So Ms/Mr. CEO, your sales team is experiencing some turnover. No big deal – right? Your sales leader tells you that "they weren't making their numbers," so it's justified – right? – wait, maybe not. This is important - If you take this response at face value without digging deeper, you and your company [...]
So your sales team has done their sales call planning. This is an important call. It is with a large prospective customer you have been pursuing for a long time. Your sales team is well prepared. They know the market; they have researched the prospective client and have an understanding of some of the [...]
Economy 1.0 says, regarding negotiations, "let the opposing party give us their number first." Guess what – in some cases, this is the wrong strategy. Suppose you have a high-performance Economy 2.0 sales team. In that case, they know that studies repeatedly have shown that the first-mover advantage favors the initial offer in a [...]
Tell me if you recognize this conversation between you and a veteran member of the sales team: You: "I just found out that Customer AB, who has been with us for years, has decided to go with the competition. I thought you were on top of this account? You tell me that you know [...]
To be considered a sales professional in Economy 2.0 requires understanding how to build committed relationships properly. It is a critical skill set – one that not every salesperson possesses. Most of the sales teams we coach understand the importance of making solid and committed relationships between them and their buyer counterparts, but what [...]
At the core of any high-performance sale team are its members. While sales leaders exert tremendous influence on the sales team, the individual team member will produce success (or not). For this discussion, we focus on the competencies of the individual sales team member. Have you read any job postings for sales talent lately? They are filled with [...]
The numbers are clear, there is an interesting imbalance set to dominate the B2B selling environment – the relationship between buyers and sellers is shifting but not for the reasons you think. Driving the imbalance are factors like: Aging workforce Number of new workers into the workforce Trends towards early retirement According to the [...]
Quick – Who makes the best sales person – an extrovert or an introvert? Quicker answer – Neither….. If you are like most people we asked you said extroverts make the best sales people. They make great sales people for a few reasons. First, since they have to interact with a wide range of individuals [...]
The sales call is a critical element of any sales process. When done well, opportunities are closed, revenue is generated and new customers are added. The opposite applies when they don’t go well. So what constitutes a good sales call? First, it depends on your business. For the transactional sale the “sales call” is [...]
We are all busy but consider the following activities: Define assigned quota Increase margins Increase market penetration Develop target account list Conduct daily, weekly, monthly calls on target accounts Develop business plan Conduct product demonstrations Communicate product features and benefits Identify customer needs Identify competitive threats Provide solutions Coordinate internal resources (pre and post [...]
