Tough-Love Sales Management

Like transforming coal into diamonds, salespeople require pressure to become wealth producing. Either salespeople pressure themselves, or managers pressure them, or both. But left alone, like most things in nature, salespeople die on the vine, wither, and shrink from view.

Sales Managers: When Should You Fire Your Best Salesperson?

There are just some topics that you shouldn’t bring up in polite company. I could name them, but I’d be out of line. Yet I can’t resist speaking about this one topic of special relevance to sales managers everywhere. When should you fire your BEST salesperson? This is a question that comes up more than you might think, though it is as taboo to openly ask as “When is the boss going to croak?”

Small Business CRM: How To Select The Right CRM Software For Your Company

Choosing the right CRM software is challenging for most small business owners. Before talking with vendors, follow these simple steps to select the right vendor for crm that fits your needs.

If Your Sales Strategy Is Not Clear Sales Will Suffer

Ask any of your sales managers to define sales strategy and you might get a myriad of responses. Some right, some wrong and many just vague. Ask them to define operational effectiveness and you will tend to get more accurate answers depending on the level of the manager.

In Field Coaching Can Have An Enormous Effect On Sales Team Performance

Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there's no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

Internal Pressure Is the Secret

Most of us feel more harmony in our lives when everything is consistent: our jobs, our homes, our habits, even our soft drinks. Consistency is the glue that holds everything in our lives together, thereby allowing us to cope with the world.

Pacing and Leading

Pacing involves establishing rapport and making persuasive communication easier; leading involves steering your prospect toward your point of view. Pacing and leading will enable you to direct a person's thoughts so they tend to move in your direction.

First Impression Expectations

Have you ever noticed how the people you assume are going to be jerks turn out to be just that? And if there is someone you're especially excited to meet, then you meet her and she seems great! Often our assumptions and expectations about someone we're about to meet for the first time play out exactly as we've already mentally conceived them. Once again, even when first meeting someone, you will send subconscious messages about how they are to respond and behave.

Sales Management Can Save You From Losing Your CEO Job

Sales management is a key to any company’s success and the sooner you understand that the better. Most of my articles on sales have been from a specific perspective you see I am an entrepreneur and am now retired. I founded and ran a Franchising Company, which set up units in 450 cities, 150 major markets and 4 countries.

How To Interview Sales Candidates - Executive Leaders, Managers, and Individual Contributors

For some executive hiring authorities who do not have any background in Sales, it can be a challenge to really know if they are making a good hiring decision when interviewing prospective Executive Sales Leaders, Managers, or quota carrying individual contributors. This article offers specific questions/areas of focus that will take an executive hiring authority unfamiliar with sales process and strategic complex selling a long way down the road to making a solid hiring decision.

Learn to Think Small

The little foxes spoil the grapes. Which little foxes are spoiling your grapes?

Never Give Up, Never Let Go-

CRM - a fantastic concept and when done right can be an organizations greatest asset. But only when your approach is a focused one. Discover how and when a good CRM solution can work for you.

Do You Have An Effective Follow-up Strategy?

Why don't salespeople follow-up? And, what are the benefits of an effective follow-up strategy? Two critical issues that will determine the success of salespeople today. Why don't salespeople follow up?

It's Not Too Early To Start Thinking About 2007

Getting a fast start out of the box in January is one of the best ways to ensure a successful sales year. Many salespeople get lulled into the holiday spirit (and there is nothing wrong with that), but tend to get a slow beginning after January 1st.