The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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.

One of your most important jobs as a leader is to mentor and coach, but it can be one of the most difficult parts of your job if you have an underperforming seller on your team. It’s easy to think things like “they’re not working hard enough,” “they aren’t motivated,” or maybe even “it’s time to throw in the towel.”

Before you take drastic measures and place the blame on your underperformer, here are five questions to ask yourself.

Pipeline tracking is essential for any sales team that wants to stay on top of their customer relationships and close more deals.

It helps to ensure your sales process is as efficient, effective, and streamlined as possible. By tracking every step of your sales process, from lead generation to customer onboarding, you can ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

With that in mind, here are some best practices for pipeline tracking that will help you make the most of your sales process and achieve the best results. With these tips and tricks, you'll be able to maximize your sales process and close more deals with ease.

Have you ever met a kid and know what kind of career they were made for?

I bet the answer is YES if you really think about it.

When we think of leadership, we often think of qualities or characteristics such as courage, inspiration, or perseverance. These qualities or traits are actually one of several ingredients in a powerful recipe for success and winning. That recipe is mindset.

Unprecedented headwinds over the past few years have created immense challenges and uncertainty. Leaders of companies big and small have faced a global pandemic; supply chain issues; inflation; and talent shortages just to name a few.

So, you've got the appointment for your Discover meeting. Good for you...now what? The Discover meeting is a critical part of the selling process, so “winging it” should never be your strategy. 

Most sellers understand that the goal of the Discover meeting is to uncover an urgent need that they can help solve, and then leave with an assignment. To accomplish this, you must ask great questions.

By “great” questions, I mean ones that: get the wheels turning inside their head, make them glad you asked, allow them to talk about what’s hot from their point of view, and make you seem valuable. Remember, every question you ask will either enhance or detract from your credibility.

An inspirational leader is someone who can motivate their team members. They can get things done by making others feel like part of the team. They can rally the team and keep them motivated and focused on the goal. They are not afraid to take charge and lead their team.

Here are some key characteristics of an inspiring leader.

Imagine you’re at the grocery store with your three-year-old son. He’s promised you he’ll behave, and you’re planning to surprise him with a treat at the checkout counter.

You’re roughly halfway through your grocery list when he starts to get antsy. He wants out of the cart and promptly begins pulling things off the shelves, so you put him back in the cart, and he begins throwing a temper tantrum. You look at your watch – it’s getting close to lunchtime, which is closely followed by naptime. It’s becoming apparent that you have a decision to make.

Do you choose to use empathy by giving him a big hug, telling him you love him, and letting him know you understand it can be tough to be patient—or do you choose to hold him accountable to his promise of good behavior? And which one is the right thing to do?