Monday, September 02, 2013
Do You Want To Improve Your Performance?
Here are 10 tips to help with improving your sales performance. Great stuff!!
Labels: Performance, Sales, Self-Development
Sunday, May 26, 2013
How having only "good" workers can ruin your company
Recently I had been spending some time reading, well, actually listening to Jim Collins and two of his books, Good To Great and then Great by Choice. They are amazing looks at business and led me to believe that truly successful companies are surrounded by great individuals.
At my Toastmasters club, Towpath Talkers, I did a speech on one of the the concepts in Good to Great, the Hedgehog Concept, called "Good is the Enemy of Great". The concept is about taking three distinct areas to focus on and finding the sweet spot at the intersection of all three. The three core competencies are 1) be passionate about what you do, 2) find your key economic indicator and 3) find out what your company is best at in the world. You have to have all three to become great. You can get all of this and more in his books and I have links below for each.
What made me think about this once again was the article, Newbie leadership mistakes and the important lessons learned, on Smartblog for Leadership. The 8 specific tips are by promising young entrepreneurs. Read this great article here.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All
At my Toastmasters club, Towpath Talkers, I did a speech on one of the the concepts in Good to Great, the Hedgehog Concept, called "Good is the Enemy of Great". The concept is about taking three distinct areas to focus on and finding the sweet spot at the intersection of all three. The three core competencies are 1) be passionate about what you do, 2) find your key economic indicator and 3) find out what your company is best at in the world. You have to have all three to become great. You can get all of this and more in his books and I have links below for each.
What made me think about this once again was the article, Newbie leadership mistakes and the important lessons learned, on Smartblog for Leadership. The 8 specific tips are by promising young entrepreneurs. Read this great article here.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All
Labels: Business, Good To Great, Hedgehog Concept, leadership, management, Sales
Friday, November 25, 2011
Getting Ready for 2012 - A Rebound Year!
Listen to one of my all-time favorite sales guru's, Jeffrey Gitomer, address some key areas to help make 2012 a rebound year. He talks about the 6.5 actions that need to be taken to effectively impact your new year. Just start today!
Labels: Business, leadership, Sales
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Key Components of Sales Success
As we head into the new year, I always seem to find things that really hit me and are totally relevant to achieving sales goals. This brief Selling Power video reviews four key points about sales success. Enjoy!
Labels: Sales, Self-Development, Video
Friday, August 26, 2011
Top Coaching Habits of Great Sales Managers
This is very good information here from my favorite folks at Selling Power. 11 great questions get answered in this two-part article. Enjoy!!
Managing a sales team is a lot like coaching a sports team. In both cases, you've got to balance varying levels of skill among the team, put routine practices in place to help them achieve peak performance, and ultimately lead them to a winning season or quarter. Selling Power recently hosted a Webinar on the topic of sales management and sales coaching ("Accelerated Sales Success through Effective Coaching") featuring Selling Power CEO Gerhard Gschwandtner and Sales Readiness Group president David Jacoby. In this two-part Q&A, Jacoby provides answers to the top questions that were asked during the Webinar. (To listen to the full recording of the live Webinar, click here.)
This is Part 1 - http://www.sellingpower.com/content/article.php?a=9570
This is Part 2 - http://www.sellingpower.com/content/article.php?a=9572&nr=1
Managing a sales team is a lot like coaching a sports team. In both cases, you've got to balance varying levels of skill among the team, put routine practices in place to help them achieve peak performance, and ultimately lead them to a winning season or quarter. Selling Power recently hosted a Webinar on the topic of sales management and sales coaching ("Accelerated Sales Success through Effective Coaching") featuring Selling Power CEO Gerhard Gschwandtner and Sales Readiness Group president David Jacoby. In this two-part Q&A, Jacoby provides answers to the top questions that were asked during the Webinar. (To listen to the full recording of the live Webinar, click here.)
This is Part 1 - http://www.sellingpower.com/content/article.php?a=9570
This is Part 2 - http://www.sellingpower.com/content/article.php?a=9572&nr=1
Labels: leadership, management, Sales, Self-Development, Training
Saturday, August 06, 2011
I Love My Distributor
How many times have I heard this over the years. I love the company that I am dealing with. I have a great relationship with my salesman. On and on......
Here is an article from Selling Power that answers that question and more.
It's not easy selling against an established personal relationship. But while getting a foothold over a competitor's services or product is certainly a challenge, it's not insurmountable. Salespeople who do their homework, position themselves correctly, and practice patience can ultimately create opportunities for themselves. Here are some tips and sample one-liners to help open a conversation.
Overcoming the "Established Relationship" Objection
Here is an article from Selling Power that answers that question and more.
It's not easy selling against an established personal relationship. But while getting a foothold over a competitor's services or product is certainly a challenge, it's not insurmountable. Salespeople who do their homework, position themselves correctly, and practice patience can ultimately create opportunities for themselves. Here are some tips and sample one-liners to help open a conversation.
Overcoming the "Established Relationship" Objection
Labels: Objections, Sales
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Most Important Part of the Sales Process
Recently I had updated our selling process/sales cycle at work and conducted a training session at our last sales meeting. This article hammers home some great points and areas to focus on in these early meetings with prospective customers. Read the article by Chris Bennett on why the discovery stage is so critically important to sales success.
Labels: cold calling, prospecting, Sales
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Sales Worst Practices
10 Sure-Fire Ways to Fail at Sales - Sometimes a humorous perspective that highlights the wrong things to do can give you insight into doing the right things. I hope you enjoy our list of the top 10 sure-fire ways to fail at selling today. From the Brooks Group.
Sometimes it is great to see what not to do as opposed to what you should be doing. Enjoy and try to do the right things to make your sales career more successful.
Check out the article here.
Sometimes it is great to see what not to do as opposed to what you should be doing. Enjoy and try to do the right things to make your sales career more successful.
Check out the article here.
Labels: Business, Sales, Self-Development, Training
Saturday, January 22, 2011
2011 Predictions - 4 Thoughts on Sales Behavior for the New Year
Great blog post by Jeb Brooks from the Brooks Group.
4.25 Predictions for How Companies Will Change Sales Behavior in 2011.
Enjoy!
4.25 Predictions for How Companies Will Change Sales Behavior in 2011.
Enjoy!
Labels: Business, management, Sales
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
How Fascinating Are You
Great blog post from the Influential Blogger on Sally Hogshead's book Fascinate.
7 Ways to Fascinate, Persuade, Captivate your Audience
Take your own test to see what your {F} SCORE is. Get a copy of Sally's book now.
Just as a reference. My score results were MYSTIQUE for my primary trigger, POWER for my secondary trigger and VICE was my dormant trigger. You will know more how to apply these once you have read the book and taken your own test.
Be fascinating today!!
7 Ways to Fascinate, Persuade, Captivate your Audience
Take your own test to see what your {F} SCORE is. Get a copy of Sally's book now.
Just as a reference. My score results were MYSTIQUE for my primary trigger, POWER for my secondary trigger and VICE was my dormant trigger. You will know more how to apply these once you have read the book and taken your own test.
Be fascinating today!!
Labels: Business, Fascination, Innovation, leadership, Marketing, Personal Development, Sales, Sally Hogshead
Become Your Companies Chief 'Looking Around The Corner' Officer
Recently had the opportunity to read a manifesto that Robert Bloom wrote. It was called Looking Around The Corner and shatters some old-school thought processes of looking ahead every year. He comments that, "This fixation on an obsolete planning process guarantees that firms that use it will not keep pace with the rapid, substantive changes in our business world".
As I plan for the new year of 2011 and develop the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve our overall objective, this doc hits home and gets the creative juices flowing on how we will go to market in a multitude of areas.
Great stuff. Get it at Change This.
As I plan for the new year of 2011 and develop the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve our overall objective, this doc hits home and gets the creative juices flowing on how we will go to market in a multitude of areas.
Great stuff. Get it at Change This.
Labels: Business, Innovation, leadership, management, Performance, Planning, Productivity, Profit, Sales
Monday, June 14, 2010
5 Steps to Better Ride-Alongs
5 Steps to Better Ride-Alongs By Heather Baldwin
Through the one-on-one connection of a ride-along, you can learn firsthand about your reps' strengths and weaknesses, what excites them, what makes them uncomfortable, and their goals and aspirations - knowledge that is essential to good management.Article | SellingPower.com
Labels: management, Planning, Sales, Training
Saturday, January 02, 2010
What Can Be Learned from Buying a Bed
I want to share an experience that I had recently in purchasing a new mattress set and how it pertains to exceptional customer service, customer loyalty and follow up.
For the last 6 months or so my wife and I have been discussing replacing our bed as it has been quite a while that we have had our existing one. We had purchased a Simmons Beautyrest Embassy product previously and come to find out it was almost 12 years old. First reaction I had was...what a product. Quality unmatched as far as I was concerned. My second reaction was that how time flies as I was thinking we had it around 8 years. We had started looking around at all of the discount places and kind of getting an idea where costs were going to land. The last place we went to was our local Simmons Bed Center where we purchased our original product. I have known the owner, Steve, for quite some time and that was one of the main reasons that we went back to check out our options. This is where the loyalty part of this equation kicks in. It starts with a great product and our relationship with Steve. Lesson learned: Build relationships that last. I know that this has a viral effect as I have already told several people of my experience first hand.
So we hit the store on a Saturday afternoon and start the buying process. What I found great about this purchase was some quality questions he had for us about our sleep habits, our existing bed and price range. Now you can buy a new bed anywhere from $399 to $1500 so we had a lot of choices, but, based on our needs Steve led us to just three choices and he explained the quality differences very clearly to us that separated the three styles. Lesson learned: Narrowing the options so you can unconfuse the customer.
Now the strategy that I liked was, after he explained the products, you basically get to sample the product and try out each bed. After a little bit of humor from Steve about the Three Bears scenario, he left us alone for several minutes to go from bed to bed testing the different types. Lesson learned: This allowed time for us to gather any questions and/or objections that we may have regarding this purchase. Basically from a sales standpoint, stop talking and listen to the customer.
We decide on a product, a Beautyrest Radiance Plush and start the purchase. We feel there is great value in the mattress set at $1099 and yet Steve gives us a few incentives that we didn’t even ask for. Bonus #1. They can deliver it Monday morning at 9:15 and they take the old product and set up the new product. Bonus #2. Steve takes plenty of time with me reviewing the warranty and about care and maintenance of the mattress. Making sure that I don’t have any further questions. Bonus #3. Lesson learned: Do what you say you’re going to do and provide exceptional customer service. Be happy to provide this exceptional customer service.
Now the follow up is what got me thinking about writing this post. I submitted the warranty information online which was very simple and easy to do. I get the standard email confirming that.
I notice on the email that they have a Facebook page and I ‘Become A Fan’ of Simmons Bedding Company and throw a quick post up on my experience. I love the fact that they replied back and another reason why the Social Media front has some impact on the business and the customer.
Then there is the phone call from Steve on Tuesday morning just to follow up to see how our fist night of sleep on the new mattress was. I was like...WOW! This doesn’t happen often enough. Now today I get another follow up email from Simmons.
Lesson learned: Follow up, Follow up, Follow up. That is the key to creating great customer service and continued customer loyalty. Getting the sale is sometimes easy, but, retaining the sales and having that word of mouth support isn’t always there. That should be your ultimate goal.
For the last 6 months or so my wife and I have been discussing replacing our bed as it has been quite a while that we have had our existing one. We had purchased a Simmons Beautyrest Embassy product previously and come to find out it was almost 12 years old. First reaction I had was...what a product. Quality unmatched as far as I was concerned. My second reaction was that how time flies as I was thinking we had it around 8 years. We had started looking around at all of the discount places and kind of getting an idea where costs were going to land. The last place we went to was our local Simmons Bed Center where we purchased our original product. I have known the owner, Steve, for quite some time and that was one of the main reasons that we went back to check out our options. This is where the loyalty part of this equation kicks in. It starts with a great product and our relationship with Steve. Lesson learned: Build relationships that last. I know that this has a viral effect as I have already told several people of my experience first hand.
So we hit the store on a Saturday afternoon and start the buying process. What I found great about this purchase was some quality questions he had for us about our sleep habits, our existing bed and price range. Now you can buy a new bed anywhere from $399 to $1500 so we had a lot of choices, but, based on our needs Steve led us to just three choices and he explained the quality differences very clearly to us that separated the three styles. Lesson learned: Narrowing the options so you can unconfuse the customer.
Now the strategy that I liked was, after he explained the products, you basically get to sample the product and try out each bed. After a little bit of humor from Steve about the Three Bears scenario, he left us alone for several minutes to go from bed to bed testing the different types. Lesson learned: This allowed time for us to gather any questions and/or objections that we may have regarding this purchase. Basically from a sales standpoint, stop talking and listen to the customer.
We decide on a product, a Beautyrest Radiance Plush and start the purchase. We feel there is great value in the mattress set at $1099 and yet Steve gives us a few incentives that we didn’t even ask for. Bonus #1. They can deliver it Monday morning at 9:15 and they take the old product and set up the new product. Bonus #2. Steve takes plenty of time with me reviewing the warranty and about care and maintenance of the mattress. Making sure that I don’t have any further questions. Bonus #3. Lesson learned: Do what you say you’re going to do and provide exceptional customer service. Be happy to provide this exceptional customer service.
Now the follow up is what got me thinking about writing this post. I submitted the warranty information online which was very simple and easy to do. I get the standard email confirming that.
I notice on the email that they have a Facebook page and I ‘Become A Fan’ of Simmons Bedding Company and throw a quick post up on my experience. I love the fact that they replied back and another reason why the Social Media front has some impact on the business and the customer.
Then there is the phone call from Steve on Tuesday morning just to follow up to see how our fist night of sleep on the new mattress was. I was like...WOW! This doesn’t happen often enough. Now today I get another follow up email from Simmons.
Lesson learned: Follow up, Follow up, Follow up. That is the key to creating great customer service and continued customer loyalty. Getting the sale is sometimes easy, but, retaining the sales and having that word of mouth support isn’t always there. That should be your ultimate goal.
Labels: customer loyalty, customer service, Follow Up, Sales
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sales Resolutions - Just Sell®... it's all about sales®
What a great way to start to new year focused!!
Sales Resolutions - Just Sell®... it's all about sales®
What’ll be different in your sales world at the end of 2010 from where you are now… beyond your increased dollars generated, units moved, and improved margins (these are your goals and targets)?
Sales Resolutions - Just Sell®... it's all about sales®
What’ll be different in your sales world at the end of 2010 from where you are now… beyond your increased dollars generated, units moved, and improved margins (these are your goals and targets)?
Labels: Personal Development, Sales
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Top 5 iPhone Apps for Sales Professionals
Many sales pros are users of the popular Apple iPhone, according to Dale Hagemeyer, a research vice president who studies CRM for the market research firm Gartner. "What a phone can do in terms of memory, functionality, and computation is quite amazing compared to a phone from five years ago," he says. With that in mind, here's a list of five downloadable iPhone apps that, in our view, are particularly useful for sales professionals. From Selling Power Sales 2.0 Newsletter.
Labels: Business, Sales, technology
Saturday, December 05, 2009
How to Squash "Your Price is Too High"
This is a good tip and refresher from Nick Moreno at the National Sales Center on how to handle the price objection.
Check out the tip here
Check out the tip here
Labels: Objections, Sales, Training
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s wildly popular presentations have set a new global gold standard—and now this step-by-step guide shows you exactly how to use his crowd-pleasing techniques in your own presentations. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is as close as you’ll ever get to having the master presenter himself speak directly in your ear. Communications expert Carmine Gallo has studied and analyzed the very best of Jobs’s performances, offering point-by-point examples, tried-and-true techniques, and proven presentation secrets that work every time. With this revolutionary approach, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to sell your ideas, share your enthusiasm, and wow your audience the Steve Jobs way.
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience
Labels: Business, Marketing, Sales, technology
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Scene from 'A Few Good Men' From A Sales Perspective
This is truly one of my favorite movies and I do reference it quite often in training from a standpoint of using open-ended questions. This is a great short video from Selling Power and the founder, Gerhard Gschwandtner, has a go at this great courtroom scene from a sales perspective. Great stuff!!
Labels: Business, Humor, Sales
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Are Customers Really That Rational About Their Purchases
Very insightful article about behavioral economics surrounding your customers. Read the article below to get the details and see how you are handling customers.
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How to gain the most from customer decisions - Companies need data to truly understand how customers make choices online, or companies will end up "leaving money on the table," John Sviokla writes. Companies must learn how customers "really act instead of how they are supposed to act," he writes. HarvardBusiness.org/The Near Futurist blog
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How to gain the most from customer decisions - Companies need data to truly understand how customers make choices online, or companies will end up "leaving money on the table," John Sviokla writes. Companies must learn how customers "really act instead of how they are supposed to act," he writes. HarvardBusiness.org/The Near Futurist blog
Labels: Business, customer loyalty, Marketing, Sales
Saturday, August 01, 2009
The Latest Brooks Group Newsletter
This months newsletter had a couple of great topics. Enjoy!
THE 10 "DON'TS" OF PRESENTING PRICE
SALES MANAGEMENT: NOT FOR THE TIMID OR FAINT OF HEART
THE 10 "DON'TS" OF PRESENTING PRICE
SALES MANAGEMENT: NOT FOR THE TIMID OR FAINT OF HEART
Labels: management, Sales, Self-Development
