Barely at sunrise this morning, I took a walk on the beach before setting off for the office. I needed to clear my head from yesterday’s tough deal and a big cancellation which arrived in an unexpected email last night at 11. More of a reschedule than a cancellation, but the impact is the same-nothing happening this month.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, 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, sales training, marketing management
When I graduated from BC and was facing the gloom and rigors of graduate school, I came up with what I thought was a much better idea, and to the great consternation of my father, joined the Peace Corps, landing six months later in Moshi, Tanzania at the base of Kilimanjaro. Fluent in Swahili, I taught English and had what became a life changing experience. During the next couple of years, I taught, built libraries, inoculated hundreds of people, and as a group, we changed the lives of countless people. Would heartily recommend the Peace Corps to anyone!
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, marketing effectiveness, Sales quota, sales training
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
No, it's not hunting season in Vermont. That's in the fall last I looked, and I'm pretty sure about that since it's one of the few times of year that I don't venture too far into the woods. Largely because there are 21,000 guys out there every day stumbling around in clothes fashioned on the theme of "Mr. Deliverance goes to Wal-Mart" all with guns and live ammunition. Scares me just to think about it.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, sales management training, sales optomization, Sales quota, sales training, sales optimication, The Competitive Edge
With 28 more days in the year to actually close deals, if you’re having trouble getting to Mr/Ms Decision Maker, take a hard look at the messaging that you’ve been using. Think about all of those voicemails, emails, and marketing messages that you’ve been hitting the Decision Maker with, and ask yourself the simple, objective question of … “So What?” If you were sitting in their seat, is the messaging that you’re hearing definitive in terms of the actual value that your product or service is going to provide them when they buy? Or is it just a list of cuter, quicker, smaller, cheaper features.
Tags: sales productivity, sales, sales management, selling, sales optomization, Sales quota
