2012 is here! Time to start a new year. Time to start selling more! Most sales leaders and sellers agree that it is a good idea to sell more from one year to the next. Unfortunately, accomplishing this goal can be a challenge in these turbulent economic times. It's time to break the cycle. Here's a list of 5 simple steps that will help you start the year off selling:

Good sales people and sales managers like to talk about their sales performance, and it’s this time of year that many sales organizations stop to honor those who had the best year as the calendar starts a fresh countdown. I support that idea and have a suggestion to add. What if every salesperson in your organization picked one client who had a good 2011 and asked that client to share two things:
If you're still looking for a New Year's Resolution, go ahead and add engaging with Twitter to that list of possibilities. By the time you're done reading this, you'll see why it's worth your time as a seller.
Last Friday's story from Research Brief
If you are planning to vote in the Republican Presidential primary in the coming months, you are a potential prospect for Newt, Romney and all the gang. I got to thinking about how similar this is to what we go through as sales people when we try to get that first appointment with an ideal prospect. It takes a combination of getting attention and establishing credibility. If you can do those two things, you are generally going to stand out enough to get an appointment. If you only do one, you will not sell the prospect on the value of spending time with you.
It's healthy for people and organizations to celebrate victories—that's a given! Some managers miss the chance to lead effectively when it comes to setting and celebrating goals. Effective leaders focus on two things in this area. They decide what goals are worthy of celebration and how big the celebration should be.
If you'd like to build a winning sales team, take a look at the Pittsburgh Steelers. As a Cleveland Brown's fan, this breaks my heart to admit this fact; however, one look at the bottom line (wins) tells the story. Here are 5 things that you could do to build a winning sales tradition like the Steelers:
Honestly, that is not something that ever came out of my mouth… nor did it ever come to mind. When I was a kid I wanted to be a chef because I loved to cook and eat. I wanted to be a Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2. I wanted to be a Madonna (before she did all the weird stuff). After watching A Few Good Men, I wanted to be a lawyer, and for a brief moment, I worked at Express and thought I wanted to be a fashion merchandiser. Why didn’t I dream of becoming a sales person or better said, an expert in sales strategy?
The new year is almost here. Do you know everything you should about your top spending customers? If you are serious about improving sales performance in the coming year, here are 5 things you should know about all your accounts, especially your top spenders:
If you add up the value of everyone who sits in on a sales meeting—including yourself—you’ll realize how expensive sales meetings are. You should also remember the best training takes place in the field, with real accounts, not in a conference room with theoretical examples. But, there are still some legitimate reasons for having a sales meeting: education, training, team building, problem solving, positive psych and recognition.
