- MOTIVATION -

"THE ONLY LIMIT OF OUR REALIZATION OF TOMORROW WILL BE OUR DOUBTS OF TODAY."

-FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

- AROUND THE WEB -

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Prospect Calling Evolved: 4 Techniques to Up Your Game — LinkedIn

If you’re in sales, then you know its extremely important to close deals, right? That’s kind of an easy question, but I ask it only because it seems as though many salespeople think their job is to have a lot of business in “pending.”

When I ask salespeople how things are going, what I typically hear is, "I got a lot out there.” While I get why having "a lot out there" feels good, it's not the most important thing and may or may not be a good indicator of the customers you will earn. Closing the deal, earning customers, and helping them to have success is far more important. 

How modern marketers measure advertising effectiveness is one of the most searched topics in digital marketing today. Most agree results are crucial; however, there doesn’t seem to be one right answer when it comes to determining advertiser measures of success.

As you’re building a relationship with a new business prospect or an existing customer, it’s important to have open and upfront conversations about how the advertiser measures success.

What does the term work-life balance mean to you? The standard definition for most of us is the time we allocate to work versus the time allocated to everything else, such as family, personal pursuits, social, and leisure activities. According to HubSpot Research, one-third of salespeople say their job negatively affects their personal life, and one-half admit they need to improve their work-life balance. Another one in three say there is no work-life balance.

Most people understand the concept of work-life balance but find it hard to define what an acceptable balance is. The “right amount of work” versus the “right amount of family time” varies greatly based on individual lifestyles. Salespeople hear the term work-life balance from colleagues and managers on a daily basis, but what does work-life balance mean? It’s common for leaders and their direct reports to have different definitions of the term, and therefore very different expectations.

Presenting a campaign recap that clients understand can be frustrating because each individual has a different level of understanding of the process. Successful salespeople can easily generate new business while retaining and growing their existing accounts.

When it comes to using digital solutions to do this, a big part of the success is how effective a seller is at selling the results back to the client while their campaign is running and once it is completed. It’s up to salespeople to prove the value that the company can provide.

- MOTIVATION -

"THE HARDER THE CONFLICT, THE MORE GLORIOUS THE TRIUMPH."

-THOMAS PAINE

- AROUND THE WEB -

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A Unified Sales and Marketing Front — LinkedIn

Slumps happen to everyone. No matter how good you are or how long you have been in sales, sooner or later you're going to hit a sales slump. And they always seem to come at the very worst times. (Actually, when is it ever good to go into a slump?)

It’s never exactly the same, but it sometimes looks like this: You've put a lot of time and energy into a prospect, and thought for sure he or she would say yes—but the person gives you a NO. A client has been with you every month for the past 6 months, but then calls you up and says they need to take the next couple of months off. The appointment you have been working so hard to set tells you to call back in 6 months. 

Sales managers bemoan slumps just as much as salespeople do. If you're a sales manager, you need your people hitting their numbers so you can in turn hit yours. It’s difficult to watch anyone struggle, particularly people you feel responsibility for. As the manager, you are a developer of people and of talent. You need to grow your people, and you take that job seriously.  

So how do you get out of a slump if you're in one? Here are four steps to help your salespeople break out of a slump.

Top-performing sales organizations have many things in common. One is their understanding of and the importance they place on an account list management strategy. Here’s the concept and some tips used by world-class managers—feel free to use it in your organization.

Your employees are the foundation of your company and your culture. So, it stands to reason that every hire you make will either enhance your culture or detract from it - one person at a time.

We know that finding top talent is difficult! And with the current talent shortage, now more than ever, the candidate is in the driver’s seat. Once you finally find the right person to bring onboard, someone with the right talents and the right fit for your team, you want to do everything you can to develop and keep them. And this starts from the moment you send them that offer letter.

Did you know that Zappos pays new hires $2000 to quit within the first week of their employment? Although that seems like an incredible gamble with their hiring budget, this policy encourages those who are only there for the paycheck to take the money and run, leaving those who really want to be there.

- MOTIVATION -

"IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERY DIFFICULTY LIES OPPORTUNITY."

-ALBERT EINSTEIN

- AROUND THE WEB -

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Selling on Social Media in 2019 — LinkedIn

Recently, I read a book by this title written by retired admiral William H. McRaven. He was a Navy Seal and eventually rose to the command of the worldwide Seal operation. The book is loaded with principles McRaven learned as a Navy Seal, each of which is an invaluable nugget that leads to success in about any venture.

The first principle is, if you want to change the world begin by accomplishing something first thing every morning — make your bed. Now, it sounds simple, and perhaps even trivial, but he points out beginning each day with a measurable accomplishment sets the tone for a productive 24 hours ahead.

As you might imagine, a well-made bed for a Seal is one so perfect the drill sergeant can bounce a quarter six inches high off the perfectly-taught cover. Failure to deliver such a quality job can result in a hundred push ups or perhaps a two-mile run as the sun rises.

So, I began wondering what making your bed looks like for a sales professional? Beyond literally making your bed (which I happen to do everyday first thing, so I appreciate the adrenaline charge of that early accomplishment), what are the "first-thing" activities a sales pro should accomplish in order to insure a productive day ahead and improve sales performance? Here are some that come to mind for me.

Talking about price with a new business prospect can be tricky. Talking about it too soon—when trust is low—can end the conversation, before it has even gained any traction. Talking about it too late could lead to the unfortunate discovery that the prospect is cash poor.

There are a number of ways to prompt the conversation with a prospect. Here’s a list of three that are extremely effective.

- MOTIVATION -

"OUR GREATEST WEAKNESS LIES IN GIVING UP. THE MOST CERTAIN WAY TO SUCCEED IS TO TRY JUST ONE MORE TIME"

-THOMAS EDISON

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Helping Buyers Overcome Information Fatigue — LinkedIn

The great sales managers know that if you want to see an increase in performance then you have to set expectations. But just setting expectations is never enough. You need to put a system in place where you can measure what you expect. As the management saying goes, "Your salespeople will respect what you inspect… and you need to inspect what you expect."

My favorite book in high school was George Orwell's Animal Farm. If you haven't read it, it is an allegorical novel that tells the story of how Communism took over Russia and ultimately ruined their economy. I loved this book because a) it's brilliant, and b) it's a great defender of capitalism, which I LOVE!

Glassdoor was initially founded with the intent to improve transparency, which is part of the foundation for increasing employee engagement, but the benefit of being transparent doesn’t stop there. According to a recent Glassdoor.com study, positive online employee reviews not only enhance your overall employer brand, they directly correlate to a higher volume of candidate resumes for open positions and lower salary increases for the same job.    

Whether you're new to Glassdoor, or you've been using it to boost your employer brand for a while, make sure you do (or are doing) these three things to engage with more candidates and improve your sales team recruitment efforts.

If you are a manager with a struggling seller, this blog post is for you!

Too often, managers place the blame of a struggling seller at the feet of the struggling seller. This is usually a mistake. There is a better way to find out what is causing the seller’s lack of performance, and it involves an analysis of the following five things:

• Talent and Fit
• Relationship
• Expectations
• Feedback
• Compensation

- MOTIVATION -

"DON'T BE AFRAID TO GIVE UP THE GOOD TO GO FOR THE GREAT."

-JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

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4 Field Sales Best Practices of High-Performing Teams — CloserIQ

In almost every industry, there are a few people or businesses that watch trends, see where the industry is headed, and share unique insights—thought leaders. These people and organizations are the ones that you check on regularly for innovation, market challenges, new initiatives, etc.

The thought leadership position is certainly an advantageous position to have, as it can help with generating sales, lead generation, recruitment and retention, and new business opportunities. While sometimes this thought leadership position will come about completely organically, many times it is part of an overall sales strategy and much time and consideration has been put in to developing the plan to make this happen.