Selling

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Selling Tagged Articles

Bonehead Advertising Ploys
If you really listen to the advertisements on TV, you can either get a lot of entertainment or get pretty sick. The material is full of claims that actually lower the trust in the product or service being sold. Sometimes I wonder who thinks up this garbage. If the objective is to get us to buy more, then why do the moguls of advertising put out this material?

C-Level Selling Tip 12 – Level to Level Selling Is a Myth
You don’t have to be at the upper level to secure meetings with C-Level and powerful people. The trick is who you know and what you have to say. Learn more in this article.

Setting Sales Appointments
Tips on getting the buyer to accept that first meeting.

Selling on Price
Using value along with price to make a sale & keep the client in the long run.

Effective Networking = Business/personal Success

I quite positive I am not the first and will not be the last person to tell you that you can accelerate your business and personal success by effectively building and maintaining your network. “You need to network more,” anonymous Marketing consultant. “Stop cold calling, start networking,” anonymous Sales Trainer. “Go to more networking events,” anonymous Chamber of Commerce Executive Director. “Pass out more business cards,” anonymous Professional Association President.

Car College: Learn while you drive
You can travel with the worlds top trainers and motivators at a modest expense . Expect great results!

C-Level Selling Tip 13 - Steal Your Competitors' Customers
Steal share from competitors within 6 weeks. Learn how easy it is to get business from your competitors’ top customers.

Effective Negotiating
Reviewing different models that help in both negotiating and overcoming objections when dealing with prospective buyers.

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending: Using Stories to Sell Your Products and Services
Once exclusively used in hi tech companies, case studies are compelling sales tools for your prospects and customers

Sales Management - The Next Sale Is the Game of Your Life
No matter you're a salesperson or sales manager every sale has a significant and immediate impact on your career. Everyday you play the game of your life. Learn how to make it to the playoffs and win with this article.

Do This and Lose Sales
Salespeople focusing on product lose sales because they miss the solution

Defining Moments in Your Sales Cycle
What are some of the more subtle, but important, key moments in your sales process that affect every sales outcome? If I were to review some recent conversations with clients and their salespeople, crucial accomplishments included:

What is Maximum Effort on the Sales Force?
You've observed salespeople who were focused, efficient and effective for months at a time. Very few distractions, good balance of new opportunities and closable opportunities, and everything moved along as it should, driven by these great salespeople. And when they perform like this for long stretches at a time, that is maximum effort.

Can the Beatles Help You Close Big Deals?

Back in the 60's, three companies were competing for attention. But they weren't retailers, manufacturers or service providers. Despite that, they had features and benefits that caused people to follow and buy from them. Some people didn't care for any of the three and bought from alternative sources. Some preferred just one or the other. And some bought from all three. They were the big winners of their day. Who were they? Try The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones. Check out the following table which, if they were traditional sellers, could have been used to tout their features and benefits.

When, How and Why Salespeople Discount Products and Services
When I pick up the dogs, Heather gives me the bill. When it's $140, I pay, she gets the dogs for me, and we leave. However, when the bill is $800, Heather gets really uncomfortable, and begins editing the invoice and always seems to get it under $650. Nice, right? Only if you're a customer. If you're Bob, the owner, who has no clue she is doing this, what must it be like for him?

Requests for Proposals (RFP's)
An overview on RFP's and the importance associated with RFP's in selling.

Melting the "ICE" Out of Price
Now, I've said this before - you shouldn't be positioning yourself solely on price. If your aim is to be the "Walmart" of your niche, then by all means, slash those prices. For the rest of us, we need to take a good hard look at our sales letters, our sell sheets, and our pitches.

C-Level Sales Training Tip 14 - Credibility Is the Magic for Selling to C-Level Executives
Credibility is paramount to sell, and develop professional relationships with C-levels and other powerful people. This article will explain the simple process to establish and enhance your credibility with C-Level executives, doctors, and other influential people.

Behold, The Power of "We"
Whether we want to admit it or not, we all want to belong to something. It's only human nature to enthusiastically support being part of a group - whether it's your family, your favorite sports team, political party, or even the Little Orphan Annie Club. Nobody wants to be on the outside looking in...we all want to be included in the "we."

A Death Sentence for Sales People - Failing to Know Your Customer
# Many a savvy salesman has lost a sale because he failed to know his customer. You may have infinite product knowledge, a slick sales pitch, and a phenomenal product - but, if you don't know who needs your product and why they need it - you'll be about as effective as a death row pardon at two minutes past midnight.

Taking a Chapter from Amazon's Playbook - The Art of the Bounceback
Don't reinvent the wheel! Some of the most savvy sales strategies are right in front of you. Take a chapter from Amazon's playbook and learn to master the art of the bounceback.

Which Half of Your Sales or Management Effort is Working?
As inidcated by John Wanamaker's famous quote, frequency is an important element of marketing. It is also an important element of selling and of sales management...

Want to Know How to Sell? All you have to do is ask
An article pertaining to the methods of selling in a business. Tips on answering questions for customers.

Selling Power And The Power Of Choice
The one thing we all have in common is selling power and the ability to choose. It’s the choices you make that determines your selling success. Why leave it to chance when you can make intelligent choices?

Selling to Purchasing Departments
One of the most difficult parts of a salesperson's job is dealing with purchasing departments...Here are a few vital points to keep in mind when dealing with a purchasing department.

Winning Sales by Understanding Your Sales Process -

Your Present Selling System. If you’re in a business that is more than a few years old, it is a certainty that someone within that business has developed a system – or a habit - of selling that works for your market – if only in part. If that system is not the best it could be, then your sales are less than they could be. It’s really that simple! Does it stand to reason then that, if you understood the system you have evolved to sell your product (we’ll use “product” to include services), you may be able to use that understanding to improve or optimise your system – and increase your sales thereby?

Drinking My Own Kool Aid
It's always a good idea to take time to review how you're doing, and invest in improving yourself.

Flying Chickens
If anything can be misunderstood, it will be misunderstood. Read this laugh out loud story that illustrates this point perfectly

The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: Pressure vs. Tension: Are You Selling Them or Are They Selling Themselves
Stoke the Tension, Don't Put It Out Some of you may be uncomfortable with the idea of creating tension because you're confusing it with pressure. Understanding the distinction between the two is critical. I want to explore this so that you can apply tension without qualms and to great effect. Let's start again with this definition: pressure is applied externally; tension happens

The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: Multiple Offers or One? How Do You Decide?
It's important to be really clear about your offers and explain them well, so that people don't get confused. A confused mind says "NO." I usually make two or three offers at smaller venues. I generally divide my offer page like a crisscross, with the three offers in three different boxes. The fourth box might have an additional

Setting the Presentation/Proposal Meeting Date
A quick view and advice on the difficulties associated with the timing and timeframe of proposals.

Activity/Activity/Activity
An overview on how to set one's own activity level with regards to sales.

Are They the “Real” Decision Maker?
Keys to finding the "real" person making the decisions.

Are you a Leader or a Follower?
Positive aspects of the current social and networking abilities.

Handling Objections in Today’s Sales Environment
Methodologies on how to handle and identify obstacles and objections with regards to the sales environment.

Presentations - Easy as 1 - 2 - 3
A view on the simplicity that can be associated with the word presentation.

Professional Presentation Skills
Simply going through the process of a presentation and its relative simplicity.

The dba of a Professional Sales Person
This article highlights the "doing business as" a Professional Sales Person

The Diary of a Mad Sales Person
Finding a working balance between the selling and administrative sides of the aisle.

The Difference Between Winning the Deal & Losing the Deal
Items that cause the difference and the result the comes from it.

The Sales Meeting Objective – Is It Mutually Beneficial?
Being sure to define the benefits associated with the products and services that will impact the businesses involved before the meeting takes place. This is done through various asepcts including, but not limited to increasing revenues, decreasing business expense, improving productivity, enhancing marketing, improving technology capabilities, improving security protection.

The Value 2 (Squared) Equation
The importance of showing value to both the buyer, and the buyer's end user: Value 2 (Squared).

What is So Wrong with Selling on Price?
Problems associated with selling on price.

Wireline vs. Wireless
Importance associated with the sales process.

The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: Is It Better They Buy from Their Hearts or Their Head?

Now, imagine a prospect, connected to her inner knowing, who never before has seen so clearly how her pain could be transformed. She's in a lifeboat with you. You're showing her the way. But, alas, you encourage her to go off and "think about it," to use her intellect to decide whether she wants to invest. You return to the ship, and she's out there alone, adrift, with her logical mind, her small self and her fear to help her decide. You probably

How to Follow Up When Prospecting Into Your Network Marketing Business
Successful network marketers know how to follow up because they understand that it is important to cultivate relationships with prospects before converting them into customers or new distributors. When you learn how to follow up, you will start cultivating relationships.

The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: You Made the Sale, Now Keep It!
Buyer's remorse is a natural reaction, as is a person pulling back after stretching beyond what he or she has done before. After buying your offer, some people will question whether they did the right thing. What you need to do is show them that YES, they did. One of the best ways to

Increase sales by optimizing your sales funnel
Businesses sell but are rarely as intentional as they should be about it. While a business might do a lot of things to market and sell their products, they might be doing too much! Even more success with less effort is possible by taking a closer look at the sales funnel. Use these strategies to optimize your sales funnel and get more people buying from you faster.

The Secret to Having Sales Mojo!
The result of investing in myself beyond what felt comfortable has been exponential growth. I'm serving more people than I could ever have imagined only one year ago. They are experiencing transformation they only dreamed of and I get to be part of that. I'm personally stretching myself every day to grow and

Are You Too Attached to the Sale?
When you're on the stage, as part of your commitment to the person making a decision, you provide valuable information. You give them the background they need. You make sure they're clear on the outcome and the transformation that will happen in their life if they say yes. And you even make them an Irresistible Offer that

Yelling Telling and Selling
I saw an employee survey the other day where several employees referred to their supervisor’s style of giving instructions as “yelling.” It started me thinking about that word. This article compares the yelling style with telling and selling.

How Organized Are Your Marketing Plans?
A road map (marketing plan) will help you to see how overlapping plans and campaigns affect each other. More importantly, use your marketing plan and marketing calendar to track your results. This will allow you to see clearly which efforts were profitable and which should be discontinued.

Why Making an Offer is a Service
I'm going to say it plainly; it's a disservice to your potential clients not to make an offer. Think about it. People have come to hear you speak live or during a teleseminar or one on one, because there is something you're offering that they know they need. And when you just stand up there and educate them and you don't make an offer that gives them

C-Level Sales Tip 18 - Good Interviewing Leads to Great C-Level Presentations
Learn from this article how to get C-level executives or anyone to open-up and tell you everything you want to know about them personally, the sale, their company and more.

Are You Giving Away Too Much?
Bonuses are very important and you should definitely include them with your offer. But rather than spending time and money creating new products, take a look at what you're already offering. Often there are real jewels hidden in your package that you could take out and

Build Trust Fast
Being trustworthy is not enough. Sales people must first overcome the stereotype.

Get that Sales Job

I don’t intend this to be an incitement for people to up sticks and seek pastures new unless now is the right time. A good reason for changing employer is that you have run out of things to learn. Another is when goals are miss-aligned and neither party is willing to compromise. If you are changing jobs for better remuneration, make sure you know what will be expected of you. Whatever your reason, if you observe the rules below, you will be much more likely to get the job you want.

Hate Something
Perhaps for you, things haven’t gone pear shaped before and you are reading along just for the ride. I hope you never find yourself being forced to make cold calls. No matter how impenetrable your titanium shell, customers can still hear the tremor of desperation in your voice. Then things go from bad to worse.

Selling in a Downturn

Seven Solutions - 120 words - 30 seconds: Get proof that your stuff does what you promise. Verifiable evidence convinces ahead of sales skills. Find prospects less affected by the downturn. Some are shrinking less or still growing. Use evidence and proof to develop better messaging and multiple messages. Cast better seeds on more fertile ground. Present better messages to more qualified prospects. Thrive on a small improvements. Vary your approach – phone, voicemail, email, letter, post card, introduction, or fax. Like advertising, effective sales prospecting depends on repetition and persistence. Have the customer quantify the cost of inaction. It is a brave manager who spends money in a downturn without a concrete business case. Training works. Attend or study a top sales course for new ideas. Full article >

Hate Selling? Start a Movement Instead.
When you are fired up and focused on the changes you want to see in the world, you won't even have to sell. Marketing is important, but any marketing you do must be preceded by defining the movement you want to perpetuate and the changes you want to make in the world.

Why Follow a Sales Process?
The importance and benefits of following a sales process when working as a sales professional.

Sales Core Competencies

How do you spend your time now when it comes to your own professional development? Aside from any company sponsored program you might attend, what else do you do and what do you focus on? Certainly, continuing to learn the technicalities of your business is critical, but in all the years I've been working with sales people, no one has ever told me they lost the deal because they were technically unprepared. Typically, the reason people lose business is due to lack of sales “know how”. This includes the failure to help the prospect overcome objections, the inability to overcome price issues, a failure to undo the current relationship and the inability to get someone to act. These are the symptoms that you must address when working on “fixing” the choke points in your sales system.

Sales Mission Complete

I recently had the great honor and privilege of visiting our United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. I was overwhelmed by the courage and passion of those that occupy this post. They are truly remarkable people and I was struck by how much the disciplines they practice relate to selling. Yes, it might be a stretch to tie what happens at West Point to sales and selling, but not much of a stretch. This group of young people consistently demonstrates at an extraordinary level all of those competencies necessary to succeed in selling: courage, desire, commitment, persistence and ethics. They are sales people in fatigues. They spend their day selling others on the connection between athletics and winning on the battlefield. One of the metrics for success: bringing everyone back alive. That is life or death.

Dress for Success as a Sales Professional
The importance of dress code when it comes to sales.

Shoes / Watch / Grooming
The importance of the three to the potential buyers in the marketplace.

Ten Tips for Selling B2B in China
As the world economy struggles to recover, China continues grow due to strategic infrastructure investments by the Chinese government. Companies with products or technologies that support the government's agenda may have major opportunities. But, selling in China is filled with challenges and expert guidance is advisable. As a beginning, we offer ten key point (tips) for your consideration.

The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: How Can I Present My Offer Without Sounding Like I'm Pitching Something?

You see, it all starts with your offer and clearly understanding the unique transformation that comes from investing with you. If you are clear about your offer and the outcome your clients will enjoy, then when you present it, it won't sound like pitching. It will sound like an extension of your contribution and content. But if you don't present your offer clearly, it's not going to sound authentic or enticing to your prospects no

Managing the Sales Territory Effectively
Different methods of effectively going through and seeing where changes are necessary with regards to territory management as well as noticing what has been successful.

Quick Tips for Structuring a Talk that Sells!

Are you planning to wing it during your next talk? Do you tell yourself, "I just do better when it's not planned." Are you equally willing to let your results happen by chance? By accident? Or, do you fall on the other side of the spectrum, where you plan every moment of your talk to the point of having a script and end up sounding unnatural? So how do you strike the perfect balance so that you do enough planning to keep yourself on track, but still sound completely authentic? The answer is

The sales pitch is dead
The approach to sales as we know it is dead. Why? Because a company's clients/consumers/target audience, call them what you will, want more. In this content rich society they crave information and insights and companies/brands that can help them make sense of their world.

Top Seven Selling Mistakes To Avoid This Year!
We've made every selling mistake in the book. Some of them over and over again until we realized we don't know what we don't know. Then we change and learn the top selling mistakes to avoid to be successful in selling.

What Are You Really Selling?
Do you have the confidence to sell your company's services in thirty seconds? There are so many tips to selling. Here are some ideas to help you find the words for today's fast moving world.

Creating, Recognizing & Measuring Value
Deliver value that your customers recognize, appreciate and reward. If you want your customers to value what you offer - you must demonstrate that you value them and their money, risk, time, staff, business, and needs.

C-Level Sales Training Tip 21- Eliminate Low Price by Differentiating
Price battles happen because the C-Level decision maker doesn’t see a reason to pay more. Learn how to show differentiation where it counts and eliminate the low price argument.

Value and Tension: Strike the Right Balance
It All Starts with Value You may be the most polished presenter or the most charismatic teacher on the planet, but if you are not giving people what they need so that they can make the choice to buy what you have to offer, your Million-Dollar

5 Ways to Beef Up Your Irresistible Offers with Juicy Bonuses

It may be perfectly fine on its own, but bonuses generally cost very little to produce and add great perceived value to your offer. Plus, they are great tools for inspiring people to take action on the spot. Additionally, if you have been invited to speak on a larger stage, sometimes you have to split your sales with the promoter of the event. If your initial offer does not provide enough value to warrant a higher investment, your profit could be small.

The Proposal Document
A simple overview on a few pointers for proposals.

How to Create Packages That Sell

And, the bottom line is you have to understand your customer's pain. Your job is to get them excited, intrigued and ready to take action! When your audience wants the outcome that you are offering you can be sure that they are not basing their decision on whether you are offering one call or 20 calls. They are simply interested in an offer that will give them the transformation they seek. When you're on the stage, you want 90% of your speaking and energy to be about the amazing, breakthrough results they can expect from investing

“Funnel” or “Incubator?”
Friendly violent debates are really a lot of fun. They’re also the best way to practice selling complex ideas. Fortunately for me, there are lots of folks ready, willing and able to have no-holds-barred, free-for-all arguments about my allegedly brilliant ideas. One of my favorites involves the traditional “sales funnel” metaphor.

The Rodney Dangerfield of Sales (aka Mr. Low Price)

Ever wonder how Rodney Dangerfield came up with his signature, “I don’t get no respect,” line? My guess is it first hit him when he still had his job selling aluminum siding. Yep, that’s how he supported himself and his family before his big break on the Ed Sullivan Show. Anyway, talk about a tough thing to sell! How could you possibly differentiate your aluminum siding from their aluminum siding?

“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
The title of this post is a quote from William Gibson. Whoda’ thunk a science fiction writer would have such a compelling insight into the power of the E-Rep?

How To Tell Stories That Help You Sell
To achieve that connection, you have to craft your stories well, and a big part of that is preparing them in advance to make sure that you love telling them and that they touch your audience in the way that you intend. If you’re not passionately engaged in telling your story,

Establishing Your Sales Objectives
A simple process of establishing ones own sales objectives.

Selling Mojo Improves Results
Selling mojo improves results especially when the economy is soft and your customers are demanding. Discover 3 ways to add selling mojo to your sales effort every day.

Three Biggest Sales Challenges

In my work helping corporations improve the effectiveness of their sales forces, I consistently run into three situations that I am beginning to believe challenge most companies. Many sales people are unable to: - Determine if a sale is makeable before investing too many resources. - Stop selling and start helping their prospective customer. - Manage objections without creating a win/lose environment. While every sales situation is somewhat different there are some constants that can help every sales person be more effective dealing with these challenges.

“Cold” Calling Might Be Dead, But Not SMART Prospecting
It's a fact, if you want your business to succeed, you must prospect for new business. The difference between placing a "Cold" call versus a "Smart" call, is knowing what to do both before and during the prospecting call.

Successfully selling your product or service
You may not see it this way, but no matter what type of business you operate, you will have to sell. Whether you are selling your product, your service or simply your company's reputation, you have to be good at it to guarantee the long-term success of your enterprise.

Why Benchmark?
A good number of reasons for benchmarking and making substantive points with potential clients that are not always too forthcoming.

7 Things to Consider in Affiliate Marketing Business Model Online Website Selling
7. Can the SYSTEM be used by anyone anywhere to Succeed (like McDonalds) - Finally, McDonalds is run by teenagers who have a specific set of SIMPLE rules all over the world no matter what their background. Is the business model SIMPLE and STEP BY STEP that anyone can make money from and pass on to others?

What Are Your Limits?
Nothing is forever, everything has a limit and you can use those limits to your marketing and selling advantage.

Creating YOUR Top 10 List To Help You Sell More Of Your…
What's on your top 10 List? How popular is your most popular product, service or idea? Help your client and customers make a faster decision and unload your excess inventory

Selling Change
If we're to learn from history, then we must accept the fact that change - either in the form of innovation, continuous improvement or both - is a critical component of growth and ongoing success. But, truth be told, people tend to resist change; so, how might we, as managers or business owners best go about getting the team to accept it?

Selling Attitude!
Selling is a people business. People buy from people, and most often, from people that they like. But what makes one sales rep more likeable than the next? Surely all, or at least most sellers try to be likeable! Attitude makes the difference.

Affiliate Marketing Business Model - Online Website Selling
I am going to tell you quickly the ADVANTAGES of this new market that thousands and thousands of people are using to rack it thousands and thousands of dollars! Not only that, most of these people are doing so from the comfort of their own home and making more money then their day job that they do not need to work anymore. Here are the main benefits to consider as this is exploding off the roof.

How is an Affiliate Marketing Business Model Online Website Selling for Dummies?
You are officially a Dummy! :) But that is absolutely no problem at all. Everyone starts off being a dummy whenever they are require to learn a new skill. You know you want to write your own pay check. You also know that you want to be your own boss. So how is an affiliate marketing business model online website selling for Dummies? It is because:

Cold Call Selling: Smartest Methods For Small Business Owners
Cold calling to sell is one of the hardest and most aggravating ways to make a living, if you do it the way most people teach. I’ve had two salespeople cold call me that knew how to make it work. Here is what they did.

The Top Affiliate Marketing Business Model - Online Website Selling
One of the coolest trick in the book is when you do not even need a website :) You just need to have your unique website link posted wherever you want. Not only that, you can hide and change the actual link so that it says whatever you choose to; making it look more genuine and real.

Selling: The Greatest Customer Service
Articles about customer service almost never include the word “Selling”. You will see how selling is usually the best thing you can do as a service to your customers.

Introducing Yourself from the Stage

Build It Quickly You want to show that vulnerability and build that credibility in the first 5 to 10 minutes of your talk. You don't want to take a lot of time with it, but it's absolutely critical because we buy from people that we feel connected to and trust to deliver. Get Comfortable The beginning of your talk has to be strong, so you need to get comfortable quickly and get on a roll. Here are two ways to do that:

Selling With Education Marketing
Most searches online looking to buy a product or service start with a search looking for more information. Providing that information is the first step in the selling process. Online or offline. Here is how this works.

Why Aren't People Buying From You?
The reason most entrepreneurial ventures fail? Quite simply, they overestimate the number of people that will buy what they are selling. As entrepreneurs, how can this doomed fate be avoided?

Why ‘everybody lives by selling something’ is key to your success

‘Everybody lives by selling something’ seems to have allowed people to discuss an area that is fundamental to human relationships and communication, the principle of exchange. In our lives we are all exchanging things of value. Whether what we exchange is of value to others should be determined through effective communication, open dialogue, and trust. Taken to an organisation wide level, everybody in a company has an impact on how the business communicates with and engages in the principle of exchange with its customers, suppliers, the broader community, and each other. The legacy of silos in organisations, where departments distance themselves from each other, pitting their agenda against others to gain an upper hand, is the opposite of the principle ‘everybody lives by selling something’.

Is a climate of perpetual discounting limiting choice and eroding our quality of life?

Gerry Harvey, (Harvey Norman) was recently bemoaning the culture of discounting in our retail sector. He was saying that retailers had lost the plot and didn’t know how to sell real value anymore. He said they had fallen foul of a culture of constant discounting as the only way to attract customers, which was tantamount to business disaster and a degradation of the retail sector. I happen to agree with Gerry in this instance. He went further by saying that retailers were failing to find out what customers really wanted and what they really valued. He said retailers weren’t offering choice – a range of options of different value and therefore were not selling.

Noise Reduction part 1

About 20 years ago I was told that information was doubling every 5 years; 5 years ago it was every 18 months; 1 year ago it was every 9 minutes, so who knows how fast information is doubling now? Many business leaders, sales people and many more are reporting information overload. Selecting what to take on board and what to leave behind will be critical for sales and business success. It will also be critical for our own wellbeing. There is so much to read and process, and so little time to do it well. Many people report feeling that their brains are ‘bursting’ as a result of so much information and wonder how they can process, log, link and manage the information they are exposed to and then use it wisely and purposefully.

Noise Reduction part 2: Is too much information making you miserable and losing you sales?

With information comes choice and without proper guidelines and filters in place, too much information and too many choices can lead to indecision. Indecision can then lead to paralysis making us unhappy, unproductive, and at worst, ineffective. In sales careers, or any role for that matter, too much information and the subsequent indecision is a real killer – in fact, making no decision is far worse than making the wrong decision.

Is your sales effort built on a house of cards?

Is your sales strategy and projected sales growth built on a house of cards? For many start-ups this is the case. Their initial sales growth often comes off the back of an entrepreneur’s ideas and the hard work of a dedicated few who pitch in, take on multiple roles and tasks all the while promoting and selling the idea to more and more people. This works well in the early days where the team is small, communication channels are direct, everyone knows what is going on and is committed to the fledgling business’ success. There’s lots of activity, lots of fun, lots of sleepless nights and a growing sales pipeline. The business has a life of its own until one day the owners/ directors realise that if they are to grow further they need more people...

Why Sales Managers need to work on the business, not just in the business

Playing “catch up” is a common challenge for organisations of all sizes. Whether you have enjoyed a period of rapid growth and prosperity, or encountered some unexpected obstacles or losses, with little warning, businesses can discover that their decision making and activity has become very reactive. Too much time is spent putting out spot fires and reacting to situations, while too little time is spent on pro-active and strategic activities. The very real and legitimate day to day business pressures result in many (if not most) decisions being made on an ad-hoc basis, with each one disconnected from the next.

Selling is not a dirty word

We are not born with our beliefs or values, they are taught to us. Our thoughts, feelings, views and opinions about the world are shaped by our experiences of many people and many things. They are coloured, rightly or wrongly, by our perceptual filters which we learn from others. ‘Watch who you let near your mind’ is a statement that is often quoted in my articles and for good reason. It takes between 6-8 weeks to unwittingly pick up and adopt another’s views, beliefs and perceptions and own them as your own if we do not question and thoroughly examine the consequences and impact of these beliefs and perceptions on our own thoughts, feelings, behaviours and actions.

Culture Fit

What is Culture Fit? Well the first place you are likely to hear about Culture Fit is when you are recruiting for new staff or being recruited yourself. For instance, Culture Fit Interviews differ from Behavioural Interviews, in that the Behavioural Interview attempts to find out about the candidate’s behaviour, skills, knowledge and experience. Culture Fit Interviews generally do not try to determine the individual’s capability, but rather considers the candidate’s ‘cultural fit’ with the organisation, their values and motivators.

How do you create future sales superstars?

How many of us entered our sales careers with our eyes wide open? Fully aware of what it takes to be an effective sales person – ably resourced with the tools, processes, plans and support essential to our success. Knowing full well what you were getting yourself into. For most, if not all of us, our initiation into sales was nothing like this, and was cushioned with little or none of these luxuries. Does the analogy “sink or swim” resonate with anyone? All of this makes the story I am about to share quite unique and refreshing. Recently, some rather clever and farsighted managers gave some very fortunate young people the opportunity to get a large glimpse into the world of selling.

Is internal competition eating away at your sales results?

Many sales cultures are traditionally based on respect for authority, status and success, and encouraging competitive, challenging and achievement-oriented atmospheres. Although this is not true for all businesses, especially in the 21st Century! There are a growing number of businesses adopting more collegiate, lead team approaches. However, despite different types of cultures, sales performance and results are usually derived from the efforts of individuals. Harnessing those individual efforts to achieve synergy (the sum is greater than its individual parts) is a key task of management, yet so many get it wrong. Let’s take a look at one case study and see why.

Simple Steps to Capture More Sales
The most basic models for successful selling require that a business pulls together what they do best with what the prospects want most. But knowing which is which requires care and planning. Here are some simple steps to help you capture more sales.

Networking is Not Selling
If you want to use networking the way it's meant to be here are a few tips that can help even the best net worker be better.

Why Is Selling The Greatest Job?
When you ask people what the word “Selling” means, you hear things like “Fast talking, lying, cheating, conning”. You may even have had one of those words in mind yourself. But selling is one of the most noble professions available. Here is why.

What Questions Do New Customers Ask of Entrepreneurs?

Amongst many things, entrepreneurs spot a hole in the market, create something ‘new’ (or different) and move fast. They need to be cash conscious, astute risk takers, careful business planners, passionate and energised. They influence financiers, associates and (most vital of all) ‘new’ customers. Good entrepreneurs sell and sell well. (And in the current economy, many who were once in the order-taking-by-word-of-mouth business need to learn to sell too.) They start by raising customers’ curiosity. And once they have raised curiosity, how can entrepreneurs go about selling, a ‘new’ product or service to a ‘new’ customer, well? Answer: understand the sequence and the nature of the questions all customers ask. What questions?

How to Sell When Selling Isn’t Your Strength
Sales are not your thing? There are only two major components to making the sales process go smoothly. And knowing them can apply to many other areas of your life and even be fun.

Your Irresistible Offer - Proposals that convert prospects into buyers

As a customer, you’ve no doubt received scads of sales pitches from companies trying to sell you something; the vast majority of which you ignore, tune-out, or reject outright. When the tables are turned, and you are the one making the proposal, there are three key elements that will make your offer more compelling. These three components make-up what’s known as your Unique Selling Proposition or “USP”. When I speak at conferences and for sales and service teams, this is one of the simple tips I share for converting prospects into buyers. Whether you’re making your proposal in person, through a brochure, or on your website, you’ll have more impact by including these three elements…

Creating a Customer Feeding Frenzy - 4 tools that make you simply irresistible
Customers hate to be sold to, but they love to buy. The problem is that most customer-contact employees focus their attention on trying to sell, when instead they should be stimulating the customer's natural urge to buy. "Creating a Customer Feeding Frenzy" provides four ethical ways to stimulate emotional buying behavior.

Making Connections - How to create rapport with anyone in under 30 seconds
Society is becoming increasingly diverse and global. That means that we are communicating more frequently with people who are different -- in their looks, dress, manner of speech, and even mood. "Making Connections" reveals a fast and easy way to establish rapport with others despite the differences.

Phrases that Pay - Simple Statements that Increase your Perceived Value
The conventional wisdom about providing great service is that employees must have an attitude that bubbles with enthusiasm. But in the real world of upset customers, long hours, and stress, employee enthusiasm occasionally fizzles. "Phrases that Pay" reveals several ways for employees to sound more helpful and professional even when they're not having a zipity-do-dah day.

Chubby The Cabby
Chubby the cabby knows a lot about salesmanship - in fact he's a master at it!

Do You Know How To Transform Selling Into Serving?
People are often very negative about selling. They picture the sleazy salesman pushing things that no one wants or needs just to make a quick buck.

Your Buyer is Smarter than You
Buyers are smart & purchasing departments do their jobs well...Here are a few simple approaches for a salesperson to follow in order to thrive with them.

How To Write Advertising Copy To Make Money Online
This article conveys some of the basics of how to write advertising copy for making money online, covering tried and true copywriting technique, hopefully facilitating development of your abilities in power copywriting for the internet.

Upside Down Salesmanship
Upside down salesmanship is a different approach to selling. Actually it's different and better.

How To Be Successful in Sales
Do these 21 Characteristics from the 1930s hold true today?

Knowing your Next Sales Hire Will Be a Great One
Many struggle with knowing what to look for when hiring sales people. Struggle no longer. Here are proven sales selection methods that will aid you in building a dynamic sales team

What value do you bring to your customer's table?
In my first article I describe how customers only ask four questions. The 2nd of which, "What Value Do You Bring to the Table?", could do with further explanation.

How Much Money And Time Do You Spend To Bring In A New Client?
What does “lifetime value” really mean? It’s pretty simple. Lifetime value (LTV) is the average amount of money that a customer spends (and the profits that you make) from the first time that the person buys something until his/her last purchase.

Who’s qualified to speak for you?
Make sure those who represent your product or service know about them.

Are you keeping your customers up at night?
Effective consultative salespeople know how to keep their customers up at night. By that I mean they know “how to get in their customers’ heads” by asking questions that will force them to think about the issues that are important to their business. It’s up to you to become their business conscience.

Brick Walls Make Sales
In sales getting action from customers can be challenging, these tools will keep the sale moving and get to the order.

Door Openers to the C Suite
Want to get into the C Suite, here is one tool that is working

11 Sales Lessons for Life
Does life teach us about selling or does selling teach us about life? No doubt, it works both ways. But the business of sales and those who find their careers in selling, are unique. Selling involves full engagement and the most successful salespeople agree that they never really leave it; that selling is in fact, a way of life.

Caliper and Selling Power Hit and Then Miss the Mark on Sales
My analysis of three predictive indicators of top sales performers put forward in a recent Selling Power article. I compared them with the data that has been collected by Objective Management Group in sales specific assessments.

THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP BANK
Relationships with customers are based on a series of interactions and you must strive to make each interaction with that customer, exceed that customer's expectations.

Closing the Sale: Location, Location, Location...
When it comes to closing the sale, the timing or location of the close within the selling process is just as important as “location” is to the value of real estate...

Are you ready for Sustainable Selling?
With the green agenda comes Sustainable Selling. More and more questions are being asked by many about how we can best manage this relationship now and for future generations? I recently attended and spoke at the 6th CIPS Australasia Annual Conference (peak industry body for the Procurement Profession) where Sustainability was well and truly on the agenda.

The Yin Yang of Selling

In the 20th century the emphasis on B2B selling had a distinct aggressive ring to it. So much so, that you could walk down the halls of many businesses and think that you were involved in big game hunting. Many of these teams saw selling as an extreme sport, or more precisely, Big Game Fishing or Hunting. * Customers were â€˜Targetsâ€™. * Getting a sale was referred to as â€˜the Killâ€™. * Customers were regarded as objects to be possessed or trophies to be placed in their cabinet.

Selling to Different Customers
Each customer uses different criteria when making a buying decision. The fact that a salesperson can understand this criteria and help the customer make that buying decision, is why a good salesperson does so well. But what do you do when you’re trying to sell without a salesperson. This article will show you how to create the same sales experience on your website to increase sales.

"I'm a Relationship Salesperson"
Are you really a relationship salesperson - or do you just think you are? This article will help you decide, and help you really be a relationship salesperson.

Are You Firing On Your Prospects In Your Quest to Increase Sales?
Some sales people engage in fire first with their approach when contacting new prospects. This has them behaving like Captain Wing It and fails to increase sales.

Market First, Sell Second to Increase Sales in 2011
During turbulent economic times, the continued push to increase sales comes first with marketing going to the side of the road. So what is more important marketing or selling?

Never Give Up
Current times are tough, but seem to be getting better now. It usually takes many contact to make a sale.

How to Put Consulting into Consultative Selling
To describe a sales approach as "consultative" doesn't really explain it. It's a broad identifier, like saying someone is religious, which doesn't say what kind of religion. Saying you are a consultative salesperson is like saying you're in the category of "solution-oriented selling" vs. the category of "fast-talking carnival hawker." But that doesn't mean you know HOW TO DO it.

The Psychology in Selling

When a civil engineer learns certain rules of algebra or calculus it is not merely for the purpose of storing up knowledge. It is for the purpose of learning things which he can apply to his daily work. For instance, the surveyor learns what a sine and a cosine are, and how to use a table of logarithms. Then he uses that knowledge to measure the exact distance between two points across an impassable river, and in a hundred other ways.

Mind Control in Selling
Selling is fundamentally a question of the influence of mind over mind. If you as a salesperson exercise no influence whatsoever upon the mind of your customer, but the customer does all the deciding, you are not a real salesperson. You are an order taker. (Please read my article: Are You an Order Taker or an Order Maker?)

10 Reasons Why Selling IS Better Than Sex
The world's oldest profession involves selling. One might even argue about which came first - the selling or the sex? In fact, selling and sex are so closely related that succeeding at either one of them can be euphoric, addictive, and good fun. Some people might like to argue that selling is not better than sex. They believe it's the other way round.

Article # 29 Want A Home Based Business But Hate Talking To People?
You are not alone, 85% of home based business owners who just start a business hate talking to people on the phone and selling. They know that owning a business is the best way to get wealthy, but dread the ‘selling’ part.

Adapt your style to win over the customer.
Use these six techniques to adjust to your customer’s style, build trust and rapport, and win them over.

Add Up-selling and Cross-selling to Your Sale Cycle

If you´ve been probing, listening and solving problems for your customer throughout your sales call, the next step - upselling and cross-selling should come naturally. The idea is actually to resell your customer, not only to increase sales, but also to ensure that your customer has no reason to turn to your competition. Your objective is to become your customer´s sole supplier of your product line. Don´t be reluctant about this phase of the sales cycle. Your customer has already invested time with you, and has decided to buy your product or service. That an upselling/cross-selling message will fall on receptive ears.

Build Bench Strength through Personality Assessments
The value of any personality assessment comes in using the insights it provides along the entire continuum of a career. The test itself should decipher an employee's underlying needs with emphases on sales rep hiring, development, opportunities for growth, behavioral coaching, team building, conflict resolution, succession planning and diversity training.

Objections are Requests for more Information
Think of objections as simply requests for more information. In other words, when the customer objects, he or she is simply asking: "Tell me how to justify this amount of money?" "How is this a better buy than your competitor´s product?" "Tell us how your other customers have dealt with their price concerns?" "Tell me why I should buy the product from you, and not your competitor?"

How Persistence & Patience Can Help You Succeed in Sales

Several years ago when we had our new home built in Las Vegas, we immediately put in a pool and hot tub. Of course the pool company convinced us that we needed a waterfall as an added design element for the pool. Several more thousands of dollars later, we agreed. When they got to the point when they started to build the waterfall, a very large crane showed up in the street adjacent to our house, along with a flatbed truck with these gigantic red boulders. I asked the project manager what that was all about, and he said, “That’s your waterfall.” I said, “No way do we want a giant pile of rocks,” in which he replied, “Just be patient and you’ll see.” So the crane lowered these small mountains into our yard and shortly afterward a crew of waterfall builders showed up.

Why You Must Stop People From Talking To Themselves?
When you want to get someone’s attention, you have to create an interruption in his/her “self talk.” In fact, you have to keep on interrupting them, until you get their total attention.

Do Your Proposals Sell?
What are you doing to increase your odds of winning the business when you delivr a proposal?

Selling Your Business in Today's Economy
Have you decided to retire or move on to something else? Today's economy makes it tough to sell a business outright (banks just aren't lending). Still, there are ways that you can sell your business and reap the rewards you've so justly earned.

How to Create A Unique Selling Point
When promoting your product/service it is easy to miss a key trick, which is to make what you are selling unique against the competition, making your products clearly the best choice in your customer’s eyes. This is the key focus of the USP, also sometimes said to stand for 'Unique Selling Point'.

The New Sales Sense is Digital – Sales Training Must Keep Up

There is a buyer’s paradigm shift taking place. It is sweeping away many sales preconceptions and norms. The furore over the social media opportunity is merely a forewarning of greater change. The Retail world is already grappling with the early effects of what will be looked back on as a titanic revolutionary shift in the way people make decisions and the part sales people play in the buying process.

Hypnotic Marketing, What is that?
Two best selling secrets in the world that every small business must have.

A Simple Paradigm Shift Makes Sales Fun, Easy and Effective!

Ever have a bad sales experience? I mean a really bad sales experience? One so bad, that if given the choice to finish the sales call or be at the dentist getting your tooth pulled out you would choose the dentist? Well I had one about a week ago, and in fact it is one of my favorites. I collect bad sales experiences, because I am fascinated by the way some people have been taught to sell, and continue to sell despite lack of success.

Change 1 Thing To Move From Hating To Loving Sales!
Why do we hate to sell? Fear of rejection? Makes us feel pushy? We don’t like to be aggressive or bother people? Okay – but why then do we love to recommend? We love to recommend new restaurants to our friends, recommend movies, suggest our friends try our doctor or favorite babysitter. Why do we like to do recommend but we hate to sell?

Are Your Secrets Worth Loads of Internet Cash?
I know you think sex or porn may be the best selling stuff on the internet. But, I beg to differ. Information is the best selling stuff on the internet, and if you have secrets, they can be worth a fortune!

6-and-a-half rules for victory
Need your help. Here are 6.5 rules for victory in your selling routine- you get to complete the list!

C-Level Relationship Selling – Gaining the Confidence Required for Selling High
Confidence exudes believability to C-level executives. Confidence comes from knowledge and knowledge comes from preparation. The more you know about selling to C-levels the more confident you’ll feel and the more you’ll sell.

give, Give, GIVE
In Selling, is it Better to Give than to Receive? Give. Give some. GIve more. Then, give it ALL.

Closing the Sale
Selling and closing are two different arts. I have been doing sales and closing workshops for almost 25 years teaching sales organizations how to be more effective at selling, negotiating and closing transactions. Many people confuse these two. Do you know the difference?

Using Neuro Linguistic Programming Techniques to Get Better Sales Results
Using Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques can help you in your sales process and get you better results. In the selling process someone is always buying. Either the prospect is buying your product, service, idea or you are buying the objection. Your ability to communicate effectively is the key to your success in any sales interaction.

Building Ally Relationships

In today's business environment where markets are becoming flat or shrinking, competition for these key accounts has intensified. Acquisitions, mergers, right-sizing, and other realities of the 90's are created even more obstacles. The hard truth is those long-standing relationships can't be taken for granted, even your best customers. You cannot afford to lose even one key account to maintain profitability in today's business environment. At the same time, you may be dealing with fewer resources. Cost-cutting or cost-containment have led to tighter sales budgets in many organizations. The result is often fewer salespeople and sales managers, fewer sales calls and increased pressure to make every sales opportunity count.

What is Successful Marketing Without the Push?
The new Marketing 101 teaches the art of the soft sell, or rather, serving and not selling.

Get a Handle on the Disinterested Client
Sometimes you have to take no for an answer, but before you do, have you determined that you really cannot help this customer? Sometimes the reasons for their objections are groundless and sometimes there are other ways you can provide service.

Sales Killers to Avoid
Sometimes it is the very basic things that make the difference. We are so focused on the latest way of doing things, the latest technology and techniques that we forget the basics and when dealing with people this can be a costly mistake.

For More Sales Success, Ask the Right Questions
Asking the right question is always key to getting the right information. According to WIKI HOW, sales people spend too much time "pitching" and not enough time asking questions.

Develop Your Cold Calling Techniques
If your job requires you to make cold calls and you don't enjoy a high success rate, here are some tips to help you get your foot in the door.

Sell Yourself First
People do judge books by their cover and people by their appearance and first impressions. If you want to sell anything, first you need to sell yourself.

How well do you know your product/service?

So how prepared are you? How well do you know your product or service? How much do you practice? Seem like elementary questions – right? I mean outstanding athletes practice. Outstanding actors practice. And trust me on this one, so do outstanding sales people. This should be a “no brainer”, yet is it? Three things for you to take with you today. We are all sales people. There are things each of us has to sell. So learn the process.

Let’s Talk Pricing
It doesn’t matter who you’re selling to or what your service or product is. If you charge what you want and are confident about it then you will attract the clients and revenue you desire. You just need to genuinely believe in the offering, know your own self-worth and ask a price that is satisfying to you.

Selling Your Business Plan: Tips for Hitting the Homerun

Now that you have written your business plan, what next? You have to sell it! Yes as a business owner with the next best idea, you have just become a sales person. You may have thought, “But I’m the thought leader and must develop the product/services for the market. I just want the lender or investor to give me the money I need to get to market.” This isn't enough. Your business plan must be a persuasive document that catches the lender's eyes and thoughts in the first 30 seconds. The first couple of sentences must grab his attention and beg him to read further. You must get the lender to say "Ah ha!"

5 Deadly Mistakes Network Marketers Make
Network Marketing is a no-brainer, so why do so many give up? What is the difference between those who succeed and those who quit?

Why You Should Always Keep Your Marketing Hat On.
Why marketing isn't just a 9 to 5 activity.

Intentional Marketing - It’s Easy, Fun & Lucrative
If you have a business, you market. Anytime you tell someone the impact of using your products or services, you’re selling. Marketing and selling may trigger resistance for you but I guarantee you’re doing it. How would you like to do marketing that makes a huge impact on your audience, is easy and fun to create, and will have prolific results?

Did you meet your sales goals through June?
Why not? What are you doing right now to make sure you will make your sales goal in the second half of the year? What is your plan? Today, our mission is very simple - answer these three simple questions. That is it.

Selling - Your Company's Biggest Sale Ever
Your biggest sale isn't always your best sale. This could be for a number of reasons, here are a few of them...

Writing and Publishing eBooks Made Easy #10 - Selling and Promoting Your eBook
If you really want to sell a lot of eBooks, you need an army of sales people, working for you 24/7. Now, you can hire a staff of salesmen to promote your book but who has the budget to do this?

The New Boomer Entrepreneur, Start-Ups and Start-Downs

Small business has changed dramatically since the new millennium. For starters, it's grown dramatically with 95% of all businesses in Canada and the United States being classified as small or medium-sized. Moreover, the distinction between micro and larger more established small and medium-sized businesses is widely accepted by most companies targeting the 'small business market' today. This means suppliers of all kinds of products and services recognize the significant differences in their respective needs and have created distinct offerings to suit the unique requirements of these separate and distinct groups.

7 Deadly Mistakes in the Sales Process
Great sales people really don't sell at all, instead they get their customers to buy. We all love to buy, but few of us love to be sold to. When will we understand that? Today I want to share with you 7 of the most deadly mistakes most sales people make.

How To Close the Big Sales That Are So Difficult To Close
In most of the big deals I have closed or helped close, there are several things, extremely common, that once remedied or addressed, paved the way for the deal to go through. Here they are.

Like it or not – Success is about being able to sell YOU

No matter what you do in life. No matter what your job/function/career. From CEO to stay at home mom/dad. From high level engineer to clerk at the local store. No matter what, to be successful, you have to sell yourself. Face it. Believe it. Grasp it. Make it part of your life and watch what happens. Success in all things comes to the person who is able to sell himself/herself and their ideas, desires, wants and needs.

Market Strategy Essential Today!

The great Thomas Jefferson once said, “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” My twist on that is, “The business owner, sales professional, self-employed professional, salesperson, etc, that stops marketing is a person guaranteed to fail. I have found the biggest failures around marketing are due to the general misconceptions around what marketing really is. The truth is, there is a big difference between advertising and marketing. In our Sales to Marketing Bootcamp, we clearly define and separate the two.

Sharing leads amongst salespeople - does it work?
Giving leads to your sales people

How does a Sales Manager teach people to sell their product without giving away the farm?
Are you and your sales people selling on value for money or price. Here\'s how to sell on value

How to take advantage of the change in the employment market when recruiting for new sales staff
How to take advantage of the change in the employment market when recruiting for new sales staff

What sales techniques should be used in the current GEC?
How to take advantage of the Global Economic Crisis.

How Sales Managers can reinvigorate poor sales performers
How Sales Managers can reinvigorate poor sales performers

I have a few exceptional sales people in my team, and if they left for whatever reason, the department would really suffer. What is the best way to retain top quality sales people?
If you have a few exceptional sales people in your team, and if they left for whatever reason, the department would really suffer. What is the best way to retain top quality sales people?

How Innovative are you?
Where is innovation in your organization? Is it high? Medium? Low? Or is it NOT? And what are you doing about it?

Building a winning strategy for selling to large organizations
Private coaching clients are telling us regularly how important it is for them to broaden their skills to do a better job of thinking strategically and managing large accounts. Those are areas that we are focusing on increasingly here at Engage Selling. I recognize-just as you do-that so much activity in sales today is happening at the enterprise level, so success here is vital.

Ways To Make Objections Disappear
Generally, they have a question, concern or objection that you don't know about. If you don't address those concerns proactively, the on-the-spot sale probably won't happen. The person will leave with their question unresolved. So how do you address an objection if you don't know what it is? It's easy! Here's how: 1. Identify

How to Secure an Appointment that Sticks
To make time for the appointment, you push off other commitments, even paid work or time with your children. You have a vision of your successful meeting and you may even drive across town. But then the person cancels at the last minute or doesn’t even show up. Not only did you miss out on a new client, but you lost precious time with your children or income you could have had.

How to Use Irresistible Offers in Your Business
To be truly irresistible, your offer must have a limiter, an incentive to act now. Otherwise, your prospects will “think about it” or put off their investment until “later,” which too-often never comes. The 3 must-have incentives to include in your Irresistible Offer

Develop a Marketing Mindset
Having a marketing mindset makes good business sense for an entrepreneur but unfortunately it is not a frequent business practice. Why is it important?

The Salesperson's Nightmare- Your price is too high!
You are going to hear objections during a sales pitch, especially about price, and you've got to be ready to respond to them. Here are 10 ideas for successfully overcoming the dreaded statement "Your price is too high".

How Your Offer is Like Dinner
The main dish of your Irresistible Offer is the primary product or service that provides the transformation for your client. This is your 5-part teleseries, weekend workshop or your one-on-one coaching package.

How to Close Sales Now and Stop Playing the Follow-up Game

So how do you get all these people who say they want to work with you to commit? It's actually very easy. You just have to use limiters. Structure them in right up front. A limiter is an incentive to buy now. It's your "Today-only" discount or your "Fast-Action" scholarship or a bonus they get only if they invest by a certain time. Limiters are the secret sauce in your Irresistible Offer. The news gets even better!

Cold Calling Does Work – Have You Tired It Lately?

While the world goes crazy emailing – maybe we should try something different. How much email do we get all day long from everybody. To much might be the right answer. How much email do we read? Little if any? How much of it is relevant to what we do? To our business? Come to think of it, when was the last time some one actually cold called on us? When was the last time we actually did any cold calling? Could it be that we just might get in to see that person that we never can get to respond to our emails simply by stopping by? Could it be that we just might get someone on the phone just by calling them? Even though they never return our emails. Why don't we give it a try?

To Become a Better Salesperson, Find a Mentor
Becoming an award-winning salesperson isn't something you just do, but rather a journey of constant self-improvement. There is another critical component that most top salespeople leverage which is a sales mentor to help guide them along the way.

Closing Practices Engineered to Sell More in Less Time
So much has happened in a short period, such that today is a really exciting time to thrive if you’re prepared to respond to wisely to trends while emulating timeless approaches that work.

Seven Things You Can Do Today to Make It Easier to Get in the Door and Sell
In sales, not all doors are easy to open. Some require a bit of forethought and some even require a bit of courage to enter.

Order Taker vs Order Maker
The order-taker accepts the advantage of the situation he finds. But the order maker, a professional salesperson creates specialized situations to suit his purpose.

Should You Sell During the Holidays?
This time of year we get this question a lot: "Is it a good idea to run promotions or do launches or even just sell during the holidays?" The truth is, anytime is good when you can connect what you're doing to what people are really concerned about.

Consultative Selling Won't Fill Your Pipeline
This Consultative Selling article explains the role of this sales method in pipeline management.

Why Creating Great Content Needs to be One of Your Top Goals
In today's market, you and your organization are more than sales professionals: you’re subject experts who can offer something of value to customers and prospects.

Smartening Up Your Message as part of Your Sales Strategy for Success
How do I help my sales team sell more and be more successful? It’s a question that’s never far from the thoughts of many managers and executives these days.

The Welcome Return to Relationship Marketing

For a few years, I was beginning to think that the value and purpose of Relationship Marketing was getting lost in the new age of mass marketing brought on by the Internet. There is a generation of Internet Marketers who believe they operate behind a shield of anonymity that precludes them from the need for positive personal interaction. However, when Social Media sites began springing up and social networking began to dominate, we once again saw a welcome return to Relationship Marketing.

Three things you must do before putting pedal to the metal and accelerating your sales

Having a well-oiled sales team and a great product ready to launch can fill your head with a lot of tempting plans. Just like finding a shiny roadster waiting in your garage on a sunny day and that wide open road beckoning, the urge can be irresistable to turn the key, hit the accerlator and see just how fast that thing can go. Don’t start your engine quite yet. There’s an important checklist you need to pay attention to first.

Why Cupcakes for Dogs Are A Good Thing
So the other day during a sales training call we stumbled into Sprinkles cupcakes and to my utter amazement they were selling cupcakes for $2.50 a piece – not for people – but for dogs. The cup cakes for people were considerable more.

Price, Price, Price!!! Six steps you can take to keep cut-rate competitors from stealing your customers
In this article we are going to take a closer look at an all-too common problem: what you can do to close an existing customer when your competition keeps lowering their price

Debunking the perfect sales process myth: Three steps to help you to better meet the unique needs of every customer or prospect
“How do I build the perfect sales cycle or the perfect sales process?” I’m often asked this question and my answer tends to disappoint those who are looking for quick answers to challenging problems.

Sales Objection: “We had a bad experience with your company.”
You never want to hear this phrase from a prospect or a customer. However, if you do, here's how you handle it.

Smart Women and The Art of Self-Promotion
This article is about how women entrepreneurs can sometimes feel nervous or anxious about promoting their business. It offers several tips on how to overcome this obstacle in a way that feels feminine and authentic.

Building a sum even greater than its parts: Why it’s essential to create a cohesive sales team.
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success.” Henry Ford, one of the great industrialists of the 20th century, said that about the importance of teamwork and of how it applies to businesses of all sizes.

Three big challenges every executive struggles with to meet targets and how you can solve them
As a VP of sales, you’re constantly on the lookout for that winning edge to help you and your organization consistently achieve and even surpass your revenue targets. Success in sales is everything. Among executives, it is the most important thing that we are all measured on.

Sell Something You ARE An Expert At!
Instead of teaching people and pretending to be an expert on something you’re not so you can sell a product that doesn’t belong to you and probably bores your customers as much as it bores you…why not find your own passions, experience, and expertise? Then base your business on it.

Increase Your B2B Sales Immediately
When you can prove to the customer that the benefits, when monetized, are greater than the investment you will be successful. It’s about speaking to the client in their language. It’s giving them the information they need to say “yes.” It’s digging into the financial benefits and presenting them in a way that’s understandable so that you can ‘close’ the deal.

Research Supporting ROI Based Selling

Your company’s success could very well be dependent on your sales professionals taking the next step – from simply talking features and benefits, to making a financially viable business proposition to clients. Investing in the sales function with ROI tools and financial insight allows today’s sales professional to properly create a framework for understanding and quantifying the potential benefits your product or service can deliver. Look at the following undeniable proof.

How to Build an Effective ROI Calculator

Building an ROI Calculator should be a team effort. Get the insight and input of key sales professionals and sales engineers to incorporate the benefits that are appropriate for your customers. They should also make sure the calculator looks very professional (we strongly suggest building the calculator in flash instead of using an Excel spreadsheet) and that it can be placed on your website or in a presentation that is used in front of a potential customers.

ROI Based Marketing and Sales Strategy

If you are not sure that you need an ROI based marketing and sales strategy, think about the following for a few minutes: • 81% of buyers expect vendors to quantify the business value of their product or service, meaning 60% more projects are likely to be approved (Information Week). • According to an Ernst & Young study, only 2% of the buyers say vendors are exceeding their expectations for ROI justification during the sales cycle. This means 98% of the time sales professionals miss an opportunity to win the deal.

Make Your Sales Force “ROI Smart”
Your company’s success is often a direct result of customer relationships, effective marketing strategies, and a smart sales force that is properly equipped with the right sales tools.

How to Improve Your Selling Skills with Coaching Skills
As a Sales "coach", instead of worrying about closing the sale, you can relax and coach people into a sale. Instead of struggling with resistant prospects, you can coach them into doing the right thing for you and for them.

Selling B2B Services - Converting Warm leads Into Eager Clients - Part One
One of the difficulties in selling a service is that potential clients (we'll call them "prospects" here) often don't know whether they should be using what you provide. Selling services can require a much more sensitive approach than selling tangible products. Lets have a look at some of the things we can do to create a successful sales process when selling B2B services.

Up-Selling - Do you want Fries with that Burger?
Up-selling your services is a great way to increase business. This article explains the up-selling process. It compares up-selling with cross-selling and explains how and when to use both.

Could You Increase Your Sales Watching a Guy Selling Cookware at a County Fair?
Even though there are big differences between selling products and selling a service when someone does a superior job selling there are lessons to be learned. When you watch a top producer selling anything there are tremendous lessons to be learned from the obvious to the subtle nuances.

Selling What's Different
Selling what's different is better than selling on your pricing. Just remember selling what's different doesn't come naturally to most salespeople. Here are six ideas to stimulate your thinking.

Your Path to Effective Service Selling
Selling services is far different than selling products, and for reps who want to be successful at "service selling", it's imperative to understand where the differences exist.

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