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
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
December 28, 2018
Sales training seminars are necessary! For new salespeople who need to learn the basics and veterans who need to freshen up, investing in training is one of the best actions you can take to bolster your sales team’s performance.... read more
December 26, 2018
You get what you pay for, and this includes top sales training programs versus the low budget ones. You can save a bit of money by using a new firm trying to enter the market with low prices, and risk losing your investment if the training is subpar. Same with sending salespeople to a community college to take courses on salesmanship there.... read more
December 21, 2018
Top sales training programs do more than just present information once and let salespeople loose without further guidance. The majority of your training investment is wasted if you buy a program which does this, as very few people can absorb and apply information the first time they hear it. In fact, most of us forget just about everything we hear if there is no repetition!
In contrast, the top sales training programs consistently include a few important elements to stack the odds that salespeople actually retain and use their training to close deals faster and in volume.... read more
December 17, 2018
Closing sales faster is an overriding goal for both executives and salespeople alike, especially in B2B businesses where deals can take months to come to fruition.
The desire to speed things up can transform selling into a stressful, pressure-filled endeavor. How do you lessen this, while still closing sales faster?... read more
December 14, 2018
Have your past sales seminars been snooze-fests? Whether they were small affairs held in company conference rooms or mega-productions complete with stage lights and enormous video screens, perhaps you felt the trainers could have done a better job in holding the audience’s attention. Since this problem occurs with both simple setups and elaborate ones, the secret to engagement must lie elsewhere than the venue or the A/V equipment used.
This is good news for firms that would like to host their own training – you don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy bells and whistles. Instead focus on the following elements to make sales seminars more enjoyable for your trainees.... read more
December 10, 2018
You want to close deals faster and increase revenue in 2019, right? Sales training workshops could be the key to achieving that goal. I know you have several options, from employing ASHER or the many others easily found through Google or Bing searches. In this post, I will give you some best practices for selecting a training firm and making the most of your sales training workshops, regardless of the vendor you end up choosing. ... read more
December 7, 2018
Sales Consulting Services... read more
December 4, 2018
Everyone wants to close sales faster, especially in B2B sales which tend to take a long time to come to fruition. Navigating the multiple layers of authority required to sign off on purchases can take months, and shaving off even 10 percent of the time involved can make a big difference. Speed equals power!
Deals which take forever drain energy and dampen morale. They are definitely a signal something is wrong. However, closing the sale training can help. Let’s explore this indicator and two others which point to the need for sales training.... read more
November 30, 2018
A sales aptitude test is the best way to hand-pick applicants who possess natural sales ability from a pool of applicants. Sales aptitude tests are affordable, convenient, and accurate, with results corroborated against actual sales performance through 20 years of research and 300,000 assessments. A large body of real-world experience and testimonials exists, including that of many of our customers who credit the APQ for revolutionizing their sales staffing efforts.... read more
November 26, 2018
You could throw a lot of money away by choosing sales training which isn’t a good match for your business — or isn’t good period. And there is a great reason the best sales programs consistently get a large volume of signups and many of their students go on to stellar careers in sales – and the reason is they DELIVER RESULTS.
The best sales programs have a few characteristics in common which you should expect whenever doing your due diligence on a training firm.
The trainers sell constantly in the real world
There are things which simply cannot be taught in a college classroom or learned from a textbook. Often the hard knocks in life are the best teachers, and this wisdom only comes from rolling up one’s sleeves and getting dirty in the trenches.
This is why the best sales programs are almost never found in universities, and why graduates of these programs don’t leave the classroom and start selling up a storm. Most college professors are not involved in running a business day-to-day, so there is too much unworkable theory. However, when your sales trainers actively sell every day to keep their own firms afloat, they are much more in tune with what works and what doesn’t.... read more
November 21, 2018
Sales seminars prove their value time and time again. Every company should put their sales force through a training, at least once per year. One of the biggest excuses for not doing this is not “we don’t have the money,” but rather “we don’t have the time.” If this is the case for you, can you really afford NOT to take one day per year to get your sales team trained?
Here are some symptoms which indicate the need for sales seminars:... read more
November 19, 2018
Sports is a multi-billion-dollar industry. While sports superstars get a lot of attention for their individual flair and abilities, teams are predominantly managed to success by statistics rather than personalities. Contributing to this were the results obtained by manager Billy Beane, as famously documented in the hit book and later film, Moneyball. Beane transformed the Oakland A’s into a powerhouse that could stand its own against the likes of the Yankees with a much smaller budget, and he did it by looking at players using different metrics than the traditional ones used by other recruiters.
A similar shift gaining a foothold in sales recruiting. Instead of relying solely on the old methods of selecting “players,” such as the resume and work experience, salary history, personal interviews with tricky questions and similar, a more scientific tool is increasingly used: the sales aptitude assessment. It is only logical — if scientific measurement proves so successful in recruiting sports players, doesn’t it make sense to leverage the same approach in building a winning sales team?
Why the APQ
The best sales aptitude assessment currently available is the APQ, which stands for the Advanced Personality Questionnaire (formerly known as the Craft Personality Questionnaire).
It is an affordable test which takes about 20-30 minutes to take and is available on any internet-connected computer through an ordinary web browser.
The APQ sales aptitude assessment plots the taker’s test scores across several ranges which correlate to low, moderate, and high correlation for success for a given sales role, from outside hunter to inside farmer.
There are nine primary traits which are the most important to determine natural sales aptitude. These are:
1. Intensity/Drive
2. Need for Independence
3. Assertiveness
4. Recognition
5. Need to Analyze
6. Self-Protection
7. Need to serve
8. Trust
9. Optimism... read more
November 16, 2018
Can you win at sales by playing it as a pure numbers game, driven by automated processes, rote scripts, and algorithms which calculate potential win rates? Or is it there more to it? I believe that I and all other sales keynote speakers will agree that the human element comes first, and that without addressing the emotions, dreams, and inspirations of both your buyers and your salespeople, all those tools are for naught.
The best sales keynote speakers inject humanity into their presentations to wake up the emotional brain of the audience. This in turn encourages salespeople to develop their own emotional intelligence and better serve their buyers.
Think of how warm Zig Ziglar’s presentations were while still imparting actionable sales wisdom – he is a perfect example of using the human touch to inspire people to change for the better.... read more
November 13, 2018
Traditionally, sales and marketing departments have distinct structures, leadership, budgets, and goals. This can lead to feuds between the two sectors in many companies. Marketers claiming salespeople waste their hard-earned MQLs by not thoroughly following up, and salespeople retort that the leads being handed to them “stink.”
The above image is representative of a more modern look at sales and marketing: two faces of the same construction, perhaps with slightly different viewpoints and with the same overall goal. And that is to drive revenue, the lifeblood of any business, working together as a cohesive unit.
A sales and marketing keynote speaker who understands this and can speak to both audiences can add a lot of value to today’s sales and marketing teams as the traditional lines of demarcation slowly erode.... read more
November 7, 2018
The top sales training programs in the world attract the best and brightest in sales who seek to gain the competitive edge needed to make it in today’s marketplace. Many sales professionals pay their own way, but a great deal has their training covered by their employers. This leads to the question many CFO and VPs of Sales ask themselves: “Is the ROI worth it?”
I am going to explain a few reasons why top sales training programs are worth every penny spent on them. Of course, I have a heavy bias, since I sell and conduct sales training, and the reason I do so is that I have a passion for helping people and businesses succeed by studying what makes them tick. It’s just my natural inclination, so I am bound to recommend what I think works to my friends and colleagues. Hence, sales training!
So, here’s why you should get yourself and your people trained without reservation.... read more
October 25, 2018
Great sales keynote speakers can deliver more than a few amusing anecdotes and one-liners. They can deliver real business benefits too. The difference between sales keynote speakers and other business or celebrity speakers is that they address the most pressing hurdle most businesses face: overcoming challenges related to revenue growth.... read more
October 23, 2018
Corporate sales training is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States. Most well-known training firms do a good job and deliver significant value to their customers. However, some miss the mark –usually unintentionally through lack of experience.... read more
October 18, 2018
Sales training workshops are a must for every company. New people need to learn professional selling techniques, and veterans need to brush up on their existing skills and add to them. Every business must budget for this, or risk eventual collapse because the sales function is what literally generates all the activity in a company. Otherwise, all you have is products and ideas, with no money. Bleak.... read more
October 16, 2018
Sales motivational speakers, such as the late great Zig Ziglar and the very well-respected Brian Tracy, can produce life-changing benefits for those in attendance at one of their talks. From fresh outlooks on the sales profession to tips on how to close deals faster, great sales motivational speakers know what it takes to engage salespeople and motivate them to excel in their jobs.... read more
October 12, 2018
Sales training seminars are fun, informative affairs for most salespeople. They leave the office for a while, meet sales experts, network with colleagues, and pick up some new skills. The problem with sales training seminars is one of retention: because of the Curve of Forgetting, the average person loses the majority of the information they learn within days, and it becomes even worse as time marches on.... read more
October 9, 2018
Pick up any business trade paper or browse any of the articles on websites such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., Bloomberg, and dozens of others, and you will no doubt encounter stories about how self-made people endured years of failure and rejection, yet somehow made lots of money. These people were resilient and did not quit despite many wrong turns. How would you like to achieve their sales success without going through all their pain?... read more
October 5, 2018
Has your business lost its focus to the point where a confusing mix of messages, both internal and external, is the norm? ... read more
October 16, 2018 | 11:30 am – 1:00 pm... read more
October 2, 2018
As sales and marketing professionals, we have come to accept the value of data analytics from lead generation all the way to the final sale and beyond. Data informs our decisions along each step of the funnel and continues throughout the entire lifespan of the customer relationship. This has revolutionized marketing and leveled the playing field to some degree, as we no longer rely so much on some mystical intuition possessed by a select few to generate business, we rely on the facts available.... read more
September 29, 2018
Sales training seminars can transform a sales team from a sluggish crew to a team that consistently exceeds expectations. Billions are spent on training programs around the world each year because they work and provide fantastic ROI for firms big and small.... read more
September 27, 2018
Hiring sales hunters is one of the best ways to set your company on the fast track to success. Elite outside sales hunters not only have bigger deal pipelines, they also close deals faster than the average salesperson. When you’re looking to see if you’re sitting in front of the right person, you might want to think about the APQ Sales Aptitude Test as the key to a successful hire.... read more
September 24, 2018
Sales training workshops are not a one-size-fits-all affair. They should be selected after taking into consideration your size, culture and growth goals – or you might create a mismatch between your trainees’ expectations and the curriculum offered.... read more
You can now have access to the same PROVEN Sales Assessment test over 25,000 companies use to decrease expensive turnover by up to 70%, simplify sales coaching, and empower employees to manage their own time, stress, and career goals.