Within sales strategies, qualifying opportunities is often not given the total attention it deserves. In the past, “qualifying” usually went about as far as, “Do they have the budget?” It has been found over time, however, that the more qualification is done of an opportunity, the better the control the salesperson will have of it. ... Read Post

With Christmas approaching, sales can become a little slow as prospects and customers turn their attention to the festivities and celebrations. But if you’re keen to get a kick-start in 2014, this downtime could prove invaluable to getting ahead. To help, here are five valuable sales-based activities that will give you a key advantage. Which ... Read Post

Forward-thinking companies are realizing that their sales force is actually an entrepreneurship: it is composed of people who act and think as entrepreneurs. If there is a single factor that separates entrepreneurs from the rest of society, it would be that they make their own games. Salespeople may be (and usually are) employed by others, ... Read Post

Most salespeople are very understandably living in the moment. All their attention is on that next sale or those next sales that are occurring right now. Each sale has its own set of peculiarities—such as the buyer that constantly has to be reassured, or the one executive at your prospect company that has a cousin ... Read Post

CRM was one of many technologies developed to automate a company. But with a sales force composed of live, breathing humans—should people also be so automated through CRM? The original intention of CRM solutions was to coordinate various departments within a company in their customer relationship activities. As time went on, CRM also became a ... Read Post

Do you want your sales team to make more sales? If so, an easy way to make that happen, is to support your sales reps to work more efficiently. And if you plan to do that, you’ll want to invest in some smart CRM software. Here’s why… #1: “Smart Cloud” for Remote Working Pick a CRM ... Read Post

For many years, sales techniques have been a matter of heavy focus—by sales management, sales trainers, sales book authors, and of course salespeople themselves. Endless techniques are evolved, refined, taught, adapted or rejected, and endlessly argued. But if there is one particular factor underlying all sales techniques that nobody could argue against, what might that ... Read Post

The sales team of yesterday and today are drastically different. Sales automation has certainly made a difference in the way sales teams conduct themselves—but it isn’t just computerization that has brought about all the changes. Sales management and the sales forces they are supervising have had to adapt themselves to today’s highly competitive marketplaces in ... Read Post