sales managers

Creating Urgency in Sales

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Selling is the process of uncovering urgency, and defining it, in the mind of your customer. The more momentum you generate early on in the process, the greater the probability that you’ll make a sale.

Sales Tip: Keep Focused on Customer Needs

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In professional selling, you can lose credibility when you present a capability that the customer doesn’t need. So the simple answer at this step of the buying process is to first discuss the problems your capability solves. If the customer is unconcerned about some types of problems, you can then adjust your sales process to … Read full article

Winning Over a Complex Buying Team Takes Skill

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Winning a complex sale is difficult. Complex sales are bigger-ticket sales, and because your competition wants them as much as you do, success takes more than simple desire and a strong will. Winning also takes skill, the ability to separate yourself from the pack and make a difference for your customer. Complex sales are also … Read full article

When the Sales Negotiation Really Begins

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Preparation is important, but it’s not everything. You also need to understand how to work effectively during the heat of the moment when you are confronted with a skilled negotiator. Specifically, you should understand the guidelines for effective negotiations and conduct your activities in accordance with them—listening for your customer’s interests, creating innovative win/win alternatives, … Read full article

Why Sales Training Initiatives Often Fail

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Companies interested in increasing the professionalism and productivity of their sales force often select a sales training program to solve this need. This decision, however, places the cart before the horse. The success of a company’s sales training initiative is absolutely affected, both positively and negatively, by the company’s sales managers’ ability and commitment to … Read full article

How to Turn Around a Lagging Sales Team

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Is your sales team lagging well behind where they should be? You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “success breeds success.” Unfortunately, the reverse is also true: failure can breed failure. Here are some specifics about how you can turn around a lagging sales team. Even if your team is doing fairly well, you’re bound to … Read full article

Sales Proposals

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Webster’s defines the word solution as “the answer to a problem.” So why is it that so many sales organizations fervently believe that they are the “preferred solutions provider” in their marketplace, but their sales proposal document makes no mention whatsoever of the customer’s problems and issues? How can we call ourselves solutions providers if … Read full article

Sales Results

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Sales Results = What you do? + How you do it? First, let’s look at how you sell relates to the care you show the customer during the sales cycle.  Since customer care is now a commodity, how you do things is no longer a source of differentiation.  That leaves what you do on each … Read full article

Getting in Sync With Your Customer

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I have a book published by Harvard Business Review titled Business Classics: Fifteen Key Concepts for Managerial Success.  The book contains the 15 articles in HBR’s history that have sold the most reprints.  One article, published in 1964, was titled, “What Makes a Good Salesman,” by David Mayer and Herbert Greenberg.  The author’s research found … Read full article

Customer’s “buy – learning” Process

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In my book, “Getting Into Your Customer’s Head, I describe the “buy-learning” process customers go through when making an organizational buying decision. But don’t for a minute think that your customer is doing a good job of buying. According to studies referenced in the leadership book, For Your Improvement: A Guide for Development and Coaching, … Read full article