Todd Cohen

The Most Valuable Component

ToddCohen.com Sales Community~

Here is a question to think about as we enter the last quarter and 2009. How do you leverage the value of your customer relationships, both for yourself and for your customer?   You are in this business relationship together and so you are both actually selling to each other, since both will benefit from the others’ success.  You, yourself, will make it your business to work collaboratively to establish trust and a sense of interdependence between you.

Your customer is the most valuable component of your business, to say the least.  You must, I repeat, must leverage that value to create your own success.  When a customer complains, expresses concerns or dissatisfaction, or even says  “ No”

Sales Rep or Sales Professional?

ToddCohen.com Sales Community, The moment of truth has arrived!  It is time for you to ask yourself the most important question of your sales career?  Who are you?  I dont mean in a human sense but in a professional sense. Are you a sales rep or a sales professional?  As someone with sales career (and we are all in sales) we need to always ask ourselves which category we fall into.  Do you know the difference?   This topic has been one of intense and interesting debate lately not only with my clients but in the sales community as well.  How do we know?  Is it easy to tell?  One simple way to think about this is that a sales professional is one who thinks of his or her territory as a complete business ...

The Relationship between 6 - Sigma and Sales Culture?

Hello ToddCohen.com Sales Community!

Your company has announced that it will launch a 6-Sigma program or perhaps it launched such a program a while ago.  So what does this mean for Sales?  How will it be different than the prior alphabet soup of process  and quality improvement programs like QMS, SPC, TQM, …?  Should you get involved in this and how should you participate? 

Fundamentally, 6-Sigma says: Make the business processes effective and efficient by making them reliable, predictable, and focused on customer recognized value. This focus and emphasis ties into several recent topics you have seen in these columns and provides opportunities for you: Sales Culture and Value Proposition. 

Read more in this months article by Geoff Rhine.

What Motivates your Sales People?

Todd Cohen.com Sales Community, As a sales leader we have firmly established your most important role is to develop, coach and mentor your sales team.  Right?  Right.  You will succeed by having well trained and developed sales professionals who deliver revenue.    Now, the question I want you to think about is this -  do you know what motivates your people? Have you taken the time and really thought about each of your sales people and what is each individuals motivation to be at your company and be successful?  Is it money?  Is it challenge or the opportunity to work for a solid company?  Is it for future advancement?  Do you know what actually gets your people up each and every day, brings them to work and motivates them to be successful?  If you do not know, then I want to suggest to you that you  are accountable  to know that.  This ...

Job Openings

Todd Cohen Sales Community, From time to time I am asked to assist in a search for my clients who are building great sales culture. I have a few openings to share with you. They are with a Fortune 500 company in the Staff Augmentation and Professional Services business. They are a solid 1B plus company and we have a need for the following sales professionals: Atlanta Based Director of Sales. Responsible for the growth and development of one of THREE key hubs for the company. This is a very high profile position with aggressive compensation. You must be Atlanta based and have a knowledge of that local market. Sales Executives. We have needs in the following cities ...

“How Do My Clients See Me”?

Todd Cohen.com Sales Community, Have you ever taken the time to ask yourself this question?  "How do your clients see you"?  It can be a tough one and one you NEED to ask your clients if you are going to have long term and sustainable relationships that help you create your success. Much more to the point, this says much about a key part of building a sales culture...."How do my clients see me"?  That question needs to be constantly asked and evaluated by the sales organization. That question is a differentiator and it is worth asking yourself or if you are a sales leader, ask your sales teams (possibly as a workshop exercise) at your next team meeting.  You might be surprised at the answers.  Asking that question ...

“I See Sales People”

Good Morning ToddCohen.com Sales Community- Ok, I its time to confess my secret.  I see sales people everywhere.  Every time I interact with someone I see some element of selling.  I have always said that "Everyone is in Sales" and I see it all the time.  Do you see it? The Barista at Starbucks, flight attendants and ticket agents ( including one excellent agent from Northwest Airlines who recently went above and beyond to help me) the locksmith I had to recently use and so on. So why do I think that these are all sales people in some fashion?  One is that they are all engaged with a client and are trying in some fashion to help and serve.  How they handle there duties leaves an impression on me and will certainly influence ...

Momentum is KING

ToddCohen.com Sales Community: Q3 is Here......yes, it has snuck up on us and now we have to keep the momentum strong. It is now more important then ever that we each hold ourselves accountable for keeping up the momentum. If we are to leverage what we have started and finish the year at or above plan we need to keep the momentum strong. Great sales leaders leverage the positive and at the same time ratchet things up. Momentum is KING. How can we keep up the momentum? Increase you field travel where possible and cost effective. You will accelerate more deals by being in the field as much as possible. This is excellent coaching time-in real time. Prioritize your field travel to ...

“Can I Be Honest With You?”

Dear ToddCohen.com Sales Community- It time for "Todd's List of Annoying Sales Talk"....or something like that.  I actually just invented this today after hearing a speech where the presenter answered every question the same way by starting with "I want to be frank with you"  or " I want to be honest here".  Seriously folks how many times have we as sales professionals started to answer a question posed to us by a client with something that sounds like " "Let me be honest" or " Can I tell you the truth?" .. We all do it and we are all guilty of using these awful starters when in fact we are not being dishonest or disingenuous at all.  The issue with using these type of phrases is that they cast a doubt in the clients mid that you are actually ...

Energy Management

Hello Todd Cohen.com Sales Community! Are you thinking about energy management? I bet you are thinking that I am talking about how to conserve gas or reduce your energy bills. Nope. I am not. I was in a sales meeting with a client today and the topic was one that I have spoken about with you often. The topic I refer to is time management. Great sales professionals are good at managing and getting the most from the hours each day ( and nights we work). Time management s a key part of being successful and feeling good about what we do. OK, now during this meeting, we started talking about time management as a ...