The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

It's official. Google is giving users the opportunity to mute an ad and not see another one from that particular campaign within their display network. This is good news for both advertisers and those who sell digital advertising. Here's why the glass is half full:

If you sell media, buy media or run a business, you should read the The Face-to-Face Book, by Ed Keller and Brad Fay. Here are some highlights from the book.  

When it comes to conveying your message to your audience, you'll find the sweet spot when you combine the power of traditional media with digital media. The integrated marketing solution provides prospects and customers with both the spark of interest and the depth of information they require to make a buying decision.

I recently talked with a person in senior leadership who told me his company hired a salesperson six months ago who took an $80,000 pay cut to come to work for them. She left an obviously lucrative sales job in a bigger company because, despite her level of achievement and huge revenue contribution, she felt no appreciation for her accomplishments and, was being forced into a rigid sales structure totally foreign to what made her successful.

Even the best sellers have some level of call reluctance—the fear of having a conversation with a new business prospect or an existing client. Call reluctance can occur in the following situations:

You should.  Because five year-olds have an answer for everything:

The 99th Tour de France cycling race begins in just a few days. The Tour de France is arguably one of the toughest endurance contests that exists today. The quick facts: it includes 21 days of racing over a 23 day period of time, and it will cover 2100 miles with some of the most amazing uphill climbs on the planet. Twenty two teams, each with nine riders, will start the race with the plan to come out victorious. If the Tour were all about business, you could easily equate the winning of the Tour de France to that of closing a mega target account at mega key account level. So, let's look a few of the sales strategies we can take away from the Tour de France.

The belly flop… a dive with great potential that… well… flops. It’s the perfect metaphor for all the things that can go wrong after the sale. Over the last few months, I’ve watched too many big ideas fail—and not because the ideas were weak. These projects were brilliant, and they could have produced a nice profit. As a consumer, number one fan, and a marketer, I’m frustrated that these ideas fell flat before they ever had a chance to take off. I’m sure you’re wondering… if the concepts were so stellar, what went wrong? Two words: poor planning.

When we have success in any area of life—from making a big sale to raising a child with great character—we will find clues that led to that success if we look backwards. It’s easy (especially in 2012) to be moving so fast we don’t stop and look at the clues. I encourage you to stop down sometime in the next few days and look back at one of your recent successful sales and look for the clues that were most important in that success. Then look forward, and apply those lessons on your most promising current Target Account.

While there is no tactic as valuable as a good strategy, there are times when—despite your artful and strategic approach to securing an appointment—a handy little tactic like NERO can keep the process moving forward.