Nothing’s easy. Sometimes, I will hear in a sales meeting..."but it's simple", or, "it's just basic". My attitude when I hear this type of thing is "Well, if it were so simple, then why are we talking about it?" My frustration with "It's simple" goes right along with the comment from one's boss that often begins with..."It will only take a minute.", which absolutely never...takes a minute.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, sales training, sales plans
http://www.stratton.comFirst, and most importantly, a very sincere wish for a wonderful, healthy and prosperous 2012.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans
We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s just like riding a bike; it always comes right back to you”, and, in fact, that was pretty much it last Saturday as I strapped on my new Rome snowboard (an unabashed plug since I am one of the directors of this great company), and headed down the slopes at Stratton (another unabashed plug for a great group of men and women who run the place). No matter the fact that I’ve been skiing or riding ever since I was 4, and it didn’t make any difference that I’ve gone down that particular trail, my favorite on the hill, literally thousands of time, there’s always a mixture of exhilaration, fear and trepidation, and just old fashioned excitement on the first day out in the season. The first run was more than chunky both on the slope and in my head, but by the end of the second run, I had quickly eased back into a somewhat natural rhythm of turns, breathing more slowly and working through the differences in the new board.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, HubSpot Tips
With just about 15 selling days left in the year, closing deals now all comes down to the sales warriors who have the most energy, who are the best organized, who have the best value propositions and, most importantly, are the best closers. The pressure’s on, and everyone’s feeling it.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training
I was deep in my Vermont woodlot this past weekend picking up sticks. Low 30’s, crisp and eerily quiet. Not the smartest thing that I ever did considering Saturday was the start of deer hunting season, but details are details, and time is quickly running out. All it takes now is one deep snowstorm, and the kindling will continue to stay where it has rested all summer. Most of the wood tent has been filled by Tom the Wood Guy, but I still need to haul in a couple of cords I stacked in the woods last spring, and the weather looks like it will hold until Thanksgiving. Hopefully finish this coming weekend.
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, leadership, marketing management
“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”
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 quota, sales training
Monday was our second day without power, heat, running water and that most vital of all utilities, access to salesforce.com to check on my sales activities... Huddled around the fireplace with the consistent hiss of Coleman lanterns casting a yellow glow over the room, we toughed it out with only limited whining…mostly on my part. Every couple of years, since we live in Vermont and New Hampshire, we revisit what it’s like to endure these multi-day experiences without power, instant communication, and the basics of heat and plumbing. And the bottom line is that it’s a bit inconvenient for sure, but nothing like what my great-grandfather, Horace, growing up in Poultney, Vermont, must have experienced his entire life.
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, Sales quota, sales training
It’s the Tween Season in Vermont. It’s neither foliage nor a lot of snow...yet, so it must be “‘tween huntin’ and winta’” With little this year in the way of foliage due to the wet summer and Irene, most of Vermont is now painted in various shades of just plain old dull brown. It’s that time of year that the highly celebrated natural beauty of Vermont becomes muted as every small community prepares itself for the coming of winter. It’s also that time of year when the hundreds of small contractors, which are the real backbone of Vermont’s economy, start feeling just a bit pressured when they receive those calls from their winter homeowner- customers asking how the new deck or the new kitchen cabinets look, when in fact, they still have the lumber in the back of their pickups.
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, business coaching
With 50 days (which is being generous, so do your own math) left in the quarter, there's not much time for changing out teams, re-planning key account plans or totally new game plans. This is 50 days of classic blocking and tackling as you move down the field toward the goal line. Having said that, these last 50 days left in the season are also going to need to be played more like soccer than football. There’s no bye time like the Patriots have this week. There’s no ability to swap out teams and bring in other players. Clearly no time for time outs. This is just constant forward motion activity, yard by yard if not inch by inch, and all of that activity absolutely needs to be at full speed.
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, sales training
Last weekend at this time found me in Vermont deep in shoveling the debris and dirt left from the floods and repairing the ATV trails in my woodlot. Filling one five gallon bucket at a time, hauling them to the tractor, driving into the woods and filling the holes in the trails, inches at a time, reminded me again of how lucky I am to have my day job which, although complex and pressure-driven, as my friend Bernie Gordon, CEO of Analogic, used to repeatedly tell me “doesn’t involve any heavy lifting.”
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales optimication
