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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

The Link Between Healthy Habits and Healthy Pipelines

The Link Between Healthy Habits and Healthy Pipelines

Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Mark Cuban — all agree that one habit is a key ingredient to success.

Practicing good health habits by eating right and exercising each day is what these billionaires, and 21 others, agree helped create the foundation for their businesses and financial success. Your habits and routines determine your success and your future. In order to see the true benefits of any effort, you must be disciplined and consistent.

The same holds true when developing new business. It takes that same effort and discipline to consistently create a healthy sales pipeline.

Topics: business development Sales prospecting

BBQ and Business Acumen

BBQ and business acumen

BBQ and business acumen.

Traditionally, those two items don't go together, but for this story, one is the key to the other.

I started in sales in 1993, straight out of college. I didn't have a lot of work or life experiences that I could draw from as I worked with business owners helping them to improve their businesses' performance.

I did my best reading the Wall Street Journal, the business section of the local paper, and reading the latest business books to help grow my knowledge of business.

Topics: business development business acumen

Develop More New Business in 10 Minutes

Develop More New Business in 10 Minutes-1


From a management perspective, a properly deployed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) allows you to assign and reassign sales goals to your sales team, transfer responsibilities, and enhance the client and sales rep experience.

However, many organizations and sales teams are quick to dismiss CRM software’s effectiveness, and many stop using it for several reasons. Merely investing in a CRM solution will not help your business grow until your sales team effectively uses its functionalities.

Below is an example of a 10-minute strategy that will help put into perspective the effectiveness and value of the right CRM system.

Topics: business development CRM sales enablement

10 Podcasts to Help Build Your Business Acumen

10 Podcasts to Help Build Your Business AcumenMany clients at The Center for Sales Strategy are essentially in the business of helping companies grow their business. 

In order to do that effectively, we teach salespeople how to think like a business owner. Thinking like a business owner takes the focus off what you sell (your products) and puts your focus on how to help your client or prospect achieve their desired business results. 

The better a salesperson becomes at thinking like a business owner, the better they will be at asking questions, establishing credibility, and ultimately becoming trusted and valued.

There are endless amounts of podcasts out there on business development and new ones being released daily. This article isn’t about all the great business podcasts hitting the market, but rather a handful of the best podcasts that we feel will help salespeople improve their business acumen and encourage salespeople to help their clients and prospects grow their business.

Topics: business development podcasts COVID19 Resources

2019 Media Sales Report - What 95% of Sellers Think About Training and Development

Training and Development

All great sales managers will tell you that training and development are the cornerstones for building an exceptional sales team. The sales industry constantly changes and evolves as prospects learn and alter tactics to deal with enthusiastic salespeople. And, every salesperson needs to learn how to adapt to these changes and continue to grow in their field of knowledge.

This is why sales managers and salespeople share common ground when it comes to learning and developing new skills, but as the 2019 Media Sales Report found, there’s still room for improvement when it comes to performance.

Topics: business development sales training state of media sales media sales report

Three Steps to Generating Quality Case Studies

case_study-1.jpg

The need for quality case studies has never been greater than it is right now. B2B salespeople are encountering more competition than ever before, and they are working harder to earn the business and attention from both their prospects and their current clients. There’s a lot of information out there online, and businesses are increasingly conducting their own research and independently garnering information that allows them to evaluate your products and services. 

Topics: business development case studies Sales

Your Best Decision After You Lose a Customer or Client in B2B Sales

describe the imageAnyone who’s ever participated in sports, coached sports, or watched sports knows the object of the game is to win! We keep score throughout the game, because when the game is over we want to know who played the best and who deserves to be crowned the winner!  Salespeople in B2B sales are pretty much the same. They keep score by evaluating their new business conversion rates, by regularly analyzing their budget vs. goal numbers, by measuring renewals, and by consistently making sure they’re meeting their customer’s goals and ROI. When all of these things are positive… they consider that a win.  

Topics: business development sales performance Sales

Lessons from the 4th of July: Victories Deserve Celebrations!

describe the imageDuring the American Revolution, July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved and signed by the Second Continental Congress setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom with the resolution of independence from Great Britain. Two days prior, John Adams wrote these words to his wife Abigail:

Topics: business development holiday Sales

A Tough Question Every B2B Salesperson Should Ask Themselves

a tough question every salesperson should ask themselvesHow’s your “Surprise/Enterprise” ratio these days? When you get right down to it, there are only two types of new business you can write as a b2b salesperson:
  1. Surprise Business! – This is new business that comes your way because of your company’s great reputation, your connections in the community, or simply “being in the right place at the right time.”
  2. Enterprise Business! – This is new business that you developed from scratch, business that would not have existed anywhere but for your efforts. These are prospects you specifically selected and then worked hard to get in front of. Once in front of these prospects, you nailed an important assignment during your needs analysis meeting, which led to the development of a tailored solution.

We all work hard and deserve a few surprises over the year, but if we don't have some enterprise accomplishments too, are we really selling?


Topics: business development sales strategy Sales

Happy Birthday! Today, the Recovery Turned Four Years Old

happy birthday recoveryIf you’re in sales, it is not unusual to run into people (prospects) who tend to focus on the negative. In fact, some of us still run into people who consider the economy to be on the shaky side… as if we are still in the grips of the Great Recession. 

Topics: business development setting expectations Sales