Selling Power Blog

Will Google Glass Revolutionize Buying and Selling?

2013-06-18T12:07:13-04:00

Google’s Glass Marketing Act Instead of creating a traditional PR or marketing campaign, Google used YouTube and Twitter as the predominant marketing tools to promote the idea of investing in a wearable computer that performs searches with voice command, takes pictures, connects you to social media, gives directions, and records videos. https://twitter.com/projectglass Google invited prospective customers to A) follow along on Twitter (and more than 88,000 did), B) Tweet ideas about how they’d use Google Glass, and C) buy Google Glass for $1,500. Google also promoted the new Google Glass experience with action-packed YouTube videos. Here is one that got...

The Challenges of Managing in the Age of Complexity

2013-06-17T09:23:17-04:00

Years ago, Michael McCafferty, the inventor of Telemagic, urged me to write a story about the coming revolution in sales force automation (SFA). He insisted that computers and SFA software would replace such traditional contact-management tools as the Rolodex and index cards. At the time, our staff was using typewriters, our publication was still in newsprint, and our circulation department had just purchased an IBM computer with a 10MB hard drive. After we ran a cover story on SFA, we witnessed a period of explosive growth in the field. In 1985, there were only a few dozen small vendors serving...

How Well Do You Manage Your Message?

2013-06-13T15:51:46-04:00

In many industries and before the recession, selling was like shooting fish in a barrel. Now the fish are shooting back. The power has gone back to the customer, and a lot of sales managers feel frustrated. It’s tougher to find, qualify, and see prospects. It takes longer to persuade them, and it’s even tougher to close sales. One thing is certain: the old ways of selling and marketing no longer work. Just as overused jokes lose their power to make us laugh, old sales or marketing messages no longer stimulate the vigorous interest seasoned salespeople are craving. Here are...

3 Reasons To Apply for Our 50 Best Companies to Sell For List

2013-06-05T14:04:26-04:00

Here's some great news to start the summer: Selling Power magazine is currently accepting applications for our annual 50 Best Companies to Sell For list. Here are three reasons I believe your company should apply today. 1. Every sales organization needs reps who understand today's selling environment. As the buyer controls more and more of the sales cycle, reps who practice old habits will become irrelevant. Sales organizations are not going to be able to compete unless they can attract reps who have the right mindset to win in an economy controlled by the buyer. Takeaway: A spot on our...

Five Tips for the Catch

2013-06-04T09:58:48-04:00

Today's blog post is by Gary Coxe, life strategist, personal-growth expert, and author of You Can’t Fillet a Nibble… It’s the Catch that Counts! If you’re in sales or any kind of direct- or network-marketing company, you’ll understand how difficult it can be to persevere and make those sales that count. Here are five tips, discussed in You Can’t Fillet a Nibble…It’s the Catch that Counts!, to help you adjust your sales mind-set – and stay the course – for better results. Tip #1: Have the guts of a burglar. The idea behind this is that you have to become...

Seven Low-Tech Tips for Helping Customers Solve Their Sales Problems

2013-05-29T16:39:51-04:00

I used to say that problems were nothing but wake up calls for creativity. Although that's still my opinion, I also recognize that successful problem solving requires a methodology, a reliable approach that leads to a solution most of the time. In 1957, Robert Solow of MIT estimated that of the total increase in United States output per man-hour in 40 years (1909 to 1949), only 12.5 percent was due to increases in capital equipment, while 87.5 percent was due to technological progress and other gains in human knowledge and skills. Solow received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science...

Facts Every Sales Manager Should Know about Motivation

2013-05-20T12:33:02-04:00

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation. Xactly just wrapped up our third annual CompCloud user conference in San Francisco last week. It was great to spend a few days listening to our customers and sharing our plans for the next year or so. We were pleased to go into more depth with them about our new products and services, including Xactly Insights, which I wrote about in March. We’ve analyzed eight years’ worth of anonymized customer data from hundreds of companies to establish benchmarks and best practices in...

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...