Selling Is Not About Relationships

Role-Playing: Making Your Formal Sales Training Programs More Effective

B2B Sales: Look Before You Provoke

11 Ways to Grow Sales With LinkedIn

The 7 Deadly Sins of Sales Management

Are You Looking at Sales Training Strategically?

The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

Want sales training to work? Get the right people on your team

Organizing a Sales Force by Product or Customer, and other Dilemmas

Great Executive Interview questions for Sales Performance Management

Articles in category: Sales Leadership

1. Executives need digitally different thinking Explore Gartner Blog Network (May 14 2013) Sales Leadership Digital technology is on the mind of every executive from Sales and Marketing to IT and Operations.    Executives concentrate many of these thoughts center around issues of responsibility, authority and budget rather than looking at what is possible, profitable and the other potentials of digital technology.  It is a narrow mindset driven by the language of finance rather than the logic of value. So how should people ‘think digitally’? Not the way they have thought about IT and other technology. (Read Full Article)

2. Sales Managers are Key to Unlocking Peak Sales Performance - Ein News (press release) Explore World News By Country (May 10 2013) Sales Leadership , Sales Management CSO Insights announces the release of their 5th annual Sales Management Optimization (SMO) study. Over 1,700 firms worldwide took part in the 2013 research effort. The survey participants provided input on over 100 metrics which showed areas of increased change as well as challenges that remain year-over-year. Key findings show that “forecast accuracy” is an oxymoron with only 45.7% of forecast opportunities being won as projected. This year’s report highlights sales management time allocation, the importance of process and coaching, and yet how these are disconnected from how managers are measured and compensated. The report also included ... (Read Full Article)

   Mentions:   Jim Dickie

3. The Generosity Strategies that Help Companies Grow Explore HBR Blog Network (May 2 2013) Sales Leadership Most business is viewed as zero sum when it comes to competition — and too often when it comes to consumers. But Nordstrom's generous return policy and customer service has been highly effective. Costco is well known for its veritable free lunch buffet with its samples. Gillette gives away free razors to teenagers for their first shave. How about even "discount brands" like Southwest and its bags-fly-free campaign? Here's the singular theme that is common across these brands. They are all great products and experiences. And they know that giving you a little taste of something great will have ... (Read Full Article)

4. The B2B customer decision journey: The route to increased sales Explore forbes.com (Apr 24 2013) Sales 2.0 , Sales Leadership , Sales Management While B2B organizations have embraced the idea of customer-centricity, many have yet to adapt to the reality of customer behavior. That’s resulted in millions of marketing dollars being misspent and potential sales lost at a time when companies can ill afford it. In fact, our work with more than 30 marquee B2B organizations around the world shows that half or more of all marketing spend is doing little to influence the purchasing decisions of top customers and providing little help to the sales people calling on them. To right that train, B2B organizations need to develop a much deeper ... (Read Full Article)

5. What a Great VP Sales Actually Does. Where The Magic Is. And When to Hire One. | saastr Explore saastr (Apr 23 2013) Sales Leadership , Sales Management In SaaS, the #1 most common mishire, with a bullet, is the VP/head of sales.  In fact, there a VC saying that I used to really hate.  It goes something like “You’ve Got to Get Past the Carcass of Your First VP of Sales” or “It’s The Second VP of Sales When You Really Start Selling” or variants thereof.  It used to really bug me because I am a firm believer in the strategy of Zero Voluntary Attrition and trying to hire fewer, more committed resources over a higher volume of mercenaries that turn over more often ... (Read Full Article)

6. Blaming sales or has sales technology outpaced sales management? Explore Gartner Blog Network (Apr 22 2013) Sales Leadership , Sales Management There is much to talk about in last week’s news of the Free Fall in PC sales, IBM’s results and potential sale of its server business.  Coupled with prior misses at Oracle, Dell’s dilemma and HP, it is easy to describe these events as evidence of a fundamental and tectonic shift in technology. It is and that is another post. What is interesting about these events is blaming the sales force for these results.  I recall that sales force lack of execution was specifically mentioned in at least two of the companies mentioned above.  It is interesting ... (Read Full Article)

7. The Say-Anything Salesperson Is a CRM Killer Explore CRM Buyer (Apr 11 2013) Sales 2.0 , Sales Leadership , Sales Management For a salesperson, failing to become a trusted partner—and, indeed, betraying the prospect's trust by overpromising and skirting the truth—is both unethical and outdated. Dishonesty is obviously a bad thing, and when it happens with sales, it leads to unacceptably high levels of churn, followed by unacceptably negative commentary in social media that drives off prospective customers. It results in an opportunity cost far greater that the value of the short-lived sale gain. (Read Full Article)

8. 4 Ideas to Get More from Your Partner Sales Channels Explore SalesAndMarketing.com (Apr 7 2013) Sales Leadership When you think about the word “partner” in your channel sales strategy, you may not necessarily conjure up images of close-knit teams like Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or any of the Ocean’s Eleven gang. Businesses recognize that partnerships are important, but there are a few key reasons they often get neglected. (Read Full Article)

9. Become a Great Negotiator: 5 Steps Explore inc.com (Apr 5 2013) Sales Leadership , Sales Training The trick to achieving a "win-win" is to collaborate rather than compete. Although everyone claims to want a "win-win" deal, the sad truth is that most businesspeople are competitive and subconsciously want to "win" by making the other person "lose."  (Read Full Article)

10. Do You Harness the Power of Voice in Sales? Explore Selling Power Blog (Apr 3 2013) Sales Leadership Our tone of voice in selling is often more important than we realize. Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA found that our feelings and attitudes are communicated to 38% with our tone of voice. (Read Full Article)

11. The 48 Types of VP Sales (And How To Make Sure You Hire the Right One) Explore Home : CloudAve (Apr 2 2013) Sales Leadership , Sales Management Just so you know, there are 48 Different Types of VP Sales.  If you want it to work — make sure your top candidate is the right type for your company. (Read Full Article)

12. Is Your Sales Organization Good or Great? Explore HBR Blog Network (Mar 8 2013) Sales Leadership What separates great from good sales organizations? After working with over two-hundred different companies, the evidence suggests that the best business-to-business sales organizations share specific patterns of organizational structure and behavior. These similarities can be defined into the seven different attributes listed below. Conversely, underperforming or weaker sales organizations tend to be missing some or all of these critical characteristics. (Read Full Article)

13. How Not to Lose a Sale Explore HBR Blog Network (Mar 1 2013) Sales Leadership The sales opportunity was mine to lose. And I lost it. (Read Full Article)

14. Research identifies the personality traits for effective leadership Explore The Commercial Appeal (Feb 10 2013) Sales Leadership , Sales Management The conventional view that extroverts make the finest salespeople is so accepted that we've overlooked one teensy flaw: There's almost no evidence it's true. When social scientists have examined the relationship between extroverted personalities and sales success — that is, how often the cash register rings — they've found the link to be flimsy at best. Does this mean instead that introverts, the soft-spoken souls more at home in a study carrel than on a sales call, are more effective? Not at all. (Read Full Article)

15. Importance of Leadership in a 5-Star Company Explore Value Investing (Feb 5 2013) Sales Leadership , Europe , North America Study the results of several 5-star companies to understand how the quality of the board members and key executives contribute to long-term profitability and sustainable growth. (Read Full Article)

16. Optimizing the People Who Lead Your Sales Teams Explore CSO Insights (Feb 5 2013) Sales Leadership , Sales Management Sales Managers can make or break your year. What are you doing to help them excel at their jobs? CSO Insights recently conducted a webinar to review the results of our 2012 Sales Management Optimization Report. These are answers to the questions from attendees. (Read Full Article)

    Mentions:   Jim Dickie

17. A Bank Executive They Call "The Social Media CEO" Explore forbes.com (Jan 30 2013) Sales 2.0 , Sales Leadership , North America I know a lot about the CEO of ING DIRECT Canada, Peter Aceto. He has three kids and a loving marriage. He enjoys taking his kids to hockey, volleyball, and music lessons. He’s a student of leadership and shares case studies and best practices from leaders in other fields. I know this information because Aceto is one of the most active, authentic, and transparent bank executives on social media. No surprise, he was recognized as Toronto’s Communicator of the Year in 2010. ING DIRECT is also among the “most admired” in Canada and ranked as one of the ... (Read Full Article)

18. Why a 20-Minute Presentation Always Beats a 60-Minute One Explore forbes.com (Jan 24 2013) Sales Leadership There’s a point at which listeners move from being inspired to being genuinely ticked off because a speaker is talking too long.  Don’t fall into the latter group. Keep your presentations to no more than twenty minutes—the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ of public presentations—not too short, not too long, but just right. (Read Full Article)

19. Make Your Sales Vision Come To Life Explore forbes.com (Jan 23 2013) Sales Leadership Sales leadership is the toughest of the functional leadership roles. No other position demands such a disparate set of competencies, ranging from financial management and forecasting, to inspiring and motivating a geographically dispersed team. (Read Full Article)

    Mentions:   Harvard Business Review

20. The Most Accurate Forecasts are Grounded in Data, Not Emotions Explore qvidian.com (Jan 17 2013) Sales Leadership How to make accurate sales forecasts less tedious, and even fun. (Read Full Article)

21. Want Success In Your Sales Org? Look to the Middle. Explore HBR Blog Network (Jan 15 2013) Sales Leadership To build a great company, it's important to have strong executives leading the sales organization. But just as in the military, talented top officers can't make up for weakness in the ranks of frontline leaders, the mid-level managers who are vital in driving day-to-day sales performance. "In any sales force, you can get along without the vice president of sales, the regional sales directors, and the training manager," a sales leader once told us. "But you cannot get along without first-line sales managers." (Read Full Article)

22. Applying Proven B2C Marketing Techniques to B2B Sales and Marketing Processes Explore SalesAndMarketing.com (Jan 13 2013) Sales Leadership Purchasing business intelligence geared towards spending behavior not only acts as a catalyst to land that prospect as a customer, it also helps ensure businesses retain that customer through its power of personalization. (Read Full Article)

23. Four Sales Trends Bringing Us Into 2013 Explore qvidian.com (Jan 9 2013) Sales Leadership The business of selling has undergone a series of drastic changes over the years. Anyone remember the rolodex? How about the fax machine? We live in an ever-changing environment and the ability to be aware of the effects of these changes and be nimble enough to not only not be blindsided by them, but optimize them is what sets apart the truly innovative and successful companies from the rest of the pack. How we address these top four trends will determine our level of success in 2013. (Read Full Article)

24. The Dawning Age of Mass Collaboration Explore Gartner Blog Network (Jan 8 2013) Sales 2.0 , Sales Leadership Mass collaboration is the future of competitive advantage in business. See Gartner’s infographic on the evolution of business. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter may be all the rage today. But they’re only the beginning of something really big. Their true impact is that they’re spurring a new era of mass collaboration. Hundreds, thousands, even millions of people can effectively collaborate – like never before – to achieve unprecedented results. Yes, the marquee social web successes like Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook are great examples of mass collaboration in general. But what’s more profound is the impact ... (Read Full Article)

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