Blog

Imagine you are part of an experiment about human behavior to see how people react in unfamiliar circumstances. You are blindfolded, led to a car, put on a plane and flown to a city to which you had never been before. Upon arriving in this new place, you are driven to a street corner in the city and dropped off with instructions to remove your blindfold. What would you do first? Many people would look around for any familiar landmarks. Others would look for someone to ask where they are. Asking where you are is the first step to overcoming objections – also known as the trial close.

Business networking, whether it is online and/or in-person, is a very powerful way to increase your brand awareness and credibility especially if you are in the business of selling and marketing to other businesses. Besides knowing your business and your competitive advantages, it is important to set goals of what you want to achieve through business networking.

In sales prospecting is a critical activity. You might be able to sell “ice to an Eskimo” but if you can’t get in front of qualified prospects, what does it matter? One of the most often applied tactics to prospecting is cold calling – “dialing for dollars” as many describe it. Most of us don’t like it but it’s an important activity.

Is it really worth investing in sales assessment tools and sales training? A leading national research firm conducted a study of more than 800 end-user companies about their activities and investments in sales assessments and sales training.

People do business with people they like. Also, the people we like and spend time with are people who are like us and do the things we like to do. In sales, one of the key ingredients to success is to make the buyer love you, or at least like you more than your competition. This article presents one approach about how to make that happen.

Want to exponentially increase your chances of getting a face-to-face appointment with a top prospect or closing a big sale? Get an inside coach. An inside coach is someone on the inside of your prospective company who wants you to get the sale.

How can you get your buyer to tell you his biggest challenges and greatest fears? That’s the topic of this article. Asking good questions and actively listening to the buyer are very important activities, yet they are among the most difficult selling skills to master. Add on the importance of rapport building in any formal sales meeting, and you have two major challenges to overcome in your quest to get your buyer to be open and forthright.

I've written before about the question, "are elite salespeople made or born?". After nearly 10 years as an entrepreneur and B2B salesperson, I am convinced they are born. When I talk about "elite" I am referring to the top 20% in their respective fields. A better way to ask the question may be this...

Ask any B2B sales professional this question – “Would you rather land one $50,000 sale or 10 $5,000 sales?” and most would choose the big one. The bigger the sales opportunity, the more prepared and dedicated you need to be. Closing a big sale requires an organized sales process. So, once you identify the big opportunity and determine why your products and services are a good fit, we recommend the following 10-step approach to close the deal.

The ongoing debate about whether elite salespeople are made or born always seems to result in a “yes” conclusion. Experts agree there’s a natural aptitude for sales that some people have in their DNA – that’s the “born” side of the equation and one of the five critical factors.