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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Kurt Sima

Kurt Sima

Recent Posts by Kurt Sima:

6 Common Objections Heard by Media Salespeople — and Responses that Improve Sales Performance

common objections heard by salespeopleEven media sellers who are skilled at talking about price and removing surprises throughout the sales process can encounter objections. Superstar sellers know that most strong responses to objections involve asking the prospect additional questions to get back to the desired business result, and most of these questions will logically lead to the next. 

Here’s a list of the most common objections heard by media salespeople along with ways you can respond to each. Feel free to keep this list handy — you might need it!

Topics: sales process

Top Questions to Ask to Determine Advertiser Measures of Success

11 Questions to Ask to Determine Advertiser Measures of Success

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.

Topics: Needs Analysis sales process

A World-Class Account List Management Strategy + Tips for Sales Managers and Their Teams

winning-success-great-salesperson-managerTop-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.

ALMS

Topics: sales strategy account list management

3 Effective Ways to Prompt a Prospect in the Conversation About Price

price-conversationTalking 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.

Topics: sales strategy sales process

The 5-Point Poor Performance Analyzer

poor sales performance analyzerIf 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
Topics: sales performance

What are the Benefits of Sales Enablement and a Sales Playbook?

Editor's Note: This post was originally published on the LeadG2 blog.

sales-enablement-sales-playbook

Most managers and sellers have experienced this:

  • A seller is moving a new business prospect through the sales process.
  • All signs are positive.
  • The prospect goes silent, and will not respond to email, phone calls, letters, or stop-ins.
  • The seller goes to his/her manager and asks for advice.
  • The manager spends time listening to the seller, conducting diagnostic work, and providing advice to the seller (what to do to restart the stalled sale).

On the surface, this sounds like a good system, but in reality, it is not. Here’s why:

  • Managers work with multiple sellers—doing this for many sellers takes up a great deal of time and is often redundant (same problem… same solution).
  • Sellers might not have easy or timely access to their managers—this delays the sales process and allows the sale to get further off track.
Topics: sales enablement sales playbook

What to do When You Can’t Get a Meeting With the Decision Maker

working with decision influencersEveryone wants a piece of the "big cheese"… the "head-honcho," the "main man" or "main woman," or otherwise known as the decision maker. Often, the lone source of the YES to the solutions you sell, connecting with the elusive decision maker can be mission impossible and derail a sale before it gets started.

These people are tough to get a meeting with because they are busy and in high demand, and don’t usually trust sellers or value spending time with folks like you. They’ve been burned by sub-par sellers in the past. Ouch!

What makes it even more challenging, is that everyone else is trying to get face time with the same decision maker as you. Plus, these folks are not as active on social media and are surrounded by gatekeepers.

What to do, oh what to do?

Topics: sales process

How to Transform Weekly IFM's from Time Wasters to Performance Improvement Meetings

valuable ifm meetingSales managers know that if they want salespeople to have a healthy sales pipeline, they need to have a balance between proactive, upstream sales activities, and reactive, day-to-day tasks.

Seller Not Setting Appointments During Field Coaching Days? Do This.

sales calls appointmentsIn a previous post, A Step by Step Guide to Coaching Salespeople, I provided a guide on how to coach sellers. Some sellers find it a challenge to schedule quality appointments during their scheduled coaching days. Here are some things you can do to fix this problem. 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Coaching Salespeople

sales-coaching-in-fieldThe best managers know spending time in the field coaching sellers is an important part of developing salespeople (and improving sales performance). Here’s a step-by-step guide to use the next day you are in coaching mode.