The recent shift in consumer buying habits is a game changer for all types of sales reps. To summarize, sales reps have lost much of their control over the early stages of the buying journey. And the reason is simple – the way consumers make buying decisions has changed. Instead of turning to sales reps ... Read Post

In many companies, a more or less permanent state of opposition exists between Sales and Marketing. Marketing is doing everything they can in the area of lead generation and forwarding those leads onto the sales force. Sales is picking through the leads and taking the ones that look the most promising, and rejecting many claiming they’re ... Read Post

Did you know, there’s huge profit potential waiting to be exploited in your business. All you need to do is create alignment between your sales and marketing departments. Let’s explore why… Read Post

In recent articles, we’ve devoted much discussion to ROI (return on investment) with regard to CRM solutions ROI. CRM has a very intimate relationship with the success of not only a sales force but a whole company—hence it is well worth a considerable investment of time to figure out what a CRM application needs to ... Read Post

Just like any other industry, manufacturing is subject to market fluctuations. For example it was just reported that manufacturing sales for Canada were down by 0.9 percent for the month of December 2013. Sales volume declined 1.9 percent, which was the largest single drop in a year. If you’re a manufacturing sales rep, such economic ... Read Post

In recent articles we have discussed the necessity for Sales and Marketing to be aligned and operating as a unit, not as bickering and opposing forces. When they are in accord, pipeline management takes on a much more comprehensive scope. The pipeline, and therefore the sales process, can and should include steps for both sales and ... Read Post

According to an article on Forbes.com: “50% of B2B sales staff keep missing their quotas!” That’s half your sales force. But what’s the reason for this apparent poor performance? If you ask sales, they may blame marketing for generating rubbish leads. And if you ask marketing, they’ll probably argue that sales don’t try hard enough to close. ... Read Post

When first starting into business, most start-up companies aren’t really rating opportunities. It seems that any opportunity is worthwhile. There are numerous reasons for this: The company needs the income. A new company needs the repute of having the increasing market share. The more customers you have, the more that can recommend your product or ... Read Post