Did you know that business people who read at least 7 business books a year earn over 2.3 times more than people who read only one book per year? Think you don’t have time to spend on your own ongoing personal development? Did you know that if you spend just 10 minutes a day reading, that adds up to over 60 hours a year?
Investing in yourself is always a safe bet!
Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You – At Work And In Life by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
Good times and bad times are inevitable in life. A quick and easy read told in a story format, this book will show you how to manage your peaks and valleys better so the bad times will end sooner and the good times will last longer.
Do you want to make more money in sales? Do you need help with a sales situation? Do you need some sales career advice? Are you a sales manager wondering how to improve your team’s sales results? For less than an average dinner out, you could ask your B2B Sales Coach! in our Daily Conference Calls!
Each week tens of thousands of people apply to companies on line and many are never considered serious candidates because of one simple mistake. They send an email that does not include any information other than their attached resume.
Voice mail is a fact of life in sales, but most sales people don’t know how to properly leave a voice mail message. First, always leave your number. In fact, leave it twice, once close to the start of the message and again at the end. Your recipient may not have your number handy, or your cell phone may cut out. There may be no way to call you back even if they wanted to.
Secondly, slow down! Your prospect will delete your message before they will listen to it a second time. When you leave your number, write it down at the same time. This will ensure you’re speaking slowly enough so your prospect can write it down too. Improve your voice mail skills, receive more returned phone calls! It’s that simple!
Do you want to make more money in sales? Do you need help with a sales situation? Do you need some sales career advice? Are you a sales manager wondering how to improve your team’s sales results? For less than an average dinner out, you could ask your B2B Sales Coach! in our Daily Conference Calls!
Even if you think you have just interviewed your perfect sales candidate and are ready to make an offer of employment, you still should make every effort, by whatever means possible, to ensure that they are who they say they are by conducting thorough reference check.
Just like your candidate interviews, you need to ask the same questions on each of your reference interviews, and those questions must be scripted a head of time. As you will be asking the same questions to all, not only will it be very easy to compare the answers given by each reference on the same candidate, but across candidates as well.
To download a free copy of our white paper How To Recruit The Best Sales Professionals which includes “11 Telephone Interview Questions to Find Top Performers”, visit our Sales Download Centre.
Looking for some ideas for your sales meetings?Join our free webinar where we share quick and easy ways to make your sales meetings more interesting and productive. Webinar doesn’t fit your schedule? View the presentation video here.
Do you want to make more money in sales? Do you need help with a sales situation? Do you need some sales career advice? Are you a sales manager wondering how to improve your team’s sales results? For less than an average dinner out, you could ask your B2B Sales Coach! in our Daily Conference Calls!
Are you on track for to qualify for this year’s sales contest?
When reviewing your results, don’t just look at how much you have sold so far, but also how much more needs to be sold to qualify. If a contest runs across a number of months, break down the larger target into smaller ones that cover shorter time frames. For example, if you need to sell $21,000 in 3 months, you should focus on the $7,000 per month that you need to qualify.
Remember, you can’t change the past, so focus on the future!
Do you need an expert sales coach who is affordable and accessible?For less than an average dinner out, you can consult with us every day and receive the personal direction you need. For more information, check out www.b2bsalesconnections.com/coaching_services.php.
I have been trying to track down a billing issue with a company for over a month. After sending yet another follow up email to my account manager today, I finally received a response. It started out by saying “So-and-So is no longer with our company…” The first thing that crossed my mind was how long has So-and-So been gone, and more importantly, how long have emails from his customers been going unanswered.
This reminded me of a time when I ran into an ex-colleague who said, “I was really getting upset with you. I was trying to solve a customer’s admin problem. I left you voice mail messages for weeks before someone happened to mention that you were no longer with the company.”
Situations like these are very frustrating to both your internal and external customers. Not only can you lose them forever, the frustrating part of it is that their loss was completely preventable!
When an employee leaves your company, here are 5 tasks that every manager should do immediately. When I say immediately, I do not mean within the week, I mean the same hour, or at the very least, the same day.
Set an auto-responder on the ex-employee’s email address stating that the employee is no longer with the company and who the customer should contact now. Just deleting the email address all together will only create an automated undeliverable email message and create further frustration.
Change the ex-employee’s voice mail message stating the same as the automated email message. Also, ensure that you change both the office phone voice mail, as well as the message on the company provided cell phone.
Send an internal email memo to all employees in your company stating that the employee is no longer with the company and who will be handling his accounts until a replacement is found.
Change all the office locks and security codes that the employee had access to.
Change all passwords to all computer programs that the employee had access to.
It’s inevitable. One day a sales representative will leave your company for good. Be it by his choice or yours, you have to be prepared and act immediately to smooth the transition. If you don’t, your own lack of action could cause your company irreparable damage.
Do you need an expert sales management coach who is affordable and accessible?For less than an average dinner out, you can consult with us every day and receive the personal direction you need. For more information, check out www.b2bsalesconnections.com/coaching_services.php.
Do you always have to wait for a few stragglers to show up before you can start your sales meetings? The key to fixing this problem is to start your meetings on time, every time, no matter what. Nothing rewards tardy behavior more than making those who showed up on time wait for those who are late. When the meeting start time rolls around, just shut the door and start the meeting. You will only have to do this once or twice before your entire team will be in the board room 5 minutes early waiting for you to start the meeting.
Do you need an expert sales management coach who is affordable and accessible? For less than an average dinner out, you can consult with us every day and receive the personal direction you need. For more information, check out www.b2bsalesconnections.com/coaching_services.php.
No matter how much we wish it wasn’t so, business slows down during the summer. If a prospect isn’t on vacation, chances are he is covering for someone who is. Despite the fact many sales reps use the phrase “the lazy days of summer” as an excuse to do nothing but hit the golf course, there are plenty of productive sales activities to do to keep busy at this time of year. (more…)
Experience has shown no matter where you set your minimum selling price, a sales representative sooner or later will ask you to lower it. The question is not whether you will be asked permission to discount; the question is when should you say yes.
One of the best examples of this is highlighted in an excellent article “Making Sales and Losing Money” by Brian Jeffrey. The article highlights a case where a sales rep, after obtaining his largest order to date, actually loses money on the sale. Not only does Brian discuss how this could easily happen, he also discusses excellent ideas on how you can prevent it from happening to you. You can read the article at http://ow.ly/27HXi.
Your company’s fixed costs must be paid whether you make the sale or not. Therefore, any time a discounted selling price contributes at least one dollar towards paying your fixed costs, it is considered profitable. As long as all of your variable costs are covered, including the cost of the goods sold plus any variable sales commissions, the discounted price can be accepted.
The Minimum Selling Price Calculation Worksheet available for sale in our eStore will automatically calculate a product’s minimum selling price to contribute at least one dollar towards the payment of fixed costs, given the cost of goods sold and the commissions to be paid on the sale.
As most managers would agree that making a sale for only a dollar is hardly worth the effort, the spreadsheet also shows how much gross profit is being made if you sell the product at a certain price.
Aim Higher!
Need ideas for your sales meetings? Join our free webinar where we discuss quick and easy ways to make your sales meetings more interesting and productive. To register, visit www.b2bsalesconnections.com/webinars.php.
Webinar does fit your schedule? View the presentation video in our Download Centre at www.b2bsalesconnections.com/download_centre.php. While you are there, be sure to download a free copy of our white paper “Creating Your Unique Value Proposition”
Studies show 25% of sales reps produce 90 to 95% of all sales. Clearly, most sales people are not selling up to their potential and not making the incomes they could. B2B Sales Connections wants to change that.
A Sales Compass is a blog where business to business sales professionals can network. Here you will find motivation, share sales tips, and improve your sales and sales management skills. Together, we can all unlock our sales potential.
Aim Higher!
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