Emily Estey, on September 22, 2015
Recently I had the pleasure of facilitating a group of managers through a four month long program called Coaching New Business. We asked each manager to select two members from their team to work side by side through the How Selling process with a select group of Target Accounts.
Alina McComas, on September 17, 2015
Like most people nowadays, I spend a lot of time online. Due to my profession, a lot of that time is spent looking at the ads on the screen. I find myself analyzing and critiquing the message, the look, and the layout of the ads, without even realizing that I am doing it. I have seen some good and some bad.
Greg Giersch, on September 15, 2015
The mantra that "you need a personal, professional brand" is no longer new. If you're like most sales professionals, you're open to the idea, but it can seem like such a major project. Let's look at three myths you need to move past to get started building a brand for yourself.
LeadG2, on September 14, 2015
Although in some ways technology has made salespeople’s jobs harder (think email auto-filing), in many ways it’s also made work easier. This list of the top six apps we recommend for salespeople definitely falls into that second category. We not only recommend these apps, we also use them ourselves.
John Henley, on September 8, 2015
Great salespeople are always on the lookout for leads and are weighing each lead against a list of criteria to see which leads are the better leads. This happens in organizations where salespeople are responsible for generating all their own leads and in those where some leads are provided to the salespeople.
Leads are good, but even better if they are good leads. One trick you can use as a salesperson to make sure your leads are better leads is to look more for opportunities as opposed to just looking for leads. We like to say that it’s more powerful to search for opportunities than it is to search for prospects.
Tirzah Thornburg, on September 3, 2015
Each year on the first Sunday in May, over 150,000 elementary and middle school kids set up lemonade stands in 31 states for Lemonade Day. The founder of the program, Michael Holthouse, who was named Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, developed Lemonade Day to help kids learn how to run a business. He had this idea that economic messes could be avoided if kids were taught basic business skills and financial common sense that they can use when they are running the country.
Brian Hasenbauer, on September 2, 2015
Over the years, as sales and marketing has become more automated, it’s become increasingly important for salespeople to differentiate themselves from others and to provide value throughout the sales process. With control of the sales process having shifted from sellers to buyers, the B2B buyer now holds the cards, and does approximately 60% of his or her research before ever feeling the need to contact a salesperson.
Some of the ways that a salesperson can provide value throughout the sales process is by being seen as a thought leader and credible member of the industry that they are a part of. Social media has come to play a big part in establishing yourself as an expert in your field and having your profile elevated.
Here are three ways that salespeople can stand out using social media:
Beth Sunshine, on September 1, 2015
You already know that turning talent into performance requires a true understanding of talent. Spotting talent, hiring talent, developing talent, and coaching talent. . . it’s mission critical.
Here’s a little something you may not have thought about before, though: every innate talent at an extreme level of intensity, can have its downside. One of my clients recently observed, “Talent can be used for good or evil!”
Matt Sunshine, on August 27, 2015
When a sales manager asks, “What does the client or prospect expect from this meeting?” too often salespeople say something like, “I don’t really know, but I definitely need to ask them some questions about their business.”
We spend so much of our time working to get the appointment, and then we fail to make sure the appointment will produce a successful sales meeting. What a missed opportunity!
Beth Sunshine, on August 25, 2015
John Wooden, one of the most revered coaches in the history of basketball, summed up one of the most powerful takeaways in strength management in one simple sentence: "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." That gem of an observation extends far beyond the court and deep into each of our lives.
As the head coach at UCLA, Wooden won 10 NCAA national championships in 12 years, including an unprecedented seven in a row. No other coach or school has won the NCAA tournament more than two consecutive years in a row so I’m sure we can all agree that the guy knew talent! He knew how to spot it, recruit it, and he certainly knew how to coach it.
John Wooden understood that we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. And for every one of us, our weaknesses greatly outnumber our strengths. Whether we are talking about sports superstars, famous musicians, groundbreaking scientists, successful entrepreneurs, or people in your sales department, our weaknesses comprise the mountain that looms large over the tiny molehill of our strengths.
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