I ran into an old coworker, whom I consider a good friend, at a coffee shop this Friday morning. He is the VP of Sales with 75 or so direct reports. His company is international with a majority of their revenue occurring in Asia. He was telling me about sales training he held for the entire sales team. The focus was on negotiating and, more specifically, how to ask the right questions to qualify the opportunity. The Asian sales reps balked at some of the questions based solely on their approach to qualifying. Let’s just say they prefer to take a more passive, unquestioning approach which leads to prayer rug… Read More
Continue ReadingIt’s All About Leads
Ask any salesperson and they will likely tell you that good leads are the most important aspect of successful selling. I’ve worked for companies at all different levels on this topic – from absolute garbage leads (the company thought they were good) to golden leads (that were often ignored!). The golden leads are money if you have salespeople who can effectively qualify. To that point, Miller-Heiman has released their annual Sales Best Practices Study (h/t Managesmarter.com). One of their many interesting findings: Organizations in which sales and marketing are aligned regarding their target market, customer profile, and lead definitions are in a much stronger position to produce quality leads. Maintaining… Read More
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