So how do you know that you have a strong and vibrant sales culture? Indications of your strengths include many tangibles, such as stakeholder retention, super-engaged employees, new sales referrals, better-qualified sales professionals, and increasing revenue.
This is about the time of year that my clients start to call me and ask, “Why can’t I make any progress with my prospects and customers?” (Actually, I hear this all year long, but now it seems to be a bit more pronounced.) More to the point, I also hear from the customers and prospects who ask me for advice about how to “handle” salespeople. So, without further ado, I am publishing this letter from sales on how we can all get along.
I was recently privy to a conversation where a manager was telling his employee how to do something. The reason I overheard it was not because I was in the same room but because he was so loud that everyone in a close radius heard him! After the manager was done, he happened to wander to my desk and mentioned how he had had a “big successful coaching session” with this person and that he felt it had gone very well. I found this interesting because what I heard was not coaching but telling.
Let me say this right up front: The enemy of the salesperson is not a bad economy, an ineffective manager, or a less-than-optimal product. Although none of these are good things per se, the mortal enemy of the salesperson is having a sense of entitlement.
Thought leaders earn respect. It’s because as a thought leader you are passionate and able to help people see a new idea or get clarification on existing ones. Sales professionals who distinguish themselves as being a thought leader are more likely to earn respect AND get the deal closed. Read the entire article as published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on August 20th, 2011.
If you’ve attended sales seminars, then you’ve likely noticed a common key point conveyed in many of them: Sales professionals must deliver value to their prospective customers. How will you deliver value to your prospects? In this article, I talk about how you can nurture relationships with prospects and drive sales by simply turning the focus from building your sales to helping customers grow their businesses.
I was thinking about the proliferation of articles by sales experts of all sorts who profess to have the secret of sales and how to be the best! I have written before about this phenomenon, and it always makes me smile. So, here is my secret to sales…in my shortest-ever blog. Without further delay – Todd Cohen’s Secret to Sales is…Pick up the Phone.
