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Sales is often considered the battle ground that business is won and lost one. Having an effective sales team is a must. Like soldiers- your sales people will have to brave many challenges to overcome possible customer issues and make the sale final. Unlike soldiers though they have the handicap of having to perform up to a customer's standard and they aren't allowed to shoot anyone. There might be a need for some sales coaching tips to help any sales person sharpen their skills, review basics and capitalize on strengths.

Selling is a Profession that Requires Professional Leadership

Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management must build the platform for success. Salespeople are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be salespeople. Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection. The reality of the situation is simple. The majority of salespeople are not managed well. Today our sales environment leans toward a more multifaceted atmosphere; salespeople must become strategists with a plan. This plan requires more knowledge about the business, better relationships and better solutions. Some old school (Lone wolf) salespeople may believe they know what it takes. They have the experience. They've been around a long time.

Overhaul your Sales Support Process

Many organizations suffer from a lack of alignment between Sales and Marketing. Part of the problem is that most marketing departments don’t view sales support as one of their most important functions. Be proactive in your effort to work with Sales. Start by opening Demand Metric’s downloadable Sales Support Checklist to identify where your gaps are. Following is list of 16 tools and templates that you can use to overhaul or create an effective sales support process.

Exclusive Short Term Revenue Focus, Long Term Business Issues

Revenue is king. It is the primary focus for most sales leaders, and the measuring stick for sales success. While revenue is an important indicator of sales success, sales leaders also need to broaden their focus to consider the sustainability of revenue over a long period of time. Sales leaders who focus on achieving repeatable results through an effective sales process will consistently realize the revenue they desire.

Lesson #2: Do It Yourself

“I love my product,” said Lauder. “I love to touch the creams, smell them, look at them, carry them with me. A person has to love her harvest if she’s to expect others to love it.” Because of Lauder’s love for her company, she took a very hands-on approach to its operations, getting her hands dirty in everything from production to marketing to sales. She understood the importance of hiring a good team, but her desire for perfection and quality drove her to want to control all aspects of her company, at least until it got too big for her to handle alone.

Those idiots in sales just don’t get it
I’m presenting a workshop this week titled - How to get sales and marketing on the same page.

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.

Why we should put the Trainer back into Sales Management

Up until 20 years ago, a key function of a sales manager’s role was the regular training of their sales people. What did this look like? Well, something like this: weekly 1 hour power training sessions for the sales team focusing on honing key skills, bi-monthly half day or 1 day sessions drilling down on account planning, strategy, market and product knowledge, and formal class room training usually employing external, expert training providers on a once or twice yearly basis to boost their teams to the next level. This was all supplemented by sales meetings and one-on-one coaching. Many sales managers of yesteryear were good trainers. However, through my observations across many businesses, the training component has been replaced by compliance.

Sales Coaching - Are Sales Managers Any Good at This Function?
I've written extensively about sales coaching before. Yesterday, a fairly typical day, I coached 4 different sales experts and 2 clients on how to more effectively coach salespeople and sales managers. I have noticed that most sales managers believe that they're fairly good at coaching when, in reality, most of them are very ineffective at it. Why?

Real Live Coaching Call - Coaching Salespeople
Clients who receive sales management coaching, training and development come to know what an effective sales coaching conversation sounds like. You may not be privy to that so you might find last week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts helpful.

Real Live Coaching Call - Coaching a Salesperson
Chris Mott was my guest and he coached a live caller for about 30 minutes. Listen to the show for a better sense of what every coaching conversation should sound like. The following email was received from the live caller the day after the scheduled sales call:

The Three Components Of A Successful Sales Letter
The ability to construct a successful sales letter will increase the probability that your marketing campaign will reach its desired target audience online or offline.

Sales Meetings

Have you ever sat through a pointless meeting and calculated how much of the company’s money was being wasted on individuals sitting around a table completely zoned out? Sales meetings in particular are an important tool for helping you to keep your team’s performance on track. Effective sales meetings don’t just happen, and improving your meetings isn’t just a case of ordering drinks and a plate of muffins. Successful meetings require a range of skills, a disciplined approach and an effective leader. Here are some handy tips on how to prepare for and conduct effective sales meetings so that you and your team get the most out of them.

Daring to be Different (part 1)
Here is the first of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry. When it comes to assessing sales and sales leadership capabilities in your business do the lines blur between the cultural morays, views and perceptions, gossip and politics and the real capabilities needed to be assessed against your actual sales strategy?

Do Not Call

Last week Smartcompany ran a story saying that the Federal Government may include business numbers in the Do Not Call register. What are they talking about? Prospecting for new business via the telephone (referred to as unsolicited phone calls) is still a legitimate and critical business activity necessary for anyone in sales and in business, especially in business to business sales where consumer marketing and advertising strategies do not work effectively. It is a vital activity any business or sales person worth their salt should be doing on a regular basis. Therefore I do not believe that the government should include business numbers in the DO NOT CALL register.

On Show

Recently I have been watching the rerun of “Life at 1” on ABC TV in readiness for the “Life at 3” series as I am fascinated by all things behavioural and developmental. The series focuses on children and their development from age one and beyond, similar in concept to the Seven Up series. However this series cannot be complete without the children’s parents and siblings being involved. I am interested in the series because I am a parent, however it is amazing what you can learn about other areas of your life from seemingly unrelated sources. This is such a case.

Creating an effective sales performance management system

Following on from last week’s article about managing and measuring the right things in sales, I thought it would be worth looking at some of the key principles for effective sales performance management systems. The first place to start is to align your sales performance management system and subsequent key measures to your organisation’s strategy and goals. It’s then the job of the CEO and the Sales Leader to ensure the organisation (that means everyone else who supports the sales effort) is aligned to the sales performance management system. When this dimension is in place the organisation is best placed to sustain high sales performance.

What Can Online Marketing Do For You?
Online Marketing is one of the most effective ways to market your business in today's economy while accessing the number one source of traffic in the world.

Why Sales Coaching Really Matters
Without systematic, on-the-job coaching post a sales training program 87% of skills that were covered in the sales training program are lost within 30 days With systematic, on-the-job coaching post a sales training program the return on the sales training program is four fold. Lesson: Sales training without coaching is a cost liability rather than an investment.

Start Managing Using Your Sales Team’s Talents & Stop Focusing on Their Weaknesses

From you role in sales management, do you manage from a perspective focusing on existing talents or from a weakness one? If you truthfully answered from a more negative than positive focus, then can you answer this question?: Why do winning teams win because of their strengths or their weaknesses? Now is the team to change your management style especially if you wish to increase sales and have a high performance sales team.

"Our salespeople aren't asking for the business!"

Some may find the concept of salespeople not asking for the business, strange even ridiculous given 'the close' has traditionally been a salesperson's end-game. This is analogous to a football player running down the sideline, struggling to avoid the clutches of would-be tacklers - to just sit down on their bum and scratch their head an inch before the goal line. It's just doesn't make sense, yet in sales, this type of conducts is surprisingly common.

4 valuable life skills that make for success in sales and any other role

There are many things written and said about effective sales people, effective leaders, successful entrepreneurs, great teams and so on. Many descriptions are in circulation. There is an overabundance of experts recommending this approach one day and that approach the next. Those of us who want to be effective and successful often follow the advice of those experts however we are at risk of turning ourselves inside out and losing sight of what we are really here to do if we keep trying to bend to the winds and whims of the latest management trends, fads, findings, research, etc.

Why developing your Sales Managers is the key to your sales success

It may surprise you to discover that many Sales Managers learn how to be a Manager on their own. According to the latest international study on Sales Training and Sales Force Effectiveness, many Sales Managers are given very little or no support when it comes to being a competent, effective Sales Manager. In fact, many Sales Managers reported that they were given no formal training in Sales Management practices, either before or during their tenure as a Sales Manager. The study reported that Sales Management training is the category of sales training that is addressed with the least frequency, in fact it is less than annually or not at all.

Putting for an Eagle - Closing the Unlikely Sale
Veteran salespeople are capable of pulling off the same heroics, but only when they execute the sales process perfectly. Today, one veteran salesperson told me about all of the short cuts he took to reach his lofty goal.

Prospecting For New Business - Cold Calling
Many people think business generation is about picking up the phone. Effective business generation begins with an effective prospecting plan. This article shows you where to start

How much are your salespeople really worth?
Commission only salespeople can be effective - however one of the major problems with a comm-only sales strategy is that salespeople in these roles, more often than not, become all about 'the sell' for obvious reasons: no sale -no pay -no eat!

9 Steps to Turn Your Website into a Sales Tool and Lead Generator
So many small business owners contact me asking how to get more traffic to their website or wondering why no one is buying or signing up for their mailing list. No wonder they’re fed up. However, a website can be made into a very effective sales tool.

Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment?

1. How much is a good sales person worth to you? 2. How much is a good hiring manager worth to you? Speaking about recruitment in these current economic times may seem foolish, however in the area of selling, this is where you could make great strides by picking up highly effective sales people who have found themselves on the job market or are looking for a better business to work in. I know of a few highly competent sales people and sales managers who have been let go along with other staff as part of large staff reduction strategies. In my opinion, the last people I would let go in this market would be highly competent and high producing sales people. Which leads me to the contentious issue about who makes the decisions to hire and fire sales people. In particular, who hires sales people.

You are on show

Recently I have been watching the rerun of "Life at 1" on ABC TV (Australia) in readiness for the "Life at 3" series as I am fascinated by all things behavioural and developmental. The series focuses on children and their development from age one and beyond, similar in concept to the BBC's Seven Up series. However this series cannot be complete without the children's parents and siblings being involved. One of the fathers being tested in the series had recently changed jobs from being a professional sales person in a luxury car showroom to working in the family market garden business growing vegetable. His ‘stress' levels actual and emotional were significantly lower after having changed jobs which also affected his child's stress levels for the better.

12 Ways to Tell If Your Website Needs Work
Wouldn't it be nice to wake up and find emails from 3 hot leads who are dying to hire you? Or that you made $300 in online sales while you were sleeping? Duh, of course it would! And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to make it happen.

Top 10 Tips For Sales Success
We’re all crossing our fingers these days and hoping for a better economic environment. It’s been more than a little scary for many of us. However, even during these tough times, effective salespeople are acquiring new customers and making sales. How? Here are the top ten tips for effective sales that will bring you success regardless of the state of the economy.

How to run a Sales Meeting
Have you ever sat through a pointless meeting and calculated how much of the company's money was being wasted on individuals sitting around a table completely zoned out?

Getting Sales Recruitment Right
Your small business is growing and diversifying. You've experimented with bringing in an inexperienced sales person (who did not work out). You realise you need a more experienced direct sales person, but you don't know where to go or what to look for.

You can’t improve salespeople without improving sales management first
I am constantly appalled at the lack of effective sales management in companies these days. Not a week goes by in which I don't see a company make the mistake of focusing exclusively on salespeople in trying to improve sales performance. Experience has shown that sales managers are even more critical than sales people for creating durable performance change

Sales Coaching for Business Growth

Good coaching changes behaviour. But how do you generate awareness, get them to take responsibility for their actions or lack of action, and lead the person to motivate themselves and want to change? The coaching session should be a monthly session unless they require more support, and each session should have homework allocated. Once the person demonstrates they are taking action in the form of their homework, you know the coaching is effective.

What Is the Most Effective Quality Within Your Sales Team?
Sales has always been a team effort even if you are one person team because your potential customer (a.k.a. as prospect) is also a member of your team. If you could identify the qualities of an effective sales team, what would you consider those to be?

Increase Sales By Overcoming Repetitive Habits
Are your habits increasing habits or potentially decreasing them? Read a quick story about the "Touchstone" to show how habits can prevent us from achieving our sales goals.

Online Business Success: Does Your Business Have a Marketing and Sales Machine?
Do you have a systematic way to attract leads into your online business funnel? Are you sales associates use a proven script to convert "clicks to clients"? Do you have a sales team? If you answered no to any of these questions, you do not want to miss this article!

How To Make Sure Your Sales Letters Get Read
This is what separates sales letters and marketing emails that get read from those that go in the trash.

Would you benefit from someone really being there for you?
A person you can trust to lend a thoughtful ear when times are tough - or perhaps, ground you when things are going crazily well. A confidant, that inspires you to be more of who you really are to help you achieve your purpose. How powerful would this be?

Empower your Sales people with the right Sales Coaching Process!
Nearly all elite athletes have a coach. Rarely do you see an individual or team scaling the dizzy heights of success without a well thought-out coaching structure, appropriate motivators, and when needed; soft or firm guidance in the right direction.

Why hire a Sales Coach when I already have a Sales Manager?

Most companies already have a sales manager or person in charge of sales in some capacity, so why hire a sales coach? Many sales mangers are not trained in the subtleties of effective sales coaching nor have they developed the necessary skills and tools to be effective sales leaders. The most common way to hire a sales manager is to simply promote your best sales person. This logic suggests this person is the most qualified to lead the sales team based on their past sales achievements. This type of ‘promotion by necessity’ is common, but not commonly successful. In the process you may even lose your top sales performer when their leadership abilities fail to match their sales ability.

Performance Management - Balancing the Rear-view Mirror
A strategically balanced performance management plan is a key component of effective sales management. The most successful approach is one in which we "balance the rear-view mirror... that is, an approach that consists of analyzing past activities and results as well as taking preemptive action steps and strategies that can impact future results.

Creating the right ‘Value Perception’ for your Customers
Value Perception (VP) is the opinion your potential and current customers have of your product or service. This perception determines the value it adds to them in line with the problems it needs to solve or aspirations they want it to fulfill. Also evaluated is your offering’s relevance and importance, over and above that of your competitors.

Write a Business Plan - Nah! I Can Do That Myself (and Why You Shouldn't)
There are three reasons why you need a business plan……

You Can Win More Sales by Accepting & Working with Change Than Denying It
Change is part of sales both in hard cold cash and learning to adapt. So how good are at accepting change to win more sales?

What You Need to Know to Sell More
I’ve known salespeople who have struggled for months either memorizing a presentation they were given or writing one. What a waste of precious time. All the while you’re worrying about getting or having the perfect presentation you’re missing out on what you want most, SALES.

Blogging as a Sales Tool
A blog is a highly advanced and yet very simple way of marketing your business by profiling a member’s, client’s or employee’s experience. Although client testimonials and reviews are the strongest sales tools for a business, online blogging can also work as a major marketing tool to increase online exposure and spread the word about your company much farther than you thought possible.

What Have Your Salespeople Been Listening To?
In reality, there is no such thing as a spending freeze except for being something that top management tells bottom management. [Read More]

Compelling Brochure Copy - The Basics

Effective brochure composition requires more than (just) compelling design. In planning your promotional materials, you need to pay as much attention to content as you do to visuals - and vice versa. Just as you’re hiring a professional design firm to compose the visual elements of your brochure, so should you consider hiring a professional copywriter to assist in optimizing the verbal messages you want to get across. That said, nobody knows your business better than you, and if you are going to undertake your own copywriting, there are a few basic points you should consider.

Sales Coaching Tip: Do Not Confuse Activity with Sales Results
Do you believe yourself to be very busy and yet your sales are still suffering? Possibly, you are confusing activity with results?

Transform Your Selling DNA
Seven Special Powers That Will Take Your Sales Revenue From So-So . . . to Sensational

Personal Selling - It's Time For A Tune-up
Personal selling success depends on an equal balance of selling skills and sales planning. Discover the six critical questions to ask if you want to go to the next level of success.

Forecasting Fiction or Reality?
Why do so many sales forecasts bear a closer resemblance to great works of fiction than to reality? Why do “top opportunities” slip and slide from month to month and all too often disappear altogether?

A Time To Sell?
A look behind the scenes of major buying decisions to identify what differentiates the more successful sales approach from the less effective. Do sales of business critical solutions require smarter methods?

Driving B2B Sales Performance Improvement
Why do so many business providers struggle to reach their growth potential? Why when there is real market need for their quality business solutions and services do they find it so difficult to gain market traction?

Sales Planning Basics
Sales planning should be your number 1 priority if you want to succeed in sales. Success is no accident, you have to plan for it. Learn how now!

Red Hot Sales Prospecting - Using Online Strategies
For better or for worse we are more and more moving toward becoming a “digital society” and certainly the evidence is that our customers are not only relying on the internet to source information, goods and services, but that the most canny of our competitors are right there, beating us to our prospects and building their total loyalty before they even become aware that it’s time to buy.

Blogging as a Sales Tool
How Online Blogs Can Help You Generate More Business

Tactics to increase your sales conversion rates

In golf, your perfect downswing and backswing will end in a mis-hit if you don't have a proper follow-through. Likewise, in marketing, your marvellous ad and outstanding product launch will net you no sales if you don't have a great follow-up plan. Marketing experts will tell you that it takes more than one encounter to convince customers to buy. Thus, you should make not only a good first impression but also a lasting one. Here are a few tips to accomplish this:

How to Write Results-Oriented Web Pages, Sales letters, Ads, and Flyers
One of the cornerstones of any effective marketing strategy is identifying and clearly communicating your Unique Selling Proposition or distinctive selling advantages. Make it clear why you’re better and offer more than the competition. Emphasize your competitive strengths as a business, an individual, or as the provider of high quality services or products.

Site Design Usability and Navigation
Over the past 50 years, a great science has developed for effective design and layout of a retail store. The result has been increased traffic and sales for properly designed stores. It should come to no surprise that effective layout is just as crucial for a Website if you want to maximize a visitor's positive experience and avoid missed sales.

Mistakes Made by New or Inexperienced Sales Staff
Why is it ‘senior’ sales staff are more effective and more productive in their sales efforts? Could it be that they've learned the value of these simple points that help them sell better? Canadian Sales Trainer, Bob 'Idea Man' Hooey outlines 7 mistakes made my inexperienced sales staff. Make more sales by making less mistakes.

Entrepreneurs – Take The Ice Out Of Cold Calling
What is the best way to make a cold sales call to a business? Do you normally call up and ask to speak with the business development manager then go right into your sales pitch? Is there a more effective process you can use? Is there a way of becoming more effective?

A Powerful First Voicemail and 13 Reasons to Leave It Part A
Any effective sales training should include how and why to leave voicemail. Whether you are doing business development, direct sales, appointment setting cold calling, dialing for dollars, smiling and dialing or call it making new friends, an effective first voicemail is absolutely necessary if you want to succeed.

Boost Your Sales Presentations on a Shoestring Budget
Would low cost creative activities help you get lower-cost leads and more sales? You bet! Find out how to reduce the cost-per-lead, increase effective presentation skills and transform your sales results in these 4 steps for effective presentations.

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