Sales Management

A collection of 49 posts

Sales Management

Sales People Say Goodbye

According to the May 26, 2010 edition of Wall Street Journal, “the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number being fired or discharged for the first time since October 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Before February, the BLS had recorded more layoffs than resignations for 15

Sales Management

Your Sales Staff May Be Vulnerable

As you know, the recession has taken its toll on workers. Those who remain employed are openly unhappy about things. A recent study found that 71% of employees intend to find a new job when the market turns around. Sales people are no exception. Of all the job categories, sales

Sales Management

Is Your Hair on Fire?

It seems that many employers in the new economy expect you to work like "your hair is on fire”. This most applies to sales people. In the era of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, activity is king. Activities include telephone calls, emails, proposals, face-to-face meetings, product demonstrations, etc. The

Business Planning

6 Ways to Improve Your Next Meeting

Here is guest blog post from Greg Jordan:Meetings are a necessity. The size, type and dynamics can vary. But unproductive meetings are annoying and can become an all-too-frequent waste of time. I hope this blog posting will challenge you to consider the types of meetings you conduct and test

Sales Management

Sales Leadership: Who is Minding the Store?

What makes a great sales leader? Is it a manager with confidence, an ego under control, and empathy for others? Or, is he or she an egocentric, power-mad narcissist? A recent article by Live Science (10/7/08) suggests that it is probably the latter. The article suggests that, “Narcissists

Pricing

Price Skimming is Not Sustainable

Price skimming refers to the pricing of a new product or service at a very high level (while you can get away with it). This type of pricing is often deployed for a product which has a competitive advantage that is not sustainable. This happens a great deal in technology

Ethics

Business Gifts

Gift giving practices vary from industry to industry, but an appropriate gift is a great way to say thank you and can help solidify a relationship between customer and provider. The operative word is “appropriate”. Appropriate gift giving has these key elements: 1. The gift is well timed. 2. The

Sales Management

Is Selling Getting Tougher?

I get this question a lot from sales veterans who remember what selling was like before the Internet. My answer is that things are different with some aspects of selling harder and other parts easier. The biggest change in selling is the rise of the better informed buyer. Prior to

Ethics

Selling With Integrity

Marketing campaigns, sales quotas, and sales awards are soon forgotten. Yet, your reputation seems everlasting---it is the essence of what others remember about you. How will you be remembered? Mark Twain said, “If you tell the truth you won’t have to remember anything”. This adage makes sense to me.

Sales Management

Selling is More Checkers Than Chess

The business trade press has published volumes about how selling requires intense strategy and calculated thinking. I think this is mostly hogwash. Stop trying to out-think your customers. Instead, try to understand the customers’ wants and needs---then act accordingly. Selling is a lot more like checkers than chess. Being understood

Sales Management

Selling on the Phone

Selling on the phone can be drudgery, but this is how the money is made in sales. It all starts with a phone call. Whether you are a full-time telemarketer or CEO selling the company’s vision, the telephone is the most potent tool in the sales tool bag. Here

Sales Management

Why Customers Buy

“Different isn’t always better, but better is always different.” * Marshall Thurber, entrepreneur I like this quote because it sums up my thinking about how customers will buy an offering because of its differences and not because it is similar to another offering. This is true even if the offering

Branding

Trust and Selling

Would you buy something from someone whom you don’t trust? Most people won’t. Studies have shown that lack of trust may disable a sale more quickly than any other factor. So, what is trust? I define it as the feeling you get from someone that what they say

Public Speaking

Conquering the Fear of Rejection

The single greatest cause of sales “failure” is the fear of rejection--- that creeping feeling that customers will tell you “no”. It can be so paralyzing that rookie and veteran sales people will go to great lengths to avoid that word. This fear disables you from cold calling, closing, and

Sales Management

It Pays To Be Optimistic

Western culture is overwhelmingly pessimistic. Just turn on CNN or the local news and you will be bombarded with bad news---home foreclosures, inflation fears, Iraq, crime, and much more. Most advertising is negative---have you seen the political campaign ads? Studies have shown that 7 out of 10 people are pessimistic

Sales Management

Smile While Selling on the Phone

People can “hear” you smile when you talk with them on the phone. A recent study confirmed that you sound different or better when you smile. Smiling affects how we speak. Listeners can actually detect your smile based on sound alone according to a new study by the University of

New Product Development

Marketing Innovative Products

Innovative products need to be marketed and sold differently than other offerings since they require a special customer who is receptive to innovation. Most customers are skeptical and will wait until innovative products are mass marketed. Here are a few suggestions on how to market innovative products: • Not everyone will

Sales Management

Setting Sales Goals for 2008

Study after study shows that people who set goals accomplish more, achieve greater success, and accumulate greater wealth than people who don't. Read on if you agree. Setting your sales goals for 2008 should begin with a review of how you did in 2007. Did you achieve your

Sales Management

Referrals and Selling

It is legendary that referrals can be the best method for new business development. Simply put, there is no better sales person than a happy customer. Here is a simple suggestion. Effective immediately, make it part of every customer meeting agenda to discuss referrals. I am not kidding. Make it

Sales Management

Ask for Referrals

Not long after my wife bought a Honda Fit she received an envelope with a handwritten address and a real stamp. Opening what looked to be greeting card from some friend was a card from her sales person at the Honda dealer. The card read: “Our path to success is

Sales Management

Selling in a Down Market

We can argue about what constitutes a bear market, a recession, and when the economy will hit bottom, but it seems clear that 2008 will be a tough year. Oil looks like it might top $100 a barrel, real estate will continue the downward spiral, and we have a lame

Negotiation

Negotiating With a Cry Baby

When negotiating you will periodically encounter the “cry baby”, which is a negotiator who has learned that if they cry loud enough and long enough, he or she might get what they want. This behavior resembles a two year old screaming until you pick them up to shut them up.

Sales Management

Hunters Hunt and Farmers Farm

Hunters hunt and farmers farm. Both types of sales people are valuable, but which best fits your offering? Which of these sales profiles is the best fit for your industry? Which is the best fit for the territory and the accounts? A hunter is highly tuned-in to his or her

Public Relations

“How to Sense Impending Doom”

The headline above is an actual headline from BusinessWeek Online from August 13, 2007. The story that followed described new technologies which help monitor bridges and how experts who can analyze the results are in short supply. This article was written in the wake of the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse

Sales Management

Internal Selling Can Be the Hardest Sale

You beat the competition. You secured commitment from the customer. And you got the order. Congratulations, but the selling is not over. The next step is to go back and sell to your own company and it may be the hardest sales call you make. To fulfill your commitments to