It certainly applied to the Celtics before last night’s devastating loss to the Heat, and it certainly applies to those sales professionals who are struggling half way through the quarter with not enough points yet on the board. Did the Celtics get outplayed by the Heat the holy trinity of LeBron, Wade and Bosh? Sure, but the die was cast going into the game last night. Tough enough that the Celtics were being outplayed throughout the series by the Miami Machine. Tougher still was the fact that the Celtics looked and acted like the old men that they are. Add to all of that the fact that they were up against the wall, crushed by their prior losses and facing an enormous hill to climb. Take all of this into the equation, throw in superb young athletes, and it was impossible to survive.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, marketing effectiveness, Sales quota, sales training, management
End of one sales month, and the beginning of another. Just a turn of the page in the digital sales book, but a wakeup to the fact that the quarter is one third over and rapidly racing towards the end of June. I actually love the 2nd quarter since it still retains all of the excitement and energy of the new year kickoff...way back in January... plus we now have four months of real customer experience under our belts. Better to update sales plans and tweak selling tactics for the balance of the year.
Tags: sales productivity, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, management, business tools, business planning, business coaching, sales optimication
Sales forecasting is always a tough requirement. After all, you’re forecasting the future, and, almost by definition, it’s going to be wrong. It’s merely a question of the degree of wrongness, which becomes the much vaulted new metric of “forecast accuracy”. When you’re in sales, it’s part of the badge, and anyone who complains that “it’s tough to forecast the future” should start looking for a job on the shipping dock.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales tools, improved sales management, sales management training, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales optimication, economic stimulus
Bumped into Chris Sheehan, one of the two Managing Directors at Common Angels, the other day, and we quickly got into a discussion about inside sales, and did I know of a good manager for one of his portfolio companies. Off the top of my head, no one came to mind, (Qualified Lead Opportunity to anyone reading this to ping me), but then I hesitated since I'm not sure that the terms "inside sales/outside sales" apply any longer, and when they do apply, they exist with very different meanings today from the context in which they historically (three to five years ago) had been used.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity
Boston is just a terrific city. Small, easy to walk around, and one of the greatest sports towns in America. The Patriots are either the Super Bowl Champs...or not; the Celtics are always the leaders and the Sox, well, that's another story given this year's opening season.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, sales training, management, leadership, marketing management
As a Professor of Marketing at Tufts, (and just maybe someone who think that he knows something about sales effectiveness and optimization),I've felt like the Cobbler's Kid for about a year now.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, Sales quota, sales training, business planning, marketing management
Often times bringing one’s manager into a sales situation late in the funnel process produces positives results. A different perspective. A new set of eyes…and ears.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales effectiveness, selling, improved sales management, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, small business management
It’s bad enough that we need to listen to the politicians attack one another and tell us all of the negatives that their opponents are doing/have done. What I don’t want to hear is whining and complaining from underperforming salespeople in the 4th quarter about “how tough it is out there”, or that “our prices are too high”.
Tags: sales productivity, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, improved sales management, Sales quota
Just got back from a Saturday afternoon reading on the beach and was, once again, struck by the rapid change in just one week in almost everything. Just before I succumbed to the soft sounds of the surf and the 75 degree temps which somehow forced me to stretch out on the sand and take a short nap, I noticed that the evidence of change was everywhere.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training
Gone (and buried, hopefully) are the days of running back to your desk after a trade show with a hand full of business cards and sitting down to make semi-cold calls and then entering basic data into either ACT or Goldmine. Both good basic sales automation tools- back in the day-when the alternative was an over-stuffed Rolodex spilling out hundreds of cards in all shapes and colors with coded notes scribbled everywhere that sometimes only the CIA could interpret.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales effectiveness, improved sales management, Sales quota, sales training
