Training Your Staff: 13 Things EVERY Employee Should Learn

People buy from people; not from systems, pretty brochures or crafty verbiage. Training your team DOESN’T mean restricting them to a rigid sales process or trying to assimilate them into the company! There’s no need to memorize silly systems and philosophies that you think will generate sales. Dry systems like that only produce unhappy, unmotivated employees and a high turnover rate (which leads to unsatisfied customers and fewer sales)

Prospecting -The Importance of Repetition

Repeatability is the key to success in so many things, why don't we use it for sales skills, especially Prospecting? You just need to know what to do and then do it.

Breaking the Financial Justification Logjam

Does your sales force seem to be treading water on certain sales opportunities? Is the same information coming to you each month when you ask penetrating questions about prospects? Does it appear progress moving an account to closure is bogged down? You say ‘there must be a way to break this logjam’. You feel just as stymied as your sales representatives. You wonder what moves to make and how to do them. Maybe a new (or revisited) approach is in order and an additional step or two needs to be taken.

How to Retain Top Sales Talent

Of constant concern in senior management ranks is the turnover rate of their sales members. If your goal is to stabilize the sales team, improve their performance and retain your top performers, then you will want to read on.

Send Me in Coach!

At one time there was a long-standing belief in many sales organizations that coaching of sales representatives was a fundamental sales management responsibility. By contrast today, in the field skill set development is, at best, hit and miss leaving many sales people unclear how their performance is being evaluated. Little wonder sales force turnover is a reality.

Persistence at the Start Really Pays Off

We all have a tough time Prospecting. It is especially difficult to begin a prospecting process when you aren't used to it. Persistence at the beginning of any prospecting program is critical tot the success of the program.

A Fairy Story

Once upon a time there was a factory that produced nuts, bolts and washers. There was a highly efficient production line dedicated to each, and each production line ended in an area called Assembly. In Assembly were a group of workers who put the nuts, bolts and washers together before they were despatched to the customer. Each worker sat at a bench. In front of them were three boxes, containing nuts, bolts and washers. They took the components, put them together and then dropped them into a fourth box situated on the floor behind them.

It's the Process that Sells - Not the Salesperson

If you don’t follow a sales process, you’re losing sales. When sales management focuses on the process of sales and monitors the path salespeople take for each sale, they increase the success rate. Salespeople can get lost in the hectic world of sales reports and activities. When salespeople focus on the stages of the sale and what the next step is, they win more deals. Are you following a process?

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.

Fishy Salespeople? How to Finally Stop Handing Out FREE Fish to Your Sales People

Do you remember the good ole days when sales managers used to just sit back and wait for their salespeople to come into their offices and ask for help? Maybe they needed the old veteran to come in and nail down the close. Well, we all know you just can't do that any more. Sure, that would put a few more sales in the win column (in the short term). But in the long term what are you creating? Nothing but needy, dependent salespeople without an ounce of personal selling confidence. Show your sales people HOW to prospect, HOW to set appointments and HOW to close sales makes your job easier and everybody's paycheck fatter.

Powerful Routines; Identifying Sales Scenarios and Developing Best Practices for Improvement

There are only a finite amount of scenarios in any selling process and if you identify them, train to them and measure your results you are on your way to excellence. This article will help you do just that.

What's Your Magic Number?

Setting and Exceeding Sales Goals through Key Performance Indicators (KPI) The most successful businesses — and certainly, sales departments — have identified their Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome of a particular process. Then they measure the competency ratios in line with them. Have you identified the KPIs in your sales process?

B2B Sales Lead Generation Investment: Match Your Demand Generation Programs To Sales Needs

Billions of dollars from business-to-business marketing budgets are spent each year on sales lead generation.Unfortunately, much of this investment in B2B sales lead generation is wasted. Why? Because many sales lead generation programs and lead qualification efforts are not in harmony with the needs of sales. Learn how to optimize your sales lead generation programs and lead qualification efforts.

Why Good Franchisors Do Not Sell To Hostile Franchise Buyers

Having run a franchising company for a decade and then retiring I always thought that it was quite interesting when a franchise buyer was completely hostile and combative during the application and approval process.

Proposed Business Opportunity Rules and Mandatory Disclosures

All franchise companies have mandatory pre-sale disclosures to all buyers and in many states there are required disclosures for Business Opportunities, but not all states. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing separating