Sales

An article in North Carolina’s Mountain Xpress sheds light on a looming crisis: there will soon be a mass retirement of baby boomers, who own about 50 percent of all American businesses, and very few have any sort of succession plan.

What are the factors that makes some salespeople perform better as inside sales farmers rather than outside sales hunters? It’s too simple to say things such as, “Well, inside sales people tend to be less aggressive and more caring, and outside sales people are “flashier” and completely ‘A’ type personalities.”

Delivering business sales training in Washington DC for the past three decades has been a rewarding and challenging, endeavor.

There are hundreds of volumes written on the subject of sales. However, if you were to ask a number of top sales professionals which books they found most useful, you would start to see some titles begin to repeat. Here is my list of ten must-read books used in top sales training programs and seminars. … 10 Must Read Books Used in Top Sales Training Programs

To avoid strife between sales and marketing teams, companies must keep the teams balanced. An equitable distribution of responsibilities, budget, and goals can solve many problems before they start. When there’s imbalance, one team will blame the other for poor revenue or productivity 99 percent of the time.  To create a sense of parity, many … Are Your Sales and Marketing Teams Balanced?

New prospects are the lifeblood of your company, but not all prospects are equal. In order to utilize your time wisely, it is vital to set up a ranking system for your prospects and then allocate the time you spend. First, let’s look at ranking your prospects. The usual system is hot, warm and cold … Rank Prospects in Your Consultative Sales Process

The sales process involves many steps, from quantifying and qualifying leads, to building a relationship with your prospects and determining their needs. Once these things are accomplished, the final step of the process, making the sale, will hopefully occur. But what can you do for sales process improvement within your organization? While there is no … Get on the Inside Track – Use Neuro-Linguistic Programming to Improve Your Sales Process

The term “consultative sales process” frequently gets bandied about without much understanding. A salesperson, especially a rookie, might tend to assume that it means to simply adopt some professional-type mannerism and tell the prospect that, as their consultant, they recommend such-and-such product. While adopting an air of authority and professionalism does not hurt, the backbone … Consultative Selling – It’s Not About You!

Over the years, we have listened to many business leaders ponder over the secret to sales success. Everyone seems to have similar but varying opinions about what it takes to succeed. They look to us for “The Magic Pill” to give to their struggling reps and hope to start seeing success right away. After decades … The 5 Factors for Sales Success – The Magic Pill?