sales posts, articles, and infographics

Are You Selling to a Logo? Or Selling to a Human Being?

October 28, 2011 by Todd Schnick
with 61 views

Engaged in friendly, spirited banter with a business associate the other day. We had just returned from a trade show radio gig, and had 50 radio interviews with CEOs to edit. Naturally, we split the batch in half. And naturally, we each named and organized our respective batch of files differently. My associate? Named the files... [read more]

Where’s 'The Decisionmaker?'

October 24, 2011 by Dave Brock
with 34 views

That’s the $64K question for all sales people. Who’s the decision-maker and how do we get access to her? Conventional sales wisdom tells us to focus on the top, prowling the halls of the executive suite, trying to develop relationships with the CxO. Finding that decision-maker, persuading him that we have the right... [read more]

Increasing the Average Transaction Value: 'Customers Care About Value!'

September 10, 2011 by Dave Brock
with 132 views

Over the past few weeks, I’ve focused on various pipeline/funnel metrics that sales people should consider in assessing their own productivity. In the post, Ideal Pipeline Volume, I talked about Average Transaction Value as a key performance indicator. I want to dive into this more deeply. Just for a quick review,... [read more]

Why CRM Fails–And How To Fix It

September 5, 2011 by Mike Boysen
with 385 views

While software plays a role in CRM, research shows what many of us have known for a long time: software is not a solution. [read more]

Performance Management: Funnel Balance

September 3, 2011 by Dave Brock
with 44 views

Previously, I’ve written about Ideal Pipeline Volume, Flow/Velocity, and Sales Cycle. All are important to making sure you will make your numbers and perform as well as possible. Another related area to assess is Funnel Balance. Simply, Funnel Balance is having an appropriate distribution of opportunities at all stages of... [read more]

10 Ways Being Human Helps You In Business and Sales

June 1, 2011 by Todd Schnick
with 92 views

You will fail. [read more]

Being Helpful To Customers Must Be For Profit!

May 14, 2011 by Dave Brock
with 178 views

I write a lot about being customer-focused, about helping customers identify new opportunities, look at new ways of growing, assess new ways of running their businesses. I’ve long advocated being consultative, facilitating the customer buying process, and creating value in every interchange. A lot of the discussion focuses on “... [read more]

Can Customers be educated?

December 28, 2010 by Laurent Blondeau
with 834 views

I am a customer. You are. We are. But if we sometimes have unstoppable pulse for something to buy. And if it’s possible that’s probably because we learned HOW to buy…Think it’s no sense? I mean, there’s probably a path for us to learn how to make better shopping, You’re now wondering how we stand for this and where we come... [read more]

Did You Hear The One About 4 Blind Men And The Elephant?

May 25, 2010 by Dave Brock
with 325 views

There's the old story about 4 Blind Men, one on each side of an elephant, each is asked to feel the elephant in front of them and describe what they “see.” You know the story, each describes the elephant differently because they each had a different perspective. I think this is a good description of selling.... [read more]

Knowing About Your Customer Is Not Enough

April 27, 2010 by Dave Brock
with 258 views

Everyone in sales knows that it's important to know your customer. Sales people keep all sorts of information, both on individuals and the enterprises. We know about the likes and dislikes of the people we sell to—those that we deal with every day. We know their birthdays, families, what schools they went to,... [read more]

Is there a place for Sales in a Social Business?

February 1, 2010 by Esteban Kolsky
with 1,116 views

In my last post I began the task of examining the traditional front-office functions (Marketing, Customer Service, and Sales) as they will play out in a social business, and how they should or would change. I talked about Marketing not being the new Service (as many have contended), but how it has to morph to a community-... [read more]