Harness The Amazing Power Of Testimonials 
Testimonials allow prospects to discover the real-world benefits of using your product or service from your customers. Few sales tactics are more compelling or persuasive.
Pricing - Going Beyond What "The Market Will Bear"
Economics 101 works well when you are talking about commodities. But it doesn't count for much as far as your products and services go. Forget what the ‘market will bear'. Do it the right way.
Customer Profiles - It's A Jungle Out There
Some days you'll encounter more difficult customers than there are animals in the jungle. When hacking your way through the dense underbrush to get to the sale, the trick is to stay cool, calm and in control. See if you recognise some of the creatures you must deal with from time to time. Then follow the simple instructions for a successful sales safari.
Keeping The Sale
Just because a prospect has agreed to move forward it does not mean that the sale will go ahead - especially if you sell a complex system or solution. Dozens of things can happen to derail your efforts. Before you start counting your commission, it is critical that you keep the sale.
Making Your Clients Feel Like VIPs
Key to business success is making every single client feel like they are your most important client, irrespective of the value or revenue they generate for your business, or the size of their projects.
Just Checking In Makes Your Prospects Check Out!
Prospecting today has changed. You've got to do the things that get prospects' attention and add value. If you are just checking in, your prospects are checking out. Be a prospecting genius! Prospect the right way.
Nine Great Ways To Build Customer Loyalty
Companies are losing customers at a staggering rate without really hearing from most of them or understanding why. So, what are executives really doing about it?
Compensate To Motivate Your Salespeople
Are you and your sales team really on the same page? Channeling the energy of a sales team can be a challenging endeavour, but here's an incontestable fact: How you compensate your sales representatives determines where they invest their time and the results you get.
Will You Pass The Price Flinch Test?
There is a little test that professional buyers give to every salesperson. It is a test to see if they are confident in the price they presented. They call it the flinch test. How many commission dollars have you lost because you flinched?
If You Have 'Happy Customers' You Could Be Heading For Trouble!
The concept of a happy customer seems both virtuous and victorious; after all, this is surely the ultimate service goal of most organisations - and also the best way to stave off attacks from competitors. Not everything is what it seems though, especially when you define what is meant by a happy customer ...
How To Retain Your Best Salespeople
It all comes down to this. If you give your salespeople what they can't get anywhere else, why would they ever resign?
Seven Principles Of Direct Marketing
These seven principles of direct marketing (DM) are the result of expansive and careful research. Use them to get the most out of your DM efforts.
Maximising The ROI Of Your Tradeshow Exhibit
Rising fuel, energy, and transportation costs that are impacting every sector of the economy have not skipped over tradeshow exhibiting. You need to ensure the maximum ROI possible in order to justify these spiraling costs. Here are the top five ways to get the most out of every tradeshow.
Enhancing Client Satisfaction
The benefits of analysing and actively seeking to enhance your client's experience are multitudinous and can have a significant impact on brand loyalty, revenue, referrals, products sales and the take up of new products and services. So how do you show your clients you care?
26 Ways To Build Subscribers To Your Newsletter Or Blog
Following are some of our best success tips on building your newsletter (or blog) database.
Pricing In A Downturn
One economic law that holds true is that relating to supply and demand. If demand is greater than supply, the price goes up, and if less, the price goes down. So what are the actions that businesses must consider when pricing in a downturn?
Social Networking For Businesses
Social networking - the phrase is everywhere these days! These new technologies have revolutionised the way we function in the 21st century. But what can they do for you and your business? A lot, actually.
Building Lasting Client Relationships In A Regulatory Environment
Many industries operate in a regulatory environment, which dictates not only the technical requirements for doing business, but also the need to deliver service satisfaction without bureaucracy. When regulations tie up your flexibility, what can you do to continue meeting customer's expectations?
How To Find Your Ideal Customer
Often we think anyone with money is our ideal customer. It's only when you delve further that you'll find your real match. And if you want to reduce your marketing costs and increase your income, it's vital to know who your ideal customer is.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing (SMM) is a rapidly expanding marketplace. As a small business owner, one of your greatest assets is your expertise, and SMM enables you to share that with people.
Prospecting For New Business
If you are in business, then you are in sales, and one of the real keys to success in any business is having enough customers to make your business successful.
Solving The Mystery Of Timing
There are key clues that identify when a customer is ready to listen that can help reveal the best time to present a proposal.
The Move To Sales Management - Assessing The Fit
Selling and managing sales are two different disciplines, involving two different sets of skills. Much of what may have made a sales star excel - independence, the ability to close a deal no matter what, and a fierce competitive spirit (even when competing against their peers) - are not the traits associated with legendary sales managers.
5 Sublimely Simple Sales Tips
Use these 5 simple sales tactics to help seal the deal.
Taking On The Role Of Sales Manager - How To Conquer The New Terrain
The move from top-performing salesperson to sales manager is more than just a cumbersome exercise in transporting pictures, pens and kitschy paraphernalia. The transition can be a tumultuous, arduous journey.
Making Pre-Show Promotion Stand Out!
Pre-show promotion is the single most valuable step any exhibitor can take to help drive traffic to the exhibit, up the percentage of high-value qualified leads and ensure a positive return on investment.
Don't Advertise Your Business - Market It!
Too many business owners believe that marketing their business means just paying for a few ads. What few understand is that advertising is not the same as marketing.
How To Write Direct Mail That Will Get Results
Cover letters and emails help put into context, and make relevant, appointment requests from direct marketers and salespeople - if written properly.
A World Wide Web Of Marketing Opportunities
Businesses need to analyse their online engagement and determine if they are maximising the opportunities afforded by the world wide web.
Losing A Sale Is Never, Ever About Price Alone
If price was the main reason for losing a sale, it would be a lot easier to win by simply dropping it. The reality is, there are solutions customers will pay a premium for.
Top Retail Sales Tips That Work!
Improve retail business performance through focusing on conversion rate, average dollar sale and frequency of transaction. Here's how:
Email Campaigns That "Trigger" Success
Marketing effectiveness - and a great customer experience - is often a matter of timing. In the perfect world, we'd all communicate with customers at just the right moment. "Trigger" campaigns are one way of working towards this ideal.
Stand Out At Your Next Trade Show Using The "Power Of Questions"
Make no mistake - exhibiting is a competitive environment. You can differentiate yourself effectively by embracing the "power of questions".
Cold Call Common Sense
Why do so many managers, CEOs and salespeople keep cold calling? I've discovered the reason. It works. It does work. It really is that simple! Here's how to make your cold calling more time-efficient - and effective.
Guaranteeing The Revenue Result
How do you increase the chance that your sales targets will be achieved? How do you ensure the sales-force lands the sales result in a timely fashion, and avoid finishing 10% down? In my experience, the answer lies in the following 4 key points.
Manage Or Damage - Is Your Funnel Ratio Up To Par?
A company-specific Funnel Ratio, also known as the Pipeline Ratio, proves essential for maintaining sustained balance within your funnel and among accounts.
How To Revitalise Your Small Business Using Powerful, Low-Cost Marketing
Too many entrepreneurs, small business owners and sales professionals are wasting their time, money and efforts with traditional marketing practices. These practices are washed-up, worn-out and do not deliver profitable results. So what can you do today to make a difference tomorrow without breaking the bank?
Plant The Seed For Future Business
Cultivating your past and current customers is a guaranteed way of building future business. But for this to succeed you will need to have a thorough and functioning Customer Relationship Management system in place.
The Super 12s Of A Marketing Plan
In a cluttered market, with lots of competition, there are 12 "must haves" in your marketing plan.
Want To Catch A Buzz Online?
You probably already know some good methods for getting a lot of traffic to your web site. In my opinion, Buzz marketing ranks at the top, and the best part is - it's Free! If you aren't using Buzz marketing, you are missing out on an avalanche of links, swarms of traffic, and yes - even fame and fortune!
Overcoming The Top 10 Sales Barriers
Avoiding sales barriers is crucial to success in any industry. Whether you're selling products or services, remember this simple rule: sales doesn't have to be difficult. Your job is to simply help people buy products and services that are of use to them.
12 Keys To Tuning-Up Your Sales Force
Review these 12 keys to ensure that your sales organisation is finely-tuned and ready to conquer the selling world.
Just 7 Steps To Marketing Plan Success
The trouble with simply "doing" without a plan in place, is that you can get stuck moving forward without a plan - and subsequently, without direction. And that's just not advisable under ANY circumstance!
Six Tips For A Successful Direct-Mail Campaign
To develop a successful direct-mail campaign, you now need serious smarts and meticulous planning more than ever. Use these tips and your next direct-mail campaign is sure to bring sales.
Gravitational Marketing
Attraction comes from one thing ... ACTION! The big problem for most sales professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs is they don’t know what actions to take. Time is in limited quantity and you can’t do everything, right?
Developing Your Brand
Your brand is so much more than your logo or visual identity. It's the essence of who you are as a business.
Achieving Greater Efficiency With Your Sales Force
Just because your sales force seem to be working hard doesn't mean they're working efficiently and acheiving their full sales potential.
How To Conduct A Brand Audit
Brand is what differentiates your company from your competitors. Taking an outside-in view of your company will drive initiatives that create greater market share and build customer loyalty. So how do you conduct a brand audit?
How To Get More Prospects When You Write Articles
Want to get more website traffic and more prospects? When you write articles, you will attract more attention and get more website traffic, online publicity and profits.
A Dozen Ways To Develop Your Personal Brand
Take a professional approach to building your personal brand by using these dozen tips.
Selling To The 'New Millenials'
Try a few of these ideas out on the next 20 'New Millenial' customers you meet. You'll be pleasantly surprised when you hit the mark when selling to them and steal the advantage over your competition.
Brand Visibility
Forward-thinking people know that communicating - and doing so frequently and effectively - is a very important aspect to the success of their business.
Maximise Growth By Managing Your Sales Force Knowledge
In most cases, sales forces are as desperate for the right guidance and direction to conduct their sales activities as their managers' need for their sales teams to conform to the right procedures. Organisations with solid systems can usually deliver a 25-35% increase in results.
7 Secrets To Creating Client Referrals
It is astounding that most companies do not have active referral strategies. Devoting most of your marketing budget to referrals is a bit far-fetched but here are seven killer strategies that don't cost the earth to boost your business.
Generational Sales: The Question Is Y
This article addresses common statements and truisms related to selling to Generation Y and provides insights into reaching this notoriously hard-to-reach market segment.
Ten Keys To A Successful Sales Transformation
Ten principles for organisations contemplating an overhaul of their sales function that help minimise the risks.
What Do Clients Want?
In business-to-business transactions, clients are now looking for 'business people' who can sell.
How To Write Articles That Motivate Prospects To Immediate Action
When you write articles you want to persuade, influence and sell your point of view to others. So why are your article marketing efforts failing? The answer is simple - you haven't learned how to apply some basic persuasion secrets to your article writing and marketing efforts.
Price Right, Profit Right
How do businesses determine their price to customers?
How To Stay In Touch
Most business owners are great at what they do. Yet, if they have one skill deficiency, it is in marketing themselves. And that's fine. We are not all experts at everything. Here are some simple, yet effective ideas to help you develop what I call a "stay in touch marketing program".
A Best Practice For Shortening Sales Cycle Length
The accuracy of revenue forecasts is heavily reliant on information from the field. But, salespeople often times aren't estimating the correct time frame for a large sale, which inevitably throws sales calculations off balance.
Leverage Your Stories To Resonate With Prospects And Customers
Have you ever heard a story that could have been about you? Ever heard a story that reminded you of another one? What about a story that sounded vaguely familiar? Welcome to the power of story.
Turn Selling Around
The heart of the new approach to selling is an intense focus on the prosperity of your customers. This is a radical departure from what most salespeople and selling organisations do.
Being Truthful With Your Customers
We'd all like to be perfect, but we're not. And certainly no business is perfect. It's how you deal with this lack of perfection that will affect your business.
Developing Your Marketing Plan
Strategy is where business begins. Developing a strategy involves drawing on your knowledge, practical experience and creative thinking to create an action plan for business success.
Are You "Cliff Diving" With The Wrong Pricing?
You want to make more sales. Good for you. Here's the problem. More sales at a losing selling price is like cliff diving in the Grand Canyon. It's going to hurt if you don't know what's below.
Doing Research On Marketing
To be effective with your marketing efforts, you need to research!
Measuring The Referral Process
For the majority of networkers who have tried to keep a truly accurate count of how many "cold calls" led to actual, cash-in-your-pocket sales knows that this is not an easy task. The good news is that it is actually quite easy to measure success from referrals!
Cracking The Pareto Code For Sales Success
Ever heard of the "80/20 Rule"? That's the well-known principle that says that in every sales organisation 20 percent of the salespeople win 80 percent of the sales (and money!) while the remaining 80 percent are all splitting up 20 percent of the revenue.
Customers Want More Than Your Best Price
When we give prospects a 'good deal', instead of 'best price', we will close more business, with happier customers, at higher profits.
Selling Isn't Rocket Science - It's Harder!
"The devil's in the detail," says an old proverb. And in the profits too. Much like rocket science, when it comes to making the sale, the littlest thing can mean success or disaster. Here are a few tips to help you find success.
Finding And Fixing Sales Performance Problems - Defining The Problem
This article looks at how a sales operation can identify its strengths and weaknesses and drive performance improvement.
Finding And Fixing Sales Performance Problems - The Performance Improvement Process
This article looks at the performance improvement process and the role of the sales manager.
Finding And Fixing Sales Performance Problems - Defining The Solution
This article looks at first-meeting-to-proposal and proposal-to-order ratios.
Have You Heard About Experiential Marketing?
Experiential Marketing (EM) is an innovative way of standing out from the crowd. It involves creating an opportunity for your prospects to interact with your product or service in an enjoyable manner.
A Time To Reflect
Research reveals that self-reflection and self-appraisal are the top key attributes demonstrated on a regular basis by top performing salespeople.
Client Contact: The Importance Of Consistency
Research has discovered that communicating with your clients at least 25 times a year is optimal. WHOA! That's the initial reaction I get from people when I say that. "Twenty-five times a year is way too much for my business!" No, it's not.
Maximising Channel Performance
Today, more suppliers are using channels for complex sales, characterised by multiple buying influences and a high level of perceived risk on the part of the buyer.
Marketing Lessons From The Business Of Football
Football is more than a game; it's also a business. The business of football has grown because the promise included with each ticket has grown to appeal to more than just the pure fans. Does your business cater solely to your pure fans? If so, you're sitting on a tremendous growth opportunity.
Turning Uniqueness Into Sales
If you consistently display and deliver your uniqueness, whatever it may be, then that's what your reputation will become. You will stand out and you will become known for your unique quality.
Viral Marketing Campaigns: How Do They Work?
You've probably heard of viral marketing, but what actually is it and how do viral marketing campaigns work? Read on to find out how to apply the principles to your business.
Four Generations At Tradeshows: What This Means For You
The wide range of ages and viewpoints in the marketplace today is unlike anything previously experienced. Savvy exhibitors make themselves familiar with the generations most interested in their products and services and do everything possible to present themselves appropriately.
The Truth About Lying
As a salesperson, your ability to quickly and accurately discern the truth greatly enhances your effectiveness. Can you tell when someone is pulling the wool over your eyes?
Find The Hidden Message In Your Prospect's Handshake
More than just physical contact, a handshake conveys a wealth of psychological information.
The Lost Art Of Letter Writing
A few years ago, all the marketing statistics leaned towards email as the most potent form of marketing. Now they are tending to head the other way. Email marketing is still strong, but we are seeing a resurgence of direct mail as a way of communicating (and selling).
Articles: Write Them Once, Use Them In A Hundred Different Ways
There are loads of ways you can attract clients to you that don't involve cold calling, stuffing their fax with campaigns or knocking on doors. Just one of them is through the use of articles.
The Top Five Traits Of A Successful Salesperson
If you're looking for a successful salesperson to hire - a salesperson who not only CAN sell but WILL sell - look for a salesperson with PRIDE.
Reveal Your Brand
Ten seconds is all it takes to make a first impression - whether it's your personal presentation or the first contact a potential client or customer has with your company.
10 Customer Service Tips To Build Loyal Customers
It costs about three times more to find a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. But what does that mean? For most businesses, your best investment can and should be, in keeping your existing customers happy, rather than always chasing new customers.
Know Thyself: A Critical Strategic Element For Enduring Brand Success
It's astonishing that the majority of businesses, both large and small, have little, or no, consensus within their organisation as to whom they are and what they stand for. However, to know oneself is to uncover the keys of branding success and competitive differentiation!
Sales Force Performance: Recruit Your Way To The Top!
Essentially, a sales manager's primary responsibility is to recruit, train and motivate their sales force to achieve peak performance. Of these three vitally important tasks, recruiting is the least understood and by far the most challenging.
Retail Success - The Right People In The Right Places
One of the main areas that retailers feel that they fall down in is in area of generating leads.
Generational Marketing Messages - What Works Best Today
A comprehensive guide to marketing communications and messages for each generation.
Understanding Emotive Marketing
When comparing Generations Y and Z with previous generations, it is clear that how decisions are made, and how consumers are engaged, have indeed changed.
Generational Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is the process of dividing mass markets into groups of consumers that exhibit common or homogenous buying behaviours.
Email Metrics: Truths You Need To Know
If you are doing email marketing, hopefully you are alert to the tricks associated with email metrics.
Is Your Newsletter Newsworthy?
A newsletter is called a ‘news' letter for a reason. It should contain news. It should surprise, delight, shock. But so many companies and so many newsletters seem to be seriously news challenged.
Sales Meetings
Sales meetings, in particular, are an important tool for helping you to keep your team's performance on track. Successful meetings require a range of skills, a disciplined approach and an effective leader.
Decrease Information Overload For Increased Sales
Information is vital for any business. Yes it is - but not all of it. What information, and how much of it, do we really need?
What's Your Competitive Edge?
How many of us have been in business for a while and things have been going along smoothly, sales coming in, customers are happy. Then you notice that you are not winning the business you used to win.
Sales Presentations
If you or your staff are involved in sales presentations (to a group), as opposed to sales conversations (with one or two clients), my advice is - get good at them; because they are becoming more common.
Build, Brand, Sustain
Being a leader, taking a stance and setting the agenda are good ways to build what I call "reputation capital". Increase your reputation capital and you will increase your financial capital by following these three tips.
Conduct A Brand 'Health Check'
Lots of companies potentially compete with what you do - what makes you different to customers is how you do it. So it's worth getting a good handle on it!
Article Marketing And List Building: How To Build Your Own Hyper-Responsive List
By writing and submitting articles, you will have the ability to create targeted email marketing campaigns - like the pros - that will instantly reach and convert responsive prospects into huge sales.
Time Management Tips
Everyone is given exactly the same amount of time each day. It is up to us to manage this time as we would any other precious, non-renewable asset. In the world of commission sales, time is indeed money!
Referrals Are Predictable!
When you have a fully functioning referral-marketing strategy in operation, you will know approximately how many referrals you can expect, and of what quality they will likely be, over a given period.
How To Use Sales Psychology To Create More Lifetime Clients Now
You can double or even triple your sales by getting a grasp on your customer's behavioural style. It will make a difference in your sales figures and will turn one-time customers into lifetime customers.
The Dos And Don'ts Of Branding - Art Versus Process
In this article we explore the importance of branding to SMEs and look at cost-effective ways to achieve results.
The Dos And Don'ts Of Branding - Logo Logic
Your logo should reflect who you are. The main function of a logo is to create and reinforce company or brand identity.
The Dos And Don'ts Of Branding - A Minefield Of Names
A company's brand stands on three legs: Name, Logo and Tagline. None of them is easy to get right, yet all of them are keys to defining the company, building recognition in the marketplace and developing loyal customers.
The Dos And Don'ts Of Branding - Taglines And Fault Lines
A tagline is to a logo what clothes are to a woman - they reveal more about her character and, in the same way, the tagline is a defining element of the brand.
Overcoming Rejection
Five secrets for turning failure into success in 6 months guaranteed!
Being Authentic In Sales
Knowing how to modulate and adapt your approach is vital in any sales situation but knowing how to remain as "you" is equally as important.
A Radical New Approach For Setting Goals And Achieving Outrageous Results!
When you focus on going for "No" you will achieve higher results. The "Yes's" will come. They always do!
Discover The Buried Treasure Your Clients Are Hiding From You
What is the average lifetime value of a client to your business? Do you know? Sadly, many business people do not have an answer for that question, nor do they understand the value of knowing.
14 Steps To Successful Cold-Calling
The vast majority of salespeople do not enjoy cold-calling. Yet, at the same time, it is an activity that most need to do on a regular basis.
Seven Reasons To Say "NO" To New Business
If your company is dependant on larger sales from fewer customers, then you could put yourself at financial risk by taking on the wrong customer.
Not All Customers Are Good Customers
Ever had some customers who spend very little with you, but take up enormous amounts of your time? Nothing's ever right, they quibble about every cent and they do not intend to spend much with you anyway.
Questions For Your Customers
The focus of all marketing isn't your needs, but the needs of your customers. Therefore if you want to know how to best market your business, ask your existing customers. They have all the answers!
Brand Rejuvenation
Established brands are resilient, elastic and vital. However, continued good health is not a guaranteed condition.
Rethinking Global Brand Strategy
In order to remain competitive, many large companies today feel compelled to create a global brand strategy. In fact, for most brands, "going global" is not only an elusive objective; it's a destructive one.
Even If You're Getting All the Referrals You Need, You Still Need to Sell!
Anyone who is experienced and successful in referral marketing will tell you that sales skills are absolutely required. They're needed in every part of the process - not just in closing the sale with the prospect.
Free For The Giving
The best things in service situations are often free.
Influencing Versus Negotiating
It has often been said that very strong negotiation skills are critical to being a high performing sales person. Before you invest your training dollars into Negotiating Skills training for your sales team though, you might like to think about investing it into Influencing Skills training instead.
A New Approach To 'New' Media
Influence, sharpen and build your strategic planning process in the online environment.
Shine Through Your Personal Brand
Are you in love with your company so that you can work toward establishing a strong personal brand?
Sales Recruitment
Your small business is growing and diversifying. You've experimented with bringing on an inexperienced sales person, who did not work out. You realise you need a more experienced sales person, however you do not know where to find them and what to look for.
Mother Of A Sales Performance
As the New York Stock Exchange is now looking at "employee engagement" as a significant predictor of higher share value and market return, and given we are all competing, not just for clients and market share but for good employee talent, maybe a key performance indicator for sales management could be in Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB).
Differentiating In The 21st Century - Honesty Will Always Prevail!
The message in this article is all about being straight! It's about improving the impact of your marketing by coming from a place of honesty, authenticity and integrity.
How And Why To Create A Value-Add Product
Why take your depth of knowledge for granted, when you can turn that information into products that add value to your clients? Here's how to create what can become a powerful marketing tool for your business.
Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Is Always Working
It just may not be working in your favor!
Why Aren't You Doing Win-Back Campaigns?
Many companies allocate budgets for customer acquisition but spend nothing on win-back. Handled smartly, you have much more chance with win-back than with acquisition.
Coach Your Sales People To Think Like Entrepreneurs
The first step in successful coaching is to help your sales people create their preferred futures by helping them set their goals, objectives, and desired results.
Article Marketing: Beat Blank Screen Syndrome
In this article, I'm revealing ways to beat blank screen syndrome so you can write articles fast to build web site traffic, leads and profits.
How To De-Commoditise Your Offering
In today's world, you cannot stay on top simply by fulfilling your customers' needs. Instead - as a bulwark against de-commoditisation - create solutions that help customers reach their goals. And in the process, differentiate yourself from your competitors and add value to the customer.
Getting To The Economic Buyer
When you are dealing with a certain individual on a long-term sale, who tells you he is the decision maker and everything must go through him, but you know he's not, what is the correct way to get to the actual decision maker without undermining your point of contact?
Beating Your Competition
How to easily and cheaply win the hearts and wallets of your competitors clients.
Own Your Local Area
What do you do when your new business has not made any money, and all of your marketing efforts have been in vain? It might be time to 'own your local area' and see real results.
Brand You To Stand Out And Shine
Does 'Brand You' say your business is the best? Here's some tips on how to stand out and shine.
Managing The Customer Relationship For Results
Customers - where would we be without them! But managing the customer relationship requires skill, and well-trained staff.
Myth: Cold Calling Is A Good Idea
In the "olden days" when I first started my business, over 95% of my sales came about through cold calling. It was very clear that if I didn't bill anything I didn't earn anything. So I got on the phones and I prospected to people I didn't know - that is, cold calling.
Strategies Of Winning Sales Organisations
What are Winning Sales Organisations (WSOs) doing more often and better than other sales organisations?
Selling In A Flattened World
Selling from the buyer's point of view is nothing new. But thanks to the forces reshaping the global business landscape, adopting that mindset is more critical today than ever before.
Seven Myths And Misconceptions About Top Performing Salespeople
If there's one profession that's plagued with myths and half-truths, it's sales. And no group is more subject to misunderstanding than your organisation's top performers. Let's examine seven of the most common misconceptions about world-class salespeople.
Find Hidden Revenue By Cross-Selling And Up-Selling
This article defines what cross-selling and up-selling really mean; address the correct timing and key steps for successful cross-selling and up-selling; and discuss how these can help you bring dormant accounts back to life.
The Power Of One
One is a very tiny number. However, it can have a tremendous impact on your revenues.
Increase Sales By Educating
I would like to share an incredibly powerful approach to marketing with you. It will help differentiate your business, enable you to convert more prospects, generate greater positive word-of-mouth and ultimately create more referrals for your business. This article is about educating your prospects and your existing customers.
Five Effective Negotiating Steps To Solution-Led Selling
Being an effective negotiator means overcoming two of your biggest challenges.
ABC Of Branding
ABC, which stands for Actions, Beliefs and Clothing are a brand's basic building blocks. You have an authentic and strong brand when these three aspects work together harmoniously.
How To Write Articles That Generate Free Publicity
Writing articles and submitting them to the media is an excellent way to get free publicity. Any time you have something published it creates awareness of your brand and enhances your credibility. So how do you go about it?
Your Brand Is Everything
Your brand is everything. Don't think that just because you're not Nike or Coke that you don't have a brand. You ARE a brand.
The Huge Cost Of Hesitation
I knew that being hesitant in the sales arena was a no-no, but I didn't know just how much business it could cost.
Death By Discount
Cutting prices may seem like a good way to win sales but it can be fatal to your business.
Channel The Effort
Too many paths to market increase the risk of collision.
Selling And Managing Are Not The Same
Like many people, I have known that selling and managing are not the same thing. They are two very distinct jobs with different demands and expectations.
Guerilla Marketing
There are some subtle, low-cost and very effective ways to make sure you get noticed.
Focus On Your Niche
Being a market leader in a select sector beats trying to be all things to all people.
What Is Good Selling?
Like many people, I have always been curious about what makes "great sales performance". This is a perplexing question that has been asked and attempted to be answered by many people over the years.
Go On, Give Them A Try
Allowing customers to test your product or service is an underused marketing technique.
Sponsorship
Many big businesses use sponsorship as a marketing tool. SMEs need to wise up to the pitfalls and possibilities.
Read Up On This!
Have you ever read a newspaper story about a competitor and said with disgust "That's not news, we've been doing that for years!"? Welcome to the world of PR and media relations. It seems it is only news if you've told the media! In this article, we're going to show you how to do just that.
Are You An Exhibitionist?
Sometimes a good way to kickstart your public profile is to take part in a trade show or public exhibition.
Wrap Your Clients Up With CRM
Knowing and speaking with your customers regularly is smart business.
Build It - But Will They Come?
Just creating a business is not enough; you then need to find and keep customers.
Knowing When And How To Use Premium Pricing
It's obvious to most sales leaders that pressure from existing competitors (both foreign and domestic) and decreasing barriers to new competitors have knocked yesterday's unique offering off its pedestal, landing as today's commodity.
Your Acres Of Diamonds
How you can identify and profit from the untapped growth opportunities surrounding your business.
Article Marketing - Writing An Article That Attracts Attention
Article marketing is a great way to build prospect lists. But it will only work well if you use the right kind of language that will grab their attention and give them a call to action that will have them reaching for the phone - and their wallets!
Create Engaged Customers
We are all in the same business - the delivery of value to stakeholders that they demand, desire, and feel they deserve. Once you know what these really are for customers (just one of your stakeholders), create a memorable service experience around their delivery.
The Five Types Of Shoppers
In the retail industry, it seems as though we are constantly faced with the issue of trying to find new customers. This focus on pursuing new customers is certainly prudent and necessary, but, at the same time, it can wind up hurting us.
The Importance Of Building A Database Of Prospects
Having a database of prospects can be a powerful source of new business for you.
How To Generate Endless Referrals
Businesses live or die by the volume of regular referrals they receive. Yet many business operators place little or no energy on the art of giving and receiving referrals. As a result, they regularly experience erratic cash flow.
How To Turn Your Sales Effort Into A Rocket Ship Of Results
Most business leaders don't know how to structure their sales organisations or even themselves for maximum productivity. They don't know how to change, adapt and re-organise for new stages of growth. Whether you are a one-person army or a large-scale sales force, you can learn and leverage my golden secrets to super sales mastery.
Growing Your Business One Customer At A Time
The people aspect of business is really what it is all about. Rule No. 1: Think of customers as individuals. Once we think that way, we realise our business is our customer, not our product or services. Putting all the focus on the merchandise in our store, or the services our corporation offers, leaves out the most important component: each individual customer.
How To Create Compelling Value Propositions
To create ‘propositions' that will invite the market (and your sales team!) to sit up, take notice and take action involves a simple process - but one that is demanding and therefore rarely used.
To Win The Service Battle - You Must First Declare War!
The business equivalent of a declaration of war, is a 'service promise' that offers true and distinctive value to customers.
The Realities Of e-Mail Marketing
The real reason most of the e-mail messages filling in-boxes around the world don't get read, lies with the people who write them.
How Are You Known In The Marketplace?
How does the world see you? It may not be the way you see yourself. Either way, it's time you find out!
Getting Direct Marketing Fundamentals Right
What we are doing when direct marketing (DM), is presenting an offer with a strong message, to a selected audience, with the aim of attracting a response.
The Psychology Of Persuasion
Why do people behave the way they do? An understanding of the psychology of persuasion not only gives us a fascinating insight into people in general, it can also help us to develop marketing principles and have empathy with potential buyers.
Five Steps To Unlock Your Sales Team's Potential
Each manager has the ability to see the potential in their sales team, but how many actually have the skills to ensure each team member's potential is realised?
Do You Suffer From Sameness Syndrome?
If we perceive two products to be identical, why would we buy the more expensive one? And the fact is, that many products are very similar to one another - either in perception or reality. So if you are going to avoid selling on price, you have to find an antidote to Sameness Syndrome.
Keep Your Customers For Life
How much time do you spend trying to entice new customers to your business?
Seven Steps To Value Acceleration
To achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for your business, that is value acceleration, you need to take these seven steps:
Selling A Higher Price In A B2B Environment
Even the most sales savvy among us have had to fight back the nerves that materialise whenever we are faced with telling a customer about a price increase.
Article Marketing's ROI
By now, you realise that placing articles on targeted websites is a great way to build traffic to your website. But how do you know if your investment in time, energy and manpower is really paying off?
How To Build Your Prospect List With Article Marketing
Article marketing is the best sales lead generation technique on the Web today. Unfortunately, many marketers writing articles on the Web fall short in their sales lead generation efforts. They simply can't get people to visit their websites.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words!
How good are you at reading body language? Are you able to tell when a person is lying to you? Do you know how to use body language gestures to build trust and rapport? Read this article and begin using the power of nonverbal communication to help you close more sales in less time... I guarantee it!
Grow Through Your Existing Customer Base
There is real growth potential in a sole trader's existing customer base, but many fail to realise its full potential. Often, more energy goes into attracting new customers than looking after current ones.
Word Of Mouth - We Have Always Known Its Value
Everyone knows that word of mouth (WOM) can be powerful. It is usually far more effective than general advertising.
Building Your Brand
Five steps to building a strong brand and an optimised customer experience.
Your Secret Sales Machine
Almost every company owns a gold mine of opportunity - a secret sales machine. It exists buried in the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of daily calls to and from existing clients, to and from people who think of themselves as "non-sales".
Don't Let Your Marketing Plan End Up In A Museum!
If you want your business to gather pace rather than dust, it's vital that any marketing plan you write is effective and easily implemented. Sounds like a no brainer, but the majority of plans - all written with the best intentions of course - end up wallowing in the bottom of filing cabinets or being used a year later as scrap paper.
Online Marketing Has Levelled The Playing Field
If you'd studied marketing at university just ten years ago, you'd have been hard pressed to even find one paragraph devoted to online marketing, but these days online is such an integral part of any marketing plan, you must know as much about the opportunities as you can.
Taking The Direct Approach
If I were to spend this article talking only about Consecotaleophobia I'd probably lose your interest. After all, you're reading this article to help you be the best businessperson you can be... not to find a cure for your acute fear of chopsticks! Direct Marketing (DM) is a little like that. It's about thoroughly defining your target market, speaking to them appropriately and measuring their response.
Implementing Successful Marketing Campaigns
A question I frequently get asked is "how do I ensure the successful implementation of my campaign?". So, in this article I'm going to give you a few suggestions.
Top 5 Marketing Strategies For Success
These strategies will help make your marketing efforts a success.
Essential Marketing Practices
There's a proven marketing strategy that allows businesses to generate and retain high quality clients, without hiring external consultants. Following are some practical marketing strategies that generate real results.
If You're Getting Referrals, Do You Need To Sell?
Truth or delusion... If you're getting all the referrals you need, you don't need to sell.
Magic Words
What words are music to the ears of your customers?
How To Get A 50% DM Response Rate
Did you know that your clients and customers are getting hit with approximately 3,000 advertising messages a day! This barrage of advertising noise is making it increasingly difficult for prospective customers to hear what your business has to offer.
An Attitude Of Service
I believe there are two attitudes when it comes to how a business interacts with the outside world - one of selling, and one of service. These attitudes colour the personality of the business and consequently how it is perceived by customers.
27 Exhibiting Do's And Don'ts
A checklist of what to watch out for and what to ensure you do at your next tradeshow exhibit.
Keeping Customers For Life
We all know the adage that it’s a lot cheaper to keep a customer than it is to get a new one. But why do we lose customers, and what can we do to keep them with us “for life”?
Taghuchi Testing: Double Your e-Newsletter Conversions
If you’re like most people you’d be happy to increase conversions a few percentage points on each e-newsletter.
5 Steps To Effective Customer Loyalty Programs
Increasingly organisations are becoming dissatisfied with their customer satisfaction surveys and turning to designing and implementing customer loyalty programs instead. They are beginning to understand that it’s not just about satisfaction.
Outflanking The Buyer's Defences
One of the most potent motivations in organisational decision-making is the need for the buyer to reduce the risk of purchase.
Not All Referrals Are Equal
In this article, I will discuss the varying levels of a referral, starting at a level that is just one step above a cold lead.
Using Integrated Marketing To Acquire Customers
The basic premise of marketing is that you need to get the right service or product to the right customer at the right time.
Lining Up With Heroes
Sponsorship in the marketing mix can give a business a competitive advantage. But just throwing money at the relationship doesn't ensure victory. This article outlines the essentials to get across the line.
Using Effective e-Marketing To Build Sales
Good email newsletters can be a very valuable way of building and maintaining communications with your customers. Bad email newsletters can be a turn-off. This article outlines the basic rules to follow to make your email newsletters an effective communication tool.
What's Wrong With Our Customers? - Marketing In The Information Age
The people you are marketing to have changed. Today they are more demanding, have more choice and more power. They trust you less and struggle to hear you through the "noise" created by an endless stream of communications.
Multiple Strategies To Grow Your Business
So you go out and spend money on getting people in the door. How busy is your store?
Making A Statement!
If you want your marketing efforts to fire, you need to give them direction and focus by zeroing in on a positioning statement. A positioning statement tells the market exactly what you promise to deliver. Having a good one is vital as it differentiates you from your competitors and means more impact and less waste from your marketing budget.
Don't Be Scared Off By All That Brand Talk
A great brand can set your company apart, give you a competitive advantage and encourage loyalty from your customers and staff.
Increasing Each Customer's Value
You've spent lots of time and money in acquiring your customers and servicing them well for that initial sale. So it follows that you should try and work out how to increase and maximise the amount of money that they spend with you.
Complaints Key To Improving Sales, Retention And Loyalty
It's said nobody likes a complainer. I beg to differ. In customer service a complainer is doing you a favor.
Principles Of Persuasion: The Science Of Selling
Throughout history, our most admired leaders are remembered primarily for their ability to instill courage and inspire confidence.
That's Entertainment: Adding Some Show Biz To Your Tradeshow Exhibit
What makes one tradeshow exhibit memorable and another so-so? What can exhibitors do to get attendees talking after the show? What can motivate visitors who may have had no previous intention of visiting your booth decide that they definitely have to stop by? Entertainment!
Cross-Selling Takes Teamwork
Progressive company's understand the power of cross-selling and recognise it as a critical component for promoting both customer retention and revenue growth.
Increasing Marketing Effectiveness On Fewer Dollars
When times are tough, how do you reduce your marketing and communications spend but retain, or even grow, reach and effectiveness?
Drive Leads And Sales With A "Get It Done" Attitude
I think most business-to-business marketers should aim for "get it out" and "good enough" rather than aim for perfection when it comes to marketing to drive leads and sales.
Implementing An Effective Sales Process
Successful implementation of a common sales process within a sales-driven organisation, although requiring work, provides advantages. Those businesses that have a specific sales system benefit significantly at several levels.
Four Reasons Your Salespeople Stop Selling
It's something that happens to most managers at some time. A problem that's likely to keep us awake nights, tossing and turning and seeing the business going down the drain.
Pitching For New Business
Successfully pitching for new business depends not only on your ability to think and act outside the square but also on providing opportunities for your customer to do the same.The three rules of the game for capturing new business are simple: plan, prepare and pitch.
What's In A Name?
Naming or re-naming a business or product can be thrilling, or terrifying, or both. There's a lot at stake, from legal ramifications right through to the future sale price of your business.
Pervasive Customer Experience
Expensive advertising is no longer sufficient to stake your position in the market. A pervasive customer experience, consistently actioned across all your customer touchpoints, and executed in alignment with your purpose and values, is way more powerful.
People Skills Quiz
Are you aware that your body language reveals your deepest feelings and hidden thoughts to total strangers? As a professional salesperson you must continuously monitor your customer's body language and adjust your presentation style accordingly.
Silly Service Has Its Serious Side
Test your customer service knowledge!
Knowing Our Customers
In knowing our customers, there are three results 'outside the walls' that deliver satisfaction to customers. Customers deserve and demand that we supply, service and satisfy them.
B2B Direct Mail: Don’t Get Lost In The Details
It seems that we business-to-business marketers too often get caught up in the details of direct marketing, rather than concentrating on the things that are most important: the list, the offer and the results.
Six Powerful Prospecting Tips
Why is it that some sales reps consistently earn a six-figure annual income while other reps, putting in the same hours, selling the same products and trained by the same sales manager, struggle each month financially to make ends meet?
Begin At The Beginning: Secrets For Success
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Beginning well means you're half done. Once you've established a rapport with the client, once that positive foundation has been laid, the hard work of negotiating a deal and closing a sale becomes so much easier.
Increase Profitability By Understanding Your Sales Team
Have you ever closely examined why some people are wildly successful at selling, meeting and exceeding every goal placed in front of them, while others lack either the self motivation or certain key skill sets to get them to their next level of growth and performance?
Customers For Life!
The most successful companies place great value on developing lifetime relationships with their customers.
SMART Steps To Marketing Success
In a perfect world, marketing projects would proceed in a smooth, clearly marked path.
How To Read Your Prospect Like A Book!
Top salespeople, and the most successful managers, recognise the importance of nonverbal communication in the selling process and have learned to "listen with their eyes". They understand that one of the easiest and most effective ways to close sales is to be aware of their prospect's "buy signals".
Selling To The Four Temperament Styles
Have you ever wondered why you seem to hit it off right away with some customers, while with others it's more like oil and water? That's because we respond intuitively to the natural chemistry, or lack thereof, between temperament styles.
Delivering Better Customer Service Via E-Mail - Nine Quick Tips
More than ever before, we are, and will, be using e-mail to communicate with customers, co-workers and others.
Up-selling: It's Sales AND Service
People often regard up-selling and cross-selling as sales techniques or sales strategies to increase sales. Yet each has a customer service component to them as well. I prefer to think of them as forms of both sales and customer service.
Sales Through Storytelling: Story Tell, Story Sell!
Leverage the power of storytelling to showcase skills, values and experience with short, powerful success stories.
Sales Objections Overruled!
Objections come in all shapes and sizes. Your challenge: avoid taking them personally, recognise them as part of the sales process, and learn to transform them into opportunities to solidify sales.
Getting Past Gatekeepers
Strategies for reaching decision-makers.
The Voice Of Customer Service
Customer relationship management tools abound, yet let's hear it for old technology. Your voice is the most multifaceted customer service tool in your toolkit.
How To Influence & Persuade
This article shows you a few ways to help grow your business by using the powers of influence and persuasion.
Streamline Your Marketing Message
Part of every successful business is a simple and well-defined core marketing message.
Solve A Problem
You may be engaged in a marketing activity that is working against you. Or, at the very least, it is making sales more difficult. Is your current marketing approach focused on what you can DO and what you KNOW? Surprise! This doesn't work.
The Greatest Business Asset: Your Past Customers
Whether you are a business owner, marketing professional, entrepreneur, or fundraiser, it is crucial to remember your greatest business asset is your past and present satisfied customers.
The Power Of Saying Thank You
An easy thing to forget in the midst of our frenzied lives is the simple act of saying "thank you." And yet, by incorporating a thank-you strategy into your marketing, you'll reap immense rewards.
Make Marketing A Habit
When business is booming, it's easy to put marketing on the back burner. Why focus attention on getting new customers when you already have all you can handle? The reason is simple: when things slow down, you want to have new clients in the pipeline.
Do You Need A Marketing Workout?
Marketing is like exercise.
USPs And All That!
“Let your fingers do the walking”. “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play”. Just two advertising slogans and memorable examples of a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
3 Seconds To Impact!
Three Seconds. That's all you get.
To Sell More, Define Your Niche
You may think selling to the widest possible pool – trying to be all things to all people – is your best chance to succeed. Unfortunately, this approach is limiting your ability to make money and attract customers.
Build Better Business With Better Branding
Branding is the overall intellectual and emotional impression people have when they think of your company.
Boost Profits In Four Simple Steps
One of the most common mistakes companies make when they are trying to boost their profits, is to try and get new customers.
Persona Based Marketing
Powerful B2B marketing tools for connecting with prospects and customers.
Targeting Your B2B Lead Generation Efforts
When searching for prospects to buy your products or services, you want to find those companies who have a problem for which you have the solution.
Pricing For Profit
Pricing is a complex issue that needs careful consideration and planning. However, some strategies can be quickly developed and implemented that will result in the unlocking of existing hidden profits in your business.
3 Marketing Mistakes Every Business Manager Makes
Here are a few important marketing mistakes that just about every business manager out there makes, along with a recommended fix that will help you attract more business and get better results from your marketing, regardless of how big or small your marketing budget is.
Beyond The Product
This article is intended to act as a catalyst for those who feel constrained to negotiating the price and supply of their products.
Developing KPIs And Estimating The ROI For Events
Using events as a relationship marketing tool necessitates an investment that, like any other investment, requires a gauge on effectiveness and return on investment (ROI).
How To Double Sales In 12 Months Flat
Here is the most powerful lesson you will ever learn for doubling sales in the next 12 months.
Increase Profits In 12 Months Flat Through Consumer Education Programs!
You can attract far more prospects to look at your offer by providing an education than you'll ever get by simply offering your products or services.
Managing The Price Of Your Product
Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value. The pricing function of the marketing mix is often met with uncertainty, risk, and consternation.
Why Should Customers Come To You?
How to differentiate your business and thrive against your competition.
What’s In A Name? The Six Essential Elements You Need To Know
Selecting a name for your new business is not easy. A name does more than identify your company. It tells customers who you are, what you do, and more than a little about how you do it.
Give First, Receive Later
One definition of marketing is “to help people get what they want”.
The Profitable Art Of Generating Referrals
Most people believe that their business that would be improved if only they could generate a few more prospects itching to buy.
Customer Relationship Management: Challenging The Myth
What company today does not want to be more customer oriented to stimulate growth through higher sales and better services with higher margins?
Sales Lead Success Checklist
How you handle sales leads makes the difference between happy customers or lost sales.
Are You Dropping Out Of The Lead Nurturing Race Too Soon?
The value of longer-term B2B sales leads, with strategies and tactics for marketing and sales.
Wanted! Real Sales Leaders (Fake Leaders Need Not Apply)
How to be a real sales leader, and not just a sales manager.
What To Do When Nothing’s New: Five Strategies For Success
Look at that throng of people crowding the trade show floor. People come from all over the country to walk these aisles, eager eyes flitting from booth to booth, scanning the exhibits for–what, exactly?
How To Increase Profits By 800%
Here’s a magic formula:
How To Increase The Value Of Almost Every Sale
Have you ever been into McDonalds and ordered just a burger, nothing else. If you have, I’ll bet that the kid behind the counter didn’t say "That’ll be $2.85 thanks" did they? Their exact words were "Would you like French fries with that?"
How To Make Customers Say “WOW!”
Almost without exception when business owners and managers are asked what their customers really want their answers are “service”, “good prices”, “knowledgeable staff”, and so on. And those owners and managers are wrong!
Strong Arm Sales Stop Success Cold
It happens more often than you’d ever guess — in fact, it might be happening at the booth right next to yours. Recent surveys of trade show attendees show that the most dissatisfied attendees are those who purchase something that they really didn’t want. Needless to say, these attendees don’t have a high opinion of those companies that ‘strong—armed’ them, and report that they’ll be unlikely to do business with them again.
Customer Service Is No Accident!
It’s true that the buck stops with the leader of an organisation, but when the buck stops because the customer stops walking in the door, it can be a little too late to start asking why they’re going to our competitors, not renewing contracts, or worse still not wanting to do business with us again. But go on, be brave ASK your customers what they think – they will still respect you in the morning…
Make Some Noise: Seven Super Promotion Steps
Trade shows are all about promotion. You are strategically planning to present your goods and services to a specially targeted audience, in order to meet clearly defined goals and objectives.
A Solution To Pricing Problems
I was reminded of the problems with pricing when reading the article Hourly Rates? — No Thanks!.
Hourly Rates? No Thanks!
As an independent professional, how you charge for your services can either make or break you. It can mean the difference between a mediocre and a successful business. In my experience, most people don’t spend enough time thinking strategically about what pricing strategy they should use.
Email Worth A Second Look
You hear so much negative talk about promotional email. Among colleagues and between clients and suppliers, of course, email is fantastically convenient. We all know that. But as a promotional tool? That’s a different thing.
Countdown To Success: Twelve Things To Do Twelve Months In Advance
When a show’s a year away, it may seem like you have lots of time to get ready. But appearances can be deceiving. Twelve months is not long, especially with all the pre—show planning, training, and preparation you’ve got to do. Here is a checklist of twelve vital items that need to be done approximately one year before you set up your exhibit.
Preshow Planning Equals Success: 10 Essential Questions You Have To Ask
The early bird gets the worm. The same holds true for trade shows — the most successful exhibitors are those who start planning at least 12 months prior to the next event. Exhibiting requires a great deal of time, money, and personnel. Make the most of your resources by utilising them at the show that best meets your marketing needs.
Rut Busters: Changing Your Trade Show Routine
Routines can easily become ruts, especially at a trade show. It’s also one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
Measurement Of Marketing: Keeping Good Customers
It was with shock and horror that I read recently an issue of a marketing industry periodical that described the value of marketing as “the ultimate role of marketing as delivering increased shareholder value.”
Four P’s Of Customer Retention
It has been approximately 40 years since marketing professor (and subsequent guru) Dr. Philip Kotler coined the concept of the four P’s of marketing — product, price, place, and promotion. While still valid today, Kotler’s original four P’s do not have as much application to customer retention as they do to customer acquisition.
Four Key Exhibiting Strategies For Generation Y
Generation Y are trendsetters. If you can attract Generation Y’s attention, you’ll get the other two groups as well. How do you attract Generation Y? It may be trickier than you think...
Changing Customer Values
Change is happening so rapidly that the countless reorganisations, restructures, down—sizings, mergers, break—ups and new business start—ups make the business community seem almost out of control. Is it at all surprising, therefore, that your customers are also simultaneously undergoing vast amounts of change as well?
How To Build Trust And Rapport Quickly
If you're working hard, but aren't consistently generating enough sales and getting referrals, chances are it's a matter of trust. One of the most critically important and yet frequently overlooked aspects of selling is creating a solid foundation of trust and rapport.
Is Sponsorship Right For My Company?
How do you know that sponsorship is right for your company? Is there a way to determine if underwriting aspects of a trade show will help your bottom line? Absolutely..
Sales Effectiveness: Shortening The Sales Cycle
Reducing the time to close a deal is certainly top of mind for any sales executive and has a huge impact not only on the success of the business, but also on the organisation's ability to develop what is commonly described as a high performance sales culture: one of winning, confidence and efficiency. Here are five ways to affect the sales culture in a positive way by reducing the time it takes to sell a product or a service.
Making It Easier For Your Customers To Do Business With You
Or 'Why Do Companies Make It So Difficult For Customers To Do Business With Them?'
Advertising: Sure—Fire Tips For Success
When you advertise your business, are you confident that your advertising copy is eliciting the required response from the audience you are targeting?
Super Sleuths: Using Trade Shows To Investigate Your Competition
Your company is in a precarious position. The marketplace is changing daily. New companies enter the industry. Your competitors are constantly unveiling new products, new services, and/or new marketing strategies. How do you keep up with — or even better, how do you anticipate — these changes?
Back To School: Booth Staff Basics
It’s an ideal time of year to provide your booth staff with the tools and trainings they’ll need for the next trade show. The summer is over, and industries of every type are gearing up for what looks to be a very busy trade show season.
Are Channel Partners Killing Your Brand?
Market—place performance must live up to customers' brand expectations. Manufacturers invest millions of dollars in brand development. However, their market—place performance is not always well matched to brand attributes. This directly erodes brand equity through missed sales opportunities and customer dissatisfaction.
Market—Place Performance — Get The Hygiene Right First!
Organisations seeking greater competitive advantage and differentiation through distribution often overlook distribution channel hygiene. Large sums of money are often wasted in more complex strategies. Ignoring distribution channel strategy creates the risk that customer loyalty will decline; longer term customer value will decline; sales will erode; distribution costs will climb and new initiatives will be built upon a weak base.