This article from Selling Power offers suggestions for salespeople when questioning prospects. The author makes some excellent points with one that stands out – number 9. I have edited the content for length. 1. Qualify prospects You can quickly establish if this “suspect” is a qualified prospect with a few questions. Many salespeople waste valuable sales time chasing the wrong company or talking to someone without decision-making power. Develop a profile of your ideal prospect. What criteria must a “suspect” meet to qualify as a bona fide prospect for your product or service? 2. Uncover needs By asking questions and understanding the client’s needs you can determine which benefits the… Read More
Continue Reading5 Questions For Every Sales Manager
A good article here from Selling Power titled Five Questions Every Sales Manager Should Be Able to Answer. The questions are spot on, but pay special attention to number 3 (my editing): Which lead sources result in the highest percentage of closed deals? Do you know where your best leads come from and what those leads look like? When you do, you can better direct your marketing efforts and dollars while boosting your conversion rate. Are your reps selling the most profitable products? Often, reps will sell the products that are easiest to sell rather than the ones that provide the highest margin for the company. Face it: they’re going… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Need For Speed In Hiring
ERE’s daily article hits a chord with me today – Understanding Why Fast Hiring Is Critical to Recruiting Success. We have been beaten down of late due to some slow-moving hiring processes. The author, Dr. John Sullivan, provides many suggestions for putting metrics to your hiring process. However, I found these stats to be the compelling reasons why you should worry about the speed of your hiring process: One large accounting firm recently found that if they didn’t act within 22 days, their chances of landing “high-demand” candidates decreased by nearly 90%. A large electronics firm researched the issue and found that the very best in their field (the top… Read More
Continue ReadingMarketing To Millennials
Inc.com chronicles one Gen Y marketing campaign by BMW that I have not heard of. The opening sentence forewarned me: Generation Y’s indifference to traditional forms of marketing and advertising has some big companies and their ad agencies scrambling for creative ways to reach and engage this demographic. Engagement is the key these days, isn’t it? If you read the marketing campaign in the short article, you won’t read about magazine ads, TV commercials or radio spots. Instead there are short films on YouTube, Facebook pages and micro-websites. I think the author best sums up this new marketing approach (my bold): It seems to me that the campaign is less… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Best-Paying Job
Anesthesiologists. From Forbes.com’s America’s Best- And Worst-Paying Jobs: …the mean annual salary for America’s 31,030 anesthesiologists is $192,780, up 4.6% from a year earlier. Not surprisingly, the top 9 jobs are all in the medical field (surgeon, orthodontists, etc.). Oh yes, and the bottom end of the scale: The lowest paid of all? People who cook, prepare and serve in fast-food joints, followed by dishwashers, busboys and the folks who shampoo your hair. I am proud to say that I was a dishwasher in high school. Technically, we called it a “dishlicker” and we were at the lowest end of the totem pole. That is the type of job that… Read More
Continue ReadingJobhopping And Nomadism
I have a friend who is one of the steadiest guys in the world. He is extremely talented, has worked for some large companies and has an impressive list of degrees. However, he has been working on his career path since the moment he graduated college in 1992. He has worked for 4-5 year stints at a few companies before joining a company now that is the realization of his chosen path. The humorous aspect of his journey is that his employer is an old company. Their initial review of his stellar resume was this – he is a jobhopper. I still laugh when I think about that line applied… Read More
Continue ReadingPushing The Sales Cycle
Salespeople are finely-tuned into the economy since it can have a direct impact on their wallet. The fact is many salespeople who falter during an economic downturn get let go. That is a lot of pressure to handle even for strong salespeople. ManageSmarter.com offers up this article – Chronicles of a Sales Leader: Tough Times Call for Solid Leadership – that provides guidance to sales managers in handling salespeople who are under pressure. The author’s first point is perfectly stated (my bold): 1. Don’t abandon the client. As pressure to hit your numbers increases, a tendency to push the sales cycle ahead of the client’s buying cycle is a frequent… Read More
Continue ReadingSquatting On A Sale
Maybe that title isn’t the best turn of phrase. One effect we see often is alleged hunters in sales positions loaded with daily rejection. I’m not talking about the long-term, relationship-based sale that ends up with a soft no. I’m talking along the lines of a cold call-driven, commoditized market. These types of markets have been known to break good hunters. The break occurs once the salesperson acquires a handful of decent accounts. The salesperson begins to morph into a farmer with the approach of gaining more business from those few accounts. My experience has been that these salespeople get worn down from the rejection of constantly churning through cold… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Open Door Ruse
Sometimes the best advice is simply stated which is true of this Inc.com post titled The Fallacy of an Open-Door Policy. This topic catches my attention in that some of the worst managers I worked for claimed profusely that they had an open-door policy. They stated it, but we sales reps all knew it was a ruse. I think the author strikes a perfect chord with this: You need to create an environment where people can speak up in any venue. I’ve had some of my most important communications with employees driving in the car, standing in the lunchroom, or walking through the shop floor. How true…and difficult to put… Read More
Continue ReadingGen Y Is Empowered
Not my words, but rather a quote from this Selling Power article: “If I had to use one word to describe Generation Y, it’s empowered,” says Ann Fishman, president of Generation Targeted Marketing Corporation, a specialized marketing firm providing insight into consumer preferences, trends, and buying habits affecting the six generations of Americans. “This is a generation who has a tremendous amount of self-confidence. They are civic minded, optimistic, and want to be involved in their futures. They are going to come on very strong. And now for some tips: Fishman notes a few things to keep in mind when going through the hiring process with this group. First, Generation… Read More
Continue Reading