The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Sales management is an art that requires a delicate balance between the present and the future.

The key to success lies in mastering the art of balancing the pending vs pipeline. This means managing your current deals while also prospecting for new ones. As a sales manager, you must be able to prioritize your time and resources effectively to ensure that you are not only closing deals today but also building a strong pipeline for tomorrow.

In this highly competitive market, mastering this art is essential for any business that wants to stay ahead of the curve. In this article, we’ll explore the key strategies that will help you strike the perfect balance between the pending and pipeline, and take your sales management skills to the next level.

Whether you are a seasoned sales professional or a newbie in the game, read on to learn how to master the art of sales management.

Most salespeople prepare very carefully for every client interaction. Your preparation will dictate whether you are granted face time for that first appointment (and subsequent appointments), and it will dictate how much information you are allowed to gather in a needs analysis meeting.

But the nature of sales often leads us to focus on our own objectives when preparing; we want the appointment, or we want to learn about a specific objective a client might have that we know can translate into a selling opportunity.

If your customer-focused approach is sincere, there is one question—a simple question that can be asked in a multitude of ways—that can help you gain even greater respect and revenue from this customer.

Many organizations rely on sophisticated sales tools to automate sales activities, manage sales pipelines, communicate better with leads, close more deals, and improve their sales team’s performance.  

That said, some businesses still struggle with adopting software for sales. The reasons vary, but most of the time, it’s due to a disconnect between their AE’s and these innovative sales technologies.

Why does this disconnect happen? What are the consequences? How can businesses improve sales tool user adoption? Let’s find out the answers in this post.

In sales, you need to understand the difference between an objection and an objective. Here are the four most common customer objections that a salesperson will encounter.

• Price
• Need
• Trust
• Time

If a salesperson is being bombarded by these four questions throughout their initial meeting, then they most likely have more work to do.

Simply put, the salesperson needs to spend more time preparing for the meeting, researching the client, and developing insightful questions to build trust and confidence with the buyer. Objections are easy to overcome if you've done your homework prior to your customer needs analysis meeting.

The digital revolution has changed how businesses operate, and the sales industry is no exception. In order to stay ahead of the competition, companies must deploy the latest sales tech stack to maximize their opportunities.

A comprehensive guide to leveraging sales tech stack can help companies identify the most suitable technology for their business and unlock bigger opportunities. It is essential to understand which technology can best support sales activities, automate mundane tasks, and provide valuable insights.

Here's an overview of the types of sales tech stack, the benefits they offer, and how to implement them in your business. With this  guide, you will be able to strategically maximize your sales opportunities and drive long-term success.

You are not alone if you think it is difficult to find talented job candidates.

An employee study from LinkedIn says that 76% percent of hiring managers admit attracting the right job candidates is their greatest challenge.

Revenue performance in a sales organization is a crucial metric that measures the financial success and performance of the sales team in terms of the revenue generated from sales activities. It includes metrics such as total revenue, revenue growth, sales targets, quotas, and the percentage of sales goals achieved.

The importance of revenue performance cannot be overstated, as it is the lifeblood of a company. It is the primary source of income for a business, and without strong revenue performance, a company may struggle to meet its financial goals and remain competitive in the marketplace. It also is closely tied to the performance and effectiveness of the sales team.

Talk with any manager or leader, regardless of their company, industry, or size, and without a doubt, you will find one thing they all have in common – the struggle to find great talent. Building, and maintaining, a talent bank is not for the faint of heart.

Now imagine the added stress that occurs when you’ve made a heroic effort to build a great talent bank, and it runs dry.

Businesses need to continually strive for growth and success to remain competitive in the market.

One of the most important goals for any business is to increase its revenue performance. Many strategies can be employed to achieve this goal, but three of the most effective and proven strategies are to focus on customer service and satisfaction, to identify new target markets, and to increase the efficiency of existing operations.

By utilizing these strategies, businesses can gain a significant increase in their revenue performance, allowing them to continue to be successful and grow.

If three birds are sitting on a wire, and two decide to fly away, how many are left?

If you haven’t heard this riddle, you might answer “one. “ But the answer is that three birds are left on the wire. The two birds only decided to fly away, and deciding is not the same as actually doing.

Moving from deciding to doing is a common challenge in new business development. How many times in our sales career have we decided to do something but stayed sitting on that wire?

We’ve established short and long-term goals. We’ve even mapped out an action plan and a roadmap to follow that will lead to success. But we remain sitting on a wire. Our behaviors don’t change, and we don’t follow through with the plan.