The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

It is not an easy task to set a needs analysis meeting with a new business prospect. Think about all the things you must do to earn the meeting...

Here’s a typical scenario:

• Identify prospects.
• Qualify and select the best prospects.
• Develop a valid business reason.
• Professionally and persistently pursue the prospect.
• Connect and set the meeting.

Some prospects take even more time and energy than the scenario listed above. The last thing you want to do is show up to the meeting unprepared! 

I read a recent study that shared many interesting things about music and how much it does for humans. Some things noted in the study are that music:

• Enhances intelligence, learning and IQ
• Improves memory performance
• Improves concentration and attention
• Helps work productivity
• Helps fight fatigue
• Improves mood

Whether you're motivating yourself or your sales team, I think anyone in sales would like a little bit of all of those. So with that said, I've collected a list of songs from our team and compiled a list of motivational songs to help you boost your sales productivity! 

It seems like every sales manager I have talked to lately wants to talk about activity and how to enforce minimum activity expectations. It took a few of these conversations before a simple truth became obvious to me: Pipeline is way more important than activity.

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

Recently, I shared a blog post called 10 Social Media Best Practices for Salespeople, and I wanted to expand on a few of them specifically related to how you can put these best practices into play on LinkedIn. I’ve gathered some specific examples from our team of experts, so check out the previous post here, then read on for actionable steps you can take in one hour or less of your time, to enhance your LinkedIn social selling efforts.

"If you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business!"
-Marcus Lemonis 

My friend (and Managing Partner at The Center for Sales Strategy), Matt Sunshine, got me into the CNBC television program, The Profit. And I am absolutely addicted to it. And I mean addicted… I might have just finished watching 6 hours of the program this weekend. 

And you should be watching it, too!

Marcus Lemonis is the CEO of Camping World, and he uses his money to invest in struggling businesses that he features on his show. The stories are exciting, compelling, and full of drama! But, that's not why you should be watching the program.

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

It’s Memorial Day. A day to remember those who gave everything for us. For our country. For our freedom. Because of that, we’re able to celebrate with family, friends, and great food, as we kick off the summer season.