The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Whether a sales reps is out in the field answering prospects' questions or within the office conversing about company initiatives, inefficient communication can take a significant toll on your company's success.

When communicating with prospects, quick access to the right information at the right time is essential for selling the product or service.

Having better communication skills will increase your chances of closing the deal. Here are a few simple steps for salespeople to help take their communication with prospects to the next level.

If you have ever been part of hiring and training a new employee, you know how important it is to get it right. The company can only be as good as its employees, so each hire has the potential to raise the performance bar for the entire organization.

So, how does a company ensure that they get that right? We believe it’s a combination of both art and science.

- MOTIVATION -

"A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them."

- M.D. Arnold

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Someone once said that perceptions can’t be wrong because it’s a perception, an opinion and impression of someone else. However, perceptions are often wrong because if they were right, they would be called facts.  

Whether we deserve it or not, we’re judged by every person that we connect with. The words that come out of our mouth firmly establish an imaginary tattoo on our forehead as we stand in front of a quality prospect.

Perception is everything, and how you’re seen by your team, prospects, and clients is a key to success. New research shows that you have 27 seconds to make a positive impression and 1 minute to prove value in any given situation. Like it or not, how you look, dress, and speak helps people to form an opinion of you.

Assuming a sales manager does need a training plan can be a costly mistake. Too often this element is overlooked, and revenue suffers. Creating a training plan that includes specific elements to be completed in the first 30-60 days on the job is a great way to avoid this.

Here are four areas that should be included in a sales manager training plan:

• People
• Process
• Planning
• Performance

Keep reading for information on each to add focus to the area of creating and using training for a manager.

Successful sales is a difficult multi-level process that requires a lot of effort, knowledge, and attention. Sometimes methods and approaches that showed good results in the past don’t work anymore.

In this case, there's a need to search for something new and reliable, something that will rescue the situation. That’s why it's important to follow sales trends and consider using new features before competitors. It always helps to be one step ahead and earn the reputation of the leader.

In this article, we'll take a close look at 5 new and already popular eye-catching trends in sales.

The pandemic has made the job search for both the candidate and the recruiter challenging.

Never has a tight labor market had a deluge of resources in the talent search coupled with savvy job seekers. Online recruiting is not new. In fact, in the mid-1990s, the first online job boards changed the way candidates applied for jobs.  Goodbye cotton resume paper, and hello to the digital CV.   

There's no question that organizations worldwide are searching for talent, and that net is wider than ever with work from home and work from anywhere.

- MOTIVATION -

"Earn your leadership every day."

- Michael Jordan

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

Social selling is a powerful part of the approach in our now transparent sales landscape.

By now, every salesperson should be embracing LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Facebook, as they plan to approach and attempt to engage with new business prospects.

Whether you choose to use paid services or choose to navigate social media on your own, it’s a platform where you can earn trust and establish credibility with your very best prospects.

It’s also a platform that if used incorrectly, could damage your credibility with your very best prospects.

Is it possible to sell faster by talking less? 

Absolutely. 

When sellers rely more on listening — active listening to be specific — their ability to understand client needs throughout the sales process accelerates. This not only gives sellers an edge in crafting unique solutions for each client, but it also helps sellers discern early on if a client is the right fit for their product before investing large amounts of time with them. 

Active listening is a skill that can be learned and benefits both sellers and clients alike.