Serving up the ideal sales person for your team to increase sales performance is much like creating the ultimate masterpiece in the kitchen. Like a culinary chef, you must know the significance of each ingredient you are using, meticulously measure each one, and mix them together perfectly to prepare dishes that meet everyone’s needs. If one significant ingredient is missing, it can destroy the entire meal and leave everyone wanting more. Hiring sales people and coaching them is much like preparing your favorite dish.
The 99th Tour de France cycling race begins in just a few days. The Tour de France is arguably one of the toughest endurance contests that exists today. The quick facts: it includes 21 days of racing over a 23 day period of time, and it will cover 2100 miles with some of the most amazing uphill climbs on the planet. Twenty two teams, each with nine riders, will start the race with the plan to come out victorious. If the Tour were all about business, you could easily equate the winning of the Tour de France to that of closing a mega target account at mega key account level. So, let's look a few of the sales strategies we can take away from the Tour de France.
It's the official kick off to summer, which means it’s time to kick back and relax with a good book. You wanted to read about sales and marketing in your down time, right? We asked some of the staff at The Center for Sales Strategy for their top selections:
Cold calling can be an inefficient use of a sales person’s time and talent. As a manager, I want sales people spending the majority of their time on activities that are directly tied to revenue. It’s important for our sales people to be in front of clients and prospects helping to address business challenges—which is why we at Cox Media Group Louisville recently launched an 
What do a great party hostess and a great manager have in common? They take ownership of the outcome. Whether you are planning an amazing party or ramping up a new sales person, there are similar strategies you can follow to make sure everyone is engaged, and everything runs smoothly.
If you’re like me, you can't help yourself when it comes to a Top 10 List. I don't know what it is about a list—let alone a Top 10 List—but every time I see one, I feel compelled to pay attention. The following will link you to five Top 10 Lists that are worth your time.
Good sales people and sales managers like to talk about their sales performance, and it’s this time of year that many sales organizations stop to honor those who had the best year as the calendar starts a fresh countdown. I support that idea and have a suggestion to add. What if every salesperson in your organization picked one client who had a good 2011 and asked that client to share two things:
Honestly, that is not something that ever came out of my mouth… nor did it ever come to mind. When I was a kid I wanted to be a chef because I loved to cook and eat. I wanted to be a Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2. I wanted to be a Madonna (before she did all the weird stuff). After watching A Few Good Men, I wanted to be a lawyer, and for a brief moment, I worked at Express and thought I wanted to be a fashion merchandiser. Why didn’t I dream of becoming a sales person or better said, an expert in sales strategy?
In the wake of the untimely passing of Steve Jobs, plenty of people have written about their own experiences dealing with the legendary bigger-than-life persona that was Jobs. Could one of those articles actually offer sales advice? You bet. I found 
