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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Executive's Guide to Hiring Sales Reps

hirng sales reps-1

Are you looking to expand your sales team?

There's no doubting that more sales, scales, and finding the right people are essential to a successful business.

From finding the right candidates to training them for success, we've got you covered. Don’t waste time and money on the wrong sales reps. Use this guide to find the best ones for your business. It will help you avoid costly mistakes and make the process easier for everyone involved.

Topics: hiring salespeople

Does Your VBR Sound Like a Pick-up Line?

Does Your VBR Sound Like a Pick-up Line

To pick someone up has been used as slang, according to Dictionary.com, since at least the 1600s.

Today's pick-up line means a rehearsed remark to strike up a conversation with the goal of pursuing a more gratifying relationship later.

Many salespeople have a rehearsed line meant to initiate a relationship with a prospect to satisfy their need to make another sale. Even when you’ve tried to find a Valid Business Reason (VBR), you might still end up sounding like you’re using a pick-up line.

How can you tell if your VBR has value to the prospect?

Topics: valid business reason

Identifying Redundancies for Sales Managers: What To Know

Identify Redundancies

Approximately 1.2 million employees were laid off or discharged in December 2021. As businesses recover from the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying redundancies is essential for growth.

But what is redundancy?

In this article, we explain how overlooking signs of redundancy is affecting your business and how you can start strategizing for redundancy.

Topics: sales performance

Weekly Roundup: 2022's Economic Slowdown + More

2022s Economic Slowdown

- MOTIVATION -

"A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example."

 

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

The Top 3 Things to Consider for 2022's Economic Slowdown– The Great Game of Business

In 2021, industrial sectors experienced Accelerating Growth, creating crunches on capacity, exacerbating concerns surrounding the labor market, prompting a willingness to purchase raw materials at higher costs than perhaps would have otherwise been desired.

Folks, we are moving into a period of slowing growth. It is still growth, but not at the pace that you’ve come to know and most likely expect. >>> READ MORE

Topics: Wrap-up

Retain and Grow Top Performers with a Development Plan

Retain and Grow Top Performers with a Development Plan

The top organizations in any marketplace place a high value on their people because they are the foundation on which success is built.

They place an even higher value on managers who can develop top performers. Yet, all too often, business leaders hire people they believe in and sit back to see what they can do.

Topics: business development sales training recruitment sales talent

10 Ways to Encourage Employee Development

10 Ways to Encourage Employee Development

In this revamped corporate world, organizations are increasingly investing in employee experiences.

The emphasis is on employee reskilling and upskilling with the view to build competitive advantages
that will help organizations navigate the future. This explains why businesses are aligning their
growth strategies with employee development.

Employee learning and development are now at the core of key priorities that any organization has.

Topics: professional development employee development

Blue Pill Red Pill in the Needs Analysis

Blue Pill Red Pill

Your biggest competition in B2B sales can be what might be described as the comfort of the blue pill, as made famous in the Matrix series.

In the movie, Morpheus, describes the blue pill as waking up in your bed and believing whatever you want to believe.

There's a natural desire for prospects to want to believe things are good and have a preference for doing nothing. At least nothing in relation to your product or service.

The blue pill and red pill choice that Morpheus gives Neo in the Matrix comes into play in sales when you have insights. The red pill is one that may prompt the prospect to make changes in their status quo. It’s a choice the client must make for themselves, but your approach will have a great influence on that choice.

Topics: Needs Analysis

Everything You Need To Know About Social Selling

Social Selling

Are you tired of getting nowhere with cold calls and emails? Your business needs new customers, but cold traffic takes a long time to convert. Some people won't bother responding to you.

Social selling can help. This sales method focuses on relationship building through social media.

Social selling doesn't involve spamming your way in front of people. Instead, you get to know people before making an offer.

You may know a connection for several months before they become a client. Social selling ensures they remember you fondly and become warm leads.

We'll dive into everything you need to know about social selling. Let's get started with strategies and resources to help you succeed.

Topics: social selling

Weekly Roundup: Mistakes Managers Make + More

Mistakes Managers Make

- MOTIVATION -

"Great leaders don't tell you what to do. They show you how it's done."

 

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

Bring Up Your Competitors When Selling? This Sales Leader Says Yes – LinkedIn

How’s this for a sales technique – proactively bringing up your competition in a prospecting call.

I know, I know; it sounds counter-intuitive, presumably self-defeating. But, according to LinkedIn Vice President of Global Sales Solutions Alyssa Merwin Henderson, it “can be really helpful in differentiating you from every other person your prospect is talking to.”

Why? >>> READ MORE

Topics: Wrap-up

4 Habits of Highly Successful Sales Managers Who Retain Their Top Performers

habits of highly successful sales managers retain top performersSCENARIO: For the first time in a long time, you have sales positions open, but the most talented salespeople likely are already employed elsewhere. 

Even the most successful sales managers can find themselves in this situation if they aren't intentional with their management practices and focused on retention.

Recruiting and filling your talent bank is important. Even so, don't lose focus on the effort it takes to retain top talent. There’s always a strain on your resources when you try to scramble to fill a vacant sales position, but it’s a double-whammy when the vacancy is left by your superstar performer.

Topics: sales performance sales training