Nine Hidden Dangers Of Wasting Your Time, Effort and Sanity On Nickel-and-Dime Cheapstake Buyers

There are some buyers out there who understand value but there are many of them who understand only price. And we have to be careful not to waste our time and sanity on people who buy professional services based on price.

5 Keys to Building a Dynamic Self-Management Sales System

Can you diagnose your business on a 'Single Sheet' of paper? Here are some key steps to help identify your essential competencies and performance metrics. Because numbers don't lie.

What to Do When You Hit the Invisible Sales Revenue Ceiling

Have you ever hit a level of revenue that you just couldn't seem to break through? If you have, then you know how frustrating it can feel. You may even spike above this ceiling periodically. But, like water seeking its own level, your revenue results seek a sub-par level. Sales leadership had failed to understand their meaningful business metrics. This was the primary reason, as it is in most cases. They hadn't isolated the essential competencies and components. Therefore, their people couldn't self-compete to reach and maintain revenue goals. They failed to develop practices and processes that allow an individual to identify, train to and measure their own competencies and performance metrics.

Sales Prospecting and a Targeted Selection Process

Who Are You Calling On and Why? What’s a Targeted Selection Process? As related to prospecting, it is a process or system of defining whom you want to call on and performing the due diligence of data procurement to understand who you are calling on and why you have chosen them. But here’s what’s important to understand. Your Targeted Selection Process is a separate component of your sales strategy. It stands by itself. But it is directly allied with your other Sales performance indicators. The degree of success you’ll have in the business of sales is proportional to raising and maintaining these success indicators to a level more proficient than the industry norm. And the direction you decide to travel is strategic to the outcome. I call it the ‘Playing Field’. Because that’s where it all starts… it’s where the game begins.

Which is Better – Hire a Salesperson or Invest in a Sales Assistant?

What does it cost to hire a good salesperson? Many companies spend about one fourth the annual salary of a salesperson on job placement. They spend another fourth on sales training before the salesperson becomes effective and efficient. A sales assistant is completely different than the investment of a salesperson.

Training the New Network Marketing Distributor: Working Depth With Your MLM Downline – Step 3 of 3

Work with your distributors; give them tasks to accomplish each time you contact them. But, that's about all you can do. If they don't want to build their business and be responsible for their own success, then you must spend your time on those who have earned it, i.e. those who are willing to take responsibility.

How To Stop Sales Mis-Hires

Just yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with a very seasoned CEO of a technology service provider who came to us in order to do a recruiting project for a new sales person. He came to us is because he's gone through four sales hires on his own and none of them have actually produced anything for his company. As we sat down to talk about this he sheepishly admitted that this had cost him millions of dollars of lost revenue and opportunity cost as a result of not getting the sales hiring process right.

The Art Of Delegation

In any organisation there is a degree of formal authority which goes with the job. A subordinate expects their boss to have a wider knowledge, wield a greater influence, and carry more weight than they do themselves. At the same time, there is an added dimension to authority which is invested in the person themselves which we call leadership.

US Trade Shows ARE Different - Notes for Foreign Firms

Trade shows are complicated events – short term with lots of details. The process is complicated by language, culture and old habits. The more a foreign firm knows about US trade shows, the more successful they will be.

Adopt the 'T' Method to Sales Performance Improvement

What’s your approach to sales training? Do you have a process that defines which sales performance competency to train to and what impact it will have on selected performance silos if the training objective is successfully met? Or do you rely on ‘field feedback’ not associated with actual performance numbers and related ROI to decide where to put your training dollars? Here’s a simple blueprint to gain more revenue in less time while maintaining fiscal accountability to the ‘Top-floor’.

Pro-Active Techniques for Getting Referrals

The typical business turns over 20% of its customers every year because of errors, changes in customer’s buying influence or personnel, customers moving or going out of business, customers that are acquired and loose local purchasing authority or customers whose need becomes obsolescent. Prospecting new accounts is crucial to the survival and growth of businesses and many companies spend countless dollars on cold calling with direct sales people or telemarketing. Referrals are readily accepted but often not pro-actively solicited and, therefore, often not realized as an exceptionally good and rewarding source of new business.

Scalp Pimples

Scalp pimples or scalp acne are not always the same as garden-variety skin pimples. The scalp is, of course, skin, but scalp pimples usually involve the hair follicles, which get inflamed. The disorder can vary in nature and comes under various scientific names, but basically they all result in small, itchy pustules that are usually first noticed while combing or brushing of hair. Such pimples get infected in no time at all and become a major problem.

10 Tips to Increase Your Referral Ratio

It’s good to possess great cold calling skills, but it’s great not to have to use them. Here's some 'Grass roots' tips to warm up a sales Prospecting call.

How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time; Part 2

Why is 'Setting Sales Appointments' a Critical Sales Performance Competency and How Do You Build a Prospecting System to Set More Sales Appointments in Less Time?