The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

The 2019 Media Sales Report studies the landscape over the past year, including the expectations for sales managers and the strategies employed by media sales professionals to assess their impact across five key topics:

• Compensation and Sales Team Size
• Training and Development
• Number of Appointments and Sales Process
• Sales Enablement
• Culture and Industry
• More!

You can see some of the highlights for the survey in the infographic below. If you'd like to read the full report, download it here.

Prospecting was spot on. The needs analysis meetings uncovered a clear desired business result for the prospect. And now it's time to shine—sales proposal time! 

Ask any sales rep what the hardest part of their job is, and we'll bet they’ll say “closing.” Don't be scared. Ensure your hard work (or your team's hard work) doesn't go wasted by following these tips gathered from our sales experts when creating and presenting your sales proposal.  

From sales and marketing to service interactions, gender defines the way a message is perceived. Women crave connection more than men, and perception is ultimately her reality. When it comes to perception and seeing, feeling, hearing, and sensing things, there is no such thing as objectivity.

The golden rule to treat others the way you want to be treated is long gone. It’s now the platinum rule, treat others the way they want or need to be treated.

If you want to increase your retention rates, referrals, and ultimately improve your top line, change the way you deliver the consumer brand experience.  

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, or Independence Day. It's a day that we as Americans reflect on our freedom, our heritage, and our history. In honor of this, we asked a few of the CSS team to chime in for this post. We asked, "If you could pick one historic American leader that would make a great sales leader today because of their strengths and talents, who would it be?" Here's what they said. 

Music can help you push through a difficult workout, it can calm your nerves, and it can even get you pumped up and geared towards success. Music can have a powerful impact on your mindset, and using music and the right rhythm to support positive thoughts could definitely get your sales performance headed in the right direction.

Abba — Money, Money, Money

Listen to it here.

“Money, money, money. Must be funny. In the rich man’s world.” What do we all work for? Money, right? To some extent, for sure! The key to this song is honing in on your motivation. “All the things I could do if I had a little money.” What are those things? What do you want to use and spend your money on? Home improvements? A new car? A family vacation? Define those things and create a visual target or vision board that you will see every day. Know exactly what you want to make, and sometimes more importantly WHY.

Where's your motivation? What lights your fire?

Pet Shop Boys — Opportunities

Listen to it here.

“I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks. Let’s make lots of money.” To me this song really speaks to using your resources. Who and what do you have around you to help make your ideas bigger and stronger? What could you tap into to make you feel more informed? What areas do you need to improve in or what areas do you find you are lacking skills or knowledge? How can you close that gap? Using your resources helps to ensure you are maximizing each opportunity to the fullest extent. “Oh there’s a lot of opportunities if you know when to take them.”

Are you using your resources?

Today, we're taking a break from our normally-programmed blog schedule to bring you a holiday message from the CSS and LeadG2 family. Click the link to watch this special message created just for you by our team!

As we roll through the Holidays, working hard to close out the year and prepare for a great 2019, we thought we'd share some 'sounds of the season' in true sales pro fashion. So, we asked the elves at the North Pole to help us write some carols with you in mind. Happy Holidays! 

At The Center for Sales Strategy, we are serious about and committed to delivering quality content to your inbox Monday-Friday, but today, we'd like to pause and bring you something that's even more serious: OUR PEOPLE! 

Last year, Harvard Business Review estimated the turnover in salespeople to be around 27%. In an industry that’s seeing almost double the turnover rate than the overall labor force, it’s essential for managers and leaders to not only know how to recruit great talent that’s an excellent fit for your team, but also how to retain sales talent and improve their performance over the years. 

If you want elite sales performance from your new hire, have an elite onboarding process. 

You breathed that sigh of relief after you received a signature from a new hire. Satisfying, right? Now, you must put as much effort into their onboarding as you did into the interview process because hiring elite performers is only part of the overall equation. You expect elite performance from them, but it is not guaranteed.