Pick up a typical company report today and what words do you find? Verbs like analyse, forecast, plan, assess, and schedule, are used in pursuit of organisations that are efficient, productive, and predictable.

What set of people are required? Obviously, people who are efficient, effective, proficient, competent, productive, and co-operative.

I believe we need to go beyond – we need to be inspired, motivated, creators, who are enthusiastic and able to consistently deliver against our key objectives.

We should be developing individuals who are not afraid to challenge paradigms, who are prepared to go that extra yard in search of excellence and who understand that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.

For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.

The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
“To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual.”

The Acid Test: When thinking about your own sales force:

- Do you understand their motivators – what is driving them?
- Do you have visibility of their numbers – year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
- Activity levels – are they working hard and smart enough?
- Engagement – are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
- Messaging – are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
- Qualification – are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
- Closing – are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?

Summary:
Top performing Sales Directors and Managers understand instinctively when a situation requires them to Direct, Coach, Support, or Delegate but learning these skills takes time and practice and underpinning this advanced approach to management must be a range of core competencies…

Today’s News: I am convinced of the value of “social media” of course. I am a big fan of LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo et al, but I am still not getting the most out of the experience, and I have written myself a “must try harder” note. If you are like me, you will enjoy this excellent post from Brian Carroll, over at The Customer Collective: “Can a social media like Twitter boost your lead generation results?”

Earlier in the week, Jill Konrath asked this question: “Are you still trying to figure on how to get LinkedIn to work for you?”

“If so, then you need to meet Patrick O’Malley. He’s a true LinkedIn Wizard who has helped me take my profile to the next level. Check out this video.”

Click here to learn more about Patrick O’Malley, his LinkedIn expertise, coaching & training programs. He has more great articles, videos and tips on his website.  

Finally, you may also be astounded at some figures I read yesterday:

“LinkedIn adds 400,000 users a WEEK, Facebook is adding over 400,000 a DAY. Twitter has grown 900% in 6 months. A year ago, MySpace and Facebook were the same size.  Now Facebook (at 160 Million) is twice the size of MySpace and the gap is widening.

What is happening?  Business users, predominantly LinkedIn users, are adopting these other well-known platforms as a sort of “add-on”.

Twitter recently turned down a $500 Million offer from Facebook!  LinkedIn is valued at $1 Billion, Facebook was once valued at $15B (now estimated closer to $4B), General Motors is worth $2.5 Billion.  None of these make a dime.

Their value is in YOU and their relationship with you.  They are built to be sold and you go with the sale.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  You wouldn’t want to be left behind would you?

With 30+ Million customers, LinkedIn has 350 employees and recently had to layoff 35 people.  People wonder why they can’t get their problems resolved.”

If you would like to follow me on Twitter, you will find me here

Tomorrow: I am travelling and writing next week’s blog posts on the hoof – as ever, wherever you are, have a great weekend – JF

The JF Guest Author Spot

Leslie Buterin

Sales people are an unusually intelligent group of professionals. High achievers by nature. You know what drives us nuts? Being on a hot trail of pursuit of a prospect only to be stopped cold by of all things a telephone.

How is it that a lump of plastic, wires, and chips can strike our hearts with terror?

Our minds search for a rational explanation of this seemingly irrational fear that drives us bonkers. We start to wonder, is our hatred of cold calling really procrastination or lack of organization in disguise?

Fact is if you keep experiencing rejection you will learn to hate cold calling. You will procrastinate and do anything and everything to avoid the phones altogether.

If you experience a fear of cold calling, this will encourage you. All great cold callers at one time or another hated, despised, and/or literally could not stomach cold calling. So, if this is where you are today, know you are in good company.

Fear of, hatred of, and loathing of cold calling pretty much boils down to this:  Sales professional who are oh-so-comfortable when talking to prospects face-to-face are surprised and confounded when they hit the phones and experience rejection.

When you move from face-time to phone-time you are operating without visual cues and left to rely on words alone. You simply need to learn the questions to ask and the words to say that will help you “see” what you are hearing on the phone. As soon as you learn the words to say to conduct a cold call that results in scheduling a face-to-face sales call with you prospect, you will equally skilled in both arenas.

The great news is that as a sales professional you are gifted with an ability to use words. You will be relieved and astounded to realize you are as accomplished on the phones as you are when selling in person.

Leslie is also a  and you can read more about her here

Today’s News: It’s Thursday, which means it is time to tune in to another excellent Salesopedia podcast.

This week, Clayton Shold is interviewing C.J.Hayden. “C.J. Hayden suggests people need to give their head a shake if you are trying to sell to people who you think they need your product or service. Do they know they need your product or service?  CJ makes it sound almost too simple, but the basics she shares are great reminders of what those in sales need to be doing to be successful.”  Just click on the banner below to listen in.

Tomorrow: To finish the week, I am giving you “The Sales Manager’s Acid Test” so be sure to join me.

Decision making is an essential requirement of management and the very best leaders appear able to make crucial decisions effortlessly “standing on their feet” 

According to the dictionary, the verb ‘decide’ means ‘to determine, to end, to resolve, to settle and to make up one’s mind’, while the noun ‘decision’ is ‘the act of settling, making up one’s mind’, etc. Someone in a position of power is said to be a ‘decision-maker’ and we refer to those who do make up their mind as ‘resolute’ or ‘decisive’.

The Latin root of the word means to ‘cut away’. This points to what a decision really is: to cut away the surrounding clutter, to enable one to see a path to an objective and, by taking a decision (or a series of decisions), to follow that path with all of its implications.

Here then, is a selection of my published articles on this very subject – I do hope you decide to continue reading- It’s your decision of course! Simply click on the banner below to download the FREE eBook.

Today’s News: Craig Klein’s excellent FREE five part series: “Double Your Sales In 2009″ concludes today.

Part Five, is called “Pour In The Jet Fuel” – here is an extract:

“There are good leads and not so good leads. Many times, you instinctively know the difference. Other times, you’re completely surprised by the results.

You spend a lot of money and time to generate these unpredictable results.

The leads your sales team pursues is the fuel in your sales engine. Right now, you’re pouring all sorts of different types of fuel into the tank. Premium, Plus, Regular, Deisel, etc.

No wonder the results are unpredictable. No wonder it seems like parts of the sales engine just are performing the way they should.”  You can download it for FREE here

In just a few days, he will release the entire “Double Your Sales in 2009″ series as one comprehensive e-Book. Don’t forget to register to receive the entire “Double Your Sales in 2009″ series as an e-Book here.

Tomorrow: I welcome back one of the top business development experts in the world, my friend, colleague, and the CEO of The Sales Corporation, Leslie Buterin

The JF Guest Author Spot

Nigel Edeleshein

Do you really want to get that meeting?

For most companies the biggest bottleneck in the sales process these days is getting into that executive meeting. But how often do we really earn the right to get that meeting?

As a sales person in a “Sales 2.0 world” there are many, many tools and techniques available to us to increase our chances of getting a meeting. From my observation most sales people and sales organizations do not use 10% of these. And some sales people just cold-call with no research and no customization of their pitch – dumb (and largely unforgivable if you know what resources are out there).

Here are some tools available to us that can be used to increase the likelihood of getting a meeting:

* Hoovers, OneSource etc: get the basic information on the company: company description, senior executives, revenue, profit and annual report. You know the drill (I hope!)

* Jigsaw, Spoke: dive a little deeper on contacts. Find middle managers responsible for the area(s) you sell to

* LinkedIn: invest some time building your network in LinkedIn and you can get referrals to executives in the area you want or close enough to help you with coaching on the account. Even if you aren’t closely linked to your prospects you can find some great bio information here

* InsideView, Google News: use something — whether it’s a sophisticated Sales 2.0 tool like InsideView or a free service liked Google News to watch for “trigger events”. Don’t you want to be there when a new CMO starts at your target account? How about when your prospect launches a new product?

These are just some of the tools out there that you can use now. Use the information from these tools to customize your pitch to executives. Show them you have done your homework.

Earn the right to get in!

Nigel Edelshain is CEO of Sales 2.0 Companies use Sales 2.0’s telesales and consulting services to take their sales to the next level, typically boosting results 3 – 10 times. The company applies the latest Sales 2.0 tools and techniques in its telesales operation and shares resulting breakthroughs in sales methodology with clients through its consulting practice. www.sales2.com

He is also a  and you can read more about him here

Today’s News: Excellent blog post from my friend and fellow  Dave Brock – “What If We Stopped Using The Economy As An Excuse?” - here is an extract: “Yesterday, I was speaking to a colleague. He had a though provoking observation. One of the companies he is working with has adopted an interesting policy. They refuse to let their sales people use the economy as an excuse—their sales are up 10%.” Continue reading

Tomorrow: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

The buyer-seller situation – like any human contact – is an exercise in human relations: The interplay, cause, and effect of behaviour by two or more people on each other. In the buyer-seller situation, the seller must be responsible for shaping mutual behaviour.

What’s the difference between human nature and human relations?

• Human nature is the instinctive behaviour that governs action concerned with the self and with self-interest.
• Human relations are concerned with how we think and act in terms of other’s interests.

Successful selling demands that human relations be dominant over human nature.

Selling is not something a salesperson does to a prospect. Selling is something you do with the prospect in a process of discovery and interaction – human relations at work.

The greatest barrier to success in this process is the “Egocentric Predicament”. This consists of being overly and unnecessarily concerned with self. Our ability to be perceptive and concerned about others is inversely proportionate to our self-concern.

When self gets unnecessarily in the way, the fruitful cycle of good human relations stops producing.

The key to understanding and accepting others, is to first understand and accept oneself – starting with the realisation that, rather than strive for an unattainable “I should be” image, we should settle for our real self as “I am” – accepting shortcomings along with strengths.

The following points provide a practical answer to the “I am” versus “I should be” conflict.

Recognise it – and recognise that its source is rooted in the views of others. Either (a) accept your “I am” image or (b) decide on attainable, constructive steps to achieve “I should be” in the future.

Our behaviour is a reflection of our attitudes; and our attitudes grow out of our values.

Each is an integral part of the other. Do your life values make it easy for you to put the other person’s interests first?

Sincerity is a much-used word in relation to selling. Integrity is a kindred word. Integrity implies a consistent kind of honesty: acting outwardly the way you truly feel inwardly. That’s why sound values are so important to your success with others.

Remember: “People buy our product not so much because they understand the product… but because they feel that we understand them.”

There are many effective ways of doing this: The best way to create this kind of buying climate is to “transmit on their frequency.” This opens their mind to you…makes them willing – and eager – to listen.

A sincere, specific compliment on a point of real meaning to them gets the other person talking about things of interest to them. It opens doors.

“Before I sell my prospect what my prospect buys, I must first see my prospect as they see themselves.”

In Summary:
Empathy is the magical word in human to human interaction. It means feeling as the other person feels, not just with them. It means putting yourself in their shoes and shaping your attitudes accordingly.

Beyond getting the order, the plus factor in selling is to make people look good in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Rather than sell to them, we help them buy.

We do this best by building their self-image. This helps them grow. And as we help others grow, we grow. To do this, we must be open and honest – this is the essence of good human relations.

These concepts are applicable to every facet of our lives and in selling, they pave the way to the truest and most fruitful success.

Today’s News: You can anticipate that I will be highlighting one of the most significant sales events of the year frequently, and we start today:

My friend, colleague and fellow  Colleen Francis, “One of the Top 5 Sales Trainers in the Market Today” – Sales and Marketing Magazine, is hosting/presenting:

Engage Selling Powerhouse Sales Event
27-28 April 2009

You will find all the details here

- I suggest that early registration is advisable: This is an example of what last year’s delegates said:

“The Powerhouse Sales Event was awesome! The day was full of excellent presenters with powerful information!”
Lorraine Gignac, Adecco Employment Services 

Finally, today:

You will not want to miss this week’s top article, over at

Tomorrow: Everyone – literally everyone, is talking about Sales 2.0, and many of them haven’t quite got it. My guest tomorrow most certainly has – he may have invented it. Join Nigel Edelshain on The JF Guest Author Spot 

On Monday, I suggested that far too many front-line sales professionals are adopting a “Quixotic” approach to opportunity assessment, as the need to hit targets and put runs on the board, intensifies.

But you know, with selling time becoming limited; International barriers coming down; competition intensifying; product uniqueness becoming rarer and rarer, rigorous qualification has never been more critical.

Personally, I believe that the first exploratory meeting is the key element in the entire sales process.

Typically the meeting will have been arranged after qualification via the telephone and a decision made by both parties that it would be mutually beneficial to meet.

It is the exploratory meeting that will allow the professional salesperson to set the ground rules and get a ‘feel’ for the client and their needs. As this is normally the first meeting it is also where the potential client will get his first impression of you, therefore the way you look, act and conduct the meeting will have a direct bearing on whether or not you are able to proceed to the next stage. Finally, the objective of the meeting is to gain commitment to the next stage and NOT to try and get the order.

What is the essential information that must be gathered? Read on here

Today’s News: My friend and fellow sales blogger, Dave Stein, posted an interview with Jill Myrick of Meeting To Win - a company who we now have close ties with. You can listen in here, and also grab an excellent FREE download

Hot news off the press – early in March, I will be launching a brand new daily blog, which will be of particular interest to sales managers, Sales Directors, sales leaders, VP Sales - in fact anyone who has responsibility for leading sales professionals: I promised that Sales Leadership Zone  would make a comeback – and it is. More soon.

Tomorrow: I have a book(s) proposal to write, so I am going to be fully occupied. As ever, wherever you are, have a great weekend and be sure to make it back on Monday – JF

The JF Guest Author Spot

Niall Devitt

Studies show that women buy or influence 80% of all consumer goods. According to a David Powers Homes study they make 80% of all $180 to $500K price range and they are likely to play a significant role in other big ticket purchases such as cars etc. In fact just because they aren’t directly involved in a particular purchase doesn’t mean they aren’t strongly behind the buying decision.

Be Aware

While there are of course many similarities in how men and women reach purchasing decisions, there are also important differences. From a man’s point of view, the key is to be able to understand what these are and to be aware of them when selling to a women. The following are some easy to follow guidelines for men who sell to women

Traditional Sales Approaches don’t Work

Many companies and individuals are copping on to the fact that traditional sales approaches don’t work with women buyers, in fact woman are much more lightly than men to tune out if they feel they are been SOLD to.

Take Time to Understand Her Needs

Women put significantly more value in the salesperson really taking the time to understand their needs. The ability to demonstrate that you care about her needs and what she has to say will help develop a strong relationship and increase the outcome of her buying.

Appearance and Body Language

One aspect where men and women buyers differ is in their ability to read unconscious communication, women are naturally better at it. A woman will be more lightly to evaluate your appearance and dress, will listen more intently to the emotions you convey and will read much more into your body language.

Let her know you are Listening

Women also listen differently, men often maintain a blank facial expression when women are telling their stories. To her this can translate as not listening at all. It’s important when selling to a woman to be a very active listener, convey expression in your face, maintain good eye contact, ask checking questions to confirm you understand what she means, take notes etc., it’s the little stuff that matters most to a woman.

Don’t Interrupt

Interrupting one another’s conversations can be a pretty routine thing for men. However when communicating with women, they are much more likely to get annoyed when you interrupt. Women will also define interruption differently to men. Just because she’s not talking for a moment doesn’t necessarily mean she’s ready for you to jump in. She may just be taking a second to collect her thoughts before resuming.

She’s a Multi-tasker

Overall, a woman is a much more emotionally involved buyer; she is likely to consider and weigh up more factors but because she is able to multi task can do this in lot less time so ensure you keep up.

She Senses

She has heightened senses of touch, taste and smell and will often involve these and other senses in her buying decisions of certain products. She may talk you through her buying decision putting into words how she sees and feels your product may work for her.

A Natural Marketer

A huge plus from selling to women is that they are three times more likely than men to share personal experience with friends, if you ask any woman where she came across her gym, hairdresser or beauty salon, she is much more likely to tell that it was recommended by one of her female friends.

With many times more connections between the left and the right hemispheres of the female brain, women tap naturally into that area that is responsible for bonding, they are natural word of mouth spreaders.

Niall Devitt is the founder of Beyond the Boardroom (www.btbtraining.com), a leading Irish business development consultancy specialising in providing highly tailored solutions in the areas of sales training and recruitment. Having previously recruited and managed high performance sales teams in the IT and Financial Services industries, Niall understood that there was a need for a results driven sales training solution in Ireland.

He is also a  read more here

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia two good chums, both are also a   and they are celebrating a centenary of excellent podcasts.

“Salesopedia celebrates our 100th podcast with Jill Konrath who was also our 1st podcast guest on February 18, 2007. Jill Konrath is a sales expert and author of “Selling to Big Companies”. She is also the founder of Sales Shebang, a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events, a B2B consultant, and trainer.

Jill Konrath hates closing! She has some strong views on closing techniques and why you shouldn’t use them!  Hear how she became one of the top sales reps at Xerox when she “didn’t know how to close.” Her advice is to “never close.” Take a listen to what Jill suggests you should be doing.”

To listen in, just simply click on this banner.

Tomorrow: What is THE most important element of the entire sales cycle? Join me tomorrow to find out.

In bringing together this collection of articles that I have published on the art of presentation skills and public speaking, my primary objective is to share with you some of the secrets I have learned over the years.

I don’t believe that anyone is a “natural” presenter or orator. Yes, certainly some people are naturally gifted communicators with an outgoing and attractive personality; some people have an extensive vocabulary; others know their subject inside out. But all of these will not necessarily guarantee that you can deliver a professional and compelling presentation.

This small book will hopefully guide you through each stage of a professional presentation, from understanding what audiences want, preparing your presentation, the delivery stage (including structure, verbal and physical delivery plus the question and answer session) and finally how to handle and harness anxiety.

I hope you enjoy it! – Just simply click on the banner below to download it.

Today’s News: It is all happening over at Top Sales Experts, following the launch of TSE 2.0:

The shelves are getting stacked – more than 2000 articles in the Article Vault, “How To” guides, Jobs Board, Podcasts…….and so much more. For example, we have just launched the TSE Daily Interviews, which this week have already featured Wendy Weiss and Billy Cox.

Very soon, we will be launching TSE Webinars, presented by an all-star line-up of sales gurus, and do look out for the very first TSE Roundtable.

You can enjoy all of this and more for the miserly price of $25 per year – and we give you a free gift pack worth $2000. It really is a “no brainer opportunity” to join the most significant sales related site ever created.

What are you waiting for? Come and join us today

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, one of the most accomplished and talented sales experts in Europe – my good friend and colleague, Niall Devitt. “Guidelines For Men Who Sell To Women” - you will most definitely enjoy it.

The JF Guest Author Spot

Steve Martinez   

The Deer Hunter

Imagine it is deer hunting season and the hunter wanders through the forest for the annual prized deer, he is careful not to leave traces of his existence along the deer path. He has been cautious not to use any man made scent that will alert his prey. His camouflage clothing conceals him from their sight. He walks the trail slowly, deliberately and aware of all the surroundings looking for clues on the trail. He is focused, listening and looking for signs that will lead to an opportunity, a prime opportunity he can seize at the right moment.

The Sales Hunter

Now place yourself on a quest for new and profitable prospects. You will find that there are similarities between hunting for deer and hunting for new sales. For example, when out hunting for new sales, we initially, don’t want the business to know we are looking for them. We may conceal our identity as a salesperson to gather more information. Just as the deer hunter doesn’t run through the woods yelling, “here deer, here nice deer”. We won’t do the same to announce our presence either. Instead, we will quietly look for signs of a profitable prospect through networking, using the internet or through questions we ask of a receptionist or contact to confirm a matching business prospect.

Looking for footprints of prospects

 Since we don’t have footprints to examine, wait a minute, we do have footprints don’t we. Yes, just like when we examine the footprints of an animal, we can tell what size they are and we can tell if they were running or limping. The same is true with businesses, although it might be information published about their size, their mission statements, internet resources or just asking the receptionist about the company. Some businesses make available large footprints of information on themselves.

We have to know what we are looking for if we are to be efficient hunters. So, we must do our homework and learn what the profile of a profitable prospect is. In many cases our existing customer files determine our best client profiles. If this is not available, we can ask our peers and friendly competitors who are in the same business as us and ask them, “who are your best clients?” We ask this seemingly odd question because if a good client in one sector of the country requires a peers services then someone just like them in our neck of the woods will probably need similar services in our area too. These profiles are great ways for industry peers to share prospect hunting information.

Validate and verify prospects

To begin this exercise in our own business we should run a list of our top clients and examine them closely to determine what makes them different from similar businesses in their industry. What makes them unique? We must identify items we can measure. Measurable items are really the only types we can use.

For example;
• How many employees do they have?
• What is their annual sales volume?
• How many members or customers do they service?
• Is there a specialty they are involved with?

You can probably think of a few more questions that are specific to the industry.

Once we have this list of profile measurable items, we can use this to filter our suspects from our prospects. Some of this will be done over the internet. Whatever remains on the list, we are left with asking a few questions over the telephone. One of the best sources for this is to speak with a salesperson for the company, you know that they often love to talk and brag about their company.

Once we have validated and verified our list to a short one, we can target them more directly for business and we won’t be wasting our time. We will graduate to the efficient prospect hunters, who sell more and achieve more profitable sales.

Steve Martinez is the author of Sales Impactivator a sales e-publication for success oriented individuals. As the President of Selling Magic, his company teaches business professionals how to automate the selling process, preventing sales people and business owners from experiencing the hard lessons in selling. Steve has consulted with businesses around the country sharing his 25 years of sales and marketing experience to eliminate sales failure. Steve uses his experience as a National Sales Manager and National Account Executive to share the real-world lessons in sales. www.sellingmagic.com

 
Today’s News: The next episode of “Double Your Sales In 2009″ is now available from SalesNexus

“How many sales management books have you read? I’m sure each of your sales reps has a couple of sales guru books that they keep on their desk.

Have you invested in sales training for you team?

A lot of time and money have gone into refining the skills of your sales team.

But somehow, you have a feeling in your gut that when they hit the streets and start pressing the flesh, they fall back on instinct more often than not.

In the first 3 installments of our “Double Your Sales in 2009″, we’ve covered setting the “qualification bar” high enough that sales time is focused on the highest value customers and knowing the return on your investment in sales time and expense at each step in your process.  Click here to start with “Qualify Early and Often”, the first installment.”

You can grab your FREE copy here

Tomorrow: “How To Plan, Prepare, & Deliver A Compelling Presentation” It’s that time of the week for me to give away yet another FREE ebook.

“This small book will hopefully guide you through each stage of a professional presentation, from understanding what audiences want, preparing your presentation, the delivery stage (including
structure, verbal and physical delivery plus the question and answer session) and finally how to handle and harness anxiety.”  Be sure to join me tomorrow.

Don Quijote by Honoré Daumier (1868)

Emerging salespeople typically believe that all business is good business, and to an extent, I can understand this viewpoint. If you are trying to make a name for yourself, being put under pressure by your sales manager to get “runs on the board” and earn the respect of the more experienced and successful members of the team, it is difficult to walk away from any opportunity if you believe you have the remotest chance of winning it.

However, it is essential that more seasoned professionals fully understand both the value and importance of rigorous objective qualification, not just at the front end but right the way through the sales cycle -especially now. 

Qualification is a process not a single event and even internal and reactive salespeople should be fully skilled in asking a small number of basic questions regarding precise requirements, time scales, budget, competition etc, before they are prepared to reveal their price and delivery.

As the value of the product, service or solution increases, the depth of the qualification should increase proportionally.

External salespeople have the opportunity to meet with prospective customers and it is far easier to extract information face to face than it is via the telephone, however, it is vital that some initial answers are elicited prior the that first exploratory meeting, in order to ensure that the meeting will be worthwhile for both parties.

With sales costs spiralling upwards and sales time becoming limited, prudence is required on the part of the salesperson.

During that first meeting, a considerable amount of detail can and should be uncovered e.g. background and history of the company, the key individuals, the composition of the DMU (Decision Making Unit) if there is one, timescales, budget, competition, current suppliers, buying criteria etc.

Only by rigorous questioning will the salesperson be able to answer the following questions when they get back to the office: Is there a requirement/need that my company can satisfy? Is it winnable? Do I want it?

The very best sales professionals will not pursue the opportunity, after proper objective analysis, if the answer to any of those questions is “No”. They will rather invest their precious selling time seeking out and closing opportunities that will provide a profitable return on that investment.

At the very highest selling levels i.e. strategic “big-ticket” selling and marketing, clearly, the sales cycle is much more protracted, complex and typically moves through four stages i.e.

- Rigorous oportunity assessment
- Develop a strategy
- Present the solution and re-assess the opportunity
- Gain formal commitment, sign the order and develop

In Summary:
Having a tilt at every windmill that presents itself, is neither practical nor profitable – it wasn’t for Don Quixote and it will not be for you. Qualification, is a core competency that every professional salesperson should take on board as quickly as possible.

Working to the maxim that “All business is good business” is unrealistic and totally erroneous. It takes just as long to work an unprofitable opportunity through the pipeline only to lose it at the death, as it does a profitable one – the ability to determine which is which, can have a huge impact on your ultimate success in a front-line sales role.
 

Today’s News: It’s Monday, so you know that I am going to remind you that there is a brand new set of nominated articles over at Top 10 Sales Articles - just click on the banner below to enjoy them all.

Tomorrow: Fellow    Steve Martinez, is on The JF Guest Author Spot – not to be missed - “The Sales Hunter and the Deer Hunter“