The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

It's the official kick off to summer, which means it’s time to kick back and relax with a good book. You wanted to read about sales and marketing in your down time, right? We asked some of the staff at The Center for Sales Strategy for their top selections:

Welcome to the official kick off to summer! After you take some time this weekend to honor those who have served our country, you might want to catch up on some of these blog posts from The Center for Sales Strategy. These are some of our favorites from the past few months. If you are interested in sales, sales management, digital, talent development or inbound marketing... there is something for you here! 

It's Pop Culture Week on The Center for Sales Strategy blog. This week, we are taking our sales strategy lessons from the pages of pop culture. Today, we're talking children's books...

Marketers love digital because it’s measurable, but there seems to be a lot of unwarranted hype about the importance of the click-through-rate (CTR). While the CTR is one form of measurement, research tells us focusing solely on the CTR is an expensive mistake. Here’s why:

I recently started taking swimming lessons. I love telling people about it because the response is priceless. First there is a confused look. Then, a gasp, followed by, “You don’t know how to swim?!”

Crazy. Brave. Passionate. Confident. These are the words I would use to describe Drew Manning, the personal trainer who embarked on a journey to go from fit to fat to fit again all in a year’s time. Drew spent the last six months gaining nearly 80 pounds, and on Monday, he will begin the process of taking it off. I just heard about Drew yesterday, so I’m a little behind. However, I’m fascinated by this story, and the social networking and professional branding takeaways.

The people on our Digital Team at The Center for Sales Strategy are often asked if social media is worth the time and effort it takes. After all, it's work to create content, engage followers and develop a community. The answer is... YES! Social media, if part of an integrated marketing solution, is ABSOLUTELY worth it! Here's the social media super tool your sales organization can use to make your product (or that of your clients and customers) come to life:

I loved this post on the Elm Street Economics blog today in which Mike Anderson says, "Walk through your store, office, lobby or dealership with a smile today.  Big enough that people stop and ask you, 'What are you smiling so big about?'  Then, just tell them it was nice to have some great economic news today."

It's not often that you will see us post someone else's work on our blog but this one we could not pass up…. our good friend Dana VanDen Heuval has written a sensational article that is certainly worth sharing. In his post, Dana says, "We’re often advised to ‘work on our elevator pitch’ for the business, yet I can’t recall ever making a purchase decision, or purchasing anything from anyone where their elevator pitch actually had an impact on me. Now, I’m not saying that having a concise and descriptive phrase to explain your business in a few seconds isn’t worth having, it absolutely is, but in a world abound with perceived commoditization around every corner, it’s critical to establish as many points of differentiation as possible to set you apart in a field of sameness."