Selling Power Blog

Can You Duplicate Success?

2013-05-10T13:56:28-04:00

I recently attended a conference where one of the speakers gave this advice to sales managers: "All you have to do to increase sales is to teach your salespeople to repeat their own best performance more often." This sounds like a good idea, but I know that many salespeople can’t transfer their skills from one situation to another or from one job to another. They suffer from an inability to change and adapt. Here are some illustrations: A change in product line A sales rep in the multilevel marketing field who made $1.2 million in commission only a few years...

The Four Trends That Shape the World of Selling

2013-05-02T14:20:19-04:00

The world of selling is changing at breakneck speed, and sales leaders need to adapt quickly or risk becoming obsolete. Here are the four major trends impacting sales organizations today: 1. Social media. A recent study by the Aberdeen Group shows that 79 percent of salespeople who incorporate social media into their sales process make quota, compared to the industry average of 43 percent. A HubSpot survey finds that companies using Twitter get two times more leads than companies that don’t. Research by InboxQ shows that 64 percent of customers are more likely to purchase from a business that answers...

Six Quick Tips for Jump-Starting Sales

2013-04-30T13:42:11-04:00

With the economy still sputtering and CEOs keeping a tight lid on spending, sales managers report that paths to decision makers are blocked with obstacles. This is frustrating for the entire sales team. I recently spoke with a number of seasoned managers to get a firsthand look at their challenges and coping strategies. 1. Real opportunities are harder to identify. Most sales managers direct their salespeople to explore opportunities with companies that are doing well. But often, salespeople are not capturing these opportunities. Why? Because the decision-making process has migrated upward, and salespeople are struggling to make connections with these...

Four Tips to Get Better Results from Your Sales Comp Plan

2013-04-29T13:28:24-04:00

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation. According to a recent Deloitte survey about sales compensation, sales leaders are facing a fundamental paradox. Of the 300 sales leaders Deloitte surveyed worldwide in 2013, only half said they were happy with their sales productivity. (The six-year average satisfaction level is even lower: 47.5 percent.) But when asked if they believe their compensation programs effectively drive desired sales behaviors, only one-third of sales leaders surveyed said they did not. That raises a question. As Deloitte asks, “Why do leaders generally believe...

How to Be a Feel-Good Millionaire

2013-04-26T12:35:51-04:00

Many people say that one of their goals in life is to leave the world a better place than it was when they entered it. The thought of improving the world may show lofty ambition – but also hints at arrogance. Good salespeople don't aim to improve the world; instead, they work at improving themselves. If self-improvement is the first step to improving society, what would be the next logical step? We bring to the business of selling more than just the knowledge of the product, people skills, and the motivation to win. We also bring to our customers our...

A Sales 2.0 Conference Q&A with Andy Zoltners

2013-04-24T12:50:17-04:00

At the recent Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, Selling Power caught up with Andris (Andy) Zoltners, who was there to present “A Top 10: Insights that Lead to Sales Success.” In addition to being one of the founding directors of ZS Associates, Zoltners is a Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has personally consulted for more than 200 companies around the world and taught thousands of executive, MBA, and PhD students about sales force strategy; sales force size, structure, and deployment; sales force compensation; and total sales...

The Persuasive Power of the Zeitgeist

2013-04-17T09:40:00-04:00

No, I’m not an economist, but I do have a theory about what influences financial decisions, and it has nothing to do with anything Wall Street ever discusses. It’s called the zeitgeist. This is a wonderful German word for which there is no English equivalent. It denotes the collective thoughts and feelings that dominate the era we live in. While the word zeit means “time,” geist has two meanings: “spirit” and “ghost.” Loosely translated, it means “the spirit of our time” or “the ghost of our time.” For example, the zeitgeist in the Y2K era was paranoia about computers crashing...

Why Sales Leaders Should Champion B2B Demand Generation

2013-04-11T09:10:31-04:00

Today's blog post is by Jeff Ogden, award-winning B2B marketing expert, president of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers, and creator of the popular syndicated online TV show Marketing Made Simple TV. Follow him on Twitter at @fearlesscomp. Salespeople are having a tough time nowadays. It is getting harder and harder to crack into accounts. The time has come for sales leaders to say to top management, “We need a best-practices B2B demand-generation program here ASAP!” A very recent study by Crain’s BtoB magazine found four areas of concern: The marketing mix is still not meeting the needs...

Are You Selling at Every Level?

2013-04-09T09:28:26-04:00

While many companies promise to build their organization around the needs of their customers, few companies can claim that they organize themselves around the needs of their salespeople. Yet the two are inevitably linked: in a sales-focused culture in which the entire company (not just the sales department) is involved in selling, salespeople are more successful and customers are more satisfied. Highly successful companies not only create customer-focused organizations but also back up their commitment with sales-focused cultures. What are the elements of a sales-focused culture? Ideally, a company sells at three distinct levels. At the C-level, top executives set...

Why You Should Step Up Your Sales 2.0 Investments

2013-04-08T11:09:28-04:00

Sales 2.0 isn't a buzzword; it's become a professional discipline. It's not a passing fad but a massive shift in the global business culture. It's not about sales or marketing tools but a business transformation that delivers better results. Today, Sales 2.0 plays a vital role in selling. And as the old ways of selling are fading away and salespeople and sales managers are educated about the increased risk of becoming victims of change, I want to reassure old-school salespeople that the core of selling will never change. That core is the ability to create, expand, and enhance relationships, face-to-face...