The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

High performing salespeople are intense; they typically have a long to-do list each week and they attack that list with extreme focus.  They’re dedicated, highly customer focused, competitive, and can typically accomplish more in one-week than any average Joe could in one month.  And because of this, they need their “down time” or as Sun Tzu put it in The Art of War, time to sharpen their sword.  But before they can participate in “down time,” offered by the weekend, they need to feel like it’s well deserved.

Referrals are like gold, it takes hard work to acquire them and they are extremely valuable! Most salespeople aspire to get them however, it seems as if this is the one area most would say they could greatly improve on…even high performing b2b sales reps.   

I was recently talking with a sales rep for a heavy equipment company. He sells agriculture and construction equipment, you know tractors, front loaders, bull dozers, excavators, forklifts…big machines most men (and all little boys) wish they had a reason to buy. He was telling me about a particular situation he was working through with a potential customer.

Generating qualified leads with inbound marketing is not complicated or difficult.  It’s a repeatable process that can be broken down in only 561 words!

• Create a blog and graciously share information that matters to your business and your customers – this means regularly share insight, expertise, real world scenarios and stories that will suck your readers in and keep their attention until the end of the post.  Give them information they can use and commit to providing valuable content. Keep it real...no nonsense here.

What if every time your prospect or customer felt like you were pushing your products, rather than focusing on his business, he transformed into a Hollywood Director and screamed, “Cut. Boring! Let’s talk about MY business!” Assessing your approach to sales, how many times do you think you’d hear that? 

Nobody really likes to fail! But the reality is, every salesperson has experienced some kind of failure at some point in their career… it’s inevitable! The great ones consider these experiences equivalent to an Ivy League education. Instead of allowing the negativity to devour them, they learn, overcome and move forward—quickly! 

Let me create the scene: you’re meeting with your new prospect for the first time, and your goal is to build rapport and begin a needs analysis that will build your credibility as an expert in your field, and as someone who really cares about their business. You want your prospect to believe you’re someone who can truly help them solve their complex business problems. To accomplish this, you intend to metaphorically put yourself behind your client’s desk to uncover key challenges and prime opportunities their business is facing so that you may become their partner and work with them to create customized solutions. You’re completely prepared for the meeting and you know exactly how you’re going to lead the meeting. You sit down, exchange pleasantries and your prospect says… “Let’s just cut to the chase. Tell me… how much is this going to cost?” 

It's Pop Culture Week on The Center for Sales Strategy Blog. Each day this week, we're taking our sales strategy lessons from the pages of pop culture. Today, we're talking celebrities...

Can you imagine what would happen if you told your sales manager that you absolutely refuse to make cold calls? Thinking back to my days as a sales account executive, I know that my boss would have thought I was being insubordinate if I walked into his office and boldly made the proclamation, “I refuse to make cold calls ever again!” He is a great guy and an incredible sales manager, so I’m sure he would have given me a short window of opportunity to explain my proclamation and then an even shorter window to “prove” my new lead generation tactic successful. 

Honestly, that is not something that ever came out of my mouth… nor did it ever come to mind. When I was a kid I wanted to be a chef because I loved to cook and eat. I wanted to be a Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2. I wanted to be a Madonna (before she did all the weird stuff). After watching A Few Good Men, I wanted to be a lawyer, and for a brief moment, I worked at Express and thought I wanted to be a fashion merchandiser. Why didn’t I dream of becoming a sales person or better said, an expert in sales strategy?