Note: I first published this post exactly one year ago. Unfortunately it bears reposting again and again!. I have a feeling this same post will be relevant for another few years until the conventional wisdom evolves.If you're looking for help with growing sales, and especially in creating an amazing inside sales lead generation function, I have an overview of my sales consulting practice at www.PebbleStorm.com/cpr.-----------For companies selling products worth less than $100,000-$250,000, the old school strategy of hiring more feet-on-the-street to drive revenue growth is failing more often.
Sales
-
Build A Sales Machine
-
The Fatal Mistake Boards & VP Sales Will Make In 2010 Planning
15 Nov 2009 | 8:39 pm -
Marketo's Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing
13 Aug 2009 | 12:15 pm(Want expert help - based off of salesforce.com's $1 billion best practices - in building your B2B Sales Machine? See Build Your Sales Machine)I'm a big fan of Marketo, mostly because of the people there like Jon Miller, Kelly Abner and now Maria Pergolino. Marketo's application and the team's knowledge and practical experience around demand generation and lead nurturing is A+!So when they shared their new "Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing" with me, I knew it'd be something worth sharing with you, dear readers :) Below is an excerpt from their post about it, and get the full post and guide… -
[PebbleStorm] The Art Of PebbleStorm & CEOFlow (July 2009)
29 Jul 2009 | 12:18 pmLast night I spoke at a Meeting Of The Minds event in Westlake Village (SoCal). MOTMS was started by Kurt Daradics of FreedomSpeaks and Baron Miller, and is a great group of entrepreneurial people that meets monthly. I really had fun sharing with them last night. The format was casual (more of an interview) and not a presentation, and so rather than a slide deck, I put together a collection of sketches I've done over the past year, and at different times during the talk I'd call one up to share with people.Here is the collection...enjoy!View more presentations from Aaron… -
[CEOFlow] A Visual Intention For CEOFlow And More Sketches
5 Jul 2009 | 11:50 amWhile my Sales Machine blog deals mostly with the technical and process parts of selling, my big picture/CEO-level thoughts are part of CEOFlow. This post is a reprint of the original: A Visual Intention For CEOFlow And More SketchesA Visual Intention For CEOFlow Do I even need to write anything to describe my intention here, in how CEOs and their people should feel about how the culture and company work? (Seriously – comment below if I do need to explain further!) Where Outrageous Growth Comes From It’s not from having a great product. Or perfect sales and marketing. Those, for sustained… -
Why Stalled Deals Happen
5 Jun 2009 | 11:07 amRecently I attended a webinar by Tom Batchelder of Perficency, the author of "Barking Up A Dead Horse" (isn't that a great title!?) on why stalled deals happen. Tom did an excellent and clear job in laying out the causes and in giving people some suggestions on what they can,or can't, do about it. While the slides here speak for themselves, I would pay special attention to slides 5 and 10-14. If the slide viewer is small, notice the "Full Screen" button in the titlebar.Incidentally, I respect and agree with Perficency's intention for salespeople: "Get real! Be yourself to sell more". Amen!
-
Heavy Hitter Sales Blog
-
Selling the C-Suite Using Sales Linguistics
10 Nov 2009 | 7:39 amIn my new book Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince C-Level Executives to Buy, I help salespeople learn how to winover senior executives using Sales Linguistics. But what exactly is Sales Linguistics? Every day, you speak and listen to thousands of words. Through the words you speak, you are able to explain your ideas, recount your past experiences, and share your personality with others. Since the communication process comes so naturally, you assume you are understood. However, the most important words you speak… -
Sales Linguistics is Sales 2.0! Steve Martin Interview
23 Oct 2009 | 8:55 amI was recently interview by Mathew Schwartz for “Follow the Lead: Zoominfo’s B2B Sales and Marketing Blog” Here’s the interview: BEST ASSET FOR SALES EXECUTIVES DOESN’T COST A THING The terms have seeped into the sales lexicon: Sales 2.0, Sales 1.5, Web 2.0. The terms remind us that Philip K. Dick was probably onto something regarding where the 21st century is headed. But terms such as Sales 1.5 and Sales 2.0 really mean getting from Point A to Point B, and that has a timeless quality. For sales veteran Steve Martin, author of “Heavy Hitters Sales… -
Selling to The C-Level Webinar-WATCH IT!!!
9 Oct 2009 | 9:30 amI’d like to invite you to join me as I review key C-level sales strategy concepts from my new book Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy. Based upon more than 500 interviews with C-Level executives, Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology provides psychological strategies and linguistic tactics to secure C-level meetings, expert advice on how to prepare for and conduct C-level sales calls and presentations, and specific instructions on what to say and do during meetings. The book also supplies the psychological models behind… -
2 of the TOP 10 Sales Books
29 Sep 2009 | 1:47 pmI was very excited to learn that my just released book Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy and its prequel, Heavy Hitter Selling: How Successful Salespeople Use Language and Intuition to Persuade Customers to Buy were in Amazon's top 10 sales-related books (2nd and 9th respectively). Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology is for senior salespeople, those who have been in the field for five, ten, and fifteen plus years. The goal of the book is to help them accomplish the most difficult task in all of… -
Great Sales Quotes From C-Level Decision Makers
13 Sep 2009 | 12:41 pmMy new book Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy is based upon Based upon more than 500 interviews with C-Level executives.The book provides psychological strategies and linguistic tactics to secure C-level meetings, expert advice on how to prepare for and conduct C-level sales calls and presentations, and specific instructions on what to say and do during meetings. Throughout the book I have inserted comments from the executives I interviewed. Here are a few of my favorite quotes along the title of the person who said…
-
Understanding the Sales Force
-
6th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
18 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanThis is the 6th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.#6 - LEADERSHIPSales Leadership includes but is not limited to:Strong relationships with the sales team - more about this in the 7th (next in the series) article Mutual Respect - you believe they respect you, but do they really? And do you respect them? Credibility - how credible are you? Have you done what you're asking them to do? Have you done it the same way with the same obstacles and challenges to the same market? How credible is your… -
5th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
17 Nov 2009 | 7:01 amUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanThis is the 5th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.#5 - DEVELOPMENTDevelopment is the ongoing development of your salespeople. It includes - and goes beyond: the strategies and tactics learned in training; the accountability for the application of what was learned in training; the coaching on how to use those strategies and tactics on real sales calls; Four important components of development that aren't mentioned above are:raising and managing expectations; helping your salespeople overcome their weaknesses;the ongoing… -
4th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
16 Nov 2009 | 2:36 amUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanThis is the 4th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.#4 - RECRUITINGThe most important things to understand about consistently recruiting strong, successful salespeople are:You must have a process - not just any process, but a world class, effective process that consistently yields great hires. Watch this video where I discuss the sales recruiting process. You must use an assessment - not just any assessment, but a world class, sales specific, predictive, customized assessment that will consistently identify people that… -
3rd of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
12 Nov 2009 | 11:21 pmUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanThis is the third in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions. #3 - MOTIVATION Motivating your salespeople comes down to getting them to: Do what they won't do on their own; Change their behavior; Do more of what they are already doing; Have more of a sense of urgency; Over Achieve The methods for motivating your salespeople include: Fear - This is much more powerful than you know! They are afraid of losing their job. Consequences - What will happen if they don't do what you need them to? Develop some consequences… -
2nd of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
11 Nov 2009 | 9:31 pmUnderstanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanThis is the 2nd in the series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions. #1 - ACCOUNTABILITY In its simplest form, sales accountability consists of the following: Holding salespeople accountable to something measurable - metrics - on a daily basis Being more demanding - being firmer and tougher Eliminating Excuse Making - people take responsibility for their results No more under achieving - everyone achieves and over achieves or else...Here's a video of me discussing Excuse Making... Accountability is an ongoing function and takes place on…
-
Jill Konrath - Selling to Big Companies
-
Do you know a Sales Superstar? Are you one?
20 Nov 2009 | 8:42 pmTop performing sellers who deliver results in today's crazy market deserve to be recognized. That's why AllBusiness and Top Sales Experts are honoring a top salesperson each month. Monthly winners will: Be recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions. Be profiled in an article for AllBusiness and its sister site, Hoover's. Receive free 12-month VIP membership at Top Sales Experts. Get a signed copy of one of the panelist’s book. Receive a free sales profile (Value $195). The annual winner gets an even bigger prize! Take this opportunity now to… -
Who Are the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management?
19 Nov 2009 | 8:29 amThe votes have now been tabulated and the results are now in! The Sales Lead Management Association just posted their list of the top 50 most influential people in lead management in 2009. I'm honored to be included in the Top 10 on this list, along with so many talented people whose work I highly respect. And, I want to thank all of you who voted for me!To see all the other winners, click here. -
What Are You Doing to Finish 2009 Strong?
16 Nov 2009 | 7:27 pmEnding your year on a high note is important. Right now, you have less than 30 working days to make that happen. Here are a few tips: Propose new ideas to existing customers. It's always easier to get business from at accounts where you already have a relationship. Focus on how you can help them achieve their objectives, not your product or service Ruthlessly protect your selling time.Have a plan for every single day - before you even get started. Limit the time you spend on non-revenue producing activities. Reconnect with previously-interested prospects.If they were interested… -
Embrace the Struggle: Complimentary Webcast with Zig Ziglar
15 Nov 2009 | 5:16 pmWhen: November 17 from 7-8:15 pm CTClick to Register: http://bit.ly/182WR7After years of speaking and writing about the value of having a positive attitude and being thankful, Zig Ziglar was challenged to put his own words into practice. Several years ago, his own life changed dramatically after he fell down the stairs in his own home. Today it's a daily struggle for him to overcome the effects of a brain injury and the resulting short-term memory loss.In this webcast, Zig Ziglar, Julie Ziglar Norman and Tom Ziglar will discuss Zig's new book Embrace The Struggle: Living Life on… -
True Story: I May Have Misjudged Your Interest
12 Nov 2009 | 9:22 amA true story, but the names have been changed to maintain privacy.Recently I received an email from Ellie, an advertising sales professional who read my blog posts on Where Have All the Prospects Gone? Part 1 & Part 2. The topic? How to deal with prospects who disappear into the proverbial black hole.Ellie decided to try my "let them off the hook" strategy. Here's what transpired.Subject Line: I may have misjudged your intentions My apologies if I’ve crossed a line to become your dreaded professional stalker. It’s apparent that I’ve misjudged Generic System's…
-
Ad Sales Blog
-
Three FREE sales training sessions for selling through the recession
19 Nov 2009 | 6:07 amRobin Carey, CEO of Social Media Today, introduces the three 30 minute training sessions. Each session is anchored by a content expert: Jill Konrath talks customer loyalty, Richard Nacht on social media in sales, and I talk about selling through the recession. The program was produced by The Customer Collective, a social media community managed by Social Media Today. The program was sponsored by Oracle Corporation. Here Robin Carey introduces just my session: All the sessions are FREE with registration. Register HERE -
Join me for a FREE digital magazine webinar tomorrow
2 Nov 2009 | 6:06 amOn November 3rd I will again be talking about the next generation of digital magazines on a webinar entitled , "Digital Magazines - Strategies for Today & Tomorrow" run by BtoB and BtoB's Media Business magazines. Needless to say, I'll be in charge of the "tomorrow" part. Show time is at 2 PM EST. I'll be presenting along with Brigitte Johnson, Executive Editor, Tree Farmer Magazine. Registerr for free Special thanks to the webinar sponsor, Nxtbook Media who is also a sponsor for the Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project -
See my Folio show digital magazine presentation on demand
28 Oct 2009 | 2:39 pmYou can see my Folio Conference presentation featuring preliminary research from the Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project. It takes a little work but it is free: first go to this link and egister: http://www.folioshow.com/virtual/registration. Next, continue with free registration. It will tell you thanks for registering. Close the window and you should get an e-mail in your inbox. 2. Open the e-mail. Make sure you are able to view pictures in your -email viewer. If you use Outlook and it blocks graphics, right click on any graphic and click “download pictures” 3. You will see a… -
How Chris Brogan walks the walk
24 Oct 2009 | 5:44 pmSocial media guru and uberblogger Chris Broganwas coming to town. I was going to see him and Tweeted about it. Having never met Brogan I was surprised and delighted to receive a funny Tweet back (on left). I got a laugh but insight as well.In Chris' response was reinforced many social media best practices. First, as with implementing any social media program, Chris listened before he acted. He must have been monitoring social media networks, including Twitter, and noticed my Tweet about his upcoming appearance. Second, as with any social media program, his response had a… -
Oct 27th: The day publishers learn to sell ads in digital magazines
18 Oct 2009 | 4:04 amAfter months of research, I will be sharing initial findings from the study I have been managing, The Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project. On October 27th I will present at two venues. First, a live address in New York at the DPAC4 conference along with crusty publishing legend Bob Sacks who will be keeping me on my toes. Click on the banner and go the DPAC4 site for details: Here is my session description: 2:15pm: Can Digital Magazines Become a Widely Accepted Advertising Platform? Josh Gordon thinks so. As director of the Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project he has…
-
B2B Lead Generation Blog
-
How to Get the Twitter Username You've Always Wanted (even if it's taken)
19 Nov 2009 | 10:14 amDon't forget to secure your Twitter name! I signed up for twitter a year an half ago but that wasn’t soon enough to get my hands on my company's Twitter name of choice of @intouch. So if you were late to the party (like me) I'm happy to say there still might be hope. I found this blog post How to Snap Up that Twitter Username You’ve Always Wanted posted by @zee I followed Zee's process and I'm pleased to say it worked for us! Maybe it will work for you too. Here's what we did Emailed username@twitter.com with the following information: • The username you want • Your existing… -
How to Design Lead Nurturing Programs that Drive Sales webinar with Ardath Albee
13 Nov 2009 | 7:58 amYou’ve probably seen a lot of discussions regarding lead nurturing lately. People want to know: How can I create enough content with my organization’s limited resources? How can we develop a nurturing program that actually builds our pipeline? What measurements will help us consistently create great outcomes? To help marketers answer these questions, I have invited Ardath Albee to join me for the next B2B Lead Generation Roundtable webinar. According to Ardath, the buying process is changing and marketers need to adapt their lead nurturing programs to match. Ardath is perfect for this… -
50 Most Influential People in Lead Management
12 Nov 2009 | 9:06 amThe Sales Lead Management Association posted their list of the 50 most influential people in lead management. I was humbled to see that I was included on the list along with a lot of of people I really like and respect. You can check out the full list here. -
Lead Generation Check list – Part 6: A Multi-modal lead generation approach
11 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pmThis is the sixth in an eight-part series I’m calling the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.' I wanted to provide a checklist that helps organizations optimize their lead generation process. My first post was on the mindset we should have – one that involves “pulling” not pushing; in the second installment, was on how to drive sales and marketing as one time; thirdly, I outlined steps for creating an ideal customer profile in addition to an un-Ideal customer profile. We should be smart with our time and learn to recognize the signs that tell us when not to pursue a lead. In my… -
Steps for creating a true lead nurturing program
6 Nov 2009 | 9:53 amSometimes in an attempt to vamp up lead nurturing efforts, misguided and well-meaning organizations simply start sending out more emails. When email is misused in this manner, companies are really just training prospects to ignore or delete their messages. See What IS and ISN'T Lead Nurturing If your organization lacks a well-defined process for nurturing early-stage leads and building relationships before the buying process, you are missing out on opportunities. True lead nurturing involves creating and maintaining relevant and consistent dialog with viable potential customers -…
-
C-Level, Relationship Selling Blog
-
C-Level Selling Tip 10 - Executives Are too Busy and/or Have No Reason to See You
10 Nov 2009 | 3:02 pmYou hear or think C-level executives are too busy to see you. Learn how to handle this C-Level Selling obstacle. -
C-Level Selling Tip 9 - Overcoming Executive Intimidation
30 Oct 2009 | 4:17 pmPowerful people make everyone nervous, but if we don’t deal with it as sales people, we’ll be stuck with subordinates that stall our progress and mislead us on what it will take to win the sale, project or contract. -
Five Tips for Creating C-Level Selling Confidence
28 Oct 2009 | 4:32 pmOne of the most powerful tools for C-Level Selling, selling to doctors or any influential people is confidence. So here a 5 tips to help you build your confidence. -
C-Level Selling Tip 8, Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers
26 Oct 2009 | 1:00 pmGatekeepers and blockers are one of the biggest obstacles to C-Level Selling. This article and the free e-book and videos available from the links provide will never make getting to the Leaders a problem for you again. -
C-Level Selling: 5 Elements to Create Large Accounts
19 Oct 2009 | 2:25 pmLearn how to move from vendor to preferred supplier in a heart beat. Here’s the path to C-level executive suites. Once relationships are established there, sales come easily and continuously.
-
CASKEY Sales Training
-
Do You Want to be Right, or do You Want to Help?
17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amThe healthcare debate has reminded me a lot of sales processes gone wrong. We hear it all of the time. Sales conversations always start with the right intent in mind (at least in my happy place they do)—figure out the problem, put a recommendation together, connect the dots so that my prospect believes in the value I will bring to the situation. Somewhere in that stream of events it seems that things go awry. Our focus and intent goes away from helping our prospect. Suddenly, we’re more concerned about being right—concerned about beating the competition—concerned about getting our… -
Don’t Let a Good Recession Go to Waste!
11 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amI was with one of my coaches last week, and she said the funniest thing… ”Don’t let a good recession go to waste!” BRILLIANT! This statement has stuck in my brain. I’ve tweeted it only to have it re-tweeted (http://twitter.com/CaskeyChick). It received a slew of comments on my Facebook page. Obviously, it struck a chord with others as well. So what does it mean to you? Seriously, I’d love to hear. Here’s my take on how we should be working the recession for all it’s worth: • Workforce: What a perfect time to get rid of your underperformers. You can’t afford not to be… -
Rewire The Sales Mind - Lesson 3 -”Fear”
24 Oct 2009 | 11:27 amNo one ever admits they’re afraid. Yet, sales people seem to live in fear. Fear of the sale going bad. Fear that this is the last prospect on the planet. Fear of push-back and resistance. Fear my manager won’t see my potential. The list goes on forever. Fear Affects You. Q: But did you ever wonder how that fear affects you on a daily basis. And is it possible that the fear paralyzes you–or makes you less effective than you could be? A: Yes. Look at this list and see if you can relate. These are some of the things fear causes you to do–(and the result). fail to dream… -
Rewire The Sales Mind - Lesson 2
24 Oct 2009 | 7:55 amWhat are you listening for when speaking with a prospect? Are you listening for buying signals like you’ve taught since the 70’s? If so, that’s wrong. So Why Do People Buy? Our philosophy is really quite simple–people buy when they are either a) in pain with their current situation– or b) have a vision that will be accomplished easier with you in their life. The “rewiring” here is for all professional sales people to understand what they’re listening for–so that when they hear it they’ll know they’re close. How do you know when… -
Is It Uncool To Have A Vision?
23 Oct 2009 | 5:52 pmI would love it if once–just once–when I asked a person what their vision was, they had some answer. Even a lame answer would be better than the blank look I get when I ask the question. In the last few weeks, I’ve had a chance to ask a few people that question–and I’m convinced that there’s something deep down inside us that says it’s uncool to have a dream. We were told early in life ‘not to dream.’ We talked about dreaming as if it was cool–but when any of us did it, we got crapped on. Here’s What I’d Like You To Tell…
-
The Growth Guy
-
Best Marketing Book Ever; Beating Major Competitors; Must Read for Parents; Crowdsourcing
19 Nov 2009 | 12:14 pm"...keeping you great" HEADLINES:Best How-To Marketing Book I've Ever Read -- they did it, EOers Mike Lieberman & Eric Keiles have written the most concise, how-to, marketing book I've ever read entitled Reality Marketing Revolution: Transform Your Business into a Money Making Machine!. Immediately go to page 39 and read Chapter 6 (four pages) and do their blue-circle, red-square test on your website, marketing materials, customer emails, proposals, etc. Then jump to Chapter 17 and check your website's home page against their suggested structure -- statement of pain,… -
CEO of the Decade; Message Timing; Idea Paint; Three Advantages
12 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am"...keeping you great" HEADLINES:Steve Jobs Named CEO of the Decade -- let me take a pause from the Growth Summit highlights and pay kudos to Steve Jobs, named CEO of the Decade by Fortune magazine last week. Why? He's transformed four industries - computers in the 80s; music, movies, and mobile phones this decade. And Apple's market cap started the decade at $5 billion; today it's $170 billion, slightly bigger than Google. Take five minutes and read this awe-inspiring article and click through previously unseen photos of Steve. And you can see the list… -
Influence IQ -- 10 questions
10 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pm"...keeping you great" HEADLINES: Dr. Robert Cialdini -- leading the first ever 90 minute LIVE video webcast Nov 17, noon -- 1:30pm ET, Dr. Cialdini has devised a short 10 question Influence IQ test which shows the practical application of his six keys to influence. As author of one of the top 100 business books of all time and considered by most critics in the Top 10, his principles are timeless and continue to drive important decisions around the globe. $199/individual; $495/company license (unlimited computers) -- and access to archived program for three months.Influence IQ --… -
US Gets Crushed; Role of CEO; Israel's Miracle; Help from Two Entrepreneurs
5 Nov 2009 | 8:42 am"...keeping you great" HEADLINES: (Growth Summit Highlights continuedHermann Simon on Why the U.S. Lags in Exports -- Hermann outlined six strategies, from his research into 3000 "hidden champions", for dominating your industry -- strategies outlined in his book Hidden Champions of the 21st Century. Here's my 2-minute interview asking Hermann why the U.S. is getting crushed by the Germans and the Chinese in exports. Go to the right hand column of www.gazelles.tv and scroll down. Very Deep vs. Broad -- my favorite case study in Hidden Champions is Winterhalter. -
Anniversary Obama's Election; Record Sales; Master of Persuasion
3 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm"...keeping you great" HEADLINES: (Nov 17, Dr. Robert Cialdini, father of PersuasionRecord Number for Jim Collins Webcast -- as we expected, an audience rivaling the size of our live audience watched the Jim Collins' and David Allen's webcasts LIVE from our Growth Summit. Executives are finding this an effective way to "keep great" and garner the kind of first class executive education that keeps ideas flowing (our number one job as a leader) and keeps them ahead of the competition. Record Turnout for Elections -- today marks the one-year anniversary of President…
-
Garth's World
-
Who’s with me?
17 Nov 2009 | 8:47 pmSince we launched the company, Fowler has been dreaming about a Jigsaw member conference. I always know when he’s about to start talking about it. Right after his first beer (of the two it takes to get him giddy) on Friday afternoon at the bi-weekly poker table, he gets this mischievous twinkle in his eyes and off he goes: “you guys will all know when we’ve made it when we’re at the Texas Hold ‘em tournament portion of the Jigsaw National Sales Event in Vegas, with cigars, brown spirits, $100 buy in, a huge Silver plaque with all the previous winner’s name engraved on it…it’s… -
Persistence
3 Nov 2009 | 5:32 pmA couple of weeks ago Steve Martin invited me to speak to his two classes that he teaches about sales at Haas School of Business (Berkeley). On the drive over I realized that I was actually quite nervous. Since the students have regular access to all sorts of big name CEOs and smarty pants entrepreneurs, I was thinking that I might come off like some snarky sales joker who “stepped in it” with Jigsaw. Plus, I haven’t been anywhere that resembles an academic environment for almost 20 years- my vocabulary has been reduced to hackneyed business expressions, “you knows,” and… -
From Whiteboard Stickmen to One Million Members
22 Oct 2009 | 11:23 amOn May 17th, 2004, Jim Fowler called all the Jigsaw employees (8 people) into our flea infested conference room to show us the result of 4 months of feverish effort. He typed in www.jigsaw.com and up came our home page in 3 shades of “pansy blue”, complete with our Cartoon Network inspired logo, a basic search box , and an Excel -looking list showing 20 of the 50,000 contacts we had acquired to lure new members in to share with us. After executing a couple searches, Fowler grabbed the sales team (me and three guys I got off Craig’s List) and showed another application that… -
No Reprieve for the Infirm
8 Oct 2009 | 5:43 pmIs there anything that blows more than being sick as an adult? On the home front, there are endless meals to be prepared and cleaned up, things to be fixed, stories to be read, fights to be broken up, the endless social calendar algorithm to be negotiated. I can almost forgive my wife for eyeing me with thinly veiled disdain (and every dad knows verbatim that “no sniffle you have compares to 10 months of being pregnant”). It reminds me of my high school football coach who would blame every loss on the fact that the “walking wounded” didn’t prepare enough in the offseason… -
Hey Thor, try using a Screwdriver!
1 Oct 2009 | 6:59 pmIf you have been following this blog recently, you may have noticed that my attempts to spin together descriptions of daily business adventures, Jigsaw corporate branding and useful insights for sales people might becoming somewhat forced. The Jigsaw angle is obviously the red headed stepchild of the three. But this week I am happy to report that the bond is lock tight and, just like the superglue that I accidentally squirted across my brand new hardwood floor, will be obvious for all to see. This morning my furious networking efforts landed me at a meeting of volunteers for the Professional…
-
Gavin Ingham
-
A sales training tip for estate agents… and everyone else!
20 Nov 2009 | 10:44 amI have a hobby, it’s called “door-kicking”. It’s a little like “tyre-kicking” but it doesn’t involve cars, it involves houses. When I’m not following my twin passions of motivational speaking and sales training, I love looking around houses… show-houses, old houses, new houses, penthouse flats, country cottages, farms… anything really. You could say that I am an estate agent’s nightmare but then I have bought every house I have ever owned when I was on a “door-kicking” outing. Anyway, last month I was looking around a house without any serious intention and I… -
Join me at the first Recruitment Juice Live event
15 Nov 2009 | 6:43 amI am pleased to be speaking at the first Recruitment Juice live event. If you’re in recruitment and you want to be more successful then grab this rare opportunity to see Roy Ripper and myself in January 2010 in London. Here’s the Press Release… ISSUED 12 NOVEMBER 2009 RECRUITMENT JUICE LTD PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST EVER ‘JUICE LIVE’ EVENT “BOOST YOUR NEW BUINESS DRIVE” SEMINAR. Recruitment Juice Ltd, leading supplier of innovative DVD training programs to the recruitment industry, is building on their success with the addition to their product portfolio of their… -
Sales training tips for handling cold calling objections, part III
5 Nov 2009 | 3:58 pmHere is part III of my short sales training article on handling cold calling objections… “I’ve had a bad experience with your company in the past!” As objections go this one is slightly different as it may not be an objection at all, it could potentially be a complaint. For this reason it needs to be dealt with as a complaint to avoid stirring it up into something more. Most salespeople are confrontational when put into this kind of scenario. That’s a shame as it really is the complete opposite of how you need to behave to deal successfully with this kind of situation. Here’s… -
Sales training tips for handling cold calling objections, part II
21 Oct 2009 | 1:58 pmHere is part II of my short article on sales training tips for handling cold calling objections… “I use someone else!” This is a very common objection and one which salespeople and business owners can get very upset about. What they often hear in their heads is, “So I have no need for you!” Try replacing that self-talk with, “Yes, and?” Obviously, you’re not going to say that out loud but that’s what you need to think to yourself! Clients change suppliers all of the time. Clients moan about their suppliers all of the time. Clients have problems and challenges with their… -
Sales Survey 2009, The State of Sales in the UK
20 Oct 2009 | 3:46 pmI recently partnered Aaron Wallis sales recruitment in producing The State of Sales in the UK, a sales survey, the largest of it’s kind in the UK. Over a period of 6 weeks nearly 800 sales professionals competed the survey and the answers made interesting reading. I am going to be talking about some of the finding and what they mean for you in future blog posts but for now here are the headline findings… An impressive 31% of sales professionals are currently over target (28% of respondents were non-targeted) and despite what the media states only 4 in 10 sales professionals are…
-
turrisiassociates.com
-
Using Time to Achieve High Levels of Performance
19 Nov 2009 | 6:49 amSome people are good at wasting time but not everybody is good at using time to achieve high levels of performance. What we need to do first is to define time. The definition of time that I use is the distance between cause and effect or, put another way, the distance between initiating an action and producing a result. We will know we have used time wisely when we have chosen a task among a selection that produces a result far greater than if we had participated in any of the events we did not choose. If given the option to move a grain of sand or a boulder, choosing… -
A Must to Read on Top Performance: You Don’t Want to Miss This One
17 Nov 2009 | 2:55 amFriday night I was taking a red eye flight from Los Angeles, California to Newark, New Jersey. Prior to dropping off the rental car I stopped at a gas station to fill the tank. I was approached by a man who was unshaven, almost toothless, scarred face and for the most part disheveled. The conversation went as follows. The Man: Let me pump the gas for you. Me: No, its okay. I can do it. The Man: I would really like to do it for you. Me: Oh, you work here? The Man: No, I am a disabled veteran trying to make a few bucks. Me: You said you… -
UPDATE: Take on the Challenge, Make Better Use of Your Time & Achieve Higher Levels of Performance
12 Nov 2009 | 6:40 amI received a call from a client who had read the article identified in the email sent out on Tuesday of this week. He told me he put the practice into effect on Tuesday night and had an outrageously productive day on Wednesday as a result. He also informed me that today he had accomplished more than he would normally. If the truth be told, he focused on the top three items he needed to complete. He became so empowered with his ability to produce a result it had a domino effect on the following day. If you have not read the article from Tuesday you may want to do… -
Take on the Challenge, Make Better Use of Your Time & Achieve Higher Levels of Performance
10 Nov 2009 | 3:58 amI want to share a technique that will help you stay more focused, have a more masterful approach to getting things done each day, become more result oriented, and decrease the potential of incompletions. I believe time is the great equalizer. Every one of us has the same amount of time. Some make better use of it than others. There is a strong argument for using planners and having to do lists that have been prioritized and labeled A, B or C. I knew a person that color coded her to do list and phone calls, put it in an Excel spreadsheet and was happy to show it to all comers. -
They Missed the Obvious on High Performance
22 Sep 2009 | 6:28 amThe sign read, "We Are Closing Our Doors. Everything Must Go." A national chain hardware store in our neighborhood has a sign in its window running sales on everything. I have needed a chain saw for quite some time and thought I would take advantage of a good bargain. In the rear of the store was a display rack with one 18" blade chain saw for $149.00. The box for the saw was an additional $30.00, chain bar oil was about $5.00 and oil for the gas was another $2.00. The total investment came to $186.00 plus sales tax. When I went to the front desk I asked if there…
-
The SalesRoundup Podcast
-
Sales Leadership 101
16 Nov 2009 | 10:18 amSales Leadership 101 In a majority of sales organizations its standard practice to promote the top sales people into management positions. Unfortunately its also standard practice to cause these first time sales managers to fail by not providing them the training and support they need to make the transition into management. This is a double disaster for organizations because not only does the organization often get rid of or loose the new manager, they also loose the sales they were bringing in as a top producer. This week Joe and Mike discuss the pitfalls of promoting your best sales… -
The Anatomy of a Lousy Sales Pitch
9 Nov 2009 | 11:09 amThe Anatomy of a Lousy Pitch At this very moment millions of people are listening to sales presentations and most of them are probably thinking “when will this be over?” Let’s face it sales people exert a lot of energy to get in front of prospects and a good percentage of those sales people blow it by making a mediocre presentation. How are your prospects reacting to your presentations? Are you talking about your client’s needs? Could your presentation be better? What are you doing to distinguish yourself from the competition? This week Joe and Mike discus the… -
Be careful what you ask for as a manager you just might get it!
2 Nov 2009 | 10:48 amEstablishing A False sense of reality… Be careful what you ask for as a manager you just might get it Are you being bombarded with requests from your managers? In tough times insecure management will lash out by requesting detail information about everything you are doing! This is not productive and often times will have an opposite effect. This week Mike and Joe discuss or shall we say “commiserate” on what to do when management asks for too much information! Listen to this weeks Sales Podcast MP3 Stream Download MP3 This week Guest Interview… Mike Schmidtmann… -
Prospecting 2.0 Burn the Ships!
26 Oct 2009 | 1:32 pmBurn the Ships! Are you seeing a decline in your prospecting results? Maybe its because you’re not keeping up with the times. Across the board traditional forms of prospecting are loosing their effectiveness. It might be time to abandon the old methods and move on to new ones. When Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico, one of his first orders to his men was to burn the ships. In this episode of the SalesRoudup Joe and Mike talk about new ways to prospect and encourage you to “burn the ships” when it comes to doing the same old thing. Listen to this… -
Dealing with “Seemores” in a Complex Sale
19 Oct 2009 | 2:53 amDealing with “Seemores” Did you ever have a prospect that seemed really interested in your product/service, always eager to learn more, hear more “SEE more” but yet never getting to the stage of actually buying anything? These people are commonly referred to as “seemores” and they can waste a lot of your time if you don’t know how to conteract them. In this episode of the SaelsRoudup Joe and Mike give pointers and how to identify and overcome the “seemores” of the world so you make more sales and earn more money. Listen to this weeks Sales…
-
Sales and Sales Management Blog
-
An Immodest Proposal
20 Nov 2009 | 9:21 amThe holidays are upon us and many of you sales leaders may be wondering what you might get for your team members. Certainly there’s the typical take ‘em out for lunch or maybe a drink a day or two before Christmas. Maybe you plan on doing what most team leaders do—nothing other than wish them a Merry Christmas. Well, I have an immodest proposal for you. Why not get them something that is inexpensive but that will significantly increase their production next year? That’s a win/win situation since it will increase both your and their income, make you both look good, your sales… -
A Titanic Merger that Will Rock the Sales World
19 Nov 2009 | 6:40 amWell, OK, so maybe it isn’t quite that big but my good friend Jan Visser has merged the old SalesTeamTools.com and the old SalesMarks.com into the newly combined Sales Marks. If you’re not familiar with either of these sites, you’re missing a great deal of important material, so combining them into a single site is a fantastic idea that will give visitors to the new Sales Marks a huge platform of great stuff all at a single location. The old Sales Team Tools focused on examining and evaluating tools—phones, contact management software, business card scanners, you name it–to… -
On My Honor–Randy Pennington’s Great New Book
17 Nov 2009 | 8:28 amRandy Pennington has written one of the best books on personal and business integrity and leadership on the market today: On My Honor, I Will: The Journey to Integrity-Driven Leadership. As you may have guessed by the title, the Boy Scout Oath plays a prominent role in the book as Randy demonstrates has the oath contains all the foundational aspects of true leadership and integrity. And you thought the Scout Oath was just for teenage boys. I suggest you head over to www.onmyhonorbook.net to learn about the book and then click on the button that says “Free Gift With Purchase” to find out… -
The Last Thing Your Sales Team Needs is a Manager
16 Nov 2009 | 6:20 amDoes your sales team need someone to: Monitor every activity in the sales office? Be every salesperson’s best friend? Close the deal for every team member? Set sales goals designed to make them and their team look good? Over my three decades in sales I’ve seen lots and lots of sales managers. The vast majority fall into one of these four types: The Hall Monitor The Hall Monitor sees their job as one of chronicling activity, taking names, dispensing discipline, focusing on procedures, thinking those are the keys to generating results—or at least to keeping their job. Hall monitors tend… -
Not Sure if Coaching is Right for You or Your Sales Team? Take a Test Drive to Find Out
13 Nov 2009 | 7:45 amNot sure if coaching is right for you or if I’m the right coach for you? Afraid of investing a ton of money and then discovering you’ve made a mistake? Hay, I understand. Engaging a coach is a major step. Coaching isn’t cheap and it can have an immense impact on your business and success. So how do you determine if coaching is right for you or your team or if I’m the right coach? Take a coaching test ride. Trial Coaching for Individual Sellers or Sales Leaders Before you engage my services in a three, six or twelve month contract, invest only $200 and get three full coaching…
-
Featured Blog Posts - EVERYTHING IS SELLING...
-
The Power of Silence
If you're like most sellers, silence drives you crazy. When you're talking with a prospective customer and there's a brief lull in the discussion, I bet you jump right in to fill it. Am I right? Research shows that the average salesperson, after asking a question, waits no more than 2-3 seconds before rephrasing the question, answering it themselves or moving on to another topic. And my experience shows that normal sellers have NO idea that they're doing this. Let me ask you a question: What is the one single thing that you or your company could do in the upcoming 12 months that would… -
How to revive a client who disappeared into the black hole
We have all had that (for sure sale) prospect who just suddenly disappears from your radar. They were so interested. He told me he saw so much value. Just days ago he was all over this product. In the beginning it's like a relationship with a high school girlfriend. Let me explain. You first think this sudden disconnect must be an isolated incident and you don;t worry much expecting it to fix itself. But then another day goes by and she hasn't called you back yet. You're getting worried now. You frantically start phoning and phoning and emailing and phoning, you get the picture. Until you… -
Human Behavior - Why type As implode, go nuts and do stupid things! by Kay Cannon
Lexington, KY - “All I can ask is that you trust me with this decision and know that it is no more politics as usual.” - Sarah Palin, former vice presidential nominee, abruptly resigning as governor of Alaska. For thousands of people — myself included — their first reaction to Palin’s announcement was a shocked and bewildered, “What just happened?” It’s a natural response when an otherwise accomplished individual does something that, at best, seems to make no sense and, at worst, sends their career — and oftentimes their company — into a catastrophic spiral. The landscape… -
The Importance of Being Likable
Likability matters. In your career, most of the opportunities will come through other people, and people give opportunities to the people they like. In relationships, someone has to like you before they can love you. Anywhere in life, if people like you, they are more willing to help. Unfortunately, likability has picked up a bad reputation. I read advice that says: make people either love you or hate you, popularity is an unhealthy vanity, the best minds were criticized by everyone around them. Ayn Rand glorified a dislikable character with Howard Roark, the hero of The Fountainhead. People… -
8 Sales Questions You Can't Live (and Sell) Without!
Questions help you uncover what you need to know to sell. Without good ones, you're just stumbling in the dark. Make no mistake about it; questions are the key to good selling. Good questions will get you good information. Good information helps you sell and sell more. Here are eight great questions that you simply can't sell without. These are not the only questions you could ask, but they'll serve you well in every selling situation. 1. The Who Question Never, ever assume that the person you are speaking with is the decision-maker. Your contact may be only one of a number of individuals who…
-
Inside Sales Experts Blog
-
The Best Decision in 2009: Marketing's Take
16 Nov 2009 | 10:59 pmStop me if you've heard this one, but 2009 was unlike any other year in B2B Marketing & Sales. Rather than focus exclusively on the why's & how's of what went wrong, I've given a lot of thought recently to what I learned from 2009. I thought it would be interesting to ask a few B2B Marketing Leaders their take on the following question: What was the best decision you made in 2009? Here's a slideshare with their responses... B2B Marketing: Lessons learned in 2009 In case you're interested, here's my take. Have fun. Try things. Measure & repeat.If I… -
The Even Dirtier Selling Secret
9 Nov 2009 | 11:17 pmI stopped by Paul McCord's blog recently and this post really caught my attention: "The REAL Dirty Secret about Selling that Will EXPLODE Your Sales Career". I thought - what have I missed all these years? The gist of the post was that every day we are exposed to ads that promise to deliver the "secret about Selling". Paul argues that this is a cycle: us wanting an easy road to success, and somebody more than happy to promise quick fixes. Think about the first time you worked with that Rep, the one who kills their number every quarter, seemingly without breaking a sweat. Was it because… -
B2B Friday: Persistence & The Golden Question
5 Nov 2009 | 10:54 pmOn this day in 1989, American professional football (aka "soccer player") Jozy Altodore was born. Wait, people born in 1989 are professional anythings? Scary!Now onto our B2B Friday thoughts! ---------------------------- B2B Thought #1: Don't forget the Golden Question Every day I talk to Marketers struggling with the modern lead management dilmena: "When should I pass a lead as sales-ready?" Unfortunately, the 3 most common practices I encounter are: Firehose Trickle-and- Alternating firehose & trickle Then I ran into this post by Dale Underwood that really got me… -
B2B Friday: Pipeline, Opportunity & The Smurfs
23 Oct 2009 | 12:27 amOn this day in 1958, The Smurfs appeared for the 1st time. But not until the 1980s did Hanna-Barbera Productions bring them to the US audience.Now onto our B2B Friday thoughts! ---------------------------- B2B Thought #1: Opportunity is the goal, not pipeline Your company's pipeline is probably scrutinized daily. So why are close dates getting pushed out, deals getting stuck along the way and some never hitting the "commit" list? Mike Damphousse provides an insight into why this may be occurring in Introductory Appointments: Your Goal is Meeting Number Two. He begins by giving two… -
SaaS and the Hunter Farmer Debate
20 Oct 2009 | 5:11 amWe recently wrote a post called SaaS and the Evolution of Inside Sales. We got great feedback in the form of comments, but what I found most interesting was that so much of the dialogue focused on the challenge that arises from SaaS and that challenge centers on the hunter v. farmer model. Here are some select comments: Having been a VP of Sales for 5 years with a SaaS company and now a Founder of SaaS company I have found that two things to be true: 1) People still buy from people and want to know who they are working with 2) The line between inside sales and account…
-
Follow The Lead
-
The crutch of e-mail campaigns
19 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmE-mail, which is well into its teens, is still viewed as a cheap, yet effective marketing channel. But as the medium starts to mature, sales and marketing teams may have to ramp up spending on their e-mail programs in order to separate their brands from the pack, reach new prospects and cultivate existing clients. However, devoting more of your budget to e-mail campaigns is just half the battle to garnering decent returns. Many companies tend to create one-size-fits-all e-mail programs that get blasted regardless of who the end-user may be (like a howitzer being deployed to shoot an army of… -
Leveraging lost deals into sales opportunities
17 Nov 2009 | 8:51 amGuest Blog | Maria Pergolino Deals are lost for many reasons. Sometimes, it’s simply because your product may not be the right fit for a prospect. But other times, deals die because of lack of budget, lack of influence within the buying chain or because the pitch is made too early in the decision-making process. But many of these “lost” deals could very well turn into legitimate buying sometime down the road, and it’s crucial that sales execs do everything possible to keep these opportunities from falling out of the sales funnel altogether. Because sales execs can dedicate… -
Motivating the sales force
12 Nov 2009 | 11:44 amGuest Blog | Dave Kurlan Do your salespeople have the desire and commitment to do whatever it takes – every day – to reach their goals? Here are several tips for how sales managers can motivate, inspire, cajole and incent their sales teams to make their numbers and then some. Goals – Raise expectations in order to celebrate superior performance. Don’t forget two crucial items: First, you need a forecast and plan derived from goals (not the other way around) and second, goals are derived from the individual’s income requirements. Incentives – If an individual has the… -
Slicing up the pie
11 Nov 2009 | 10:52 amView This Pollopinion -
Adding ‘fun’ factor to sales networking events
10 Nov 2009 | 10:42 amQ&A | Adrian Miller Adrian Miller has had enough Merlot. “Sometimes standing around [at an event] holding that stupid glass of wine gets very tiresome,” said Miller, founder, president-CEO of Adrian Miller Sales Training, which offers executive-level consulting and sales training. At your garden variety networking event, “people may be engaged in a conversation and not know how to extricate themselves, or not want to extricate themselves because they’re scared to go onto to the next person,” Miller added. When it comes to pressing the flesh these days, sales managers…
-
Selling Financial Products by Michael Roby
-
You’re Too Good To Be Free!
18 Nov 2009 | 3:29 amOn I-94 near Jackson, Michigan, there stands a massive yellow billboard with the following line in huge black letters: “Free Land for Industrial Development” This definitely attracted my attention, but my first thought was that these people are desperate. After all, the September 2009 unemployment rate in the state is 15.3%. Michigan continues to hemorrhage jobs. You continually hear people lament about how bad the economy is statewide. However, while a large workforce is available, a question prospective businesses might ask is, “What’s the catch?” Several years ago I was doing… -
Choose Greatness
12 Nov 2009 | 2:46 amIn Thomas Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, Merton is pondering his life’s work. At some point in their lives, successful people struggle with their purpose, goals, and direction. In a conversation with his friend and mentor, Robert Lax, Merton is confronted by Lax, who suggests Merton should aim higher with his ambitions than being a writer: “’What you should say’- [Lax] told me-“what you should say is that you want to be a saint.’” “A saint! The thought struck me as just a little weird. I said: ‘How do you expect me to become a saint?’” “’By… -
A Not-So-New Idea: Dinner Seminars
4 Nov 2009 | 7:40 pmRestaurant business is down due to the economy; people do not go out as often. In the November 2, 2009 issue of Nation’s Restaurant News, trainer and professional speaker Jim Sullivan wrote, “Not that we’re out of the woods by any measure. Grocery prices are falling and restaurant prices rising. Technomic recently reported that in the past three years 21,425 units have closed in the United States, and 84 percent of those were full-service operations. That reflects the worst three-year contraction in foodservice history.” What does this possibly mean to financial advisors? -
Bloom – or Die – Where You Are Planted
3 Nov 2009 | 8:39 amThe November 2009 issue of Fortune Small Business magazine features a story titled, “Best Places to Launch:FSB presents the 50 top towns in America to grow your business.” (The top ten towns mentioned are included in a list at the end of this post.) Do you live and work in one of these towns, and if not should you move? This article addresses the question of where to launch a business, and also where to grow a business. So what’s the answer for you if you have an established business? If you are not happy where you live, by all means consider moving. However, if like… -
Life Lessons
19 Oct 2009 | 8:54 amThanks to Alan VanDelinder of Minot, ND for this. Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio “To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:” 1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in…
-
Engaging Ideas By Colleen Francis
-
A new resource for Business Owners
17 Nov 2009 | 10:43 amHit New Heights with these Business Building Strategies – All At No Cost! As you can imagine, as a sales trainer, I spent a lot of time helping members of the Engage community with strategies to attract prospects and close deals. I am also a business owner and I know that it takes more than effective sales strategies to build a thriving organization. In fact, over the last few months, many of you business owners have approached me, looking to leverage some of the same strategies that we’ve used ourselves at Engage to double the size of our business in the last two years. So, in… -
Get deals done now!
2 Nov 2009 | 5:33 pmSeeing as this is the end of another calendar quarter, I suspect many of you may be feeling what I like to call the “end-of-quarter blues.” On the one side, you’ve got pressure from your manager to close deals NOW! On the other, you’re getting the brush off from clients who want to call you back next month or next quarter instead. Stuck right in the middle? Yup, you guessed it – its lucky old you! The end of a period is a time when your prospects have other fires burning bright. Often, they use those other priorities as an excuse to put buying decisions on hold… -
Avoid the End-of-Quarter Blues!
30 Oct 2009 | 7:02 amI woke up on Tuesday morning to 6 cm of snow in Canmore, Alberta. Beautiful in the mountains – where it belongs! Winter is here and that can only mean one thing. The Fourth Quarter push! If not handled correctly relationships can be strained in Q4 as you try to get the “deal done” before the end of your commission year. Why? Because clients are tempted to hold back, see how things are shaping up for their own end of year and not want to rush a purchase. You often have opposite goals. Most companies will lower your prices and offer incentives to “buy now” –… -
Make Your Voice Heard!
29 Oct 2009 | 2:02 pmParticipate in Our Poll! Participate in the poll and see what other sales professionals are saying. Last newsletter we asked: What do you use as a creative yet appropriate email sign-offs for prospective customers? Here are the results: Regards: 28% Sincerely: 8% Thanks: 32% Cheers: 8% Others…: 24% This week, I have a request from a client this week that I thought I would put out to you: How often do you use client testimonials when selling? Vote and see how you compare to the rest of the Engage community… Register Your Vote & See the Results! -
Are you Repelling customers?
27 Oct 2009 | 4:53 amYesterday at the airport I listened in on a sales call. Nope….I was not wiretapping eavesdropping or anything else sinister. In fact I could not help but listen because the rep was beside me and speaking on her speaker phone. This is unacceptable sales behaviour. Ignoring the obvious privacy violations, the lack of call quality its self is enough to drive the prospect into the arms of a competitor. A month ago, a sales rep was cutting his finger nails next to me on the plane Last week I was listening to sales calls and could hear the reps eating lunch on the phone as they spoke to…
-
ChangingMinds
-
Happiness: Ways to happiness
21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmHere I'm starting a new section on how to be happy! -
Happiness: Achieveable challenge
21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmOne way you can find happiness is by setting your own goals. -
Happiness: Devoted service
21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmOne way you can find happiness is by serving others. -
Theories: Positive psychology
21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmHere's a brief description of the (relatively) new field of positive psychology. -
Happiness: Sensory hedonism
21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmOne way you can find happiness is by indulging yourself and your senses.
-
Modern B2B Marketing | Marketo Blog
-
Social Media and the Power of Inbound Leads
17 Nov 2009 | 6:10 amA key metric every marketer should consider is the conversion rate of raw leads to sales-ready opportunity by type of lead. Here's the conversion rate we see here at Marketo for the last 12 months: A few comments: Word of Mouth, Partner, and Employee Referral are leads we can attribute directly to a direct referral; Inbound Call and Website are "inbound" leads where we may or may not be able to identify what caused the prospect to seek us out. Regardless, these are leads that are contacting us because (a) they've heard of us and (b) they want to talk to us about our products and solutions. -
B2B Social Media Marketing: Branding or Lead Generation?
16 Nov 2009 | 6:10 amSocial media can be many things: a place to network with friends, a way to follow market trends and monitor brand sentiment, a customer service tool for identifying unhappy customers. But is it a tool for demand generation? I believe the answer is yes, but that it requires a different mindset for lead generation and measuring ROI. Over a series of posts the next few weeks, I’ll be exploring the topic of B2B social media marketing from a variety of perspectives, including how companies can use social media for lead generation, tips for measuring the ROI of social media in B2B, the… -
The B2B Marketing Party of the Year: The Marketing Cloud Party at Dreamforce 2009
13 Nov 2009 | 12:24 amAre you a B2B Marketer planning to be in the San Francisco Bay area next week? If so, on Thursday night you will want to attend what is going to go to be remembered as the Marketing Party of 2009! Why? Three Reasons: Awesome Location! I don’t think it gets much cooler than the St. Regis in San Francisco. We’ll be out on the beautiful terrace, but don’t worry- it will be tented to keep everyone warm. With music and lots of libations, you are sure to have a great time. Oh, and it’s only one block from the Moscone Center- so you can head right over after the Thursday’s… -
Best Practices from the Front Lines: Thought Leadership with Mark Fidelman
11 Nov 2009 | 6:45 pmMarketing automation has the ability to benefit almost every B2B company and industry, but are there benefits specific to open source companies? In our newest B2B marketing thought leadership interview, Mark Fidelman is the EVP of Sales at MindTouch and author of "Open Source Best Practices 2009" talks about open source success and using marketing automation to achieve it. What aspects of the buying cycle are most important to open source companies? The entire buying cycle is important. Most open source companies are starting to understand their sales funnel better and are educating… -
Creating a New Customer Every Few Days – Marketo’s Secret Sauce to Sales Success
10 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pmLast week I helped moderate the webinar, Marketo’s Secret Sauce for Sales Success. It is a sequel to one of Marketo’s most popular webinars. The Secret Sauce to Demand Generation, given by Jon Miller, VP of Marketing at Marketo about how we generate leads and nurture them through the buying process. This webinar has had hundreds of views and shares the exact reports, plans, and scoring that Marketo uses to prepare leads for our sales team. This new webinar was created to show what happens to these leads once they are passed to sales. But why would anyone even care about…
-
Sale News
-
The New Face of Selling
20 Nov 2009 | 8:24 pmAs the face of a company and the primary source of its revenues, the sales force is among an organization's most critical assets. -
Extreme Networks Leverages Tech Data's Reseller Community for Data Center Market Expansion
19 Nov 2009 | 8:11 pmExtreme Networks, Inc. is responding by leveraging IT products distributor Tech Data's Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Division to bring Extreme Networks high performance data center solutions to resellers with the experience and network design practices to help customers. -
Trump puts marketing muscle behind vitamins
19 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pmIt's like "The Apprentice" meets Amway . Donald Trump is synonymous with luxury high-rises, his TV show and his distinctive hairstyle. -
Siemens Enterprise's New Channel Chief Promises Program Makeover
19 Nov 2009 | 4:42 amNov. 18, 2009 Siemens Enterprise Communications Group intends to enter 2010 as a channel brand on the rise. -
Varicent and TerrAlign Partner to Drive Greater Efficiencies in Sales Organizations
18 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pmVaricent Software, the leading provider of Sales Performance Management and Incentive Compensation Management solutions and The TerrAlign Group, a leading provider of Sales Resource Optimization solutions are collaborating to provide a comprehensive solution around SPM, focusing on territory management and territory optimization.
-
Sales Force One
-
The Power of Choice
11 Nov 2009 | 4:16 amClick on this link for an excellent reminder from Seth Godin about choosing customers: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/11/choose-your-customers-choose-your-future.html Many times salespeople become "POW Prospectors". We have all seen the movie where the hero is made a prisoner of war and stuffed into the bamboo cage and is given slop to eat by his captors. And he thinks "this is slop...but I have not eaten in a long time...and I don't know when I will eat again...so he eats the slop." Salespeople do the same thing when they decide to work on an… -
I Love LA
22 Oct 2009 | 4:42 amIn LA this week on business and needed some gas for my rental car so into the first station I came to...where I was expecting to pay at the pump...only to find out while this station had pay at the pump it was not located on the pump (where it always is located) and that they don't take credit cards...only debit cards. Not finding this convenient, I drove away and bought gas at another station. How convenient do you make it for people to do business with you? Unless your relationship with a client is 100% safe, you should be asking your clients that question...before it is too late...and… -
You Gonna Pay For That?
6 Oct 2009 | 4:38 amSo here is the scene - my 6 year old daughter Madison is selling coupon books as a fund raiser and she shows the book her grandmother after dinner. Grandma (who will certainly eventually buy) is going through the book page by page and wondering how many of the coupons she will use as she doesn't get out all that much. After a few minutes, Madison simply asks "are you gonna pay for this or not?" Classic. It was a humorous reminder that every sales call must end with a clear call to action. You need to put something out there that the prospect could say "no" in… -
Happy Ears = Unhappy Days for Salespeople
30 Sep 2009 | 10:13 amCheck out this article by Dave Kurlan: http://www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/10627/5-Steps-to-Coaching-Your-Salespeople-Beyond-Happy-Ears.aspx Do you have salespeople with happy ears? Do you have happy ears? That is defined as a tendency for salespeople to hear what they want to hear from prospects instead of understanding what the prospect is really saying. For example, when the prospect says "we are always open to new ways of doing business" the salesperson thinks they hear "change is no problem." -
Free Webinar for Sales Managers
23 Sep 2009 | 1:45 pmLet's face it; it's a different selling environment today and it's going to continue to be difficult. The effects of the downswing will be lingering in terms of client and prospect conservatism and cynicism. So your salespeople will need to inspire comfort and confidence to encourage prospects to invest and move forward. Do your salespeople have the skills to sell in this environment? If you're not sure or you think they need to develop a new or different selling approach, you should join Mark Trinkle, Sales Trainer with Anthony Cole Training Group, from…
-
Sales Java™ Blog
-
5 Sales Dysfunctions
19 Nov 2009 | 11:27 pmI just delivered a session on sales management actions to drive sales revenue. The venue was Business Expert Webinars. The primary message of the webinar is the topic of this post: The 5 dysfunctions of a sales team.Poor performance managementPoor recruiting practicesCoaching instead of coaching for successLack of mentoringMotivational strategies that don't workIt would be easy as a sales professional to ignore these five and deny that they either apply to you or you dont' have these problems but answer this question: How are new business sales? If you are not up over… -
Confessions of a Salesman - The Tail of the Fail
9 Nov 2009 | 11:40 pmI have to give credit to Ron Stewart for this phrase- The Tail of The Fail. Ron is a senior sales management executive for one of our clients and he talks about two things when he addresses his sales people: the tail of the sale and the tail of the fail. As I analyze my own personal sales fails from the last 12 months, they each have their own story. But, if I think about my entire history of sales fails, they boil down to these 3 most common errors: Not getting to 'VITO' (very important top officer). I was talking to a PEO provider this past year. I had met… -
Sales Presentation – The Secrets of Steve Jobs
13 Oct 2009 | 12:47 amSales presentations are a critical step in the sales process. No matter what sales system (SPIN, Wedge, Strategic Selling, Baseline or the Effective Selling System), you will eventually be at a point where you present a solution to someone that will either tell you "yes", "no", or that they "need to think it over". Are there secrets to effective presenting? According Carmine Gallo, "those that follow the art of presentation according to Steve Jobs of Apple computer the answer is yes". And as I review the material presented that supports this claim, I now hold the… -
Getting to First Base - IN SALES
9 Oct 2009 | 7:51 amLike many sales training and development companies that focus on selling and sales management, we had our way of describing the sales process but nothing seemed to stick. A couple of years ago, Dave Kurlan wrote a book called Baseline Selling. It is a description of the sales process that Dave had been using a for a couple of years, and as a distributor for the Objective Management Group, of which Dave is president, I was familiar with his approach. So, I sought permission to use the diamond and here we are today. Our clients now describe where they are in a sales… -
Sales & Service - It's The Service That Sells Them Again
7 Oct 2009 | 1:08 pmCCHMC - Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is a study in extra-ordinary sales and service. But it is the service that sells us again. Our son, Anthony, will require on-going care for the rest of his life; that will keep us going to hospitals. But it is the service at CCHMC that will keep us going there for as long as they will let Anthony receive medical care there. Can your clients say the same thing about you?Anthony has a pump in his side that puts medicine into his spinal column. The medicine helps reduce the muscle spasticity he has as a result of the anoxic brain injury he…
-
Sales Lead Insights: A Blog About B2B Lead Generation, Marketing and Sales
-
2009’s 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management
16 Nov 2009 | 6:56 pmI promised to link to the list of the top 50 most influential people in sales lead management. The ballots are counted. (Imagine the drum roll.) And the winners are: http://www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/news/2009_Top50_SalesLeadManagement.htm To those of you who voted for me, my sincere thanks! -Mac If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website. -
B2B Copywriting: Interview with Miller McMillan
16 Nov 2009 | 7:58 amThis is one of a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners on topics of interest to B2B lead generation, marketing and new business development professionals. Miller McMillan is a copywriter who worked on high-profile accounts at ad agencies in Atlanta and Boston before establishing his copywriting boutique in Los Angeles. Miller has worked with such clients as CNN, Hughes, Nestlé, Avery and Microsoft. His copywriting capabilities include websites, direct mail, email, ad campaigns, brochures, slogans and names. Miller, it seems to me that copywriting plays a big… -
The Top People in Sales Lead Management in 2009: Friday, November 13th is Your Last Chance to Vote!
12 Nov 2009 | 9:36 pmDon’t miss this opportunity to vote for your top five candidates to be among the fifty most influential people in sales lead management in 2009. Why? Because the Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) is closing the polls at Midnight Pacific Time (UTC-8) on Friday, November 13th. Both members and non-members can vote. So why don’t you click this link to cast your votes right now: www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/top50_vote.htm Then be sure to watch for the results on November 16, 2009. I promise to publish the list of winners right here, whether I make the cut or… -
Web Inquiry Management: Interview with Mike Wallen
11 Nov 2009 | 8:48 amThis is one of a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners on topics of interest to B2B lead generation, marketing and new business development professionals. My guest is Mike Wallen, CEO of The Lead Dogs, a B2B lead development company that provides sales lead generation, telemarketing and telesales services. Mike, I understand that you recently published a special report about the handling of web inquiries, titled "The Truth Behind Web Inquiry Management." What do you include under the definition "web inquiries," and why did you focus the report on them? -
Your B2B Lead Generation Budget: Start by Cutting It Into Thirds
9 Nov 2009 | 11:58 pmHere is a simple and effective way to allocate your business-to-business lead generation budget. Use the first third of your B2B lead generation budget for Internet marketing. Start with: Search engine optimization (SEO) so your web pages will be found when prospects are using the leading search engines to find companies, products or services like yours Improving your website so it does a better job of helping visitors move from awareness to inquiry to consideration to purchase (Help yourself to my complimentary Web site design checklists for B2B marketers.) Adding your company and its…
-
Sales Lead Management Association Blog
-
SLMA Announces Winners in the "50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management List for 2009"
18 Nov 2009 | 10:49 amJames W. Obermayer, executive director of the Sales Lead Management Association has announced the results of the voting for the Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management in 2009. A total of 1604 people cast votes. Obermayer said, "These men and women are creators of wealth and we recognize their contribution to this important field of managing sales leads." The list of the Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management in 2009 follows in the order of most votes received. Jay Hidalgo, The Annuitas Group Carlos Hidalgo, The Annuitas Group Steven Woods, Eloqua Joe Lethert, Performark,… -
Voting Ends in 6 hours and 6 Minutes for the 50 Most Influential People In Sales Lead Management
13 Nov 2009 | 10:43 amLast day voting is heavy as people rush to cast votes for the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management in 2009. Vote Now. Regards,Sue Campanale ... -
Voting Ends in 48 hours for the 50 Most Influential People In Sales Lead Management
11 Nov 2009 | 8:08 pmThe voting for the Top 50 People in Sales Lead Management in 2009 will end at 5 PM on Friday, November 13th. James W. Obermayer, the executive director said that the Top 50 List will be determined by the number of votes received by each nominee. Nearly 1500 people have voted and cast an average of 3 votes each (5 votes each are acceptable). Vote now. The nominees are: Larry Augustin, SurgarCRM Patty Azzarello, Azzarello Group Marc Benioff, SalesForce.com Trish Bertuzzi, The Bridge Group, Inc. Joel Book, Exact… -
Determining Where a Lead Is In the Buying Process
5 Nov 2009 | 6:34 amOne thing we know with certainty is that all leads are not created equal, making lead scoring crucial for marketers so they can determine prospect readiness and take appropriate action at the right time. Increasingly, automation is key since spreadsheets and calculators can no longer do the job given the volume of leads and their varying sources, interactions and demographics. Marketers don’t have time to track leads and crunch complex numbers while also crafting innovative product campaigns.Similarly, metrics used to track and evaluate marketing programs must change, since today a simple… -
Voting is Strong for the 50 Most Influential People In Sales Lead Management
1 Nov 2009 | 4:17 pmVoting for the "50 Most influential People in Sales Lead Management" has reached nearly 1,000 voters who have cast an average of 3 votes (you can vote for up to five people). In the first week of voting, 964 people voted on the SLMA site. Voting is open until the end of business on November 13th. Membership in the SLMA has exceeded 1805 plus 1034 in the SLMA Linkedin Group. To vote click here. Three new articles were posted this week in the Social Media/Networking part of the Resources Section. Why Social Media is Just Like Sex - by Jamie Turner, The 60 Second Marketer The Top 13…
-
Sales Machine
-
10 MORE Sales Tips from "Seinfeld"
20 Nov 2009 | 11:30 amMore sales tips from the popular television program. -
Pay the Bonuses But Fire the CEOs
20 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amDon't stiff the sales pros; fire the banking CEOs who hired them. -
Are Sales Objections Real?
19 Nov 2009 | 11:30 amAre you spending too much time answering objections? -
Can an Introvert Succeed in Sales?
19 Nov 2009 | 3:51 amA brief investigation of the psychology of selling. -
How To Kill an Objection -- For Good!
18 Nov 2009 | 11:30 amA technique from Tom Hopkins for answering sales objections.
-
Sales Podcast and Social Media Training Blog by Shane Gibson - Canada - USA - South Africa
-
Leading and Collaborating with Generation Y
13 Nov 2009 | 11:34 amI’m doing a seminar on December 2nd in Victoria and December 3rd in Vancouver and thought I would share some of what I will be talking about with you in my podcast. Today’s focus is on how to engage, lead and train Generation Y / Millenials in the workplace. This demographic is much maligned and [...] -
The 10 Personality traits of a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer
30 Oct 2009 | 9:34 amJay Levinson and I put our heads together and came up with “The 10 Personality traits of a Guerrilla Social Media Marketer” they will be part of a program we’re developing together. I thought I would give you a sneak peek into these traits and the Guerrilla way: Immune to hype: There is a lot of hype [...] -
Tips de Social Media, Pensamientos y Modas en menos de 140 caracteres.
28 Oct 2009 | 7:11 amCada cierto tiempo, me dedico a hacer una colección de mis tweets mas populares de Social Media (Twitter updates via @shanegibsones) y los archivo en mi blog para que las personas que se los perdieron o para los que aun no se encuentran en Twitter. Aquí hay una colección de 25 Tips, pensamientos y modas [...] -
Two Leadership Seminars to Help You Compete and Prosper
22 Oct 2009 | 4:25 pmI have two seminars coming up in Vancouver in the next 60 days. If you’re a manager, executive or entrepreneur these two sessions are designed with you in mind. Today we need solid relationship development and leadership skills that are honed for today’s hyper-connected stakeholders and team member. These are not old strategies dusted off, [...] -
How fast are social media and social networks growing?
22 Oct 2009 | 6:34 amI found this counter through @cindyking on Twitter. It was developed by Gary Hayes, and really gives you a good idea of the minute by minute growth of social media and social networks. User generated content is now your brand, are you engaging these content creators and social networkers? Click here to Tweet this Sales [...]
-
Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson
-
Free Report from AdAge: The New Female Consumer
20 Nov 2009 | 6:42 pmThere's a very interesting white paper available free from Advertising Age called "The New Female Consumer: The Rise of the Real Mom." You can download it in pdf format here. If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries. Contact Skip | Join Mailing List… -
My [Very] Personal Story: The Pain of False Objections In Selling and in Life
17 Nov 2009 | 4:04 amI wanted to make love with my wife one night last week (especially because I've been very busy and have travelled a lot). But my plans were foiled when she told me she had a migraine. [She knows that the tried and true "headache" excuse doesn't work anymore, so in recent years she's elevated "headache" to "migraine"].But I know she didn't have a migraine. No way. Her "objection" wasn't real. It was a faux objection.The real reason my wife avoided my husbandly advances was because she wanted to watch a TV show. [Great. Dirty Jobs… -
How Well Do You Really Know Your Market?
16 Nov 2009 | 5:09 amYour market is made up of all the people who have done business with you, along with the people who have some likelihood of doing business with you. Everyone in business has at list minimal understanding of their market, but do you really understand yours?Many start-up B2C companies and salespeople target people with lots of money, but these people are possibly only members of their imaginary market. People with lots of can't and won't buy every product or service out there, nor will they buy from every salesperson in the world. One reason people lots of money is because those… -
It's Fearless Friday
13 Nov 2009 | 6:50 amI hereby proclaim today a "Fearless Friday." Be fearless today:- Call your wealthy great uncle (finally) about your buying your product. You've wanted to do it for years, so pick up the phone today.- Contact a local TV station about appearing on their morning show in a segment to talk about how your product can help consumers.- Plan a publicity stunt to get attention.- Commit to impeccable follow-up from those who have not yet purchased from you. Be a stalker (but in a good way).- Trick out your car with signage of a complete car wrap for an advertisement for your business. -… -
What Are Your Sales Strengths?
11 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pmAs a salesperson, what are you good at?Is it something broad, like "retail selling" or "telesales?" Or is it something specific, such as "Getting customers to see the investment potential in our ABC mutual fund," or "Adding lamps to the order whenever I sell a sofa." Whatever it is, celebrate your sales strengths.What I sometimes see are salespeople who don't take full advantage of their existing sales strengths. In an effort to be more balanced, (or to respond to pressure from management), they seek to moderate their outcomes by focusing on areas…
-
Ian Brodie's Selling Professional Services Blog
-
Linkedin News and Leadership Poll
18 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pmRegular readers will know I’m a big fan of Linkedin as a business development tool for professionals (see 10 Linkedin Tips for Professionals for my guide to the best ways to use it). I’ll be doing quite a few more Linkedin posts in the upcoming weeks. Some of them will be further ideas on using Linkedin for business development. But some will be more news oriented. The reason for that is I’ve been asked to blog about and comment on the upcoming Linkedin European Business Awards 2010. As you may have seen in the press, Linkedin and Cisco WebEx are sponsoring these awards and… -
Meet: Lawyers – great idea
12 Nov 2009 | 3:43 pmOver on my (small but very friendly) Rainmaker Network Linkedin group we’ve been discussing using Linkedin for business development in professional services. One idea I’d not heard before came from Julian Johnstone. He’s set up a group called Meet: Lawyers where lawyers who are travelling can set up “meetings for coffee” with other lawyers in the cities they’re visiting. One of the best sources of referrals for many professionals is other professionals in the same field. This might either be in complementary or non-competing specialisms (a lawyer in a… -
Dealing with a “Stonewall”
8 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pmOne of the situations I’ve always found it difficult to handle in business development is when a potential client you meet “stonewalls” you. In other words, they don’t respond or react to what you’re saying. I rarely get this reaction nowadays – for reasons we’ll come on to later. But early on in my career when I first started taking on consulting sales roles rather than just delivery roles it was something I encountered a number of times. It’s worth taking a look at some of the reasons why you might get this reaction from potential clients, and… -
Make Business Development a Habit
27 Oct 2009 | 3:54 pmA couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from a friend which got me thinking about this particular topic. The friend in question is David Lomas, who runs M3 Publishing – but more importantly, is the kind of guy who always has a dozen projects on the boil and has a huge network of connections. David called me as he was driving home one Friday evening “just to keep in touch”. We spent the next 20 minutes or so just shooting the breeze, exchanging stories and brainstorming a little about a couple of projects we are working on. Here’s the point: 95% of people – when… -
The Importance of Authenticity
20 Oct 2009 | 4:46 pmA few months ago I had a bit of a heated email argument with a fairly well-known marketing guru whose newsletter I subscribed to. I won’t mention names as the point of this post isn’t about criticising others – it’s about something I believe to be vital to succeed in business development: authenticity. The argument started when I received an email from the guru sent from a hospital waiting room in a few moments he had spare waiting for his wife to give birth. His email said he had to be quick (for obvious reasons) but wanted to make an offer on one of his new products.
-
The DEW View!
-
How to succeed when your life life kicks the @$%*# out of your sales life
28 Oct 2009 | 6:01 amSometimes life throws you a curve ball. Things blow up…. bad. You get beaten up in your personal life and it starts to affect your chances at closing deals. You have opportunities that demand finesse, skill, and talent — and you feel defeated and ready to quit. Winning is more than about a notch on the belt. It pays the bills. Not succeeding is something you don’t want to consider…. So, what do you do? How do you put your life back together while not missing a career beat? Recognize that life dealt you a black eye. There is no use denying the obvious. Try to… -
(Illogically) Help Me Be Your Customer
21 Oct 2009 | 6:03 amThink through the mind of your customer… and ask yourself if you are “illogically” wooing your customer. Are you doing what no one else will do to make them successful? Are you working to guarantee that your customer hits a home run by working with you? It’s not logical. In fact, it doesn’t really make sense from a “nuts-and-bolts” perspective. But like anything, when you swing the opposite direction, you get a better perspective. Instead of being illogically helpful, let’s look at being illogically awful. Let’s look at the bad… -
The language of people
16 Oct 2009 | 6:12 amThere’s a secret language that many of us don’t understand. It’s deliberate but very real. It’s hidden but in plain sight. It’s how we work but rarely what we think about. It’s called “humanity” and it’s the key to making the impossible very real. It’s the difference between the unbelievable happening and almost “getting there.” When you understand people you understand the possibilities. You get to be a part of this language of “humanity“. But it means your mission – your calling in life… -
How GMC Lost My Million Dollar Business
6 Oct 2009 | 6:06 amWhat happened to the art of caring about the success of your customers? What happened to caring in general — about your own success, about what wakes you up in the morning, about a higher calling than your 9-to-5? Is it costing you millions of dollars and you don’t even know about it yet? “Sir, that’s the fee we added recently to anyone returning their vehicle at the end of their lease. It’s helps to offset our recent losses.” That was the response I got from a customer support rep in India answering my frustration over a $800 bill from GMC after… -
Stop Shouting at Me
29 Sep 2009 | 6:17 amSince when did we as business people decide that having conversations was too much work? Instead of discussion with our customers and the community we decided that SHOUTING at the world was the “latest and greatest” in sales-marketry… That being annoying was a great replacement for providing value to the community around us. (If you see the guy who switched the playbook let me know so I can slip him over the border into North Korea.) I want a lifetime ban on boring HTML newsletters. They just suck. At least pretend to know my name. I feel like the other side of a bad…
-
SALES MANAGEMENT 2.0
-
Make People Want to Buy
Whenever a new commodity appears, we ridicule it, and oppose it, and refuse to buy it at any price. Then the salesperson trains his energies on us. We fight for a while, and finally we surrender. But we give no credit, or glory, to the salesperson. We walk up to the counter and buy the commodity, remarking to the clerk that it is just exactly what we needed for the past twenty years. It is not true that new products are manufactured to supply the demand. There is no demand. Both the demand and the goods have to be manufactured. The public has always held fast to its old-fashioned discomforts,… -
Infectious Leadership
What kind of infectious agent do you want to be? Infectious like humor or infectious like the plague? For good or ill the senior leadership of every organization is infectious. By this I mean that leaders’ behaviors tend to be transmitted to their direct reports, who pass them on to the next level, and so on down through their organizations. Over time, they permeate the organization from top to bottom, influencing activity at all levels. Eventually they become embodied in the organizational culture, influencing the types of people who get promoted and hired into the organization, creating a… -
Conducting Corporate Diplomacy
The higher you rise in organizations the more you need to be able to practice the corporate equivalent of international diplomacy. Whether you are striving to transform your organization internally or working to shape the rules of the game with government officials externally, the essential challenge is the same: If you want to achieve your objectives, you need to learn how to effectively identify alignment and build alliances in order to get things done. Failure to master this critical skill can lead to trouble: it’s easy for leaders who are used to wielding authority (and making decisions… -
Dispelling The Salesperson Stereotype: The Key To Being More Effective In Today's Economy
As salespeople, we can get very enthusiastic about our business and offerings. As tempered as this enthusiasm may be, we run the risk of being overwhelming, or worse being too “salesy.” This has contributed to the stereotype of the average salesperson as pushy, aggressive, and overly excited. The result is, invariably, a degradation of the sales process. By virtue of this stereotype, internal feelings of pressure and tension are instantly created within prospects and clients alike. The prospect feels he or she would rather be anywhere else other than speaking with you. The reality is that… -
Building Trust through Empathy: A Practical Guide
Trust is the single most important purchasing factor in any sale. Trust is the buyer’s confidence that the seller will do right by them, and becomes more important as the level of vulnerability (risk, significance of the decision) and dependence (technical, knowledge, time) rises. As I am sure you can imagine, the importance of trust is highest in a strategic sale. Buyers will never work with a seller that they don’t trust, and will most likely choose to work with the supplier that they trust the most. The irony with trust is that most buyers don’t trust sellers. Look at mainstream…
-
The Sales 2.0 Network
-
Four Key Best Practices for Healthy Sales Pipeline Management
21 Nov 2009 | 4:29 amAs we’ve deployed the Dealmaker Sales Performance Automation software platform for our customers we noticed a few common challenges around the area of Pipeline Management. In the first instance, customers are often puzzled as to how to create the structure of the pipeline. Then they worry about how to keep the funnel full and whether to focus on pipeline volume or pipeline velocity. Finally we’ve been asked frequently to explain the ‘secret sauce’ that Dealmaker uses to identify pipeline risks or potential breakdown. Here are four of the best practices lessons that our… -
7 Requirements for Sales 2.0
15 Nov 2009 | 8:18 amJust a few weeks ago, in San Francisco, I had the privilege of meeting with some of the guiding forces of the Web 2.0 world. We got together to brainstorm how technology could be leveraged to help the folks at the WITNESS charity carry out their important work. (You might remember from a previous post that WITNESS, which was founded by musician Peter Gabriel, uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.) In the room were LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, Steve Chen - founder of Youtube, Joi… -
Sales Performance Automation: The Payoff Part I
8 Nov 2009 | 5:29 amI love it when a plan comes together, particularly when that involves one of our customers gaining huge payoff from implementing Dealmaker. Recently, I received a copy of an article in CRM Magazine in which (unknown to me) a customer of ours - Fleetpartners, a fleet leasing company in Australia - recounted their real-life experience of implementing a CRM and Dealmaker. The full article is available to view at CRM Magazine, but I thought it worthwhile to share the experience with you. First the payoff:- According to the article, since turning to Dealmaker, Fleetpartners has: realized a… -
Business Leader Perspective - John Kirkham - In search of the holy grail
6 Nov 2009 | 1:30 amI had the pleasure of meeting recently with John Kirkham, Ex EVP Global Sales at Open Text. He has some enlightened views on how companies can best deliver improved sales performance. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you will notice some philosophical alignment. He was recently interviewed in a Business Leader Perspective context, and I’m happy to share the output of that interview. In search of the Holy Grail Three decades of building and rebuilding enterprise sales teams in the IT sector, on both sides of the pond, has been a challenging and at times… -
Sometimes in sales (like golf) you’ve got to lay up
3 Nov 2009 | 10:50 amI was with one of my sales team recently when he was demonstrating Dealmaker to a prospective customer. (Dealmaker is the Sales Performance Automation software platform that we provide to help sales people win more deals.) One of the modules in Dealmaker guides the sales person to select the right competitive strategy to win the sale. Based on the information entered during the demo, Dealmaker recommended a Fragment Strategy. The customer, who was keen golfer, nodded his head, and said “Yep, it’s just like golf - sometimes you’ve got to just lay up.” I thought that…
-
SymVolli
-
Don't shoot me I'm only the sales person
28 Oct 2009 | 2:16 amFollowing on from Hugh Stafford-Smith’s article about People and Talent, I believe that the sales person is a very visible target and therefore in the absence of other information he is the first person to come under the microscope when things are not going according to the sales plan. I have two issues with this approach: firstly, that the sales person is the one of the most expensive resources within any organisation and to get rid of him should be done with due care and attention;, and secondly the sales person is the key component in the overall activity of how a company goes to market. -
Business Intelligence With SymVolli 7.5 - Accessibility To Information
20 Oct 2009 | 7:10 amIn the last newsletter we sent out to our subscribers we alluded to a number of announcements on some of the new elements and features that will be shipping with SymVolli 7.5 which will be released in January 2010. In the first announcement of our newest version of SymVolli we decided to focus on 'Business Intelligence' in line with the new Business Intelligence functionality that SymVolli 7.5 has. I havewritten a short article discussing the issues that companies face in using Business Intelligence and how we deal with BI in SymVolli 7.5. Business Intelligence should be affordable and… -
Going4Growth Partners With Nomis Limited and SymVolli
30 Sep 2009 | 2:02 amAs we are tackling the business critical issue of sales performance improvement we need to develop our business partner channel based on people who have the expertise in this field and who are comfortable in dealing with senior management. Graham Whittle is a professional that has the experience both in sales performance improvement and in dealing with senior management. We at Nomis Limited and SymVolli look forward to a long and prosperous partnership with Going4Growth. As a Sales & Marketing Professional, I am always looking for ways in which I can add further value to my clients. said… -
Cameron Consulting - Leaders in Management Consultancy in the Public Sector Take the Next Step with SymVolli
28 Sep 2009 | 5:00 amIn a world of change, it may be forgiven for thinking that public sector and large corporate industry giants are organisations that frequently need catching up with the ever moving world that we live in. As agents of creating new and effective organisations, Cameron Consulting are at the forefront of the movement to introduce critical new ways of thinking to make such organisations better, more efficient, more effective and more importantly - more profitable. Cameron Consulting is a management consultancy firm founded in 2003 by Neil Thody primarily helping public sector and construction… -
GUEST ARTICLE: Are you missing Business Critical data that could bring you the greatest return?
24 Sep 2009 | 4:08 amIt is with great pleasure that I introduce this guest post from one of our associates Hugh Stafford-Smith a leading management consultant for SABA Consulting based in Guildford. In this post Hugh talks about business critical data which heavily ties in with what we believe in developing our sales performance ideology. For the last ten years we have been obsessed with the benefits of effective process. We have made a mantra of efficiencies of using CRM solutions and “ologies” from our chosen sales process Gurus. In doing so we have created a sales force that delivers by numbers doing…
-
Jonathan Farrington's Blog
-
If I Have to Sit Through One More Sales Training Class…
21 Nov 2009 | 2:19 amThe JF Guest Author Spot Dave Stein TO: Salesreps and their first-line managers You have the right to be educated, trained, motivated, and prepared to leave the training session with improved selling capabilities, no matter how much experience you have. I recently spoke with a colleague who is a partner in an outsourced telesales firm. I know him from his past life as a salesrep. He worked for some big name technology companies and was consistently the top performer. He is a sales heavy-hitter if there ever was one. We discussed sales training. He said, “I can’t tell you… -
How To Develop A Consultative Sales Approach
20 Nov 2009 | 12:46 amEarlier this week, I was asked by a colleague to describe my interpretation of what consultative selling is, and I thought I would share my response with you…… As we are all aware, getting to know the customer and understanding their needs is not a quick and easy process. Customers possess a hierarchy of needs which have to be uncovered gradually. This is why we need a new type of salesperson for a new type of customer. So what does this new breed of salesperson look like? For a start he or she has progressed from the more traditional, ‘lone ranger’ approach of selling to a… -
In 2010, The Challenge Will Be To Deliver More With Less
19 Nov 2009 | 1:02 am“I want you to deliver more …… - Profit - Sales - Productivity - Customers - Quality And, by the way, you’ve got less ….. - Money - Staff - Time” Sound familiar? Year on year, sales leaders are being asked to achieve improved results with fewer resources or, at least, more from the same. To most Sales Directors, the attainment of a permanent increase in sales revenues must seem like the search for eternal youth; unending and, ultimately, unavailing. Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify,… -
It’s True – Sour Cream Does Rise To The Top
18 Nov 2009 | 1:05 amI am deliberately dedicating today’s post to publicise a very important Masterclass, which is taking place today. 2010 is fast approaching, and I know that forward thinking sales leaders all around the globe are not just focusing on finishing the year strongly, but also on the challenges that lie ahead, so….. Your Invitation To Attend A Significant Sales Event In challenging times average sales managers tend to be exposed, they cannot hide. So why is the average tenure of a sales leader less than 18 months? The reasons for failure are simply that many sales leaders do not… -
Dealing with Ditherers
16 Nov 2009 | 10:45 pmA good way of avoiding a decision is to say ‘I want to think about it.’ I do that all of the time at home if I am unsure or if I am unconvinced. It’s my way of being certain that my intuition is correct. In my case I am not dithering, because sometimes people do want time to think things through. But, very often, this can be an excuse or a put-off. My advice? Ask: • ‘What exactly do you want to think through? (Whatever you do – don’t pause here!) Is it the implementation schedule? Is the bottom line? Is it the timing?’ Once you have isolated the real reason, you are much…
-
The Sizzle
-
passion as channelled emotion
15 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pmOne irony in modern business theory is how we are encouraged to be purely rational operators and yet also encouraged to be passionate about our brand. Rationality makes for more collective productivity as all elements of the business machine can be better controlled and directed. Passion is an emotional response to challenge - a way to harness and focus powerful and positive human instincts. The truth is you need both to various degrees and where you strike the balance depends on your business reality. If your industry is mature and your model built on predictable efficiency, then… -
how to make change happen
19 Oct 2009 | 2:45 pmIf you are frustrated trying to make change happen in your organisation, or for that matter, your life, take a moment to think about the overall process and what it takes to start. A useful framework is the "Transtheoretical Model" for understanding and affecting behavioural change in a social marketing context. Here action is preceded by pre-contemplation (where the change is not yet considered i.e. ignorance is bliss), then contemplation (where people sit on the fence with ambivalence), then preparation (where people begin to test the waters). To help move their change along… -
thinking backwards
28 Sep 2009 | 1:09 pmMany processes and activities seem to begin in a logical place: with what you have. In document automation, systems will typically pull material from data and content stores and manipulate them into a coherent flow and relevant context. This is how contract or bid building systems usually work - selecting paragraphs from libraries of copy and stringing them together for editing and combining with entered words. The issue this can create, however, is chunky or blocky content that risks losing editorial consistency at best and risks looking ugly and inaccessible at worst. Since… -
collaboration - the hero sum game
24 Aug 2009 | 4:11 pmCollaboration has always been a part of business models in one form or another, but today more than ever organisations are working together to achieve a common end where they may not otherwise connect. Communications technologies have certainly helped but recent trends in social networking, portal and web-based process automation technologies have combined to define a new era for collaboration. Enterprise 2.0 is unlikely to ever resemble a ubiquitous, open Lotus Notes but there are huge opportunities for real-time efficiency gains where like-minded entities can share business requirements in… -
the wisdom of institutions
11 Aug 2009 | 8:38 pmMany enterprises favour permanent employment over consulting or contracting engagement under the mistaken belief that they will better retain intellectual property. The reality is that the difference between employees and contractors is simply terms of engagement; and with respect to intellectual property, while the issues for employers are actually similar, access to knowledge and skills vested in individuals is more likely to be permanently lost once they leave an employment arrangement. I believe what enterprises really intend and need is to ensure their collective endeavors preserve…
-
TeleSmart Communications
-
Dreamforce Take-aways
19 Nov 2009 | 6:14 pmYesterday morning when I sat listening to Benioff’s Dreamforce keynote, I was struck with the reality that we will no longer be contacting people by phone or email because they will be in the cloud and part of the social chatter. Getting a response will mean following them on Twitter, fanning them on Facebook or connecting with them through LinkedIn. Great- just when inside salespeople have their phone and online piece figured out, now there will be more expectations to become part of the cloud chatter as they use their social tools wisely to generate revenue. My advise- invest wisely… -
The Talent that Travels with Dreamforce
17 Nov 2009 | 10:36 amTonight everyone gathers for the networking party which officially kicks off Dreamforce, the largest user and developer conference of Salesforce.com. I remember years ago when my buddy Shelly Davenport informed me she was leaving her role as inside sales manager at Hyperion to work for a company that Marc Benioff was starting which claimed No More Software. She had this little office in downtown San Francisco and the cool thing about this company is they were one of the first to decide to build just an inside sales team and not a field team. Years later, Salesforce.com has changed the face… -
Passive Aggressive Marketing
16 Nov 2009 | 8:11 amI was passive aggressive about promoting yesterday’s Borders Books author appearance. This was the first of my author appearance, book signing event and I was in agony about it. I hardly told any of my friends about it. It all started on Saturday when I called the bookstore and some young college intern answered the phone and didn’t know anything about the event and finally found a stack of my books on someone’s desk. I finally convinced him and his manager to put something together and to pull everything out- I wanted all the works because this was a “big… -
It’s you and me and the earbuds
11 Nov 2009 | 3:02 pmMy publisher decided they would like an audio version of my book and contracted through audible.com to have my book on tape. So I’ve been driving out to Command Productions, a very cool recording studio in Sausalito and spending hours reading every word from my book. Thats’s right, you can now hear my voice motivating you, educating you, coaching you and climbing into your car stereo or ipod earbuds. Recording this has been very gratifying, I get to revisit every word, paragraph, chapter, and story from the entire book. Sometimes it’s extremely grueling because every… -
My weekend with MJ
2 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pmI went to see the Michael Jackson, with my sister last night. Before it started we agreed to walk out if it was going to be more exhausting footage of his life or another tribute speech about The King of Pop. It was the 8:30pm show and when we realized it was going to be over 2 hours, and it was daylight savings, we already started negotiating how much time we should be seated before we bolted out. What can I say- I sat in the same position with my mouth open for over 2 hours. It was the most inspiring and stunning display of raw talent I have ever seen. The entertainment quality was superb…
-
Chris Whyatt thinks...
-
The origins of Get to Great™
6 Nov 2009 | 1:12 amGet to Great™ can be traced back to 2001, when Chris Whyatt, its creator, was leading a project for Lotus / IBM to improve their bid win ratio. Chris realised Lotus needed to understand their current capabilities and define their aspirations before he could start to close the agreed gaps. Taking inspiration from the Capability Maturity Model, Chris built a five-level capability model covering the 12 critical success factors in improving bid capability. The subsequent project delivered a step change in bid win ratio from around 10% to circa 90%! Chris subsequently… -
An open invitation to a Mentor Get to Great briefing
23 Jul 2009 | 3:08 amOur customers are telling us that they need to deliver 20% more with 20% less, and therefore they need to transform their approach to leadership, sales, customer service, as well as other aspects of their business. As ‘do nothing’ is not an option, what you ‘do’ has to be done quickly and effectively, and deliver real, tangible benefits. We would like to offer you the opportunity to assess your approach to two of these subjects – Leadership and Sales Readiness – and to discuss, with like-minded people from a variety of industries, how to approach making the changes your… -
A false economy or a great idea - you tell me?
1 Jul 2009 | 8:48 amI attended the Summer BBQ of the UK APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) this evening, having played in their golf day that afternoon. I spoke with several 'old' friends and was distressed to find that they had been made redundant by their employers in order to 'save money'. "So who is going to produce the proposals and respond to the PQQs, the RFIs, the RFPs and the ITTs then?" I asked. "The sales people" was the answer I heard again and again. Now in my 'logical' world, if a sales person is doing the above they are not out… -
Is your organisation 'sales ready'?
3 Jun 2009 | 1:36 pmSuccessfully 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 is what 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… -
A great sales story... or two in fact!
20 Mar 2009 | 6:42 amYears ago I did some work on bids for Amdahl (manufacturers of IBM look-a-like mainframes) and the now-retired Sales Director (real old school, brilliant guy) told me this story.He went to see the IT Director of a major IBM customer and took an Amdahl mug (the type you drink coffee from stupid!) and offered it to the guy. The guy was not impressed apparently!"I've just saved you £1m" said my friend. "The next time your IBM salesman comes in have that mug on your desk."If you need ask, your're not in sales. The second story concerns Leo Quinn and his time at…
-
SalesBlogcast
-
Prospects Going Into Holiday Mode
18 Nov 2009 | 5:22 pmWe are in mid-November, one week away from Thanksgiving, and it seems like nobody is answering the phone. Decision makers are dragging their feet, going quiet for days, and sometimes weeks at a time. It’s driving us crazy! Right? Here is a list of four things we can do right now to ensure our success... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Selling Like a Rookie
15 Nov 2009 | 7:18 pmPart 1 of 3 for Building a Championship Pipeline: I believe the selling season lasts year round. Thousands of companies need help and will buy your products regardless of the time of year. That said, your industry most likely has an exceptionally busy month or quarter when many new clients buy your services. In effect, you are always working for three time frames... the present month, the quarter, and the “busy season.” It is during these periods when the strength of your pipeline is revealed! [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
What Great Managers Say and Do
11 Nov 2009 | 5:53 pmReader Q&A: Great sales managers have a knack for inspiring and driving sales teams to achieve top performance. These managers seem to always say and do the right things. What great things do managers do to inspire and motivate you? What things do managers do that demotivate you? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Half Rubbish Half Brilliant!
8 Nov 2009 | 6:48 pmA couple of weeks ago I wrote an article titled, “Stop Selling Like You’re Walking On Egg Shells!” As usual, I received a number of great comments from readers. Among those comments came one in particular that really stood out. It said, “Half of what you say is complete rubbish and half is brilliant. I’ll leave it at that.” -Steve You may think I’m crazy but, I’ve been smiling about this comment for weeks. In one short sentence, Steve captured everything that I want my blog to be! Of course I want readers to love everything I say, but I also want to write things that make… -
33 Outrageous Things Managers Say About Employees!
4 Nov 2009 | 5:27 pmI received this list in my email the other day and busted out laughing with each comment I read. I guess it’s funny as long as my manager isn’t saying these things about me. I knew immediately that I had to share it with all of my readers! Surely these comments didn’t really come from actual performance reviews… at least you would hope not. What outrageous comments have you heard managers say about employees? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
-
Jeb's Blog
-
International MBA Sales Competition – Advancing Sales As a Profession
31 Oct 2009 | 1:59 pmThis weekend I was a judge at the International MBA Sales Competition on the campus of MIT in Cambridge, MA. Students from top business schools including Harvard, MIT, Wharton, Tuck, Kellogg, Stanford and even London Business School competed for top prizes sponsored by Google, Gallup, SAP and SalesGravy.com. Acting as a buyer I spent the day listening to and judging the sales skills of individuals and teams who, working through complex sales cases, sold me on their solutions. Just like the real world of sales competitors were forced to deal with difficult questions, unpredictable outcomes,… -
10 Keys To Hiring Top Salespeople
10 Oct 2009 | 4:43 amby Jeb Blount Listen to the audio version of this article We received this email from, Jen, a small business owner, “I am a freelance web designer and have been considering working with someone who can take over the sales duties so that I can concentrate on designing. What resources should I utilize to find someone to work with and what questions should I ask to make sure I find the best match for my type of work? Thanks in advance and love the show!” Jen, I know this is not what you want to hear but I have to tell you the truth, recruiting, hiring, training, managing, and retaining a… -
Do You Take Your Customers’ Breath Away?
23 Aug 2009 | 1:37 pmby Jeb Blount Listen To This Article Free on iTunes What happens when your customers become DEVOTED customers vs. loyal or happy customers? This question is answered in a new book by Chip R. Bell and John Patterson. These two guys know something about customer relationships. Between the two of them they have written a whopping 18 books. If you are in sales their new book Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers should be on your reading list. The book takes a fresh approach to interacting with customers and is designed to… -
Salespeople, Take A Stand On Healthcare Reform
12 Aug 2009 | 7:12 pmOur mission at SalesGravy.com is advancing sales as a profession. We focus on providing resources that help sales professionals increase sales and improve their careers as well as resources for sales managers and leaders. Today SalesGravy.com reaches more Sales Professionals and Sales Leaders than any other website on the internet. We’ve built our audience by staying steadfastly focused on our mission. However, for the first time in our history we are taking on another issue – Healthcare reform in the United States. In our opinion the pending healthcare bill being debated in the… -
Are Your Sales Job Ads Choking Your Recruiting Efforts?
21 Jul 2009 | 8:55 amby Jeb Blount I often speak to recruiters and employers who are frustrated that they are not getting enough hits and/or applications from their sales job posts. I understand their frustration. It is dissapointing to go to the effort of posting a sales job advertisment and not get the results you were expecting. So this week I have a few tips that will help you improve your response rates on www.SalesGravy.com: 1) City, State, Zip Code: Many recruiters post jobs and either leave the city and zip code empty or put words like “any” or “nationwide” or…
-
Sales Dodo
-
The Sales Management Minute Launches!
18 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pmThese are 60 second podcasts focused on sales management issues… Below are links to some of the shows. Get Rid of Your Customers Now! Developing the Profile of Your Ideal Sales Person Never Let Your Sales People Cold Call Dealing With A Sales Rep Who Needs Help, But Doesn’t Want It There Are No Great Sales People Enjoy these? Grab the RSS-feed and receive new shows as they are posted. convert this post to pdf.Social Bookmarking: -
LinkedIn Is a Waste Of a Sales Person’s Time!
6 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pmI continue to be amazed at the number of sales people who feel that LinkedIn doesn’t provide any value to them. Yet, these same people spend countless hours on Facebook telling people what they ate for breakfast, are leaving for work, or entering YouTube links. How is that a benefit to your bank account? My feelings about LinkedIn are not theoretical and I’m not a paid advertiser of it. I am a beneficiary of this social media/marketing platform. I’ve personally used LinkedIn to build two businesses with this website as the primary lead source. Just last week, I was speaking… -
The Two Most Powerful Words That Will Make You Sell More
3 Oct 2009 | 10:19 amSales people are searching for the secrets to selling success…These two words are the drivers that will take their income to a new level So, the title pulled you in because you think that someone has found a new formula for water…that there are two words that you can say that will skyrocket your revenue and commissions. The title referred to these words as “powerful” so they must be new, since you haven’t heard them before. Perhaps, these words are a deceptive trick that hypnotizes prospects into pulling out their credit card to buy from you. Well, these two words are… -
Building Your Sales Metric Management System In 4 Easy Steps
8 Sep 2009 | 7:22 amEvery sales manager is searching for revenue from their salesforce, but the recipe to achieving the revenue target comes from the development of their unique sales metric management system. Thinking back to one of the great cult films of the 1980s…Caddyshack. There is a conversation between Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) and Judge Smails (Ted Knight) in the locker room after Ty has just finished a round of golf. Judge Smails asks Ty what he shot that day and Ty responds by telling the Judge that he doesn’t keep score. Puzzled, Judge Smails says, “How do you measure yourself with other… -
Robotic Selling
7 Jul 2009 | 6:27 amThe sales process you are defining to grow your business may be the very thing that is keeping your sales team from selling. As the economy has made sales competition fierce, companies have heavily focused on the sales process. Many, for the first time, are clearly defining all of the critical steps for their sales team. Some are even taking this to the level of providing detailed scripts that are to be followed to the letter by every sales rep. It’s as if they are taking all of the thought out of selling so it’s like the robotic arms on assembly lines. Every time a sales…
-
Sales Loudmouth
-
S.W.E.A.T
3 Nov 2009 | 6:50 pmThe room pulsed with the energy of the forty-person sales force - gathered to meet the new sales manager. Jody found a seat in the back corner where she could both observe and fail to be observed. -
Redefining Failure
27 Oct 2009 | 6:32 pm"As long as a person accomplishes some of their goals along the way I'm willing to give them an unlimited number of failures without labeling them a failure" I explained. -
Establish "Finish Lines"
26 Oct 2009 | 2:17 pmJust as its appropriate to create deadlines for prospects and clients where natural deadlines may not exist, it is also appropriate and effective to create finish lines for sellers. -
Human Behavior Responds to Deadlines
14 Oct 2009 | 7:14 pmDick often used a question as a way to get into a topic. The correct answer was always a polite 'no' because then he could launch into a monologue. His monologue would include a story and an example and then a call to action. Lesson absorbed, I would head out to conquer the world of radio advertising sales. -
Imperfect and Forgiven
25 Sep 2009 | 11:59 amAlthough I should have been listening to the message in the readings, I was obsessed with the noise and the absurdity of trying to worship in such a setting. "No wonder," I thought, "that people aren't excited about what is going on with the Catholic church."
-
EyesOnSales.com
-
Create a ‘No Excuses’ Sales Environment
19 Nov 2009 | 10:15 amWhat is your company’s sales culture or environment? Can it easily be articulated consistently across your organization? read this article and assess how your sales enviroment measures up. -
Selling to Customers with Their Own Agenda
19 Nov 2009 | 7:43 amYour customers have done their "due diligence" and already determined their selection criteria. They're satisfied they have all the information they need to make a sound decision. Now they're just checking with suppliers to find which ones meet their needs at the lowest price point. They may even be comparing your company against a preferred vendor who has worked with them for months. So what's a seller to do? Here are a couple suggestions. -
Setting Goals that You Can Achieve
19 Nov 2009 | 6:43 amIn this clip, Dan Lappin, from Caskey Achievement Strategies, is one of Dan's sales training sessions with a client. This has a lot of helpful information for sales people of all levels and fields of work. -
Sales Process - What Have You Gotten Away From?
12 Nov 2009 | 8:23 amFollowing a sales process is a practice sales teams should follow during each deal. In this article, Dave Kurlan reinforces how easy it is to get away from the fundamental processes, strategies and tactics that impact sales efficiency. -
Fire A Bad Client?
10 Nov 2009 | 10:56 amDo you know what makes a good customer for your company? On the other hand, you know how to identify bad customers, too. You can't focus on the customers that are winners until you shed the losers. To be more productive, I challenge you to fire your bad clients!
-
As Was Marketing Hall Of Fame
-
Dove and Walmart Remind You You're Ugly
29 Oct 2009 | 7:47 amDo you get these commercials where you live? A bunch of women are signing a song to the tune of "Do Your Ears Hang Low" (not sure what that's really the tune of), and they are going through a litany of physical characteristics that women traditionally may not like about themselves?The words to this car wreck seem to be:Do your eyes sit wide Does your nose turn to the side Do your elbows kind of crinkle Do your knees sort of wrinkle Does your chest tend to freckle Do you have a crooked smile Do your eyes sit wide Do your ears sort of wiggle Does your hair make you giggle Does… -
I'm Moving Back to Tucson
26 Oct 2009 | 5:00 amYeah, I'm moving back to Tucson. Say what? What's with Deb moving around so much? Well, first of all, I can. I own my businesses, I work for me, I work from home, and I'm single with a dog and cat. The cat is really cool about the car, and the dog knows, "New house." That means no kids to pull out of school or away from friends. So I can live wherever I like, whenever I like, and why not. Do it while you can, I say.All my phone numbers will still work... no matter what area code and number you're dialing, it'll ring at my desk.In March 2005, I finally escaped… -
How Your Wish Your Staff Operated
25 Oct 2009 | 7:50 amI went into a local Greek place last week to order lunch to take home. It was after the lunch rush. Two tables had patrons, there was nobody behind the counter, and I didn't see a waitress.I walked up to the counter, and a girl offered to take my order. I gave her my order. She got a guy out from the back, and had him put the order in. I then noticed she didn't have an apron or anything, and asked if she really worked there. She said yes, but her shift just ended.So she could have let me wait. Or she could have asked somebody to come deal with me. But she took my order. I found out… -
Do NOT Bank with Citizens RSB Bank
15 Oct 2009 | 11:09 amI have never had such a horrible experience, and want to make sure everybody knows what horrible fraud and ineptitude goes on at Citizens Bank.I moved away from where Citizens has branches, and have been trying to close my account. I called in mid-Sept asking them to close my account. They said they couldn't until I brought the balance to zero. That turned out to not be true (as in not the only way to close my account), but that's what I was told. I told them to please close the account and cancel my debit card so that if I bring things down to zero, no vendor who might have my card… -
When a Customer Goes From Awkward to Abusive
4 Oct 2009 | 4:38 pmWhen you sign onto inkFrog, you get some automatic emails during your trial. You get a welcome message from me. You get "your trial is going to expire" and "your trial expired" which still come from the CEO. But if you hit reply to any of these emails, they right now go to me. I help everybody I can. I don't have all the answers, but I do my best. I got an email last week from a guy who was throwing around swear words, and complaining that nobody is responding to his emails. Well, I haven't seen an email from this guy, and now he's asking for the…
-
Sales Training - SalesPractice.com
-
Familiar Resources: Who do we know that does that?
20 Nov 2009 | 9:50 pmI wonder... when you, me or anybody is considering setting out in search of a product/service to satisfy a want/need how often the question, "Who do we know that sells/does that?" comes up? Would you say that question comes up often? If you believe the question does come up often do you believe there is anything you can do as a source/provider to align with that behavior pattern? -
I need help in tele sales.
20 Nov 2009 | 10:24 amI work in an equity research company.Our company recommends 1 equity stock to our customers per month.The subscription runs for 1 year.Our mode of selling is through telecalling people.My problem is that people ask for free trial before buying.How to deal with these customers as our company dosen;t allow a free trial.The reason being that our stock investment is for long term so giving a free tria -
Get Hold Of Your Time By Following The Best Time Management Tips
20 Nov 2009 | 7:09 amIn this new age and day, everybody is trying to be more organized. Reason is we sometimes act lazily due to which we are unable to manage our time in a proper way. But we all need to realize about the importance of time management so that we can successfully achieve our goals and objectives of life. You should also read articles on current affairs. Enhance your knowledge as much as you can so that -
Independant Sales Rep, does it pay?
20 Nov 2009 | 12:33 amI have over 20 years experience in packaging sales & promotional merchandise sales. Now I am in my last 30's I am seriously thinking of becoming a self employed sales person. (due to redundancy) I am thinking of becoming a sales agent for a number of suppliers. This way of working tends to work in the states, but not so much here in the UK? Any thoughts, comments, etc? -
Confused by Qualification Strategy - When do You Give Price?
19 Nov 2009 | 8:20 amHi, This is my first post here. I have been studying some of the material from Hopkins and Sandler and I'm a tad confused now. I understand you need to qualify before you present. But it appears from my Hopkins and Sandler CDs that you introduce the actual price upfront during the qualification process - before the presentation. Is this right? If you introduce the price before the presentat
-
The Accidental Negotiator
-
Real World Sales Negotiations: Clear Channel Takes It To The Brink
16 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmImage Credit Clear Channel Needed Money And It Was Going To Have To Negotiate To Get It It’s all too easy to get caught up in the theory of negotiating and sometimes we forget to take the time to look around us and see other deals that are being made – and learn from them. If we needed a recent deal to teach us a lesson, the $20 billion dollar Clear Channel private equity buy-out would be a good example – because it almost didn’t happen! The Background Of The Clear Channel Deal Once upon a time Clear Channel was a high-flying communications company (in the 1990’s). Their stock… -
10 Ways To Quickly Boost Your Power In ANY Negotiation
9 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmImage Credit In A Negotiation, Power Is What We All Want To Have The Most Of... At the end of the day, negotiating is all about power , who has it, who wants it, and what to do with it. You can read every book out there, you can attend every training class offered, you can even do your own field research, but ultimately what you will be trying to find out is how you can boost your power when you are in a negotiation. I’ve got some great news for you , you don’t have to do all of that reading, attend all of those classes, or even do any field research. I’ve pulled together… -
5 Ways The Great Sales Negotiators Build Super Bargaining Power
2 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmImage Credit How You Dress Can Impact Your Bargaining Power... Having some bargaining power when you are involved in a sales negotiation is a good thing. Have super bargaining power is much, much better. Most of us do a few things to prepare for a negotiating session, but are we doing enough? The answer in most cases is no. Let me tell you what you can do to fix this… The following tips for how to gain more power for your side of the table during a negotiation come from the professional negotiators who do this for a full time living and who have been doing it for many years. Read on and… -
How To Play (& Win) When There’s Only One Game In Town
26 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pmImage CreditSole-Source Suppliers Pose A Special Problem For Negotiators Having a single supplier for something that you want is the best thing in the world. “What?” you say, they’ve got me over a barrel , they can dictate any price or any conditions on a deal that they want because I have no other alternative. Well, ok, that’s one way to look at it if you want to be all negative and such. However, there’s a different way to see things and when you look at the situation this way you’ll see that it’s you who has them over a barrel. Let me explain. -
How To Win A Race When You’re Not The Fastest Runner
19 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pmPhoto CreditYou Can Still Win The Race Even When There Are Other Runners... Sales negotiators are often our own worst enemies. So much of what it takes to have a successful negotiation depends on your mental state going into the negotiation that if you don’t believe that you can close this deal, then I’ve got some bad news for you – you probably won’t. One situation that my students seem to struggle with over and over again is the case where it’s them and a whole bunch of other companies all trying to get the same deal. The other companies appear to be prettier,…
-
SalesMarks.com» Sales Tips & Motivational Sales Articles, Motivational Sales Quotes and Free Sales Resources
-
Interview Questions for Sales Candidates and Hiring Managers
18 Nov 2009 | 12:59 pmWhether you’re looking for a new sales position or a hiring sales manager, looking for your perfect sales candidate – this resource is for you! Built from the ground up, we’ve compiled this multi-page PDF file with sales interview questions. -
6 Ways to More Sales Appointments E-Booklet
18 Nov 2009 | 10:04 amIn professional selling, one can make a case that any phase of the sales cycle is key to success. Where would you be without solid presentations skills. Or the ability to close a deal – or the ability to generate a solid stream or referrals. It would be hard to argue, however, that for the vast majority, nothing happens without appointments. That's why we created an e-booklet called "6 Ways to Get More Sales Appointments" and you can download it right away. -
It’s Time to Sharpen Your Tech Skills In Sales
18 Nov 2009 | 4:54 amSeth Godin asked a great series of questions recently on meeting the minimum requirements for getting things done with technology. You can let a simple computer task or Web search take a few moments or several hours, it's your call. But if your business has tightened up at all with the current economic climate, it's time to sharpen your tech skills to win you even more time in front of clients, and less time tapping on a computer. -
Start Scanning Those Business Cards and Start Using What’s on Them
17 Nov 2009 | 8:35 pmFun idea over at Green Leads. Send a maximum of 100 business cards their way and they'll return them in spreadsheet format, ready for import into Outlook or whatever contact management system you happen to use. We have some recommendations for a long term solution as well. -
When Contact Management or CRM is Not the Solution
17 Nov 2009 | 10:19 amI’ve often said that business owners and sales managers that go looking for contact management and sales automation solutions for the first time are having a knee-jerk reaction to a fundamental sales problem. Something's going wrong with sales - its not growing fast enough, large clients are leaving, they’re having trouble hiring and training new reps, etc. So one instinctive reaction to these types of problems is to look for more information. That’s where contact management and sales automation comes in. But those sales tools by themselves won't fix the real and more fundamental…
-
Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog
-
What makes a great Inside Sales Manager? Ask Pete Tarbox!
15 Nov 2009 | 6:26 pmThis week, I've had a significant amount of commentary on a number of posts I've written on what makes a superior sales manager. There's been a bunch of traffic on my posts entitled 5 Great Sales Demotivators: Decrease sales by following these practices, and Increase sales by conducting an effective Telesales Employee Performance Appraisal, among others. Earlier this week, Pete Tarbox weighed in on what he feels are traits that are critical in being a successful inside sales manager. Pete's been around long enough to have seen a lot, and I profiled his techniques for selling to the Defense… -
5 Personality Traits of a Superior Inside Sales Person
8 Nov 2009 | 5:15 pmThe most popular blog article I've ever written is 20 Characteristics of a Superior Inside Salesperson. In that post, I primarily covered activities and behaviors that most successful inside sales people have, relating to prospect/customer interaction, and interaction with the people with whom they work. What I didn't address were the personality traits of a superior salesperson. When I'm asked what personality characteristics make a good telesales person, I'm always a little leery of spilling the beans. There are companies that make a lot of money "testing" job hunters to see if they… -
How do I get my PO in faster?
1 Nov 2009 | 5:15 pmIn addition to writing my weekly blog posts on telesales training topics, I monitor a few other blogs in which sales questions arise. A few weeks ago, the following question popped up about getting POs in faster. We're closing in on year-end now, so I think it's topical to repeat the question in today's post, as well as my answer. Have a look: Question: What methods do you use to put a time limit on a quote without exposing yourself to pressure? Let's say it is two weeks before the end of the quarter. You want to get a sale before the end of the quarter. What methods do you find… -
Price Negotiation and sticker shock: why sometimes even the experts fail
25 Oct 2009 | 6:20 pmI don't care how smart or seasoned a sales exec --- or sales trainer --- is, sometimes he or she will fail to bring in a big deal. Today, it's true confession time. I'm going to tell you about a deal I lost this year, then tell you a question I could have asked that might have saved it for me. I don't want you to lose the deal like I did, so listen up! First, a little background. My sales training company has had another great year this year. We're unique, totally customized, and my customers will tell you I'm the hardest working classroom trainer in the biz. We don't have trouble convincing… -
Job interview ripoff: Here’s how you can get free consulting by making your candidates work for nothing!
18 Oct 2009 | 6:30 pmGot your attention? If you're a telesales rep or manager, and you're looking for work, I want to expose a couple of scams that have the end result of putting you to work making a profit for the company that's interviewing you, while you get paid nothing. Today's blog post is the result of an email I got from Alan, a very good rep that took one of my telesales courses a while back. Alan wrote: I have a question for you. I received an e-mail from an old colleague who is looking for a job and got an odd request from a company he is applying to. In summary, here is the e-mail, "The interview…
-
Construction Sales Blog
-
The Competitive Advantage Newsletter: Keep Yourself Informed
16 Nov 2009 | 1:51 pmFrom this month's Competitive Advantage newsletter: I will be delivering an afternoon seminar Marketing Building Products into a Sustainable Market on 24th November at the Building Centre in London. It's good value at only £95 and reviews the drivers for sustainability, the key decision makers and proposes a strategy to maximise the benefit from this opportunity, suggesting ways that you can add value and position your company to get maximum benefit. Don't forget the CIMCIG Construction Marketing Conference - Strategy 2010 being held at the Building Centre on 2nd December. This key… -
The Competitive Advantage Newsletter: Help Communicating with Specifiers
19 Oct 2009 | 11:04 amFrom this month's Competitive Advantage newsletter: Please talk to me Mr Specifier In the last few weeks I've spoken at a couple of events focused on marketing to specifiers and it has reinforced how very hard it is to communicate with this important group of customers. At "Marketing to Architects" we heard two architects and a sustainability consultant tell us just how busy they were and explain that when selecting products they tend to use what's worked before. They also said that in D&B the Contractor's role is increasing, with the Architect becoming more of a collaborator. -
The Competitive Advantage Newsletter: Grasping the Opportunity
16 Sep 2009 | 10:37 amFrom this month's Competitive Advantage newsletter: Some signs of hope have come through during the month, with a report that the commercial real estate market has bottomed out and the CIPS survey stating the rate of decline is slowing. There have also been further releases of funding into the public residential sector (see below). To help you get a fix on where the market is, the government has published its latest edition of construction statistics, covering 2008. Finally I have listed some development events to help ensure your teams marketing and sales skill are sharpened. In This Issue… -
The Competitive Advantage Newsletter: Start Planning for the Autumn
7 Aug 2009 | 3:17 amFrom this month's Competitive Advantage newsletter: Development Events Here are a series of full day, half day and evening events which can ensure you and your colleagues are up to date with latest industry developments. Construction industry overview http://www.cadvantage.co.uk/Overview.htmCompetitive Advantage in collaboration with the Building Centre9th September 2009 Full day at The Building Centre, LondonThe inter-relationships and drivers that make up the construction industry are extremely complex. This course is designed for those new to the construction industry. Providing an… -
The Competitive Advantage Newsletter: Some Market Opportunities
20 Jul 2009 | 9:23 amFrom this month's Competitive Advantage newsletter: How are you finding the market? Feedback from Competitive Advantage's clients suggests that the situation is now stabilising, and this in turn is allowing companies' planning to become a little more medium to long term. I'm pleased to say that our level of enquiries have increased with companies committing to training and market research projects for the last half of 2009. If you have a requirement please contact us, we can suggest a number of approaches to help keep costs to a minimum. Some sectors of the construction market may have also…
-
Sales Training Blog
-
Three free sales training sessions on selling thorugh the recession
19 Nov 2009 | 6:02 amRobin Carey, CEO of Social Media Today, introduces the three 30 minute training sessions. Each session is anchored by a content expert: Jill Konrath talks customer loyalty, Richard Nacht on social media in sales, and I talk about selling through the recession. The program was produced by The Customer Collective, a social media community managed by Social Media Today. The program was sponsored by Oracle Corporation. Here Robin Carey introduces just my session: All the sessions are FREE with registration. Register HERE -
Start your next sales presentation with a story not a joke
23 Jul 2009 | 3:28 pmFor those of us making persuasivepresentations, there is nothing funny about the cliché that says you should start every presentation with a joke. Stories, both funny and serious, are the way to begin a persuasive presentation because they engage an audience and invite an empathetic response. When you tell a story about the most embarrassing moment in your life, audience members either start thinking about a similar event in their lives or imagine being put into your story’s situation. I'm not telling you to avoid jokes, humor is one of the most powerful persuasive tools a presenter… -
A dating game presentation w/Steve Jobs and Bill Gates!
19 Jul 2009 | 12:09 pmNow that Steve Jobs is back at Apple I look forward to seeing the master presenter back in action. Looking back, it's fun to see Jobs using a tried and true presentation approach many salespeople use when their content is not enough to hold an audiences attention of pouring your content into the format of a popular TV game show. These days Jeopardy! is a favorite. Here is a great video clip from 1983 where we see a young Jobs as the host of "The Dating Game" with a young Bill Gates as a contestant! -
Jobs vs Gates. How Jobs puts his idea in your mind, not just the screen
16 Jul 2009 | 5:30 amThere's a great post contrasting the graphic presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steven Jobs on thePresentation Zen blog. Blogger Garr Reynolds roots for Jobs' use of minimal graphics over Gates' slides with more complex information. While the graphic contrast is striking, I'd like to add a bit about how the content strategy is very different. Jobs uses his slides in a sequence to involve his audience. Take the challenge of selling a new idea that emerges when three or four elements combine. The common approach that Bill Gates (as well as 90% of presenters I have seen) is using above is to… -
An advertising revalation
28 Jun 2009 | 6:17 amI've been blogging about marketing and advertising for years but just had a revalation...advertising is more fun when it is for a product you are personally involved with! So it is with the White Paper, "The Coming Change in Social Media Business" which I researched and wrote for Social Media Today. The White Paper sponsor, NeuStar, liked the project enough to also sponsor an ad campaign to get the word out. Included are ads on LinkedIn and Facebook, the Lucid Mediaand Federated Media ad networks, as well as ads on the Smart Brief, IT Toolbox, and LifeHacker.com web sites.
-
The LEADSExplorer Blog: Lead generation - Website visitors - CRM - B2B
-
The 7 benefits of asking to understand your customer
20 Nov 2009 | 11:32 amDid you or do you understand the problem of the customer that he just explained? Most people (even in Sales) don’t listen or just hear half of the story or the problem. As soon as they see or recognize a pattern, a recognizable event or an indication they have seen before, they jump on conclusions and start their sales pitch. Ask, listen and learn about the problem So did you understand fully the problem of the customer ? No: Then shut up and start asking questions. Listen to what he has to say or how he describes the problem. Maybe you will understand and can offer him help. Yes: Then… -
Your content marketing will not take off immediately: Houston we have a problem
18 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pmPR or Press releases used to be the main non-advertising method of sending out a marketing message: A controlled one-way communication. Content marketing or attraction marketing works as a two-way communication: - You publish content for free and hope that people find it - You hope that they will like it enough to forward, repeat or refer your content - In the best case they might even communicate back to you and give you insights on how you can refine your content Jep Castelijn of LeadSloth clearly explains the differences using diagrams between the Old and New situation. If content… -
The ruleless Word Of Mouth can be off- and online
16 Nov 2009 | 10:08 amIn Brains on Fire Spike Jones claims that “Remember, 90% of word of mouth happens OFFLINE” However as there are both: - Word of mouth offline - Word of mouth online Word Of Mouth can be initiated or ignited by messages or events offline and online. Once the fire started it can spread both online and offline. The real stories are not solely created offline or online as many stories can be online or offline and both can even exist side-by-side. The medium used to spread is decided by the public, not by the creators, the originators or the starters. The ignition and spreading of Word Of… -
Consultants are the best marketing and salesmen
14 Nov 2009 | 10:18 amMarket research: jumping on the hype Whenever a new hype emerges, consultants pop up like mushrooms, portraying themselves as specialists. Although hardly anybody has any experience with the new media, consultants claim they have the key to unlock its secrets. The truth is these consultants: - Happened to get involved into a project that was dealing with these new matters. - Have spoken at a number of events and written some articles and blog-posts. - Accidentally became successful (at best) Marketing: Their main asset is to sell the right stuff on time: when the hype is there and at… -
People and technology get better in blocking out content (ads)
12 Nov 2009 | 9:19 amInterruptive marketing gets blocked Technology gets ever better in blocking out content that we don’t want: - TV recorders jump the commercial breaks - Spam filters filter out spam messages - Browsers have plug-ins that filter out ads People also get better in filtering out messages we don’t want to see: - People zap commercial breaks - People scan over or ignore a online advertising - People don’t click on online advertising - People don’t open email marketing messages Thus a large part of advertising money is being spent without any influence or without influencing the target market…
-
The Sales Edge
-
Some quick ideas to jump-start your day
18 Nov 2009 | 8:35 am -
Here's An Idea To Help You Make Your First Quarter Budget
2 Nov 2009 | 11:53 pmTags: Management | Planning -
Want To Have a Good January?
28 Oct 2009 | 2:11 amTags: Management | Planning -
How the recession has impacted consumer thinking in two key categories
27 Oct 2009 | 3:01 amTags: Consumer DNA | Industry Trends | News You Can Use -
It's a Win/Win/Win/Win story!
26 Oct 2009 | 10:20 amTags: Motivation | Success Stories
-
Good Selling
-
Cold Calls Can be Fun
7 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pmYes, cold calls can be fun especially when it is your only way to start your business or your new role. The key I have found is to practice and get comfortable and then practice some more. This past week I reached a comfort level with my cold calls and actually enjoyed them! On to the [...] -
How to Lower Stress in Sales
7 Nov 2009 | 1:29 pmBy Dave Mattson, Sandler Training The rotten economy, if you haven’t noticed, may be taking a toll on your health. “Today’s economy is stressing people out, and stress has been linked to a number of illnesses—such as heart disease, high blood pressure and increased risk for cancer,” according to a new study in the July 15 issue of the [...] -
Reel in Your Leads
1 Nov 2009 | 9:50 amYour current leads are either highly attracted to your product lure or have already biten into it and are hooked. It’s up to you to reel them in now. What many sales pros don’t realize is that it may take up to 12 winds of your messaging apparatus to bring them to the boat. While [...] -
How Sales Professionals Are Like Shrinks
30 Oct 2009 | 6:27 amBy Dave Mattson, Sandler Training We don’t ordinarily think of sales as one of the “helping professions,” but maybe we should. People tell their problems to psychologists and clergymen. They pour out their hearts to their neighborhood bartender. The characteristic all of these examples have in common is that the focus is on the person speaking. But they also [...] -
Believe in Sales Training?
24 Oct 2009 | 6:19 pmBelieve in sales training? You should. Today's business environment has completely stripped the 'easy' sales that have come to you and your team. You are now facing a new world, a new marketplace that requires you have a fundamentally sound sales process.
-
Sales Training Tips and Advice
-
6 Ways To Increase Your Referrals and Make More Sales By Colleen Francis
19 Nov 2009 | 6:12 am"Colleen - how can I get more referrals?"This is the most common question I get when conducting prospecting workshops. My most common answer is: "What have you done to deserve more referrals?"Referrals are the most powerful tool in any sales person’s arsenal. A referred prospect is much more likely to be ready to listen to you, trust what you say and – ultimately – to buy from you. Referrals make your job easier, and help you sell more with less effort and in less time. What else could any sales person ask for?If you want to increase your referral rate, however, you have to start not by… -
The Law of Advance Planning By Brian Tracy
12 Nov 2009 | 10:09 pmThe best salespeople prepare thoroughly before every call. This principle is so simple that it is often overlooked. The hallmark of the true professional is thorough preparation, reviewing every detail, before every sales meeting. The very best salespeople are those who review their presentations and study the details of their products and their sales materials repeatedly prior to every new sales contact.The Customer's Situation...The salesperson with the best knowledge of the customer's real situation will be the one most likely to make the sale. The more time you take to thoroughly… -
Putting an End to the End-of-Quarter Blues By Colleen Francis
9 Nov 2009 | 3:55 pmSeeing as this is the end of another calendar quarter, I suspect many of you may be feeling what I like to call the "end-of-quarter blues."On the one side, you've got pressure from your manager to close deals now! On the other, you're getting the brush off from clients who want to call you back next month or next quarter instead.Stuck right in the middle? Yup, you guessed it - its lucky old you!The end of a period is a time when your prospects have other fires burning bright. Often, they use those other priorities as an excuse to put buying decisions on hold - especially if you're selling to… -
The Secret of a Sales Manager By Brian Tracy
28 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pmA friend of mine is a very successful sales manager. After he had carefully interviewed and then selected a new salesman, he would take the salesman to a Cadillac dealership and insist that he trade in his old car for a new Cadillac. The salesman would usually balk at the idea. He would be frightened of the cost of the car and huge monthly payments involved. But the sales manager would insist that he buy the Cadillac as a condition of employment. At first, the salesman would feel guilt for buying the car, but within a few days, he would begin to see himself as the kind of person who drove a… -
How To Sell A Pencil -- And Your Product Or Service By Mike Brooks
5 Oct 2009 | 5:20 amIf I gave you a pencil and asked you to sell it, how would you go about it?This is one of the most basic of interview questions for sales reps, and the answer reveals so much about your previous training, your understanding of the sales process, and ultimately about what kind of sales rep you are.So, what is the most effective way to sell a pencil? Well, first let’s look at how most sales reps go about doing it. When I’m interviewing sales reps I love using this technique. After letting a rep tell me how good of a closer they are, I pull out a pencil, hand it to them, and tell them to…
-
Score More Sales
-
Do You Have a Leaky Sales Funnel?
18 Nov 2009 | 4:06 pmAm at Dreamforce in San Francisco for a couple of days – this is the big, mighty gala affair put on by cloud computing darling Salesforce. This is an annual event, and this year there are 19,000 registered attendees. I came to the last one four years ago – so it is much bigger (although it was big then) and there are hundreds of breakout sessions. As I wrote at AllBusiness, I am focusing just on two main things while here – SMALL business (and med. sized business) solutions as well as anything innovative and amazing. Quotes are a big takeaway – like today when i heard… -
Content Is King… To Grow Revenues
13 Nov 2009 | 11:27 am“Make every online interaction count,” says marketing expert Ardath Albee – author of the new E-Marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale. So how many of us are doing that, I ask, (with nervous laughter) – I certainly know I’ve left money on the table from poorly articulated concepts on my websites – lack of next steps, and general confusion over the years. Albee’s book shows you how to: Build a foundation for eMarketing strategies based on buyer perspectives. Use a buyer synopsis to develop personalized content. Transform prospect engagement with… -
Know a GREAT Sales Professional? Contest!
9 Nov 2009 | 7:07 pmSales superstars close more deals and ramp up business for their companies. Do you know one? See what two of my favorite websites are doing for sales pros: AllBusiness and Top Sales Experts want to honor the top-performing salespeople who deliver results in today’s competitive market. You can help make that happen. We need your nomination I am honored to be a member of the panel of top sales coaches and experts who will select one salesperson each month from among the nominees. Monthly winners will: n Be recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions n Be… -
Learn to Sell… Start With the Basics
5 Nov 2009 | 8:23 amSince I’m speaking about sales basics today with some students and new entrepreneurs, I’m thinking about how complex we make things – like our sales process – like explaining what we do to prospects – like our follow up plan (or no plan?) and all the distractions that come with growing a business or a territory. Keep it simple – keep your focus, and keep track of what you commit to, and what you say you’ll do. Get next actions with prospects -and listen to what they really want and need. If you do just those things….. you will grow your… -
Keeping Your Focus in Growing Revenues
4 Nov 2009 | 7:56 amIt is a challenge to stay clear – and focused – especially as an entrepreneur or a salesperson in your territory. How to do it? My quick take: Write your goals down. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Let others know what you are working on – they will help you get there. Make time to reflect – it is the only way you can get out of what you are working on for new perspective. Check in with yourself on Monday – go through your week, and on Friday, have a little sit-down with yourself and review what you accomplished, and whether you stayed on…
-
The Sales Blog
-
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 25 – Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.
20 Nov 2009 | 4:25 amFight the enemies strategy, not his forces. At this stage, if things are proceeding well, your competitors will go over to the offensive. Yes, the offensive – because you have created a situation so dangerous to your competitors, by threatening to displace them from the environment, they have to attack you to get back into the game. Thus it is normal, even in the most successful sales campaigns, to have spikes of offensive competitor activity late in the campaign. This does not mean you have done something wrong (though it may: it depends on whether you have successfully mobilized the… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 24 – Small is beautiful
19 Nov 2009 | 4:15 amSmall is beautiful. Another natural tendency is to go for large-scale, mass programs. In particular, we have a tendency to template ideas that succeed in on area and transplant them to another, and we tend to take small programs that work and try to replicate them on a larger scale. Again, this is usually a mistake – often programs succeed because of specific local conditions of which we are unaware, or because their very smallness kept them below the enemy’s radar and help them flourish unmolested. At the company-level, programs that succeed in one territory often also succeed in… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 23 – Practice armed civil affairs
19 Nov 2009 | 4:01 amPractice armed civil affairs. You must restructure the prospect or client’s environment to displace your competitor from it. You must focus first on meeting basic needs, improving the problems that you were hired to fix, then progressing up towards more value creation as each successive need is met. Surveys and personal interviews with contacts at all levels, regularly executed and maintained, are an invaluable tool for understanding needs and tracking progress in meeting those needs over time. You need cooperation from all areas of your client’s team, as well as your own. You… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 22 – Local forces should mirror the enemy, not ourselves.
19 Nov 2009 | 3:50 amLocal forces should mirror the enemy, not ourselves. By this stage you will be working closely with the prospects and clients in your territory, training them or supporting them, and building their capability to achieve the promised results that allowed you win their business. The natural tendency is to build forces in our own image, with the aim of eventually handing our role over to them. This is a mistake. In order to lock out competitors, it isn’t enough that we deliver the promise results that gained the business. Instead, we have build in the results that a competitor might also… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 21 – Exploit a “single narrative”
18 Nov 2009 | 3:43 amExploit a single narrative. Since sales is a competition to mobilize support, it pays to know how people are mobilized. In most companies, there are opinion-makers who set trends and influence perception. Your competitor has a single narrative, a simple, unifying, easily-expressed story or explanation that organizes people’s experience and provides a framework for understanding. To undercut their influence you must exploit an alternative narrative: or better yet, tap into an existing narrative that excludes your competitors. This narrative is often worked for you by higher headquarters…
-
Drew Stevens Consulting
-
Dr. Drew’s Sales Tip of the Day
20 Nov 2009 | 6:50 amAs I completed one of my annual readings, I was reminded of the need develop bonds with those of influence. “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill speaks of the power of the mastermind and the need to have strong alliances that aid business success. As I completed this it reminded me of a recurring issue in selling- networking. Selling professionals and successful entrepreneurs are not isolated. Review any successful person and numerous others always surround them. They do not live in a vacuum and understand the need for constant connectivity to assist them in building their respective… -
Dr. Drew’s Thursday Sales Rant
19 Nov 2009 | 6:22 amIt is the age of information and knowledge, but it is ironic how lazy many have become. Each day I am amazed over the emails, newsgroups and other electronic media requesting innovative methods to sell. Folks if you or others like you are not making your numbers and seek answers to your selling woes look within! If you seek The Secret, here it is… there isn’t any. There are four issues prevalent in today’s society: Selling is a relationship business. And, your relationships should be with buyers not gatekeepers. I suggest a quick review of your address book and CRM system. As they say… -
Dr. Drew’s Sales Rant
18 Nov 2009 | 8:55 amI am amazed by the sincere lack of customer service lately. A recent conversation with a peer seemed to feel that customer expectations are higher and stress is increased due to the recession. I believe this a rote excuse for laziness and resentment. I simply tire of those that will not engage the customer and customer that believe they are the privileged few. From the customer perspective, perhaps it is time for some organizations to realize that their entire mission in life is to attract and retain clients. I always love walking into a physician’s office only to be greeting by the glazed… -
Dr. Drew’s Tuesday Sales Tip
17 Nov 2009 | 12:51 pmQuote of the Day A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done. – Vince Lombardi Thought for the Day At one point in my life I was moderately overweight, not very athletic and lacked much self-esteem. In high school I was an introvert and never socialized. It took some deliberation for me to find a hobby in track and field. I was not very good at first but… -
Dr. Drew’s Motivational Monday
16 Nov 2009 | 8:40 amQuote of the Week “We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Thought for the Week As the year winds down, there is a tendency for frustration and fatigue. The effects of the economy and poor attitudes are enough to bring the motivated to their knees. The important thought is to be as motivated to wrap-up the year as you were to begin. Each day is a gift from above and each day provides new opportunities for growth. You can use these opportunities as seeds for the future or continue to wallow in frustration. Best Practices…
-
The Sales Blog
-
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 25 – Fight the enemy’s strategy, not his forces.
20 Nov 2009 | 4:25 amFight the enemies strategy, not his forces. At this stage, if things are proceeding well, your competitors will go over to the offensive. Yes, the offensive – because you have created a situation so dangerous to your competitors, by threatening to displace them from the environment, they have to attack you to get back into the game. Thus it is normal, even in the most successful sales campaigns, to have spikes of offensive competitor activity late in the campaign. This does not mean you have done something wrong (though it may: it depends on whether you have successfully mobilized the… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 24 – Small is beautiful
19 Nov 2009 | 4:15 amSmall is beautiful. Another natural tendency is to go for large-scale, mass programs. In particular, we have a tendency to template ideas that succeed in on area and transplant them to another, and we tend to take small programs that work and try to replicate them on a larger scale. Again, this is usually a mistake – often programs succeed because of specific local conditions of which we are unaware, or because their very smallness kept them below the enemy’s radar and help them flourish unmolested. At the company-level, programs that succeed in one territory often also succeed in… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 23 – Practice armed civil affairs
19 Nov 2009 | 4:01 amPractice armed civil affairs. You must restructure the prospect or client’s environment to displace your competitor from it. You must focus first on meeting basic needs, improving the problems that you were hired to fix, then progressing up towards more value creation as each successive need is met. Surveys and personal interviews with contacts at all levels, regularly executed and maintained, are an invaluable tool for understanding needs and tracking progress in meeting those needs over time. You need cooperation from all areas of your client’s team, as well as your own. You… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 22 – Local forces should mirror the enemy, not ourselves.
19 Nov 2009 | 3:50 amLocal forces should mirror the enemy, not ourselves. By this stage you will be working closely with the prospects and clients in your territory, training them or supporting them, and building their capability to achieve the promised results that allowed you win their business. The natural tendency is to build forces in our own image, with the aim of eventually handing our role over to them. This is a mistake. In order to lock out competitors, it isn’t enough that we deliver the promise results that gained the business. Instead, we have build in the results that a competitor might also… -
Twenty Eight Articles for Sales: 21 – Exploit a “single narrative”
18 Nov 2009 | 3:43 amExploit a single narrative. Since sales is a competition to mobilize support, it pays to know how people are mobilized. In most companies, there are opinion-makers who set trends and influence perception. Your competitor has a single narrative, a simple, unifying, easily-expressed story or explanation that organizes people’s experience and provides a framework for understanding. To undercut their influence you must exploit an alternative narrative: or better yet, tap into an existing narrative that excludes your competitors. This narrative is often worked for you by higher headquarters…
-
Cindy King
-
7 Ways To Find Your International Markets
11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmInternational Business Networking Most of the business owners I speak with say they want to develop their international business and then end their sentence with a “but”… and something usually related to “risk“. In digging a little further I find that part of the reason behind this “but” is because they do not know where to start. Although you may have clients from all over the world this does not mean you are in control of an international business. An international business means you know how to adapt what you sell and how you sell it to different cultures. This… -
Opposite Cultural Perceptions
10 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmCulturally Customized Content I‘m collaborating with an American writer to write an ebook. The book will be marketed to an American audience and I have spent all of my life marketing to international audiences. So this represents a fair bit of cultural adaptation on my part. But with my cross-cultural marketing background I find this fascinating. So I thought I’d share one of the first changes I made to adapt my writing to an American audience. 2 Different Perceptions of “Let’s” My American mentor pointed out that I use the words “Let’s…”… -
International Social Media
10 Nov 2009 | 6:18 amSocial Media In International Web Marketing I have a new website – International Social Media. This is where I will publish detailed articles on how to do different aspects of international social media. Here’s The Scoop As you probably know I started a business 2 years ago helping businesses develop their international markets. And my primary clients are not in France where I live. So I use international web marketing and, in particular social media, to identify and engage potential business partners abroad. When I started I didn’t realize how my cross-cultural skills and… -
Looking For Sales Superstars
8 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmInternational Sales Professions This is an opportunity for all of you sales professionals out there. And if you know a sales superstar, please share this link. As you will see below, all nominees get a free six month VIP membership to Top Sales Experts and there are monthly winners and an annual winner. Sales superstars close more deals and ramp up business for their companies. Do you know one? AllBusiness and Top Sales Experts want to honor the top-performing salespeople who deliver results in today’s competitive market. You can help make that happen. We need your nomination The panel of… -
7 Reasons For Different Online Content
5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmInternational Content Creation I just read Denise Wakeman’s 7 Tips to Create Better Blog Posts and realized how my reading habits have changed dramatically over the last few years. I used to always take the time to read meaty articles, but not any more. I now skim through everything I read and within a few seconds decide whether I want to give it another minute or two and a second evaluation, or if I want to stop reading immediately. After the second review, I usually stop reading the article, unless it really grabs my interest. And only then will I take the time to read it properly.
-
Paul Castain's Sales Playbook
-
The Wedding Crashers Guide To Sales Success!
18 Nov 2009 | 9:16 pmA wise man (and an awesome guitar instructor) once told me to find inspiration in everything around me. While I’d like to think of that lesson taking on the form of some Kung Fu flashback, the truth is I remember thinking he must of become “one with a joint” before our lesson. I mean, how does one learn from EVERYTHING around them? It really didn’t take me long to realize he was spot on. In -
50 Ways To Rock Your Journal!
17 Nov 2009 | 8:18 amI remember having a slightly different take away from a famous story about Thomas Edison. You know the one, you’ve heard, ad nauseam, regarding his response to a reporter who asked him about all his failures with trying to figure out the light bulb? Edison’s response was something like “I didn’t fail thousands of times, I simply found thousands of ways, NOT to invent the light bulb”Once we get -
It's not what we get . . . It's who we become!
11 Nov 2009 | 10:13 pmI was pondering a quote by the great Jim Rohn who once said “It’s not what we get, its who we become in the process” and couldn’t help but wonder if that person we become also loses something in the process? And no, I don’t mean loss of something that could be easily justified by endless mantras of “no pain no gain” I’m talking about the things we value most. For some its their faith, others it’s -
Have Linkedin Groups Lost Their Appeal?
9 Nov 2009 | 11:08 amI often wonder (usually out of frustration) what the intended purpose of the Linkedin discussion group was. Was it intended as sort of a “Flea Market” to shamelessly self promote or dare I say, a place where folks actually (and I’m going out on a limb here) engage in a discussion?While I have a firm opinion on this, I’m not sure it matters what the intended purpose was because many people have -
Presenting Your Solutions Effectively
4 Nov 2009 | 8:29 pmThere comes a point in every sales process where we must present our solutions as they relate to the challenges/opportunities we've discovered during the needs analysis step. Say it first, better or exclusively and we can set ourselves apart. Fail to do that and you are just another "vendor" who makes the "I'll make a note to give a damn" file!Today's blog post is all about Presenting Solutions
-
Jim Logan's B2B Rainmaker
-
The obvious secret to sales success
19 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pmAs odd as is may seem, the purpose of selling isn’t to pitch your product. In fact, your product is pretty much worthless, until you associate it with something worth buying. People want to purchase things that do things — for them. Things they value owning, achieving, and sometimes avoiding. That’s why your products and services have little importance, except to enable you to do or provide something that does that thing your prospect wants to buy. So, your purpose as a salesperson isn’t to hock your wares. Your job is to identify the things your prospect wants to… -
Three things in particular to make crystal clear in your sales compensation plan
12 Nov 2009 | 5:28 pmManaging sales people has a lot in common with managing other professionals — for the most part, people are people. While there aren’t many unique aspects of managing sales people, there’s one potential gotcha you need to be aware of — ambiguous compensation plans. Vague compensation plans lead to disgruntled staff — extreme cases end in arbitration or litigation. You don’t want to ruffle a productive sales staff because their compensation plan is interpretive. And as a salesperson, you don’t want to find out after the fact your compensation… -
Winning the professional services sale — The book
11 Nov 2009 | 8:43 amI’m not a slow read, but it took me longer than usual to read Michael McLaughlin’s latest book — Winning the Professional Services Sale. The problem was I found my self taking notes as I read it. If you’re not familiar with Michael, he’s the author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants and founder of MindShare Consulting – a firm that helps professional services organizations design innovative strategies to reach more clients, land profitable work, and build resilient businesses. Winning the Professional Services Saleis typical of the work you expect… -
Seven reasons why customer relationships matter to your business
10 Nov 2009 | 8:48 amWithout need for build-up, here’s the point of this post: Customer relationships matter because they create loyalty. Customer loyalty represents the opportunity for predictable and profitable growth. If you don’t care about those thing, there’s no reason to care about your customers. In fact, if you’re not interested in predictable and profitable growth, simply abandon the customers you have and try to make up the revenue with continual new customer acquisition. That’s the rub. And the reality many businesses live day-after-day. Customer relationships… -
Revenue Management
9 Nov 2009 | 5:36 pmThe image above is a map of sort. More accurately, it’s a relational pictorial of customer-facing revenue management. Note: Click on the image above to view it at full scale. Revenue management is a cross functional responsibility within a company to keep an eye on money coming into a business and all the customer related support systems and processes that support revenue. There are other elements of revenue not represented on the image above, namely royalties, investments, and other revenue derived from business relationships producing income from operations unrelated to customers.
-
Selling Journal
-
Trusted Facilitation
28 Oct 2009 | 3:29 pmEarlier this week I was asked to answer the question, “If personal selling could be summed up in one or two words what would those two words be?” and the phrase, “Trusted Facilitation” immediately came to mind. I realize that the phrase “Trusted Facilitation” is not commonly referred to and/or used in the profession of selling so I thought I had better elaborate. By “Trusted” I meant that the prospective buyer trusts the salesperson enough to allow him/her into his/her mental space effectively creating a “We [...] -
Dirty Little Secrets by Sharon Drew Morgen
14 Oct 2009 | 7:25 amDirty Little Secrets - why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it. “This book is disturbing. It pulls back the veil: we’ll never be able to go back to the old way of just selling a solution. This book teaches us what has been missing from the industry for so long - how buyers decide. The ideas in this book are too big to push under the rug: it’s sophisticated, but necessary for any serious sales professional.” - Jeff [...] -
Think and Grow Rich
13 Oct 2009 | 6:47 pmThink and Grow Rich is a motivational personal development and self-help book written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion by Scottish-American billionaire Andrew Carnegie. Free Digital Download PDF eBook Edition at http://www.salespractice.com/forums/t-10809.html -
Professional Sales Training
30 Sep 2009 | 4:18 pmSince 1999 SalesPractice.com, the oldest and most respected sales training community on the Internet, has offered FREE sales training resources to sales professionals around the globe. Now through a partnership with world class business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales training providers SalesPractice.com is offering professional sales training in the United States and Canada. -
What are Trigger Events? How to use them?
29 Sep 2009 | 9:23 pmBy Alen Majer Your mission as a sales person should be to find companies that have immediate wants and needs. This means that something happened or is happening to them - a move, a merger, new investors, etc. You have to look for any event that might create the opportunity for you, or better said you are looking for event that can trigger the sales for you. It could be something internal or inside the company, like a new direction from management, a merger or an acquisition, [...]
-
The Science and Art of Selling
-
Daily Sales Tip #97
19 Nov 2009 | 7:01 amThere are some things that you should try to emphasize when dealing with a pricing objection: Stress the value of ownership versus the cost of purchasing. Stress the value of the service versus the cost of the service. Stress the value of long-term benefits versus the up-front costs. Stress benefits rather than features. Subscribe to my daily sales tips and you will receive a free ebook every 30 days, plus extra discounts on my books, CD’s, webinars and seminars. If you would like to stop receiving my tips, you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe today by filling the form on the… -
Video: Daily Sales Tip #17
17 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pmToday I am sharing with you my Daily Sales Tip #17 titled: “Once you’ve made the sale, stop selling.” Subscribe to my daily sales tips and you will receive a free ebook every 30 days, plus extra discounts on my books, CD’s, webinars and seminars. If you would like to stop receiving my tips, you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe today by filling the form on the right-hand side. Thanks! Video: Daily Sales Tip #17 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Majer -
Embrace The Struggle - free webcast by Zig Ziglar
16 Nov 2009 | 9:23 pmI want to pass along to you an invitation from Zig Ziglar who has personally influenced my life and I am sure he can touch your life too. Zig, Julie, and Tom Ziglar will be discussing the new book Embrace The Struggle. Learn about the “behind the scenes” things that went into the book and how the Ziglar family enjoys the home-court advantage. If you, or anyone you know is struggling, please invite them to this FREE webcast. Special bonuses and giveaways will also occur, so don’t miss it! Time & Date: November 17th, 7:00pm - 8:15pm CST Presenter: Zig Ziglar, Tom Ziglar,… -
The Mistake of Overselling
11 Nov 2009 | 6:55 amMore salespeople make the mistake of overselling their prospects than underselling. In plain English, they talk their prospect to the point where there is a readiness to buy and then talk them out of that mood, losing the interest and the order after it was there for the taking. You might account for that by saying that this type of salesperson does not “feel” when the prospect is ready. But that is not a fact. They do feel it, but they figure something like this, “I’ve got them coming now, but if I try to get an order they may say no. I’ll just keep on selling… -
First review of the book: Selling Is Better Than Sex
6 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am“Selling Is Better Than Sex” - Alen Majer ISBN: 9780978466855 Reviewed By Dominique Sessons Official Apex Reviews Rating: “Over the years, sex has been compared to many different things - but the act of selling isn’t one that readily comes to mind. Throughout the pages of Selling Is Better Than Sex, though, author Alen Majer provides the reader with ample convincing parallels between the art of lovemaking and the act of closing a deal. Essentially, Majer emphasizes that the success or failure of each practice is directly related to the level of energy that you contribute…
-
The Microfit Small Business Blog
-
Ready for a New Website? 3 Things to Keep in Mind!
29 Oct 2009 | 8:42 pmAre you looking to develop or re-develop a website / blog for your company? If so, I have three things I thought would be helpful to share that I usually only share with people who I can be painfully honest with. Usually these types of people are friends or family, sometimes people who were referred to me and place trust because of the recommendation. You can’t always be completely honest with people who don’t “know” you due to the fear of being perceived as arrogant or rude. That said, with those who know you and need honest business advice, you can get to the… -
DIY A/B Split Testing Using PHP and MYSQL
25 Sep 2009 | 12:16 pmI was recently working on a landing page for a client that prompted visitors to fill out a quick survey. The page looked pretty nice and invited visitors to click a button that launched the survey inside of a modal box. That seemed good enough, but the next day, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head to just embed the survey right on the page without the need for another click or the need to scroll inside of the modal box. After consulting with my art director. It was obvious that the modal box method was more aesthetic, but… Which way actually worked better to get the survey… -
Marketing “Experts” Need A Whaaambulance!
23 Sep 2009 | 3:08 pmOver the past month or so I’ve been apart of conversations, social media events, read blogs and/or viewed tweets that are complaining about the flood of “experts” using social media. In the small pond that is social media, there seems to be this anger shown towards the new comers to the social media (and by virtue, marketing) landscape. Some bloggers and smaller marketing firms (usually focusing on digital marketing) are whining at the thought of non marketers helping SMB’s with social media. So, instead of just telling those of you doing so to simply shut it, I wanted to outline… -
5 Ways Social Media Changed The Sales Game (#5)
16 Sep 2009 | 4:25 pmAnd to finish of our series on social media and how it has changed the sales landscape, we’ll cover the idea of Closed Loop Marketing. #5 Closed Loop Marketing If you’ve ever worked in corporate America; either in sales or in marketing, you know each has a long standing distain for the other. The marketing team has it’s objectives, processes and absolute truths; so does the sales team. If you haven’t guessed yet, they are NOT the same. Because there is a separation between the departments, there is a separation of information; each in its own silos. There are a few… -
5 Ways Social Media Changed The Sales Game (#4)
6 Sep 2009 | 4:41 pmIf anything, and I mean anything is a cog in the sales machine, it’s networking. In part four of our series we’ll explore how social media helps the sales professional build their network. #4 Building Relationships (Networking) It’s not to long ago (like yesterday) people built relationships just so they could snake your network. The only purpose in getting to know you, having coffee or attending your “networking group,” was to get into your networks proverbial pants. There are a lot of old school sales people who would ask me, “Why else do you network,…
-
Quick Sales Tips
-
QST Adds Online Business School Degree Listings
15 Nov 2009 | 8:26 amHello All! There are going to be some interesting changes coming to Quick Sales Tips over the next couple months. First off, A COMPLETE REDESIGN!!!!! This is well needed and long overdue, the site was put up years ago and hasn’t been changed for a while. The sales blog is going to be changing to reflect [...] -
Sales Managers Quick Tip: Motivating your Sales Staff
25 Oct 2009 | 6:32 pmMotivating and managing key employees can prove to be one of the most difficult tasks required of business owners and managers, and the ultimate success of a company can rely on the ability to understand the most common mistake that sales staff make. It is important to realize that most people consider a job in [...] -
Top Business Social Media Websites for Busy Sales Professionals
17 Oct 2009 | 6:32 amOkay… I know that this topic has been done before. That being said I thought I might bring a different perspective to the mix. As you may or may not know, I own a SEO Company called WebTalent SEO. I often use social media websites to connect with prospects and generate qualified sales leads. I [...] -
Suggestions For Overcoming Sales Comfort Zones
16 Oct 2009 | 6:57 amLearn how to find your sales comfort zone especially when cold calling or selling over the phone. Learn from the Pros and turn your sales calls into your friend, not your enemy. -
We need writers from our sales blog
3 Sep 2009 | 9:08 amQuick Sales Tips gets thousands of readers each month looking for information on sales training or wanting to reads sales blog posts. If you are a talented sales executive and would be interesting in becoming a guest author on the site please contact me at Oliverfeakins@hotmail.com. We would require at least an article every month [...]
-
YourSalesManagementGuru.com
-
Sour Cream Rises to the Top
16 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pmIn challenging times, average sales managers tend to get exposed. -
Keeping Your Sales Team Fine-Tuned
9 Nov 2009 | 2:43 pmSales compensation and great sales management are important, but now Top Sales Experts is making it easier for you. -
Top 40 Sales Management Actions for 2010
3 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pmWe've outlined the steps necessary to build a high-performance sales organization. -
Cleaning the Table: Using Your Resources for New Business
26 Oct 2009 | 3:14 pmThere's one resource for new-business prospecting that you might be overlooking: your existing clients. -
Why Sales Certification Is Important in 2010
19 Oct 2009 | 3:19 pmSales certification is critical to increasing sales value.
-
Sales & the City
-
Twas the Recession Before Christmas
17 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pmI was getting in the holiday spirit and… it got a little goofy. Sorry, but here goes anyway…. (Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win. Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting resources for sales managers and sales teams. Visit http://www.meetingtowin.com/ to learn more.) Twas the Recession Before Christmas Twas the Recession before Christmas, and all down the hall The Sales Manager was yelling, “Just make one more call”. The reports were hung on the manager’s door with despair And all hoped that in the new year their jobs would still be there. -
Companies need a recovery game plan – Article & Discussion Guide
9 Nov 2009 | 5:27 am10:56 am November 6, 2009, by Joy Johnston By Laura Raines, for the AJC With small but distinct signs of life in the economy, companies are plotting their recovery strategies for 2010. “Recovery will not be restoration of the pre-recession market. Trying to get back to where we were will be like chasing a red herring,” said Jean Martin, executive director of the Corporate Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board, a global business research network. It’s a whole new ballgame. Read the rest here and see 6 things to look for in your company. After reading, come back here and… -
How to Win New Business
30 Oct 2009 | 2:00 amI’ve seen many articles lately on prospecting. My guess is that those who have been content to manage accounts have found themselves in the position of now having to acquire accounts. Things are a little different these days. I’ve never been handed a load of accounts to manage, grow or nurture. Those tasks have been part of my job, but ONLY after I acquired them. Somehow, I have always been the leader on my team in number of new customers acquired. I really like the challenge and sense of accomplishment from winning a brand new customer. So, I decided to share how I’ve… -
Planting Pumpkin Seeds
27 Oct 2009 | 11:16 amI’ve always love the formula I read in ProActive Sales Management years ago. It’s Revenue (R) = Frequency (F) X Competency (C). This formula has comforted me and 100% of the time proven true. I’ve seen variations of this formula, most of which complicate such a pure and simple formula. I’m sticking with this one. What does this have to do with pumpkins? Two weeks ago my 4-year old begged me for some pumpkin seeds while we were at a nursery. Of course, it’s not pumpkin planting season and… we don’t have a pumpkin garden, but I love these types of… -
M2W Sales Performance Book Club Discussion Guide – Let’s Get Real
24 Oct 2009 | 6:13 amEach quarter Meeting to Win leads our subscribers through a business book in the Sales Performance Book Club. Each week’s reading assignment and Discussion Guide are included in the weekly sales team meeting agenda newsletter. To subscribe, visit us at our website www.meetingtowin.com. Enter the promo code Q4PUSH and get weekly agendas free for all of Q4 2009. First payment isn’t due until Jan 2010. Learn more here. Grab the following book, read a chapter per week as a team and use the Discussion Guide during weekly sales team meetings. Your team will be motivated and…
-
Sales Management 2.0 Podcast
-
Sales 2.0 and the Changing Face of Sales With Christian Maurer – Episode 27
11 Nov 2009 | 11:51 pmSo, what’s the deal with Sales 2.0? Is it enough to have a Facebook or Twitter account, or to use LinkedIn to connect with prospects? How about using new software applications to track your CRM data? Well, according to this week’s guest, Christian Maurer, Sales 2.0 is much, much more than that. You might recognize Christian’s distinctive accent, as he is a returning guest to the SM 2.0 Podcast. We were certainly glad to have him back. So what is Sales 2.0? Christian says (and we agree) that Sales 2.0 is primarily an attitude. As we wrote in the What Is Sales 2.0? -
Terri Levine and “Sell Without Selling” – Episode 26
4 Nov 2009 | 10:45 pmThis was a special episode for us, as it marked the return of sales coach and author Terri Levine. Terri was here to discuss her book “Sell Without Selling: Lessons From the Jungle for Sales Success” and to raise awareness about Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), a devastating disease that causes excruciating pain in its victims. Not only is Terri donating all the proceeds from the sale of her latest book to support a child suffering from RSD, she’s matching the sales, dollar for dollar, out of her own pocket. Talk about a HERO! Terri struck a chord with us by… -
Randy Illig and “Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play” – Episode 25
21 Oct 2009 | 12:09 pmThis was a great episode for us, as we had the chance to catch up with a true thought leader in the sales profession: Randy Illig. Randy has over 25 years experience in business, ranging from accomplished salesperson and general manager to successful entrepreneur (CEO) and board member. He is currently CEO of ninety five 5 and is a member of the leadership team at The Sales Perfomance Group, a division of FranklinCovey. Randy has received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Ernst & Young “CEO under 40″ award for innovative management philosophy and… -
Sales and Social Media With Alejandro Reyes (AKA Successfool)-Episode 24
13 Oct 2009 | 1:18 amThis week, we had the chance to catch up with Alejandro Reyes, aka the Successfool. Alejandro is a social media rock star, and he’s been on the scene since 2006 (an eternity in the online world). Alejandro’s drug of choice is people; he gets really excited about helping people follow their passions and making a great living using social media and the internet. Alejandro’s big question for salespeople is simple: how can you use social media and personal branding to differentiate yourself from your competition? Let’s face it: in today’s economy, there… -
Is It Coaching, or Is It Training? – Episode 23 with Terri Levine
8 Oct 2009 | 11:25 amSo, what’s the difference between coaching and training anyway? That was the topic of our conversation with Master Coach, CEO and entrepreneur Terri Levine, The Guru of Coaching and owner of The Coach Institute. And what was the answer? According to Terri, coaching has the intent of inspiring and improving the recipient, as opposed to training, which in Terri’s mind is an activity that involves teaching and instructing (in other words, telling). And Terri contends that sales coaching can take place in a group environment just as effectively as in a one-on-one setting. When…
-
TradePub: Retail
-
Design Anywhere: Maximizing the Global Opportunity, Minimizing the IP Risk
20 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pmIncrease Product RevenueCut Development Labor CostsShorten Development ScheduleThe flexibility offered by a "Design Anywhere" strategy can provide benefits and is part of a trend that promises to continue. Companies need to extend their capabilities to support collaborative product development, manage distributed design teams, and protect intellectual property.Request Free! -
Candy Industry
11 Nov 2009 | 11:50 amPublished monthly, its editorial emphasis focuses on large and mid-sized manufacturers as well as news-breaking developments in new products, processing and ingredient technology and critical issues affecting the industry.Request Free! -
Refrigerated and Frozen Food Retailer
4 Nov 2009 | 10:50 amRefrigerated and Frozen Foods Retailer contains informative, fact-based coverage on all areas of low-temperature foods, from sales tips to display ideas. This publication is key for today's food retail executive. Its recipients are general management, merchandising, purchasing and warehouse professionals.Request Free! -
NICHE Magazine
1 Nov 2009 | 12:20 amNICHE Magazine provides business tips for retailing to the affluent. Best practices and success stories are included for managing luxury boutiques, jewelry stores, art galleries, fine craft retailers with the finest designer decorative accessories, designer jewelry, art objects and studio furniture all made in the USA and Canada. More than 300 American designers' works are featured in each issue of this quarterly, full color publication.Request Free! -
Web Wholesaler
1 Nov 2009 | 12:20 amWeb Wholesaler offers the latest in new products and merchandise sources, ideas and statistics on what is selling online NOW, as well as up to the minute news and information on industry trends, e-business growth and management strategies, and methods for increasing your revenues.Request Free!
-
TradePub: Sales & Marketing
-
Optimizing the Performance of Web Applications: Directions for Improvement
20 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pmBoost Successful ConversionsGrow Revenue per MonthMonitor Performance in Real-TimeOrganizations are moving away from component level monitoring, and toward end-to-end application management. It is important to deliver solutions that ensure optimization of web application performance while utilizing tools that promote an integrated view of the web application.Request Free! -
Next Generation Web Content Management: A Comprehensive Assessment of Current Challenges & The Future of WCM
20 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pmImprove Visitor TimeGrow Average Page ViewsIncrease Website TrafficThere is tremendous value in web analytics, email marketing, and automated demand generation technologies. But the sum of the whole has a 2+2=5 potential if consolidated into a centralized solution and WCM providers must embrace these dynamics if they plan to add future value.Request Free! -
The ROI on Social Media Monitoring: Why It Pays to Listen to Online Conversation
20 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pmBoost Customer RetentionReduce Risk to BrandImprove Customer AdvocacyCompanies can keep tabs on online conversations and create actionable insights. These insights can drive effectiveness with respect to product marketing, public relations, market research, customer support, brand reputation, competitive intelligence and overall business innovation.Request Free! -
Prevue
13 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pmPrevue, published bimonthly, provides meeting and incentive planners with the signature personalities and pursuits of individual destinations, hotels and venues, covering powerful teambuilding experiences that unite the group and encourage individual growth and learning. Above all else, Prevue is experiential. And it's always presented with stunning visuals and concise, lively editorial content in print and online.Request Free! -
Business Solutions
6 Nov 2009 | 9:50 amBusiness Solutions' articles show readers how to sell new technologies and penetrate growing vertical markets. Business Solutions provides "actionable information" for VARs and integrators to increase sales, improve profits, and trounce the competition.Request Free!
-
Art Sobczak's Telesales Blog
-
Here’s a Question That Can Be Cheesy or Good, Depending On…
6 Nov 2009 | 3:12 amHere’s a technique that can be either solid, or sound cheesy, depending upon where it’s used on a call: “What’s it going to take to get your business?” I had a guy use this on me the other day. This was the opening statement on a cold call. Caller: "Hey, Art. Bill at Audio Duplicators. We duplicate CD’s and DVD’s. I’m wondering what it would take to get your business?" I felt like saying, "A better salesperson," but I was just a bit more tactful in saying "I’m not… -
Have Your Own Prospecting Training Seminar, and Help Special Needs Kids
4 Nov 2009 | 7:43 amFirst, I apologize for not updating here like I should. It has been a whirlwind of travel, doing workshops, and finally finishing my new book. The dust isn’t settled, but the wind has calmed to a mild roar. So the World Series will be over tonight or tomorrow, but I will continue to have baseball on the mind…for special needs kids. I am donating a one-day telephone prospecting seminar for the high bidder, with all of the proceeds to benefit the Miracle League of Arizona, an organization that builds baseball fields for special needs kids. For the winning auction… -
A FUN Group of Sales Reps
15 Oct 2009 | 7:58 pmHere’s a group of sales reps that many would envy: they work for a division of Oriental Trading Company called Fun Express. They sell toys, novelties, and other fun items, like the goofy hat I’m wearing in the middle of the photo. -
Photos of Sales Pros
15 Oct 2009 | 7:50 pmHere is the most recent group of sales pros I worked with from LexisNexis in Dayton, Ohio. LexisNexis is a company that recognizes the upward trend in the economy, is ahead of the game, and has committed to hiring new reps and investing in them so they are poised to seize opportunities in 2010. -
Group Photo of Training Class
9 Oct 2009 | 6:39 amThis week I had the opportunity to deliver training for the skilled outside sales pros at Connexion, an electrical equipment and supply distributor, and also from General Electric, one of their large partners/suppliers. I am seeing signs that the economic environment is really picking up, and the smart companies are getting ahead of the wave by preparing to create and seize their own opportunities while others wait for them. I’ve had a sudden rush of smart companies booking inhouse training workshops, and for their early 2010 sales meetings…
-
Rich Presence
-
What is Hybrid Hosted?
16 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pmThe following is part of a series in which I describe the more compelling aspects of Fonality's PBXtra and trixbox Pro IP telephony systems. If you are researching phone systems for your business, contact me at the information to the right, and I will be happy to get you in touch with a local value added reseller. If you are a current or potential reseller, please feel free to ask questions or provide feedback in the comments section.Most businesses looking for a phone system are offered one of two choices--hosted or premise-based. Both types of systems have distinct advantages and… -
Reintroducing Myself in My New Role at Fonality
16 Sep 2009 | 7:11 pmI am pleased to announce that as of August 1, 2009, I have accepted a new position as Channel Development Manager at Fonality. Fonality makes a voice over IP (VoIP) phone system that delivers the highest overall value on the market to small to medium sized businesses. I am charged with recruiting, training, and nurturing value added resellers throughout the Eastern US.While I am new as a Fonality employee, I have a long history with Fonality's products. In 2006, I owned a Fonality reseller called Advocate Communication that began as a one-person operation and grew to become a Premium level… -
If you don't sell with SalesView, it's your fault
23 Jun 2009 | 6:43 pmI have been reading about the SalesView product from InsideView for a few months now. They have been nice enough to host me (among thousands others) on various free webinars about Sales 2.0. I sat through recorded as well as live demos, read white papers, and even talked to a couple of their inside sales reps.Today, all of their efforts paid off with my $99 per month subscription to SaleView Pro. :)Although it's only been a few hours, I have to say that I am extremely impressed.Target Accounts. When I first activated my account, I immediately produced a list of accounts in a target vertical… -
Use FriendFeed to manage your social media activity
11 Jun 2009 | 3:34 pmSocial media can be overwhelming. You want to promote your business (in a socially acceptable manner) on all of the sites, and you also want to read content from customers and key thought leaders in your industry, but logging into each site to promote and read could take hours per day. Fortunately, FriendFeed streamlines the process to make social media more manageable.FriendFeed members have all of their social media activity aggregated into a single feed on the FriendFeed site. Members can follow other members to keep up with each other in one place.For example, if someone follows me on… -
Unified Communications opens doors with customers and prospects
27 May 2009 | 9:44 amA long time ago...way back in the early 1990s...the only way that customers and prospects communicated with a business was by phone, mail (you know...envelopes, stamps...remember those?), and occasionally fax. Less than 20 years later, it seems that the communication options are almost limitless: phone, mail, fax, email, chat, text, social mediums like Twitter, etc.With so many options available, each person seems to have his or her own preference. I personally have some "old-fashioned" friends who never answer an email but call me on the phone frequently. I can call other friends and almost…
-
Salesjournal.com
-
Is There A Silver Bullet in Sales?
20 Nov 2009 | 5:31 amThis week’s blog is by Craig Elias, the creator of Trigger Event Selling™, and author of the upcoming book, SHiFT! Harness The Trigger Events That TURN PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS. Listen to Craig share his secrets to getting to highly motivated decision makers at EXACTLY the right time and closing deals sooner when you do, December 1st at 12 Noon EST “Sell More Deals by Christmas” Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now. We have been conditioned to believe that in sales there is no such thing as a silver bullet. I can tell you that there is. It is called timing — getting in… -
Create a ‘No Excuses’ Sales Environment
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amWhat is your company’s sales culture or environment? Can that question be answered quickly and articulated consistently across your organization? The foundation for creating a clearly defined sales environment begins with the leadership - how they set sales standards and then demonstrate, communicate and inspect accountability to those standards. What sales standards do you set and communicate? Are they extraordinary? If we followed you around for 30 days, what would we observe about your actions and interactions with your team? What would we discover about the personal accountability of… -
Your 2010 Sales Are Here Now
18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amTibor Shanto, Principal of Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., has expressed that there is no denying that there needs to be a focus on trying to do as much as you can (without discounting or cheating) to salvage a year or to bring in revenue NOW. The challenge is to do it in a way that does not adversely impact other aspects of your on going success. It is an old familiar challenge, we are all familiar with the “You can pay me now or pay me later” syndrome. The reality is that if you have a sales cycle longer than five weeks, most of your prospecting as of now will likely be a 2010 revenue. -
Secrets Buried In a Sales Person’s Resume
17 Nov 2009 | 7:42 amThe vehicle that introduces sales people to companies is a resume, but there are secrets hidden in the resume that hiring managers should know before they interview a candidate. In Lee Salz’s sales management career, he would bet that he’s seen about 5,000 resumes for sales people. Yet, he still hasn’t seen one that shows someone who has achieved 40% of quota. Every single resume shows 100%, 200%, 2,000,000% of goal. Where are all of the people who have had less than stellar sales performances? Did they all leave the sales profession? If all of the resumes that he saw truly… -
The Two Types of Sales Organizations
16 Nov 2009 | 6:37 amThere are two types of sales organizations. There is the sales business and then there is the sales team. They are similar in that they both are responsible for driving revenue. After that, there isn’t much more commonality. The difference is sales teams are driven by their needs. Sales Business is focused on the customer. Sales Blogger Jim Keenan asks: “Who do you want selling to you?”
-
Managing the Salesforce
-
Top Ten Sales Hiring Mistakes
We have been involved in thousands of sales hiring and recruiting projects. We are often called in to investigate and fixed failed hiring initiatives. Here in countdown order are the top 10 sales hiring mistakes we see and what you can do to avoid them. 10. Hiring based on gut. Problem: while ... -
Passion is Infectious in Sales
This is a video interview with John Nese, the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA, talking about his product. The video is long (12 mins), but you only need to watch for about 20 seconds before you are hooked. Think of your sales staff and the impact on ... -
10 Things You Need to Know About Sales Management (College presentation)
I had the good fortune to be invited to speak to graduating Sales and Marketing Management Classes at Algonquin College this week. Really enjoyed the opportunity to share my experiences and help the students get a head start with some basic tips tricks on Sales Management. Also some great questions ... -
More structure in hiring = more successful reps
Cross post from Tech-Sales-Hiring / www.PeakSalesRecruiting.com/blog-hiring on the importance of a structured hiring process. Particularly noteworthy: "If you don’t have the right people in the right jobs, all the training, coaching, tools, technology, and support in the world is not going to result in sustainable sales effectiveness." "You can’t coach, train, ... -
Are Sales Tips Hazardous to Your Wealth?
Interesting take by our friend Dave Stein (who btw writes Commentary on Sales Leadership, a great blog to read if you have a chance ) in Sales and Marketing Management called Hazardous to Your Wealth. The article discusses the problems caused by inexperienced sales reps relying on sales tips. His first ...
-
Sharon Drew Morgen
-
Selling with Integrity
20 Nov 2009 | 3:11 amIn 1995 I wrote a book called Selling with Integrity: reinventing sales through collaboration, respect, and servingpublished in 1997 and subsequently on the NYTimes Business Bestseller list. The book continues to sell well, being considered one of the top sales books of all time. At the time I wrote it, it took a month of hassling before my publisher agreed to me using the term ’serving’ rather than ’service.’ And, at the time, I didn’t know how to talk or write about Buying Facilitation® as clearly as I do now. Selling with Integrity was my nascent attempt to… -
Selling from home
19 Nov 2009 | 3:10 amI was recently told that Mary Kay has a home-based sales force of 750,000. I don’t know if that’s accurate – sounds plausible. But I bet between Mary Kay, NuSkin, Amway, Mannentech, and Nutrilite (and some I don’t even know, I’m sure), there are many, many million people selling from home. And now with the economy being so quirky, and people losing jobs, I bet that the industry is going through profound changes. Some of these folks have been trained to sell by their up-lines. Some have never been trained. Some just bought-in to the business because of some… -
Is the world ready for a new sales model? Yes!
17 Nov 2009 | 3:55 amOver the next few weeks I’ll be going to several countries to spread the word, teach Buying Facilitation®, keynote, and license new trainers who will be teaching Buying Facilitation® in other countries. The most interesting fact about this is that the interest is not coming from my new book Dirty Little Secrets but from my years/decades of writing and lecturing and speaking about Buying Factiliation®. I’m hearing things like: I’ve been waiting until I had a stable sales force to bring you in; I’ve had to wait until I was promoted before I could bring you in;… -
What do you do once your content strategies bring in the prospects?
16 Nov 2009 | 7:30 amAfter speaking with my friend Jill Konrath, I realized that I can actually help those of you who are bringing prospects in the door with a great stratigic marketing plan. Let’s look at the layout of how companies are using marketing today: with great content, white papers, webinars and podcasts, companies are driving interested buyers to their sites. With good content, prospects are being educated, informed, and hopefully influenced, and get great data to help them make informed decisions as to how to become Excellent. In fact, Ardath Albees new book eMarketing Strategies for the… -
What is email for?
12 Nov 2009 | 5:48 pmI don’t know about you, but when I get long emails my eyes go running around my head. Too many words for me to take in during a busy day when I’m sure I’m suffering from some form of ADHD as I try to multitask beyond human capability. So I ask folks to please, please, puLEASE not send me long emails. But they do anyway. And then they get mad when I don’t read them – especially when they’ve written something personal. They actually expect me to put down what I’m doing and read a one-way missive, interpret what they are meaning and feeling against how I…
-
A Sales Guy
-
Customer Service Is More Than People
20 Nov 2009 | 11:10 pmI know every person and company believes in customer service. I don’t doubt it for a second. The problem is most of us try to fix it with people. We talk about customer engagement, belittling companies for having indignant and unruly employees. Most think of customer service in terms of people; how quickly a person picks up the phone, how quickly a person can solve a problem, how many people are manning the lanes at the grocery store. Customer service is all too often seen as how people interact or react to a situation. The problem is most customer service wins or loses based on the… -
Where Was Sales?
19 Nov 2009 | 9:46 pmWhere was sales at Defrag last week? There were some great presentations on Business Intelligence, social boundaries and monitoring, real time streams and search vs discovery. There were some great presenters. It was an all web cast of folks; Stowe Boyd, Fred Wilson, Chris Sacca, Howard Lindzon, and Brad Feld. But, sales was no where to be found. The booths were plenty, with most if not all being Enterprise 2.0 companies. I like to think of Enterprise 2.0 companies, as companies that sell Web 2.0 or social media products and services to other companies. Unlike the Twitters of the world,… -
Email My Master
18 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pmI read this post yesterday and this quote jumped out at me: “never use your inbox as a to-do list” Boy, I am guilty of this. I get 100’s of emails a day. I don’t like things to sit around. Because of this I am in constant email mode, as I try to respond to them as they come in. The problem is many of the emails require additional work. Email has become my to-do list at the price of the rest of the stuff I need to get done. I don’t like email. It’s become everyone’s default medium. Especially at work. I am copied on emails far too often, on things that… -
Hey Vail, Get Engaged
17 Nov 2009 | 9:44 pmI think most of you know I’m a ski instructor for Vail Resorts. I am huge fan of Vail and that’s why I chose to Instruct for them. Besides having the best ski mountain in the world. I think they have the best professional ski program too. I feel pretty special to be a part of it. This weekend, like every year, we had our annual new season kick off. We spent the entire day going over the new seasons objectives, goals, new rules and regulations etc. Two things stuck out this year. One is I have to wear a helmet. I know it’s “good” for me, but I’m just not a… -
Bookings vs Revenue
16 Nov 2009 | 4:46 pmTo many sales people there is no difference between booking and revenue. Many, may not even have heard the word “bookings.” For most transactions there is no difference. Bookings and revenue happen at the exact same time. Your customer buys from you. You give them their widget, they give you their money and all done. A nice clean transaction. But for many complex sales, it just aint that easy. What is the difference? Bookings is when the customer says; “Heck ya! I want to buy what your selling, where do I sign?” A booking is when the customer makes a commitment via a…
-
THE SALES HUNTER'S SALES MOTIVATION BLOG
-
Sales Motivation: Are You Regularly Seeking Positive Reinforcement
19 Nov 2009 | 5:53 amWe live in a fairly negative world. That’s no news shocker to you, I’m sure. As a salesperson, though, your livelihood and ability to make a difference to your customers depend on maintaining a positive attitude. That means you have to regularly boost your sales motivation from as many angles as possible. I often talk about gleaning from various resources, including those aimed specifically at sales professionals like yourself. Two sites I highly recommend are www.salesgravy.com and www.salesdog.com. I’m grateful they are willing to publish my articles, but I’m more… -
Sales Training Tip #313: Sell With Your Hands
17 Nov 2009 | 9:48 pmBe sure to talk with your hands, whether it be when you’re talking on the phone or in person. It’s amazing how much it reinforces what you’re saying by showing your conviction and confidence. It doesn’t matter how tight you are with money, spend the cash to get a headset to allow you to talk without your hands being tied up holding the receiver. No matter who you are, we all speak with our hands, and we all speak with more confidence, energy and authority when we use your hands. Nothing will kill a telephone sales call faster than a voice that lacks energy. Use your hands… -
Phone Sales Tips: Voice Mail that Makes an Impression
16 Nov 2009 | 7:50 amThe other day, I was checking my phone messages. I couldn’t believe the number of people who breeze past basic techniques when leaving a voice mail. As I went through several messages, I quickly could tell the difference between people who understand these techniques and those who don’t. Here’s what I mean: 1. SLOW DOWN. I realize some people get nervous when leaving a message, and therefore they tend to speed up their voice. Problem is that the person checking messages will have to replay such messages over and over again just to jot down the important info. Take a deep… -
Sales Motivation: Your Price is the Right Price
12 Nov 2009 | 4:48 amIt’s not unusual for customers to put up a fight against your current price or a price increase, especially when the customer is concerned about finances. You have to prepare yourself for these situations, because it’s not a question of if they are going to happen. It’s only a question of when. Here are some tips that will help you when you are reminding yourself and your customer that your price is the right price. Eye Contact and Voice: You have to be able to look your customer in the eye and not let your voice waver when you are talking about price. To become extremely… -
Sales Training Tip #312: How Much Will Customers Pay for Confidence?
10 Nov 2009 | 8:50 pmCustomers will pay a premium for confidence and “risk minimization.” Confidence sells! I can’t emphasize this enough and especially now with the economy behaving the way it is. The confidence I’m talking about is not just your own confidence, but more importantly the level of confidence the customer has about you and what you’re providing them. Customers will buy anything if they have a reason, and it starts with a level of confidence in them knowing that what you’re providing them will do what you say it will. Confidence trumps price and it trumps all levels of discount.
-
healthysalesman.com
-
No more chesty cough or snotty nose!
8 Nov 2009 | 6:05 amIt's well known that for many of us, winter brings, if not colds, then at least many of the symptoms: runny nose, sniffing, flem, chesty cough etc. Of course, it might be all down to that chilly weather, or perhaps there's something else going on...? If our brains and mouths are lax with the door policy, then it's quite likely they'll be a riot. -
Quick and healthy recipe suggestion: Paella
22 Oct 2009 | 2:18 pmThe Mediterranean diet is well known for being quite a healthy one: lots of fresh fruits, veggies and olive oil (and a little red wine:) One of the most popular dishes, which originates from Valencia on the East Coast of Spain, is Paella. It's packed with goodness and very tasty. Here's a quick version -
Reduce the chances of developing that cold!
14 Oct 2009 | 2:36 amA group boffins from various hospitals and universities, all PhDs, recently carried out a study of people's sleeping habits and their chances of developing a common cold. They basically got 153 volunteers, men and women, aged between 21-55, to report their sleep patterns everyday for 2 weeks. That was the easy bit for them. They then quarantined them and injected rhinovirus up their hooters (noses). Not rocket science but does make perfect sense, given that the body uses sleep time to reset many systems and put us back into balance (check this out). -
Thinking about buying a Juicer? Watch this!
4 Oct 2009 | 2:28 pmJuicing is basically the extraction of the juice from raw fruits and veggies. The fibre, also known as pulp, is what's left over and usually takes a few hours (if you're Gillian McKeith) or a day for most of us, to pass though the body and come out the other end. By extracting the juices and drinking them in a raw form, we get the benefit of all the goodness immediately. Juices tend to be veggie-based and smoothies tend to be fruit-based, but both can contain both fruits and veggies - did you know that cucumbers and tomatoes are actually fruits? -
Ten Great Reasons to Join a Gym
3 Sep 2009 | 7:23 amModern day gyms are now called Health Clubs, because they are good for more than just building muscle and/or loosing weight. Ten great reasons to join one include:
-
Partners in EXCELLENCE Blog
-
Sour Cream Rises To The Top
17 Nov 2009 | 10:11 amHold this date: Wednesday November 18, 2009 at 11:00AM EST. I will be participating in a Top Sales Experts Roundtable. Details Below. Wednesday November 18th 2009 11:00AM EASTERN Your Invitation To Attend A Significant Sales Event In challenging times average sales managers tend to be exposed, they cannot hide. So why is the average tenure of a sales leader less than 18 months? The reasons for failure is simply many sales leaders do not fully understand what the real job is or have never been trained effectively to lead, manage and motivate their organizations. This Top Sales Experts… -
Recognize Your Sales Superstars!
17 Nov 2009 | 10:06 amSales superstars close more deals and ramp up business for their companies. Do you know one? AllBusiness and Top Sales Experts want to honor the top-performing salespeople who deliver results in today’s competitive market. You can help make that happen. We need your nomination The panel of top sales coaches and experts will select one salesperson each month from among the nominees. Monthly winners will: Be recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions Be profiled in a feature article for AllBusiness and its sister site, Hoover’s Receive free twelve month VIP membership… -
Why Every Marketer/Sales Person Should Read Richard Feynman’s Lectures On Physics
13 Nov 2009 | 7:10 amI spend most of my time working with high technology companies. I’ve been involved in technology most of my career and if pressed, have to admit I’m a bit of a geek. Part of my interest in technology may stem from the fact that by education I’m a physicist and engineer. One of the challenging things in working with technology companies is that we seem to revel in our complexity. The more syllables our words have the better. New acropnyms and buzzwords are things of beauty. Every presentation has to have dozens of slides that present every feature, function and… -
“I Can’t Get Customers To See Me!”
11 Nov 2009 | 6:47 pmWhen I speak to sales people, this is the second biggest complaint I hear. Sales people have trouble getting meetings. This isn’t just with prospects, but also with customers we know well. Let’s face it, everyone is time-poor. Everyone has more on their plates than they can possibly deal with, and the pile just gets bigger. In the face of customers being time-poor, in order to get a meeting, we have to have a compelling reason for them to invest their precious time in us. This probably bears repeating with emphasis: In order to get a meeting, we have to have a… -
Should We Expect Ethical Conduct In Social Media?
11 Nov 2009 | 2:31 pmTwitter is an important element of our social media and overall marketing strategy. I try to find outstanding content to point my followers to and am proud of the reputation I’ve established as a person that provides “tweets” of value. Recently, I’ve noticed people copying my tweets and sending them out as their own. At first, I thought they had eliminated the RT @davidabrock because then they would be over 140 characters. When I am RT’ing, I sometimes find that a challenge and have to eliminate some people–but never the original provider. I always…
-
David Steel's Blog
-
Sharing Your Vision
18 Nov 2009 | 11:30 amIf you are a manager in the world of sales then you know how important it is that your sales team shares the vision you possess for the company. When the sales team is not performing to expectations, it can drag the entire company down in short order. Thankfully, it is usually not all that complicated to get a sales team to do what it needs to do to succeed. Providing a little bit of friendly motivation is often all that is needed to ensure the mission of the company remains on track. All that is required is that the sales leader does what is necessary to clearly define what is expected and… -
17 Nov 2009 | 10:18 am
17 Nov 2009 | 10:18 ambook download was a huge success, crashed server, if you got an error it is now back up and running http://ping.fm/COitf -
12 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am
12 Nov 2009 | 8:09 amJust launched a new book sales management book , download it for free at http://ping.fm/dJdvR -
Hiring and Retaining the Best Reps!
11 Nov 2009 | 5:12 pmWhether your company is brand new or you find that you are in a place where you want to make sure that it can stay on track, you will find that your sales force is something that you need to invest in. No matter what industry you are competing in, competition is tougher than ever, and if you want to make sure that you are going to stay on top, your sales reps are going to be an important part of how you do it. A good sales professional is one that is going to keep on getting you business that you need and if you want to make sure that you are on top of things, you need to think about how you… -
9 Nov 2009 | 7:32 am
9 Nov 2009 | 7:32 amMutual Value Sales starts with the premise that the sales process innately offers value to the prospect as well as the salesperson.
-
Fill the Funnel
-
Gist Adds Public Profiles-Another Claim Your Name Opportunity
11 Nov 2009 | 2:54 pmGist has added the ability for users to create a “public profile” that allows you to incorporate and share your strategic online presence from one screen. We have discussed the importance of “claiming your name” online, and this is another opportunity to do so. Anyone can view your public profile, and other Gist users can create a contact using the information that you’ve published. Gist users who already have a profile for you get notified about your public profile. They can merge your published information into their existing contact for you. Here are some of… -
Xobni Announces Enterprise Version
3 Nov 2009 | 10:22 amXobni as a Microsoft Outlook productivity web tool is a big success with individual users. With the announcement of Xobni Enterprise, businesses of all sizes now have the ability to deploy and manage Xobni to employees and create enterprise extensions to increase productivity and efficiency. All this is accomplished through an easy-to-use web interface providing what Xobni Enterprise refers to as the “Three C’s” to IT administrators responsible for their company’s Outlook environment. Xobni Enterprise consists of a web-based admin portal that allows IT administrators… -
How Do You Look To Your Prospects?
19 Oct 2009 | 10:55 amWeb tools have and are changing the sales landscape in a big way. We are now using these tools to identify prospects, learn about their needs, communicate with them in meaningful ways, and manage the resulting relationships for long term success. By integrating these sales web tools into our daily activity we are able to sell more, sell more quickly, and sell to more customers than if we have chosen to stay with the old ways. My work with web tools has been focused on improving the results and efficiency from the salesmakers side of the transaction. I received an inquiry last week… -
Gist Adds Free iPhone Application
13 Oct 2009 | 10:38 amMaking an effective web tool more so is always welcome. Gist has released their iPhone application that provides the following features for the mobile professional: Optimized Dashboard– provides quick viewing of both traditional news sources as well as blogs and Twitter updates either by person or company. Event View – delivers automatically created and updated profiles of meeting attendees in a single view plus provides a map of the meeting location. Quick Actions – enable sharing of news, reaching out to a contact or even sending a one-click email to meeting participants th at you… -
Top Sales Experts-Are You Engaged?
12 Oct 2009 | 11:46 amFor most of us in sales, the pace of our day continues to speed up. Customers are beginning to inquire and spend once again, though cautiously. Information is everywhere and flowing past our eyes and ears faster than we can digest it all. Web tools that enable us to earn more customer interactions are prevalent and productive. The pace of innovation and education for sales professionals is on the same pace. How many blogs, books, webinars, workshops, social networking services and live events are you able to effectively utilize? As a sales professional, our need to stay informed…
-
Media Sales Today
-
Does Talking with Your Hands Help Sales?
20 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pmHere is a quick sales tip that you may or may not agree with: Talk with your hands when selling. “Sales Hunter” Mark Hunter suggests that when interacting with a client, even over the phone, speak with your hands, which he says will: Add energy and enthusiasm to your voice Bring out your confidence Lend authority to your [...] -
Big Spenders Still in the Market for Magazines
20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amIt looks like the pharmaceutical industry is still spending ad dollars inside magazines -- at least in the ones still publishing. Despite legislative pressures and rumors of the hammer coming down on the tax deduction on ad expenses for prescription drugs, big pharma appears to have a soft spot for print. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, from 2003-2008, drugs & remedies in consumer magazines soared 58% to $2.2 billion, ranking it No. 2 behind toiletries & cosmetics. -
Out of Time?
18 Nov 2009 | 1:37 pmIf you’re feeling frazzled by lack of time, taking a step back to analyze your habits may help you organize time more efficiently. On his blog, business coach and consultant John Farrington address the familiar complaint of too much to do in too little time. His offers suggestions to get you thinking about how time is allocated and how tasks are prioritized. -
Outlook Good for Digital OOH; +13% Through 2013 Projected
18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amDigital out-of-home advertising has fared pretty well through the recent economic environment, and early estimates for 2010 have been positive. Now a new BIA/Kelsey report (via MediaBuyerPlanner) confirms what the industry has been saying: digital out-of-home spending will 'skyrocket' in coming years. In fact, BIA/Kelsey is predicting spending will increase at an annual rate of 13.5%, going from $2.2 billion in 2009 to $3.7 billion in 2013. -
Ad-Opportunity: E-Reader Market Heats Up
16 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pmAmazon might have been the first to launch an e-reader device that captured the attention of a significant number of consumers but its dominant position faces some serious threats. The 2007 introduction of its Kindle generated plenty of buzz and competitors. The book industry in general has suffered declines in recent years but Forrester Research sees the e-book and e-reader device market as a bright sector and expects it to grow. The research concern predicts about 1 million devices will be sold during the current holiday season and perhaps another 6 million will sell in 2010.
-
GoldMail's Blog
-
GoldMail Beta: The Final Preview, what do you think?
16 Nov 2009 | 1:05 amWe want to thank everyone that has tried the beta version of GoldMail. Your feedback is invaluable and very much appreciated by the GoldMail development team. Today we are pleased to announce the final preview version of GoldMail Beta, providing the ability to record your voice slide by slide. Play a 2 minute message from Michael and Rob. Since this is the #1 product enhancement based on our user community feedback, we want to make sure we do it right. We intend to make this release of GoldMail generally available in the next few weeks, but first we would be delighted to hear any final… -
“Speak Up” with Constant Contact and GoldMail…
21 Oct 2009 | 2:08 amYour email marketing just got more powerful. The GoldMail team are delighted to announce our partnership with email marketing leader Constant Contact. Just click on the player below for a 2 minute message. With Constant Contact email marketing for GoldMail you’ll benefit from: Significantly above average (97%) Inbox delivery. 400+ email marketing templates. Email open rate & click through tracking. List management & autoresponders. Email coaching and support. This latest GoldMail release is out now. To increase your click-through rate and speak to your audience with impact… -
GoldMail Partners TechSoup Global for Digital Storytelling Event
24 Sep 2009 | 1:13 amAre you an NGO looking for an innovative and compelling way to tell your organization’s story? From September 30 to October 21, GoldMail is proud to partner with TechSoup Global (one of the most comprehensive technology resources for NGOs in the world) for their Digital Storytelling Event. To find out more play this GoldMail. This online event includes expert roundtable discussions, nonprofit case studies, online discussions, live chat and a Digital Storytelling Challenge with great prizes (including a video camera, mp3 players and a GoldMail Synergy account). For a chance to win you… -
New release: Community Widgets, a GoldMail Gallery and more…
14 Sep 2009 | 2:50 pmThe GoldMail team are pleased to announce the release of a new version of GoldMail (2009 08). It’s simplest to show you around with a quick GoldMail, so click on this link or the image below and take a look. This release introduces… A Welcome Screen: which provides access to tutorials and guides, and incorporates a live feed of the latest product developments from our blog, so you can see what’s new at a glance. Clearer “View Notes” Button: we’ve added some text to make sure you don’t miss our slide notes feature (thanks for the feedback). Links to… -
Real estate agents work smarter and faster with GoldMail
18 Aug 2009 | 8:54 amGoldMail had a great time at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, showcasing our newest tools for Real Estate agents. The show traffic was surprisingly good considering the beleaguered economy and down real estate market and everyone seem to be optimistic and looking forward to brighter days ahead. Representatives from ReMax, Keller Williams, Buffini Group, and Realtor.com were all perusing the halls of the show, looking at productivity solutions for their agents. It goes to show this group of professionals have resolve and are rolling up their sleeves looking…
-
Jim Logan's B2B Rainmaker
-
The obvious secret to sales success
19 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pmAs odd as is may seem, the purpose of selling isn’t to pitch your product. In fact, your product is pretty much worthless, until you associate it with something worth buying. People want to purchase things that do things — for them. Things they value owning, achieving, and sometimes avoiding. That’s why your products and services have little importance, except to enable you to do or provide something that does that thing your prospect wants to buy. So, your purpose as a salesperson isn’t to hock your wares. Your job is to identify the things your prospect wants to… -
Three things in particular to make crystal clear in your sales compensation plan
12 Nov 2009 | 5:28 pmManaging sales people has a lot in common with managing other professionals — for the most part, people are people. While there aren’t many unique aspects of managing sales people, there’s one potential gotcha you need to be aware of — ambiguous compensation plans. Vague compensation plans lead to disgruntled staff — extreme cases end in arbitration or litigation. You don’t want to ruffle a productive sales staff because their compensation plan is interpretive. And as a salesperson, you don’t want to find out after the fact your compensation… -
Winning the professional services sale — The book
11 Nov 2009 | 8:43 amI’m not a slow read, but it took me longer than usual to read Michael McLaughlin’s latest book — Winning the Professional Services Sale. The problem was I found my self taking notes as I read it. If you’re not familiar with Michael, he’s the author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants and founder of MindShare Consulting – a firm that helps professional services organizations design innovative strategies to reach more clients, land profitable work, and build resilient businesses. Winning the Professional Services Saleis typical of the work you expect… -
Seven reasons why customer relationships matter to your business
10 Nov 2009 | 8:48 amWithout need for build-up, here’s the point of this post: Customer relationships matter because they create loyalty. Customer loyalty represents the opportunity for predictable and profitable growth. If you don’t care about those thing, there’s no reason to care about your customers. In fact, if you’re not interested in predictable and profitable growth, simply abandon the customers you have and try to make up the revenue with continual new customer acquisition. That’s the rub. And the reality many businesses live day-after-day. Customer relationships… -
Revenue Management
9 Nov 2009 | 5:36 pmThe image above is a map of sort. More accurately, it’s a relational pictorial of customer-facing revenue management. Note: Click on the image above to view it at full scale. Revenue management is a cross functional responsibility within a company to keep an eye on money coming into a business and all the customer related support systems and processes that support revenue. There are other elements of revenue not represented on the image above, namely royalties, investments, and other revenue derived from business relationships producing income from operations unrelated to customers.
-
Sales Management Today
-
Recognise Your STARS
11 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pmDo you know a sales superstar? AllBusiness and Top Sales Experts want to honor the top-performing salespeople who deliver results in today’s competitive market. You can help make that happen. We need your nomination The panel of top sales coaches and experts will select one salesperson each month from among the nominees. Monthly winners will: Be recognized by their peers for their outstanding contributions Be profiled in a feature article for AllBusiness and its sister site, Hoover’s Receive free twelve month VIP membership at Top Sales Experts Receive a signed copy of a panelist’s… -
Business Book of the Month: Lemonade Stand Simple
20 Oct 2009 | 7:52 amAccelerate Your Business Growth by Diane Helbig With so many people being downsized or packaged out of organizations many are choosing self-employment in an effort to take charge of their career. With nowhere else to turn, small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs simply cannot afford to fail. In Lemonade Stand Simple: Accelerate Your Small Business Growth, teaches small business owners, franchisees or anyone considering starting up a business how to avoid the pitfalls so many business owners make. In order to be successful small business owners must be able to sell their product or… -
Sales Leadership on Steroids
20 Oct 2009 | 6:32 amWith a Dose of Peer Group Discussion and a Leadership Coach to Pump you Up! Sales leaders need to remember that they too, must regularly upgrade their leadership skills. There are two critical areas that will help you pump up your leadership quotient. The most effective ways are networking with a peer group of like-minded sales leaders who face similar challenges and utilizing a sales leadership coach. As a former sales executive I always understood the importance of investing in my own development and the advantages of networking, and yet I always found myself too busy to do either. -
Make your SELF Indispensable!
8 Sep 2009 | 1:45 pmBuild a Bigger Network and Increase Your Market Value Every sales leader needs to consider their market value. Not only should sales leaders regularly evaluate and determine areas for growth for their staff, but also for themselves. When I talk about market value, I am referring to the two critical areas that will help you increase your value to your organization and as well as up your personal value. Your market value appreciates as you become a better leader and have a large professional network. As a former sales executive I was always in a tough spot. Although I cognitively understood… -
Sales Training That Delivers ROI
23 Aug 2009 | 1:17 pmDespite the economic downturn progressive sales organizations are continuing to invest 2-5% of their annual sales budgets in sales training and development. These organizations undoubtedly will outperform their competitors who don’t invest. Training and development is one of the key factors that lead to improved sales performance. The problem is that 90% of sales training is a waste of time and money. Most sales training is an event. It may increase sales force engagement but has little lasting impact. Without effective reinforcement the impact of your training will be lost within 30 days.
