The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

“To know your prospect, you must become your prospect.” 

- Ancient Chinese Proverb

This quote came from a salesperson who knew how to get an appointment.

Getting the first appointment with a prospect is getting harder year after year, and making yourself relevant to the prospect is the first step in overcoming that challenge.

As a daring and ambitious salesperson on the search for customers to serve, you must seek relevance like a duck seeks water. The question is how.

Improving your staff's productivity and efficiency is difficult when there are so few of you. That doesn’t mean it isn’t impossible to delegate work in a way that compensates for being short-staffed, but sooner or later, you’ll need to find the right sales structure for balance or hire more employees, or you risk burnout.

Hiring employees may be the best option if you’re experiencing a sudden influx of work. There's also the option for leased employees, who can be placed as temporary workers and don’t require you to handle their HR or payroll employment duties.

First, let’s take a look at how your company can stay productive without hiring more employees. Then, we’ll show you the telltale signs of when it’s time to take the outsourcing plunge.

If you think cold emailing is dead, you're wrong.

59% of B2B companies say email is the most effective channel for generating revenue. It's one of the most cost-effective forms of outreach that there is.

At the same time, you need to realize that you're not the only one sending emails. HBR reports that on average, professionals have more than 200 emails in their inbox and receive 120 new ones each day but respond to only 25% of them.

If you want to get a response to your emails, you'll need to employ the magic of etiquette, one of the best ways to create a human connection with the reader.

In this post, we talk about a few common mistakes people make writing cold emails, and some advice on how to improve these areas.

You've met with a prospect several times — and this person also happens to be the CEO of the business. Score!

You've built a great rapport, they've shared challenges with you, and you've developed the perfect solution. You're really getting excited about the opportunities that are unfolding!

It's all going perfect, until you hear...

Customers aren't going to want to do business with a company that doesn't offer a great buying experience.

No matter the type of business you run, you need to treat your clients right if you want them to remain in business with you and spread the word about your good reputation.

Below are a few ways that you can improve the way your company interacts with prospects and clients.

As a sales manager, how often do you struggle with the line between being a supportive and understanding manager, and holding your sales team accountable?

After hearing excuse after excuse about why so-and-so wasn't going to buy such-and-such, you throw your hands up and ask yourself, "If all of this feels so out of my control, what is in my control? What can I focus my team on that ensures we win where we need to win?"

Recruiting top-performing sales leadership for your organization is harder than ever. The quality of the sales organization is directly associated with the quality of sales leadership.

When looking for top-performing sales leaders, you can’t just look for great salespeople. You need someone who can coach, go in the field, watch, and understand the sales process. Here are nine qualities to consider when you’re evaluating sales management talent. 

Have you ever come back to your office after a solid Needs Analysis meeting and shared the exciting news with your manager?

As you sit down to recap, your manager starts to ask you questions about the prospect, and you realize you can’t answer them.

Critical information that you need was never even discussed. The assignment that you uncovered and thought was strong is actually vague, and you begin to understand clearly that you're missing key pieces of information.

You start to deflate as you realize this meeting wasn’t as good as you thought after all.

To establish the foundation for sustainable business growth, a solid sales structure must be built layer by layer. People, resources, and processes must align and work together to produce the best results for your organization.

Is your current sales structure designed for the results you want?

In Episode 26, Mike Paterson, President / General Manager at Mid-West Family Illinois, discusses how sales leaders can make an impact on their sales process through sales structure.

Tune in now to hear the Live broadcast or keep reading for a brief overview.

As an effective sales professional, you can’t just close the book on clients after they’ve signed the deal, even if the bulk of the work then shifts to other departments.

How your team executes the post-sale experience has important implications for the company as a whole, as well as your relationship with the customer.

What occurs during this phase can result in the customer being even more satisfied than before (including with their experience during the sales process), or it can derail what was otherwise a well-executed marketing and sales strategy.