Is your company’s virtual presence as robust as it is in person? Knowing that your online brand exists through whatever is written and posted about your company online – does it represent how great your business is? Heading into 2015, there is no excuse for a poor company presence online because you simply cannot afford… Read More
5 Ingredients To Win In Sales
To win in sales you, and your company, need a recipe for success. The ingredients to win in sales must be pure and of high quality to create a great, high-end, finished product. Here is what we believe it takes to compete with a strong solid sales team that closes the right deals with great… Read More
50 Ways to Score More Sales
Need some sales inspiration? A new twist on an old sales idea you’d like to do again? A quick sales jump-start this week? We’re pulling from a post originally published in November of 2008 – the ideas still stand, and there are LOTS more. The idea is to get inspired to take action. Which one… Read More
Better than Making Massive Social Selling Changes
One sales rep I know, who I’ll call John, just re-ignited a stalled sales opportunity after his C-level contact stopped replying to his many emails and phone calls. Instead of sitting and waiting for something miraculous to happen, John (not his real name) realized he needed to do something different to get a response. John,… Read More
Blogging and Content to Grow Your Business
It takes time and a lot of content to grow your business (company’s presence on the web). As a long time B2B blogger writing about sales strategy and actionable sales ideas, I have learned so much along the way. There is a lot of work in building your personal brand as a sales specialist or… Read More
Differentiate By Being Useful To Your Buyers
I had a chance to catch up with best-selling author and modern marketing expert Jay Baer who has been the host of the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit 2014 Tampa this week. Jay hosted last year and really brought value to the conversations. Jay was an early adopter of social media – an early explainer, and… Read More
Get a Call Back This Week for Halloween
Have all your calls and emails to your potential buyer not been returned by them? Have you had one conversation and perhaps some interest – then you call back and drop a few emails and get no reply? Sure, it’s very possible your buyer just really isn’t into you – or your products and services…. Read More
Healthy Sales Culture Means More Revenues
In my sales career I had 22 different sales managers (not counting a few interim ones) over time and experienced great, amazing leadership – and also horrible, disappointing leaders. When you are an individual contributor, your direct manager – often the “Sales Manager” is the first link to representing the culture of the business to… Read More
How Is Cloud Computing Helping Productivity
The “cloud” has been around for a number of years now, but it really has been the past 3 or 4 that it seems everyone is cloud focused (or working to get there). As an early adopter of cloud-based CRM, we were storing data in the cloud ten years ago – 12 years ago. It… Read More
How Salespeople Goof Up on LinkedIn Part 1
Sometimes I accept a connect request on LinkedIn with people I don’t know butothers in my network do. When this request happens, I look to see who has connected, then I go to view this person’s profile to see if it is someone I may be able to refer or if they just seem interesting… Read More
How Salespeople Goof Up on LinkedIn Part 2
Many sales reps and sales managers commented and shared about the previous post on How Salespeople Goof Up on LinkedIn so we were compelled to share more ideas to help sellers do better. First, I wanted to share that our blog is up for an AWARD – as one of the top Sales Blogs at… Read More
How To Be Social In Sales – Listening
We have written about social sales relationship building and social sales research. Let’s stop and think for a minute about the most simple form of integrating social into your selling with listening. It sounds so simple, yet good social listening is an art and science. Social listening is an art because of nuances you are… Read More
How to Focus on Buyers
It is easy to get distracted in a sales career. One of the worst things that can happen is that you don’t keep an eye on your “more probable” buyers – those buyers who seem close to making a decision, have an eminent need, and are qualified buyers. Have you lost track of a pending… Read More
Keep it Simple… and sell more…
Those of us in a professional selling career – especially a B2B (business-to-business) sales career tend to over think much of what we do. If we keep things simple, we sell more. This has been proven time and time again. Just think for a minute – remember the last time you were a consumer and… Read More
Money Monday – Make it Easy for Buyers to Buy
When things seem too complicated, buyers hold off. As a consumer, you know this is true. When given a lot of options and strategies, most of us shut down and hold off on making a decision to buy something. It is no different for buyers – you have to make it easy for buyers to want… Read More
Money Monday – Say More with Less
It is human nature for sales professionals to say more than they need to when talking with clients and potential buyers. Consider instead, working to say more with less in your messaging. We worked so hard to craft this messaging it is clear that most sellers keep talking and saying much more than they need… Read More
Money Monday Labeling People Limits Opportunity
In a professional selling career, it’s important not to label people. Do you ever think things about people before you have had a chance to really assess a situation? “He’s not a player” “She’s nobody” “He’s too old for a social selling strategy” “They will never change.” “They are kids running that company.” These are… Read More
Money Monday Multi-faceted Prospecting Strategy
A multi-faceted prospecting strategy allows you to meet your buyer where they are. Not everyone likes using the phone – especially many in IT. Others don’t respond to email but they will pick up a phone occasionally or will listen to your voice mail message. I talked to some sellers last week who told me… Read More
My Sales Horror Story
I was sure-footed and confident as I arrived and then waited outside a meeting room at my client’s office. They were having an annual type of planning meeting and the executives of the company – a manufacturer – had flown into this regional office. My contact arranged a meeting for me with the division president,… Read More
See Dreamforce 14 Virtually
Next week is the annual Dreamforce mega conference for Salesforce.com users and those in their CRM community – let’s face it, anyone growing a serious business today is using Salesforce.com. has used it, uses another CRM but knows of it, or plans to use it. It is the 800 pound gorilla in the customer relationship… Read More
Sell Better and Sell More
What Idea Can Help You Grow Sales? This is the question we asked the women sales experts of Sales Shebang to tackle. But their challenge was also to provide you with ideas, insights and expertise that could be easily put into practice. DOWNLOAD HERE
Send Smarter Sales Messages
I am convinced sales reps are making key mistakes when it comes to sending email messages. The email I receive weekly from sales “professionals” serve as great examples. I was inspired to write this after reading my colleague Mark Hunter’s post Preparing for Dreamforce and the Stupid Emails I’ve Been Getting. I think he summarizes my… Read More
So You Learned to Make Cold Introductions on LinkedIn – Now What?
Just because I saw a video of a neurosurgeon opening a brain, it doesn’t mean I could actually do it. It is safe to say I could not do it. But connecting on LinkedIn isn’t brain surgery, is it? Here’s the problem. Many people are now “armed” with ways to connect to people they don’t… Read More
Tale of B2B Mobile Websites – Webinar Platforms
I have spent some time ranting a bit about how poor many B2B websites are when it comes to utilizing them on a mobile platform, such as a smart phone or tablet. We know that according to eMarketer, “more than 59% of B2B purchase decision makers and influencers use their smart phones to gather information when… Read More