Sales Tips

The #1 Question You Should Ask During Your First Sales Appointment

The prospect you’ve been dying to speak with finally agreed to a face-to-face meeting. All of your persistence paid off, and you’re ready to make your pitch and seal the deal. Not so fast. All the effort you put into getting that meeting is wasted if you go in for the kill too quickly. When you first sit down with a prospect, you need to prep them in order to get them into buying shape. So, let’s say you’ve scheduled…

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October 14, 2014
Sales Tips

How to Hack Your Sales With the “Overheard Selling” Technique

Innovation is the mark of a successful business, and that holds true for salespeople, too. We all know that most people really just want to be left alone. They don’t want to talk to a salesperson. But they have a problem. And you have the solution. With the overheard selling technique, you can reach the 49 percent of people who are intrinsic, and would rather die than talk to you—even about a product they really need. Here’s a primer on…

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October 7, 2014
Sales Tips

Why Your Prospect is NOT Always Right

To succeed in business, you must live by this mantra: The customer is always right. But does the same hold true for the prospect? Not always. In fact, if your salespeople can learn how to navigate these uncharted waters, and read a prospect correctly, you’ll increase profits and keep your salespeople very happy. Dealing with Prospects Let’s look at this concept through a comparison. When a customer calls in with a complaint, they’re always right. As a business that prioritizes…

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September 30, 2014
Sales Tips

Salespeople: Fix Your Elevator Pitch to Get a Meeting With Anyone

If it’s good, you can win a sale or a customer. If it’s bad, you can lose a lot more than that. The elevator pitch has been around for ages, and it’s here to stay. Businesses use it in person, in print and on the web to convey their value proposition to customers. But it’s gotta be good to be convincing—and to catch busy consumers’ ears. Today’s salesperson has to compete with a lot of noise: information overload, never-ending emails,…

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September 23, 2014
Management Tips / Sales Tips

How To Get Your Salespeople to Share Their Best Sales Secrets

In every business, there’s usually that one sales superstar who just blows everyone away with their success. You might wish you could share their strategies with the whole team, right?Well, good news—you can!It's all about creating an environment where sharing is encouraged. Here's a simple guide to maximize your best salesperson:Step 1: Foster SharingStart by setting up regular "mastermind" sessions where team members can share their tips and tricks. Here's how to get them to spill their secrets:Step 2: Sharing…

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September 9, 2014
Management Tips

Sales Managers: How to Gain Your Team’s Respect

You know what I wish I'd known when I first became a sales manager? That earning respect from your sales team takes time, especially when you're promoted from within the group.Ever felt this way? You're all excited about being a sales manager, expecting everyone to cheer you on. But reality hits: the team still sees you as a colleague, not the boss. They’re not ready to hand over respect just like that.If you try to demand respect rather than earn it,…

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September 2, 2014
Management Tips

How Much Freedom Should You Give Your Sales Team?

Imagine training for the Olympics like those gymnasts who start practicing at a young age. Just like them, learning how to balance sales freedom is like mastering that tricky balancing beam.Give your sales team too much freedom, and you might lose out on sales. Take away too much, and they might rebel. It's a tough line to walk!As a sales manager, you don't have the luxury of spending ages learning how to find that balance. Today, let's talk about how…

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August 26, 2014
Management Tips

Avoiding Burnout: How To Keep Your Best Salespeople Happy & Motivated

One of the perennial problems sales managers deal with is burnout.Wouldn’t it be nice to have a clear strategy for preventing burnout—instead of reacting to the problem after the fact?Employees everywhere are susceptible to burnout. A recent survey of IT professionals revealed that 72 percent of respondents admitted they were stressed. 67 percent were open to switching careers. 42 percent were so stressed about work that they lost sleep.According to the World Health Organization, American workers suffering from stress cost businesses upwards…

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August 12, 2014
Sales Tips

10 Sales Mistakes That Will Make You Look Like an Amateur

Selling is tough, and even seasoned salespeople can slip up. These mistakes can hurt your business, especially when times are tough financially. Let's face it, we all have those moments when we're not at our best and make blunders that make us look like rookies.Here are the top 10 sales mistakes that can make you seem inexperienced, even if you've been in the game for a while:Acting like you have all the time: Don't act like you have all day…

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June 17, 2014
Management Tips

How to Improve Your Sales Forecasts

It’s genuinely difficult to overstate the importance of forecasting your sales. But what if you forecast your sales inaccurately? Every salesperson wants to give good news to their managers about how many deals are closing. And sales managers want to give that good news to the business owners with unparalleled confidence.Getting the projections correct is about much more than just giving the CEO peace of mind that they’ll be profitable at the end of the month. In many cases, it’s…

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December 3, 2013