Marketing News

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Closing the Deal: Why it's so hard to discuss money
Winning Inc.'s Mike Myers: When working with clients, one of the biggest challenges is to get salespeople to effectively discuss money with prospects early in the sales process. Here are five strategies that can make you more effective when you talk about money.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Closing the Deal: Self assessment for driving revenue growth
CustomerCentric's Jim Naro: I often get called into an organization when revenue growth stalls. I start at a high level to discover where there are missing links and broken pieces within the sales organization. I've outlined a starting point for assessing your own organization.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Closing the Deal: Going for the quick "No"
Winfree Business Growth Advisors' Ken Cheo: All of our clients list time management as one of the areas they would like some help...but many salespeople have a hard time with hearing "no" so they permit the prospect to drag them down this pathway of hope and despair only to eventually give up or get a "no."

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Closing the Deal: Use your 2012 kick-off sales theme year-round
Knowledgence Associates' Lisa Dennis: Whether your company is large or small, the impact of the Sales Team Annual Kick-off meeting is extremely important. It's the time to layout the strategy for moving forward for the year.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Blog: Mass Innovation Nights goes for themes
Mass Innovation Nights co-founder Bobbie Carlton: We frequently get asked about theme nights at Mass Innovation Nights, but we try to avoid them. But sometimes themes, subthemes, groupings or pairings present themselves.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Closing the Deal: How much risk is in your forecast?
CustomerCentric Systems' Jim Naro: It's the job of sales management to access the risks and discern the degree of risk before they create their own forecast. Here are some clues to help determine sales forecast risk.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Closing the Deal: The mental game of sales
Winning Inc. VP Mike Myers: If a salesperson doesn't believe a technique will work, in many cases they won't even try it – even if other sales people in their organization use it with good results. So how can you avoid this trap? Tap into five critical selling beliefs that drive success.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Closing the Deal: What sales really needs from marketing
Knowledgence Associates' Lisa Dennis: The reality is that marketing's job is to provide targeted leads – but it is sales' job to fully qualify them. But if we go a bit deeper, there are things that sales could really use from marketing that will make the qualification process more effective.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Closing the Deal: Sales intelligence: The GPS of prospecting
CustomerCentric's Jim Naro: There seems to be only a handful of companies willing to invest in sales data aggregation tools and services, but it's a wise decision because they can easily provide a company with a competitive advantage.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Closing the Deal: Less product information is more
Winning Inc. VP Mike Myers: While it is important to share information with a sales prospect, when and how you share that information will ultimately determine the sale.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Top 10 tips for successful business networking
Winfree Business Growth Advisors' Ken Cheo: If your referral sources are not getting you all the business you can handle, perhaps you should consider how you are networking. Here are some tips to make your networking successful.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Closing the Deal: Getting and using meaningful customer references
Knowledgence Associates' Lisa Dennis: Everyone knows that getting a testimonial or a reference from a customer is an important marketing and sales asset. Yet, often there are disconnects that prevent companies from pursuing testimonials from every customer interaction. Why is that?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Top-line growth in the bottom half of the year
Human Resource Solutions' Roberta Matuson: As year-end approaches, many business owners and their people slow down dramatically as they crawl across the finish line. However, the year is not over. Here are some ideas for boosting your top-line this year.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Closing the Deal: Marketing collateral as conversational sales messaging tool
CustomerCentric's Jim Naro: Marketing materials provide significant value for sales people as they begin to develop the foundation for engaging prospects in meaningful conversations – the cornerstones of a productive sales cycle – and the more engaging they are, the more quickly the sales process will flow.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Closing the Deal: Building a prospecting mindset – The foundation to building the business
Winning Inc. VP Mike Myers: Having the right mindset is the key to selling and it is even more important when prospecting, especially over the telephone. Your mindset when you pick up the phone may be the greatest factor in determining the success or failure of the call.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Closing the Deal: Sales prospecting do’s and don’ts
Winfree Business Growth Advisors' Ken Cheo: We all know that prospecting is the life blood of sales. Business owners want to know that they or their salespeople are not wasting time while prospecting. So here are some do's and don'ts to consider when prospecting.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Closing the Deal: Finding your 'lost customers' – recovery tactics to rebuild relationships
Knowledgence Associates President Lisa Dennis: What if you could recover 10-20 percent of your lost customers? It would likely have a significant revenue impact for you not only this year, but in future years.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Blog: Know when a handshake is better business than a contract
MIT Sloan School assistant professor Karen Zheng: When businesses deal with each other, their first impulse often is to summon their lawyers. But there are many situations in which trust can be an effective replacement for costly and time-consuming contract negotiations.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Closing the Deal: Four key attributes of a sales manager
CustomerCentric Selling Business Partner Jim Naro: Considering the multiplying effect of sales managers on an organization's performance, I am amazed at how little attention the capabilities required for this position gets. Here is a list of competencies that I find are "must haves" for impacting performance.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Closing the Deal: Five ways to avoid the activity vs. achievement trap
Winning Inc.'s Mike Myers: Selling is the only profession where you can be extremely busy all day but still make no money. I call this the Activity vs. Achievement Trap and it can create huge problems for sales people. Here are five ways to avoid it.