30
2013
How to reduce ramp-up time for new sales hires
In a recent survey conducted by CSO Insights, some 70 % of companies claimed that the ramp-up time for new sales staff ranged from seven months to more than one year. This alarming statistic raises several interesting and important issues: Even though many companies claim to hire only experienced salespeople who can hit the street running, current research and data prove otherwise….
17
2013
Time is Money
The old adage that “time is money” has never been more of an issue than it is today. Have you ever noticed how everyone wants things faster? I just heard that Samsung is going to introduce a new phone that is going to have 5G speeds. This is supposed to be 100 times faster than the 4G phones that are out there today. They said…
08
2013
Don’t Talk About Products, Instead Talk About Solutions!
In thinking about creating my latest blog, one of the things that came to mind was a credo that I actually have posted on my wall above my desk. The credo that I created goes like this: Think the way your Customer Thinks Look at yourself through your Customers’ Eyes Listen to yourself through your Customers’ Ears Speak in terms of what Matters to Them…
01
2013
The number one reason why most sales calls fail (and what you can do to avoid it!)
Believe it or not, a surprising number of sales professionals still rely purely on luck and good social skills when attempting to sell at an executive level. Unfortunately, good fortune and a winning personality, while certainly helpful, are not proven strategies for delivering consistently successful results. In fact, when some 10,000 C-suite executives were asked in a recent survey to reveal their major hesitation in…
17
2013Is your sales team focused on the right target market?
There have been some really good articles written and some great LinkedIn discussions around the whole area of sales enablement and what’s working and what isn’t. So, it got me to thinking about a problem with a lot of organizations, and it centers on whether or not they have a clearly defined target market for their sales team to go after. If you were to…
22
2013
It’s not about the Quantity of the Content you provide, it’s all about the QUALITY!
Is your organization drowning in content or collateral that your sales or marketing departments have created? If so, you’re not alone. I’ve spoken to numerous organizations who have confessed that they spend about as much time searching for the right content within their own organization as they do in front of a prospect selling! There are a couple of reasons for this. One reason is…
14
2012
Excuses why now isn’t a good time to sell
First, allow me to apologize for the time lapse since my last post, I don’t want to bore you with excuses, it’s simply a matter of time and priorities. I recently joined the Sales Management Association that is headquartered here in Atlanta. I attended my first user group meeting last week and I had the opportunity to meet some really great people and am so…
20
2012
Which is more Important, Sales Effectiveness or Sales Efficiency?
Make no mistake about it, LinkedIn discussions often times provide some great insights and information. Take the discussion that Alex Gammelgard recently posted in the Sales Enablement Gurus group, around sales effectiveness versus sales efficiency. Her article is based around the Gartner Group article on “How to Analyze Your Sales Processes on Efficiency Versus Effectiveness, August 15, 2012.” I would like to quote some excerpts…
08
2012
Why your sales people need knowledge NOT information
Salespeople are inundated with information. The problem is that they will very often waste a tremendous amount of time sifting through masses of content to find exactly what they need. Clearly, that is a very inefficient process. What salespeople really need and want is just-in-time sales knowledge that is specific to their company, customers, competitors and products. Information alone simply isn’t nearly as valuable as…
11
2012
How do you treat your company’s intellectual capital?
The BusinessDirectory.com definition of intellectual capital is a “collective knowledge of the individuals in an organization or society.” It includes customer capital, human capital, intellectual property and structural capital. Although largely intangible and very often difficult to measure, intellectual capital is now widely regarded as a true capital expense for a company. The reason for this is because the investment in and replacement of employees…