Sizzling Sales Contests Offer Three Prizes

According to best-selling author, sales coach, and President of Customersatisfaction.com, Dr. Gary S. Goodman, the good news about conventional sales contests is that there is a big winner, and generally, that person is very, very happy. The bad news is that everyone else is a loser. Avoid this problem, by giving everybody three chances to win! .

Avoiding Merchant Account Disasters

Merchant accounts are an integral part of the puzzle when it comes to accepting credit card payments through your web site. But too many people set up their accounts without fully understanding how merchant accounts function. The result can be frustration and significant financial loss. Learn how to spot potential problems before they start.

How To Manage Poor Performing Salespeople

Taking swift corrective action with poor sales performers is the key to any sales manager’s responsibilities. Nowhere is it more important than in sales to quickly take action when a sales person is not hitting their revenue targets. Management’s job is to diagnose and detect the underlying reasons for a sales person not performing and to engage in corrective action in order to correct the behavior, the activity or the results as necessary.

Sales Management and Leadership - They Aren't the Same!

Management and Leadership are NOT the same thing. Managers are sometimes expected to Lead, but are seldom taught how. How would a 3% -8% or more improvement in performance by the sales team affect your bottom line?

Sales Process Integration & CRM

Lots of companies fail to see the connection between developing a well defined sales process that's repeatable and scalable and the actual recording of sales activity, tracking and forecasting of sales results in a customer relationship, management or CRM system, also known as sales force automation or SFA.

Marketing by Prospecting

If you don't have a large marketing budget, then you must combine your marketing and prospecting skills. What if you had a system for using your marketing tools with your prospecting skills? You may just exponentially grow your business and have fun doing it! Marketing by Prospecting may just be that system.

Breaking the Financial Justification Logjam

Does your sales force seem to be treading water on certain sales opportunities? Is the same information coming to you each month when you ask penetrating questions about prospects? Does it appear progress moving an account to closure is bogged down? You say ‘there must be a way to break this logjam’. You feel just as stymied as your sales representatives. You wonder what moves to make and how to do them. Maybe a new (or revisited) approach is in order and an additional step or two needs to be taken.

Sales Cycle Reduction Equals Sales Acceleration

What would it be like if you could reduce the time it takes you to close orders from new customers by 10, 20, or 30%? Think about how a reduction in your sales cycle could lead to rapid improvement of your sales results and your revenue generation. Many companies neglect to take time to analyze their sales cycle and look at ways to reduce it…which can be done by more clearly defining their sales process and looking for areas to eliminate lengthy steps or delays.

Send Me in Coach!

At one time there was a long-standing belief in many sales organizations that coaching of sales representatives was a fundamental sales management responsibility. By contrast today, in the field skill set development is, at best, hit and miss leaving many sales people unclear how their performance is being evaluated. Little wonder sales force turnover is a reality.

Nine Hidden Dangers Of Wasting Your Time, Effort and Sanity On Nickel-and-Dime Cheapstake Buyers

There are some buyers out there who understand value but there are many of them who understand only price. And we have to be careful not to waste our time and sanity on people who buy professional services based on price.

Game, Set and Match

Hunting for prospects is a sales role, narrowing the focus of the hunt for sales to match the business profile is sales managements role. Maintaining a focus on the ideal profitability characteristics for salespeople is critical to success in any businesses sales program.

A Fairy Story

Once upon a time there was a factory that produced nuts, bolts and washers. There was a highly efficient production line dedicated to each, and each production line ended in an area called Assembly. In Assembly were a group of workers who put the nuts, bolts and washers together before they were despatched to the customer. Each worker sat at a bench. In front of them were three boxes, containing nuts, bolts and washers. They took the components, put them together and then dropped them into a fourth box situated on the floor behind them.

What to Do When You Hit the Invisible Sales Revenue Ceiling

Have you ever hit a level of revenue that you just couldn't seem to break through? If you have, then you know how frustrating it can feel. You may even spike above this ceiling periodically. But, like water seeking its own level, your revenue results seek a sub-par level. Sales leadership had failed to understand their meaningful business metrics. This was the primary reason, as it is in most cases. They hadn't isolated the essential competencies and components. Therefore, their people couldn't self-compete to reach and maintain revenue goals. They failed to develop practices and processes that allow an individual to identify, train to and measure their own competencies and performance metrics.

5 Tips for Finding Your Core Competencies

Imagine if during an interview process, you could tell a sales recruit what sales performance competencies are needed and measured... and what levels are necessary to be successful at the sales poistion being considered. All based off of real performance numbers and average benchmarks. Before you can do that, learn how to boil the fat off of mere sales activities and define what legitimizes a 'Sales Competency'.