9 out of 10 sales calls are going to end up in outright rejection or at least an entry pass into the valley of despair with such heartwarming comments like, “We need to discuss this internally…for a while”, or even after you’ve used all of your considerable closing skills to get a commitment, the response continues to be, “We’re still kicking this around, I'll call you in the next couple of weeks”.
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, Sales quota, sales training
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
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
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
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
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
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
Back in Vermont for the long weekend and find myself-as usual-trying to balance my time with the seasonal rhythms of the long list of “Things to Do Before The Snow” hanging in the workshop with the necessity of taking quiet time to do real work that just can’t be squeezed into the frentic workweek. No complaints here since it is what it is, and, quite frankly, I enjoy the pace plus I have the privilige of working and playing in the mountains of Vermont and on the beach in NH. By the way, an interesting factoid is that Vermont used to be seaside property-500 million years ago-and the acclaimed Vermont marble is, in fact, created from miles of compacted seashells squeezed up from sea floor as the continents pushed toward one another over those millenia.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales effectiveness, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, leadership
