The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Our founder, Steve Marx, used to say that things should be no longer than they need to be, but also no shorter. Applying that to the sales process, it should take no longer than it needs to be effective, but also no shorter.

In the sales process, some prospects are traveling toward you; others are traveling away. It would seem that we should just pitch and close the ones that are traveling quickly toward us, right?

Steve’s advice would be that it should take no longer and no shorter than we need to accomplish our objective. In sales, that’s achieving their business objectives.

Every company strives to maximize its sales as much as possible. To do that you need to have a strong and competent sales team and a smooth sales process.

Given the current state of the economic and financial landscape, companies are also looking for ways to cut costs. For this reason, optimizing the sales process has become even more important.

When doing so, you have to consider two major aspects. Will you do it internally or externally? If you’ve chosen the former, then continue reading.

As sales consultants, trainers, and coaches, we absolutely love it when the sales teams we work with shares successes they’ve had as a direct correlation to the advice, tips, and tactics we share. 

Our company culture encourages innovation and creativity, which allows us to discover new trends, and figure out what works and doesn't work so that we can share advice with our clients. Video is a tool and tactic that we've explored and had the opportunity to get creative with. 

If you're wondering how you can use video as part of your sales process, keep reading! 

As a sales manager, it’s important that you continually take new courses of action to help your team generate more sales.

Here are six practical methods you should consider.

Making a first impression with your potential clients is vital to getting ahead.

When you make that cold contact, you want to ensure that they'll want to buy from you. A part of this is using the right method to reach out to your contacts. Which is better, cold calls or sales emails?

In 2022, we're challenging you to reconsider the way you're doing business to improve your sales performance.

The sales process is constantly changing and it's changing more rapidly than ever, yet there's a generation of salespeople still selling like it was any year before 2009.

Also in the mix are sales managers not adept to the evolving sales world, and therefore, might struggle to lead their team to good sales results.

Inquiry is a powerful motivator. We use it to fuel conversations, problem-solve, and, ultimately, improve sales performance.

High-value questions are a driving force to much-needed mental shifts — especially in today’s environment. When your mindset changes, so does your behavior. As sales leaders, we can’t control market conditions, but we can influence a few things — like choices.

Below are five questions we challenge sales leaders to ask their salespeople every week if they want to improve sales performance, fill their funnel full of new prospects, and increase customer loyalty.

Have you ever stopped and wondered how many other salespeople are trying to get a meeting with the same prospect as you?

It’s a pretty overwhelming number when you think about it. Day-in and day-out, decision makers are being bombarded with voicemails, emails, drop-ins, and various other methods your competition is using to gain access.

In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s tough to cut through the clutter. Leading with a compelling insight that you can turn into a valid business reason (VBR) is essential for your prospect to want to connect with you.

If you’re in sales, there’s a good chance that you will soon close another deal.

But why? Why do clients buy what you have to sell, and then, why don’t they buy?

First, you need to follow a logical process; ours is the Sales Accelerator, but today we’re going to look to Ancient Greece and what Aristotle believed were four main causes of how things come to be. In this case, how your sales or lack of it came to be.