Sales people often are natural networkers – after all, we tend to be “people persons” who love to meet new people, build relationships, and create conversations, both in “real life” and on social media. But many sales people, without realizing it, are making some big mistakes with their business networking.
Business networking is one of the sales person’s oldest tools. We use ....
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Articles
3 Biggest Networking Mistakes that Salespeople Make
Sales people often are natural networkers – after all, we tend to be “people persons” who love to meet new people, build relationships, and create conversations, both in “real life” and on social media. But many sales people, without realizing it, are making some big mistakes with their business networking.
Business networking is one of the sales person’s oldest tools. We use ....
Read more »
How to Keep Your Best Sales Leads From Plunging to Their Death
Too many great sales leads die in the first 15 seconds. Instead of taking flight, the sales lead quickly plummets to the ground.
The biggest reason why promising sales leads fail is the sales rep’s choice of opening statements. From the moment your sales reps get on the phone with a prospect, they can either cause the premature death of the sales lead, or nurture the lead into a dee....
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Confessions of a Professional Call Screener
Getting past the gatekeepers to talk with decision makers can be one of the most challenging aspects of sales. The more important your decision maker, the more likely it is that they have one or more levels of gatekeepers – administrative assistants, direct reports, etc. – to keep people from reaching them by phone.
We interviewed a professional call screener (whose name will remain a....
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Getting Thrown Under Bus Again? 6 Tips For Sales Survival & Recovery
One of the most unpleasant situations to be in as a sales person is when the client blames you for what the client perceives to be a failure or shortcoming of your product or solution. Clients might go from being happy and reliable, to being angry and threatening to cancel their contract.
“Getting thrown under the bus” in this way by clients can be demoralizing, to say the least. You ....
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3 Simple Steps to Get the Most from Your Sales Leads
Lead generation companies often have to juggle two competing priorities: our clients want more sales leads, but they also want to convert a higher percentage of the sales leads that they already have.
Many sales leaders have the misconception that lead generation and sales conversion are two separate goals – the sales people constantly cry for “more sales leads” while their managers....
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The Must Have Elements of Every B2B Sales Pitch
When we talk about B2B sales, what are we really selling? Many B2B companies and their sales teams tend to get their tongues tied in knots when talking about value propositions, competitive advantages, and other marketing lingo. Too much B2B marketing is full of buzzwords, jargon and hyped-up promises.
Many B2B sales professionals are trying so hard to convince our prospects of the value ....
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What To Do When Your Client Throws You Under the Bus
One of the most unpleasant situations to be in as a sales person is when the client blames you for what the client perceives to be a failure or shortcoming of your product or solution. Clients might go from being happy and reliable, to being angry and threatening to cancel their contract.
“Getting thrown under the bus” in this way by clients can be demoralizing, to say the least. You ....
Read more »
5 Must-Have Steps for Selling to Big Companies
Selling to big companies is one of the major focuses of many B2B sales organizations, whether you have an existing major account lead generation effort in place, or whether you’re a smaller B2B company trying to acquire some larger corporate clients. Big companies offer big rewards, just by nature of their size – bigger budgets, more complex (and lucrative) business needs, and bigger opportuni....
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The 4 Biggest Mistakes in Managing your Sales Funnel
Many sales people are familiar with the concept of the “sales funnel,” with the idea that every sale starts with a large pool of prospects, which are eventually narrowed down by the various steps of the sales process (qualification, presentations, proposals, etc.) leading to a much smaller number of customers who actually decide to buy and close the deal.
A big part of success in mana....
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3 Simple Tips for Creating “Ah Ha!” Sales Conversations
It’s easy to forget this when we have so many sales technologies and advanced sales strategies at our disposal, but sales is ultimately about having conversations with people. The most successful sales relationships often start with energetic, productive conversations between two people who are genuinely curious about how they can work together to help each other.
Some of the best sales....
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