The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Staying organized is one of the keys to productivity. If we're going to accomplish our important goals, we need to have a method for knowing what our priorities are and organizing our to-do list around them. 

By now, you have probably heard about Marie Kondo’s tiny turquoise book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It has been published in more than 30 countries, and has spent the last 77 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. During that time, Kondo has launched a companion book, Spark Joy, which has joined her first book on the best seller list 15 weeks ago.

Perhaps you’ve read the books — or even been inspired to start your own decluttering binge! 

There is a certain freshness and energy that comes from sweeping away the unnecessary and unused clutter to reveal the meaningful, important items in your home and your life. The feeling of “a place for everything, and everything in it’s place,” is a reward unto itself, as so many have discovered through Kondo’s KonMari Method.

It's Friday, and it's time for us to share what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. Focus on Keeping Up with Your Customers, Not Your Competitors — HBR

It's tempting to focus on what your strongest competitors are doing. After all, you're competing with them! But too often, companies focus on the competition when they should be focusing on their customers. How can you keep up with your customers? You have to start thinking like them. This article shows you how.

Thanks to technology that enables people to learn just about anything in a matter of seconds, the buying process has become more personal. Thanks to the fact that every online buying experience is customized to the individual, people are starting to expect the B2B buying experience to follow suit.

A salesperson who hasn’t done their research and isn’t coming to the first appointment with very specific ideas on how to provide relevant value to a prospect isn’t going to make a sale.

We've come to another Friday, and we hope you've had a good week! It's time for us to share what we've been reading online this week. Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. Helping Buyers See Value — Salesforce

Stories are naturally visual, and allow you to help prospects see themselves in successful outcomes based on how you position what you deliver. The power here is that rather than “selling” you're sharing experiences of other similar scenarios, and helping them see the possibilities. This article shows how you can use stories to help buyers see value.

I am often asked by clients, what is new in media sales? What do you have that is new? What is the new and improved way to sell? 

I’m a mom. A lot of you are moms and dads as well. I often see parallels between “managing” my family and managing a team of salespeople. I noticed something the other day that I think I’ve noticed before, but hadn't made the association back to managing a team of salespeople until that moment.

Here we are at the end of another week! It's Friday, and it's time for us to share what we've been reading online this week. Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. Stop! Read This Before You Send Another Cold Email! — SalesForce

When you send cold emails, you’re a stranger to your audience. They don’t know anything about your company and how awesome it is, nor do they care. If you want to connect with them and receive a response, you have to tap into their emotions, and play on their existing fears and desires. These three steps will help you start many more warm conversations through cold email.

We're at the end of another week! It's Friday, and it's time for us to share what we've been reading online this week. Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. When Was the Last Time You Asked, “Why Are We Doing It This Way?” — HBR

When stakes are high, it can be difficult for leaders to pause before acting. We all tend to take the safe route of doing things the way we've always done them. Here’s some good advice for how to give yourself time to reflect and lead with questions, to make sure you're taking the best route, not just the one most familiar.