There is an old saying, "If you want to catch fish, fish where the fish are." This quote directly applies to building strategies that enhance contact and communication with decision makers. So just how do you find 'fishing holes' that provide introductions to the power buyer, the economic buyer? The most powerful tool for connecting with decision makers is building strong referral networks. Unfortunately, many sales professionals don't understand the last four letters in the word network... Read Full Story

I read an article in CRM Today, Managing Prospect Relationships, by Jim Lenskold that speaks directly to what my company, Marketo does. He identifies three key points to ‘…improve prospecting relationships and profitability‘: 1. Eliminate the prospects who will not buy 2. Help prospects first acknowledge a need 3. Proactively manage your progressive influence of prospects in the sales cycle Point three in particular is our bread and butter. I highly recommend reading the full article if... Read Full Story

Image via Wikipedia Sports analogies and sales training seem to go hand in hand. So well in fact, that I think it is sometimes over used. With that in mind, I was reading Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible this morning and came a cross a interesting story that I want to share today. The story is about the bumblebee. The short version of the story is this... Scientist from NASA were trying to make advancements in space flight and after looking at the agility of the small fat harry... Read Full Story

About one year ago one of my best Sales Reps told me that he was thinking to leave the company, after 8 years of dedicated and very successful work. My first reaction was to try to stop him and understand why he was unhappy and wanted to leave. As he was one of our talented people, a master in the Relationship Management and he was looking after my best customer in the country, I was ready to pay him more and to make him some good proposals on training, more responsibilities or even some... Read Full Story

Often, heads of small businesses are so involved with the production elements of their job that other elements get left. The time when you need to focus on new business is when you are busy. Many of the companies that contact us in Need of More Sales fall into this category. It is a spiral – busy at first, then a void of business then busy if you have done enough business development and have been lucky enough to land a sale. An alternative is to outsource but then this demands commitment... Read Full Story

Today I am going to share with you five simple tips to make you a better salesperson. Some of these will bring an immediate effect, some will be long lasting but I sincerely believe that proper application of these tips will take you from average Joe to superstar! Expect to win in every interaction. I talk a lot about attitude, and it’s for a reason. Winners have a winning attitude. It’s that simple. Have you ever been playing a game and suddenly thought “I’m doing too good right now. I’ll... Read Full Story

Despite the fact that people tell me they don’t like to prospect because it gets in the way of selling, prospecting is part of the sales process. Given its crucial role in the process, it is no surprise that prospecting itself has a process that properly executed pays on going dividends. Part of that process is setting up a framework for creating prospects rather than endless chase in the hope of finding prospects. Two elements of this framework are Preparation and Recycling. Since most... Read Full Story

Just a short post to announce that one of our members Tibor Shanto just recently released a new whitepaper about prospecting called "Above The Pipe! - Part I: Three Must Haves for Prospecting Success". I just recently downloaded it, and have to say it was fantastic. There is no charge and if you have ever read any of Tibor's work it is always filled with immediately implementable nuggets. Check it out and let me know what you think! -Brad Read Full Story

A few days ago I wrote a post about the importance of attitude in selling. I ended the post by saying opportunity is everywhere you look, the real problem is learning to recognize it when you see it. Today I am going to share with you some more thoughts on how attitude in conjunction with good selling habits can drive success. Most of you have read articles about the Law of Attraction and how it can mysteriously provide you with whatever it is you seek. Part of me wants to say this principle... Read Full Story

The story of how your product can make a significant difference to patient wellness, told by your representatives, has a huge impact on the success of your company. As every representative on your team has their own unique style of storytelling, it’s an ongoing challenge to ensure that the key facts are delivered to the physician. When your representative is driving down the road after a call, how much of the story is retained? Physicians will forget what you said and indeed forget things you... Read Full Story