How to Find New Customers and Increase Sales

In a perfect world, you would have an unlimited budget to market your business in order to find new customers and increase sales. You could buy lots of online and offline advertising, run promotions to build traffic in store and online, and launch a proactive public relations campaign to increase your product or brand’s visibility and awareness. But this isn`t a perfect world. Realistically, most small businesses and even many mid-sized firms have more great ideas on how to peddle their wares ...
Published about 01-12-2009 | Rated 0

Sales Training for the B2B Sales Team

Sales training for B2B sales professionals can streamline sales activity to allow your B2B sales reps more time to invest in profitable, revenue-producing leads. Sales training for a B2B sales team will also provide your team with the skills they need to successfully present themselves and your company to complex prospects. Sales training for B2B is inherently different than B2C sales training. Selling to a business requires a stronger investigatory approach and an understanding of business...
Published about 01-12-2009 | Rated 0

20 characteristics of a superior inside salesperson

What makes a superior salesperson? I don`t mean merely successful. I mean superior. This question was posed by Ian and Jennifer, two very astute Inside Sales Managers with whom I communicate on a frequent basis. After training and coaching hundreds and hundreds of telesales reps, I do have some answers, because I`ve worked with many of the best. The list of the key elements that made these reps superior isn`t long, but it raises the bar over which a rep must jump in order to constantly over-achi...
Published about 30-11-2009 | Rated 0

Shortening the sales cycle

Last week in a webinar with a group of high-performing salespeople and technical specialists, a salesperson asked: Salesperson: "My company`s number one goal is to shorten the sales cycle. How can I do that?" His question was timely and challenging. It seems as if your customers` number one goal is to lengthen it! The economy and an environment of heightened skepticism have doubled or even tripled the length of the sales cycle in many industries. So what can you do that is in your c...
Published about 30-11-2009 | Rated 0

Thoughts on how to follow-up on website leads when you use marketing automation

A few months ago, at the MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing summit in Boston, I was asked on how best to follow-up on leads generated via the web by Richard Hill. Richard writes over at the Idea Exchange blog on marketing automation related topics. Marketing automation tools are useful because they can give us a ton of visibility into the visitors to our website, what they looked at, etc., and when visitors fill out form, we can link their contact information to their other offline marketing touch...
Published about 30-11-2009 | Rated 0

Three free sales training sessions for selling through the recession

Robin Carey, CEO of Social Media Today, introduces the three 30 minute training sessions. Each session is anchored by a content expert: Jill Konrath talks customer loyalty, Richard Nacht on social media in sales, and I talk about selling through the recession. The program was produced by The Customer Collective, a social media community managed by Social Media Today. The program was sponsored by Oracle Corporation....
Published about 30-11-2009 | Rated 0

Ten Powerful Marketing Tips for the Small Business

# Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. People read postcards when the message is brief. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your web site and generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost. # No single marketing effort works all the time for every business, so rotate several marketing tactics and vary your approach. Your customers tune out after awhile if you toot only one note. Not only that, YOU get bore...
Published about 27-11-2009 | Rated 0

Tips for Successful Cold Calling

Cold calling. Even the name is chilling, and you`re not alone if you dread the process. In fact, many people consider cold calling the most intimidating aspect of the sales process. Unfortunately, cold calling is a necessary part of selling; if you want to grow your business, you have to contact new prospects. Fortunately, these tips will help you handle cold calls like a pro: * Overcome your reluctance. Make cold calls when you feel the freshest and most energized. For most people, th...
Published about 26-11-2009 | Rated 0

Assumptive language helps the sale move forward

The real estate agent, after a long discussion of our needs and wants, begins to show us property. My wife and I are getting a tour of a cabin in beautiful northern Minnesota. It`s on a smallish lake, with loons and birch trees and some hills, with vintage, quaint cabins from the 1940`s. Sure, the property is fun to see. But what strikes me is the non-assumptive language of the salesperson. Non-assumptive language might not be appropriate early in a sales conversation, and in certain sales...
Published about 25-11-2009 | Rated 0

Curiosity drives sales success

Seth Godin posted "Thirsty" on his blog today, a short but important article about the relationship between curiosity and success. This is something I`ve been thinking a lot about lately. Am I incorrect, or does it seem like some, even many, who make their living selling are not thirsty for knowledge, are not sufficiently curious about their customers, are not passionate about learning how to improve? Am I wrong? I believe sales skill trumps effort. I know a lot of people disagree with me...
Published about 25-11-2009 | Rated 0