sales process posts, articles, and infographics

Sales wisdom from my 6-year old daughter’s tennis lesson

May 14, 2012 by David Masover
with 10 views

My daughter teaches us that coming into a situation already rich with a model of success, one can improve dramatically by focusing on refining execution within the framework of the model. [read more]

Prospecting Emails That Suck

May 13, 2012 by Mark Hunter
with 76 views

It happened earlier again today.Among the hundreds of emails I receive each day — both solicited and unsolicited — came what I’ll call the “stupid email of the day.”If you’re going to prospect via email, don’t go putting out an email that says “just checking in.” Come on, get real and quit being stupid, thinking something like this... [read more]

Productivity Tips for Sales Teams with iPads and Tablets

May 12, 2012 by Lori Richardson
with 86 views

Did your team receive iPads or other tablet PCs and you find them under-utilized? As a long time PowerPoint user myself, I have felt guilty about my iPad being my glorified Evernote platform and e-mail source on the road.Ashley Furness, CRM Market Analyst at Software Advice recently wrote about this very issue – teams of salespeople... [read more]

8 Ways Sales Operations Can Double Your Team’s Productivity

May 11, 2012 by Matt Heinz
with 60 views

Sales operations may very well be THE most important and unsung hero for sales teams big and small, inside and field, direct and channel. They often do thankless jobs with minimal resources, and when done well they can have a significant, more-than-material impact on your sales team’s efficiency and success. [read more]

5 B2B Sales Tips from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”

April 25, 2012 by Koka Sexton
with 241 views

Sales reps must become sales warriors and learn to train and strategize like that of Sun Tzu’s soldiers. Here are 5 excerpts from The Art of War that can teach us a thing or two about how to prepare and execute in B2B sales. [read more]

Why The Sales Funnel Is Bad For Business

April 23, 2012 by Steve Reeves
with 79 views

Image: Flickr.com

The sales funnel wastes an awful lot of sales resource. In our example numbers, for every successful sale there's been cost of sale spent on 299 prospects who were never going to buy. There are two ways of looking at this - neither of them pretty. [read more]

The Worst Prospecting Script Ever!!

April 21, 2012 by Connie Kadansky
with 225 views

Image courtesy of author

Yesterday I got a sales call from my current phone company wanting to upsell me on services. I am totally open to salespeople calling because I know that it is their job. My clients are salespeople. I like salespeople! However . . . when the sales guy started out with "Tell me about your business," I had to... [read more]

Challenges Don't Always Require a Complete Sales Force Makeover

April 19, 2012 by Dave Kurlan
with 34 views

Many of the Sales Force Evaluations provided by Objective Management Group (OMG) reveal that the company's problems run so deep that they will require a complete sales force makeover. However, it doesn't always have to be that way. Sometimes, a single word, question or statement will change how every prospect responds.In... [read more]

'Can We Collaborate?'

April 15, 2012 by Dave Brock
with 76 views

Photo by DearPioneer via Flickr

To be fair to my readers, this is a rant, if you aren’t prepared for my whining, you may want to forego this post. It seems everything these days has to be a “collaboration.” Rather selling our customers something, we look to collaborate or partner. When we want something from someone else, it’s a collaboration. In... [read more]

It’s Only Cold-Calling If You Think It’s Cold-Calling

April 14, 2012 by Mark Hunter
with 315 views

Photo by tiswango via Flickr

Recently I was on the phone with a director of sales and marketing for a service company. The conversation had to do with cold-calling and sales prospecting. The director of marketing had called me looking for strategies they could implement to gain new business that would not require cold-calling.Yes, I had some ideas for... [read more]

6 Simple Steps on Preparing for Your Next Sales Meeting and How Technology Can Improve This

April 12, 2012 by Koka Sexton
with 111 views

Preparation for a sales meeting is the beginning of the second half for sales professionals. The way you come out of that locker room is most likely going to determine the outcome of the game. With today’s buyers changing more than ever, you need to be on your A game. [read more]

Sales Pipeline Management

April 7, 2012 by Colleen Francis
with 248 views

Photo by HBarrison via Flickr

Pipeline management and pipeline reviews are the most important tasks you complete in sales because they help you prioritize what activities to complete each month as well as give you an accurate indication of how healthy your sales pipeline really is. Here are some tips that can make you reviews effective: [read more]

Customer Care is the New Mainstream

April 5, 2012 by Alex Hisaka
with 81 views

Image: Ayubansari /Shutterstock

In today’s world, any business can connect to its customers via many channels -- email, Facebook, Twitter, phone, live chat, web -- and the technologies to do this are available and within reach of even the smallest of small businesses. Where a sharp business focus on customer satisfaction used to be a rarity, it’s now commonplace. [read more]

Prospecting Sales Leads: Quantity vs. Quality?

April 1, 2012 by Mark Hunter
with 179 views

Photo by Egan Snow via Flickr

Where are you getting your prospecting sales leads? And are you concerned about quantity or quality? Too many salespeople seem to believe in simply getting as many leads as possible. This might be true if you sell a low-cost, frequently-purchased good or service. The reality is most salespeople do not sell in this arena... [read more]

Tips on how to develop predictability within your sales forecasting.

March 28, 2012 by Nesh Thompson
with 67 views

There are four key steps that I consider a B2B organisation should carry out that will help them establish consistency, accuracy, and trust in future sales forecasts. [read more]