The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

If you’ve come to realize that the amount of time you’re spending to “manage” an incessantly needy client far outweighs the amount of revenue they represent for your company… it's time to think about firing them. 

The more senses we employ, the more likely we are to understand and accept the information being communicated. This relates directly to how much use you make of visual and audio aids when selling -- and to what degree you involve the prospect in the sales process.

I think it's a stretch to say that people buy mostly on emotion as opposed to logic. There may be some truth to it, but I think there's a better way to think about the buying process.

The primary focus of your inbound marketing strategy should be to get your business found by new visitors, and then convert them into qualified sales-ready leads. One of the primary places to do this is on a company blog. There are many other additional benefits such as developing thought leadership and providing value to current clients, but at the end of the day it’s lead generation that makes inbound marketing such an irresistible and powerful tool.  

I’ll thank Steve Lahr, a Director of Sales in St. Cloud, Minnesota for this analogy to new business development. Steve is relatively new to The Center for Sales Strategy family of clients; Townsquare Media only recently joined our ranks.

We are all in search of the ultimate sales strategy weapon we can employ to deal with the challenges of price and product competition. And, at last, we may have actually uncovered it.

When I used to sell print ads in a national sports publication I was always a proponent of advertorials when it related products or services needing additional explanation. Clients would be able to use a short "article" to detail solutions to problems or discuss certain issues relevant to the target audience. I thought this was great and usually my clients saw some great results.  

I see this happening all the time. You may not stop to think about it, but it’s probably happened to you. 

On a recent market assignment, I overheard a group of salespeople talking about a sales contest. More precisely, they were complaining about a sales contest.

How you are viewed can often be determined by when a buyer wants to talk to you.

A couple of months ago, I registered to compete in a triathlon. As I began training for the three-sport event, I quickly began to notice similarities between how I was preparing for the race and sales. So what do they have in common? More than you might realize… let me share my story with you.

One of the practices we preach is that every client meeting should start with a quick overview of events leading up to the meeting, and an agenda for what you would like to accomplish during the session. It is a step that people often skip… at their own peril. Why do I make that sound so ominous?  

If you were to ask 100 salespeople why they hate sales meetings, and then take all of their reasons and put them in a giant pot, fill it with water, and turn up the heat… the myriad of responses would all boil down to one and only one reason; they believe they’re a waste of their time!

Mad Men Season 6 debuts this Sunday on AMC and over the past several seasons the show has done a great job of showing a society in change and how the advertising world has evolved to adjust to these shifts in society’s norms.