The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Recruiting top talent is tough… and it’s getting more challenging every day!

Want to know how to up your game?

Create a top-notch candidate experience.

Parenting small children is not easy. I recall when my daughters were toddlers and how exhausted my wife and I were at the end of the day. We fantasized about when they would be older and more independent. We imagined parenting would be a lot easier.

Well, as I prepare for my oldest daughter's wedding in two weeks, I can tell you parenting older children is different, but it's not necessarily easy. The challenges change, the decisions become more important, and our role as parents evolves.

Social media gives salespeople opportunities they just didn't have several years ago — even three years ago!

It's much easier to connect with prospects now, and as long as you do it right, you can see significant results (i.e. landing more appointments with target prospects).

Here are three simple steps to get started with social selling.

Recently, there have been a lot of salespeople soliciting me.

Maybe, they think I could be a decision-maker for my company.  For the most part, they are mistaken. Most of the approaches are the same — the email reads like it was sent to 1,000 emails, and they hope one sticks. 

However, every once in a while, one really stands out. The ones that stand out are short and to the point of why I would want to reply to them. What’s in it for me catches my attention.

Imagination. It’s a wonderful thing as a child, but as an adult, it can often keep you from engaging in specific scenarios.

I see it often from media sellers when it comes to being asked to sell new digital solutions… “if I engage in this conversation, what if they ask me…fill in the blank.”

This is the glorious time of year when most leaders are engulfed in budgets, planning, meetings, and deadlines. 

With less than six weeks until 2023, let’s dive into a few things to check off or add to your list.

Digital sales teams today have to know more than how to sell. They need to understand how to develop integrated solutions that produce the business results the accounts they work with want. And they need to have the talent to be successful.

If you are in the process of building a digital sales team or upgrading your current team, here are five things you should consider.

We have all heard the expression, “As impossible as trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.” A simple statement yet one that perfectly captures the challenge of making a match where there isn’t one.

Ask the leader of any organization about what keeps them up at night, and one answer is certain to be, “How can I make sure I have the right people in the right roles for the success of our business?”

Most people in hiring roles are having the conversation: How am I going to find someone to fill my vacant roles?

The problem is real, and for some, it’s overwhelming.

Here are four options to consider.

NBA Coach Phil Jackson once said, “The strength of the team is each individual member.” His thought holds true within your sales teams.

Each person on your team needs to have the right combination of talent and fit to be successful. But in this competitive job market, how can you attract top talent to your organization?

Today’s consumers are distracted with numerous options and bombarded with loads of information. As a result, they often struggle to find the products or services that best meet their needs.

In a rapidly changing industry, tools, and tactics that enabled sales and closed deals just a few years ago don’t stand a fighting chance today. Innovation and agility are keys to staying ahead of altering consumer demands.

Setting meaningful as well as realistic goals is a skill that all sales leaders know is crucial. When looking at sales goals, let us clarify that they need to be both meaningful, with a focus on hard, not vanity metrics. They also must be realistic to your industry, region, market, team, and organizational capacity.  

One of the best ways for sales leaders to set realistic goals is first to look back. History can offer meaningful data and will provide checks and balances when dealing with projections and not actuals. 

I will often hear sales managers confess that their most tenured, and sometimes best traditional sellers, struggle when it comes to selling more or higher value digital solutions.

As consumers spend more time with digital media and digital marketing budgets increase, it is no longer viable to have your best sellers not participating or fully participating when it comes to digital sales.

So, what is the best way to help your most talented sellers who haven’t found their digital groove?