The Forward Thinking Sales Manager Begins with the End in Mind

If an outside sale is truly a sales process, then there are steps involved for each sale. Since we agree on this fact, it makes sense to manage salespeople towards each of the steps in the sales process. The best way to manage these steps is taking them one at a time, moving forward each step toward the sales close.

How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time - Part 3

There are 6 Major Sales Prospecting Errors that lead to low sales appointment success. In this article we will discuss the ramifications and remedies of the 1st three to set more 'Top-down' sales appointments in less time.

Sales Management and Cold Calling Programs

Most people who are in sales do not really like cold calling much and I suppose that makes sense, yet if you are very knowledgeable about the industry for which you are calling you should not worry much and actually come to enjoy talking to like minded business folks. Indeed you may find they actually enjoy talking with you.

Sales Manager Tip #28; The Informed Prospect

A good sales manager must stay in touch with each and every salesperson in the sales force that is working for the company. It is essential to find out from the salespeople what prospects are saying to them and which objections that the salespeople are getting in the field from potential customers and prospects.

Gain Willing Cooperation

Reward Power refers to the ability to deliver rewards or benefits to influence others. These can be financial, material, or psychological rewards. Reward Power is the fastest way to persuade.

Influential Authority

Power is situational. In what situations do you have the most power? When do you have the least?

Red Flags Of Sales Recruiting: No Need To Take Action (Don't Hire Them In The First Place!)

Recruiting and hiring sales professionals is typically reactive in nature: sales managers generally do not start looking for candidates until they have an immediate need. In an attempt to fill an open position as quickly as possible with the most qualified candidate (the best of the bunch), hiring managers often overlook or ignore critical areas in candidate's backgrounds and personalities, only to realize they've made a bad decision down the road.

Engineers Hiring Sales Reps

The hiring of salespeople is often one of the most frustrating aspects of staffing a high tech enterprise. Particularly in the startup phase, senior management has often come from a technical (or at least not sales) background. They know that they need a sales force (usually!). But they’ve certainly never hired them before. Or if they have, it's not been successful. And truth be told, technical founders often don't have a high opinion of the sales profession. They may think sales looks like an easy job that anyone can do.

Small Companies Really Can Compete - Here's How

A small improvement in bidding techniques and tactics can lead to a disproportionately large increase in the number of contracts won.

Differentiation - The Key To People Remembering You And Your Game

How do you differentiate yourself from everyone else? I used to be in the contract labor business for the tradeshow industry. So I sold labor – right? Wrong – what I sold was peace of mind. What I sold was the comfort that the customer would have by using us for his/her labor needs.

Sales Managers: Should You Dress Salespeople For Success?

she occasionally flicks the lint off your lapel or tightens the knot in your necktie. But what if your sales manager did that, too? I’m not recommending it, but management should take keen interest in how its people look in the field, because appearances count. If your team looks better, they’ll be more credible and they’ll earn more business. What should your role be in assuring that they look their best? Here are five tips from Dr. Gary S. Goodman, Fortune 1000 consultant, top speaker, and best-selling author of 12 books and more than 700 artcles.

Are Self-Limiting Beliefs Constraining Your Sales Team?

Allowing self-limiting beliefs to constrain performance, will in turn limit sales results because like everyone, salespeople hold stubbornly to private beliefs about themselves, clients, markets, competition, and even the economy, beliefs that can have an enormous impact, either positive or negative, on their sales achievement levels.

Sales Management-Do The Inmates Run The Asylum

Handling sales people that can put up the numbers but break every rule in the book, someone that can’t get along with their peers and someone that drives inside sales people crazy can be very challenging for a sales manager. This will create a situation that ultimately will affect overall company performance regardless of this sales person’s individual success. This is especially true if this sales person holds the sales manager hostage knowing his numbers help keep corporate off the sales managers back.

Underlying Keys to Motivation

Motivation starts with vision. In other words, people need to believe that they will succeed in what you are motivating them to do.