November was a great month for The Center for Sales Strategy's Partner Program blog, and in case you're just tuning in, below are our top posts from last month:

The B2B Sales Consultant's Passive Aggressive Guide to Flying

I understand a passive aggressive approach is not the best way to deal with people and resolve conflict; however, due to the short duration of most flights an indirect approach is often a better way to deal with some of these folks.

Many B2B Salespeople End Up in the Phone Call Hall of Shame: Avoid it!

A little preparation—tied to think, feel and do—goes a long way and increases the likelihood of setting an appointment. Try this process before picking up the phone—the people on the other end of the call will be glad you did! 

Five-Minute Communication Strategy for B2B Sales Training Firms

Ongoing communication with existing customers as well as other members of the consulting firm is often overlooked to the detriment of organizations.

B2B sales training with a focus on setting quality face-to-face appointments is in high demand these days. A key component tied to this concept is the definition of a quality face-to-face appointment. Here’s a handy guide to use that defines quality and not-so quality appointments:

6 Tips to Help B2B Salespeople Set More Quality Appointments 

October was a great month for The Center for Sales Strategy's Partner Program blog, and in case you're just tuning in, below are our top ten best partner posts from last month:

1. 5 Signs You Might be a B2B Sales Consultant Zombie

It is never too late to make the transformation from zombie to world-class—is today the day you start?

2. The Recurring Dream of a B2B Sales Training Consultant

In order to grow your B2B sales consulting business, you need to network with new business prospects AND your customers—B2B salespeople—need to learn this skill to improve their sales performance.

3. Engage a Sleepy Group With an Energizer: Juggling!

When conducting a multi-hour workshop it is always a good idea to add an activity—also known as a group energizer—to the event to the enhance engagement and energy level of the participants. 

September was a great month for The Center for Sales Strategy's Partner program blog, and in case you're just tuning in, below are our top ten best partner posts from last month:

1. Can B2B Salespeople Close More by Selling Less?

This flies in the face of traditional selling methods like the ABC—Always Be Closing—model. But the truth is, "always be closing" is no longer the way to close more sales.

2. What is the Manager’s Role When B2B Sales Training is Outsourced?

Outsourcing b2b sales training isn’t the entire solution—unless the manager’s purpose is simply to “check off that training box” and be able to say his people “are trained.”

3. 5 Reasons Your Customers Don't Think They Need B2B Sales Consultants

Here are five reasons why your customers or potential customers don’t think they need you, and how you can show them they do!

Happy Labor Day! We hope you're spending time with your friends and family this weekend, celebrating the unofficial end of summer. We certainly are!

August was a great month for The Center for Sales Strategy's Partner program blog, and in case you're just tuning in, below are our top ten posts from last month:

1. How to Grow Your B2B Sales Training Expertise

“Sales training is boring,” complains just about every salesperson ever. They're right.

2. 10 Song Titles to Use as the Foundation of a B2B Consulting Firm

This post explores building a solid foundation for your firm using song titles—enjoy the tunes and the advice!

Click the images or the links to go to the individual blog posts.

B2B Sales Consultants and Trainers are busy, there's no doubt about that. You're traveling more, spending face-to-face time with customers (which is a good thing!), and you're rarely in the office, wherever that is.

The internet is home to many, many great resources, applications and tricks of the trade. Sales consultants who make use of these resources are able to save themselves headaches, execute faster and have everything at their fingertips. Executing faster and better directly translates into better performance for your portfolio and for your firm.

Be on top of your game by using these 7 essential resources used by B2B sales consultants who are in-the-know.

Dropbox

Dropbox is an “in the cloud” storage drive, where you can save any file type, exactly like on your own computer. Free accounts come with 3 gigabytes of storage, which can be easily upgraded to more for a fee. There are two different ways to upload files into Dropbox. The first is to log in to your account and click “upload,” where you can upload whole folders at once, or single or multiple individual files. The second way is to add a Dropbox onto the desktop of your computer. Using this method, you can access files for download by clicking on the box, or you can drag and drop files to the box on your desktop and they will sync automatically.

You can share files and folders with others on Dropbox, allowing you to send the huge presentation file with the videos to your client, or to receive the zipped folder with all of your product catalogues.  The next time you find yourself wishing you had that file on your tablet, wanting to share something with the potential client you just met at the bar, Dropbox has you covered.

Price: Free

Basecamp

Basecamp is an online project management tool, which comes with a free sixty day trial. Most project management tools are software-based, requiring expensive licenses and installation on each of the devices you want to utilize. Basecamp skips that part and is hosted in the cloud, allowing you to grant access to any or all of your team members, or clients. You can create to-do lists, upload files of all different types (including CAD files), add dates, communicate in forums or comment on files, assign tasks and view a Gantt style calendar. Individuals can have tasks assigned, and it also provides a forum for real-time feedback.