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The Sales Meeting Agenda
The impact of having a sales meeting agenda.
Always be Qualifying
The importance of qualifying throughout the sales process.
Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions - What's Missing?
I also didn't include sales training or sales management training in those 10 sales management functions for generally the same reasons. Those are competencies best left to outside experts. Sales Managers can learn to coach - and it takes a long time to develop the ability to do it effectively - but
Your Sales and Sales Management Questions Answered
In an article last week, I provided the post to a sales competency contest. The final question in that survey asked the participants for any sales issues they needed help with. Today I'll answer the first four of those questions below:
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.
Financial Skills Selling
The value of having the ability to read an organization's financial statement to identify areas in which the company may be struggling. This gives one the ability of knowing in advance, what areas need to be worked on.
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.
Differentiation is the Key
The importance of looking for ways to differentiate oneself from the competition.
Effective Negotiating
Reviewing different models that help in both negotiating and overcoming objections when dealing with prospective buyers.
Boosting Holiday Sales – 5 Mistakes to Avoid
How to make money with the holidays.

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.
Sales Training 101
We are so conditioned to think about selling in terms of “helping customers,” that we sometimes loose sight of the fact that not everyone wants or needs “help.” Think about it. The assistance you offer one is the pestering you provide another. The most important thing to assess when dealing with customers is whether they are decisive or not when it comes to making a decision about your product. From there, you can gauge not only how much you need to give, but also how much “selling” versus backing off is actually necessary.

Requests for Proposals (RFP's)
An overview on RFP's and the importance associated with RFP's in selling.
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.
You Like Me - You Really Like Me!
Of course, having customers that like you is important all of the time - but in times when the economy is sluggish, customer loyalty can be tested. What can we do to make customers really like us?
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."
Product Knowledge - A True Story That Supports Its Importance
A fresh-faced young sales clerk gets a lesson in product knowledge using an unlikely prop - an athletic support. This true story played an integral role in the early training of a popular internet marketer.
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.
The difference between selling with 'desperation' and 'inspiration'?
Being desperate is not pleasant and it's an exhausting place to be in all the time. To achieve and sustain long term sales success you need to sell with inspiration! If you can't get up every morning motivated by 'what' and 'how' you sell; you're in real trouble because no one else is going to do it for you. One of the biggest tests for any salesperson is how they perform under immense pressure - yet if you're resilient and made of the right stuff you may even thrive in it. Many salespeople crack under pressure. They have a couple of poor months and then get desperate. They start cutting corners and looking for quick-wins. This is the beginning of the end. The quick wins seldom come, particularly when you're desperate.

Addicted to leads
Donald the management-consultant arrived late to a public sales-seminar I was conducting. The rest of the participants arrived early for their 8.45am registration and had been chatting amongst each other. He apologised for being late and then rushed in and sat down. His body language was stiff and noticeably anxious. Although now behind schedule, for Don's benefit, I asked everyone to again quickly introduce themselves and describe what business they were in. All were happy to oblige.
My Sales team arent getting along, am I doing anything wrong?
'Genuine Conflict' is when team members don't get along but willingly live with their differences in exchange for a pay packet. There are no team values or value in the team. Sometimes team members align but it's usually short lived as the competitive forces and jostling for rewards and recognition takes priority. Attrition is high, but players' dont seem to mind, as it means one less internal competitor and is part of the game. Managers reward sales success above all else, even at the detriment of other team members and even some clients.

The little agency that lost its soul
I was once involved with a small but successful advertising agency. This agency had won a lucrative account with one of Australia's big banks and received a lot of recognition. The agency was then purchased by a public communications company in a strategic sale designed to acquire the big bank as a client by default. The communications consortium paid top dollar (shareholders money of course) for control of the agency and the big account.

What's under your sales-bonnet ( Part 1)
All performance vehicles have an engine, including businesses, and the faster the vehicle the more powerful the engine. In most successful businesses I see one common denominator: the ability to proactively generate new business. Many businesses, however, lack skills and processes when it comes down to getting out into the market and stimulating interest and engaging new business. The key to a powerful business is a powerful sales-engine. When cash-flow is positive and business is profitable-innovation is encouraged, the teams' spirits are high and almost anything seems possible. Conversely when there is no engine, business becomes about cutting costs, zero innovation and delivering the bare minimum. It's hard to build long success on those fundamentals, though not impossible. But there are faster and more exciting roads to explore.
What's under your sales-bonnet ( Part 2)
I thanked Big Red for his words-of-wisdom with and flashed him an ironical smile. I then stood up and said in a resigned tone, "Gents I've heard enough, I can't help you.
What's under your sales-bonnet ( Part 3)
I stopped talking and scanned their body langue for a response. Nothing, they all seemed shell-shocked that a young bloke ten-years their junior would address them in such a blunt and cocky manner. I continued. "I tell you what, I'm going to step into the tea room for ten minutes, and let you guys have a frank chat. After this discussion, if you all want to roll over that's ok, better men have failed and sometimes quitting is a good strategy if you're not passionate or energetic enough to see it through.
What's under your sales-bonnet ( Final)
Graham, cut-in abruptly, "OK, ok, let's let sleeping dogs lie, Johno's gone, and good luck to him, we will also see him at the pub on Friday, he's not going too far. He's a good mate, just tired and over-it and that's fair enough, it hasn't exactly been a party around here for a while. Let's move on to the present." I was impressed with Graham, he was a big man, and I felt his big heart, and from what I could tell he was the leader although the Greek wore the title of Managing Director.

What should you do with your poor sales performers?
One of the most frequent areas that I get asked to consult on is sales team 'performance', or lack thereof. In many sales teams what I observe is a small percentage of sales stars shining and the rest making up the numbers. This conundrum I call, 'The Law of Lesser Equals'. This law propounds: All women and men are created equal, yet when compared in competitive environments some underperform, not just marginally, but resoundingly. Many team members have the same training, similar backgrounds and experience, but some get the results, while others struggle. Is that a result of luck, experience, or natural talent, or is there a more substantial explanation?
How confident are you at selling, really?
As a (willing) potential customer I want to trust you and believe in what you are saying and that you will deliver on your promise. You can make the odd mistake here-and-there, because if I trust you it's not a deal breaker-I know you will be the first person to bring it to my attention. You can sell the best product or service in town, but if your salespeople fail to install belief, build trust and deliver on their promises, the success of your business is limited, if not ultimately removed.

A lot of a littles make a lot
Selling is really nothing more than the art of meeting, listening, engaging, and leading the right people to a win-win outcome. Which isn't too tough to achieve, yet many salespeople are obsessed with the pursuit of the so called 'silver sales bullet' that will magically cut-corners and transform their sales performance and life accordingly. I'm here to inform you there is no so such thing or external force to you that will determine your ultimate success - it's all up to you!
Your Sales Force is your companys engine Isnt it time for an MOT
Giving your sales team training does not mean they are poor sales people. Even the best of us can do with a little help now and again and good training can equip your team with a set of tools to help them raise their game.
Setting the Presentation/Proposal Meeting Date
A quick view and advice on the difficulties associated with the timing and timeframe of proposals.
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.
C-Level Sales Training Tip 17-Win-Over C-Level Decisison Makers with Effective Communications
Capturing the attention of a top level person is extremely difficult. Holding it is even tougher. Learn from this article how to gab executives' interest and get them talking about what you have to say.
Allow Clients to Realise they want your Sale
The key to sales is allowing your client to realsie that they want your sale. Find out how to do this by following these simple steps.
Are you a Winner in your Sales? Find out how to be.
On sales training courses we are often asked 'what separates winners from losers' Wouldn't you love to know what separates the winners from the losers in sales? Would you love to learn how to achieve the top sales in your profession? Well below are 4 simple secrets that can be the defining difference in your sales.

Effective Questions to Close more Sales
If you want to learn how to lead your team and your clients to their desires then read on. Learn how effective questioning can get you and them what you want.
Keep your Sales on Track Through the Recession
We can not deny the resession has hit us all in some way or another. This article can show and prove to you the power of positive thinking in our sales. It will make the difference.
Learn more skills in Sales to get the Results you want
It's a Monday morning after the big match at the weekend and the premier league football coach brings the team in to review the match. On goes the video and the coach and players watch, each move is analysed, the tape is stopped and the coach asks the group what was good, what was poor and what can they do different next time.

Open with a Grand Opening in Sales
Did you know that a client will have decided whether they will stay listening to you or not in the first 30 seconds of your call. To find out the ideal opening statement simply keep reading.
Opening Statements to Close the Sale
Do you want to close your sales but the problem is you just cant ask? You clam up or feel guilty as hough you are pushing them into it? Read on to find out how you can change this through your opening statement.
Succeed in your Sales Everyday
How would you feel if every sales call you made was successful? You are the person that is making these calls and therefor you are responsible for gettin your yes`s but how do you achieve this in every call? Read more to find out how to accomplish your goals in sales.
The Mistakes to Often Made in Sales
If you want to be succesfull in your sales then simply do not make these mistakes.
Who Does not Want More Action? In Sales
Am I right in saying that everybody loves a bit of action? Imagine you could get the positive action such as commitment in sales that you desire to get the results that will guarantee your wants and needs personally and professionally.
Win in your Sales Everyday
Would you like to achieve top sales everyday? Follow these 4 simple steps to get the results of your selling desires to achieve your everyday goals.
Sales Secrets of the Golden Silence
I attended a sales training course a number of years ago and the trainer was talking about closing techniques. I remember he said on several occasions 'ask for the order and then keep quiet' he had plastered all over the walls in the training room silence can be golden.
Sales Training - How to Use Role Play Effectively
Is role playing and videoing a good tool to use on sales training courses? This is often a question I am asked when meeting prospective clients who are looking at the possibility of running a sales training course.
How to Get Your Sales Team to Reach The Highest Level of Sales Achievement
First things first. As an aspiring top sales manager, get your sales group to buy into the fact that achievement is the only permanent value of work and achievement only comes from relentless effort and commitment.
It Is All About the Buyer
A simple set of statements that reminds us what this sales event is truly about.
Why Salespeople Fail...
In this day in age, no one seems to want to EARN anything anymore. In SALES, you have no choice! What you put in, is what you get out, period. In this outline, you'll learn why salespeople fail and ways to go about selling the old-fashioned way, driving on-going, recurring revenue.
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.
Helping Customers Move Forward
Let’s focus on how you can accelerate closing by being “helpful” to your customers. What would you do in the following two scenarios to be “helpful?”
Shorten the Sales Cycle
It seems as if your customers' number one goal is to lengthen it! The economy and an environment of heightened skepticism have doubled or even tripled the length of the sales cycle in many industries. So what can you do that is in your control to accelerate the close?
Talk To Me
How are you changing your sales dialogues to encourage customers to open up to you and tell you about the impact the economy is having on their businesses and how that has changed their priorities? Customers won't really open up unless they trust you, and gaining and keeping trust is not easy in light of what most customers are going through.
A, B, C, E-MAIL OF PROSPECTING
When you’re trying to get a meeting with a prospect, the ideal outcome of your telephone call is to get a face-to-face appointment. But in spite of your skills and making a second effort some prospects will not agree to a meeting yet!
A SALES METHODOLOGY
Do you have a sales methodology that your team follows? What is a sales methodology? In Linda Richardson's new article, A Sales Methodolgy, Linda will review the importance of a an effective sales process and methodolgy.

ASKING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS
KNOWING HOW TO FINESSE POTENTIALLY INTRUSIVE QUESTIONS SO THAT YOU ARE COMFORTABLE ASKING THEM AND CLIENTS FEEL GOOD ABOUT ANSWERING IS AN INVALUABLE SKILL.
CHALLENGING MESSAGES
Even in the best of times, change can be stressful — and these are hardly the best of times. If you are faced with announcing a less than welcome change, how you position the message dramatically influences how your sales team will hear it. The following are some ideas to help you and your team deal with the change:
DECISION MAKERS VS. INFLUENCERS
Because clients’ needs have become increasingly complex, most salespeople recognize that to meet those needs a team effort is required. Being able to gain access to team members, preparing with them, and performing in front of the client as an effective team are essential to meet clients’ broader and more complex needs.
ESCALATION AS A NEGOTIATION STRATEGY
Escalation can be a highly effective negotiation strategy. Having unlimited authority in a negotiation can seem, and is, powerful, but it can be equally dangerous. If your client thinks that you have unlimited authority, he or she can read that as a green light to keep driving for more.
GETTING THE STRAIGHT SCOOP
Win or lose, how diligent are you in placing a call to get feedback from your clients about why they did or didn’t choose you? There is so much to learn — whether to identify strengths you hadn’t even recognized as such that you can use to win future business, to know what appeals most to your client so you can be extra sure to deliver on that, or to correct misses and prevent them from happening to sink future deals.
LEADS, LEADS, LEADS
In a more challenging economy clients’ decision processes often become more protracted. You think that salespeople would jump on every possible lead. Yet our research and experience show that, even today, many leads are too easily discounted. For example, some salespeople mistakenly discount a lead because the level of the contact isn’t high enough. Yet research shows that many opportunities begin at the operational level.

LEVERAGE YOUR PREPARATION
Preparing for a sales call, while it still takes discipline and time, has never been easier. Technology (CRMs, Google, other web resources) has dramatically reduced research time. The other side of the coin is that technology has made business more instantaneous and that has put more demand on salespeople’s time.

NO BUDGET – UNLESS OF COURSE…
Many of the customers we are talking to may be like your customers. Their budgets have either been cut or all but vanished. What can you do? Linda Richardson article "No Budget - Unless of Course.." explores some helpful tips.
ROOM FOR TWO EXPERTS IN YOUR SALES CALL?
I read an article recently about programmers. It described programmers as program experts and their clients as domain experts. I couldn’t help thinking how customer-focused we could be in sales if we thought of clients as domain experts.
STICKY QUESTIONS
How should you answer an “uncomfortable” question or concern by a client that you wish you didn’t have to discuss, for example, a situation in which a colleague left your organization under difficult circumstances or negative press?
NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL
Many salespeople are reporting that it is taking them twice as long to close a sale. They also agree that there are fewer deals and, therefore, the need for them to close the deals that are in the pipeline is more acute. Certainly customers will not buy without clear value justification and trust in you. But what else can you do to increase your chances that you, not your competitor, get the business that is out there?
YOUR EMAILS – THE IMPRESSION YOU MAKE
Today, e-mail is probably the most common way of communicating with clients. I continue to be amazed by the e-mails that I get to see that salespeople have sent to their clients.

Why Follow a Sales Process?
The importance and benefits of following a sales process when working as a sales professional.
Activity/Activity/Activity
An overview on how to set one's own activity level with regards to sales.
Dress for Success as a Sales Professional
The importance of dress code when it comes to sales.
Are you following a Sales Process?
If not, you are not only wasting your time, but you are also losing sales because of it. You think you are in control but in reality you are out of control. Have you ever been rejected? If your answer is yes, you have just proven that you are not in control of the sales process; however, the buyer is in control. Isn’t it your job and responsibility as a sales professional to qualify the prospects and to reject them if they are not qualified? Who is really qualifying? Who is really in control?
The Foundation to Sales Success in Today’s New Economy of Buyers
Selling in today’s new economy of buyers requires a strong foundation in order to succeed. It is crucial to your overall success to begin with a strong foundation to support the productive behaviours within your Selling System. Your attitude, which stems from your individual beliefs, is the foundation for productive behaviours and sales velocity. A brand new positive and proactive attitude will certainly attract more buyers. It will assist in changing your ineffective behaviours or habits into defined daily disciplines and efficient habits will provide you with more focused targeting. The result will be a better return on time invested (R.O.T.I.).

Shoes / Watch / Grooming
The importance of the three to the potential buyers in the marketplace.
Proposal and Presentation Tips
A simple set of tips for sales presentations and business proposals in today's business environment.
Go on Vacation to Grow Your Business
If you want to improve your business, go on vacation. Vacation is a great time to decompress, not accomplish anything meaningful, and eliminate any noise coming from an alarm clock. It's also a great time to observe customer service and sales. My vacations have always left me with a few business takeaways. Here are some observations:
"Lazy Sales Professional" - An Oxymoron
A look at how much work goes into being a sales professional.
C-Level Sales Training Tip 20 - Relate Immediately by Matching Your Chemistry
This C-level sales training article / video shows a simple process to get people to feel at ease and comfortable with you by matching your style to theirs. When people are at ease with you, they will listen to you, believe you and give you what you want.
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.
Are you making the best use of your sales time?
What is the most important part of our job as salespeople? I think it is to get new business while maintaining what we have. Therefore, if that is the most important part of our job, what do we need to make the difference? Yes, your appropriate behaviour, but that is not the answer I was looking for. Without prospects or customers we have nothing. Therefore, prospects and customers are the most important component in our jobs. Because of that, we have to be constantly thinking of prospects and clients in terms of when they want to be contacted or visited, what their needs and desires are and what we can do for them in relation to satisfying those needs and desires.

No is a Positive Outcome in Sales
There are numerous studies that reveal that 87% of sales people working the telephone give up after the first attempt. By extrapolation this means that only 13% follow up more than once. Another 10% give up after a second call. Only about 3% of reps follow up more than twice. Which do you think have a higher rate of success? To get more positive responses you have to hear more nos. You hear more no’s (and more positive responses) by following up every lead and every opportunity. To get more positive responses you must be tenacious on following up leads. Get the ‘no’s’ out of the way. Being perseverant and persistent is the key and it requires two things: a follow-up system and self-discipline.

Building Employee Self Esteem for Bottom Line Results
Self esteem is a sense of worth, not only in inner confidence and self-respect, but also outwardly in the actions one takes towards contributing to the Bottom Line. Employee recognition is ranked the number one motivating factor when it comes to employee motivation in the workplace. If you want to maintain motivated employees, and encourage others to do better, recognizing them will help build their self esteem, while maintaining a loyal and motivated employee.

SMB-Speak: Getting your Foot in the Door
As we all know, small businesses believe that differentiation is a strategic advantage when competing with large corporations for a customer's business. Talking about differentiation is one thing; demonstrating it is another altogether.
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.
The Proposal Document
A simple overview on a few pointers for proposals.
The Death of Boring White Papers
As the Vice President for Human Resources for a $750 million diversified manufacturer, Jason seemed to be on the hit list for every consultant and headhunter on the eastern seaboard. It wasn’t that he didn’t use their services, in fact he was desperately in need of some specialized assistance, but finding just the right advisor was quickly becoming much harder than he anticipated. One thing was certainly clear-he wasn’t going to find what he needed from his existing network of contacts. That track had been lapped multiple times. Thus, he’d put the word out three weeks ago that he was open to learning about new firms and experts. Since then, the trickle of white papers and reports that came across his desk had turned into a veritable tsunami.
Activity vs. Productivity
Most of us work very hard. We get up each day and spend eight hours or more doing something we call work. If you talk to the most successful and the least successful persons you can find, they will probably both tell you they are working extremely hard. If this is true, why are so few people actually getting the results they want from their hard work?

Selling to CEOs Tip 22 - Get 100% of Business from 100% of Your Clients
Being the preferred supplier takes more than good work. Learn 2 easy steps to attain preferred status with your accounts. All it takes is a few extra meetings. Learn the 2 steps in this article/ video.
The Dreaded Monday Morning Sales Meeting
Do They GET TO GO or HAVE TO GO? For years as a speaker/trainer/coach, salespeople have approached me with feedback regarding their regular company sales meetings. This is what I hear: -The meetings are boring with little to no direction -The meetings turn into individual gripe sessions -The meetings turn into complaint sessions by management -The meetings tend to “bring down” the reps rather than “pump up” the reps -The meetings tend to be filled with reports, data, stats, and rules -The meetings never start on time -The meetings never follow an agenda -The meetings never end on time Does any of this sound familiar to you? Do your people tend to “go through the motions” in your sales meetings? Do they complain about having to come to these meetings regularly? Do you sometimes agree with them?

The Close
Just a quick look at a few different closing techniques with regards to sales.
Sell Value Not Discounts
Sell value not discounts is a worthy and profitable concept to consider. In the long run selling value is more profitable - learn how to do it!
Establishing Your Sales Objectives
A simple process of establishing ones own sales objectives.
It was going to be a cold winter
Make sure your information about your market is coming from reliable sources!! Do not judge your market conditions only on the conditions of your sales and profits or the news media. a. Shop your competition - see how they are doing b. Talk to your customers about their plans for future purchases c. Talk to businesses in other industries d. Talk with and listen to members of your association e. Talk and listen to sales representatives From the book "Bad Business Assumptions" Chapter

What Aggressive, Sweat and Benefits have in common?
When I wanted to increase my truck tire business I asked my competitions customers what they liked least about doing business with my competition. They all told me the same thing. My competition was only open to fix their tires and sell them new tires from 9am-5pm. The hours the truckers should be on the road driving their trucks. So to solve their problem of lost trucking time we opened at 7am to fix their tires and sell them new tires and stayed open until 9pm. It took us less than 3 months to own the truck tire business.

The Post Office does it... SO CAN YOU
Have you been to your local post office lately? Take the time, make a trip there. Go right up to the window and "LISTEN". Sometime during the exchange between the customer and the postal worker they will ask the customer to buy postal products that most customers had no intention of even considering buying. They always ask you if you need any stamps or mailing supplies. They ask for the sale. Why do they do this? Because it works.

How to close the telephone price shopper
Most people in the selling business feel the telephone price shopper is the toughest sale to make. But the top sales producer don't feel that way. Because they know how to control the sale and change the shoppers focus from price to the benefits they want to receive from the product / service.

Going from a Clerk to a SALES PROFESSIONAL
Clerk: The person behind the counter that directs customers, rings up the sales and puts items in a bag for the customer. Sales Professional: The person that increases sales by:

How to bring the telephone price shopper to your business
We spend way too much money and time marketing, to get prospects to telephone us only to let them hang up before they make the commitment to come into our store or purchase our products and services over the telephone.

What is the lowest price?
You do not have to be a victim of the price cutters - You do not have to be the lowest price to sell.

Off the Cuff --- Sales Execution
Execution involves the day-to-day activities of the salesperson. For most industries, this entails both planned, proactive tasks and opportunistic, reactive events that the salesperson uncovers by doing the right things in the right place at the right time. It's critical that the progress of the tasks in target action plans is carefully monitored to avoid surprises. This is the equivalent of monitoring your daily exercise before the effects start to show up on the scale. The SEP circumvents the most common mistake made in distribution today: trying to manage results. You must manage activities because it's the activities that produce results. Once the results are in, the horse is out of the barn and everything you do from that point on is reactive. If you proactively manage the activities, the expected results will follow.
Selling to CEOs Sales Training Tip 25 - Build Relationship Plans to Capture 100% of Clients' Business
Fulfilling expectations are what keeps relationships solid and useful. To meet your client’s expectations, make sure you know what they are. So as not to be disappointed, make sure your clients know your expectations. Here’s how to make sure.
The Biggest Mistake Sales Managers Make
"I'm swamped right now" "I'm way too busy to do that" "I'll need to call you back, I'm way behind right now"... Does this sound like you? If you're like me, there is a HUGE tendency for sales managers to get bogged down in far too many administrative duties, conference calls, time-wasting phone calls, useless meetings and mindless corporate initiatives - all repetitive activities that do nothing but waste your time - when you should be focused on more meaningful and lucrative tasks.

Why Benchmark?
A good number of reasons for benchmarking and making substantive points with potential clients that are not always too forthcoming.
Sales Management - 7 Selling Tips on Handling Price, Price, Price
You hear the price excuse or issue all the time. Well, here’s 7 ways to handle price objections and demands for the lowest price.

6 Sales Management Drills for Relationship Selling to CEOs and Top Executives
Practice is not something one does when their good. Practice is what makes one good. Here are 6 drills on how to train your sales peoples to get to the top and make a selling difference.

Proposal Coaching: Template and 8 Questions to Ask
Your salespeople need your support. And while they may try to entice you to write or help them with their proposals, in fact they need your support in the form of coaching, not doing their work for them.
Final Presentations: It’s Not Over Until...
Great news! You've made your presentation and are one of two finalists down from six - pretty exciting, especially in light of the extended sales cycles you've been facing. Your customer has given you a date of two weeks from today when the company will announce its final decision. Your contact said he'd get back to you. What do you do in the interim to increase your winning?
Make a List, Delete Excuses
Selling is as much mind-set as skill set - especially today. Sure the economy has made it harder to conduct business and find and close opportunities. It has also made it harder to decipher what obstacles are due to the economy and what are due to our own performance. A 2009 DI study with 1600 corporate customers showed that customers attributed 33% of lost deals to things they feel were in the salesperson's control.

Three Proven Methods To Turn Around Your Sales Underachievers
Something’s got to be done – and fast. These guys are killing your company’s sales performance. When dealing with underperforming sales people, you can’t delay.
Lead the way
Sales needs to be led from the top and it needs to be on the agenda of the ‘C’ suite, and this will mean from the CEO down, including the CFO, COO, and CIO. Even if the ‘C’ suite never has contact with an external customer (which I strongly advise against) they need to know how to lead, sell in, and support the sales effort. Why? Despite millions, if not billions, of dollars being invested in sales training, CRM systems and the like, many leaders are realising that their frontend processes, backend systems, culture (including those staff who have not traditionally seen themselves involved in sales), and sales methodologies are not aligned with their customers.

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.
Buyers Change their Ways - Sales People Must Keep Up
The trouble with change is that it sneaks up on you. It would be easier to deal with if it happened in a predictable manner, like a bus or train arriving at its final destination. After a major change, we don’t need historians to tell us that it was inevitable and that the writing was on the wall for all to see. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. For those in the midst of change, ‘after’ is difficult to define. Long after, we can put dates on things but while they are happening, there is always the hope that the situation is just an anomaly.

The Biggest False Assumption in Sales
For whatever reasons and with few exceptions sales training, education and/or discussions operate from the premise that the prospective buyerss have in fact recognized and managed their internal issues. That one (1) false assumption is responsible for an almost unbelievable volume of lost revenue and protracted sales cycles.
Sales Training - Making it Stick!
Communication is often touted as the most important aspect of sales training, but the most important thing about sales training is whether or not it brings about results.

Automobile Sales Training
The overall success of the automobile industry ultimately depends upon sales. There is a huge demand for well-trained auto salespeople who have the ability and aptitude to meet the ever-changing world of technology. Dealerships that invest time and money in an auto sales training program will receive the best results with a highly qualified sales staff. A good auto sales training program provides the proper education and motivation that is needed in today's highly competitive field of auto sales.
Real Estate Sales Training
Sales training is perhaps the most important training in which a real estate professional can participate. Of course, in every state and the District of Columbia a real estate agent or broker must be licensed but without the ability to sell, the real estate license serves no purpose.

Pharmaceutical Sales Training
Pharmaceutical sales training is essential to ensure a broad customer base and satisfied customers who continually return to your company. It is not easy to sell pharmaceuticals without knowledge of the market or which people you are trying to reach and how to reach them. Pharmaceutical sales training is therefore essential for your company's growth.
Insurance Sales Training
Quality insurance sales training is one of the most important aspects of keeping an insurance business profitable and creating a good name for yourself within the community you serve. There are several key components of quality insurance sales training, including needs analysis, features and benefits, objection handling, and closing skills. In addition to these common things, however, a good insurance sales training program will teach the prospective insurance salesperson how to reach out to the customer and build trust.

6 Methods of Training Reinforcement
The key to training success is to deploy creative training reinforcement. Follow these six steps to keep training alive and sales up.

Handling Price Objections Should Not Mean Price Reduction
Price objections often lead to price reduction, but with proper sales training, employees can handle them without lowering cost.
Relationship Selling to C-Level Executives – How to Use Entertainment for More Sales
Relationships close sales, but most confuse socializing with relationship selling. Learn how entertainment if used with laser precision can create profitable relationships with CEOs and other C-Level executives.
Performance Management
A relatively new management buzz phrase, performance management, has been gaining popularity recently. Management, particularly sales management, has always been about getting results so clearly whatever sales managers have been doing prior to the emergence of this new concept should also be known as performance management. The article explains the tasks required to maximize performance.
Five ways to use a special offer
Special offers are the only thing left when you run out of time and still have a hill to climb to reach your sales target. It seems a really dumb thing to do because the people whom you send the offers to are likely to become conditioned to the special offer rates. Worse, they get to know when the end of your measurement period is and wait for the offers! The article gives the five best ways of using special offers.
Fax to Wall
The fax is dead, long live the fax. In these days of high tech marketing even email is beginning to seem old hat. Reading an article about fax marketing revived an old idea - fax to wall.

Personal Marketing for Sales People
Never make another cold call again. These days there is a realistic alternative to making cold telephone calls to find new sales prospects. It involves leveraging the latest online services to identify and woo potential customers before making a call or arranging to be introduced.

The Value of a Value Propostion
Understand how a value proposition can assist in promoting your business and positioning your company.
The Value of a Value Propostion
Understand how a value proposition can assist in promoting your business and positioning your company.
Secrets of Selling to the "C" Suite
Learn the secrets of getting in front of decision makers and learning how to close business with those that can.
Secrets of Selling to the "C" Suite
Learn the secrets of getting in front of decision makers and learning how to close business with those that can.
How to Get Better Results with Cold Calling
Learn the secrets to gain better results from cold calling success.
How to Get Better Results with Cold Calling
Learn the secrets to gain better results from cold calling success.
Negotiation Tactics
Understand the art of negotiation and win any conversation with minimal concession.
Negotiation Tactics
Understand the art of negotiation and win any conversation with minimal concession.
Winning Business with Referrals
Use referrals to decrease labor and increase your percentage of closed business and new revenue.
Winning Business with Referrals
Use referrals to decrease labor and increase your percentage of closed business and new revenue.
How to Increase the Sales Pipeline
Learn how to produce more leads with less labor
How to Increase the Sales Pipeline
Learn how to produce more leads with less labor
The Importance of Customer Service
Gain insights of how to use customer service as a branding and marketing differentiator.
The Importance of Customer Service
Gain insights of how to use customer service as a branding and marketing differentiator.
Seven Irresitable Laws of Customer Service
Create customer service tools that set you apart from competitive forces and make you and your company a client magnet.
Seven Irresitable Laws of Customer Service
Create customer service tools that set you apart from competitive forces and make you and your company a client magnet.
Top Three Ways to Become a Sales Truth Teller
Many people believe that it's impossible to close deals while remaining truthful. However, as the economy gets more and more competitive, it’s vital that salespeople are honest with themselves, their team, and their clients. Learn how to be honest with yourself, tell the truth to your prospects and clients, and stay in touch with your customers’ needs in order to close more business!

Is Your Sales Training Missing These Ingredients?
The last time you went on sales training, were you engaged in the decision? How long was the sale training and/or was the sales training ongoing or was it just the flavor of the month? When or what day(s) of the week was the sales training delivered - during pay time or no pay time? Did the sales training take your personal sales needs and learning methods into consideration? Were you able to apply the sales training methods in the real world? Were you encouraged to return for further sales training or to meet with your sales coach and discuss your experience? Was the sales training based on sales management objectives?

Solving the Customer Service Puzzle
Learn the simple rules of customer service to assist your organization create the differentiation required to create allure.

Solving the Customer Service Puzzle
Learn the simple rules of customer service to assist your organization create the differentiation required to create allure.

Traditional Sales Training and Professional Selling
The fundamentals of selling have not changed in recent times and traditional sales training offers those engaged in professional selling long standing sales practices that have withstood the test of time. If your own sales practice is not providing you with the outcome you desire then it might be time to look further into traditional sales training and the fundamentals of selling.
Truck Drivers --- Some of our Best Sales People
I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say exactly that --- "Our Truck Drivers are some of our Best Sales People." In fact, I often made that statement myself when I ran my own Steel Processing Distribution Center. During seminars and association meetings I still often hear CEO's and other executives make that comment over and over again. But ------ When I ask for a show of hands as to how many people actually train their truck drivers on sales techniques very few hands go up.

Online Sales Training
Sales people have a reputation for having a short attention span and little patience for any training delivery that is perceived as dull. For sales training to be effective it must engage the audience from the start. This seems to present a challenge for webinars and computer based learning programmes. Article outlines the best methods to sales training.
Easier Learning
18 simple practical steps that anyone can take to maximise their retention when participating in a training course, coaching session, or learning exercise.
Halve Sales Costs
Online meetings offer the potential to halve sales costs or double sales productivity.

SMM 1 | The #1 Factor To Achieving Sales Management Success
On this episode of sales management mastery we are going to get into a little bit about what we what to accomplish on this show. As well as, introduce one of our core foundational concepts that is absolutely essential to becoming a top sales manager.

SMM 2 | 3 Proven Sales Management Techniques To Establish Trust With Your Salespeople
On this week's episode of Sales Management Mastery we're going to talk about what's in it for you to placing deposits in the trust account, plus three proven methods to establish trust with your salespeople so that you can drive your company's sales revenues.

SMM 3 | The Secret To Fighting Mediocrity In Your Sales Team
Let's talk a little bit today about some of the corporate buzz words that you probably hear flying around in corporate America today. Most of the people that listen to the show are sales managers and/or general managers of large and small organizations. The corporate buzz words have been going around for a quite some time.
SMM 4 | A Simple Way To Lead Your Sales Team To Sales Stardom
On this episode of Sales Management Mastery we are going to teach you how to lead you sales team to sales stardom using our "lead by being led" sales leadership strategy.
SMM 7 | 7 Quick Ways To Lead a Sales Team To Maximum Sales Impact!
On this episode of Sales Management Mastery we're going to give you 7 quick ways to lead a sales team for maximum sales impact.

Selling and Attitude
Discover how much you attitude counts in trying to sell your products and services.

Selling and Attitude
Discover how much you attitude counts in trying to sell your products and services.

C-Level Relationship Selling - Identifying the Ultimate Decision Maker
Deals are closed when all the top people give their approvals. This article will help you overcome the first step in getting to the real decision maker and his influencers - knowing who they are.

How to Survive in Volatile Times
Learn the art of companies that can survive in any economy and why they are built to last.

How to Survive in Volatile Times
Learn the art of companies that can survive in any economy and why they are built to last.

The Sign of a True Sales Pro - Admitting We’re Never Too Good for Coaching
Ringggg. Ringggg. Not my favorite sound in the evening. It was Virginia, someone I knew, trying to explain why I needed her services. I hung up feeling like I had dodged the bullet for now…and went on with my evening. Later she called back for advice on what she could have done differently to improve her call. That is a sign of great professionalism.

Make it About THEM: Sales Meetings That Engage
Want to increase the value of your sales meetings? Make it about THEM by including your sellers.When you include your sellers and make it about them, they will pay closer attention, participate at higher levels, see a higher perceived value and will be recharged to go out and sell more!

Information Versus Interrogation: The Three ‘I’s of Open-ended Questions
Every effective sales training course teaches sales professionals to ask their prospects open-ended questions. These are the questions that start with who, what, why, when and how. But when used incorrectly, they can make a needs analysis seem more like an interrogation. Demonstrate professionalism by using the 3 ‘I’s with open-ended questions.
A Sales Process is as simple as ABC
If you are not following a sales process, you are not in control. Consider this for a unique sales process - a sales results process that is as simple as ABC. A. You cannot build anything without a solid foundation and the same applies to the sales process. The A in the ABC Sales Results Process is for Attitude - the foundation of all successful sales people. Without a positive attitude and belief in you, there is no foundation upon which to build a successful organization, or winning products and services or benefit from market growth. Sales professionals need a sales process to reflect, confirm and take hold of

Business success is all about sales.
Do you want to Up Your Bottom Line? The world market is heating up. Competitors are appearing out of nowhere and expectations are high, especially from the top. In today’s market both the business owner and seasoned professional salesperson have to be producing at their absolute best to stay up with the industry leaders. Business people must also be sales professionals who today have to be pro-active, highly energetic, entrepreneurial, self-driven and really concerned about efficiency and the bottom line. He or she needs to be honest, sensitive, a master problem solver and above all, a personal marketing genius with a win/win philosophy. The profession of being a salesperson is no different than any other profession. All

Discipline and Attitude Essentials for Difficult Times
Maintaining the right attitude during difficult times is definitely not the easiest of tasks, but it is probably the most essential ingredient required for overcoming challenging circumstances. Unfortunately, during difficult times, such as the current financial crisis, we often unconsciously become a product of our environments and reflect our negative surroundings through pessimism. Maintaining the right attitude requires discipline and it is this discipline that determines our success and satisfaction in life. It is important to remember that discipline, like

Discipline is an Effective Habit
What is Discipline? Does discipline have anything to do with success or motivation? Does discipline have anything to do with your everyday life? Can discipline be an effective habit? Discipline is defined as a commitment to the most important person in the world - YOU. It means doing what you have to do, even when you don’t want to do it. Discipline is an effective habit and effective habits lead to effective results. Conversely, ineffective habits produce ineffective results. Firstly, you must

Do you have an employee retention strategy that also increases employee motivation?
These were the questions posed to Business owners in a workshop at an Annual Conference at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort earlier this year. Thanks to their contributions, this article became possible as an employee retention and employee motivation learning tool for you. Teams were created to brainstorm answers to each of these questions. It wasn’t long before everyone started to see a common element in all three areas. The common element was people and how management relates to employee retention and employee motivation, , no matter what area they worked in.

Employee Recognition and Praise. Does it improve performance and productivity? Does it keep them motivated and loyal?
Maintaining a motivated staff is not always the easiest of tasks, but it does pay off for you, your customers and the employee. This article focuses on closing off periods, or events, with employee recognition. If you want to avoid losing your best employees, and encourage others to do better recognizing them publicly may save yourself the time and money of having to find and re-train new staff.

How Discipline and Attitude Can Make the Difference in Your Life, even in these Difficult Times
Maintaining the right attitude in difficult times is not the easiest of tasks, but it is the best thing you can do! With the right attitude in difficult times, realistic goals can be set, planned for, put into action and accomplished. However, both attitude and goal accomplishment have a common denominator, and it is that common denominator that is missing in the lives of most people.

Increasing Sales Results through Appropriate Behaviour
You can have a fantastic attitude, but a positive attitude alone is not enough to guarantee long term success. You need goals and an action plan to get where you want to go. The ‘B’ stands for behaviour in the ABC, 123 Sales Results System. Behaviour is the manner in which you conduct yourself. It is the way you behave, the way you act, function or react. The 1, 2, 3’s are the goals and behaviours from a personal, organisational, and market targeting level. Without goals there is no reason to act, no motivation to take daily actions or go the extra mile.

Sales Prospecting for Sales Results
Are you, as a sales or business professional, getting the results you are looking for from you sales prospecting strategies and techniques? Do you have a sales prospecting strategy in place? Do you follow a sales prospecting system or sales prospecting process? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are probably considered a successful sales professional. If not, then allow me to share some sales strategies on sales prospecting with you from the internationally proven ABC, 123 Sales Results System, a non-traditional sales process.

Top 10 Characteristics of Successful Sales Professionals
Top 10 Characteristics of Successful Sales Professionals Success means different things to different people. But let’s look at sales professionals. What would you say are the top 10 characteristics of successful sales professionals? To a salesperson, it could be a

The Foundation to Sales Success
You can’t build anything without a solid foundation. The ‘A’ is for attitude – the foundation of all successful sales people. Attitude is the “advance man” of our true selves. Its roots are inward, based on past experiences, but its fruit is outward. It is our best friend, or our worst enemy. It is more honest and more consistent than our words. It is a thing, which draws people to us, or repels us. It is never content until it is expressed. It is the librarian of our past, the speaker of our present, and the prophet of our future. Yet, your attitude is under whose control? 1/3. Your attitude is 100 per cent under ...

Stop selling! Satisfy the Four Universal needs of Buyers, and They will buy!
Let’s face it, people buy from people, particularly people they trust and like – people who remind them of themselves. People that they can trust. Therefore it is important for you, as a sales professional, to be aware of and to understand the universal needs of buyers. The competencies of sales professionals are numerous but boil down to human interaction, communication and relationship building. You, as a sales professional, needs to establish rapport and build trust, to communicate effectively and to develop and maintain lasting relationships, if you are to succeed in the sales profession. In order to build a long-term relationship, you as a sales professional, must first establish

Selling Skills for today’s economy
In order to succeed and meet sales targets in today’s economy sales professionals need to be equipped with the appropriate selling skills, following a proven selling system or sales process, They can no longer afford to carry on with traditional selling skills of doing dog and pony shows, feature and benefit dumps, or hit and run closes.

Targeting for Velocity Selling Cycles in a New Economy
In this new economy, it is more important than ever before to aim for Velocity Selling cycles. Your bottom line depends on it. It is essential that sales professionals clearly define their target prospects by criteria. This criteria is based on the best return on time invested (R.O.T.I.) and confirmed in the fastest way possible. I refer to the Velocity Selling Cycle which will unquestionably acquire positive sales results.

Competencies to increase the Velocity of your Sales Cycle and to Up Your Bottom Line
Now with a fantastic attitude and appropriate goal driven sales behaviors, you also need the competencies of your profession just as a lawyer or doctor needs them for theirs. Do you have the appropriate sales competencies to increase the velocity of your sales cycle and Up your bottom line? Well, you can develop your competencies almost anywhere. As salespeople, you can develop your competencies from reading books, in class training, on the job, being coached or through trial and error. You could join Professional Sales Associations, and in some countries like Canada, you can even get certified as a sales professional.

Want to UP Your Bottom Line Quickly in Today’s New Economy of Buyers?
Sales Are Flat-Lined, Buyers are Slow to Buy, Sales Cycles Are Too Long, Lost Control of the Sale Process, Bottom Line is Behind Projections… If this is true, you must appreciate that sales revenue is the life line to your bottom line. Without buyers, there are no sales. Without sales, there are no revenues. The world revolves around sales, but more importantly, it now needs to revolve around buyers. Buyers are everywhere. What are you doing to help them buy?

Increasing the Velocity of Your Selling Cycle
Velocity Selling begins with buyer relationships. People buy for emotional reasons and they buy from people they like and trust. The Velocity Selling Cycle starts with building relationships. In the Velocity Selling System, you must first establish rapport with the client in order to build a lasting relationship. You need to know the components of the NLP rapport pie and how to build rapport in the first 30 seconds of meeting.

A Velocity Selling System that is as Simple As ABC
If you are not following a sales process, you are probably not in control. Consider this for a unique sales process - a “Buyer Focused” Velocity Selling System that is as simple as ABC.

Turning “Lost” Customers into Great Future Customers
The search for lost customer sales treasure does take work - but the upside of the effort is huge. You never know what hidden gems of business you might find in your lost customers. Once you’ve identified lost customers with the potential of becoming great new customers, ask yourself a few questions and then make contact.

Sales Training in Today’s Economy
Sales training in today’s economy will contribute more to your bottom line than any other activity. You will see how sales training will affect budget cutbacks, sales incentives, new product launches and personal growth. Let me share with you

Negativity Has Left the Building: Focus on the Positive & Show Negativity the Door
John was at his wits end because his sales team had gone negative, they were selling less and he could see his ship had sprung a major leak and was going down. I gave John an exercise to do over the next 3 weeks to show negativity the door.

Networking Magic for C-Level Relationship Selling
Networking can produce leads, contacts, and C-level relationships better than any other method. This insightful article will give you the secrets to a surefire networking process.
Improve with Discipline and Persevere
If you want this year to be your best year ever, improve with discipline and refuse to be another “resigning” statistic. The world is full of people who give up on a daily basis and it is time for a positive change in attitude. Today’s world needs people with vision, focus and above all, discipline.

Jump start your Day, the Attitude of Discipline Way!
Each and every day this year can be a jump start towards getting everything you want out of life when you incorporate an attitude of discipline. An Attitude of Discipline is greeting each day with gratitude. When you wake up in the morning, you are granted another day closer to living your dreams. Simply waking up each day is a poignant reason to be grateful. So many people will not wake up today. An attitude of gratefulness is a daily discipline. Embrace an attitude of gratitude and notice how you speak differently using powerful words and how your body language greatly improves.
Self Esteem + Self Confidence + Self Respect = Self Worth.
Self esteem is an internal sense of worth. Self esteem reflects an inner confidence and self-respect and shines outwardly by the actions one takes. What evolves on the inside is usually reflected on the outside. Your internal self worth which consists of your self-esteem, self confidence and self respect will become your external net worth. It’s a matter of pride in who you are and the mentor you can be.

The Most Important Sales Leadership Discipline to Motivating Sales Teams
Sales team motivation can be an easy task, especially when appropriate disciplines are demonstrated by the sales leader. That is when employee motivation happens naturally. It is kind of like “monkey see, monkey do” approach. Motivation, no matter if it is self motivation or employee motivation, is defined as a motive to act. What motivates you and gets you to act, does not necessarily mean it will work for others, or lead to employee motivation. No one can motivate you, only you can motivate yourself. You cannot motivate others. As a sales team leader all you can do is demonstrate appropriate behaviours and create an environment where employees motivate themselves

Eradicate Procrastination - Be Action Oriented
Eradicate procrastination, before it destroys you. You get more out of your day with an action-oriented, do-it-now attitude. When you complete the unpleasant or hard jobs first and act on the big tasks little bits at a time, you trim anxiety and stress while gaining self-respect and self-confidence. After you exert this type of discipline long enough, you will establish a routine and create a new habit. Behavioral studies suggest that if you do something every day for 21 days, it becomes a habit. Be action oriented for the next 30 days and you will master procrastination.

Are You Exercising Your Right to Choose?
Many people do not realize the value of choice. Choice is our greatest gift. We can choose our dreams and decide what we want to be, where we want to go, what we want to do, what we want to have, and the way we react to most circumstances. We make choices each day from the moment we wake up to the time we fall asleep. There are the obvious choices: what to eat, what to wear and what to do that day.

Do you have the Courage to ASK?
When I speak to audiences around the world, I always ask, “Why don’t people have the courage to ask for what they want?” The answers are fear of rejection, fear of losing face or fear of being embarrassed. All of them live with the fear of what may happen because they do not have the courage to ask. For now, let me explain a few things about asking. Firstly, it takes courage to ask but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Am I right?

Is Fear Stopping You from Moving Forward?
Many people have great ideas and plans, but they let fear stop them dead in their tracks. Is fear stopping you from moving forward? After losing over five years of my life in fear of what other people would say, and as a teenager hiding because of my acne; I realized that I had some major catching up to do. I had a choice to make. I could be like everyone else and think about it, or I could just do it. But what happens when most people think about doing something?

Why do you go to work?
Why do you go to work? Is it for the enjoyment, to keep busy or another specific reason? For years, I have been asking people why they go to work. Everywhere in the world I get the same answer. What do you think that answer is?

The Lazy Sale’s Manager’s Way To Coach Salespeople
A couple years back when I took over a sales team, I was hired as a sales manager, before I left the corporate world to train sales managers fulltime. I was a sales manager for a few Fortune 500 and Nasdeq 100, and some smaller company's as wekll. I did that for many years. but one of the organizations that I started with, going back 8 or 9 years now, it was an organization that I really wanted to be a part of because they had an excellent record and a tremendous amount of opportunity.

4 Proven Methods to Motivate Salespeople…Gently
Great leaders in business, especially those in the sales world, have often regarded people skills as their greatest assets in motivating as well as leading. There are lots of opportunities for sales managers to motivate even during mundane every day activities. They could be anything from, taking corrective action, to criticism, to anything during the normal course of business, there is always the opportunity to motivate. Don't understand the power of some of these very simple techniques. This is the stuff that separates the men from the boys, and the women from the girls when it comes to superior sales management; motivating under ordinary circumstances.

How To Motivate Salespeople The Easy Way
One of the things that prompted us to talk about this today is that I am just continually amazed at the number of sales managers that have absolutely no clue as to what actually motivates their sales reps. It's really one of the most popular requests that we get at Sales Management Mastery is what motivate salespeople? In fact, in all the all line polls that we have done of sales manager, CEO's, sales trainers, this comes up as the number on demand for anyone engaged in our surveys on line. Which is "how do you motivate salespeople?"
How To Become A “Silent Sales Leader”
On this episode of Sales Management Mastery we teach you how to use silent might to empower you sales leadership with 5 powerful techniques
How To Be Successful in Sales
Do these 21 Characteristics from the 1930s hold true today?
Sharpen Your Greatest Sales Tool: Bring MORE to Your Sales Meetings
When you hear the term “sales tool,” what comes to mind? CRM, Blackberry, laptop? As you mentally list the tools provided for your sellers, do you include your sales meetings on the list? Think about it: In an effective sales meeting, the time you give, the experience of the team and a focus on sharpening everyone for success can make the meeting one of the greatest sales tools of all!
Motivate Your Sales Team by Making Your Meetings STICK!
If you really want to motivate your sales team, you need to hold regular, productive meetings. What does that look like? Sales meetings should equip your sellers to sell more and should be about more than operation and product updates. The key is to make your meetings STICK.

Traditional Sales Training is a Waste of Time and Money!
Traditional sales training is a waste of time and money because it does not work! In many organizations, sales training is the flavour of the month, with no consistency. Sales training conducted over one, two or three days, in-house or as a public seminar, is really a waste of time and money. Sure the motivation and a couple of sales training tips may be good for the next 30 -90 days, but if sales training techniques are not implemented within 24-48 hours of learning them, they are forgotten and the sales training becomes a waste of time and money.

Sales Training, without supporting Sales Management Training,
Many organizations invest in sales training which is wonderful but unfortunately, they do not invest or even consider supporting sales management training. Sales training will not be effective unless management is onboard. An organization will benefit from efficient use of time and get more “bang for your buck” with supporting sales management training.
What you should know before you invest in a sales training program.
Sales training is the foundation for a successful sales career. However, not all sales training is grounded and there are many factors to consider when selecting a sales training program. An individual wouldn’t have any direction without sales training. He/she would be wasting his/her own potential and the resources of the company. Therefore, it is important that the sales training relate not only to the individual’s needs but also to management objectives and their line of business.

Why Most Sales Training Programs Do Not Produce Results
Most sales training programs do not produce lasting results simply because they are “canned”, just like TV laughter. They can be antiquated, ineffective, and not buyer focused. There is a definite need for most sales people, business owners and non-selling professionals to improve their ability to market and sell their products and services. I am referring to such non-selling professionals as consultants, lawyers, doctors, and dentist. There is a problem with a large percentage of sales training in the marketplace today. Just take a look at the end results subsequent to the sales training of yesteryear.

Is 87% of Your Sales Training Investment Wasted?
Research has proven that 87% of information acquired during a sales training session will be lost one month later upon completion of the sales training program. This research was conducted by Huthwaite.  Therefore, 87% of your time allocated to sales training is lost because the acquired knowledge is generally forgotten after 30 days! What is the solution to this problem as it pertains to sales training?

Check Your Lost and Found File: Former Customers Make Great Future Customers
Want to win more business? “Lost” customers are the key! Many salespeople hit the delete key on former customers and focus on new prospects, but this is a big mistake! Former customers make great future customers, so increase your sales by earning the business of customers you’ve “lost” over the years. Here are a few steps you can take to revisit your “lost” customers and increase sales.
Top 6 Steps to Buying a Car
Let's be honest, buying a car rarely (if ever) seems like an enjoyable process. If you follow these 6 steps, I guarantee to you that buying a car may still not be fun but at least a more positive experience.

Secrets of Hypnotic Trust and Rapport
The most important question you can ever be asked if in sales is: do your clients and prospects trust you? Trust is the basis of all influence. Without it influence does not happen. Now the question is, how do you put your clients in states of deep hypnotic trust and rapport?
Success in Sales: 5 Success Factors that Matter
What does it take to be successful in sales? Many would say great selling skills and expertise. Both are equally important. However, to truly be successful more is needed! We have found that the top performing sales professionals we know all have 5 Success Factors in common.

Why you should stop trying to delight your customers
Delighting customers does not build loyalty. Reducing customers’ effort does. These were the findings from a large customer service survey conducted by the Customer Contact Council (CCC), and featured in the July edition of the Harvard Business Review. The survey’s aim was to get answers to three questions: 1. How important is customer service to loyalty? 2. Which customer service activities increase loyalty, and which don’t? 3. Can companies increase loyalty without raising their customer service operating costs? After conducting structured interviews with customer service leaders and a study of more than 75,000 customers, the CCC uncovered three findings...
Latest findings from the world of Sales Transformation
I recently had the opportunity to MC and attend the Optimising the Sales Force Conference – OSF2010 which was the follow up to the inaugural OSF2009. Building on last year’s success, this year’s conference was attended by over 120 high level sales leaders across Australia. Once again I was privileged to be part of the panel of international and local experts presenting on this year’s topic, Sales Transformation. This was the second time in Australia that we have had the opportunity to come together as a profession and share ideas and discuss important matters moving forward, and from the looks of it, we will be doing this again. The feedback from our international sales experts was that this was one of the best forums in the world.

Through the looking glass
Many sales people are tired of being told that they need to sell like someone else to be successful. Many are unsure of what they should be modelling. Too often they are told to ‘just be like’ someone else but with no reference to what that actually looks like they are left poking around in the dark mimicking the ‘star’ performer and left feeling unauthentic. And ‘big sticks’, bribes or fear don’t help either. Most people, and especially sales people, want to be the best they can be but without having to be someone else. Clearly defining what good performance looks like is key. Here is a model we use where we focus on three key areas...

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.

The Give and Take of Business: 3 Lessons on the Reciprocity of Referrals
Want to grow your business in a tough economy? Use the power of reciprocity when asking for referrals from existing customers to grow your sales. When we focus on what we give as well as get, we are more successful. Here are three lessons I’ve learned on the give, take and give of referrals.

The Forces of Sales Motivation
No one has gotten more press on motivation, over the course of time, than Abraham Maslow. Each person, as we know, is truly motivated by a series of physiological then safety and security and belonging needs which Maslow goes into in his "Needs Hierarchy Theory".

Getting the Back 9 to Count in Increasing Your Sales: It’s All About Process
What could golf possibly have to do with increasing your sales? And if you aren’t a golfer do you really care? Well, my golf game the other day gave me a wake up call to increasing sales that can apply to everyone in the field, golfer or not. It’s all about process.

7 Secrets for Sales Success
Sales professionals sometimes make the simplest mistakes that keep them from being successful. This article identifies 7 simple things you can do to dramatically increase your success in sales.
Top Three Mistakes Made in Selecting Referral Partners
There are thousands of dollars invested every year in creating a compelling brand. Once created, well designed pieces of collateral hit the streets through different venues; email newsletters, direct mail, blogs and videos. All important strategies and tactics for generating qualified opportunities.
Seven Fatal Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
Wouldn’t Saving Thousands Of Dollars Avoiding The Seven Fatal Marketing Mistakes That WILL Kill The Response Of Your Marketing Efforts Make A Big Difference In Your Business?
Motivate Your Sales Team with Regularly Scheduled Meetings
Which would you prefer as a reaction to your sales meeting? “Uh oh. What are they going to make us do now?” or “My manager always makes it interesting!” As a sales manager, how do you get a positive reaction from your team when you ask for their time? One of the best ways is holding regular scheduled meetings.

7 Poisonous Sins of Trying to sell
Sales is a precarious profession that requires a process. Many believe that selling is an easy profession but it takes moxie, patience and more importantly strategies that pave the way to success. Discover the seven secrets to selling success.

Timely Tips for Unlocking Great Sales in Today’s Tough Economy
Whether it’s the first of the week, the first of the month or the first of the year, it’s a new beginning! And we don't have to let the economy dictate OUR success. Here are a few key tips for actions that will help you unlock the potential of your sales activities in the next 90 days. The actions you take now are the ones that will set you up for GREAT success.

The Seven Forces of Sales Motivation, Part 2
On this episode of Sales Management mastery we go into part 2 of our series on the Seven Forces of Sales Motivation. We continue with forces 5 through 7 and further develop our understanding with our psychology of motivating people As a quick review, we went through the first 4 of the 7 forces of sales motivation on last week’s episode.

Masterful Reprimands – The Best Sales Management Training
As effective as Masterful Praisings are in reinforcing good behavior, reprimands are as effective at curtailing bad behavior. We call em, you guessed it..."Masterful Reprimands".

Networking Like It’s Your Party
We all go to a variety of networking functions: mixers, meetings, seminars, conferences. Just showing up certainly doesn’t guarantee anything. What if you treated the next networking function like it was your party? That means it’s your responsibility to meet and greet everyone in the room.

More Timely Tips for Unlocking Great Sales in Today’s Tough Economy
We all know selling in a tough economy can be challenging, but there ARE things you can do to ensure you prosper during these trying times. Here are five more tips for actions you can take to help unlock the potential of your sales activities over the next 90 days.
Information Versus Interrogation: The Three ‘I’s of Open-ended Questions
Every effective sales training course teaches sales professionals to ask their prospects open-ended questions. These are the questions that start with who, what, why, when and how. But when used incorrectly, they can make a needs analysis seem more like an interrogation. Demonstrate professionalism by using the 3 ‘I’s with open-ended questions.
Why Money Doesn’t Motivate Salespeople
Where your sales rep actually falls on this continuum will makeup what we call their “motivational profile”. There are the 7 Forces of basic motivation, and they get this primarily from their genetic makeup. The point of our first two shows was to show you that the motivations of your sales people today really don’t differ a whole lot from how they were motivated as kids.

Sales Management | How To Be A Flexible Sales Leader
Sales managers are hired to solve problems. They’re also hired to lead, but they end up spending an enormous time solving problems within the sales team. Say a sales person is showing consistently poor performance? Take it to the sales manager. Quarterly sales stink? Let the sales manager handle it. Hiring a new sales person? Let the sales manager take that one.
C-Level Relationship Selling – Use Your Golden Network for Leverage
There are people you know who can coach you along to win sales, and/or cross-sells, and/or point out high quality leads. This article will show you how to open your mind so you can spot these people.
How to Make “Time” for Timely Sales Meetings
The benefits of sales meetings and consistent and timely connections outside the front line include improvement in readiness, recharging, repeatability and retention. If these benefits are important, then how do you ensure your meetings are timely? Here are several ways.

The Secret Sauce to Sales Management Success Part 1
It's not a secret, but goal setting, and goal setting specifically used in the right way as a sales manager is the absolute secret sauce to you getting the best from your sales people to achieve ultimate sales success to you getting the best from your sales people.

You Are Today
One of the biggest mistakes made by companies and individuals is waiting until January to do business planning. By then the New Year has started and the effects of your efforts won't be seen for several months. By then you are behind.
Expand Your Precious Time with Sales Meetings
Time. Such a fleeting thing for most of us. We can’t add a 25th hour in our day, so the question becomes, how do we get more time? The answer is by being more timely. And you can do that with sales meetings.

Sales Management | How To Save A Ton Of Time Hiring A Sales Superstar
With the hundreds of sales resumes you will likely screen for the position that you have open, you really need a methodical way to screen a resume and get the sense of what the candidate is all about.
How to Jumpstart Your Sales in a Stalled Economy with a GREAT Sales Process
A tough economy may seem like an improbable time to move current and prospective customers forward to a sale. Yet, it can actually be a great time – if you position yourself as a strategic consultant so customers realize they should not wait. Here are some ways to strengthen your strategic value.

Sales Management | 5 Proven Methods To Screen Out A Bad Sales Hire
No sales manager wants to make the torturous mistake of hiring a complete sales dud. Although a few are bound to slip in, in order to prevent this from happening to you, there are a number of ways that you can screen out a great sales rep resume, prior to actually meeting with them face to face.

As A Sales Manager, How Do You Know When You’ve Made A Hiring Error?
All this time I’ve been talking about the techniques and the right ways to manage your sales team. But here is the thing: when is enough enough? When do you get to throw in the towel and say, “Sales isn’t your true calling. I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go”?

Stepping Beyond Consultative Sales
Collaborative or consultative selling. What’s the difference? Aren’t they interchangeable terms? Not really. Collaboration is a step beyond traditional consultative selling. And an opportunity to sell more WITH your buyers.
Goals are Dreams with Deadlines: How Goal Clarity Will Get You Where You Want
Recently, many of my “students” have told me they CAN’T set goals because everything is changing and they aren’t sure what tomorrow holds. Changing economies is exactly WHY we should set goals! Here is an easy 5-step process to make goal clarity efficient and successful.
Train the Trainer
Sales training is important. If trainers want to increase their customer then they need to be involved and increase training reinforcement. The sales training tips can help you build your customer base and increase your sales.

Multi-tasking: Crazy Busy, or Just Crazy?
I often observe sales and service professionals who are so busy and who believe that multi-tasking during phone calls, conferences, while driving, etc. makes them more productive. My friend Kelly calls this “wearing your Busy Badge.” Does this sound like you? I know it can be me. That is why it was interesting to research information on the productivity of us busy people.
Maintain Your Relationships: It Doesn’t Pay to Play Hide ‘N Seek in Today’s Economy
Remember the thrill of hide 'n seek? Finding the perfect place to hide out until "all was clear" and someone else was found so you could win the game? Unfortunately, some sales professionals are using the current economy as a reason to hide out until the economy picks up too. And while they are hiding, others are seeking and strengthening relationships and winning new business every day!
Multi-tasking: How to Take the “Crazy” Out of Crazy Busy
If you consider yourself a “multi-tasker” and often reply “crazy busy” when people ask you how you’re doing, then you should listen up. A recent analysis from the business research firm Basex, estimates that extreme multi-tasking costs the US more than $650 billion a year in lost productivity. Here are a few tips to minimize multi-tasking and get more done.
5 Skills Critical to a Sales Professional’s Success in Today’s economy: Equipping Your Team to Succeed
It might seem like it’s a different sales world out there today compared to just a few years ago. At Sharpenz we believe there are five skills critical to a sales professional’s success in this economy: prospecting, working through objections, problem solving, articulating value and following a sales system. Here’s a brief description of each:

Do You Wish There Was An Easier Way To Respond to Sales Objections?
Customers are saying ‘It costs too much.” “Business is slow I don’t need to advertise.” And most sellers have a prepared response. Unintentionally, these responses are often framed to prove the customer wrong. There’s a better sales technique. It’s very simple: You don’t need to have an answer. You only need a question!

Increasing Sales and Productivity: Action and Fundamentals
I recently surveyed dozens of sales managers about tools and solutions they use to help their sales teams be more productive and successful in selling. When I analyzed these expert sales managers’ feedback, the key ingredient or “secret” to high sales productivity is ACTION! Another important aspect of success and sales performance is focusing on the fundamentals.

Focus on the WIIFT for a Powerful Presentation
A while back I had the opportunity to work for nearly two days with the best-of-the-best sales pros in a client company when I presented a workshop titled “Powerful Presentations.” A key idea in this workshop was that our sales presentations are more powerful when we focus on WIIFT – What’s in it for Them – from the open of the presentation through the close.

C-Level Relationship Selling – 6 Actions for Handling Blockers and Gatekeepers
Gatekeepers and blockers can be handled easily if you know how. Learn the details through this must read article.
Sales and Service: 7 Steps for Positive Customer Interaction
During every customer interaction, whether it’s three minutes or an hour, you leave something behind…a person who is either better or worse off than before their contact with you. To build customer loyalty we need to leave each person better. Here are seven things you can do to make sure you have a positive interaction with your customer.
You Know Your Sales Process is Outdated When…
Fashions change, seasons change and so do customer needs. So when is the last time your company looked at your sales process to determine it was keeping up to date with the times? The information age has dramatically changed how businesses compete. Small businesses look and act big. New ideas are copied quickly and lead to service and products looking like everyone else. To quote late night host, David Letterman, “You know it’s time to update your sales process when…”

Sales Proposal Executive Summaries: Don¡¦t ¡K Unless
Your proposal can make or break your sale. It can get you in to see the customer or keep you out. When you do include an Executive Summary in a proposal, it¡¦s the first thing most customers read. More importantly, it may be the only thing executives/key decision-makers read at all. Executive Summaries establish that all-important first impression. They can draw customers in ¡X or turn them away. Unfortunately, many Executive Summaries are neither a summary nor executive.

It Takes Two (Essential Sales Skills) to Build the Relationship
Many things go into winning a sale ¡X the fit of your solution, your sales strategy, how clearly you articulate value, your pricing, and so on. While all these factors impact a customer¡¦s decision to buy, Aberdeen, an independent research firm, in its study with 500 best-in-class companies, identified the relationship between the customer and salesperson as the #1 reason why a customer buys from a particular salesperson.

C-Level Relationship Selling – 6 Tips for Overcoming Executive Intimidation
Meeting with powerful people makes anyone nervous. Unfortunately, if left uncorrected, you’ll be stuck with subordinates who tend to abuse and hold you hostage. So here is how to correct this executive intimidation situation.
Success Factors for a Sales Training Initiative
Sales development is an important part of a future growth strategy, how much do you know about the factors that go into a successful initiative? So don't waste your money read about what you need to do to get the most out of sales training.

The real $ value of role playing
Tell almost any sales person they are going to participate in role plays as part of their sales training and you will hear a collective groan. In short most sales people hate role playing. It is often seen as a form of potential embarrassment, or something stilted and false. Many people feel self conscious and don’t want to look ‘bad’ in front of their peers. It doesn’t help either that over 90% of all sales people follow no logical processes when selling.
How can we learn from our best sales performers?
How do we get the rest of our sales team learning from our top performers? Should we get our top sales performer in front of our sales team to teach them how to be more effective? Well that all depends… * How well does that top sales performer understand how and why they sell well? * Can they articulate what they do in a step by step process? * Can they teach to the others in a simple and meaningful way? * Do they want to teach others?
Planning for 2011
Budgeting and developing strategy for 2011 should be near the top of your ‘to-do’ list right now or be bedded down already. People complain about being too busy and never having enough time, however if you do not make time for regular planning you will let everyone down. Make time to work on: * Forecasting * Evaluating staff hiring and implementing staff development plans * Ensuring that your marketing calendar is planned through to June 2011 at a minimum
How much training should I give my sales team?
Highly effective sales people and teams do not happen by chance. A study by Aberdeen Group (2009) of 8,500 top performing companies with a turnover in excess of $50 million, showed that the highest performing of these in each of their industries provided their sales teams with no less than 8 days of focussed sales training per year, and this did not include product training.
How do I lead and manage a virtual or remote sales team?
More and more organisations are adopting virtual teaming and remote working. They are doing this to achieve wider reach and tighter integration, reduce their carbon footprint, decentralise operations and allow their staff to benefit from less travel and more home working. This type of work environment has been around in sales teams for a long time, and with the advent of technology, a sales person may not even have to come into the ‘office’ for weeks.
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 ‘Targets’. * Getting a sale was referred to as ‘the Kill’. * Customers were regarded as objects to be possessed or trophies to be placed in their cabinet.
Do You Dread Cold Calling?
If cold calling is something you must do, here are some thoughts and ideas to help you master your negative emotionals and have greater success!
Fourteen Kick Butt Time Management Tips
This article outlines fourteen of the most common areas for concern regarding artful time management. Learn how to cut the fat and make yourself more productive so you can maximize your results and also your gains! Read on...
In My Opinion
Ever consider the potential costs or business losses for sharring your unwanted opinion? It's okay to have any opinion just know when to offer it and when to keep it to yourself, read on...
It’s Not All About Price
Are you or your sales staff encountering an excessive number of price objections? Need to learn how to overcome or eliminate pricing objections? Read on...
The Secret Sauce to Sales Management Success! Part 2
The "secret sauce" to sales management success is getting your sales reps to set their own goals for themselves.

The REAL Secrets to Sales Management Motivation
Motivating your sales team is just one aspect of the job of a sales manager, but it is all encompassing in that it also includes all of the other things that you do as a sales manager. Sales managers are not only coaching and leading, but there should also be an undercurrent of motivation in everything and anything that you do. And be acutely aware that every interaction that you have and every message that you send has to have an undercurrent of motivation associated with it in order to keep your sales people at peak performance, especially in today’s economy when sales are tougher to get, it is very important to have a highly motivated sales team to push you towards your goals as a sales manager and towards the goals of the organization.
Two Proven Methods To Supercharge Your Sales Force
The sales person who is motivated primarily by praise and encouragement is probably the most prevalent motivational profile that you will have on your sales team.
Don’t Make This Sales Management Mistake
You need to set the tone and set out a vision of where you want the team to head, over-performance from a sales performance standpoint. As far as leading and motivating, it comes down to individual tactics and techniques that you need to use with each one of your sales people because they are all motivated by different forces.
Don’t Do This as a Sales Manager
When you are setting goals, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind that are danger spots and pitfalls of goal setting. As part of the "don't do this as a sales manager" this is one of the important parts to helping you and your sales people set goals, and to make sure that you keep a very tight leash on those goals. Have control over those goals, and oversee the actions that are being taken to achieve those goals is very important.
The Importance of Sales Management Motivation
The difference between sales performance above expectation and sales performance below expectation is largely determined by small things that a sales manager can do every day to keep his sales team at the top of their game and highly motivated.
7 Proven Methods To Motivate The “People” Salesperson
We have identified 5 separate sales rep motivational profiles. We have discussed a few in previous shows. As we continue on our motivational, leadership and coaching series on personality types and motivational profiles, today we are going to talk about the sales people that are primarily motivated for this need for companionship, and people, and affiliation.
Sales Tips for Commercial Salespeople and Sales Managers - How to Win Sales by Being Positively Predictable
This article is about creating a positive predictable experience for your prospects and customers. The salespeople who create a positively predictable experience for decision-makers earn both sales and referrals by taking the risk out of the buy-sell equation. Here's how.
Education Based Marketing Begins with a Compelling Marketing Message
Education based marketing is about educating and not selling. This begins with a compelling marketing message and may even require a shift in one's attitude about marketing.

C-Level Relationship Selling – 3 Steps to Handle the “Too Busy” Selling Objection
Learn how to handle the sales objection, “The executive is too busy to see you.” Contacts use this excuse to block you. Yet bosses free-up time for necessary information to make their final decisions.
What Causes Sales Prospecting Reluctance (and What to Do About It)
The right to succeed or fail is available to all of us equally... from the most to the least educated... from the best looking to the ugliest... from the most introverted to the most extroverted. And our business success or failure hinges on just ONE thing... our willingness to look for people to buy from us. All the rest of our business activities are window dressing.
Peaceful Objection Handling Tips
When you take objections head-on, trying to convince your prospect, make counter-arguments, explain how they're mistaken, justify, or insist, you create more resistance. Here's one way to handle the objection without resistance.
Are You iCurious?
How Your Search For Knowledge Will Give You the Business Edge.
Attack!
Why Going on Defense Is NOT an Option.
Security Alarms are Sounding!
How YOU Can Become a Financial Closer.
Summer Lovin' Happened So Fast...
Disclaimer: Before reading Brian Sullivan's "Lessons from Danny Zucko," it is necessary that you have seen the movie Grease at least two times. If you have not, please close this article immediately as its contents will make absolutely no sense to you. If you have seen the movie more than eight times, than there is absolutely nothing I, or my articles can do to help you. Your problems run much deeper.
Back to School!
Five Homework Tips to Make You a Best-in-Class Salesperson
As Seen on TV- How Billy Mays Taught Us to Be Proud to Be a Pitchman
This article teaches us the secrets that made Billy Mays the world's most famous Pitchman. It also discusses the importance of being PROUD to be salesperson...just like Billy.
960 Moments of PRIDE
Five Essential Steps That Will Make You Famous in Your Industry
Are Your Customers Sick?
Why Early Diagnosis is Key to Saving Your Sales Life
How a Humble Man Did His Job With PRIDE
St. Nicholas can come at any time!
Closing Too Early- The Risk of Overdoing it
Okay, can we agree that Christmas music starts too early on the radio. Well are you closing to early with customers. Watch it...they just might tune you out!
Hassles Harleys and Happiness-How to Make Tuesday Seem Like a Friday Night
TGIF Right? Well one big difference between top performers and the average is the attitude they bring to the office. This article teaches you how to bring a Friday night attitude to work every day.
�How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career�
�How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career�
How to Face Rejection
Let's face it. We all hate the word NO. This article teaches you why it is okay to HATE it!
I See the Light�Ouch!
�Why Pain is Essential to Your Growth in 2008�
Sit-Up or Sit Down
�How the Power of Your Mind Can Change You, Them and Your Entire Company�
Take a Risk Like Tammy Faye- How To Do Business With Color
Why are we all afraid to take a risk? Find out in this article.
The PRECISE Pitch
�The Three Essentials of Telling �Em What You Do�
Lessons from Bonnie St. John
How YOU can champion even the toughest of setbacks.
“Bored” Room Meetings
10 Tips to Making Your Business Meetings Worthy of an Audience.
Sales Candy: How Too Much of a Good Thing Can Make You Sick
When saying less can help you say more.
PRECISION-Guided Leadership
How to Move Your Team With Purpose…On Purpose.
Seek Happiness, then Deliver Ecstasy
Why Providing Solutions for Your Prospects is NOT Enough.

Dancing With the Stars
Why it Takes Two to Tango in Medical Sales
Discounting is For Wimps
Three Tips to Creating Higher Margins and Happier Customers

Enjoy the Holiday Season... because Mayhem is Just Around the Corner
Want to increase your profits by thousands in the new year? This is your guide to fufilling your resolutions.
Fasting and Feasting
Your Classroom Exercise to Creating a Business and Life Mentality that Keeps You On Top.

Existing Relationships
How to grow your business WITHOUT the cold calls.
Oprah's Was Steamin' Mad
How One Man's Credibility Broke Into a Million Little Pieces.

Are You a
Here's how to stop being a sales gamble and start serving as a "five-star" vending machine.
Kid Business
Three Tips to Accessing Whatever and Whoever You Want.
Gold Medal Selling
How the Formula for Beating the 1980 Soviet Hockey Team Can Help You Beat Your Biggest Competitor.
Life Through Ben's Glasses
How a Man Saw Things in an Amazing Way.

The Love Index
Why You Can’t Sell Anybody Unless You Love Everybody.
Making Momma Proud
Three Tips to Becoming Your Customer's Favorite Rep

Pride and Progress
Lessons from Great Leaders.

Monkey See, Monkey Do
How Your Attitude and Actions Affect Your Customers.
“Hard to Get” Selling
How Indifference Can Often Make the Difference.
Lessons on Excellence
The Road to "the Top" comes through constant practice and is paved by the pursuit of excellence. Remember, mediocrity is miles from excellence. Mediocrity is easy, unnoticed, uninspiring, and boring. Excellence is difficult, visible, inspiring and fun.
Name That Brain!
Tips to Sharpening Your Mind And Memory.

Viral Attitude
How to Serve Right/Learn Right

Your Legacy Begins Now
7 Steps to Creating a Footprint to Be Proud Of.

Timeless Tom
How to Be a Sales Champion at Any Age!
Shut Up and Listen!
Smashing Two Dangerous Sales Myths.

Selling and Presentation Tools
Don't bore your audience to death! Brian gives insight on manufacturer rep's top questions for delivering creative and successful presentations.
Problem or Not the Problem?
"The problem is not the problem, it is another problem." -Dan Burris Leading Business Strategist and Technology Expert

What Every Sales Manager Ought To Know About Sales Leadership
In general, enthusiasm in a sales manager is something that is probably not even talked about a whole lot. It's not something that is typically taught. How do you teach enthusiasm?

5 Proven Sales Rewards for 2011
This is one of the easiest strategies to use to motivate sales people but it is also one of the least effective because sales people are very adept to manipulating sales rewards programs as well as they only give you a short term gain in sales and don’t produce sustained motivation over the long haul.

7 Major Reasons Why Your Sales Is Suffering
We, as professional salespeople, thrive on success in our fields, right? Most of us in this noble profession have found ourselves in a “sales slump” or in a “sales plateau”. We know what these situations are, right? A “sales slump” is where we can’t even sell someone water in the middle of the desert. A “sales plateau” is where our numbers have stopped climbing (regardless of the volume) and we’re maintaining the numbers at a certain level and we aren’t able to make more sales.
25 Proven Ways To Increase Sales Now
Chris Randolph, talks about 25 proven techniques that he has used and has taught countless others to improve their sales numbers.
Always Be Preapred
A lot of people ask me what exactly the "sales edge" is. The "official" explanation is that it's the difference between the average salesperson and the successful sales professional. Before I share my thoughts on what this "edge" is, I'd like to ask you what you think having the "edge" in selling really means. Think about this...

Avoid Confrontation And Controversy When Selling
Selling is a challenging profession. Chris Randolph shares a tip on making it "less hard" when dealing with prospects and clients.
Be A Proud Sales Professional
Chris Randolph, author of "The Sales Edge" talks about the pride you should have as a Professional Salesperson
Don't Say Thank You?!
Chris Randolph, author of "The Sales Edge" talks about how to maintain a positive attitude when dealing with rejection
GIAP: Goal Identication And Achievement Process
Chris Randolph, author of "The Sales Edge" and several other books on professional selling, marketing, internet marketing, personal development and motivation shares a couple ideas on his goal setting process. This 11 step goal identification and achievement process is so powerful that he practically guarantees that any goal that you set and put through these steps; you will achieve!
Is Golf Like Selling?
Chris Randolph, author of "The Sales Edge" and several other books on professional selling, marketing, internet marketing, personal development and motivation shares a couple ideas on excelling at the profession of selling.
How To Handle Objections Like A True Professional Salesperson
Chris Randolph, author of "The Sales Edge" and several other books on professional selling, marketing, internet marketing, personal development and motivation shares a couple ideas on how to prepare yourself to handle all the objections that all salespeople get.

6 Killer Tips To Get Promoted to Sales Management in 2011!
For the New Year of 2011, we wanted to give you 6 killer tips on how to get promoted into sales management if you are a sales person right now. If you are a sales manager now, this is something that you may want to advise your ambitious sales people on. One of the roles of a sales manager is to find out what their career goals are.

C-Level Selling - Handling Purchasing, Committees, and Delegated Subordinates
Use these proven C-level selling actions to work your way through purchasing, committees and delegates to win more sales. Committees, purchasing and low level delegates don’t decide. They only recommend. Read these sales tips and win.
How to Motivate Your Most Difficult Salesperson, Part 1
And those are the most difficult sales people, the ones that are motivated through a variety of different motivations, but the biggest one is the need to be assertive and to have power of their own. And these are typically the type of sales people that are highly opinionated, they are brash at times, they are boorish at times, they are fiercely independent, and they have a strong desire to have their voices heard.

Virtual Sales Conversations
Linda Richardson presents a few tips to follow to help you engage in productive and professional virtual sales calls
Chatter Matters!
Will Salesforce.com's Chatter revolutionize and accelerate call preparation, communication, sales coaching, and sharing of knowledge?

Empathy: An Endangered Sales Skill
ALL agree that empathy is the ability to exhibit interpersonal sensitivity about another's concerns and understand another person's perspective. Clearly these two abilities are absolutely essential in sales success. But is empathy is in trouble?
Debriefing the Team Sales Call
You are likely out in the field more often with your salespeople. Here are some coaching best practices and tips to help you make the most of your team calls and use even limited post sales call time as a learning lab through coaching. After each call, along with discussing next steps and strategy, select one area of the call and coach to it.

Dealing with price or cost objections
Any sales training needs to address objections. One that is very hard for many sales people to deal with in these trying times is "your price is too high!" or "you are too expensive!" Whether you make your living in business development, tele-sales, knocking on doors, smiling and dialing, dialing for dollars or making new friends-being able to deal with "you are too expensive" or "your prices is too high in an honorable way is absolutely necessary.

Classroom Sales Training Demise Rumour Debunked
Many sales people work very hard yet apparently less than 50% achieve their sales target. Some might say this is testament to the failure of sales training. This is patently not the case and here are the reasons why.

Stop Assuming And Start Asking
The mistake that is most common throughout the sales industry is that, sale consultants think they know what their clients want rather than ask. By asking the right questions you will not only uncover your clients buying strategy but most importantly find out if you can deliver on what they are looking for.

Hire On Attitude Not Skill
It seems as though every year that passes by; the process of hiring quality sales people is becoming more and more expensive. Recruitment fees are increasing by the year, and the resources required to train new recruits can sometimes cost thousands of dollars. This is why hiring the right sales person is absolutely critical to the success of any business.
How To Discover What Truly Drives Salespeople
Finding and keeping quality salespeople is not the easiest task for any company. Before you hire any new staff you need to first discover what motivates sales people to succeed within your organisation so that you can ensure their intentions are aligned to your company.

5 Annoying Cold Call Mistakes Salespeople Make and What to Do Instead
Most salespeople who cold call their unsuspecting victims have an approach that would give an aspirin a headache. In other words, highly annoying! Here's the 5 most annoying mistakes along with a better way for each one.
Five Ways to Annoy a B2B Prospect in a First-Time Meeting - Guaranteed!
Your first meeting with a prospective customer will make or break any chance for a new business relationship. No doubt about it: it's sink or swim time. So don't just avoid these five annoying mistakes; do the opposite and you will enjoy more win-wins.
Possibly the Single Best Question a Salesperson Can Ask a Prospect in a 1st-Time Meeting
I have used the "challenge" question time and time again. It's never failed me. In fact, it's allowed me to help decision-makers solve key business issues that impacted their bottom line.
Increase B2B Sales by Managing Your Prospecting and Sales Ratios
Are you a B2B salesperson looking to increase your annual income goal? If you're responsible for generating new business, you need to track and manage (improve) your ratios. And the best way to start is by looking at a meaningful number... your desired income. From there we'll work backwards to let you know exactly how to make that happen.
Why Following Up To a Sales Meeting Could Give an Aspirin a Headache Unless You Do This One Thing
It's vital that you have a list of options for "next steps" when you go into a sales meeting, because once the meetings over, you might be doomed to eternal followup. Read on to discover ways to make your meeting end with clearly defined next steps.
The Sales Phobia That Kills Bottom Line
When it comes to closing a sale the most important ingredient is being comfortable in taking the order. Too many sales people get nervous or are fearful that the customer will say no. What’s the point of being in sales if you’re not comfortable in taking the order?

The Single Most Important Trait Within Salespeople
It’s surprising that there are so many sales people these days selling products without first building rapport. They are missing the first and most important step required when selling a product or service which is costing organisations heavily, with the loss of revenue and decrease in repeat business.
Action Sales Management Coaching
Have your people set specific goals and connect with them regularly to maintain accountability.
Building a Steady Flow of Customers
Question: “I have just started a small business, how can I ensure I get a steady flow of customers for my business?”
Six Ways to Lead Your Sales Team Through Tough Times
The recession is technically over, however, sales teams are still facing more competitors going after the same projects, price pressures or the new competitor, prospects doing nothing. There is an old saying, “character not tested is no character at all.”

Direct Sales Strategies- One Call Closing Made Simple Through Proper Price Presentation
When it comes to that critical moment when the closing question is asked and the pen is laid down on the table, the way the buying question was asked has a much to do with the customer's willingness to sign as does almost anything else. By structuring our buying questions in a way that makes it easy for a prospect to buy, and avoids provoking a fear response, you will close more sales more easily than ever before.
The Best Technique To Train Sales Reps
Here are some of the reasons role-playing really works. First, it puts salespeople in situations they don't face every day, re-familiarizing them with the right methods for handling difficult objections. Role-playing is also good medicine - part of the reason it's successful is precisely because it makes salespeople a little uncomfortable and forces them to stretch themselves. It's also the best way to build empathy for customers - in a typical role-play, one of your salespeople is playing herself, but another is playing a customer, and will likely bring "pretend" challenges to the exercise that replicate the real challenges he's faced in the field. Finally, there is simply no better way to practice the skills of selling, and no professional in any field does her best work without practice....
Rediscovering Your Passion for Selling
As experienced salespeople, who like most have to some degree been tainted by the small frustrations of selling and forgotten some of the reasons that made us fall in love with selling in the first place, we need to remember that this profession truly allows us to dream of better things, and shows us the way to make them happen.
How Does Someone Actually Do Consultative Selling?
To describe a sales approach as "consultative" doesn't really explain it. It's a broad identifier. Saying someone is a consultative salesperson is like saying he's in the category of "solution-oriented selling" vs. the category of "fast-talking carnival hawker." But it doesn't tell you HOW TO DO it.

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.
MLB and Recording Your Calls
The bottom line is that if you want to get better then you have to record yourself and you have to study, learn and use better techniques. It’s what all other professionals are doing…
4 Secrets to Attracting What You Want
If you're looking for a way to create the life you know you are capable of achieving, then I highly recommend trying these "4 Secrets to Attracting What You Want." I know first-hand that they work, and I know they'll work for you, too.

The One Email Guaranteed to Get You a Response!
Use it this week and see for yourself how it works to get your prospects to get back with you and how it gets you deals. And then email me yourself with your results - I'd love to hear them!
The 3 Keys to Successful Sales Management
Look at your current selling environment and see which one of these keys is missing. Once you find it, you'll now know what to do!
How to Beat Your Competition
Once again, these questions (and all the other ones I know you're thinking of right now) will reveal what your prospect's true buying motives are, and until you know them you've just shooting blind. Kind of like 80% of your competition does. Once you understand what it's going to take to sell them, you need to build the value of doing business with you and your company.

Selling to the Old Brain – Three Ways to Increase Sales Results
Many salespeople have heard the phrase that selling is an art and a science. This phrase is moving beyond a cliché with research results from the world of neuroscience. The profession of sales is changing and sales professionals that desire a true competitive advantage know and apply the neuroscience behind how and why prospects make buying decisions. Astute salespeople sell to the old brain...
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?

Increase Your Sales in This New Year
Keep pushing and taking massive action in order to increase your sales and in turn, increase your success this year and next!

Focus on Opportunities
Always focus on opportunities through overcoming challenges. Overcoming challenges only leads to success!

Selling in a Changing Economy
If you continue to train yourself in the art of selling, you'll be able to close the sale in any type of economy
Sales Meetings That Motivate
Daily sales meetings can and should be a great thing to motivate your sales team, but they must be done properly in order to work.

Don’t Let your Smile Run Away from Your Face --- The Piano Man
There is a song called The Piano Man that uses the phrase - "The smile ran away from her face." That phrase reminds me of the look on many Sales Managers faces as they discuss sales training at their respective company. The least effective and the most expensive method of training sales people unfortunately is also the most common! Although a new sales person may have experience, simply providing product training for your line card is just not enough. The marketplace demands that sales people provide more than product knowledge, a product catalog and a price list. If that is the type of training you provide, chances are it is the root cause of management frustration, low productivity and high turnover not to mention lack of profitability. Training sales personnel appropriately can be expensive.

The New Way to Train and Develop Sales People - Does it Work?
What are the impacts of some of the changes that have been made in the past few years to sales training? How have things changed and does the new method work?

Fundamentals and Change Equal Success
Successful people are willing to change where necessary but not until they have executed on the fundamentals. The unsuccessful make the mistake of changing before getting the fundamentals down.
Effective Sales Techniques and a Consultative Selling Approach for Today's Marketplace
A few impressive sales techniques and staying motivated is no longer enough! It used to be true that if a sales person had a great sales technique and was highly motivated they would be great at selling. Well, that’s no longer true in the world of B2B selling. If you want to be successful in today's marketplace, you have to have a whole armoury of selling techniques that form an effective and integrated selling system.
Ten Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team Without Spending Big Bucks
How do I motivate my sales team? How do I retain top sales talent? At the risk of sounding too simple, there are two proven principles that work well in motivating salespeople: recognition and appreciation. Two simple principles often overlooked because execution takes time and attention.
Daily Meetings Result in Daily Deals
Whatever it is that you value should be done daily and if it's not important then don't do it. How you start you day is going to determine how your day turns out.

Sales leads: the good, the bad, and the opportunity
There are cold leads, warm leads, hot leads, targeted leads. But is there a commonly accepted definition as to what a good one actually is? Jim Brodo, Richardson's SVP of sales review the various categories of a good lead and how to optimize and allocate resources for following up and nurturing the various levels of leads that are developed.
C-Level Selling - Conquer Self-Doubt and Attain Confidence
Selling at the C-level requires confidence. Confidence is your reaction to those little internal voices that haunt you. These voices are messages programmed into your psyche from parents, teachers, siblings and childhood playmates. These messages / voices dictate how you see yourself – confident or laden with self doubt. Learn how to recognize those voices and change those that don’t promote your confidence.

Getting Paid for Out of Control Projects
Overruns in scope are common. Getting paid for them is not so common.

Think Like a CEO
Debra Benton, author of Think Like A CEO, speaks to audiences all over the world about this topic. She is often directing the conversation to other leaders in the organization, not necessarily the sales department. We think it’s time that salespeople quit thinking like salespeople and take Debra’s advice: start thinking like a CEO. These are such salespeople and here are their thoughts, behaviors and actions.

If you could offer me one great piece of sales advice what would that be?
If you could offer me one great piece of sales advice what would that be?
Proving customers wrong only makes them right
You better believe it! Does it really matter if you're right? Yes it does, but not at the expense of making your customer wrong. If I had to choose between being right and losing a valued customer and being wrong and helping my customer see the situation as their opportunity - I would be wrong every time.
The fine line
There a fine line between persistence and harassment when sending marketing related emails.

Innovation x No Support = Zero Creation
Some say my views on business are fanciful and idealistic, and that may be true. However, I've been in the game long enough to know taking an approach that is anything less-only limits success to a lucky few.
I'm concerned about my sales dropping over the Christmas break. Got any tips?
I live by this maxim, "Chance favours the prepared." We all know the festival season and corresponding break is looming, yet I'm staggered by the amount of salespeople I speak with that don't have an end of calendar year strategy.

Tips for selling in hyper competitive markets
Who do you think appeals to people more - a person buying or selling something? I can tell you without hesitation the ‘buyer' wins hands down every time. Why? The buyer contributes to our success, credibility and financial well-being.
Are you selling with ‘inspiration' or ‘desperation'?
Let's be honest, we all get desperate from time-to-time in different ways. When times get tough we become more self-focused than normal. We have bills to pay and we need to stay afloat financially. This is the harsh reality, but make sure if you're in this state it's not permanent - or the negative effects will be.
Desperate Dennis
Don the management consultant arrived 5 minutes late to a public sales seminar I was conducting. The rest of the participants had arrived early for their 8.45am registration and had been chatting to each other. He apologised for being late and then rushed in and sat down. His body language was stiff and noticeably anxious. Although now behind schedule, for Don's benefit, again, I asked everyone in the training group to quickly introduce themselves and describe what business they were in. All were happy to oblige.
Three types of sales teams cultures
When you get a bunch of ‘Type A' personalities together who are driven and outcome focused, two types of team states commonly form: ‘Fabricated Harmony' or ‘Genuine Conflict'.
Cut the dead wood
In many sales teams what I observe is a small percentage of sales stars shining and the rest making up the numbers. This conundrum I call, ‘The Law of Lesser Equals'. This law propounds: All women and men are created equal, yet when compared in competitive environments some underperform, not just marginally, but resoundingly. Many team members have the same training, similar backgrounds and experience, but some get the results, while others struggle. Is that a result of luck, experience, or natural talent, or is there a more substantial explanation?
How to deal with problematic salespeople
Let me share a story with you to help answer your question. I was once involved with a small but successful advertising agency. This agency had won a lucrative account with one of Australia's big banks and received a lot of recognition. The agency was then purchased by a public communications company in a strategic sale designed to acquire the big bank as a client by default. The communications consortium paid top dollar (shareholders money of course) for control of the agency and the big account.
How confident are you, really?
I have talked at length in my blogs about the importance of being confident when selling. This week I thought I would shed some light on how you can not only build confidence in your sales role but also create a way of being that will transform your sales performance.

Are you Hard, Scrambled or Soft?
Over the years I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with hundreds of different salespeople in many industries. Although there are literally countless salespeople, there are only a small number of sales approaches. The most common I would like to explore for you in this blog.
The Art of Chen
When I arrived in Sydney, I exited the terminal and quickly felt the humid morning air. I strategically positioned myself in the cab-rank and waited in-line for my ride. After a few minutes, my cabbie pulled-up and then leaped out of his seat and ran around to my side of the car. A small Asian man with a couple of teeth missing and a crooked smile greeted me. He then pushed me out of the way assertively and snatched my suitcase from me and lobbed it into his boot.
Are you a Star?
Can you be a "star" all the time - shining and twinkling high above everyone else, every day? I think a few remarkable people can, but much more attainable for most is being a "star" some of the time.
Busy is overrated
In business I meet plenty of salespeople who seem busy, but only a few who are truly effective. The reality about busy salespeople is that most are unproductive in comparison to their time-to-output ratio, because the amount of actual value they create is limited by their available time spent per customer.
The Power of NO
We all know how important getting a ‘yes' is, but how important is the word ‘no' in sales? For some companies the word ‘no' is just as (if not) more powerful than a ‘yes'. Let me explain myself.
Old Gus and his pump
How hard is it to find good old fashioned service these days?! I mean the kind of service that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? The type of interaction between two people that creates such a meaningful experience for you - you just have to tell other people about it?
My sales team is flat and de-motivated. Got any inspiration?
When a sales team is flat this is usually a symptom of flat leadership and lack of support. The team members are not engaged and more than likely not getting the sales results and feeling devalued as a consequence.
Buy-in before you Sell-in
If you are going to cold-call either over the phone or in person as a way to generate business - first make sure that you're ‘buying-in' and not ‘selling-in!'
As clear as mud
I was recently car shopping for a 4WD for my partner, Kellie. Looking for a good deal we went into two competing dealers situated near each other. The first was a KIA dealer and the second, Holden. With less than a kilometre separating the two yards, my experience between them dealers could not have been further apart.
How to generate referrals
Having been a fervent student of ‘selling' for most of my adult life, one thing is for sure, nothing excites me more at the front end of the sales process than a referral. Hot, warm or cold, I dont mind, so long as there's a need or desire I'm qualified to fulfil. And if someone goes to the trouble of recommending me to another, I dont take that lightly, - I celebrate it!
Social Networking or Social Distraction
There is no denying the internet has changed the way we live and conduct business. In a past life I owned one of Australia's largest web marketing companies, so as a communication tool I am well aware of the internet's benefits, but I also know what's not good about the web.

The difference between a strategy and a solution
In sales there is usually confusion between what constitutes a "strategy" and a "solution". However, there should be no ambiguity whatsoever regarding when each should be presented in your sales process.

What is the best way to develop my sales skills?
Let me explain. Selling is nothing more than leading customers to win-win outcomes. This is so basic yet so challenging for so many salespeople because they're selling or working for a company they dont believe in.
Is a great product and service enough to succeed?
Well that depends on your definition of success. There is a romantic notion in business that if my product and service is good enough, the business will basically take care of itself. This notion is incorrect. If anything a great product and service is just your starting point and ticket into the game.
Its BIG to be small
The bigger you are as company the less nimble and able you are to adapt to incremental shifts and changes in your market. How quick do things change? Lightening fast! If you don't adapt you are out of the game.
The art and science of Down-selling
Down-selling is the art of narrowing a customer's expectations and matching them more effectively with a solution that best fulfils their needs or desires.
When does no mean no?
Many salespeople never get to hear the word, "no" instead they are provided with the ambivalent response of, "maybe". Your job as an elite (or developing) salesperson is to circumvent the murky fog of "maybe" and get to either a "yes" or a "no". Anything in-between suggests you haven't done your job properly.

How to create positive cash to leverage lump sales cycles
Many businesses structure their payment terms in a way that reduces not only cash flow but also profit. They have valuable money and resources invested in projects or stock- and then their customers drag their feet and pay months after their product or service has been delivered.
Encouraging competition
Before I started running my own companies almost 15 years ago now, I climbed the ranks of every sales team I was involved in. I was fiercely competitive and despised not being numero uno on the leader board. This commitment to winning did serve me in ways. Yet, in hindsight I spent too much energy worrying about losing, and as a result I didn't enjoy the experience as much as I could have.
Know your magic numbers
The number of calls you make per sale depends on the level of buy-in your customer has. The risk associated with what you are selling. And the approach you apply for each conversation. Salespeople that go for the jugular on every call may get the odd quick win here and there, but more often than not a measured approach is more effective.

Love it and live it!
I believe everyone should (and deserves to) follow a career they are passionate about.
How important is a work ethic?
I mentioned in a past blog that I measure my sales team on their work ethic and willingness to contribute to others. I've since received a number of emails wanting to learn more, so this week I'll explore work ethic in more detail and then contribution next week.

Contribution
We all know people in life who take, so as we get older and wiser - we dont associate with these people for too long. Perhaps if we are really honest with ourselves, we take more than give sometimes too. And this is easy to do, particularly when we get desperate.
How do I find a passionate and purposeful mentor?
Working with a mentor is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself in business. Being able to share your fears and frustrations, desires and aspirations with someone you trust and respect, in a safe environment, is invaluable. I only have one rule of thumb when it comes to working with a mentor: choose them wisely!
Find your Focus
In Victor Frankl's disturbing yet fascinating book, Mans Search for Meaning, he tells of his experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, namely, how he and some of the other prisoners defied the odds and survived this ordeal mentally and emotionally.

What's the difference between telling and selling?
Telling fails to provide your customer with an opportunity to buy-in to the conversation. Moreover, the salesperson hasn't taken the time to acknowledge who the customer really is and what they need or really want, if anything at all. In essence, the salesperson is only communicating to the customer's stated need, which is usually the tip of the iceberg.
Are you prepared to stick?
A few days after New Year's Day John went to gym and couldn't find a car park. He approached a gym manager to address his concerns about the gym being so busy. The manager responded in an ironic tone, "Don't worry, there will be plenty of car parks in a couple of weeks, just you wait and see."
Are you really listening?
You may have heard me say, "The best way to be interesting is to be interested. The reason this principle is essential is because it makes your customers feel important. This feeling is so powerful it will help your customers filter through your competitors to find and connect with you.
Chance favours the prepared
Chance favours the prepared
Miss Congeniality
Miss Congeniality This week Aussie model and aspiring social worker, Jesinta Campbell was decorated with the second runners-up sash in the prestigious Miss Universe pageant. She also won the award for ‘Miss Congeniality' for her sense of humour and warm personality. Good on her!

More crazy customers!
In a perfect world salespeople will much rather spend their valuable time working with in-bound opportunities as opposed to chasing them. But just because someone has made contact with you doesn't necessarily make them the perfect opportunity. People that seek-you-out are more likely to demonstrate deceptive behaviour regarding your offering. If you have read my new book, The Naked Salesman, or attended one of my sales training programs you would have heard me speak about the damaging effects that "crazy customers" impart on salespeople and businesses.

Stand for something - not just anything, something meaningful
Meaning helps you find passion and when you find passion amazing things start to happen. Not only do you start to enjoy what you do which is essential to longevity in any role, it also helps your customers filter through the mass of competitors in your market that are all doing and selling the same thing in the same way - to find you!
Find fear before it finds you
To project to others that we are always happy, having fun and in a positive frame of mind every day is just pure fantasy. We all feel pain and frustration and all of us most certainly feel fear. In fact, for many of us, fear defines who we are and our corresponding thoughts and behaviours are governed by fear's close relatives: anxiety, procrastination, stress and worry.
Direct Selling Strategies: The How-To Sales Guide. How to Learn How to Sell.
So you have a job in sales. Now what! You have to learn how to sell, that's what, but how exactly do you go about doing that? Let me share with you how to learn how to sell so you can insure that you will be successful in the profession of selling. Essentially, this article will share with you exactly how to organize and implement the process of learning how sell by starting with the resources and processes that you need to put into place.

Selling to C-Levels - Engaging C-Level Executives in Productive Conversations
Senior and C-level people feel thier situation/businessis different than any others like them. Therefore, they don’t care about what you have to offer until they feel you understand them and their situations. Learn how to do this and you'll keep C-levels and other executives engaged and excited to be with you. It's easy if you follow these simple tips.

New Selling Skills Needed in Today's Marketplace
Traiditonal sales techniques do not work in today's economic climate. Recent trends demand new selling skills which take a consultative selling approach to business development.
Selling to C-Levels - 8 Interviewing Tips to Easily Close Sales
Interviewing questions open up C-levels and other prospects to reveal the triggers that will cause them to buy from that interviewer. Interrogative questions turn-off people like a light switch. So to win-over prospects and C-levels, follow these 8 suggestions.

Seven Popular Sales Excuses
Now like many of you after 30 years I have pretty much heard almost everything. So when talking about this the other day during a recent sales coaching session I was reminded of the numerous excuses that we all hear from sales representatives. So I sat down with pen to paper and rationalized what I believe of the top seven uses from selling professionals

Seven Popular Sales Excuses
Now like many of you after 30 years I have pretty much heard almost everything. So when talking about this the other day during a recent sales coaching session I was reminded of the numerous excuses that we all hear from sales representatives. So I sat down with pen to paper and rationalized what I believe of the top seven uses from selling professionals

Retail Sales and Dealing with 4 Different Customer Personalities
As retailers, we deal with many different personality types on a daily basis. Of course each customer is unique, but there is universal agreement that there are four basic personality types - Director, Analytical, Relater and Socializer. Knowing each style and their buying habits will allow you to drastically increase sales and repeat business.

Wooden You Like To Be Successful?
John Wooden is known as one of the finest basketball coaches in America. He took his UCLA team to the NCAA playoffs 10 of 12 years and was named coach of the Century by ESPN. John Wooden was a great teacher and coach. The brilliance of his teaching is that he focused on the mental aspect of the game as well as the technical skills of basketball. John Wooden repeatedly told his team that controlling emotions was at the core of winning the game.

Climb That Tree and Increase Your Sales
Most salespeople will tell you today that a lot of the business has gone away. The fruit that was once hanging so low in the tree is gone---picked away by the competition---caused to die away by the economy. In fact, it is these statements that trigger the VICTIM mentality and tend to shut down a good portion of the selling efforts. Listen to me: With very few exceptions, there is still plenty of opportunity (fruit) in the tree. Now is the time, however, that we need to learn (or re-learn) how to climb! Now is the time when the “weeding out” process begins. Now is the time when those who “cannot or will not” are replaced by those who can, will, and DO!
Increase Your Win Ratio: Get to the Executive Sponsor
Deals are lost for a variety of reasons: better fit by the competitor’s product, stronger relationships, a more creative solution, cost, customer delays … Customer delays are cropping up more and more often. Certainly the economy is playing a role, but to commit, customers need more information. The problem is that much of the time the executive who will ultimately make the buying decision does not have convincing information because he or she is not involved in the process until decision time. When the executive is invisible or inaccessible until decision time, it is highly probable you won’t have reflected his or her strategic vision and therefore your solution isn’t compelling enough for him/her to commit the budget.

The Importance of Sales Training
Article listing and describing five reasons why sales training is essential to your company
C-Level Relationship Selling - 9 Active Listening Steps to Effortlessly Sell Prospects
Sales calls are the most important step for selling and relationship development. That’s why you have to have a strategy to get people talking while you listen with an ear to understand. Learn the 9 steps strategy to win-over C-Level executive and other prospects in this article

Sharing leads amongst salespeople - does it work?
Giving leads to your sales people
How to Recruit Top Sales Guns
Companies have systems and processes for accounting, shipping, and marketing. It’s time to get a system in place for hiring top guns. These high flying sales folks will make you money, regardless of the economy. Stop using the excuse that it’s hard to hire good salespeople because they interview well and are charming. Sharpen your hiring process, become even better at interviewing and take the first step in making your life easier as a business owner or sales manager.

The Value YOU Bring Is As Important As Your Products
What you bring as YOU, the value you add to helping customers meet their business objectives, your ability to help them see a broader perspective, is as important, often more important, than what your products will do for them. Lately, there has been a focus on the need for salespeople to increase their business acumen - and rightly so.

Reaping Full Benefits of an Unwarranted Concession
There is a way to make a concession and a way not to: To save you from wasting time, money, and good will, let's first look at what not to do. - Never have an edge, show anger, or negativity; always convey concern for the client's needs and your organization's needs.

How Is Your Phone Being Answered?
Consider these four points: Is your phone answered by the third ring? Is the greeting friendly, professional, interested and energetic? How is voice mail etiquette handled at your company? Is your voice mail answered by you and is the message up-to-date? Let’s look how one call was mishandled.

Get the Budget - Skip a Wild-Goose Chase
Before you expend days on that complex proposal or jump on a flight again to see your client or prospect, find out about the budget. While knowing client needs is paramount to maximize opportunities, knowing the budget is also vital.

Call Me - How Not to End a Client Letter/eMail
End your follow-up sales letters or e-mails with your next step.

Transferring a Call
Essential tips on how to properly transfer a call.

Short of a Mack Truck: Keep Your Aches and Pains to Yourself
Short of being hit with a Mac truck, when you get to your client meeting, avoid telling a client about personal daily woes, particularly as an excuse for not performing.
Out of the Mouths of Babes - Negotiation Best Practices
Negotiation Skills start at any age.
Scope Creep
As you and your team get into development and implementation, you find additional needs - small and not so small add-ons that you are asked to provide or are needed to complete the project. When this happens, you, as well as everyone on your team, must be alert to \"scope creep,\" in which the project gets bigger based on new components or needs - but the committed budget stays the same!

C-Level Relationship Selling – 4 Style Checks to Exude Trust and Believability
Learn a simple 4 step check to make all types of prospects immediately feel comfortable with you. To be successful in sales, one must be able to adapt his or her style to effectively interact with everyone.

Eleanor Roosevelt Teaches Sales 101
Whenever I hear a prospect tell me "no" I think of Eleanor Roosevelt who once said, "Never take a "no" from someone that can't say "yes". How true... Many times the prospect that says "no" cannot say "yes" either because they aren't a decision-maker, or they are the wrong person to be speaking to in the first place. Of course the prospect never tells you they can't say "yes". So it's up to you to find out! Next time a prospect tells you "no", follow Eleanor Roosevelt's rule, and make sure that you're getting a valid "no" from the prospect you're speaking with, and not from someone that can only say "no" because they can't say "yes".

The Science and Art of Selling
Technology's (e.g., Sales 2.0) impact on selling comes up periodically in discussions about "Science" in selling. Master practitioners understand that the emergence and evolution of innovative enabling technologies is changing "how" salespeople do what they do but is not changing "what" salespeople do (i.e., connect, engage and interact with leads, prospects and customers) or changing sales from an art to a science.
Tweet Sales Success
Using social media in the sales process to accelerate revenue is a hot topic, but it requires an expert balance of art and science. It also greatly depends on your stage of the sales process. How effective are you at selecting the right tools and using them at the right time in the sales process - in a way that delivers value to your prospects, your company, and your customers?

Sales Prospecting
Using a Script is a fundamental part of sales prospecting not just something that new salespeople do.
Solution Based Selling - Become a Doctor and Do a House Call
Often poor qualifying is the reason many sales fail. You need to act like a doctor and do a house call.

Top Five Ways of Becoming a Better Sales Coach
Sales Managers execute several roles and wear many hats: manager, trainer and coach. These multiple roles can create challenges for some sales managers. Where should they invest their time? Should it be in attending internal meetings? Analyzing reports? Training and coaching the sales team? If you are serious about hitting and exceeding your revenue goals for 2012, invest your time in training and coaching your sales team. (It makes analyzing reports a whole lot more fun when the numbers are in the black.)

C-Level Relationship Selling – How to Differentiate When Selling
Differentiating is a good talking point, but it doesn’t close sales. Showing you’re competent does. Use numbers, names and details to show your difference makes you competent in what matters to the C-Level buyer.

Mike Krause’s Sales Sense #14: Discount Doom! How much is enough?
I get it- discounts drive new clients. I understand Groupon and the millions of other companies that are on the deep-discount bandwagon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a bargain hunter too, however the business doesn’t always benefit from these massive discounts to grow their business. We all have read about how Groupon and like-minded companies are NOT paying off for businesses:

C-Level Relationship Selling – Good Work Won’t Win the Next Sale
To win sale after sale from the same customer, you must do more than good work. You must let buyers know what it took to make it good. You must associate yourself with the winning solution and prove that you’re special. Read and learn how.

The Death of the Sales Magazine
Is the death of the sales magazine (i.e., print magazines) nothing more than hyperbole and/or misinformation circulating around the World Wide Web? You tell me!
How Unsolicited Emails Reveal How Not To Be a Top Sales Performer
Top sales performers may engage in email marketing. However many sales training companies send unsolicited email that reveal just the opposite.

Sales 2012: What Will You Choose?
It’s that time of the year when people set New Year’s resolutions and goals. Setting goals really boils down to making new and better choices. It’s as much about what you are going to start doing as it is about what you are going to stop doing. This tradition has been going on for years and most of the time it is just rhetoric and hope which eventually leads back to old comfortable behaviors and attitudes. Here’s three things to consider choosing if you are serious about making 2012 your best year in sales.

The Farce Called Sales Training
Most sales training isn't really sales training at all. Put an end to the lie that knocks salespeople off track and causes them to stop listening to the customer. Learn a simple way to make sure your sales training has proper focus.
The Farce Called Sales Training
Most sales training isn't really sales training at all. Put an end to the lie that knocks salespeople off track and causes them to stop listening to the customer. Learn a simple way to make sure your sales training has proper focus.
How Always Be Closing in Sales Focuses Your Energies in the Wrong Direction
Always Be Closing is still a popular sales training concept. Yet, the word close potentially focuses your energies in the wrong direction. Curious, read on.

Turn competition into collaboration
Sometimes we can be too quick to classify other companies in our market as competition when closer examination could uncover potential mutually beneficial alliances.

Sales Training
You may think that some people are just natural born salespeople, and often times that could be the case. But, for the most part, it is training that makes the difference between a sales star and an average or below performer. So, how can your company create a training program that is able to maximize the potential of your sales force? Keep reading for some of the top sales training tips.

C-Level Selling - The Great Customer Experience
C-Level Selling - The Great Customer Experience Happens When the C-Level Executives Are Satisfied. The Great Customer Experience requires making C-level executive constantly feel you are helping them succeed. Learn what’s required in this C-level selling article.

Do You Really Believe That?
The self help guru's are the best at teaching, "You are what you believe. Your thoughts determine your outcomes and actions. And what you think about most will manifest in your life." These guru's are right and many salespeople and sale managers still subscribing to old beliefs and ways of selling do not serve them well in the information age.

What Kind of Sales Manager Are You?
As a sales manager, are you maximizing the individual performance of your sales team?
Assembly a Successful Sales Team
Does your company's success depend on the performance of your sales team? Take a close look at those on the front line. Do you believe that you have the people on board who can take you where you need to go in 2012?
What Is Your Sales Process?
To improve salespeople's performance, the first task is to help them discover that they just might not be as good as they think they are, and then train them to be as good as they thought they we
Set High Standards For Your Sales Force
As the sales leader, it is your job to not allow your sales team to use obstacles as an excuse. If you accept these obstacles, you become an inadvertent enabler of your team's lack of sales results, a hidden liability and self-fulfilling prophecy to your sales and profit shortfalls.
Trained Sales People Rarely Get Outsold!
Salespeople will never admit that they got outsold because of a lack of sales skills.
Sales People Need More Than Product Knowledge
Companies invest time and energy to ensure that their sales force is well versed in product knowledge, and this is important. However, many don't invest the same amount of time helping their team maximize this product knowledge through sales training and sales process skills. As a sales leader, if you truly desire the best performance, you need both.

Do You Have A Game Plan?
In sales, Game Day is the moment when you interact with a prospect or client. It could be making an initial appointment, conducting a sales call, generating referrals, up-selling or cross-selling existing accounts. To maximize the chances for success, hours of preparation -- including training, coaching and practicing -- pay off.

Create Success With Professional Development
To be successful, sales people must develop their professional abilities, because sales is a thinking person's business. Charm is an asset, but in the big picture, it's far less important than the system you use and the control you have in the buyer-seller process. The reality is that everyone needs ongoing reinforcement training to be their best. To commit to professional excellence, we all need to go back to school.
C-Level Selling Tips – Keep Competition Out of Your Key Accounts
The only way to keep competition out of your key accounts is to be perceived as the top benefit provider for that key account. Your competition wants those accounts and they will eventually penetrate unless those accounts fear losing the benefits you and only you can provide. This article will show how to make sure that happens

Don't Keep Your Pipeline At Capacity...Just Keep It Moving
As a sales leader, your organization will be more effective by teaching your salespeople the appropriate skills to keep the pipeline moving, but not necessarily at capacity.

Hi-Definition Sales Preparation
The changes in selling are profound and require that sales organizations and salespeople adapt quickly. A major area for adaption is preparation, and, fortunately, the tools to prepare at a hi-def level are at your fingertips.

C-Level Selling - Large Account Plans Require Both Parties’ Participation
If you manage your large account plans the way your financial department manages your budgets, you’ll have great results. Learn how to build and manage large account plans in this article.

Without A Strong Sales Process You Will Fail!
In the buyer-seller dance, there is only one person who should lead, and that's you. When the prospect drives the process, your salesperson will fall victim to their stalls and excuses. Even worse, your salesperson will make them real. Unless you have your own systematic approach to selling that keeps you in control over the various aspects of the cycle, one that allows you to monitor and control your interaction for truth, you will fall victim to the prospect's system. And yes, a sale will always get made, but in many cases it will be the prospect selling you, not you selling them.

Sales Leaders Need A Sales Process!
The next time you are ready to point the finger at your sales team and externalize why something can't get done, look at yourself first. Ask yourself if your own skill set and management processes are at the level they need to be to maximize sales team performance. Often we need to change and develop first, before we can expect others to change and produce for us.
You Need A Sales System!
Most salespeople think they know a lot. And they do. But they are losing deals everyday because they prefer to "wing it" and don't have a systematic approach to the sales process that could train them to automatically respond to that type of situation. Their lack of results will be defended from a limited framework and perspective that is filtered from a belief system that has developed over time to protect their ego instead of making them stretch their comfort zones.
Does Your Sales Team Have A Sales Process?
On each and every sales call, your sales people should be trained to identify the prospect's preferred communications style. Based on this, their ability to develop the appropriate questioning strategy that results in a clear outcome is the skill that will foster a strong relationship
Does Your Sales Team Use Needs-Based Selling Techiques?
One of the biggest breakthroughs in sales strategy was the evolution from the old feature-benefit sales approach to a "needs-based" selling model. Now, once again, it's time to move on. Needs-based selling is no longer effective. Your competition is probably selling the same way. Therefore, the prospect has trouble differentiating you from the competition, and will buy on price. With everyone selling to needs, you are back to fighting on price, trapped in long selling cycles, accepting "think-it-overs," and selling even a unique product and service like a commodity.

Is Your Sales Team Trusted?
You must get your prospect to be comfortable with you and to trust you. Then you can act as a true consultant and advisor, and find a compelling and emotional reason for them to want to do business with you.
Is Your Sales Team Growing or Just Comfortable?
How often have you heard a salesperson rationalize his or her shortcomings by externalizing the source of the problem? "I can't meet quota because our prices are too high," or "there is so much competition," or "we need more advertising," or "I don't have enough time."

Is Honesty in Sales The Answer?
In general, salespeople don't have a good reputation when it comes to honesty. Most prospects believe a salesperson will say anything or exaggerate the truth in order to get the business. In the same manner, prospects protect themselves by misleading the salesperson on where they stand or what happens next. This resulting antagonistic relationship is uncomfortable and unproductive. So how do you develop an honest relationship in sales? First of all, honesty is a two-way street. Your honesty will help bring out the honesty in others. You can change the dynamic of the interaction, and you can eliminate the mutual mystification by learning how to ask the tough questions.

Can You Motivate Your Sales Team?
How can you keep a sales force motivated? The first thing to do is to try to determine why they aren't motivated. Perhaps they were motivated when they first started, but there's been a steady decline.

Do You Know Who You Are Hiring?
Hiring mistakes are one of the costliest mistakes a company faces, and sometimes the most difficult to undo. Many companies claim they have a process for hiring, but if so, why is hiring the right person one of their biggest challenges? How often has a candidate appeared like Tom Cruise and end up like Rodney Dangerfield?
As A Manager, Do You Know How To Set Goals?
As a business owner or CEO, it is critical to understand how to link your business goals with your employees' personal goals. If you can discover their vision for themselves and their families, you'll understand what truly motivates them to action, giving you both the best chance for goal success.

What Makes A Great Salesperson?
Who leads this buyer-seller dance in your company? Does the salesperson have the ability to lead this process, or is the buyer always in control? Attitude, behavior and technique are equally important and interdependent attributes that make a great salesperson. If a salesperson falls short in any of these areas, they will not be able to achieve their potential for themselves or you.

Does Your Sales Team Sell Features and Benefits?
As a professional salesperson, you must learn to develop the appropriate questioning techniques, communications and relationship-building skills to truly understand the prospect and their problems from their emotional point of view. When you can learn how to connect emotionally with your prospect, and demonstrate that you truly understand their problems from their perspective, you can take the prospect from inaction to action and make the sale.

Teach Your Sales Team To Use The "NO"
The first thing every salesperson needs to accomplish with a prospect is to make them feel comfortable and let down their guard, so that they can have a genuine and productive dialogue. The way to do this is by giving the customer the ability to say "no" at the beginning of the sales process ... by allowing them to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, your product or service is not right for them.
Teach Your Salespeople To Deal With Rejection
We are all two people, each dealing with (or not) the constant rejection in the world of selling. Learning to deal with the "role" of sales is the "R" factor of our life. However, the "I" factor or our "identity" is equally if not more important if we are to have success in professional selling.
Is Your Salesforce Having Trouble Closing Sales?
A salesperson's beliefs lead to their actions, which drive their results. Often, salespeople get in their own way.
4 Deadly Sales Training Blunder You must Avoid
In the game of trying to produce sales for your business, there are four blunders that you must avoid by any means necessary. These four major sales training blunders have caused a lot of sales reps, sales managers and entrepreneurs to fail. Do you want to know what these sales training blunders are? Then read on.
Why you need Sales Training to Succeed in Business
Sales coaching is extremely useful in the field of business because it allow sales teams to achieve better performance and optimum results when trying to generate sales. This is considered to be extremely significant in the sales industry as it has been studied that about eighty-seven percent of the skills that a sales person obtained during a training program will be lost within just thirty days of having no systematic and on the job sales coaching. This means that the learning process should be continuous, so as to ensure that the skills of sales professionals are better honed. It has also been proven that a sales training without formal coaching is not an investment but a cost liability.
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.
Sales Objection: “I want to make sure the team is comfortable with this decision.”
Many times you are going to run into a timid decision maker. You need to help them through the process. Here's how.

If Your Canary Dies, Then Your Sales People May Need Help
Most people are familiar with the age-old practice of bringing a canary bird into a coal mine to see if the oxygen is acceptable for human consumption. If the poor little bird dies, then the miners would know that either the air is toxic or there isn’t enough oxygen to sustain human life. I certainly hope that in these current times there are more humane methods for checking the atmosphere. No – I don’t mean throwing your boss in the mines instead of a bird! I mean technological equipment that measures air quality for humans. I DO know, however, that a similar inhumane practice exists in many sales environments.
Explode Your Sales Success
In the last several years, I have had a revelation about the art and science of sales. The answer to sales success is within all of us. The answer is simple but the key to unlock the answer is elusive.

Explode Your Sales Success
In the last several years, I have had a revelation about the art and science of sales. The answer to sales success is within all of us. The answer is simple but the key to unlock the answer is elusive.

Sales Training Doesn't Work
Sales training doesn’t work because it focuses on the wrong things in the wrong way. If you were to research books and training materials on sales for the last one hundred years you would find a vast amount of material on sales techniques, word tracks, objection handling, closing techniques and sales systems. All of those things are good for your sales knowledge and education but they account for only about ten percent of sales success.

Top 5 Tips Of Successful Sales People
What makes an average salesperson different from the rest? We think there are 5 main reasons!
Top 5 Tips Of Successful Sales People
What makes an average salesperson different from the rest? We think there are 5 main reasons!
What Should Your Sales Training Cost in Terms of Money, Time and Results?
Sales training is one of the most searched phrases on the Interest and thousands of sites providing this service. What should sales training cost and more importantly should sales training deliver?
Sales Prospecting is the most important skill©
All Sales skills are important. The most important is the one we do the poorest. For most of us in sales, that is Prospecting. here is an easy way to change that.
Sales Prospecting is the most important skill©
All Sales skills are important. The most important is the one we do the poorest. For most of us in sales, that is Prospecting. here is an easy way to change that.
10 Steps To Successful Sales Training!
In this article you will learn 10 steps to successful sales training. To find out more read on......
10 Steps To Successful Sales Training!
In this article you will learn 10 steps to successful sales training. To find out more read on......
A Healthy Disregard
When Larry Page, co-founder and chief executive of Google, promised on the company’s Web site to continue to maintain, “a healthy disregard for the impossible”, it brought to mind the smarter vs. harder debate and got me thinking about what I believe it takes to succeed in sales.

Sales Training and the Way You Think
How you think, or your mindset, sets the tone for what follows in your career. It sets the tone for how you learn, how you interact with peers as well as prospects and clients.

Sales Mindset vs Sales Training
Sales training and sales mindset can combine to be powerful allies in sales success.
Sales Mindset vs Sales Training
Sales training and sales mindset can combine to be powerful allies in sales success.
Sales Training - Be Curious
An often overlooked trait of successful sales people is curiosity. If you are not curious by nature, don’t worry; it can be learned. Here’s how:
The Wizard of OZ
Dorothy and the characters are all seeking something from the Wizard that they feel is missing – Heart, Courage, a Brain. All salespeople are on the same kind of journey seeking something they feel they are missing in their sales.
The Wizard of OZ
Dorothy and the characters are all seeking something from the Wizard that they feel is missing – Heart, Courage, a Brain. All salespeople are on the same kind of journey seeking something they feel they are missing in their sales.

Other sales training Related Articles

What Should Your Sales Training Cost in Terms of Money, Time and Results?
Sales training is one of the most searched phrases on the Interest and thousands of sites providing this service. What should sales training cost and more importantly should sales training deliver?
The Farce Called Sales Training
Most sales training isn't really sales training at all. Put an end to the lie that knocks salespeople off track and causes them to stop listening to the customer. Learn a simple way to make sure your sales training has proper focus.
Creating Your Own Sales & Marketing Guide
Sales training is important for teaching the basic selling skills, from cold calling to closing. New sales people need this training as well as seasoned veterans who forgot more than they remembered and also need to keep up with the latest selling skills since things have changed over the years. However, it is one thing to say this is how you do cold calling, for instance, and yet another to say whom you should be making those cold calls with. Sales training can’t stop at the basics. You need to expand that into “information training”, or training that also provides the vital, company-specific information your sales team needs to become more successful. This is the difference between generic sales training and customized training for your company.
What do your sales people really need to know and apply?
In today's market selling skills training does not equal product training or pressure tactics. If product training or pressure selling (the hard sell) are on the top of your sales training agenda or the only training you offer your sales people then you may want to rethink your sales training strategy. What is expected of sales people today by way of skillful thought and action goes way beyond the product or the hard sell. Let's first look at what clients want. This will then help us determine what sales people need to be able to do.
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.
Is Your Sales Training Missing These Ingredients?
The last time you went on sales training, were you engaged in the decision? How long was the sale training and/or was the sales training ongoing or was it just the flavor of the month? When or what day(s) of the week was the sales training delivered - during pay time or no pay time? Did the sales training take your personal sales needs and learning methods into consideration? Were you able to apply the sales training methods in the real world? Were you encouraged to return for further sales training or to meet with your sales coach and discuss your experience? Was the sales training based on sales management objectives?

Traditional Sales Training is a Waste of Time and Money!
Traditional sales training is a waste of time and money because it does not work! In many organizations, sales training is the flavour of the month, with no consistency. Sales training conducted over one, two or three days, in-house or as a public seminar, is really a waste of time and money. Sure the motivation and a couple of sales training tips may be good for the next 30 -90 days, but if sales training techniques are not implemented within 24-48 hours of learning them, they are forgotten and the sales training becomes a waste of time and money.

What you should know before you invest in a sales training program.
Sales training is the foundation for a successful sales career. However, not all sales training is grounded and there are many factors to consider when selecting a sales training program. An individual wouldn’t have any direction without sales training. He/she would be wasting his/her own potential and the resources of the company. Therefore, it is important that the sales training relate not only to the individual’s needs but also to management objectives and their line of business.

Is 87% of Your Sales Training Investment Wasted?
Research has proven that 87% of information acquired during a sales training session will be lost one month later upon completion of the sales training program. This research was conducted by Huthwaite.  Therefore, 87% of your time allocated to sales training is lost because the acquired knowledge is generally forgotten after 30 days! What is the solution to this problem as it pertains to sales training?

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.

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