The Center for Sales Strategy, on February 19, 2020
The 2019 Media Sales Report studies the landscape over the past year, including the expectations for sales managers and the strategies employed by media sales professionals to assess their impact across five key topics:
You can see some of the highlights for the survey in the infographic below. If you'd like to read the full report, download it here.
Amanda Meade, on February 18, 2020
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Your sales team has goals. In order to evaluate the activities that are being performed in pursuit of those goals, you need measurable indicators known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Aligning your team with the right KPIs increases productivity and enhances performance, but it also allows you to monitor the overall health of your organization and team. With KPIs, you can:
The hard part is choosing the KPIs that are most relevant to both your industry and goals. Here are some tips on how to select sales KPIs that align with your business goals.
Trey Morris, on February 17, 2020
If you fail two out of every three at-bats in the Major League, you'll end up in the Hall of Fame. If you fail 90% of the time as a venture capitalist, you'll end up being a multi-millionaire—possibly a billionaire.
So, why are salespeople afraid to fail? And why do sales managers often berate a salesperson when they fail? If you’re never failing, then you’re probably never winning either. We tell our team to take risks and explore new opportunities, but are we reiterating that embracing failure is actually good for business?
Amanda Meade, on February 14, 2020
-Simon Sinek
2020 is officially underway. If you want your team to succeed this year, you can’t expect the same old tactics to work.
Prospects are now more informed than ever. They also are more risk-averse. It is challenging to differentiate yourself on factors other than price. The ability to grow existing accounts has even become more difficult. To avoid rejection, you have to keep up with the latest trends and continue to hone your abilities.
Here are the sales skills to prioritize in 2020 to stay ahead of the curve.>>> READ MORE
Guest Blogger, on February 13, 2020
One of the most common debates in sales is how to best measure performance and other sales indicators. While some organizations prefer process-oriented KPIs, others have an outcome-oriented bias. Both ends of the spectrum are invaluable for powering your sales, but when it comes to prioritizing inputs vs. output, the “i’s” have it.
Amanda Meade, on February 12, 2020
The majority of participants that attend a “typical” training program or workshop will forget 70% of what they were taught within two weeks. Our goal for the Talent Focused Management (TFM) workshop is to provide clients with strategies and tactics that they can actually put into practice immediately.
Here are some takeaways from sales managers that will enlighten The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS) clients, as well as others, as to why —and how—not all workshops are created equally.
The Center for Sales Strategy, on February 11, 2020
Prospecting was spot on. The needs analysis meetings uncovered a clear desired business result for the prospect. And now it's time to shine—sales proposal time!
Kurt Sima, on February 10, 2020
Of all the decisions and executive makes, none is as important as the decisions about people, because they determine the performance capacity of the organization." - Peter Drucker
The new year is 1/12 complete, and January is old news. How is your organization doing so far? Are you on track to exceed your growth goals for 2020? Are you lagging behind?
Growth of a sales organization will not happen unless the people in the sales organization are growing. Here are four important elements to consider that are directly linked to growth of your people and the decisions you make in coaching and developing them.
Amanda Meade, on February 7, 2020
-Jeffery Gitomer
For sales teams, scarcity of information was once a major pain point. Now we have the opposite problem. We are awash in sales data, pertaining to all elements of our operations. The data comes from a host of different sources, and we store it in a dizzying array of databases.
This presents a challenge, especially for those of us who might not consider ourselves avid number-crunchers. SPARXiQ’s VP of Sales Enablement Mike Kunkle asserted that making evidenced decisions, based on concrete information, should be a key strategic priority. In line with that guidance, here's what folks around the web are saying about sales data and analytics.>>> READ MORE
Shaye Smith, on February 6, 2020
From personal branding and thought leadership to prospecting, lead nurturing, and recruiting—there are many benefits to using LinkedIn as a sales professional. The problem is that sales professionals don't have time to set up or update the basics of their LinkedIn accounts to best represent them and their company.
You can't build a great building on a weak foundation, and the LinkedIn profile is just that: the foundation that could affect the success of your social efforts. Use this checklist to ensure your profile is updated and the best representation of your personal brand, the products you sell, and what you have to offer a prospect.
