Are you facing any of these major obstacles with your customers where you have the potential to sell your products or services?
I remember it vividly. I was starting out in sales over twenty years ago, and was in a customer meeting with my manager. We had just finished reviewing our proposal with the CIO and his team. Then, in the most casual and professional way, my manager leaned over and Continue reading
Managing a successful sales team is no easy task. You don’t have control over what your sales representatives do, and yet your career and financial well being is based on the accomplishments of the reps on your team. The most successful sales managers possess common traits and utilize proven sales techniques to enable them to consistently outperform their peers. Continue reading
Often times in sales, you inherit an exceptionally challenging customer that had a bad experience with your company, and therefore refuses to do any new business with you. Usually, 20% of your customers will generate 80% of your revenue, so your natural tendency is to focus your time and energy on your best customers; to keep them, nourish them, and encourage them to keep buying more from you. That’s great. Continue reading
No matter what business you’re in, having satisfied and happy customers provides you with many benefits. Utilizing them as personal references is without doubt one of the best proven sales techniques that will help you sell more of your products or services. Continue reading
Landing a sales job with the right company can be the launch pad for a very successful and lucrative career. Having interviewed and hired many sales people myself, I’ve been amazed by what some candidates do and say during the interview process. There are certain things that the best candidates consistently do, and common traits sales managers are always looking for. Continue reading
One simple way to dramatically increase your probability of closing your strategic deals, is to make sure that your proposals illustrate the true value of the product you are offering to your customer. Often times, salespeople do not invest enough time to prepare professional looking and comprehensive proposals. Continue reading
Many sales people struggle with accurately forecasting and ultimately closing their deals and many times never find out the reason why they failed. There are plenty of reasons why some deals will never close, and because some sales reps do not effectively qualify their opportunities, they continue to waste precious time. Continue reading
Probably the most important and fundamental element for virtually every sales professional, is to understand the priorities their customer has. Priorities in virtually any company typically relate to the business drivers and corporate strategy established by the executive management team, the chief executive officer, or even the board of directors.
Those priorities trickle down throughout the company into departmental initiatives. Once you understand their priorities and initiatives, you can figure out how your products could facilitate a faster time to resolution. Continue reading
Effective time management can be the distinguishing factor between a very successful sales professional and literally a very poor one. It’s easy to be consumed with work that will occupy your time. During the day, sales reps are bombarded from all directions with requests from their customers and administrative tasks from their managers and others. Continue reading
Many sales people waste time with people that are not empowered to decide on or purchase the products or services they sell. Meeting with the right senior executives is one of the best sales techniques you can use to accelerate your time to success with your customers. Therefore, its critical to ensure that each of these meetings are productive and prove to be valuable for the executives you meet with. Continue reading
One of the most critical sales techniques you should employ when you acquire new customers or prospects is to start with a simple plan outlining what you will focus on. Most professional sales people do not enjoy spending time building sales plans. However, developing a simple plan will help ensure that you do not waste your valuable time. Continue reading