The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Is your Rookie seller screwing up? We recently added a new puppy to our family, and when deciding which puppy to get we followed all the right selection steps. We carefully considered the most important characteristics and traits to us, and found the perfect puppy for our family. She doesn’t shed, she is the right size, and personality wise she is fitting right in… so why is my perfect puppy peeing on the floor?

There’s a good chance you’ve heard some things in the past few days about Google announcing changes to their keyword data. In case you haven’t heard, or if you’re just not sure what it all means, here’s an update: 

Okay, it was worth a chuckle. Indeed, it was worth the effort to pull my cell phone out and take a picture of the sign, indicating a wading pool depth of one and a half feet.  And then it added, “No Diving.”

Every Birthday, every Christmas, every “gift giving occasion” we go through the same thing with our six year old. The conversation goes something like this:

Frankly, it’s the same in sales as it is in any other creative, human endeavor. The biggest mistake you can make is no mistake at all. Don’t assume those people who make no mistakes in their b2b sales careers are the ones who are most polished and professional. They could be the ones who don’t push their boundaries of capability.

Success in business usually isn’t because of the big things that are done once in awhile.  It’s usually the little things that are done over time that end up making the big differences. 

Before the real needs analysis work, do some pre-meeting research... Presearch. Yes, it still happens. 

There are still account managers who open a Client Needs Analysis with, “So, how many years have you been in business?”  Or, “How many locations do you have?”  Or, “Do you have a website?”

These kinds of CNA questions don’t ask; they tell.  They tell the client, “This person has not done one stitch of research before asking me to give up this hour.”  Or, “This salesperson is lazy.”  Or, “This individual does not value my business very much if they couldn’t do a little homework in advance.”

One of the great benefits from a strong content marketing plan is that past blog articles can continue to be useful and help your target audience.

In the sixth century B.C. there was a king going out on what might be similar to the needs analysis a salesperson goes out on today. King Croesus was seeking advice from the oracle, asking what the outcome might be if he invaded Persia. The answer was that if he did, a great empire would fall.

Sometimes we’ll get an influx of emails from different inbound marketing clients all at the same time questioning why their website or blog traffic is down (this happens internally for us too!). Recently this happened all at once, and ended up being a mix of #1 and #2 below, but it had our clients wondering what they could or should be doing differently.

Will the moment of truth be looming in the next meeting with your prospect—the meeting at which you look her in the eye, fingers crossed, and go for the close? 

Or, will this be the meeting where all you have to do is confirm the details to implement your solution—because your prospect already has a pretty good idea of what you’re bringing to the table?

Thought leadership has been one of the newest buzzwords in the C-Suite over the past years. With companies focusing more on blogging and social media it’s now easier than ever for C-Suite Executives to engage and discuss the company’s and industry’s direction. 

However, not all C-Suite Executives have been forthcoming about providing insight or perspective on what’s taking place in the marketplace.  Some C-Suite Executives haven’t bought into the benefits that thought leadership offers and are hesitant to make the investment of time and resources to get started. 

If you have had the pleasure of visiting an ocean this summer, you were likely reminded of the difference between high and low tide. I was on the Washington coast and saw some incredible sea logs that drifted up on shore. As I was marveling at the size of the logs, I was thinking that I am glad I wasn’t hanging around on shore when high tide brought one of those logs crashing in.  It seems to me, they are more fun to look at when they are not coming at you!