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.

1. 7 Warning Signs Your Company Needs CRM Software — HubSpot

If you're currently evaluating whether to commit to using a CRM, look for these seven warning signs that may indicate you need one.

The traditional ABCs of selling were "always be closing." Coffee was only for closers, and closing was a single, major event. The concept of "always be closing" is valid in that it’s important to always be moving the sale forward.

Too Many Pending Lists Give No Indication of the Last Move Forward

Before Google, LinkedIn, or social selling, Steve Marx, founder of The Center for Sales Strategy, taught that closing is a series of small yeses leading to the ultimate yes that confirms the sale.

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.

1. How To Write To-Do Lists That Make You Happier At Work — Fast Company

A sense of purpose brings happiness in your work, and a well-written to-do list can help impart it. A big part of seeing your job as a calling is recognizing the significant contributions you make over the days, weeks, and months that make up your career. So your to-do list should ideally make that easier to see, not harder. Here's how to create a better to-do list.

After spending over a decade helping sales organizations select highly talented employees and coaching those salespeople and sales managers to turn talent into performance, I have discovered what I believe are two undisputable truths:

• A shockingly high number of people are not engaged at work.
• Talented people who leave their jobs usually point to their manager as the problem.

The latest numbers from Gallup tell us that 70% of our employees are disengaged in their jobs and a recent study by SAP and Oxford Economics revealed that one in five of our top performers are likely to leave their jobs in the next six months!

This means it’s not enough to hire highly talented people into your organization and it’s not even enough to put them in the right positions so they can effectively use their talents (although both of these things are critical!).

Once hired, these talented people need much more from their manager in order to consistently feel engaged and fully realize their potential.

So what can you do to increase employee retention and maximize the performance of your people?

Today we have a guest post by Mikita Mikado. Mikita is the Co-Founder & CEO of PandaDoc, a platform helping sales teams create, deliver, and track intelligent sales content to close deals faster. To learn more about simplifying your sales documents, connect with Mikita and the PandaDoc team on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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.

1. Why It’s Important to Update Your CRM During Lead Nurturing — Business 2 Community

Many salespeople are pretty good at entering new prospects into the CRM. But it's important to keep the CRM updated throughout the lead nurturing process. This article explains why.

We have all been there. The manager announces a new hire and someone says, “but they’re so YOUNG!” Or “Really?! They look like they’re 12!” As people are staying in the workforce longer, it's easy to have 30, 40, even 50 years separating Junior AEs from seasoned salespeople. So the question is, how can you get your team to all just get along?

Developing revenue for nonprofit organizations can be a challenge for many reasons. One of the main reasons is finding potential donors and sponsors who resemble your best partners and meet the following criteria:

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.

1. 6 Secrets to Getting People to Say Yes — Inc.

Robert Cialdini, the author of the classic Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, has released a new book with new insights into the art of winning people over. He talks about his insights in this video interview.

Cause Marketing is a buzzword bantered about by many in the nonprofit sector. To some, the concept is a proven method to help organizations solve business problems via an association with a worthwhile cause. To others, it is merely a tactic designed to pitch and sell sponsorships to nonprofit events and initiatives.