Over the decades that I’ve been involved in sales, I’ve worked with tens of thousands of salespeople. Certain negative tendencies – mistakes that salespeople make – keep surfacing. Here are my top five. See to what degree you (or your sales force) may be guilty of them….
Did you enjoy what you had for dinner last night? You are probably wondering what that question has to do with sales. Bear with me a moment, and answer the question. Now, pause a moment, and think about what you did when you read that question. Your mind probably flashed back to yesterday evening, and…
No one likes price increases, but they are a fact of life. As a professional salesperson, you can manage this process with excellence or you can allow it to upset you and your customers. Implement these seven strategies and you will handle the inevitable price increase with finesse and confidence.
I was in the midst of a sales slump when my sales manager offered to have lunch with me and discuss the situation. Afterwards, I was back on track to becoming my company’s top salesman in the nation. What made the difference in my performance was the skillful intervention of an astute and professional sales…
What’s an account profile form? An account profile form isa form full of questions, or more precisely, spaces for the answers to questions. The questions are all about one of your accounts, or one of the individuals within that account. The form is the document on which you store that useful information. A well-designed, systematically…
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, dictates that for most salespeople, 20% of their customers produce 80% of their revenue. If that is true for you, it means that losing one of your good accounts to the competition can be devastating to your business. But losing a good account impacts your business…
What is it that empowers some people to change smoothly and effortlessly, while getting others to modify their behavior seems like moving a mountain? It is something that is becoming increasingly rare — a motivating sense of personal responsibility. That is, a deep and imbiding belief that one is responsible for one’s own behavior as…
No matter how clever the marketing program, how creative the advertising, or how friendly the customer service reps, if you mishandle the sales call, everything else is a waste. Mishandle the sales call and you may lose a customer for years. Handle it correctly and you’ll take the first step toward a lifetime relationship.
That’s right. Serving, not selling. I know you are concerned with sales. It’s easy to determine how well your people are selling to your customers. That’s what sales reports are for. But your customers are more concerned with how well they are being served by your salespeople. Why is that important? Keep reading….
How can I get greater productivity out of my salespeople? In one form or another, that’s a question every owner and sales manager ponders regularly. As a sales trainer and consultant, it is the basic question that I confront. And it is the underlying question behind every attempt to train salespeople. Investing in training and…
