The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

As we head into mid-February, it makes sense to take a look back and review some of the top blog postings of 2012.

With everyone's time at such a premium these days, many of us have come to rely too much on our phones. Perhaps it would be healthy to step back and consider what the telephone can and cannot do for your sales strategy: 

Beware!  Danger to your sales strategy is lurking as close as your telephone receiver. How so?

Of course you wouldn't. Whether you're a manager, salesperson or consumer, you wouldn't hire someone to do a job or to work for you without ample evidence they have been successful for other people.

Sometimes, despite all our efforts to break the ice and establish credibility in advance of that first call to a prospect, and despite having well-crafted and articulated valid business reasons, the prospect is still reluctant to see us.

Is your telephone approach to new prospects sounding a little “ordinary” these days? The purpose of your call may be to “find out more about the prospect's current needs,” but the prospect has heard it all before. 

Okay, so you're sitting down face-to-face with your prospect and you are ready to begin what you hope will be a productive conversation about their specific needs and challenges.

If you want to be more successful in your prospecting efforts, you may first need to make a paradigm shift—rather than searching for new clients, focus on a client you already have, and then search for that customer’s true needs. 

The holidays are almost upon us, and right behind them looms the New Year! It makes sense to think about what your priorities will be for 2013.