Sales Management

What is an Elevator Pitch? Quite simply, a short presentation designed to grab the attention of new prospects in a succinct yet comprehensive way

Nobody seems to remember who first coined the term "elevator speech," but I know it's been around a long time and I am often asked to help design speeches for clients.

An elevator speech is a short presentation that you could deliver to someone in an elevator as it travels from top to bottom or vice versa. It must be compelling as well as descriptive. It should contain such punch that the other person would love to buy from you. Of course, you can use this in ways other than travelling in an elevator.

When cold calling, it is a good idea to have your pitch ready. When the buyer meets you in reception, deliver the elevator speech with enthusiasm and he or she is much more likely to agree to allocate time to you. On th...

In Part Two of this four part series, I identify that Major Account Management is not a single act but a series of actions which link together to produce a powerful, professional and profitable result.

There are two ways of looking at this process. One is to examine each element of Major Account Management; the other is to create a model which can be applied flexibly but effectively across a range of situations. We will first look at the elements of Major Account Management. We created this approach for a major institution that wanted to break down the different elements of the process to be sure they were doing everything as well as possible.

• Identify

• Understand

• Plan

• Influence

• Deliver

• Manage

Identify:

Many organisations do not know who their major accounts are. Certainly many of the people who manage the relatio...

For those engaged in sales management and trying to control a group of self-starter type sales people you can just imagine how hard it is. In all the commotion, chaos and controversy they have to manage in shear terror of handling all that is coming at them.

Indeed sales management is not for everyone and managing sales is certainly not as easy as it looks, nor is it suppose to be really. Managing on-going sales efforts for a fast moving company, which is fully engaged takes a lot of savvy, strategic planning and a love of the never ending fast-paced game.

It is not for the weak and you certainly do not want to put anyone in that position in your company who is of low self-esteem or without a strong sense of personal character. Quite frankly a team of sales people would eat them for lunch and spit out the bones and they would be running your sales department and eventually...

Business lead lists can be classified into a number of categories. They can be based on the various characteristics of the customers, such as age, sex and education. They can also be based on the geographical and other characteristics of the markets.

Segmentation based on region, continent, country, state and climate of the area comes under geographic segmentation. Segmentation based on age of the customer, sex, family size, race, religion, occupation and income level comes under demographic segmentation.

To consider an example, marketers have segmented the market for consumer goods in US into three broad segments: the high-income group, the middle class and the lower income group. Though the middle class constitutes a well-defined segment in itself, marketers have found that middle-class US consumers can be understood better if one further segments them into suitable subc...

Teaching salespeople how to use and balance the four communication methods is important. The Poker Selling System came to mind when I was losing at Poker. This playing card system will work for you and increase your sales team's results!

A balanced sales plan is essential as the foundation in any business growth program. This article describes how my poker system for sales management works. The system is very simple and is easy to follow. All you need is a deck of cards and marking pen. You will use the marking pens to identify the strategic focus of your contact on the deck of cards. This system gives you the ability to change and vary the focus of communications throughout the year. This becomes extremely valuable when a business sells a suite of products or services.

How to Manage the System You start with a deck of cards. Each deck has 52 cards and four differ...

Finding the perfect sales rep makes all the difference when you're building a successful business. If you have a company that produces a small line of products or just one original product, chances are you need a sales representative, also know as a sales rep.

When searching for that perfect sales rep look for theses qualities:

1. One who is willing to be a road rep rather than just a showroom rep. Road reps are more effective for companies since they are willing to go out and pound the payment, visit stores and show and talk up your products. They will also attend trade shows in other states for you.

2. A sales rep who truly believes in your products and is enthusiastic about selling them. You want someone who creates excitement that motivates customers to purchase your products when they talk about them.

3. One who will provide good customer service for your ...

If you ask me how much Bobby will sell this month, there is only one way to tell. It isn’t by what Bobby wrote on his forecast sheet. However, with the right information, this is an equation I can get into. If we run the sales activity numbers, we can pretty accurately determine where Bobby will end up this month, quarter and year. As the numbers and ratios change so will the final results. This can be exciting, when we are interested in managing sales and our business through sales activities.

Sales activity numbers are an important indicator of success and failure. The problem associated with calculating sales activity is that many salespeople and sales managers don’t keep track of the vital numbers to make the analysis. The numbers aren’t that difficult to track but many people are afraid of what the numbers will reveal. There is a dark side to numbers when used to point out ...

If you are a sales manager in charge of training new recruits and sales people you know you have your work cut out for your. Many people have been told that they are a natural salesperson, due to their persuasive demeanor. But selling is much more than that and all too often new sales people on your sales team, just do not understand this and this is why

I always advised the sales managers for each of our franchised outlets to tell their sales people that; Selling is Personal Communication and Relationship Building with the Prospect. Selling is not about telling it is more about listening and problem solving.

The more your sales staff understands this the easier it will be to train them to properly represent your company and make sure they close a larger percentage of sales, thru good listening, thinking, adapting, problem solving and closing. If you are the World’s Great ...

If you are a sales manager then it behooves you to leverage your brand name to sell more and your sales team needs to understand this and use this to their advantage. This is where a good sales manager can really make the grade and increase the company’s sales.

When a company has a strong brand the customers will already have considered doing business with your and wish to discuss what you can offer them. The door has already been opened due to hard work in marketing your brand. This gives your sales team a leg up on your competition, as it makes it easier to get a sales interview and even easier to close the sale once the terms and conditions have been ironed out.

Good sales manager always leverage the brand and your sales staff need to also realize that when they sell with your company you do not have to give away the store to compete with the competition on price on eac...

Do you know how to apply the power of the X factor for Sales Management? The X factor is the simple multiplication of events and sales strategies that lead to sales. If business or salespeople apply this equation to sales contacts, they are released from the bonds of time and energy.

The power of X in mathematics takes advantage of multiplication. In computers, we use the X to signify the multiplication of something. Sales management can apply the same power when a sales team is allowed to multiply their sales efforts instead of simply adding single efforts over and over again. The difference between addition and multiplication is the difference between success and mediocre results. Successful sales professionals apply the power of multiplication, X instead of + or addition.

The Multiplication Sales Challenge

If you are asking yourself, why all b...

You know there are still some sales managers out there who instead of insuring proper amounts of qualified leads for their sales force will instead throw a new salesman or woman a darn phone book and say good luck, there is the phone? Oh great the new salesperson thinks.

Now-a-days you cannot call people on Do Not Call Lists, so instead these phone books only work when calling government white page listings or yellow page business sections. Which if you company sells to businesses seems to work okay.

Unfortunately the sales managers who do this make a few mistakes because each salesman ought to know a little something about the industry sector they are calling on first. I can tell having been in business a long time and generally the first listing in each business sector we were in that depending on the listing we would get different sales people from the same darn company...

Most people who are in sales do not really like cold calling much and I suppose that makes sense, yet if you are very knowledgeable about the industry for which you are calling you should not worry much and actually come to enjoy talking to like minded business folks. Indeed you may find they actually enjoy talking with you.

Having been in the franchising business for a decade or more, we always helped set up marketing campaigns in the new franchisee’s territory and some of the marketing was geared towards cold calling various companies to offer our services.

We were in the cleaning business, mostly transportation stuff; trucks, car lots, buses, auto auctions, fleets and cars at corporate office complexes while people were busy working and their cars sat all day in the parking lots. For me, well I never had a problem cold calling and setting up appointments, as generally o...

Imagine you’re on a crowded company bus. It is a dark rainy night so you can’t see outside. The bus is on a winding mountain pass. You notice the bus driver is not sure where they are going and both the headlights and wipers aren’t working. As scary as this may sound, it is exactly how some sales people feel with directions from sales management.

If a company has a united vision for growth, everyone works better together. Unfortunately, many companies and organizations choose not to share a vision for growth. When this occurs, the sales team has no direction and must determine where and how they will find customers. If they don’t know where they are going, any direction will do. Naturally, this makes reaching sales goals impossible. Having a clear vision for success is critical for sales management.

Turn the High Beams On Sales people are more likely to deliver the...

In Part 2 we discussed how to determine if a sales action is a critical sales performance competency, and we determined the following:

• It is an Action that is tied directly to the end result (Good or Bad)

• It can be individually isolated and trained to for Improvement

• It can be objectively ‘Benchmarked’ and Measured

Next, we identified that the act of communicating one-on-one to a ‘Targeted’ prospect with the objective of setting an appointment as a KEY Core Sales Competency, because nothing happens until you get in front of someone. And the measurement of that competency was determined to be your ‘Conversation-to-Appointment’ ratio which nationally averages out to somewhere between 4%-18%.

And if we choose to build a ‘Prospecting System’ to support a sales performance training objective to improve that ratio it would enable us to set more targeted ...

In Part 3, How To Double your Sales Appointments in Half the Time, we reviewed and remedied the first 3 sales prospecting errors that start us down the ‘Slippery Slope’ to low Sales prospecting conversation ratios.

So let’s continue to address the final 3 sales prospecting errors, discuss some proven solutions that will head us toward our worthy goal of spending Less time to achieve more targeted ‘Top-down’ sales appointments.

Sales Prospecting Error #4

We fail to develop an effective Call to Action; strategic words and phrases that create a positive 'visual' reference to the Prospect of what happens during the initial appointment and how long it takes.

Develop your Call to Action communication as a visual block of time in which a ‘Step-by-step’ process occurs with the objective of having your ‘Top-down’ prospect inform you they perceive enough of a potential b...

Sales Management can learn by example from Henry Ford. Almost a hundred years ago Henry Ford revolutionized an industry. This allowed the Ford Motor Company to gain market share that remains strong today. Although Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile, he did create the assembly line. The assembly line concept continues to thrive today. With today’s computer and software technology, sales management can do similar things in sales. The basic concepts and principles are the same. If you adopt these ideas you can increase market share in your industry.

Sales Management Must Start With a Proven Sales Process

At the Ford assembly line, there is a sequence of automobile parts that must be assembled in a specific order to complete a car. This is similar to the sales process. The sale team must follow the sales process in a specific order to complete a sale. If sales man...

Tip # 1
Discipline Yourself to a Routine of ‘Asking’

Here’s something profound. The reason most of us do not get referrals on a routine basis is because we do not ask for them on a routine basis. Well, it’s almost that simple. What would be the upside on your year-end W-2 if you asked for 2 referrals from each of your new customers? Let’s say you average 6 sales per month. That would be 12 referrals per month or 144 per year. Conservatively, you close half of those warm leads. Multiply 72 by your average revenue per sale. Then calculate your commission percentage off the total revenue sold. Now ask yourself if you can afford not to ask for referrals on a routine basis.

Tip # 2
Develop a process to ‘Set the Stage’

Asking for a referral is one thing, but how many times do you actually get one? Execute a Powerful Routine after you sign up a new cus...

We have all had the experience of feeling an instant connection or bond with someone after just a few seconds of being in their presence. This is the Law of Connectivity. We have probably all met someone whom we instantly did not like and did not want to be around. This is caused by a lack of connectivity and usually takes only a few seconds to manifest itself. The Law of Connectivity states that the more we feel connected to, part of, liked by, or attracted to someone, the more persuasive they become. When you create an instant bond or connection, people feel comfortable around you. They will feel like they have known you for a long time and that they can easily relate to you. When we feel connected with someone, we feel comfortable and understood; they can relate to us and a sense of trust ensues.

When we come in contact with someone of the opposite sex, ...

Sales management is an integral sub-system of marketing management. It translates the marketing plan into marketing performance. Sales management is hence described as the muscle behind marketing management. The sales manager in a modern organization holds a multitude of responsibilities. He has to plan, direct and control the personal selling effort of the firm. His task does not stop with the achievement of sales quotas. He is also responsible for bringing in the required profits. In addition, he is also responsible for creating the desired image for the company and its products. In fact, a modern sales manager has to do marketing rather than mere selling.

His firm expects him to assume a much larger role than the traditional responsibility of achieving sales quotas. It expects him to be customer-oriented as well as profit-directed. Sales managers set sales goals for their sal...

Scalp pimples or scalp acne are not always the same as garden-variety skin pimples. The scalp is, of course, skin, but scalp pimples usually involve the hair follicles, which get inflamed. The disorder can vary in nature and comes under various scientific names, but basically they all result in small, itchy pustules that are usually first noticed while combing or brushing of hair. Such pimples get infected in no time at all and become a major problem.

The cause of scalp pimples is not clear. In certain cases, micro-organisms such as yeast, mites and the dreaded staph bacterium that often thrive in the uniquely suitable host environment of the scalp can lead to scalp pimples. In such cases, treatment with topical antibiotics such as clindamycin or erythromycin solutions or oral tetracycline may be necessary. In more severe infestations, even steroids may be needed. In milder case...