Is your commission structure so complex that even you must have help understanding it—and calculating a commission on a pending bid? Sales people are incentivized by money. They usually are able to calculate what’s in it for them before they make the final presentation and ask for the order. But what if the commission plan […]
Sales
Beyond B2B and B2C: The Sales Channel Your Business is Overlooking
There are two well-defined sales channels that most people use. Selling directly to individuals, more formally known as business-to-consumer (B2C), and selling products or services to other organizations, known as business-to-business (B2B). These terms are so ubiquitous that when you talk about your business, investors, reporters, prospective employees and others will ask point-blank if you’re a B2C […]
The Science of Selling to Women
There is no magic sauce that will help you gain women’s attention as you market your products or services. You can’t paint your product pink and think that will do the trick. You can’t wrap your service in motherhood, ballet or shopping and magically the women will come. The science of selling to women is more […]
If You Can’t Write, You Can’t Sell
In the past few days, I’ve been embroiled in conversations about grammar and spelling. I read a discussion about “Should I hire a sales person with poor writing skills.” I was astounded by the majority of responses. Many people had the view, “If they can sell, who cares!” The conversations about grammar ran along similar […]
Can Sales Really Create Value?
Leanne Hoagland-Smith wrote an outstanding post, The Ultimate Sales Goal Is Connecting With Customer Value Drivers, Not Creating Value! In the post, Leanne hits head on what too many sales people miss about value. We tend to think of value and value proposition in our terms. Instead, it’s the customer that defines value! For us to […]
It’s Never Too Early to Start Selling to Customers
Savvy entrepreneurs start testing their ideas on potential customers even before the concept is fully cooked. They have enough confidence in their ability to deliver that they don’t worry about someone stealing the idea to get there first, and they don’t forget to listen carefully to critical feedback. They become walking public relations machines for […]
Selling the Vision is Easier Than Selling the Product
I’ve never sold a computer or licensed software in my career. I’ve never sold consulting services in my career. Frankly, it’s really difficult selling those things. Take licensed or even SaaS software products. You have to know about things like GUI’s, software architectures, installation, coding, memory utilization, caching, pipelining, and all sorts of little details. […]
