - The way you phrased the concept is excellent. Top sales producers utilize that understanding, with prospects and customers, every day.
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The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer
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10 Ways to Handle Objections Effectively
27 Jan 2012 | 11:52 amKnowing how to handle objections from clients begins with anticipating their concerns. Your attitude at the start will directly affect your sales at the end of the day. Be enthusiastic. Know how your product or service can add value to your customer by either saving him time and money, by eliminating stress and waste, or by enhancing relationships and leisure hours. Keep your customer happy by learning how to handle objections like these. I’m not interested. Create interest by telling a short anecdote of how someone else benefited her home/work/play by using your product. I… -
How to Handle Objections Using Listening Skills
23 Jan 2012 | 8:39 amAs a sale representative there are occasions when you will face opposition from a prospective client.This article will provide you with some specific tools and guidelines to use when you are faced with the dilemma of how to handle objections. To begin with, concerns from customers are a part of sales, and it is vital to you as a sales person to know how to handle objections as they come up. Common objections include: “I can’t afford it.” “I already have one.” “My partner/boss isn’t interested.” “It doesn’t have the features I’m seeking.” “I need to think about it.”… -
5 Ways to Handle Price Objection
17 Jan 2012 | 8:25 amMany sales reps struggle with objections from their clients. One of the most common is that dreaded phrase: “I don’t have the money, and right now I just can’t afford it.” At this point, many sales reps give up and tell the client to call when they do have the money, which is usually never. However, there are a few time-proven methods that sales reps can use to overcome this objection. Here are a few of them: Stop the objection from coming up in the first place. If the sales rep asks the right questions, shows passion, appeals to the client’s emotional hot buttons,… -
Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012
12 Jan 2012 | 12:51 pmLooking to connect with some of the top sales minds in the business? The research team at OpenView Labs recently applied their talents toward identifying the most influential sales leaders on the Web today. Click on the link below for the list of 25 of the most powerful thought leaders in the world of sales management, lead generation, and more. I am honored to be on the same page among so many sales legends! Here is the list: Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012 Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer -
How To Handle Objections Like The Politicians Do
11 Jan 2012 | 10:58 amTo see a fresh approach about how to handle objections during a sales presentation, smart sales professionals can take lessons from smart politicians. You share a lot of goals with them, but they have one big drawback that most marketers never face; the politician has nothing real to give the person at the time he is seeking something quite real from them, like money, votes and support. The politician takes a four-step approach to handling challenges. First, listen to the objection carefully. Don’t rush to meet the objection head on. Don’t let the fact that the question interrupted your…
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Your Sales Management Guru
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A Sales Manager’s Recipe: What is Cooking in 2012
23 Jan 2012 | 8:18 amA Sales Manager’s Recipe: What’s Cooking in 2012? Last week after a keynote program called Gourmet Living, an attendee came up to me afterwards and discussed her challenges as a sales manager. The last three years have been tough and she was looking for new ideas for 2012 to excite her team and also to simply change up the routine. Since my keynote program had been about creating a Menu for Your Life with many metaphors around cooking I started thinking about what her sales management recipe should be, for about 30 minutes we discussed a variety of ideas. So if 2011 left a bad taste… -
CRM: 15 Years Later, now a friend
15 Jan 2012 | 5:54 pmSFA/CRM 15 Years Later: Now It’s Every Rep’s Best Friend This week, I thought you might like to read someone else’s article and my comments regarding the article. My comments are first. As a Sales Leadership consultant, I think the article below hit on many valid points; the Cloud and CRM usability are key elements in the acceptance of CRM, as is the price/cost issue, especially for the SMB market. The marketing campaign features are extremely important and the interface to accounting/ERP systems greatly improve the customer service aspect as well as giving a more 360 view, makes CRM a… -
A Walk Through a Broken Organization
10 Jan 2012 | 9:46 amA Walkthrough of a Broken Organization Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. For the past 14 years I have been working all across North America and internationally, meeting, speaking and consulting with organizations of all sizes and areas of focus. While every client engagement is unique, some problems are common to many corporate cultures and tend to prevent a company from reaching its business potential. This month, let’s take a walk through a hypothetical… -
Your 2012 Sales Plan
3 Jan 2012 | 7:08 amYour 2012 Sales Plan It’s a little late to begin planning your 2012 Sales Plan, but in a conversation last week with a reader of this blog, I realized there maybe others who have not formalized their 2012 plan. I have included below the various “categories” you should consider in building a plan. Other questions you should consider: What went well in the past year? What did not go well? What are the key drivers? What are the key metrics? What are the risks? What are the opportunities? -
Merry Christmas and Have a Great Holiday Season
19 Dec 2011 | 7:01 am
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Meeting to Win's Blog
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10 Sales Team Meeting Topics to Cover Every Year
18 Jan 2012 | 9:35 amNo matter how many sales team meetings you conduct each year – weekly, monthly or otherwise – there are a handful of topic categories that make sense to re-visit every year. As you make your 2012 sales team meeting plan,here are 10 topic categories most sales teams can benefit from reviewing every year. 1. SWOT. Look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and make a plan to address those each year. They change from year to year. 2. Objections. These can also change year to year based on the economic environment, your industry, competitor moves and your own… -
Sales Team Meeting Idea – End of Year Sales Lessons
16 Dec 2011 | 8:16 amIt’s the end of a another crazy year! Hopefully, this one was full of successes for you and your team. This is a great time of year to reflect on what’s worked, what hasn’t and head into the new year with a few lessons to apply. Here is an idea for your next sales meeting. First, celebrate! Current Year Success Celebration Each salesperson, list your greatest sales accomplishment in the current year (think all the way back to the beginning of the year, too): __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________… -
Halloween Sales Team Meeting Idea: What Scares Your Customers?
31 Oct 2011 | 7:27 amHappy Halloween. What scares your customers? Today is a great day to ask yourselves that question and, more importantly, alleviate those fears. Fear is a powerful sales motivator. Consumers spend money on many products and services (vitamins, alarm systems, etc) because they are afraid of what may happen if they don’t. Your customers are no different. They may spend money on a solution from you because they are afraid of the problem you solve. Today is a great day to recognize their fears and double-check yourselves to make sure you are actually alleviating their fears. As… -
Reading to Win Book Club – The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon
21 Sep 2011 | 7:45 amIt’s time for the Meeting to Win Q4 Reading-to-Win Book Club. We’ve chosen the book, The Energy Bus, 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy , by Jon Gordon. Whether your team is struggling to end the year strong or overflowing with positive energy, this book will give them the extra push and motivation to end 2011 with energy and success. Buy the book and join us for a 16-week discussion. Get on the bus with Meeting to Win! Reading Assignment: Chapter 1, Flat Tire; Chapter 2, Good News and Bad News Discussion Questions: Think about whoyou know (or… -
The Social Network in Sales
24 Aug 2011 | 8:46 amDuring the month of August Meeting to Win subscribers have been taking lessons from the past year’s top movies. We’ve covered Limitless, Just Go With It and even Yogi Bear (who by the way, had a real sales problem). This Friday, each subscriber is receiving The Social Network agenda. Social networks have touched every life. Whether you are a user or not, you are hit with the new vocabulary such as “tweets”, “like me”, “friend me”, “LinkIn with me”, etc. We’ll ask teams to examine social networking and how it can advance…
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Free Sales & Marketing Magazines and Downloads from alltop.tradepub.com
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Get Found By More Prospects And Convert More Of Them Into Leads And Customers
26 Jan 2012 | 1:20 pmWhy would HubSpot offer such valuable information? Because HubSpot's software helps you take advantage of how people research and shop for products and services today - bringing together a suite of Internet marketing tools for the small or medium sized business, including tools for:search engine optimization,business blogging,website content publishing,lead tracking and intelligence,marketing analytics, andcompetitor analysisHubSpot is web-based, does not require any IT staff, and is designed to be used by a marketing person, not a techie. You will be contacted by a HubSpot representative for… -
Papa Gino's Boosts Sales and Customer Loyalty
24 Jan 2012 | 8:50 pmSee how they have been able to fine-tune marketing campaigns to not only increase the frequency of customers' online visits by 33 percent, but also boost the size of online customer orders by 40 to 70 percent.Request Free! -
4 Steps to Maximize Customer Profitability
24 Jan 2012 | 8:20 pmYou'll discover the basics of customer analytics, how it is being applied in today's banking environment and the benefits it can deliver for your organization. You'll also learn about the proven IBM solutions for customer analytics that banks around the world rely on to improve customer profitability.Request Free! -
Increasing Profits, Slashing Expenses at Primerica
24 Jan 2012 | 8:20 pmDownload this case study and see how their sales reps can dynamically drill-down into sales data, receive online commission statements and identify down-line representatives that need help with performance.Request Free! -
Insurance Study: Transforming Customer Relationships with Analytics
24 Jan 2012 | 8:20 pmRead it now and understand the impact business analytics are having on today's insurance industry.Request Free!
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Art Sobczak's Telesales Blog
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If You Ever Lack Focus, this Might Help
26 Jan 2012 | 9:23 amLast month I met with a group of other speaking and training professionals, just as we have been meeting several times per year, for 14 years now. It’s a mastermind group (if you’re not familiar with this term, I suggest researching it and perhaps finding or starting one, as it will likely change your life, and income) called Master Speakers International http://www.businessbyphone.com/msi.htm Usually at our meetings everyone shares ideas about what’s working for them in their business, marketing, sales, operations, technology, latest must-read books, etc. At this meeting,… -
250 Free Motivational Quotes for You
18 Jan 2012 | 8:21 amIf you are reading this, I’m guessing that you will make it through the most depressing day of the year without doing anything drastic. You see, January 18 is the most depressing day, according to Dr. Cliff Arnall, a British researcher from Cardiff University. Dr. Arnall, who studies such things (and does that make HIM feel better or worse about himself personally, just wondering) takes into account factors like post-holiday blahs and debt, failed New Year’s resolutions and, this year, the abnormal bone-chilling temperatures all over and snow. Most of us in… -
Begin 2012 By Getting the Easy Sales
5 Jan 2012 | 1:37 pmDid you go through an annual review recently? They can be very profitable. Oh, I’m talking about YOU doing an annual review of your customer and prospect database, and then doing reviews with your customers and prospects. That’s right. The first place to mine for gold is in the treasure you now possess. Most people begin a new year with grand plans to increase their new business. Yet many of those same people don’t pick up the easy stuff first, skimming the cream that already residing in their computer. This is an area we often cover in my training workshops for… -
Update and Zipps’ Response to Being Kicked Out of the Bar
16 Dec 2011 | 12:05 pmWith any business, making mistakes with customers is inevitable. Every good customer service training program or expert will agree that the key to minimizing damage and maintaining customer goodwill is in the proactive steps the business takes to recover. Here is an update to my situation, and some observations. Todd Goldman, one of the managing partners of Zipps, posted a message to “Customer and Inquisitors” on my blog on Wednesday. You can read it yourself in the Comments section in the original post and form your own opinions. I was not personally contacted prior to that… -
Kicked Out of a Bar Because I Didn’t Want My Burger Split. Really?
13 Dec 2011 | 3:24 pm(NOTE: I had originally sent this out to my email sales tips newsletter subscribers earlier today. The response has been overwhelming. I’m posting it here so those of you that want to comment and even share your own stories can do so. Enjoy!) I wouldn’t fault you if you don’t believe what you’re about to read. It is such an outrageous and bizarre example of customer treatment–I can’t even call it "service"–that I might not have believed it myself. Except I experienced it last Saturday. First, some background. Zipps is a local, popular chain…
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SalesJournal.com
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The One Sales Trend that Demands Attention
27 Jan 2012 | 12:48 pmGuest Post: Bruce Wedderburn, EVP Channel & Enablement, Huthwaite Inc. As we kick off 2012 with a heightened sense of optimism after the past few years, we all hypothesize what the new year will bring to our organizations, our people and our clients. And typical of this time of year there are no shortages of prognosticators who are allegedly spotting the trends that are going to take the sales and business world by storm. Having read many of these predictions and having had a chance to cross reference them against what we are seeing at Huthwaite as we look into 2012, there is one… -
Revenue Goals and The Secret to Consistent Success
25 Jan 2012 | 2:04 pmBy Kendra Lee Achieving “unachievable” revenue goals If there’s a universal truth in sales, it’s that the start of a new year means everything starts over. Whether you had a terrific 2011 or not, whether you create your own goals or they’re handed down, we’re all in the same boat. We’re facing new revenue goals for 2012, and I’ll bet yours are higher than last year’s. Freaking out? You’re not alone. Take a deep breath. We’ve helped hundreds of sellers reach seemingly unachievable goals by breaking them down into achievable bites. This is my secret to consistent… -
8 Closing Mistakes You Can’t Make
24 Jan 2012 | 11:36 amBy Colleen Francis Mistake #1: Not earning the buyer’s trust. If your prospect doesn’t trust you, 98% of the time, you won’t make the sale.There are two important things to remember about trust. First, trust extends from you. If you begin the sales process by building rapport so that the prospect starts to like you, they will soon begin to trust you as well.Second, trust is not earned overnight; it is built through consistent behavior over time. In other words, if you want the prospect to trust you, you need to consistently speak and act in a way that earns their trust throughout your… -
Three New Tricks To Boost Sales Performance - From A Sales Trainer’s Casebook
23 Jan 2012 | 12:18 pmBy Michael Taplin Years ago in Australia I worked as a consultant trainer for a great trouble-shooter to sort out the underperforming Australian end of a major consumer electronics marketing operation. I worked with them for three years, twice a year, traveling the country, 4 states, doing their sales training. The first trip was easy, basic techniques stuff, and it is still being taught today. What should I do second, and third and fourth time around? The things I discovered will probably work for you today. Trick 1: Get the customer to tell you what he wants from you. I decided to ask a… -
Is it Time To Search For A New Position?
20 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pmBy Susan Enns Every once in a while when many of us evaluate the past and look forward to a better future. For some, that means the question arises as to whether they should make a career change and start looking for new employement. Should you move to greener pastures with a new company After all, we spend far too many hours at work not to be happy in what we do. On the other hand, changing positions is no guarantee things will get better once we’ve made the switch. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, as they say. The only way to…
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Peak Sales Recruiting
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The First 90 Days – How to Get Your New Sales Hires Producing, Fast
26 Jan 2012 | 5:08 pmNext month, we will be publishing a new guide entitled The First 90 Days – How to Get Your New Sales Hires Producing, Fast. Here is a teaser from the introduction. Most companies take months or even years to determine whether a new hire is successful, but often all the evidence to indicate whether a rep is a keeper or not exists in the reps first 90 days on the job. What happens in this critical timeframe will usually dictate the success or failure of the new rep, so after investing a great deal of time and effort to find a new sales hire, it is vitally important a ton of sense to make… -
Why is Hiring Sales People Different?
16 Jan 2012 | 1:13 amEvery successful business knows that it’s success rests squarely on the shoulders of its best sales people. Having a talented sales force can make or break an organization. It stands to reason, then, that hiring the best and most qualified sales people is of critical importance. However, most managers don’t relish the prospect of hiring. This is particularly true when it comes to hiring sales people. Why? Well, because every candidate is a sales person! Most will possess ample sales ability to impress an interviewer. A sharp suit and polished resume, coupled with some caffeine and… -
Tough Decisions – Rebuilding the Sales Team
13 Dec 2011 | 9:41 amThis morning I had breakfast with friend and President and CEO of Stratford Managers, Jim Roche. They are a progressive group, helping companies achieve growth and profitability through a mix of consulting and acting executive engagements. They are a sales savvy bunch as well. In a recent blog post, When It’s Time To Rebuild Your Sales Team, they discuss one of the tough decisions facing CEO’s today: whether to tear apart and reconstruct a non-performing sales team. The article argues that when the picture is bleak and all other actions, such strategy, training and new tools have… -
How to Make Friends and Influence People in Social Media [Infographic]
29 Nov 2011 | 2:37 pmNow more than ever, sales and marketing are tied at the hip, with marketing driving leads and the sales function, particularly in small companies, engaging customers online. The art of making friends and influencing people has become so important in businesses and jobs that many people now make a living out of “coaching” the tips we share below. -
7 Priorities for the New VP Sales (Requires 30 seconds to read)
23 Nov 2011 | 6:11 pmThe Vice President of Sales is the hottest seat in any company, and one that turns over most often. When a company hires a new VP Sales, he or she is more than likely taking over a sales function that has been underperforming and there is a usually a mandate to turn things around as fast as possible. Having been a new VP Sales myself more than once, my model for achieving fast and lasting success involves focusing on 6 top priorities during the critical first 90 days of assuming the role: Connect – Meet with key customers to let them know you are committed to their success. Validation –…
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Sharon Drew Morgen
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Do you really understand how your buyers buy?
23 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amFor decades, salespeople scrunched their faces when I mentioned “how buyers buy”. I heard comments like: “I know what they need.” or “I understand exactly how they buy: price, price, price.” But sellers only close 7% of their prospects (and far, far less if using marketing automation). If you understand how buyers buy, why do you have less than a 40% close rate? Indeed, it’s not enough to understand: so long as you are using the conventional sales model (and bas your interactions on placing a solution) you have no idea how your buyers travel… -
Help Buyers Choose the Buying Decision Team: a case study
16 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amWould you buy a house without discussing it with your wife or family? Would you even know all of the buying criteria without their input? Would you bring in a leadership training without getting the buy-in from the people who would be trained? Or know their criteria without their voices? Would you choose a web designer without getting the buy-in from the current design team and the techies? Would you know what they would want included until they offered their opinions or knew what parts they wanted to do themselves? Why not? I recently had a coaching call with a SVP at a well-known CRM… -
Buyers don’t sit and wait for sellers
19 Dec 2011 | 7:00 amAround 85% of a buyer’s pre-purchase, back-end decision issues get addressed privately, outside of the seller’s purview, and a seller has no place at the table. Here is where we lose our sales – as buyers manage the internal politics, and the strategic/change issues – not because our solutions aren’t relevant or because we haven’t done a good job selling. The sales process discovers need, gathers data to determine a solution fit, and places the solution. Buyers need that data and the sales function is vital. But first they absolutely must make sure… -
Selling doesn’t cause buying
12 Dec 2011 | 8:00 amWhen you think about your numbers (closing percentages, total calls, etc.), and consider the objections, the price issues, the delayed sales cycles, the excuses, and those who just, well, disappear, don’t you realize these same problems have been cropping up, um, forever? And that whatever you seem to be doing to ‘correct’ the issue doesn’t seem to work? And you still expect different results? Do you realize you’d rather suffer with the long sales cycle rather than actually enter the buyer’s journey much earlier and help them navigate through their… -
Why Your Sales Cycle is So Long (Hint: It’s Not About Your Solution)
5 Dec 2011 | 6:00 amDo you know why it takes so long for a buyer to buy? If the buyer knows they have a need, and they like you and your solution, shouldn’t it be easy? Yes. It is easy. But not with the sales model alone. THE JOB OF THE SALES MODEL: LIMITING THE PURCHASE CHOICE AND BUYING DECISIONS The sales model is meant to place a solution. It was designed for a simpler time in history, when there were fewer solutions, precious few ways of marketing them, no internet or FEDEx to get solutions from China delivered to your front door in two days. It was not designed: to bring together disparate players…
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A Sales GuyA Sales Guy
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The Year of the Expert and The Information Sale
27 Jan 2012 | 10:09 amI used the phrase, “information sale” in a post a while back. I’ve been thinking about that term for quite a while now. It’s really been on my mind. The information sale is the idea that selling happens when the client or prospect is being educated. It’s when the sales person is using information to teach the prospect or customer something they didn’t know. Information selling has been around for a long time. However, it hasn’t been critical to the selling process. It’s been primarily the secret weapon of the most successful sales people. For… -
Management and the Freedom Box
26 Jan 2012 | 4:40 pmThere has always been a lot of discussion about which is the best approach, activity based management or results based management. I’m a 100% in the results based management camp. I don’t believe there is only one way to get something done. Activity based management narrows the approach, because the activities being managed come from the top. The approach is defined and then everyone has to follow it. It assumes there is only one way to get something done and that you’re doing it. Activity based management is stifling. It removes creativity from the process. It removes… -
Nimble
26 Jan 2012 | 7:55 amnim·ble adj \ˈnim-bəl\ quick and light in motion agile <nimble fingers> a marked by quick, alert, clever conception, comprehension, or resourcefulness <a nimble mind> I predict “nimble” is going to be the business buzzword of 2012. Just saying! -
Disrupt Your Customers Pattern of Thinking
24 Jan 2012 | 3:05 pmI wrote about the importance of intrigue in cold calling awhile back. We’ve now added a video. It’s that important. The ebook/white paper isn’t done yet, but will be shortly. So, stay tuned. Also, we’ll be launching A Sales Guy U soon, where all my video’s and ebooks will be available. -
Does Your Sales Organization Suck?
23 Jan 2012 | 7:27 am. . . Or is it pretty good? We all have a pretty good idea if our sales team is good or bad. Most of us just look at the numbers. If the team is making them, they are good. If they aren’t they need help. Assessing sales teams usually goes something like that. It’s the old “gut” check. The problem with the “gut check” is it doesn’t give us much more information. The team is good or not, that’s all it tells us. What the gut doesn’t do is tell us why the team is good or not. It doesn’t tell us where the opportunities are to get better…
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Sales Motivation and Sales Training
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5 Sales Training Tips for Sales Managers AND Salespeople
27 Jan 2012 | 2:14 amWhether you’re a rookie salesperson, a veteran salesperson or a sales manager, here are 5 sales training tips you need to take action on: 1. The success you have in sales is dependent on your level of confidence. Every salesperson needs another voice they can count on for support. One of the biggest things a sales manager can do is to help salespeople build confidence. This means even though things may not be going as desired, you’re still providing them the support they need to win. 2. Learn something from every sales call. No matter how many sales calls you may have made,… -
Debunking the Myth of “Inside Sales”
26 Jan 2012 | 1:11 amWhen somebody tells me they do inside sales, I want to choke. “Inside sales” makes it seem like people are locked into a room and nobody leaves until a sale is made. Sure, that might have been the case years ago, but that’s not what inside sales is today. Today’s customer, whether it be B2B or B2C, are not locked into doing anything they don’t want to. Customers have more options than ever before. It’s amazing how the internet has given a level of knowledge and confidence to customers. The problem I see is too many salespeople are not yet accepting how… -
Sales Negotiating: The WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW
25 Jan 2012 | 12:09 amToo many salespeople begin negotiating with customers too quickly. As soon as the customer gives any sort of resistance, it seems like the going norm is for the salesperson to roll over and play dead and give away the farm. It’s time to cut to the chase and provide some perspective on the who, what, when, where, why, and how of sales negotiating. Who: You can’t negotiate with anyone unless they have the power to buy. Don’t waste your time if the person you’re talking to doesn’t have the authority to make a decision. If you’re not sure if they can make a… -
6 Ways to Raise Your Prices NOW
24 Jan 2012 | 2:54 amThe best way to increase your profit is by increasing your prices. Sounds pretty straight forward, but for far too many people, the idea of raising prices is absolutely scary. It seems the most popular way to try to increase profit has been by cutting expenses. I’m sorry to say this, but the easy stuff has already been cut. As I often point out, “You can cut your way to survival, but you can’t cut your way to prosperity.” Below are 6 ways you can raise your prices right now. 1. Don’t ask your customers for a price increase. Tell them. Customers of all types are… -
Walk the Flight Line: Get Dirty With Your Troops
23 Jan 2012 | 3:33 amIt is Guest Post Monday and we have Lt. Col. Rob “Waldo” Waldman. He is a former combat decorated fighter pilot, leadership speaker, and author of the National Bestseller Never Fly Solo. Today’s post will particularly resonate with sales managers, but I think anyone in sales could glean some valuable points. When your squadron commander meets you at your jet, it’s normally not a good sign. “Waldo, we need to talk,” he said as he headed for the aircraft hangar. Had I messed up? Was I in trouble? I gulped. Was something wrong at home? “Waldo, Sgt. Tyler…
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Partners in EXCELLENCE Blog -- Making A Difference
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Stacking The Deck!
26 Jan 2012 | 4:42 pmI’ve got a terrible confession to make. I cheat. I don’t want to play fair and square. I don’t like to play on a level playing field. I do everything I can to tilt deals to my favor. I do everything I can to stack the deck. I don’t think I’m alone in this. Our inclination as sales people is to do this. We want our customers to prioritize the things that we do well and that our competitors do poorly. Likewise, we want our customer to de-prioritize the things our competitors do well and we do poorly. We do everything we can to shift the criteria… -
Average Is Over
26 Jan 2012 | 12:45 amI read a fascinating Op Ed piece by Tom Friedman in the New York Times, Average Is Over. It’s a fascinating piece. As I reflected on the piece it struck me how important this concept is to professional selling. Friedman makes the point, “”…everyone needs to find their extra–their unique value contribution that makes them stand out…” Friedman is not writing about organizations, he’s writing about individuals, each of us. It’s a profound concept, understanding it is like discovering the secret decoder ring for sales success. In a… -
It’s All In Your Head!
25 Jan 2012 | 12:45 amSales people are notoriously bad at writing things down and documenting things. I talk to thousands a year. When I start talking about documenting something–a deal plan, an account plan, territory, call plans, even a to-do list–all of a sudden you can see the resistance in their faces. They sit back, fold their arms. Most say nothing, but a few courageous one’s will say, “Dave, you don’t get it. I’m too busy to do this. I don’t have time to document these things–it’s too bureaucratic–I’ve got a plan, it’s… -
A Different Take On Challenging Conversations
24 Jan 2012 | 12:45 amI’ve been writing a lot about changing the conversation, about challenging our customers, about getting them to think differently. A lot of readers have been sending me notes, asking for advice on how to do this. While I agree with many of the principles outlined in Challenger Selling and Provocative Selling, I take a little different view on things. The basic premise of many of these approaches is that we have to know our customers businesses better than they do, we have to have better ideas for their business or function than they do. I tend to think of this as a little arrogant… -
What If We’re Not Important? Part 2
23 Jan 2012 | 12:45 amAs I mentioned in the previous, What If We’re Not Important post, it’s always difficult to imagine what we sell and do may not be important. Don’t get me wrong, what we do is important to someone–after all if we were truly not important, then our companies would be out of business. The issue is are we important enough for the customers to invest in now? We may have great business cases, but regardless how compelling the business case, if we aren’t at the top of the hit parade of our customers’ strategic initiatives, we won’t get the order. In the…
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Steel on Sales
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Top 5%- How does a Sales Professional get there?
17 Jan 2012 | 7:21 amAnyone in sales more than a year has probably come across the top 5% conversation. This usually occurs in the first 2 months on a consistent basis and during meetings when accolades are given out. The top 5% sales person is well above the rest when it comes to knowledge, understanding, technique, and the amount of money they make. How do you get there? Reaching the top 5% isn't an easy task. If you know anyone who is considered to be in the top 5%, you probably think they have a different personality than you. Whether they seem rude, cocky, arrogant, polite, or anything else, you just… -
Don't Fail Your Highly Aggressive Salespeople.
29 Dec 2011 | 7:11 amWhether you have an existing sales force that has become stagnant, or you are a start-up ready to hire your first salesperson, the goal is the same: you want to grow your company. Growth is the underlying reason why most companies go out and find “Hunters,” those highly aggressive salespeople that make things happen. Unfortunately, more often than not, companies abandon theses highly aggressive salespeople soon after they come on board. The reasons are two-fold: they become too much to handle and need constant change and stimulation to stay fresh in the field. Eventually those people are… -
Become a Standout
13 Dec 2011 | 10:31 amSo you want to stand out from the rest of the other millions of people using social media and become a success but don't know exactly where to start? I came across something recently that might just get you thinking a bit, and perhaps a bit differently than you normally would. Someone was asked how to stand out from the crowd and an internet marketer paused and thought to himself how easy that truly is-just look around and see what everyone else is doing and don't do it! Or I would add to that or do it, but find a way to do it differently that sets you apart from the crowd in… -
Social Media the New Normal
6 Dec 2011 | 10:30 amThere are definitely a lot of different opinions floating around out there particularly on the internet these days regarding if social media is the new normal as far as is it considered part of one's work, a distraction from it or could it be a combination of the two? Obviously it makes a difference who you are asking these questions of. If you ask an internet marketer they are more than likely going to tell you that indeed it is a crucial part of their work that they could not do without and that it helps their business grow immensely. However, if you asked a dental assistant he… -
Accountability- Use Reviews to keep your team in check
29 Nov 2011 | 10:29 amBecoming a leader of your sales team or business doesn't come easy. There is a specific approach built upon some of the great business-minds of our past, so take advantage of it. Delivering the perfect model will reflect upon you, your team, and the business as a whole. Presenting a feasible plan that delivers results begins with a threshold for goals. Motivating your sales staff or employees will provide an accomplishment factor that keeps everyone on top of their game. However, you have other areas to focus on as well: #1 Quarter, Semi-Annual, or Annual Reviews In order to accomplish…
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Media Sales Today
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Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner at a Conference!
27 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amConference season is coming up fast and for some, that is fantastic news, while for others it brings a sense of dread. Now before you work yourself into a tizzy, MarketingProfs offers some tips to prepare your shy side or even your procrastinating alter ego. Avoid Avoidance. Don’t react to the whirlwind of sessions [...] -
Grocers to Boost Prepared Food Promotion in 2012
26 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amAs the new year progresses, consumers are getting the idea that any improvement in their personal financial situation will be gradual. At least one survey shows that the number of consumers who are very concerned about the economy has remained unchanged for nearly 3 years. But, they are growing tired of cutting their dining out budget and cooking at home. As consumers shift their habits, savvy marketers can increase market share. -
Sales Qualities of “Dragons”
25 Jan 2012 | 3:39 pmThe Chinese New Year Day occurred earlier this week, and 2012 is the Year of the Dragon -
Ad Opportunity: Cruise Marketing Now a Year-Round Endeavor
25 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amDespite the recent high-profile cruise ship disaster that took place off the coast of Italy, consumers will still be looking to book passage to their favorite destination. The industry has changed somewhat as a result of the recession and this has implications for marketing. Service providers looking to fill cabins may embark on some new types of promotion in 2012. -
Think Like a Chief Marketing Officer – But With No Tech Fear
25 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amYou're probably always wondering what chief marketing officers are thinking, right? Well, this might help a teensy bit. Forrester Research and Heidrick & Struggles talked to approximately 200 CMOs to try to get inside those all-knowing heads.
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Sales Management Today
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Here’s to Your Success!
9 Jan 2012 | 6:25 pmResearch shows that the one thing that successful people always do is set goals. Below is a simple 5 steps process to help you start your year off with a focus on the outcomes you want It’s that simple. 5 Steps Setting Your Goals into Action Step 1 What: Establish what you want to achieve. It can be personally, career wise or financial. What would make you the MVP in your organization? Visualise the goals you would like to achieve in the next year. Step 2 Why: Tap into why these goals are important to you. This will be your source of motivation. E.g.: Recognition, pride, praise or reward. -
Get on the Podium in 2012
15 Dec 2011 | 6:00 pmOnce upon a time, all sales managers were sales people. Most sales reps are type “A” personalities; they are driven and competitive. These are good solid traits that will help them succeed in the field. So it’s not surprising that when I sit down with sales managers to discuss their goals for the next year, one of the most common themes is to be the #1 region/area in the country. Sales managers still crave the opportunity to shine and be recognised in front of their peers. If your goal is to be the #1 area/district then the question is how are you going to make that happen? Ask… -
Overcoming “Failure to Impact” Syndrome
22 Oct 2011 | 1:32 pmThis year was tough; next year’s sales prospects look even tougher. Your boss comes to you and says how can you sustain the sales force? What can you do? The typical response goes like this: You devise several homemade remedies to ensure you do better next year. You develop a plan to do one or more of the following: Develop a new selling skills program Hire only top sales reps Focus on growing key customers Create a better incentive plan However, these “quick fixes” only scratch the surface. The deeper response is to ask yourself some difficult questions. You need to understand why… -
The Changing Face of Professional Leadership – Join The Debate
15 Mar 2011 | 11:46 amRecently published research suggests that the average tenure of a sales manager is now just eighteen months! These are pretty alarming findings, and during the course of this sixty minute debate, we not only intend to discover the facts underpinning theses results, but also discuss how management is changing. For example, we know that the role of a sales leader is to translate the organisation’s vision, mission, and values into a meaningful context that sales teams can relate to and feel excited by. If this is achieved, then the Sales Leader will have created a sales team with a shared… -
Can Pharma’s Woes be Tied to Poor Business Acumen?
4 Mar 2011 | 5:35 pmThe Pharmaceutical Industry has undergone enormous change. The number of sales reps has declined significantly over the last 4 years. Declining sales has not only forced the industry to reduce the number of sales reps calling on physicians but has also created the need to better focus on customer needs. The days of adding sales forces are dead and companies are struggling to find ways to deliver value to their customers. Many companies have realised that in order to better understand and meet customer needs they have had to evolve from a centralised/marketing focus to a customer centric…
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Women In Sales and Business | Sales Gravy
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First Impressions: Can you close a sale in 10 seconds or less?
24 Jan 2012 | 9:05 amBy Liz Wendling www.salescoachforwomen.com Actually, great sales people can do it even faster IF they make a great first impression! Less than 10 seconds is the time it takes to make your customer connect with you and it can make or break what happens next: sale or no sale. Remember the old saying: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Such a true statement! You can bet that if you make a great impression, your potential client will be more likely to do business with you than over your competitor. Whether your initial meeting is face-to-face, on the phone or on the… -
Three Email Traps to Avoid When Prospecting
19 Jan 2012 | 8:54 amBy avoiding the most common mistakes other people make, savvy sellers like you can move their way to the top of the inbox, and fill their sales funnels with new leads. By Kendra Lee, President, KLA Group In a perfect world, every email we send to a potential client would be read and responded to right away. Unfortunately, many of our prospects are too busy to even look at all the messages they receive, much less act on them. By avoiding the most common mistakes other people make, savvy sellers like you can move their way to the top of the inbox, and fill their sales funnels with new leads. In… -
How to Create Compelling Prospecting Emails
16 Jan 2012 | 7:04 pmEven with their best intentions, the chances that a prospect will actually respond to your email, if they weren’t compelled to do it right away, are slim. It’s critical that you send prospecting and lead-generation emails that compel them to take action right away. by Kendra Lee You’ve taken the time to develop a great email prospecting list, crafted a brief, interesting note to send off to potential clients, and then excitedly hit “send.” Hours later, somewhere across town, your prospect opens the message and is so impressed by what you sent that she decides to save the email and… -
Let Your Creative Ideas Marinate – Like Fine Food
13 Jan 2012 | 2:29 pmContributed by: Robyn Davis www.whenineedhelp.com Have you ever made spaghetti sauce from scratch for a special night in? If you have (and I don’t mean pouring pre-made sauce out of a jar, heating it up, and adding some parsley to the top), then you know an all day process is required to achieve the perfect mix. After preparing the core ingredients, they have to be added to your pot in layers along with the appropriate seasonings. Then, as the saying goes, “a watched pot never boils,” so don’t expect the vegetables to soften or the flavors to meld together any quicker just… -
Five Steps to Get Followers on Your LinkedIn Page
11 Jan 2012 | 11:46 amBy Alice Heiman www.aliceheiman.com There is lots of talk about the new LinkedIn company pages. For some it is just another place on the internet they need to keep current. It can seem daunting at times. I currently have business pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google +, and Youtube that I need to update regularly, along with all of my personal profiles. Not to mention this blog that needs new content weekly. It does take a lot of time, but so does any sales and marketing plan. The better you get at it the faster it is and the more results you get. That said, it is a lot to keep up with and it…
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Dave Stein's Blog: An Independent Perspective on Sales Training and Sales Effectiveness
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The State of Sales Training 2012 | Part 2: Some of the Sales Training Leaders
23 Jan 2012 | 1:12 pmIn the previous post, I took you through some of the 2011 highlights in the sales training industry. I promised to share with you who ESR considers sales training industry leaders. A few points to consider: As you are probably aware, ESR’s Research Methodology enables our research team to produce very accurate profiles and evaluations of the sales training providers that we cover. We look at many more characteristics than are listed in the “category” column below, going through numerous briefings, checking customer references, and tapping into our significant community of sales… -
The State of Sales Training 2012 (Part One)
16 Jan 2012 | 12:58 pmOn December 7, 2011 ESR delivered a webinar presentation on the state of sales training (download the MP3 or PDF—free registration required). It was an hour full of valuable intelligence and insight for sales training companies and sales trainers in corporate L&D organizations. Here are some of the points I made during the event. First, a quick review of 2011. (A look at 2012 and beyond will follow in Part 2.) Sales training spend was up during the first half of 2011, then down during the second. 63% of companies ESR surveyed during 2011 spend less than $3,000 per sales rep per year. -
Yesterday I Sold My Plane. So, Here Is What I Learned From Flying.
10 Jan 2012 | 4:11 pmYesterday I sold my plane. It is a 1978 Cessna 182Q. Seats 4. Cruises at 160 MPH. What a wonderful plane it is. I bought the plane in 1995 after Datalogix International, a company where I was a principal, went public. I flew nearly 2,000 hours in the plane with trips to Florida, Atlanta, Chicago, Canada, Lake of the Ozarks, and many dozens of airports up and down the East Coast. I made 20 trips down the “Hudson River Corridor” at 900 feet, which always included a loop around the Statue of Liberty at 500 feet. (Check out this video from my plane.) I took a lot of people, especially… -
Upcoming Webinar: Documenting the Quantitative Impact of Sales Training
3 Jan 2012 | 10:01 amWhen we ask sales executives how they measure sales performance, 60% of them tell us that they don’t have a performance measurement system in place. Of the remaining 40%, a majority depend solely on a single lagging indicator: performance against quota/budget. If other metrics are even mentioned, they are typically the size/trending of their pipeline, the number of sales calls per week, or the percentage of proposals they submit that result in a win. When you consider a typical enterprise, you’ll find that almost every department has a set of processes or procedures and metrics by… -
Blood, Sweat, and Tiramisu in the Italian Alps
21 Dec 2011 | 11:23 amLauren Harper at Focus.com pinged me last week to contribute to a discussion about the worst sales training horror stories. Before I took down my sales training shingle in 2005, I had a lot of stories. One that came to mind was this, a slightly edited version of the one I posted as a comment on the Focus.com discussion: Seven years ago I was flown to Lake Como, Italy, by the CEO of a global corporation based in Sweden. I was to facilitate a full-day workshop with ten country managers and division presidents. The subject was strategies for improving sales effectiveness within their business…
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The Pipeline
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Dealing with Price in the Real World
27 Jan 2012 | 2:33 amA few weeks back I gave you permission to go ahead and sell on price, so long as specific conditions were met and adhered to. One central condition being that you can deliver full “value” at your price. Ah, value, the ever-present and undefined term in sales, so before going further let’s define value right here: Definition of Value: Those offerings that remove barriers, obstacles, or helps bridge gaps present between where the buyer is now – and – their objectives! Buyers will attribute value in your offering if can see, understand, and accept, that it will… -
Good or Bad Question?
25 Jan 2012 | 2:33 amQuestions are certainly the preferred tool of successful sales people. But like any tool, proper use will very much dictate the outcome. I was asked whether I thought there were good questions or bad questions sales people can use during a sales cycle, are some better than others given the situation. This is something we deal with a lot, and in the response I talk about why worrying about “good questions” vs. “bad questions”, is really the wrong way to come at the issue. Below I highlight an approach that allows you to use a method for using the right question… -
Sales & Consequences now on Amazon Kindle
24 Jan 2012 | 2:33 amA couple of weeks ago I introduced a new online book titled “Sales & Consequences”, and while response has been great, many busy sales professionals were asking “how can I take this great content with me wherever I go, and be environmentally responsible le at the same time?” So the elves at here at Renbor leapt into action, and produced a Amazon Kindle version of the book. So now you have a choice, you can download the PDF version, or for a nominal charge of .99 cents, you can grab the ultra portable and shareable Kindle version of the book. Just so you know, all author… -
Take Time Out To Get Ahead – Sales eXchange – 133
23 Jan 2012 | 2:33 amI remember the first time I ran a half marathon, I took off from the start line and ran, no pre-run strategy, no game plan, I just took off, and at about the 16 KM mark, I ran out gas and dragged myself to the finish line. While I still had a respectable finish for a 50 year old former smoker, I also knew there had to be a better way. After a bit of reading, I discovered a process described as 10 – 1, the idea being you run at race pace for ten minutes, then ease off for one minute, allowing you to recover mentally and physically, and ready yourself for the next 10 minutes. This same time… -
Building Greater Customer Engagement Through Online Communities
20 Jan 2012 | 2:33 amThe Pipeline Guest Post – Don F Perkins Many business owners are finding that a great way to create greater customer engagement is to build an online community of users and fans who share a common interest which has something to do with their product, service or the ideologies behind their business. There are many ways to do this and many formats that will work depending on the participants and their personas. Some of the better known platforms to choose from today are Linkedin, Focus Expert Network, Namesake, Quora, Stack Overflow, PInterest and even Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and…
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New Sales Economy Blog
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Customer Service in the Customer Lifecyle: Thoughts from a Social CRM Expert
26 Jan 2012 | 7:37 amTweet Guest post by Tristan Bishop @knowledgebishop. Tristan drives digital strategy at Symantec, using social media monitoring and Social CRM to capture customer commentary. He is widely considered to be a powerhouse of knowledge in the Social CRM arena…. and a super silly daddy. Tristan blogs at KnowledgeBishop. For those that are wondering, “what the heck does customer service have to do with the sales and marketing cycle”? The answer is more than you probably think. “Please state your date of birth.” A few feet in front of me, an elderly woman looked up at a young… -
The Most Counterintuitive Sales Strategy You’ve Ever Read
24 Jan 2012 | 10:07 amTweet I just finished Aaron Ross’ new book entitled: Predictable Revenue. If you are in Sales or Marketing leadership you need to read it. If you are a front line sales or marketing professional, read it too and buy it for your boss. For those of you that don’t know Aaron lead the charge at Salesforce.com in building their Enterprise inside sales team. Aaron grew the team from just himself to over $100m in incremental recurring revenues over a few short years. I was reading David Skok’s For Entrepreneurs blog (one of my favorites if you are interested in building SaaS sales… -
Sales Contests: How do you Focus on the Right Things?
26 Nov 2011 | 10:55 amTweet Guest post by Bob Marsh, SVP Sales Strategy at ePrize and Head of Sales Contest Builder an ePrize company. This was a question I posed to sales managers via a few different LinkedIn Groups over the last month. It became a lively conversation with over 50 comments made across the groups. While it’s not a statistically significant study, it does provide insight from some experienced sales managers on how to motivate salespeople. I personally believe, which was well validated from the responses, that there are some fundamental things you need to do in order to effectively motivate… -
7 Forward Thinking Sales Presentations You May Have Missed
22 Sep 2011 | 6:53 amTweet Here are some really awesome Slideshare sales presentations to dive through at your leisure. I picked these 7 out because they are all truly forward thinking and range from creating best practice inside sales process, creating the social enterprise, viral marketing trends and sales strategy. Have at it! UPDATED: Pitfalls for Building Inside Sales View more presentations from The Bridge Group, Inc. Dreamforce priorities: scale your program View more presentations from Jeremiah Owyang DCS: Jill Konrath "Using Conent to Establish Sales Credibility" View more presentations from G3… -
Losing Sales Deals: The Raving Fan and The Miserable Grump
20 Sep 2011 | 8:20 pmTweet As sales reps and leaders we’ve all been on calls with these two personalities – the raving fan and the miserable grump. Both types are similar, they just happen to live on different sides of sales town. What do these prospects have in common? They will never buy from you, no matter what you do or say, no matter how perfect a fit your offering is for their personal aspirations or company. How do you know if you have one of these prospects? I say this tongue in cheek, but it illustrates the point quite well, you could insult the prospects first born child and you would still…
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Talking Media Sales
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How To Save Money Attracting New Clients
26 Jan 2012 | 4:19 pmWith the cost of acquiring new customers mounting, many media companies’ customer bases are shrinking due to lost confidence of advertisers and consumers alike. Referrals are often one way to get your additional advertising sales without too much additional work. If you learn these three simple referrals systems you’ll avoid the disappointment of cold calling,... -
Smarty Pants Sales Guys
23 Jan 2012 | 4:45 pmI met up with a radio sales guy last week. Dan’s a good bloke and a sharp sales guy. It’s the start of the year and we’re trying to work a few clients together. Him, sales – me, creative. His station is struggling in the market at about number 6. Not bad if you’re in... -
Put Yourself On The Spot
19 Jan 2012 | 5:29 pmIt was one of the toughest decisions I ever faced in business. I was running a media business and needed to appoint a strong number 2 – probably the person that would take over from me. And there was no shortage of candidates. Two strong contenders from within, and a clutch of up and comers... -
One Shortcut To More Sales
16 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pmI want to think it over. How many times have you heard this objection? I am going to show you a simple technique that will help you overcome the frustration of what to say when you hear this common objection. If you apply this procedure your sale will not stall and you will get to... -
Is It Time To Think About 2012?
14 Dec 2011 | 4:00 pmIn previous posts when I talk about goals, I always maintain that you might want to think about them as not something you do every year, set and forget, but rather chunk them down in blocks. I for one need an almost daily look at my 90’s as I call them, and my longer term...
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The Fast Growth Blog
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Someone Has To Write It
26 Jan 2012 | 7:06 amIn the last week I’ve had at least five conversations about the importance of content to support the sales and marketing process. It’s probably a result of the Making Marketing Work webinar we held last week, but the resistance seems to be the same with everyone. We talk about the importance of content, the strategy to direct the content and the incredibly positive impact this approach has on sales results. Inevitably, the person I’m discussing this with acknowledges the weaknesses they have without it, and its benefits. Then I get the “but.” As in, “But, someone will have… -
To Break Your Growth Barrier – Sell Through Capacity
19 Jan 2012 | 7:12 amHaving owned and run multiple small businesses, I know, firsthand, that managing capacity is one of the most difficult challenges facing owners and executives. It’s taken me years of trial and error to learn an important lesson to consistently growing a business – you must sell through capacity. I’ve learned that capacity is often an illusion at best and an excuse at worst. When small and mid-size companies start thinking about capacity, they take their foot off the proverbial gas pedal. Two negative things occur when that happens: You eliminate your margin for error by doing… -
Harness The Power of Effective B2B Marketing
11 Jan 2012 | 12:38 pmIn July of 2011, I wrote a somewhat controversial rant as to why marketing just doesn’t work for the vast majority of small and mid-market (SME) B2B companies. As John Wanamaker famously said, “I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half.” If you’re involved in a small or mid-market B2B company, you probably wish you were only wasting half. In our experience, those companies that even do marketing not only find that half of their marketing efforts are a waste, but the half that is having impact is only creating about 50% of… -
The Key To High Margin Sales
5 Jan 2012 | 2:47 pmI don’t know about you, but Varuca Salt was my favorite character in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. “I want an oompa loompa, and I want one now.” I think of her virtually every time I work with an entrepreneur on their go-to-market approach. “I want more high margin sales, and I want more high margin sales now.” The biggest frustration in building an effective go-to-market approach is simply the time that it takes. Recently I had a prospect ask one of my references, “Why does the process [referring to our process] take so much damn time? What… -
Is Your Business Ready For Growth?
4 Jan 2012 | 3:40 pm11 months ago I released my eBook, Successfully Growing In A RecoveryI announced the release of the book with a blog post titled, The Great Recovery. The post turned out to be somewhat controversial, as many readers and business executives expressed their belief that I was, at best, premature in my call. I tried to remind these executives that, too often, we confuse “recovery” with “expansion.” Recoveries are very bumpy and are quite treacherous. As I share in the book, recoveries can be even more dangerous than recessions if not handled properly. The main thought I shared was…
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MindOnMedia[Sales]
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Sales & The Random Element…
27 Jan 2012 | 10:24 pmSo, what is random? Random is that part of the Sales process that you cannot, and will not, ever be able to control. No one human is perfect, and no one person will ever have full knowledge of any situation in its entirety. You can plan, hope, calculate, conceive...contrive. But never fully control. What do you say to that? Nothing, really...except that this, too, is part of the Sales cycle. And part of life. -
MindOnMedia[Sales]: Are You Left Brain, or Right?
7 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pmFor more than 2 years, MindOnMedia[Sales] has written about the Media Sales process in general, while taking on a ‘Right-Brain vs. Left’ viewpoint as a framework. Ideally you may have also taken prior note of our tagline, The Right-Brain ‘Art’ of Sales vs. the Left-Brain ‘Analytic’. But moving the descriptors ‘Art’ and ‘Analytic’ aside for [...] -
MindOnMedia[Sales] 2012 Predictions – The Emerging Media Landscape
29 Dec 2011 | 1:43 pmThis could actually be the most interesting of the bunch: On one side, you've got the Online properties that venture into the Offline space for "legitimacy". On the other you've got Old Media properties desperately trying to both validate the now nearly-lost value of their old-school Media vehicles AND demonstrate their hipness/relevance, as they venture into Online realms,,, -
Ad Agency Biz Dev: Going the Sales Route…? Part I
5 Dec 2011 | 9:36 pmSelling when a Procurement Dep't is involved is not new to those from the Sales side. In fact, it should be obvious that the whole point of having a procurement team to begin with...is dealing with Sales professionals! Those on the Biz Dev side are going to have to learn this. -
5 Tips to Harness Urgency in Online Media Sales [Ads, Video & Content]
13 Nov 2011 | 7:04 pmOK, sometimes inspiration can come from unusual places: here, it comes from a ClickZ article by Robin Neilfield, with a very similar title as the one above…but a very different perspective than is in play here. To establish exactly which side of the game we are writing for, it is for those charged with bringing [...]
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Hunt, Gather, and Cultivate...meaningful relationships
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It’s up to you to invent the solution for your clients
18 Jan 2012 | 11:08 amHere is a post from Mark Cuban that rings true as we move forward with product development and is consistent with my experience over the years: ———————————————————— Mark Cuban on Why You Should Never Listen to Your Customers A great quote from technology luminary Alan Kay that every entrepreneur needs to remember: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” I’m working with a company that at one point had a product that was not only best in its… -
More food for thought
2 Jan 2012 | 10:39 amI read this over the holiday break and highly recommend this for all. I found this relevant for anyone is business and consistent with my long-held belief to “mix it up” as much as possible if you want to expand and grow. Great ideas and innovation come from collaboration so get out there and connect this year. The more diverse the groups are the better so you have different inputs rather than “group think”. Brick Filed under: Business Principles, Food For Thought -
A formula for success
2 Jan 2012 | 10:22 amI happened to stumble upon this in the paper this weekend and wanted to share because it’s solid advice to start the New Year. “Wake up before everybody else. Go to sleep later than everybody else. Work harder and smarter than everybody else. And love what you’re doing.” Here’s to a successful 2012. Brick Filed under: Food For Thought, Inspiration -
The price is too high!
22 Dec 2011 | 9:03 pmGot some push back this week on price as we renew clients and try to move them towards “list” pricing. Every business has to face this decision and the decision dictates the path going forward so make this decision carefully. Your pricing model reflects the value. I am in a new market with a new product so we are feeling out the pricing model as we go which is an interesting experiment to reach the right price. No fancy regression analysis, more of a feel and trial by error approach. You need several data points before you can make any conclusions if you are in this mode… -
All you have to do is make a call…
20 Dec 2011 | 9:10 amand you are doing better than 95% of the businesses out there. How many of us are surprised when we get a call from a client service rep asking about the service we paid for? I know I am, but shoudn’t that be standard in a service industry? I think so. I have always set the bar very high around client service and the return is enormous for what I consider to be very basic blocking and tackling. I wonder why most haven’t figured this out? I will continue to be thankful that this is a big competitive advantage with very little cost. Brick Filed under: What is Great Client…
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B2B Sales and Sales Management
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Article: 5 Ways to Become a More Authentic Leader
7 Jan 2012 | 11:41 amHere is an article I found interesting: 5 Ways to Become a More Authentic Leader January 06, 2012 at 02:00AM This is a guest post by LaRae Quy. She was an FBI agent, both as a counterintelligence and undercover agent, for 25 years. She exposed foreign spies and recruited them to work for the U.S. Government. Now she explores the unknown and discovers the hidden truth via her blog, Your Best Adventure. You can find her on Twitter as @LaRaeQuy. Leadership begins with knowing who you are and what you believe. Authenticity is the need for leaders to be themselves regardless of the situation. For… -
Video: Develop Productivity Rituals – Video – Harvard Business Review
7 Jan 2012 | 2:09 amThis is a great video on becoming more productive through rituals. One of the best rituals I have ever done in my sales career is to spend two hours every morning prospecting for new clients. Prospecting is hard, but if I set it as a ritual every morning then it will get done. Prospecting is the most important daily routine of a salesperson. http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2012/01/develop-productivity-rituals.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29 -
Article: “Life is 10% of What Happens to Me and 90% of How I React to It” [Quotables]
5 Jan 2012 | 12:10 pmHere is an article I found interesting: "Life is 10% of What Happens to Me and 90% of How I React to It" [Quotables] January 04, 2012 at 02:00PM When things aren’t working the way you want them to, or you feel you’re surrounded by problems, it can be tempting to look outward and try to change the things that you feel are causing issues. Chances are the issues you’re facing aren’t so cut and dry. The solution to the problem might just be your attitude. That’s what pastor and educator Charles R. Swindoll believes: More » Article Source: Lifehacker… -
Article: The Most Popular Stories on LinkedIn in 2011
29 Dec 2011 | 12:40 amHere is an article I found interesting: The Most Popular Stories on LinkedIn in 2011 December 22, 2011 at 11:52AM With the year ending, we wanted to know what stories were the most appealing to more than 130 million professionals on LinkedIn. Here’s what we found: there is a massive demand for information on how to be better at work. No surprise there! But the demand is democratic: the top articles featured tips gleaned from professionals across a broad spectrum, whether it was from Steve Jobs or from Ilya Pozin, a digital marketing executive and author of this year’s most-shared… -
Article: Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople – Steve W. Martin – Harvard Business Review
27 Dec 2011 | 6:00 pmArticle: Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople – Steve W. Martin – Harvard Business Review Great article about sales people and why some stand out. It is also interesting that top sales people often do not fit the stereotype. This article is worth the quick read: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/the_seven_per Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople – Steve W. Martin – Harvard Business Review sonality_traits_o.html
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ViewPoint | The Truth About Lead Generation
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The 5 Top Media for Cold Prospecting
26 Jan 2012 | 7:24 amRuth Stevens is Founder of eMarketing Strategy, a consulting practice that assists companies in building their customer acquisition and retention strategies. Ruth is also author of Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers. Every business needs new customers. But what are the most effective outbound marketing channels for kicking off a business relationship? There’s a lot of controversy out there on the subject. Let me go out on a limb and propose the top five media for your lead generation toolkit. These are the five essential channels you can rely on… -
Is It Really B2B, Or Something Different All Together?
24 Jan 2012 | 7:07 amJason Falls is an author, speaker and CEO of Social Media Explorer. He is also co-author of the book No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide To Social Media Marketing, available on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. Marketing to the business consumer takes a special pedigree. The complexities of the non-commercial arena often overwhelm even seasoned marketers from the consumer-facing world. Whether it's trying to make a seeming non-sexy product irresistible or pinpointing the buyer in a corporate landscape of bureaucracy and politics, B2B is a challenge. Then consider the… -
Turning Raw B2B Sales Leads Into Real Opportunities: Don’t Give Up Too Soon
19 Jan 2012 | 7:47 amWhen qualifying and nurturing sales leads, the lead farmer (prospect development professional) has a challenging job. The starting point in lead management is usually an inquiry consisting of a name, title, a company, a phone number or email address. The lead farmer must have the patience, discipline and skill to engage the inquirer in a conversation. This step alone can take weeks or months. Many of the best sales opportunities turn out to be those that have been contacted five or six times using a lead management process that includes voicemails, emails and direct mailings over a period of… -
Lead Qualification & Lead Nurturing: Whose Job Is It?
17 Jan 2012 | 7:23 amAre marketing resources or sales reps the right resources to do lead qualification and lead nurturing in the B2B complex sale? The answer is clear, and may surprise you. But first, let's take a look at some lead generation challenges. Cahners Research has shown that 45 percent of qualified leads will end up buying a solution from someone within a year. Think of lead generation, lead qualification and lead nurturing as progressive steps in a funnel. Marketing pours raw, unfiltered leads from a variety of sources into the top of the funnel. Ideally, what emerges at the other end—ready for… -
Sales Leads: Why Your Reps Need Fewer, Rather Than More
12 Jan 2012 | 7:08 amContrary to popular belief, reps don’t need more sales leads. They need fewer leads—or more accurately, fewer raw, unfiltered, unqualified leads. Best sales lead management practices continually show that reps need qualified leads that have been carefully vetted, properly and consistently nurtured and appropriately developed, increasing the likelihood of a completed sale. Good sales reps are by nature hunters, eager to close in on highly qualified leads for the kill. Take Steve, for example. Watch what happens when he receives a stack of leads from marketing: he rifles through…
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Results Count ... everything else is conversation.
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6 Amazing Stats on Smartphones in Store Aisles
26 Jan 2012 | 1:09 pmA quick update on smartphones & mobile price checking Normally we strive to post something weekly about an emerging trend or retail topic. Since our post yesterday, we have seen a bunch of posts and tweets on the emerging trend and retail store threat of consumers doing price shopping in aisle with their smartphones. We ran across this infographic with some amazing stats that was just too good to pass up. 6 Stats that should be a wake-up call for all marketers Eric Anderson of White Horse recently reported on an interesting ethnographic study of consumer behavior in… -
Target takes aim at Amazon & Price Apps
25 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pmThe war over smartphone price checks is heating up It happened rather innocently the last couple of years as consumers started surfing the web while shopping in retail stores. But, the battle for price conscious consumers reached a fever pitch last holiday season. Amazon poured salt in the wounds of retailers by offering an additional $5 off if consumers used their Price Check app to scan bar codes in a retail store. Will it be an Amazon world, or can big box retailers fight back? Retail store prices are under siege by web e-tailers In the “old days,” consumers waited for… -
Pinterest … “Fantasy football for women”
20 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amIs Pinterest a fad, or opportunity for today’s marketers? One of the hottest items in social media of late has been Pinterest. It seems to be particularly attractive to women, who like the visual bulletin board interface. One of the best descriptors I’ve seen for Pinterest is “fantasy football for women”. While Pinterest has been getting a lot of press, is it another passing social media fad or an entirely new format offering new marketing and branding opportunities? What in the world is Pinterest? Pinterest is yet another new type of social media/network. … -
How Target spoke volumes without saying a word
10 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amSometimes the “Art” of retail outweighs the “Science” With a blog title of “Results Count”, we do a lot of posts on the science and numbers of retail. If you scan the archives in the search bar on our blog site, you will find a lot of previous posts on scorecards and metrics of retailing. This week’s post is about the “art” of retail and how Target made a bold statement without saying anything. Kudos to Target! Retail is a brutal business run by the numbers Make no mistake about it, retailing is truly a brutal business. The “Laws of the Retail… -
Snapshots in Time … Kodak vs. Lytro today
5 Jan 2012 | 10:25 amCase studies of technology and adapting to change In reading my “Morning News Beat”, I ran across a great post by Mark Sansolo entitled: “Snapshot of the Future”. While his case examples are about the technology of photography, Sansolo does a great job of capturing the essence of change and why companies must continue to evolve, at an even more rapid pace to remain competitive. Kodak is a snapshot of the past … and Lytro could well be the picture of the future. Case studies in change … and the lack there of Chances are very high that you took photographs over the…
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Top Sales Dog
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The Selling Essentials Minute, Ep. 10: Cold Calling: Timing it Right
27 Jan 2012 | 9:45 amWelcome to yet another installment of the Selling Essentials Minute.The Selling Essentials Minute is a series of videos that offers one sales idea in about sixty seconds. You can use the Minute to kick off a sales meeting, push an idea out to your team, start a discussion or reinforce your training.Today’s episode gives you key insight into the most effective times for reaching out to sales prospects.Do you have other ideas or tricks for knowing when to reach out to a sales prospect? Feel free to share them in the comments!Free Training Video - "Time Management for Sales: The… -
How to avoid the downside of upselling
25 Jan 2012 | 9:22 amWe all know the best way to increase sales: sell more to existing customers.Landing a new account is fun and exciting. But your current buyers are where the real money is. They’re qualified. They’re reachable. They pay their bills.So if we all know that, why don’t we act like it? Time and again, when salespeople are faced with an opportunity to upsell their customers, they back down.They offer plenty of reasons: Upselling is cheesy and unprofessional. They don’t want to rock the boat. The customer will tell you when she’s ready to buy more. The relationship is worth more than a few… -
Three critical qualities that separate top sellers from the rest of the sales pack
23 Jan 2012 | 9:39 amYou already know that you have to sell yourself before you sell your product or service.Once customers buy into “you,” they’re ready to hear you recommend effective solutions to their problems and challenges.So what’s the most powerful way to sell yourself? Sales gurus Kevin Corcoran and Laura Peterson conducted research that identified three major factors that can help you stand out from other salespeople your customers deal with every day, and consistently improve your chances of selling yourself as a consultant:1. Knowledge: Beyond products and services Because customers… -
Sales Roundup: January 20
20 Jan 2012 | 10:49 amWelcome to the Sales Roundup, where every other week, we highlight some of the best stuff from the best sales blogs on the Web…Lori Richardson offers some advice about building your sales pipeline.Alan Majer gives you 5 ways to handle price objections.Finally, The Accidental Negotiator explains that in order to succeed in the next big sales negotiation, sales reps need to put in more time focusing on the details.Do you know of a sales blog that you’d like to see featured on a future sales roundup? Send me an email about it.Check out the The Selling Essentials Rapid Learning Center… -
The disappearing gatekeeper – bad for sales?
18 Jan 2012 | 9:57 amThings are not looking good for gatekeepers these days.I recently ran across this chart, showing that administrative assistant positions, as a percentage of all job openings, have declined by half since 2006: Administrative-assistant Job TrendsAdministrative-assistant jobsAnd those who remain have a lot less power than they used to. They won’t put you through to the decision maker? Well, just wait until after hours and you can leave a voicemail. Or shoot an e-mail (even if the gatekeeper won’t give out the buyer’s e-mail address, it’s usually easy enough to figure out). Or find the…
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Funnel Principle Blog - Mark Sellers
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Funnel Principle in Europe
21 Jan 2012 | 5:30 amRecently (last night) I returned from a two week trip to Europe where I trained the entire EMEA salesforce of a large embedded electronics company. Here are some observations regarding business, selling, food, exercise and more. What recession? My client has nearly $1B in revenue and finished the year with record sales. The year before [...] -
The Illusion of the Gradually Increasing Funnel
10 Nov 2011 | 8:33 amRecently I was in Chicago with a client’s sales vice president training him on how to do Funnel Audits (funnel inspections). Part of the training included doing actual Audits of several of his salespeople. One of the salespeople commented that early in the year his funnel was always ‘light’ but got bigger as the year [...] -
Between the Ears
22 Sep 2011 | 6:44 amIf you’re a VP of sales and you’re thinking about making an investment in sales process or methodology right now it’s probably a stressful decision. For one it takes a lot of time to think through the possibilities of what could be valuable. You want to select something that’s going to squarely hit the mark. [...] -
Just created a QR code linking to funnel
16 Aug 2011 | 9:38 amJust created a QR code linking to funnelprinciple.com. How easy was that? http://ow.ly/i/fQcs o Filed under: Uncategorized -
Webinar replay – Qualify & Close Sales Faster by Selling to the C-Suite
30 Jun 2011 | 7:54 amFiled under: Uncategorized
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Sales Intelligence Blog by Lattice Engines
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Using Compensation to Retain Assets (Part 3)
24 Jan 2012 | 4:05 pmToday’s blog entry is a guest post from Steven Miyao, CEO of kasina. kasina is a trusted advisor to the leaders of the asset management and insurance industries. They innovate distribution through consulting, research, and benchmarking data. In Part 1 of this series, Ian J. Scott discusses why firms need to rebalance their focus on both acquiring net new assets and minimizing redemptions. In Part 2, Ian addresses new, data-driven techniques to anticipate and mitigate asset outflows. In this installment, we address changes to wholesaler compensation that align wholesaler incentives with… -
Data-Driven Techniques to Anticipate and Mitigate Asset Outflows (Part 2)
11 Jan 2012 | 8:40 amIn Part 1 of this series, we discussed why firms need to rebalance their focus on both acquiring net new assets and minimizing redemptions. In this installment, we address new data-driven techniques to anticipate and mitigate asset outflows. In Part 3, Steven Miyao of kasina will discuss changes to wholesaler compensation that align individual incentives with overall firm goals. Today, the standard response to redemptions is largely reactionary: Marketing and sales activities are triggered once redemptions occur.In many cases, the firm and its wholesalers will fail to identify and contact… -
Is SFA/CRM Every Rep’s Best Friend?
30 Dec 2011 | 3:13 pmAs Dave Brock had aptly pointed out earlier this year, controversial titles are bound to get lots of attention. In writing the seemingly controversial blog post ‘CRM, The Biggest Productivity Drain in 10 Years!’, Dave set out to illustrate a subtler point. His aim was to highlight the importance of listening to and really understanding our customers. The point was that we are tuned to pick up on trigger words and phrases. Once we hear them, we too often “immediately launch into our pitch or presenting our point of view.” Taking Dave’s wise words to heart, I was bound not fall into… -
6 Steps to Keeping the Predictive in ‘Predictive Analytics’
28 Dec 2011 | 11:28 amBusiness relies more than ever on predictive analytics to make critical decisions, from how banks price risk to how sales teams predict which customers are most likely to purchase. Predictions about the future are based on data patterns, mined from a staggering variety of sources spanning real-time web-clicks, psycho-demographics and years of accumulated transaction histories. Predictive analytics is a powerful business weapon as long as the underlying data definitions and flows are well managed. The trouble starts when the underlying data foundation for predictive analytics is not well… -
5 Ways to Up Your Sales Game During the Holiday Season
20 Dec 2011 | 10:04 amThe holiday season is a good time to capture last-minute opportunities and reflect on strategies for success in 2012. Here are 5 tips we’ve compiled since Thanksgiving: 1. Get noticed during the holiday lull Sales consultant, Mark Hunter, noted on his blog that “[Thanksgiving] is a great week to pick up new business customers who might never have found you otherwise, but suddenly fall into your lap because their existing supplier is too caught up on the holidays to take care of business.” This is also the time when many gatekeepers are on vacation. If you haven’t had much luck…
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Sales Training Sales Tips Blog
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Jan 26, My Favourite Sales Motivation Quote Relating To Price
26 Jan 2012 | 2:02 pmHere's my favourite sales motivation quote that my boss used to hammer into us when we complained that our services were not the cheapest on the market. -
Jan 25, Motivating Quotes and Tips for Sales People
25 Jan 2012 | 3:13 pmMotivating quotes and tips for sales people with real examples of how and when to use them to get the best results for yourself, your team, and to grow your business. -
Jan 24, Sales Training Newsletter - How Experience and Knowledge are passed down
24 Jan 2012 | 2:19 pmSales experience and knowledge is passed down through generations of professionals as quotes and phrases. Many sales people hear common motivational sales quotes and phrases and fail to see their powerful potential. These pearls of wisdom are freely available and all around us. Think about a popular motivating quote such as: Move from Blame to Aim A simple phrase that would be ignored by sales people that can't see the potential. But if you see this phrase as a nugget of knowledge from sales professionals with years of experience, and then look deeper into what it really means, you can start… -
Jan 23, Flipcharts for Training Sessions
23 Jan 2012 | 5:14 pmThe latest of the motivational or sales quotes to be sent in. Get back to basics that work with this sales tip from Jay Buckley: Turn your PowerPoint -
Jan 21, Sales Training Courses - everything you need to be successful
21 Jan 2012 | 7:11 amSales training courses: Developed by a working trainer and manager. Tested in real situations with real customers. Proven successful by thousands of professional sellers.
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Touch Point City
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A Content Marketing Haiku
22 Jan 2012 | 4:09 pmPromotion blizzard? People like gentle snowfall. Engagement bubble. ___ What say you, marketers? If you were to boil down “Why content marketing?” or “What is content marketing?” to the spare 5-7-5 syllable format of haiku, what would it be? Comments in the form of haiku welcome. And thanks to my friend @bondatomic for [...] -
I Survived a Content Marketing Desert (and lived to blog about it)
9 Jan 2012 | 9:58 amLook around your business. Better yet, conduct an audit: Where in your sales, marketing or service continuum do customers or potential customers get stranded in a content desert? What do I mean by a “content desert”? Think about the process of providing relevant, useful or entertaining content as cultivating an “engagement oasis” for the audiences you wish to attract [...] -
7 Steps to Smarter Collateral in 2012
21 Dec 2011 | 10:05 amWhy in the name of Ebenezer Scrooge do technology marketers rate collateral as their top content-marketing priority for 2012? If you haven’t read Part 1 of this two-part post, please give it a quick read now. You’ll discover that surprising finding from a recent survey by IDG, the technology media and research company. You’ll also find [...] -
Tech Marketers’ Surprising Content Priority for 2012
21 Dec 2011 | 10:04 amDon’t you love this time of year? No, I’m not talking about the holidays — although those are nice, too. I’m referring to the blizzard of marketing research that gets published in the last few months each year. Those studies that tell us where marketers’ brains and budgets are trending in the year to come. The survey [...] -
5 Content Strategy Remedies When You Suffer from “Persona Proliferation”
13 Dec 2011 | 7:40 pmThe question was asked in a LinkedIn group recently. Specifically, in the B2B Lead Generation & Content Marketing group: How does one approach content strategy when your business caters to so many personas and verticals? It would seem hard to manage content creation and distribution in this situation. Good question. One many marketers — especially marketers in larger, [...]
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entreQuest » entreQuest | The Dominant Source for Sales Growth
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It’s Just A Game
27 Jan 2012 | 2:30 am“What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver Of course we Ravens fans are disappointed. We wanted a trip to Super Bowl XLVI so badly we could taste it, and the way in which we lost that [...] -
entreQuest’s 2012 Predictions
10 Jan 2012 | 12:23 pmIt’s the dawn of 2012 – the year we’ve all been waiting for, thanks to the Mayans and their spooky calendar forecasting the end of the world in December. Some of my friends have jokingly threatened to max out their credit cards, take up smoking, stop exercising, move to a beach house, and live it [...] -
eQ Data Reveals Five Factors Critical to Growth in 2012
2 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amFirst things first: we at eQ want to thank every one of you reading this message. We are continually grateful for the knowledge and experiences gained through our work together. It is an honor to know you, and it has been an absolute privilege working alongside you this past year. As the sun sets on [...] -
Looking For New Employment? Tell Someone!
9 Dec 2011 | 11:49 amIsn’t it strange that even with an unemployment rate of nine percent, people still feel uncomfortable saying that they are looking for work? It seems to me that people hesitate sharing this information because they think the only way to tell someone they are looking for new employment is to use words and phrases like, [...] -
The True Meaning of Thanksgiving
24 Nov 2011 | 2:33 pmThanksgiving evokes images of football, family reunions, roasted turkey with stuffing, and pumpkin pie; but all too often the true meaning of Thanksgiving is lost in the shuffle of the festivities. This year, as we think about the true meaning of Thanksgiving, the entreQuest team can’t help but express our absolute gratitude to all the [...]
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Revenue-IQ
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Build Your Personal Brand on Service Quality
27 Jan 2012 | 8:44 pmImage by Kevin Dooley Your personal brand helps you sell customers what they want and need. Your personal brand is: What you stand for How you want your customers to perceive you The promise you keep with customers It’s this last definition, “the promise you keep with customers”, that’s the most important. During the sales cycle, which can be years, your personal brand communicates value as much as your offering. Pre-sale you, the sales rep, are the offering. So it’s crucial that your personal sales interactions align “what you do” with “what… -
Selling to the Shadow Side for Richer Results
18 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmCustomers buy solutions that help their companies survive and thrive. They also buy to make their own work day easier and less stressful. This is the shadow side of customers – they buy for themselves too. So help them buy. In sales proposals and presentations do more than you’re already doing. Go over the top and detail your implementation and on-going project management. Do this in addition to how your solution helps their company but make this shadow side hyper-explicit and prominent. Pitching Hyper-explicit Implementation & Project Management The beauty of pitching to the… -
23 Tips for Delivering Great Sales Presentations via Web Meetings
13 Jan 2012 | 8:19 pmWeb meetings are a fantastic tool for delivering sales presentations. Web meeting providers (GoTo Meeting, WebEx, Windows Live Meeting, Adobe Connect, etc.) are eager to point out their benefits, such as: Not having to be there in person – saving travel costs and time. Customers more likely to participate instead of taking the time for a face-to-face presentation. Present to many people in different locations – avoiding scheduling nightmares. Easy sharing of PowerPoint sales decks, software demos, videos, web pages, etc. New Delivery Technology – New Presentation… -
3 Things to Let Go in 2012
6 Jan 2012 | 4:06 pmGetting started in a new year can be tough. Maybe you’re like me. In this first week back at work it’s easier thinking about negatives, before moving ahead with positives. Here are three negatives in selling and marketing to get rid of quickly in 2012. Onwards and upwards. Magic Words Visual Noise Hubris Magic Words There are none. No secret words injected into proposals, brochures, or web pages guarantee results. Yet many sales reps and marketers hold onto that belief – that magic ones are out there, they only have to be found. Time to let go. Here is the only magic to… -
Best of 2011 Smart Sales Articles
28 Dec 2011 | 3:00 am2011 is just about in the books. For Revenue-IQ it was a good year: Circulation nearly tripled (3x) 54 new articles focused more narrowly on 8 categories We provided a free ebook & sales plan template Readers tested our concepts & sold more, got more appointments and improved their results But in case you missed any of this year’s goodness, here are two lists of the top articles for the year, each measured differently. Top 10 Articles of 2011 Here are the top 10 articles as measured by open rates through our email delivery service: Personal Positioning Statement When…
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TopLine Leadership » TopLine Leadership Blog
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Are you a “Sales Manager” or a “Sales Leader”?
26 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmAs a sales manager you have a highactivity level. You work hard every day to both direct and support the effortsof your sales team to produce sales results. But often, a manager’s highactivity level can actually inhibit the development of the sales team. Asauthor Steven Covey says so well in 7Habit’s of Highly Effective People, “Management isefficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership is determining whetherthe ladder is leaning against the right wall. “ To be a successful sales leader, then,you must continually ask yourself, “Regarding what I am about to do–will it… -
What is “Positive Confrontation”?
10 Jan 2012 | 12:39 pmRecently a prospect asked me to explain what I meant when I said that many sales managers would be more effective sales leaders if they used what I call “positive confrontation” with their salespeople. Positive confrontation is the discussion that a sales manager has with a salesperson in a timely manner, regarding an unsuccessful behavior or attitude exhibited by the salesperson. “PC” just means that you slow down a bit, and talk to the salesperson about the issue. That’s all. Like many words in the English language, the word “confront” has multiple meanings. One is “to face… -
5 Tips for Great Sales Meetings in 2012
4 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amEvery sales meeting you deliver is an opportunity to showcase your sales management leadership skills. Here are a few specific suggestions: Set a clear meeting objective. Ask yourself, “One month from now, what will be happening differently as a result of this meeting?” The answer is your sales meeting’s primary objective. Anticipate which salespeople are typically less involved during your meetings. What questions can you ask of them, individually, so as to get them more involved? Keep the meeting moving along! Every now and then, shock them by ending a meeting ahead of time. Perhaps… -
Does a focus on sales results actually reduce sales results?
22 Dec 2011 | 1:12 pmAs the leader of your sales team you, no doubt, place great emphasis on the achievement of sales results. And rightly so. But if a sales manager focuses exclusively on results, so to do your salespeople. An intense focus on results can distract everyone from the sales process, which is the all-important input side of the sales results equation. Results-orientation can cause salespeople to push customers for outcomes, which when not combined with excellent selling skills, can be perceived by customers as over-aggressiveness. In extreme cases, a customer thinks they’re dealing with a… -
My Book is a Sales & Marketing Awards Finalist!
6 Dec 2011 | 5:07 pmI have just heard that my book “Slow Down, Sell Faster!” is a finalist in the annual Sales & Marketing Awards competition for “Top Sales & Marketing Book of 2011.” For those of you that have read my book and liked it you can cast your vote today. Polls are open until December 12th. There are several interesting categories in the competition including “Top Sales Job Boards,” and “Top CRM.” Check it out – you can see all the top sales & marketing products on a single web page.
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VanillaSoft Blog
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Lead and Prospect Management-Through Email? Yep, That’s What I Said
18 Jan 2012 | 2:11 pmIt has been said that a man who promotes his competitors on his own site is a man who soon will find another line of work. I have always believed, and made it the policy of VanillaSoft, that getting people into the right product is more important than selling your product to the wrong person. [...] -
Defining Success – A Different Set of Metrics
20 Dec 2011 | 12:39 pmIt is that time of the year again when we all set our goals for next year. We pour over this year’s numbers looking for the trends, the openings for growth, where we fell short and so on. We drive a flag into 2011 and declare success or stick a fork in it and say [...] -
Lead Management and Demand Generation – Different, Equal, Powerful
12 Dec 2011 | 10:34 amLauren Carlson, CRM Market Analyst over at Marketing Automation Software Guide, shared a post and video link that I think clearly outlined and clarified some of the confusion around lead management and demand generation. As a provider of Lead Management Software, we see it all of the time. Lauren shared that “demand generation” and “lead management” [...] -
CRM-Lead Management Software:The Death of Lost Productivity for Outbound Selling
29 Nov 2011 | 9:48 amHave you ever stood behind your outbound sales people and really paid attention after they complete a sales call? It can be quite the learning experience. Whether they are the high-paid closers or the entry level prospectors, many, if not most, will kill quite a bit of time before saddling up and making the next [...] -
Time to Give Thanks
22 Nov 2011 | 8:50 amSometime we simply do not take the time to say thanks. We all may think it, or, from a business prospective, create a campaign to show it, but, I am talking about truly being reflective and feeling it. As you know, I usually write about software, lead management and business. Now that the holiday season [...]
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3FORWARD
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How to Deliver Bad Sales News to the CEO
27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWhen Is a Good Time for Bad Sales News? While dealing with bad news is never a fun part of the job for CEOs and Chief Sales Officers, it’s why you “make the big bucks”, right? When it comes to bad sales news, we also always prefer January challenges over December surprises. Most Boards of Directors will agree with that! Let’s say you are one of those Sales Leaders who has done what we suggested and really scrubbed your sales pipeline. All the dead wood is gone and you’re left with a much more realistic, but painfully smaller list of opportunities to close. Now you have… -
When It Comes to Sales Prospecting, Warm is the New Cold
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amCold Calling or Warm Calling, Your Sales Team Needs Both Skills We routinely see companies with B2B sales organizations that don’t (or won’t) make cold sales calls. When a web or phone lead comes in they are quick to respond but when no leads are available their sales people sit idle, do non-sales related tasks, or worse go home early. Many of these companies consistently fail to attain their sales targets and in most cases only 15-20% of their reps make plan. Their sales teams are uncomfortable cold calling so they do as little of it as possible and their results show it. As a sales… -
Sales Metrics You Can’t Manage Without
23 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWhat B2B Sales Metrics Are Most Important to Your Company? The right sales metrics tell the chief sales officer and CEO everything they need to know about how they are tracking towards their company’s revenue objectives. For some companies it’s a complex, finely tuned set of calculations, reports and charts. Others are just as successful with only a few simple ratios and percentages. What matters most when it comes to sales metrics is what works for your company. Sales dashboards that are very labor intensive to prepare run the risk of being dropped when schedules get busy. Overly… -
A B2B Sales Planning Guidebook
20 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am5 Steps to a Winning B2B Sales Plan 2012 is off and running for B2B sales teams and sales leaders are already wringing their hands over pipelines, close dates, deal sizes and winning percentages. It may seem like it’s already too late to take the time to finish your 2012 sales plan, however little else can set you up for success like a written sales plan. This sales leaders guidebook features our time-tested approach to sales planning and includes many of our most valuable lessons, examples and resource links. Follow these five steps and you will be well on your way to hitting your 2012… -
Shrinking Average B2B Deal Sizes – What a Difference a Year Makes!
18 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amAverage Sale Amounts in the Greater Than $250K Category Dropped from 21% to 11% of All Sales The average deal sizes for B2B Sales has decreased across all measured categories over the past two years, reports leading researcher Marketing Sherpa. In a recently published analysis they indicate that an increased reliance on promotions and “selling on price” has contributed to these declines. How Sales Leaders Should Respond to Declining Sales Values Improve Sales Lead Management Marketing Sherpa recommends that organizations selling in the larger deal size segments must incorporate lead…
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The Sales Funnel Fanatic
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Lead Management vs. Demand Generation. A White Board Runs Through It.
3 Jan 2012 | 4:25 pmWith all the marketing and sales jargon floating around, it is not surprising that some confusion exists around what certain terms mean. Carlos Hidalgo, CEO of Annuitas Group, noticed that many of the clients he worked with were confused about what demand generation and lead management were, and how the two worked together. So, he did a whiteboard series with Marketing Automation Software Guide, an online resource that provides reviews of marketing automation solutions. Carlos explains the difference between the two, as well as how marketing automation is a powerful tool for supporting the… -
How Long is Your Revenue Runway?
10 Oct 2011 | 3:56 pmMany business managers I speak with don’t have an accurate view of how long their revenue runway is; or to put the metaphor aside for a moment, they are unclear about how much time is required for the marketing and sales team to create enough customers to achieve a revenue target. Almost without exception the estimated time to revenue is perceived as being much shorter than it is in reality. The misperception is dangerous. It leads to wildly inaccurate forecasts, wasted budgets, and unnecessary management turnover. Ask any pilot and they’ll tell you with a high degree of accuracy the… -
The Sales Funnel Fanatic Rises to the Top
20 Sep 2011 | 4:31 pmI’m honored that The Sales Funnel Fanatic has been listed by Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop as a blog of value within the Sales topic. Use Alltop to find out what’s happening in and around topics that interest you -
Where are You in the Evolution from Mad Men to Marketing Geeks?
1 Sep 2011 | 3:02 pmIt is a very exciting and challenging time to be a marketer, but it isn’t for the faint of heart or for those who refuse to learn new tricks. Evolution is not kind to the timid. Marketers today have a choice: get buried in the dust, or learn to thrive. If you’ve been a marketer for more than 10 years you’ve seen a breath-taking amount of change. If you’ve been in the business only since about 2002, you’ve seen a lot of change too. Consider all the new terms for marketers that have surfaced: Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Revenue Marketer, Marketing Technologist, Engagement Officer,… -
International Survey Reveals Why Alignment Drives Growth
27 Jul 2011 | 2:37 pmA few years ago the respected thought-leaders, MarketingProfs and MathMarketing, collaborated on a major international survey to gain insight about why some companies grow faster than others. Sales and Marketing Alignment Benchmark focused on identifying what, if anything, high-growth companies did differently in their sales and marketing departments compared to their lower-growth competitors. A summary of the report is available here. Survey Results: How Aligned Companies Outperform Others Here are some of the impressive and shocking findings about companies with aligned sales and…
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VisibleGains Blog
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VisibleGains Use Case: Start the sales conversation in email
26 Jan 2012 | 9:34 amOne of the hardest things for sales people to do when prospecting is to communicate the benefits of their solution to the right stakeholder—especially knowing they’ll likely be communicating first through a gatekeeper. According to research conducted by The Bridge Group, Inc., on average it takes 9.3 touches to get the first meeting. And, you need that first meeting to start the sales conversation, right? Not necessarily. TimeTrade didn’t. They were able to send a single email with content so compelling it was digested and shared with 10 others before the first meeting—which,… -
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink
23 Jan 2012 | 12:08 pmThis is a follow-up to my blog post, Do Not Create Resistant Donkeys! in which I introduced WEAC and STRONG sales tactics (mnemonics coined by me). WEAC tactics can turn your Prospect into a “donkey”, resistant to change, while STRONG tactics help unleash your Prospect’s inner racehorse, galloping across the sales finish line. This is a follow-up to a webinar we delivered. In a series of blog posts, I explore how salespeople can employ STRONG tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change and feel empowered or strong. In my previous post, No judgment-allow all issues to be on the… -
Long lines at the National Retail Federation annual conference?!
17 Jan 2012 | 1:05 pmThe National Retail Federation annual convention is underway at the Javits Convention Center in NYC. This is the show where retailers from all walks of life come to learn about the latest and greatest in the world of retailing. I decided to take in the show to learn from the innovative, new ways retailers can engage customers. The conference theme this year is Engaging with Shoppers in a World of Fragmentation and Change. So imagine my surprise (or maybe not) when I arrived at the Javits Center and was greeted by massive lines (multiple) for check-in. No problem, I thought. My colleague and… -
Thanks, Mitt, for an important sales lesson
16 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amThis blog is inspired by David Meerman Scott’s recent post where he adeptly writes about lessons learned from political stories and applies them to marketing strategy. And learning from DMS, I reprint his disclaimer: “This is a marketing blog, not a political blog. I am not talking up the merits of any candidates but rather using their marketing as examples for all to learn from.” So with that said…. It’s the political season and everyone is talking about which presidential candidate connects best with the voter. Genuine? Trustworthy? Feels my pain? Has a viable plan to… -
What lies ahead for VisibleGains in 2012?
13 Jan 2012 | 3:57 pm2011 was a great year for VisibleGains. Kicking off 2011 was the big launch of our 2.0 product, which executed on our vision that any B2B marketer could make personalized, interactive, video-based campaigns. Our customers stretched the limits of our product to innovate in ways we never expected. One particularly interesting innovation was how our customers used Video Apps deeper in the sales funnel. Instead of only using them on landing pages, we saw customers using them as prospecting collateral, in Free Trial nurturing, and as interactive proposals. Focusing on Salespeople Users We…
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Sales Force Effectiveness Blog
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80% of SKO Sales Training is Forgotten or Ignored – 3 Tips to Prevent this Loss
28 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amOver the course of the past 15 weeks, sales organizations have invested heavily in their upcoming Sales Kick-Off events. Planning was focused around how to best leverage the “precious” time when the entire sales organization was together. The themes, topics, and venues all became eerily similar. The typical Sales Kick-Off agenda covered 3 main topics: Reward & Recognition – acknowledgment of your organization’s top performers and the coveted “President’s Club” trophy and trip. Strategic Vision for 2012- how the… -
Who is Responsible for Mapping the Buying Process? A Sales Consulting Firm’s POV
27 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amOur sales consulting firm has helped dozens of companies map the buying process for their product or service. Over time, we have developed a process to do this correctly. Part of this process is to assign this responsibility to a department. Here is what we have learned: Sales should not be burdened with the task of mapping the buying process for their product or service. Product Management should deliver to sales a buying process map for the product or service. Why? 4 Reasons Why Product Management Should Map the Buying Process: 1 - It must get done and sales departments… -
3 Ways to Attract The Channel Partner of Your Dreams
26 Jan 2012 | 6:01 amIn most Channel Management books, we see multiple chapters outlining the key steps for Manufacturing Firms to choose their Channel Partners. These publications, while valuable to “A-list” level manufacturing firms, conjure up images of ABC’s “The Bachelor”. In this dreamlike scenario, the manufacturer chooses the top 10% channel partners while the tearful losers take the limo home. The problem with this scenario is that the relationship between most manufacturers and channel partners is Mutual. The best channel partners may not be… -
Is Just One Sales Process Enough?
25 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amHow many sales processes should you have? Is one sales process enough? Is it possible to have too many sales processes? These questions are a frequent topic of discussion among sales leaders. This blog post will help you answer the question, “Do I need more than one sales process?” Although research by CSO Insights and The Aberdeen Group repeatedly indicates that top performing sales organizations employ a stage-gated sales process, they have not addressed how many sales processes a company should have. To tackle this question, the first step is to recall that an effective… -
Optimize Demand Generation Through A/B Testing
24 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amSales and marketing leaders have come to appreciate the positive impact that modern digital marketing has made on lead generation. But somewhere along the line marketers became hyper focused on click metrics. Far too often the science of A/B Testing has been lost in the late 1990’s along with your VHS Tape of the movie Braveheart. The discipline of testing was abandoned for the new romance of digital click metrics that finally closed the loop on tracking. The capability loss of formal testing has left marketers with limited ability to fine tune…
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Coffee for Closers | Leads360 Sales & Marketing Blog
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Establishing Relationships and Best Practices
23 Jan 2012 | 2:05 pmJanuary 23, 2012 – Establishing a relationship with a prospect depends on a lot of things going right. One way of looking at it is to say that it is the craft of the salesman; whatever methods are employed by the salesperson are fine as long as they work. A salesperson, working on commission, will naturally hone their own best practices and deliver results. This is a self monitoring way of operating that makes sense. But what sales manager hasn’t wished that some of the skills belonging to their most effective sales person couldn’t rub off on their least effective. After all, it is… -
2012 Forecasts for Insurance, Mortgage, Higher Ed
19 Jan 2012 | 2:23 pmJanuary 19, 2012 — Ah, the New Year. January always offers a chance to move forward with a clean slate and an eye for the future. In that spirit, here are some blog posts that offer a look forward to 2012 and some predictions and previews for what the year has to offer in private-sector higher education, mortgage and insurance. #1 – Five reasons why for-profit schools are here to stay via @washingtonpost – In this column, Jay Mathew’s begins his look at the future of for-profit education with a clear and definite bias against the institutions, and initial reluctance to… -
Is Lead Management One of Your Resolutions?
4 Jan 2012 | 6:28 pmIt’s a new year. If you’ve made any resolutions about growing your business, i.e., providing better service to your prospects, working more efficiently, or even just making more money there’s a quick way you can lock in all three. Lead Management software is a software solution which helps you get in contact with leads more quickly than by any other means. Contacting leads quickly involves several steps being taken at a high speed: 1. Receive the lead from the lead source 2. Distribute the lead to a sales rep who is best suited to do business with them 3. Ensure that a Sales Rep acts… -
Inspiration from our sales team to yours
29 Dec 2011 | 3:26 pmDecember 29, 2011 — Motivation and inspiration for selling can come from many places. To give you some fresh material for the “inspirational” section of your sales portal or even better, your Leads360 homepage message (hint, hint :-)), we conducted a poll of our sales team asking them for motivational sayings, quotes, movie lines, or whatever else they could think of that might inspire them. So from our sales team to yours – happy New Year and happy selling in 2012!!! “We’re adding a little something to this month’s sales contest. As you all know, first prize is… -
Lead Management: Marketing vs. Sales
21 Dec 2011 | 6:00 pmDecember 21, 2011 — Managing leads is a multistage process. While the concept of managing leads has been around for a while, there is still some disagreement about what lead management is. For example, you could read one article about lead management that is written entirely from a marketing perspective. From the marketing perspective, lead management looks a lot more like demand generation and marketing automation. Marketers who are interested in lead management will look for different features than a Sales Manger would look for. So it is useful to draw a distinction between marketing…
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Saleskick | Sell more. Sell Faster.
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Copy Review
26 Jan 2012 | 5:43 pmA few years ago I launched a copy review service — an experiment of sorts. I never promoted it much, but many people purchased it. For reasons I can’t explain, I took the link to the service down a year ago and never mentioned it since. With this post, I’m re-launching the service At the prodding of a past client, I reevaluated the service and have decided to re-launch it. The way the service works is you send me whatever copy you want me to review and edit. In 72 hours or less, I will provide you a written review of your copy, including a screencast to highlight review… -
The kind of sales training salespeople need
26 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmI’ve attended good sales training in the past. And I’ve attended sales training that was pretty much worthless. Interestingly, as a sales manager and executive, I’ve sent few salespeople to training. The reason isn’t that I don’t value training, it’s that I’m overall disappointed with available training programs. Without bashing any particular program, here is my view on the ideal characteristics of a sales training program salespeople need to consistently meet and exceed quota: Outcome-based Sales training has no inherent value — no one wants… -
How to qualify complex sales opportunities
24 Jan 2012 | 6:32 pmWhen I was a sales manager reviewing a sales forecast and later in my career a sales executive reviewing major opportunities with my management team, I’d focus discussion on the qualifying process of each opportunity. The reason is poorly qualified sales opportunities waste a lot of time and clutter a forecast, making revenue projections volatile and unreliable — the kiss of death for a business and career. If you’re a sales manager, I can’t think of anything more important than challenging your sales staff on how well a sales opportunity is qualified, before… -
The question you have to answer to make the sale
23 Jan 2012 | 3:13 pmMarkets are competitive. I can’t think of a market that doesn’t include a number of vendors or suppliers who compete for market share. A truth that’s often ignored or misunderstood is most companies who compete in a given market look alike to the people who make purchase decisions and ultimately buy. Buyers don’t see much difference between one company and another Companies think they’re different when comparing themselves to others in their market. Reality is the things we offer look stunningly alike to the people who matter most —… -
What do you know, that I don’t know, that I would benefit from knowing?
20 Jan 2012 | 11:05 amI had a really good conversation with a a client yesterday about earning the attention of reluctant listeners – we were discussing them in relation to target audiences within a core story. The conversation led to the question posed in the title of this post, asked from the perspective of the person you’re taking to: What do you know, that I don’t know, that I would benefit from knowing? A reluctant listener is someone you’ve contacted who doesn’t find value in the conversation — they aren’t interested. Lack of interest can come from latent…
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SalesForce Search Blog
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Intricacies of Business to Business Sales Jobs
26 Jan 2012 | 12:12 pmBusiness to business sales jobs have their own unique benefits as well as challenges. The sales transactions are often somewhat complex and subject to volatility completely separate from consumer sales so be prepared for a learning curve if you are transitioning. While the details involved may be many the effort is often well worth it as business to business sales positions are among the highest paying. Relationship developmentAs opposed to consumer sales where the sales relationships often last only minutes, business to business sales jobs require a large degree of… -
Traveling Sales Jobs Keys to Productivity
25 Jan 2012 | 1:47 pmFor professionals in traveling sales jobs there are a few key aspects that lead most to success. While closing sales is, obviously, the ultimate goal there are many smaller tasks you must accomplish during the work week to put you in position to sell. Here are a few keys to productivity in traveling sales jobs that will put you ahead of the competition.Route PlanningWhether you travel a windshield-size territory or Internationally, planning routes properly is one of the most important factors leading to productivity in traveling sales jobs. A good route plan will allow you… -
Finding Sales People
24 Jan 2012 | 12:58 pmFinding sales people that fit your organization well is all about two things: knowing what you are looking for in a sales professional and where best to find prospective employees with those traits. Sure, posting an advertisement and scouring through resumes, the more traditional path, can yield good results. But the more direct approach often yields the best results. The key to identifying the qualities in a sales person you are looking for is to take a close look at your customers. What kind of person fits well with your customers? What type of person do… -
Grow Your Business with Better Sales Training
23 Jan 2012 | 1:42 pmAs the economy continues its slow and bottomless recovery, the mindset of most managers and owners becomes survival—how to stay in business, with no focus on growth and expansion. In reality, the companies that thrive regardless of economic conditions are companies that view sales as their driving force. Training and developing your sales team with the qualities needed for success will guarantee increased profits now and even greater profits when the market “bounces back.” Below are four sales training tips that can be implemented immediately to improve your sales… -
Guide to Top Sales Careers
20 Jan 2012 | 12:14 pmThe top sales careers come with big challenges and considerable earning potential. Each has its own unique traits and requirements that may not appeal to every candidate but will have great benefit to those that find a fit. You can expect a good deal of competition for the best sales jobs and great rewards for top-level performance. Software SalesTop sales careers in software can be obtained by not only seasoned sales professionals but also those with technical backgrounds. Selling software requires an aggressive attitude along with a consultative approach, which…
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RainMaker Blog
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You Aren’t Just in Business. You’re In the Relationship Business
26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amDo your clients love you and what you do for them? It may sound a little risqué to say you’re in the relationship business, but the truth of the matter is your relationships with clients play a huge role in your company’s success. Do your clients like you? Can they depend on you? Do they value you? Do they trust you? Do you trust them? All of those factor into whether you have good relationships with your ideal clients. When it comes to starting relationships with prospects, there are many things that can demonstrate your expertise, give a feel for what it’s like to work… -
Vote for RainToday’s Best Content of the Week – January 25
25 Jan 2012 | 6:59 amOnce again, it’s time to vote for RainToday’s Readers’ Choice Award. Congratulations to Kristin Zhivago for winning last week’s award with her article Secrets to Writing Marketing Copy that Customers Can’t Ignore. It was a great article, and a well-deserved win for Kristin. On to this week. I have a feeling that our new content will generate a tight race for the top spot. Ever had a prospect fight you on price? I’m guessing the answer is yes. But before you agree to drop your fees, take a look at Greta Schulz’s new article. In it, she tells you why… -
More than Words: Establishing Trust in the Sales Process
20 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWhenever somebody says “trust me” don’t you instinctively put up your guard? I do. If you have to tell me to trust you, then you aren’t doing your job. I need to feel I can trust you—and so do your prospects. They need to feel you have their best interests at heart and that you can truly help them. Often the first feelings of trust—or mistrust—come when potential buyers read your marketing copy. If you don’t know your buyers and you aren’t relevant, they aren’t going to give you the time of day let alone trust you. That means you must research… -
5 Game Changers for Selling Consulting Services in 2012
19 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amThese game changers will give you the edge in 2012 A lot of people are predicting more of the same for 2012: High unemployment… volatile stock market… difficulty getting new clients… more push back on price… But the private conversations we’ve had with clients are the complete opposite: Lots of opportunity… plenty of need… leaders who are less skittish… time for significant growth… Few say the economy is great, but most agree opportunity is everywhere. Their fears are gone. Although things have not returned to how they once were, it’s… -
Vote for RainToday’s Best Content of the Week – January 18
18 Jan 2012 | 7:07 amCongrats to Dan Antonelli for winning last week’s Readers’ Choice Award with his article Is Your Business Struggling? Your Ego May Be to Blame. It was a great read, so if you missed it, I recommend checking it out. Also worth checking out is the new content from this week’s Rainmaker Report (January 18). In it, Kristin Zhivago shares the secrets to writing successful marketing copy in a time when traditional copy is, in her words, dead. And RainToday Contributing Editor Charles H. Green delves into why trust-based networking is so essential to the success of your business.
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amacus.net
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Exceptional sales performance requires exceptional buyer experiences
17 Jan 2012 | 7:17 pmRecently had the pleasure of gaining John Holland’s perspectives on the keys to high performing sales teams. The titles of John’s best-selling books, in many ways, nicely summarize his thinking. CustomerCentric Selling and Re-Thinking the Sales Cycle. A summary of … Continue reading → -
5 lessons from informed innovations in B2B sales productivity in 2011
29 Dec 2011 | 7:04 pmAs 2011 draws to a close, time to reflect back on the over 6000 words I shared thru 18 blog posts this past year. They were, in the end, a window into the work of our clients. With a big … Continue reading → -
Amacus Awarded Gold Medal for ‘Top Selling Solution’
16 Dec 2011 | 11:44 amWe’re extremely proud to announce that Amacus has been awarded the Gold Medal in the 2011 Top Sales and Marketing Award in the category of ‘Top Selling Solution’. We’re particularly flattered to have done so in a competition with 11 … Continue reading → -
Lessons for B2B Sales Coaches From a World Class Choreographer
24 Nov 2011 | 2:08 pmTwyla Tharp is an award winning choreographer whose ideas on creative habits provide, in my view, a wonderful blueprint for how B2B salespeople can find their groove and perform at their peak. In this recent interview, Tharp discusses how she … Continue reading → -
4 Key Take-Aways from the Sales & Marketing 2.0 Conference
21 Oct 2011 | 6:48 pmAttended the Sales & Marketing 2.0 Conference earlier this week. It was time well spent. Four themes emerged: ONE: BUYERS NEED HELP + SAAVY FIRMS ARE RESPONDING Buyers are looking for sellers that can create more value, faster. At the … Continue reading →
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Lushin & Associates Sandler Training Indiana
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4 Tips to be Successful in Sales
23 Jan 2012 | 11:30 amI was asked recently by a prospect “How do I become successful in sales?”And believe it or not I get asked this question a lot. Many times I’ll ask them what they think they should do to be successful and many times I get a very long and complex answer to this question. To be successful in sales it boils down to focusing on these four things: 1. Do the Behavior: Most sales people find themselves doing avoidant behavior. We all know as sales people what behavior’s we should be doing and that is picking up the phone or going door to door and asking strangers for money to buy our… -
Disqualifying Prospects [video]
23 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amDo you try to qualify your prospects? Do you spend time during sales calls trying to qualify your business? _____________________________________________ Why Salespeople Fail Webinar Manage your salespeople past the barriers that have been holding them back and onto the success they want and the success your business deserves. Learn More -
Why Salespeople Fail Webinar
10 Jan 2012 | 2:32 pma Lushin webinar on what holds salespeople back from achieving success and how to manage past them. Feb 15th from 2 – 3pm Salespeople struggle because they… Chase poor prospects too long instead of looking for new business Keep discounting to win business and its affecting the bottom line Have low close ratios and long sales cycles that impact your cash flow Do too much unpaid consulting wasting your valuable resources Tend to be more of a professional visitor than a salesperson What to do About it ? Join us for this one hour interactive webinar. You will discover strategies to… -
Setting 2012 Goals [video]
9 Jan 2012 | 8:33 pmDo you limit your performance because you set realistic goals? Does the “how” get in the way when setting goals? -
Top 3 Reasons Why Salespeople get “Sent Down”
9 Jan 2012 | 8:13 pmWhen it comes to “calling at the top” there are countless numbers of books available for sales professionals who are looking for ways to accomplish this. Any sales rep can find techniques on how to get past gatekeepers or executive assistants, how to deliver ‘value propositions’ that may or may not work and find statistics on how many touches it takes to reach Mr/Mrs C level. When you look at this critical topic, it boils down to 3 main reasons on why salespeople struggle talking to the top. 1. Comfort Zone- Do they feel like they deserve to talk to Mr/Mrs C level? There…
