The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

“To know your prospect, you must become your prospect.” 

- Ancient Chinese Proverb

This quote came from a salesperson who knew how to get an appointment.

Getting the first appointment with a prospect is getting harder year after year, and making yourself relevant to the prospect is the first step in overcoming that challenge.

As a daring and ambitious salesperson on the search for customers to serve, you must seek relevance like a duck seeks water. The question is how.

What big rocks should sales managers focus on? What should they be doing or learning right now to ensure success?

On this episode of the Sales Leadership Series, Scott Sutherland, VP/Market Manager of the Phoenix Market at Bonneville International, joins host Matt Sunshine to answers these questions and discuss sales and executive leadership tips.

Tune in now or keep reading for a brief overview.

Sales organizations have evolved over the years, and the old hierarchical structure just won’t do anymore.

A successful sales organization structure allows you to maximize your profit. This article will help you get started.

- MOTIVATION -

"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

- Sam Levenson

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

_It's the beginning of the month. You're ready to help your team crush their sales goals. Sometimes they need a reminder of why they love what they do or a little help to boost their morale after a lost sale.

Well, there are many things you can do to help your team improve sales performance and reach their sales goals, and here's something that can help boost morale, inspire, and increase productivity: motivation. 

We've put together 31 motivational quotes related to sales and business success. That's one for each day of the month!

Recently, Borrell and Associates, a leading media research firm, conducted their annual survey among those people who buy advertising for their businesses and asked them what traits they seek from media salespeople. 

Here are the top four results.

You know those pesky phone calls you sometimes get from people trying to sell you something you absolutely don't need? You don't want that to be your strategy.

Luckily, there are other options. Sales outreach has come a long way from pure cold calling. And as the field continues developing, you need to keep up with it. With the help of modern technology and new tactics, you can improve your sales outreach strategy and make it more effective.

A rise in engagement, conversion rates, and profits is likely to follow. So don't hesitate because better outreach gives better results.

Improving your staff's productivity and efficiency is difficult when there are so few of you. That doesn’t mean it isn’t impossible to delegate work in a way that compensates for being short-staffed, but sooner or later, you’ll need to find the right sales structure for balance or hire more employees, or you risk burnout.

Hiring employees may be the best option if you’re experiencing a sudden influx of work. There's also the option for leased employees, who can be placed as temporary workers and don’t require you to handle their HR or payroll employment duties.

First, let’s take a look at how your company can stay productive without hiring more employees. Then, we’ll show you the telltale signs of when it’s time to take the outsourcing plunge.

If you think cold emailing is dead, you're wrong.

59% of B2B companies say email is the most effective channel for generating revenue. It's one of the most cost-effective forms of outreach that there is.

At the same time, you need to realize that you're not the only one sending emails. HBR reports that on average, professionals have more than 200 emails in their inbox and receive 120 new ones each day but respond to only 25% of them.

If you want to get a response to your emails, you'll need to employ the magic of etiquette, one of the best ways to create a human connection with the reader.

In this post, we talk about a few common mistakes people make writing cold emails, and some advice on how to improve these areas.

Building trust virtually, finding qualified leads, getting in front of the decision-makers — these are all challenges that salespeople face. And as a sales manager, you’re finding innovative ways to address these issues.

However, to become more effective in your role and provide a better overall direction for the entire team, it’s important to know the current challenges that sales managers face as well.

To help narrow down the current sales challenges facing sales managers, we asked our experts to weigh in. Here's what they said.