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Five Proven Ways to Get More Appointments Part 3 of 5: Preparation and Recycling

by Tibor Shanto on 07/22/2008 06:56   0 comments ,14 views
Preparation and Recycling: this is probably the most straight forward instalments in the series, but when adopted, it is the one with the greatest return.  Since most sales people do not like to prospect to begin with, they like preparing for the activity even less.  But at the end, anything worth doing is worth doing [...]
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+2 2 votes

Get the Express Pass and the Business

by Mark Cook on 06/30/2008 11:32   0 comments ,51 views
Categories: Sales Process Measurement, Sales
Tags: north america, sales techniques, sales blazers, listening, probing

I reached out to 2,500 salespeople to find the top two hundred performers—Sales Blazers. These leaders had extraordinary revenue increases that averaged 31 percent annual sales growth, compared to 5 percent for the status quo. One of the eight strategies found common to these revenue leaders, I call Get the Express Pass.

The Express Pass
Most of us have been to a theme park and waited in long lines. And a group, with something called an Express ...

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Selling Through the Customer’s Organization (Chart)

by Dave Stein on 07/23/2008 06:00   0 comments ,6 views
Tags: north america, customer relations, targeted selling strategies
An org chart is invaluable in a complex sale.  When I was coaching sales teams, I refused to help a rep with a deal unless they had an up-to-date org chart.  If a rep can’t get someone in the account to give them an org chart, they should be able to build one with help from their contacts. Org [...]
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Stupid Office Pranks: Sales vs. Marketing (Video)

by Mike Volpe on 07/21/2008 17:35   0 comments ,9 views

We've been talking a bit about how sales and marketing can work together if you have the right data in a closed loop marketing system.  Here's a short video with some commentary on the situation at many companies.

 

Clearly this is a comic view of the situation.  But let's take a more serious look at how Marketing and Sales typically view each other.

How Marketing Typically Views Sales

  1. Sales people are coin operated.....
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+1 1 vote

Five Proven Ways to Get More Appointments Part 2 of 5: Voice Mail

by Tibor Shanto on 07/16/2008 01:18   0 comments ,84 views

Voice Mail:               ALWAYS LEAVE A VOICE MAIL MESSAGE!

A lot of people don’t believe in leaving voice mail, and that’s alright, because if you do, you’ll get more appointments. 

There are a couple of dynamics at play.  A lot of reps say “I never get a call back”; “No one ever returns voice mails”.  Not true, I get return calls from 5 out of 10 messages I lea...

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Referral Sources or Referral Partnerships?

by Paul McCord on 07/15/2008 17:50   0 comments ,24 views
Is your pipeline anemic? Are you finding yourself having to work harder to find and connect with quality prospects? Is your call list getting short and you’re not sure where you’re going to find new names? Whether you’re facing the above issues or not, aligning yourself with others who can expose you to new prospects, help set up [...]
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Lessons from the Lion Tamer: Power, Bearing, and Why Johnny Can't Sell (Part 4 of 5)

by Michael Webb on 07/15/2008 06:25   0 comments ,16 views
Last week I showed you a simple example of how a salesperson's "bearing" helps wield power in an environment where they have territory exclusivity. This week I'll show you how it can work even in an industry requiring competitive RFQs....
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Avoiding IT Salespeople

by Dave Stein on 07/13/2008 20:57   1 comment ,114 views
Paul Lanigan is the Sandler franchisee for Ireland.  I’ve been reading his newsletter for a while. Paul posted a recent comment about an article published by ZDNet UK entitled, Top 10 reasons to avoid IT salespeople. Whether you work for a tech company or not, you need to read this article. It’s not often we get such uncensored [...]
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+2 2 votes

There Isn't A Problem With Sales Training...If

by Jonathan Farrington on 07/13/2008 13:19   2 comments ,62 views
  There has been a plethora of blog posts and articles recently, regarding sales training, so I thought I would add my “two penneth” (Quaint British expression, meaning small contribution) In many companies, very little systematic thought is given to the design of a sales training program. Very often one of the following fallacious schools of thought is [...]
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Professional Selling Skills: “Negotiating Checklist to Ensure a Successful Outcome”

by The Sales Hunter on 07/13/2008 08:19   0 comments ,60 views
I’ve just posted a new article and corresponding audio podcast onto our website entitled, “Negotiating Checklist to Ensure a Successful Outcome.”  If negotiating is not one of your strengths or you are desiring to fine-tune this critical sales skill, follow the link below to access both the article and the podcast.  You can also listen [...]
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Five Proven Ways to Get More Appointments Part 1 of 5

by Tibor Shanto on 07/12/2008 17:04   0 comments ,64 views
One can make a case that any phase of the sales cycle is key to success, but it would be hard to argue that for the vast majority, nothing happens without appointments.  No matter how good one sells, it can’t happen alone, you need prospects, and that all starts with the appointment. Our Appointment Making Program [...]
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If I Have to Sit Through One More Sales Training Class… (Part 2)

by Dave Stein on 07/10/2008 01:44   2 comments ,39 views
Categories: Sales
Tags: north america, sales training+roi, sales training+best practices
In Part 1 I wrote about the abuse that many salesreps are subjected to in sales training classes.  I also provided sales reps’ training rights and responsibilities. Based upon ESR’s research, here are some explanations of why salespeople are subjected to that abuse: Sales management chose a trainer or training company (1) they engaged with before, in another job, or at another [...]
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+1 1 vote

Five Proven Ways to Get More Appointments Part 2 of 5: Voice Mail

by Tibor Shanto on 07/16/2008 01:18   0 comments ,84 views

Voice Mail:               ALWAYS LEAVE A VOICE MAIL MESSAGE!

A lot of people don’t believe in leaving voice mail, and that’s alright, because if you do, you’ll get more appointments. 

There are a couple of dynamics at play.  A lot of reps say “I never get a call back”; “No one ever returns voice mails”.  Not true, I get return calls from 5 out of 10 messages I lea...

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