Choice of the day

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+2 2 votes

Why are Sales Metrics not understood?

The writers on the site and many enlightened practitioners see the gold in sale activity/outcome data and sales metrics yet there use isnot widely adopted in the field. I wonder if part of the problem is a lack of overall sales management models to provide a framework? If we contrast the situation with our friends in [...]
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+5 5 votes

Selling and the Art of the Possible: Introducing Sales Sandbox: a Global Platform for Sales Executives

I’ve been avidly watching the HBO Series, John Adams, which is replete with the maxims and quotations that students of American history absorbed from years ago, especially those of Benjamin Franklin, who would no doubt have been a power-blogger but who must have been followed by his private secretary even into the bath.  Franklin famously declared that “diplomacy is the art of the possible,” but probably every Secretary of State since Thoma...

Recent Posts

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+1 1 vote

Can Your Company Afford to Maintain Its Management Philosophy?

Flip through some random job descriptions for frontline sales managers on CareerBuilder or Monster.  Take a look at the job descriptions for frontline sales managers from a number of industries.  Look closely at the responsibilities and duties the manager is expected to handle.  What do you find? The Job Duties If you’ll take the time to look [...]
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0 0 votes

Technology for being better at being human

Roland at NESTA highlights this great 10 min video of what happened at SiCamp

I think this gets across how SiCamp managed to get geeks and non-geeks together, and how much energy is created by people working on things with a higher purpose that they care about. It also says something about what makes me excited about the Web: not the technology, but how technology allows us to be better at being human.

Kudos to NESTA and many other good fol...

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+2 2 votes

Selling Is The Key Factor In The Total Marketing Process

  Business people in the UK have devalued selling for far too long and some managers have convinced themselves that they would do better if they did not employ salespeople - after all good products sell themselves, don’t they? As a consequence, until very recently, salespeople have done everything possible to avoid calling themselves “A Salesman or [...]
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+1 1 vote

Cold Calling: Closing Lines That Reel-In Appointments

Here you will see 3 green-sets of closing statements that are representative of the way your colleagues end cold calls.

You will see my comments after each of the 3 paragraphs ..

"Mr. Prospect, do you have your calendar handy? What day would be good for you, towards the beginning or end of the week?Do mornings or afternoons work better for you?Thanks again for the opportunity to meet with you and for taking the time to discuss how we may be able t...
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+1 1 vote

Book Review: PeopleSavvy for Sales Professionals by Gregory Stebbins, Ed.D.

Seldom do I read a book that I consider to be dangerous. Certainly, there are books that once read, you think, “Wow! I hope a new salesperson doesn’t get hold of this and think this is what sales is all about.” We’ve all read the books, the ones that advocate heavy doses of manipulation, browbeating [...]
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+1 1 vote

One Sales Strategy that Really Works

How do you capture the attention of corporate decision makers today? If you're not using educational marketing, you're missing out on a huge opportunity. Michael Stelzner used it to get 60,234 leads over a five year period. He's a small business owner ... a regular guy who stumbled onto this strategy that: Brought him high quality prospects virtually overnight. Established...
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0 0 votes

Even More Sales Lessons from the Campaign

If you’re a student of politics as I am, this primary campaign has become really exciting. Last evening Obama walked away with a big victory.  Clinton supporters will say that he won in North Carolina with fewer votes than the polls two weeks ago suggested he would.  And, that Clinton won Indiana, a neighboring state to [...]
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0 0 votes

What Is Operational Excellence in Sales and Marketing?

Hello, A reader from Microsoft recently asked me an interesting question: What are the key parameters which define Operational Excellence in a sales and marketing organization? I like the question, because Operational Excellence isn’t just a slogan or a matter...
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+1 1 vote

Marketing’s Knowledge of Salespeople

I was looking for some good blogs to link to on this site and I came across Seth Godin’s post from June 2006.  What a winner! What a salesperson would say: “There is no comparison, NONE, between an inbound call (one that you created with marketing) and a cold call (one that you instructed me to [...]
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+1 1 vote

Sales Training Company Revenue Models

I was on the phone today with an associate from a private equity firm.  He found ESR on the web and was interested in our opinion on a number of topics as a foundation for his firm acquiring one or more sales training companies.  He asked how sales training companies were generally doing during this recession.  He pondered how a services-based company could weather these types of [...]

Weekly Highest Rated

avatar
+2 2 votes

Selling Is The Key Factor In The Total Marketing Process

  Business people in the UK have devalued selling for far too long and some managers have convinced themselves that they would do better if they did not employ salespeople - after all good products sell themselves, don’t they? As a consequence, until very recently, salespeople have done everything possible to avoid calling themselves “A Salesman or [...]
avatar
+2 2 votes

Why are Sales Metrics not understood?

The writers on the site and many enlightened practitioners see the gold in sale activity/outcome data and sales metrics yet there use isnot widely adopted in the field. I wonder if part of the problem is a lack of overall sales management models to provide a framework? If we contrast the situation with our friends in [...]
avatar
+1 1 vote

Book Review: PeopleSavvy for Sales Professionals by Gregory Stebbins, Ed.D.

Seldom do I read a book that I consider to be dangerous. Certainly, there are books that once read, you think, “Wow! I hope a new salesperson doesn’t get hold of this and think this is what sales is all about.” We’ve all read the books, the ones that advocate heavy doses of manipulation, browbeating [...]
avatar
+1 1 vote

Can Your Company Afford to Maintain Its Management Philosophy?

Flip through some random job descriptions for frontline sales managers on CareerBuilder or Monster.  Take a look at the job descriptions for frontline sales managers from a number of industries.  Look closely at the responsibilities and duties the manager is expected to handle.  What do you find? The Job Duties If you’ll take the time to look [...]
avatar
+1 1 vote

Cold Calling: Closing Lines That Reel-In Appointments

Here you will see 3 green-sets of closing statements that are representative of the way your colleagues end cold calls.

You will see my comments after each of the 3 paragraphs ..

"Mr. Prospect, do you have your calendar handy? What day would be good for you, towards the beginning or end of the week?Do mornings or afternoons work better for you?Thanks again for the opportunity to meet with you and for taking the time to discuss how we may be able t...