The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

As managers, we want to get everything we can out of our sales team. The harder they work, the more they will deliver, right? What if we looked at our sales teams differently? What if we asked instead, "What can we do to see results and stay on target, while keeping our team happy and ready to take on more?"

I surely hear a lot of talk these days about success in setting new-business appointments. Sales managers often say with a degree of pride, “Our team set 28 appointments last week.” Or, “We had a very good appointment-setting session and got 31 new appointments in only two hours.”

These numbers are impressive, and the logical sequence of events from there would be a steady increase in new business volume. But, too often, when those new business metrics come in, the cause and effect doesn’t exist. New business does not spike as one would expect after four straight weeks of appointment setting. 

So, what is wrong?

From the moment I started working with the team at Zimmer Radio & Marketing Group, I had a feeling they were going to do a stellar job with inbound marketing. Then, once I met with them at their office in Columbia, Missouri for our Inbound Marketing & Sales Strategy Workshop, which kicked off our partnership, I was convinced.

Collectively, they “got it” and understood that because the advertising buyer’s experience has changed, the role of the media salesperson had to change too. As a LeadG2 and The Center for Sales Strategy Consultant, it’s always exciting to work with a company who not only wants the results but is also willing to invest their time and money to get the job done. And in this case, not only because they want to grow new revenue, but also because they care about their advertisers and the people they work with. They believe in educating them and being a true partner to small and large businesses alike. They understood that inbound marketing is more than a campaign here and there or a great keyword strategy. It’s about creating a conversation with potential and current customers. It’s about being a thought leader, making an impact in their industry, and reaching buyers appropriately in the sales process.

I’m not writing this article to simply brag about my awesome client (though they are pretty awesome). I’m writing this to let other media companies know they can improve the way they communicate with prospects, and they can get real, tangible results by implementing the right strategy and the right tools.

My words of wisdom for the day: When you love something, don’t set it free. Hold on tight and grab a back-up just in case! 

I am often asked by salespeople, “How do you know which is the right digital capability to pull into a solution?” or, “What is the right budget to recommend for a prospect or client?” The answers to both of these questions stem from the same place – understanding the client's challenge and their goals.

Every sales manager has, at some point, come to realize that sales talent isn't enough to reach revenue goals. The key is to hire talented salespeople and then help them optimize their performance. 

These 3 resources will help you, as a manger, turn sales talent into performance.

If you’re the type of salesperson who focuses on maintaining existing accounts by being more responsive and service oriented, you may soon find yourself out of job. It’s the harsh reality (and opportunity) of the explosive expansion and use of chatbots.

Today's superstar salespeople aren't doing things the way they were fifteen years ago—they've aligned their sales process with the way that people buy today. Today’s superstar salespeople are also taking advantage of today's technology, which allows them to have a significant advantage over their sales counterparts who are still practicing the 20th century sales methods. These modern day sales warriors are using what we call lead intelligence to maximize their selling effort. This advantage is making an amazing difference in sales performance and it’s worth taking note.

While many of the sales fundamentals of the 20th century still apply, the fact is that with the advancement of technology, the use of email, social media, and the mobile phone, there have been some significant changes that have allowed salespeople to improve and deliver better performance. 

There was a time when business people needed to be persuaded to get active online. Most of you are already active on social media. The big question now is how to use social media to build your business.

We recently spoke with Karen McCandless, market researcher at GetApp (a sales management software review company) about her latest study, which sampled 250 sales professionals and 200 consumers. The study sought to uncover today's key challenges for salespeople as well as what successful salespeople are doing to overcome those problems.