Does Marketing feel more like “overhead” than a true enabler of sales? Is Sales struggling to penetrate new accounts or to gain greater wallet share from existing customers? And why does it seem as if your sales and marketing organizations are on two different planets?
Welcome back from the holiday and welcome to the New Year. I trust you all had a restful and happy holiday. 2009 is here, and we are jointly accountable for a fast and aggressive start. Later this morning, you will most likely see my January newsletter, and in it I speak about a “Call to Action” for the new year.
Sales leaders and executives can download a podcast recording of the successful launch episode of “Let’s Talk Sales Culture,” the internet based live call-in show featuring Todd Cohen, the Philadelphia-based president of Sales Leader LLC.
Are you tired of hearing the excuse that the economy is THE reason for deals not getting done? Is this the first thing you hear when you are asking your sales reps? Is this the first thing you find yourself saying when asked why this deal or that deal have not closed?
I was having an interesting conversation with (an overwhelmed) client recently. He was struggling with how to balance the many demands on his schedule and feeling anxious and stressed out. No kidding! We are getting busier and being asked to do more with the same or fewer resources. This is the way things are now, and there ain’t a whole lot I can do to change that. However, during this conversation, I asked this sales professional one question “Are you in control?” For about 45 seconds, I had silence on the other end of the phone (remember, the first one to speak loses the deal). Then the response was… “No.”
Please join me on December 18th at 4:00 p.m. for my radio show “Let’s Talk Sales Culture.” Hosted through Blog Talk Radio, this will be the first of a bimonthly series of radio broadcasts.
As we close in on the end of the year, it’s important to revisit one one the most important, simple, (at times) terrifying, and most often neglected component of a sales campaign.
