Selling Power Blog

How Do You Get the Prospect's Direct Line?

2012-06-01T11:34:04-04:00

Today's blog post is by Steve Richard, co-founder of Vorsight, an award winning sales training firm focused on prospecting, qualification, and discovery. Sell more by calling the prospect's direct line. Here is how. At Vorsight, we call on directors, VPs, and C-level execs at large organizations. We tracked six of our associates over three months on two key areas: percent of direct lines on their call list and number of appointments completed that month. Though I’m no statistician, I do know a straight line when I see it. Associate Average Meetings Per Month % Direct Lines on Contact List Pete...

An $80,000 Mistake (and What I Learned about Comp Plans)

2012-05-31T14:26:54-04:00

When sales leaders ditch Excel-driven commissions errors, they encourage top performance, healthy competition, and accelerated revenue.

Are You A Leader of Change in Your Business?

2012-05-31T02:18:45-04:00

As a leader of change, you need to create tension, constantly seek out ways to improve your business, increase sales and speed, and learn new technologies

The Power of Psychology in Selling

2012-05-29T13:11:00-04:00

Today's blog post is by Samara Pope, author of The Sales Psychologist. What would it mean to you to have the ability, knowledge, and insight to turn around any sales obstacle? What would it be like if you had the answers to every possible sales objection? What would it feel like if you knew what to do in every possible situation and in response to any challenge thrown your way in your sales job? This is the power that comes from the knowledge of sales psychology. The prospect's behavior can be a torturous mystery for many sales executives who are...

The Right Use of Logic and Emotion in Sales

2012-05-08T10:44:25-04:00

Selling is a transfer of energy that comes from two sources: logic and emotions. Guess what has more influence over a buyer's actions? To explore this further, let's review some of the logical elements that can influence the outcome of a sales call: Product knowledge Customer knowledge Social information Sales process Diagnostic questions Sales-ready messages or call script Persuasive proposals Persuasive presentations Call timing Most sales training prepares salespeople to tap into the right information, ask customers the right questions, diagnose the right problems, create the right solution, prepare the right proposal, and close the sale at the right time....

Social Proximity

2012-05-02T15:01:45-04:00

Today's blog post is by Al Campa, CEO of Reachable. He is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of the company. With all the changes in business, one thing remains the same: business is about people. Despite globalization, technology revolutions, social networks, and razor-thin competitive margins, business is still about people working with people. People who can’t connect effectively with others rarely do well in business. Consider sales, for instance. We buy things from people we have positive relationship with, people we like and trust. And if those relationships stay positive, we keep buying from them over many years....

The Art of Exceptional Conversations

2012-05-01T15:52:18-04:00

Robert King is a conversation coach, keynote speaker, and author of Are You An Exceptional Salesperson? (Exceptional Publishing, 2006). If you would like to learn how to turn your important presentations into seamless conversations, visit www.BetterPresentationsBlog.com. You've heard people say, "Ditch the pitch." What is your reaction to that statement? Do you consider it blasphemous or treasonous? Does it insult your sales sensibilities? Is it possible that presentations have become passé? So that we're all speaking the same sales language, let's clearly define our terms: a "pitch" or "presentation" is when you, the salesperson or company representative, stand in front...

Selling: Art or Science?

2012-04-30T21:04:41-04:00

Holden has also developed a Four Stage Model that addresses key factors (intent, focus, relationship, value and knowledge) within a context that describes the customer and competitive environments.

Five Things Marketers Can Learn from the Meaning of Stories

2012-04-26T12:11:10-04:00

Today's blog post is by Jim Signorelli, founder and CEO of ESW Partners, a Chicago-based marketing firm, and author of the new book StoryBranding: Creating Stand-Out Brands Through the Power of Story. For more information, please visit www.eswpartners.com. Stories are one of the most powerful tools in our communication arsenal. Since the beginning of language, they continue to inspire, motivate, and engage us like no other form of communication can. There are good reasons for this, and some of those reasons provide lessons for marketers. Here are five worth noting: 1. Stories clothe facts with “big M” Meaning: All stories...

Social Media, Mobility, and Security: How These Three Pillars Enable Successful Sales

2012-04-26T11:54:46-04:00

Today's blog post is by David Satterwhite, VP of Sales and General Manager, Americas, for Good Technology (www.good.com). He is a successful sales executive with a proven track record for building and scaling worldwide sales, services, and business development teams for various high-tech companies. Follow David on Twitter @Satterwhite1. There are three megatrends emerging today that stand to push our customer relationships and sales strategies to a whole new level: social media, mobility, and security. We all know that building and sustaining strong customer relationships is key to a successful sales strategy. But in today’s environment, being “social” with your...