There was a time when sales were conducted without sales strategies. Salespeople just went out and sold, and that was that; they either sank or swum. But as businesses grew and competition became stiff, sales strategies were found to be needed in order for volume sales to occur, and so were evolved. As years went ... Read Post

Most companies have probably been through it: A CRM tool is chosen and implemented. Almost immediately, issues start arising. Sales can’t actually use it to track their sales. Sales management can’t seem to analyze sales data from it. Other users can’t figure it out. IT staff are flying all over the company trying to assuage ... Read Post

Managing and monitoring your sales pipeline is key to the achievement of your stretching sales targets. The good news is that Hugh Macfarlane’s book – “The Leaky Funnel” – provides a fantastic and easily accessible overview of why this process is so important. Ready? Read Post

One vital key to getting the most ROI from your CRM tool is to ensure your CRM application mirrors your sales process. Regrettably, traditional CRM solutions have not done this, and the resulting extra work and “workaround” has been a nightmare for sales. Today, however, there is every reason for CRM to mirror a sales ... Read Post

The Challenger Sale by Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson is an invaluable read for any sales professional wanting to gain a competitive edge. It reveals a totally new approach and way of working with customers – and one that may go against your instinctive thoughts about what works. 10 Second Summary This book argues that ... Read Post

Traditional CRM tools didn’t offer much in the way of benefit for a manufacturing sales force. Shying away from the plentiful reporting required by such applications—and also not perceiving that such solutions would provide much assistance in controlling their sales—many manufacturing salespeople have continued to use Excel spreadsheets and other similar solutions for tracking sales. Read Post

In today’s business enterprises, marketing and sales are commonly divorced. In fact, their behavior can actually parallel that of a divorced couple—constantly bickering and blaming each other over lead quality and quantity. Marketing will assert that sales just isn’t following up the leads they have and is wasting them, while sales, following their sales strategies, ... Read Post

Cold Calling 3.0 – The Art of Selling Smarter Not Harder by Wyn N. Davies – explains what tactics should be incorporated alongside cold calling to ensure it becomes a worthwhile course of action. This short synopsis of the book picks out the key messages. Read Post