The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

If you put a bad apple in a bushel of good apples, the bad apple won’t become good. In fact, when a bad apple starts to rot, it emits a gas that can indeed start to rot the good apples. But even if the bad doesn't completely rot the good apples, it's important to lock on to the fact that the bad won't get better by being with the good.

Over time, organizations can begin to lose performance. It can start to feel like the organization is missing a beat, not hitting on all cylinders.  If it was your car, you'd take it into the garage and get a tune-up, but what do you when it's your sales team? 

How about a sales tune-up for your organization? 

A sales tune-up is the perfect way to assess your sales organization through a comprehensive, analytical sales diagnostic. It's a time to step back and assess your organization in a factual and objective manner. A sales diagnostic allows you to dive deep into your numbers, your processes, and your people and objectively determine what is working and what isn't.

We’re all familiar with Ego. If someone says you have a “big ego,” you know that’s not a compliment. At least not in most circles. Your Ego is about your survival. At its best, your Ego is simply your awareness of your own identity and how you interact with the outside world.

Let’s look at five strategies your Ego may be using that may be interfering with the way you interact with business prospects and partners.

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. 6 Soft Skills Every Salesperson Needs to Get Ahead — HubSpot

To know how successful a salesperson is, just look at their numbers. Understanding why they’re succeeding is trickier. In sales, success is a reflection of two things: The strength of their hard skills and the strength of their soft skills. Here are the six soft skills every rep needs to get ahead -- and more importantly, how to develop them.

Pilots learn that the best way to land a plane is to look long toward the horizon, not directly beneath them. Great sales leaders do the same thing. They focus on the horizon, not just what's right in front of them.

Pilots learn that when landing, you are better off looking down the runway at the horizon than the ground rushing up underneath you. You need to balance keeping your eyes focused on the horizon, while peripherally watching your height above the runway to achieve a smooth landing. We have all felt the runway slam when a pilot gets this wrong.

If salespeople are generally optimistic (I think we can all agree they are), then the words “sales manager” may as well be Greek for God of Optimism. We have to believe to achieve! In sales, the glass is always half full. But these three optimistic phrases will actually hold you back, so be careful not to let your optimism trip you up.

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. The 17 Worst Sales Email Writing Mistakes — HubSpot

If the core of your email is an insight or resource, think of your writing as the packaging. Even if you’re an expert, it’ll be hard to build credibility if your online communication is riddled with spelling and formatting errors. Here are the worst errors that'll cause salespeople to embarrass themselves over email. 

Here at the Center for Sales Strategy, we are constantly asked to look at sales, sales management, and sales marketing trends, and to make predictions about what the landscape might look like in the future. At the end of each year, we make what we consider to be our bold predictions for the following year. This year, several people from our team participated. Special thanks to Dean Mootheart, Alan Vitberg, Shannon Delmarle, Trey Morris, John Henley, Kim Alexandre, Matt Sunshine, Dani Buckley, Brad Ramsey, Greg Giersch, and Beth Sunshine for contributing.

Just like an athlete, you can go it alone and get some occasional wins. To win a gold medal requires a clear plan, consistent discipline and constant improvement.

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. 7 Ways to Add Personality to the Sales Process — HubSpot

Part of talking to real humans (and earning the right to sell to them) is proving that you yourself are human — by communicating in authentic ways and sending the kinds of emails even you might actually want to read. Tap into some basic human empathy, and borrow these tactics.