A colleague sent me this speech on winning by Vince Lombardi. It is so good, I had to post the whole thing. If you set this example it will infect the culture of your sales and influence your reps to be excellent themselves. Just brilliant. Winning is not a sometimes thing; it’s an all the
Most people don’t like to hear other people say “no,” but in sales it happens all the time. Does the ability to handle rejection have a direct relationship to sales performance? Absolutely! Insensitivity to rejection is one of the most critical attributes of highly successful sales reps. To continue reading this post, click here >>
One of our readers asked us whether they should hire a junior sales person or a telesales company. On paper, outsourcing the sales function looks quite attractive. Risk and costs are assigned to a third party that specializes in sales and management overhead is decreased. In practice things are a bit different and here is
I was recently interviewed by Inc Magazine on the topic of cold calling. Darren Dahl put together a great article on tips and techniques for improving cold calling success (see article here >> How to Improve Your Cold Calling). As an extension to the article, I have added some additional tips since our projects often involve
We recently responded to the following question on LinkedIn: Sure seems like nobody wants to work for commission only anymore.. selling software … Anybody know why? Its a job. Great question and I agree with the other posters here – this is a rough economy and people know that in many companies, the sales aren’t
As the new quarter just kicked off, it’s the perfect time to set a strong pace for your sales team. Ensuring that all your reps are effectively managing and advancing their pipelines is crucial. Occasionally, some deals may begin to move slowly or even stall. Below you will find four strategies your reps can employ
Right now? Actually there are better times than others, according to a new report published by InsideSales.com and MIT (hat tip to HT to Engage Selling for picking up this story). In the study, entitled the Lead Response Management Study, MIT and InsideSales.com looked at 3 years of data across six companies that generate and
One of the most challenging areas in a company’s incentive plans are sales compensation plans. We often get asked to provide input on comp plan strategy and it is actually part of Peak’s recruiting services. I ran across this article on article on compensation from our good friend Colleen Francis at Engage Selling (www.engageselling.com). She
Successful companies are very rigorous about sales force structure, process, management, incentives, hiring and development. All important. In today’s market and economy, fierce competition and tightening pockets, dictate every penny spent on the sales force produces results. The most successful companies also know that you can’t simply hire sales reps, throw them into the trenches
I just read The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (thanks Colleen for sending me a copy!). Great book covering sales, management and personal productivity. One basic premise in the book is that success comes from discipline and determination. Working hard and smart. Early in the book, Holmes comments about the link between hard work
