February 14, 2020
EQ, or Emotional Intelligence, is a hot topic among sales leaders. Word has spread that when it comes to sales success, EQ trumps IQ. This makes the identification of those with natural EQ, and its development in those who lack it, important tasks to boost the effectiveness of any sales team. ... read more
January 28, 2020
Employers have a wide variety of assessment options, and the market is predicted to grow – especially for online testing solutions.... read more
January 21, 2020
Pre-employment assessments vary in what they measure. Some are skills-based, such as those which require the test taker to complete job-related tasks. Others measure general problem-solving faculties, a perfect example being the good old-fashioned IQ test. And then there are aptitude tests which seek to predict suitability for certain jobs based on the personality or attitudes of the test taker.... read more
January 15, 2020
Implementing a pre-employment assessment to test all prospective employees, particularly salespeople, has many benefits. ... read more
December 19, 2019
Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term “creative destruction” in 1942 to describe how technological advances increase productivity in any endeavor but simultaneously destroy part of it as well. At its essence, it means we have to dismantle the current way of thinking and doing things in order to progress – and this means even entire professions could be wiped out in the process (horse and buggy drivers after the automobile, for instance). ... read more
December 18, 2019
Many buyers no longer seek as much education from company reps as they did before. They can execute much of their research and product discovery online well before talking to a salesperson. Because of the wealth of information available to prospects, salespeople have been pushed much further back in the buying process.... read more
December 10, 2019
For salespeople who enjoy and excel at cold calling, it’s a point of pride to be able to do so comfortably. So many people are turned off by it, yet “dialing for dollars” has been a mainstay of many sales organizations for decades. The ability to cold call is a skill many sales managers and executives still seek when hiring top salespeople as it connotes the image of a fearless go-getter. ... read more
December 9, 2019
You’ve incorporated a hiring aptitude test into your recruitment line and have assembled what you feel is a top-notch team of sellers. You’ve put them through training and feel you are definitely moving in the right direction. And, you wonder if there is something else you can do to improve your sales department. There is – it’s called salespeople engagement. ... read more
November 26, 2019
What’s your relationship with your smartphone like? Are you, like many Americans, practically addicted to it? Or do you check it only a couple of times a day and have a bare minimum of apps installed? Whatever your current usage, your smartphone can turn into a sales productivity booster and sales training tool with the right apps and proper discipline. ... read more
November 20, 2019
There are two phases where salespeople are so bogged down in paperwork and other tasks, they have very little time for active selling. The first is when they are starting out, and the second is when they become very successful. ... read more
November 13, 2019
Soft skills are nearly impossible to teach, but necessary for success in B2B sales. Unlike hard skills, such as writing a proposal or knowing what to say when faced with a certain objection, these are inherent. A person can easily improve them if they are part of his or her natural makeup “from the get-go.”... read more
November 6, 2019
One of the hottest topics in advanced sales training is social selling. Despite some of the flak social media has received in the news lately, B2B salespeople seeking an edge are increasingly using it to source business.... read more
October 23, 2019
In order for a business to really thrive, it has to take some risks. New product launches, expansion to new territories, investments in infrastructure or new software – these are just some of the areas where things could go wrong but also pay off very handsomely. Fortune favors the bold, as the saying goes.... read more
October 12, 2019
Hiring top salespeople is a close cousin to trying to close big sales – except the product is your company and the opportunities it provides to the “buyers” and their careers. In both cases, it is not smart to place all your hopes on one or two leads and devote everything you have to land them. Likewise, once a sale is closed or a recruit hired, you cannot just say “I’m done!” and ignore subsequent opportunities. ... read more
October 2, 2019
A sales predictor assessment can shed a lot of light into the personality traits of your sales candidates and whether they make a good fit for your company. It also informs as to the selling style each is likely to use.... read more
September 30, 2019
A pre-employment aptitude assessment will help identify the best prospects for inside and outside sales positions. That is just the first step in building a winning sales team. In order to focus all that raw talent and capture significant market share, you need a clear and effective sales process for them to follow.
With a formal process in place, salespeople are 50 percent more likely to meet quota, and turnover is reduced by 39 percent, according to a recent survey by the TAS group.... read more
September 24, 2019
“In business, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” – Chester L. Karrass... read more
September 19, 2019
When hiring sales talent, recruiters are increasingly looking for salespeople who can build their personal brands and do some marketing on their own. For the individual salesperson, this generally means blogging, videos, LinkedIn and other social media.... read more
September 13, 2019
We would like to thank The Hire Talent for the fantastic InfoGraphic. The Hire Talent is a pre-employment assessment testing service, offering a broad range of behavioral and competence-based assessments in order to hire the best talent on the market.... read more
Successfully placing someone in the “right” position for them means matching their personality, work habits and traits to the job. Candidates who enjoy the tasks and behaviors they have to repeat each day on the job are more likely to be interested in and engaged in their work for longer periods of time than those who are in jobs where they have to do things regularly that are outside of their interest or comfort zone.... read more
September 10, 2019
When hiring top salespeople, we want to find the “elite” among all prospects and suspects. It goes back to the Pareto Principle, where 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of your salespeople, so it makes sense to stack that 20 percent with the best of the best!... read more
August 30, 2019
When thinking of branding, most experts would agree that it is no longer enough to build a brand around a business. Top executives and even sales managers must develop their own personal brands as well. This forms an extension of a company’s brand. ... read more
August 13, 2019
A brilliant, yet sobering article in the June print issue of Fortune called “Seven Decades of Self-Destruction” relates the downfall of one of the most powerful brands in American retail history: Sears. Millennials might not be too familiar with the brand, but most everyone else remembers anticipating the large catalogs that arrived in the mail in order to circle the toys they wanted for Christmas. Sears was past generation’s Walmart and Amazon rolled into one.... read more
August 6, 2019
The attention span of the average buyer is getting shorter. There is so much content being thrown at them that it requires brands to figure out more creative ways to stand out if they want a successful sales and marketing program. ... read more
July 25, 2019
Research demonstrates that while you can improve a salesperson’s performance through training, the bulk of their success comes from innate personality traits. In other words, there is a lot of truth to the phrase “they are born with it” when it comes to selling.... read more
July 10, 2019
There is a great article in Rough Notes, a trade magazine for the insurance industry, author Roger Sitkins talks about the “Sales Iceberg.” He describes this as:... read more
July 2, 2019
Pre-employment testing of all potential hires is useful not only to identify talented sellers, but also those with the right skills to lead salespeople. Selecting a VP of Sales, branch manager, or sales manager is not a light decision. Choose wisely and your ability to scale and increase value accelerates. Choose poorly and you burn through cash, morale dips, and jobs are put at risk.... read more
June 28, 2019
Emotional intelligence for sales success requires learning how buyers react to certain activators and why. When you have this knowledge, you will be more in tune with prospects and close more deals faster. ... read more
June 26, 2019
Every salesperson is tasked with presenting their solutions to potential buyers. Sometimes this involves just one buyer, but in the B2B and government sales world this usually means multiple people such as a group of executives or a buying committee. This can cause problems for salespeople uncomfortable with public speaking. ... read more
June 13, 2019
Sales training managers are responsible for procuring and managing solutions to improve the selling skills of their employees. While books and videos are very useful, sales training managers also need a formal sales training curriculum led by one or more live instructors. This leads to a choice: either they develop a completely in-house program which they deliver themselves or use another employee to do so, or they outsource the training to a third party.... read more
June 6, 2019
When we deliver customized sales coaching at ASHER, we sometimes get asked for help with social media selling. While we can share a lot of tips for LinkedIn, one platform which is underutilized in the B2B space is Instagram. Instagram is a giant among social media platforms with over 1 billion active users per month. That means one in seven people are posting, commenting, liking, using IGTV, and sharing to their Story regularly. ... read more
May 25, 2019
Pre-employment testing such as the APQ sales aptitude assessment, DISC, PI, CI, etc. are used by many companies as a screening and development tool. Despite widespread availability, there are still plenty of firms yet to adopt them as part of their hiring process. For the most part, the reasons for this are lack of awareness of the value of pre-employment testing and/or erroneous ideas about them.... read more
May 18, 2019
Are you investing in sales seminars for your salespeople, but neglecting your team leads and managers? If so, you are not alone in this deficiency. According to a survey done by Sales Xceleration, 96 percent of sales managers want sales leadership training, and only 1 in 5 companies budget for it.... read more
May 7, 2019
Millennials have received a bad rap as the generation everyone loves to complain about. The stereotype describes them as narcissistic and they have a terrible work ethic. In truth, just about every younger generation gets picked on by older generations who resent change and long for “the good old days,” and
Millennials are not exempt from this.... read more
May 2, 2019
An employment aptitude test can help you hire those most likely to succeed for any given sales role you are trying to fill. By choosing those who possess the personality traits and natural talent for an outside sales hunter or inside farmer, the battle is half-way won already. Once onboarded, however, even the most gifted salesperson needs motivation to stay on track and hit their production targets.... read more
April 22, 2019
In Brian Tracy’s best-selling book The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible, he posits “The only real creators of wealth in our society are businesses” and “salespeople are the most vital people in any business.” ... read more
April 16, 2019
At some point, most salespeople find themselves giving a speech to a room full of people. This might provoke elementary school flashbacks or even outright terror in a few, as delivering a speech in front of a crowd is significantly more stressful than speaking with a buyer one-on-one. However, with some practice and smart planning, delivering a speech can be a piece of cake.... read more
April 8, 2019
Many companies accomplish sales force training via sales training workshops. These are valuable services, but sometimes trainees don’t realize the full potential of the training despite the excellence of the instructors and curricula. ... read more
April 2, 2019
A few months ago, Netflix began streaming a show featuring Marie Kondo, author of The Lifechanging Art of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. In the book and on her show, Kondo shares her methodology (KonMari) for organizing and cleaning a home — and her work has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Thrift stores are overflowing with household goods donated by those seeking to declutter, and many realize that her philosophy could apply to more than just tidying up drawers. ... read more
March 27, 2019
Business speakers, corporate keynote speakers, and sales motivational speakers can captivate and entertain crowds, and they also provide valuable data salespeople can use to increase their business and work more effectively. The speaking industry has grown dramatically thanks to YouTube and social media, which can turn a TED Talk into a viral sensation overnight. This means you have many choices when hiring a speaker and the subject matter addressed. ... read more
March 20, 2019
Hiring sales talent is one of the more stressful aspects of a sales manager’s or executive’s jobs. In the past they’ve had to rely on far too many opinions, gut instincts, or whether they simply liked how a candidate looks and speaks rather than objective, scientific data such as a sales hiring assessment.... read more
March 12, 2019
Do your sales training seminars cover what salespeople really need in today’s selling environment? While tips on appearance, prospecting, building rapport, delivering presentations and the like are useful, modern selling requires an upgrade in training. There are a few additions to advanced sales training that could produce better salespeople if implemented. In this post I will focus on four important ones: emotional intelligence, video selling, gender/diversity training, and intensity.... read more
March 6, 2019
Video chat technology is ubiquitous. Just look at how easy it is to jump on FaceTime, Skype, Facebook and Instagram video chats with friends and family. However, B2B sales professionals and buyers have not fully embraced it despite the technology being quite mature and available at a low cost or free. Signs point to increasing adoption, and every sales hacker needs to take note of this trend. ... read more
February 25, 2019
The ability to negotiate is critical for all B2B salespeople. This goes beyond handling objections. When a buyer begins negotiating with you, they are demonstrating they truly want your product or service. They are not objecting to your offering, they simply want to see if they can obtain more favorable terms. If you don’t understand the difference, you can confuse things and blow the deal.... read more
February 22, 2019
Do you need help establishing your own internal corporate sales training program for team development? If so, I have some tips for you in this post.... read more
February 11, 2019
For the majority of B2B companies, a formulated sales and marketing process is a must. There are simply too many moving parts in each deal to simply “go with the flow” or rely on someone’s instincts. The same applies to government sales, where winning just one contract can keep a firm flush with revenue for years to come. Why not maximize the chances of winning the bid by sticking with a winning formula?... read more
January 21, 2019
Happy New Year! As we work on our resolutions (as well as work off those extra holiday calories) most of us endeavor to tackle the year with a sense of optimism and new-found motivation. What helps to do that is to be on the cutting edge, and that’s what this post is about!... read more
January 14, 2019
Finding and training sales managers can be hard, as most sales executives can attest. As 60 to 80 percent of sales rep turnover is due to “lack of connection with leadership or incompetence of leadership” according to SiriusDecisions, this is a problem worth solving since it costs businesses a fortune in lost productivity.... read more
January 7, 2019
So, you’ve hired one or more new salespeople who show tremendous promise and now it’s your job to settle them in and provide some elementary training. Where do you start?... read more
January 4, 2019
Social media selling refers to receiving business directly from platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn, as opposed to simply increasing brand awareness or performing customer service. It leverages social networks for more than sharing photos or catching up with old college buddies, and when done correctly, it can be a lucrative source of business.... read more
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