Whether you are a manager or a sales person, your Ask/Tell ratio is critical to your effectiveness. The Ask/Tell ratio is a simple concept; few people think about it. It’s simply the ratio of questions you ask, compared to the statements you make. Ideally, your Ask/Tell ratio is significantly over 1. That means you spend […]
Sales Strategies
Why the Sales Funnel is Alive and Well on the Web
Do a quick search for phrases around the death of the sales funnel. There’s article after article opining that the sales/marketing funnel is dead because the buyer’s journey is no longer linear. Makes sense, right? Ok, so let’s abandon the funnel since it’s dead. No way. You’d have to pry it out of my dead […]
Prescriptive Selling
I’m seeing a trend toward increasing prescription in selling. By that, I mean marketing, sales enablement, or management are prescribing the activities, actions, scripts, conversations their people should be having. Many of the new technologies seem very focused at providing prescriptive guidance to the conversations sales people have with prospects and customers. At its simplest […]
Open Up to Your Customers, Close Sales Faster with Sales Apps
Little by little, small businesses are recognizing the convenience of mobile applications. According to a survey by Clutch.Co, more than 50% of small businesses will provide their customers with mobile apps by 2017. The drive to improve customer experience is one of the reasons for this step, but the strongest motivation (55% of voters) is […]
Volume and Velocity—What’s Missing?
There’s a huge amount of discussion focusing on Volume And Velocity in sales. SaaS companies trying to build traction and subscriptions person by person, department by department—at least until they confront the enterprise. Companies envying the growth of these companies are copying them, looking again for Volume And Velocity. We see endless research about the […]
Want Powerful Leads? Do Better Homework!
How many times have you approached prospective customers only to see those leads tank? Well, there are good reasons that happens. Where did you get those leads in the first place? There are two types of lead generation, one based on inbound marketing and the other, outbound marketing. What’s Inbound Marketing? According to a definition on HubSpot: […]
When Do You Do Your Best Selling?
The lives of most sales people seem to be split between two types of frenzied activities—prospecting, trying to find someone willing to talk to you, and chasing down deals. Often, our engagement models are reflections of this frenzy. We send 1,000s of emails, hoping enough people respond. For those that do, we’re in a rush […]
Does Your View of Value Limit You and Your Customers?
Value is one of those $25 words everyone talks about. We all want to talk about our value and value propositions. But we have huge variations in the way we interpret value and the way our customers interpret value. Value in its simplest form is price. Unfortunately, that’s where the majority of sales people compete. […]
A Personality-Based Approach Leads to More Sales
One of the most effective ways to be a successful salesperson is to use a client-centered approach to sales. That means tailoring your sales presentation to suit the personality and specific needs of the client. Often salespeople aren’t as successful as they could be because they use the same canned presentation with all their clients. […]
Are They at 57% Yet?
As a kid, I recall many of our family vacations involved long drives to some place or other. Inevitably, after my sisters and I exhausted the car games we played in the back seat, we’d eventually start whining to Dad, “Are we there yet?” Fast forward to today, I get the sense that too many […]
