The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Many sellers struggle to develop new customers. Often this has less to do with the seller’s ability to sell, and more to do with the seller’s ability to select quality prospects.

Some prospects are better than others, and qualifying them will help determine which of the prospects should be pursued and which prospects should not.

As you search for ideal prospects (future key accounts), use the following criteria to determine which current clients have the greatest potential for growth and deserve the most time and attention.

Some people are skilled at closing a sale. It's easy for them to build rapport with customers, gather information, pitch a product or service, and then close the sale. Others excel only in connecting with prospects and find it incredibly hard to present a product or close the sale.

Utilizing a sales process can help salespeople become better at what they do. In this article, we cover the basics of the sales process and teach you how to improve sales performance.

At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), our mission and reason for being is to Turn Talent into Performance. Talent is foundational, but it’s not the only element.

It starts with talent, but you must also develop. After you’ve selected the person, you must commit to growing and developing them if you really want to turn talent into performance.

How do you grow someone?

When you focus on a natural strength, magic happens. They say that when you spend time practicing and honing a strength you have, you can grow in that area by as much as 10xs!

Investing that same effort in an area that’s not a natural strength pays little return.

Imagine the improvement that a salesperson could see if they had the innate ability to ask probing questions and uncover meaningful information—and then spent time practicing and developing that ability! The potential would be huge!

But what if they were too busy to spend any directed time or energy developing that talent? Or even worse, what if they were simply unaware of their incredible potential for growth? That is a wasted opportunity that keeps us awake at night.

Even your best sales reps aren’t immune to sales performance gaps.

There are common gaps like not following the sales process, poor listening skills, not properly preparing for calls, not identifying valid business reasons (VBR) early in the process… the list continues.

However, one of the most common sales performance gaps that you need to close in order to boost revenue is right at the very beginning of the sales process. Do you know what it is?

Vertical targeting is one of the most effective ways to capture a focused, intent-driven audience. You can use specific messaging tailored for that segment and curate the content to cater to your target market’s unique needs and interests.

In this episode of Improving Sales Performance, John Matthews, President and CEO of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., shares his insight on targeting a vertical market to improve an organization's sales performance.

It’s no secret time management is one of the highest requirements for succeeding in sales. Consistent questions heard within the industry are, “What are some ways I can improve my time management?” and “How can I be more efficient?”

There are a multitude of strategies to help us be more productive, but they can be difficult to adopt because they force us to go against routines we’ve had for years. If you struggle with habit-changing productivity tips, such as going to bed with an empty inbox, check out this system that works for many.

One of the leading indicators for sales success is to look at the number of appointments that a salesperson has each week. (This is not the only leading indicator that you should be tracking, but it is one of them.)

The idea is that if a salesperson has a significant amount of appointments each week which involve finding needs, getting assignments, presenting solutions, or delivering a proposal, that this quality sales activity will lead to good solid revenue performance.  

It's fair to say that everyone in sales or in sales management would agree with this, but here's the flaw — many salespeople are confusing "I'll follow up with you next week" with "I have an appointment."

To be clear, "I’ll follow up with you next week," does not mean you have an appointment.

In Season 2 of Improving Sales Performance Series, we’ve focused on the data and analysis of the 2020 Media Sales Report.

In this episode, Dalena Pajares, Dean Moothart, and Kurt Sima of The Center for Sales Strategy and LeadG2 join Matt Sunshine as they discuss the data from the Media Sales Report surrounding the analysis of the sales process and setting appointments section.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.

Throughout season 2 of the Improving Sales Performance Series, we’ve focused on the data and analysis of the 2020 Media Sales Report.

In this episode, John Henley, Managing Partner at The Center for Sales Strategy, and Greg Giersch, Vice President of Client Experience at The Center for Sales Strategy, join Matt Sunshine to discuss the data from the Media Sales Report surrounding the analysis of the sales training and development data.

You can stream it now to hear their insight, advice, and initial thoughts after analyzing the data that was just published. Or keep reading for a brief overview.