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Lack of sales activity, lead generation, is the leading cause of B2B salespeople not meeting their quotas. This article describes four strategies for developing and executing a sustainable lead generation machine - never suffering from a lack of sales activity.

September of 2008 forever changed the world of B2B selling. That’s the month the Great Recession began. The years following forced buyers in the B2B space to change the way they interact with salespeople. It was a dramatic change. What happened and how has it changed B2B selling?

Prospecting is the elite’s salespersons most important activity, and many of the quality leads generated through prospecting will ultimately turn into customers and generate revenue.

Two of the top recommendations we make in our sales development engagements are 1) don’t waste time on unqualified buyers, and 2) seek to achieve a 100% closing rate on all qualified buyers.

The failure rate among small business salespeople is alarming. I’ve heard turnover figures as high as 40%. Consequently, when small businesses hire salespeople to help them grow revenue, they have about a 50-50 chance of success. In my book, that’s not so good.

If you’re looking to grow your company’s sales, hiring a successful salesperson can be monumental. While there are other things necessary for sales growth (see article about sales process), this article focuses on how to make sure the salesperson you hire isn’t a dud.

Like the early days of email marketing, the early days of cold calling were incredibly effective. Getting a phone call was a novelty. It was special, not annoying. This led to more telephone conversations and ultimately, more sales. That’s changed quite a bit over time. Marketers and salespeople have over-used the tactic, driving down its effectiveness and annoying prospects in the process.

Are elite salespeople made or born? That’s a question I get frequently. No question – there are natural born salespeople. But, if you hire a natural born salesperson, there’s no guarantee that person will become an elite salesperson in your company. There’s more to it than that.

Most salespeople like to talk. Ever notice that? They’re driven to make sales and enthused about their products, and they often want to tell you all the reasons you should buy. However, equipped with two ears and one mouth, a good salespeople should spend twice as much time listening than talking.

Many small businesses don’t have a sales team large enough to justify a person whose role is to be the sales manager. Often, the business owner or a marketing manager might have managing the sales team as part of his/her responsibilities. In other cases, it gets delegated to an admin person just because the sales people need to report to somebody.