"As part of my initiative to build Sales Culture
I'll post my thoughts on the topics of the day"
When does "No" mean "No"? is No alway the end of your sales campaign? When you hear "no" should you pack up and just move to the next client or prospect? Has your network failed you? I have been thinking about this because lately I have been fielding some interesting calls from the sales community about what to do here. Now, I cannot speak to each of them in great detail because I was not there, but I have always held the firm belief, that the word "no" is actually a step forward in closing the sales campaign! To many sales campaign get mired down and sometimes we just need to hear "no" to know ...
Hello Sales Community... I am almost ready to release to the ToddCohen.com sales community my first white paper " Understanding Successful Sales Performance: The Sales Success Triad". In this paper I explore our sales success from the perspective of three key areas: Personal, Professional and Emotional selling traits and how they all play a major role in our continuing success as a sales community! I will let you know when its available by a ToddCohen.com Newsletter early next week-I hope you will take a moment and download , read and enjoy it. As always, I welcome your input and thoughts! I will also start a series of blog and article topics for the sales community to have ...
As sales professionals we have all experienced something like this.... you conduct a great sales campaign, have multiple appointments and everyone loves what you are offering and you are getting definite buying signals. Your network is strong in the account! You report this deal as looking awesome in your pipeline reviews with the boss. You may have even gone as far as to let your internal resources know that some work is coming. Everything looks great for the BIG close! Then-NOTHING! The emails go unanswered and phone messages go unreturned. You slowly realize that "IT" has happened. Your client has gone "radio silent." This situation conjures up mental images of ...
Do you believe in good "sales karma"? I do. I am firm believer in the old adage "what goes around comes around". I am writing this blog to the sales community today as a bit of a wake up call for us all. I just had an interesting conversation with a former colleague who was very excited about a deal that just closed! As she told me more and more about the deal and its structure , it was apparent to me that shortcuts had been taken and she was looking only at this one deal. Whatever the reasons (pressure to make the numbers, ego, etc), I was really concerned ...
As sales professionals, do you ever feel like the guy from the Dunkin' Donuts commercials? Do you get up every morning, bleary eyed and weary from the day before and think to yourself "got to build the pipeline"....? I think we all do and its completely normal. Perhaps the most essential element of what we do as sales professionals is to be constantly performing the activities that fill our sales pipeline! (If you are not, then thats another conversation!) As a sales professional, having a full and robust pipeline, is necessary to having a strong year, making great commissions and insuring a strong start to the following year. A strong pipeline is a good indicator ...
Hardly a day passes without some news agency reporting some sort of impending doom for the economy. I listen very carefully and try to make sense of it; seek out experts and ask questions. I have talked to professionals from all walks of life and everyone has some compelling vision of what is coming. Obviously, I am most concerned about helping the sales community protect itself against a downturn. I have devoted my column this week to sharing some of my thoughts about what we can do to make sure the sales keep coming in and we stay sharp! In my career, I have been through a few significant slowdowns and one ...
OK..I need to have a small "rant" for a moment or two. I think the one thing that could earn ejection from the sales community is not having a healthy respect for time! Time is respect. Period. If you make an appointment, be on time. Plan it well and think about the things that will make you late.....traffic, AIR TRAVEL delays (especially in Philadelphia!) weather etc.... There is nothing worse than showing up late for an appointment and being late with no explanations. Nothing screams disrespect more than a disrespect for peoples time! I am just amazed at how this continues to be a problem in the sales community. If ...
Cheesy title-granted, but it was what just came to mind when I was reading some responses to my earlier blog on Great Sales Leaders. One of our sales community members was remarking about managing a team of people when none of that team actually report to him. This is one version of the classic matrix organization which is a challenge to understand and "get" and takes skill to manage. Personally I have worked for several matrix organizations and it is a unique way to work. It is of course funny to me when I bring this up to different sales professionals and I get a blank stare and some of them think ...
I was finishing my morning walk and stopped in to the local Starbucks and saw some people having a heated discussion where one person was obviously trying to convince the other to adopt his view on whatever it was they were talking about. The discussion was very emotional ( and quite passionate) and it started me thinking about how we as a sales community use our emotions in the course of selling. There is a difference between being emotional and passionate and it can be a fine line. Thats a subject for another time...... When you are working with clients or prospects, do you let your emotions get in the way? I can say that ...
One of the many topics that I hear the sales community discussing is how to pay salespeople and what the ratio of base salary to commissions should be to create the on target earnings ( OTE). What then is the motivational impact of a lower base salary base vs. a higher base salary for the candidate? I have been listening to and coaching salespeople who are in the interview process and it is fascinating to me what I hear. One strongly expressed view is that a lower base means the company does not value sales. Conversely, I have to talked to many higher level people making the hiring decisions and the view is equally strong that ...
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