This just in from Wendy Weiss

“If you are struggling to make sales in today’s economy, help is on the way.
 
I have just completed The Sales Winner’s Handbook. My new book gives you proven ways to sell in an easy, fast, and effective way…even in these tough times!

http://www.wendyweiss.com/saleswinnershandbook.html
 
You’ll learn how to break free of old habits and discover proven ways to close more sales. You’ll never work the same way again!
 
Here’s just some of what you will learn:
 
– How to engage buyers in conversations that close sales
– Surefire ways to beat the price objection
– How to increase your sales by simply changing a few words
– Proven ways to whiz past gatekeepers
– Ways to grab your prospect’s interest in 15 seconds or less
– Secrets to voicemail messages that have prospects calling you
 
The quickest and most certain way to get your sales into high gear is to use these secrets.
 
The Sales Winner’s Handbook gives you 20 fast-moving chapters that will have you selling more in no time. You get 48 scripts you can use over the phone to set appointments, overcome objections and close. You also get 12 real-life example scripts to see it in action, and 103 questions you can use to qualify prospects, gather information, gain agreement, justify your price and close the deal.
 
Take a few moments to learn more at http://www.wendyweiss.com/saleswinnershandbook.html . You’ll be glad you did.
 
Best regards,
 
Wendy Weiss
The Queen of Cold Calling
 
P.S. Quit draining your energy and wasting your precious time with sales methods that simply won’t work in today’s economy. Get your copy of The Sales Winner’s Handbook today! http://www.wendyweiss.com/saleswinnershandbook.html“

JF Guest Author Spot

Joanne Black

Expertise isn’t just handed to you.Commitment to a daily routine and practice separates you from every other salesperson out there. Commit and succeed

Malcolm Gladwell, (Canadian journalist and author) said, “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, he references a study by Ericsson (K. Anders Ericsson, Florida State University) “The thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. The work much, much harder… .”
 
“The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.” Yikes!
 
Reality check: Mastery, becoming a world-class expert, takes 10,000 hours of practice–because it takes the brain that long to assimilate everything it needs to know for mastery. The rest of us (real people) don’t need 10,000 hours of practice to be top of our sales game. But we do need practice. And I’m willing to bet that you need more practice than you’re currently committing to.
 
Salespeople Want It N-O-W
I sell. You sell. Real salespeople are focused. We are energized by our business, driven to provide top-notch products and services to our clients, and we are always moving. Learning, developing expertise, and asking questions. We are on the move.
 
We are not a patient people, sales pros. We want information-relevant information-now, not tomorrow or the next day. We want it quickly and magically. We’d prefer to put the iPod (loaded with critical sales training and wisdom) under the pillow and awaken with the essential sales content embedded in our brain. Osmosis would be such a low-impact, low-energy, easy way to master new sales skills…
 
…Snap out of it. That’s not how it works, and we know it. The only way to increase essential sales skills and impact our sales productivity is to practice. Yes, I mean hands-on, upright, out-loud practice. I know what you’re thinking, “No. Don’t want to do it.”
 
Commit to Mastery
Children practice all the time–without fear. Remember learning to ride a bike? You watched other kids. You may have started with a tricycle (very safe), then got your two-wheeler with training wheels (safe), and then dropped the training wheels for a solo free ride (not so safe). You fell, skinned your knees and got back on. You fell off again and got back on. You were committed to learning how to ride that bike. Your confidence improved, and you rode downhill and over and around bumps and obstacles. You got good, really good. But it didn’t happen overnight.
 
The Proof Is in the Practice
But we resist practice, even with proof right in front of us. Why? I believe that salespeople resist practice because adults and contributing employees don’t get paid to practice. You get paid to sell. You receive compensation to do your job correctly the first time. Practice time is on your dime. And who has extra time just floating around?
 
I took piano lessons as a young girl. Many times I forgot to practice, and I thought my teacher wouldn’t notice. She always noticed. I never got away without practicing. As adults, we can’t get away without practicing, either. Believe it, your clients and prospects notice.
 
Practice Makes Permanent
Salespeople in the top 10 percent operate differently. They determine the critical, deal-breaking, skills they need for their sales success, and they deep dive into those skills. These supersales achievers narrow their focus and relentlessly learn and apply new sales skills by committing to daily practice. Yes, daily practice.
 
I use the example of the gym: If you just walk by, look at people in the window, and watch them working out, not much changes for you, but lots changes for them. Daily workouts build muscles, improve physical wellbeing, and strengthen the most critical muscle in our bodies-the heart.
 
Where is the heart of your sales career? Commitment to a daily routine and practice separates you from every other salesperson out there. Many anecdotes and quotes exist about practice. I grew up hearing “Practice makes perfect.” I don’t believe in perfection. Perfection is boring.  I believe in striving for the best. One of my clients says: “Practice makes permanent.” Yes!
 
So much sales information bombards us today, and we struggle to quickly locate relevant data to boost our sales. We find information fast, but we frequently lack the discipline to apply what we learn effectively. Why? We neglect practice.
 
The Practice Payoff
Success isn’t handed to us. Fortune magazine’s senior-editor-at-large, Geoffrey Colvin wrote an article on this topic (October 19, 2006), What It Takes to Be Great: Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work.
 
Colvin states that the best do what researchers call “deliberate practice.” He quotes Ericsson: “Deliberate practice is activity explicitly intended to improve performance, reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results, and involves high levels of repetition. 
 
Example from the sports world: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80% of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours everyday, that is deliberate practice. Consistency is crucial.”
 
Everyone can access greatness. Focus on specific selling skills and practice, practice, practice. Practice becomes your game-changing, compelling, sales event. Practice is your future. You don’t need 10,000 hours of practice. Just practice one sales skill every day. Practice makes permanent.
 
Read this and other sales insights from Joanne here
Joanne Black is a professional sales speaker and America’s leading authority on referral selling. She is the author of No More Cold Calling™: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust from Warner Business Books. For more information, visit www.NoMoreColdCalling.com. Phone: 415-461-8763

Customers may well want to tell you they’re unhappy about something but they either:

•  Feel uncomfortable about doing so
•  Don’t know how to
•  Don’t have time; it’s easier to let it go

So, give them a choice of mechanisms. For example:

•  Simple questionnaires with pre-paid postage
•  Telephone help line
•  Customer service points
•  Exit surveys – face to face questions
•  Comment cards

Let them know it’s not a waste of time!

What are you going to do with the information? File it away? Shred it for next year’s Christmas decorations?

One company I know maintains a whiteboard in the reception listing the key comments/complaints made by customers, with a note of the action taken, or to be taken and by whom. Customers really feel they are part of the product and service improvement team.

Customers need to know what’s in it for them if they do complain.

Respond quickly to complaints. If you give a number to ring, make sure someone is always there to answer the phone. Reply within two days if that’s what you promised to do.

Have an “escalation procedure” which allows for the more serious complaints to be dealt with by a senior member of staff. Directors need to be accessible, hiding away simply creates suspicion.

Summary:

Unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while the vendors’ interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relationship gap” and is due entirely to complacency.

Fact:

It now costs fifteen times as much to locate and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one. That reason alone, should act as sufficient incentive for us to attempt to build brick walls around the relationship in order to deter predatory competitors – and there are plenty of them out there.

We must continually strive to earn the right to receive our customers business and one significant stride in that direction, is to implement an effective customer care programme.

Today’s News:

The third chapter of Sales Nexus’s excellent FREE Ebook, written by CEO Craig Klein, is now released – “4 Fallacies in Marketing and Selling that Cause You to Waste Money and Destroy Profits”

You can:

Download the chapter HERE

Register for the entire Ebook HERE

See an overview of upcoming chapters plus an introductory video Craig created HERE

If you are working in a commercial environment, chances are that you will be called upon to make a formal presentation at some point and the reality is that in today’s business world of ‘quality circles’ and ‘managing for excellence’, the most successful individuals are often accomplished presenters.

That’s because a successful presenter is more than just a fact dispenser – he or she really knows how to communicate with their audience, someone to whom people listen. The effective speaker in business, just as in the political arena, is the one who can make people hear the facts and believe the message.

Unfortunately, public speaking is not something that comes naturally to most of us. Without prior training in the basics of timing, body language, humour, organisation and all the other skills that go into the act of public speaking, even the smartest, liveliest and most articulate individual can wither in the glare of “the spotlight”.

What Do Audiences Want?

• To feel you ‘know your stuff’
• That you look the part
• That you respect them and acknowledge their situation and views
• To find what you say links with what they want from you
• To have sufficient information to make a considered judgement about what you say (they will ‘weigh it up’)
• To be clear about any action necessary – at the end.

And above all to find it understandable, interesting and a good fit with the audience and the occasion.

And In Summary: What They Most Definitely Do Not Want?

• To be confused
• To be blinded with science / technicalities or jargon
• ‘Lost’ in the structure (or lack of it)
• To be talked down to
• To be made to struggle to understand inappropriate language
• To be made to make an enormous jump to relate what is said to their own circumstances.

And they do not want to listen to someone whose lack of preparation makes it clear they have no respect for the audience. As with most things in life, preparation and planning is everything.

It is important to remember that as the presenter or speaker, we are there for our audience, they are not there for us – we must earn the right by proving our credibility, to be standing in front of them.

Today’s News: Over at Nancy Bleeke’s excellent SalesProInsider blog, she is offering a “A Smörgåsbord of Sales Freebies” – I’ll let her describe all of that to you HERE - I am glad I could cut and paste “Smörgåsbord” because I don’t have those characters on my keyboard?

Unless the person you are influencing offers an unconditional “Yes” to your proposals you will need to do or say something that will generate a positive decision.

Here are two steps you can take towards achieving a decision:

Step One:

Ask yourself ‘How does this person normally go about making decisions?’ Most people usually have a preferred way of making up their mind. Some people take their time to decide, others are happy to make snap decisions. You can sometimes push the latter, but you will need to tread more carefully with the former.

Step Two:

Have a variety of ways in which you can stimulate a decision.

Spot The Signals – Verbal And Non-Verbal:

Knowing when to ask for a decision can be critical. Ask too soon and you may frighten the other person off. Ask too late and you may miss your best chance.

Watch for signals that suggest the other person is ready to decide:
• Leaning forward, seeming more interested and involved
• Head up, good eye contact
• Stroking chin thoughtfully
• Nodding or smiling in agreement with you
• Upward infection in voice tone
• Requesting more information
• Asking you to repeat some points you made earlier
• Making notes
• Asking ‘What if …’ or ‘Suppose …’ questions
• Checking guarantees, support, follow-up plans
• Picking up your written proposal and double checking aspects
• Discussing implementation details.

Dealing With Ditherers:

A good way of avoiding a decision is to say: ‘I want to think about it.’

Sometimes people do want time to think things through, but, very often, this can be an excuse or a put-off.

Ask:

• ‘What exactly do you want to think through? (Whatever you do – don’t pause here!) Is it the implementation schedule? Is the bottom line? Is it the timing?’
Once you have isolated the real reason, you are much better placed to respond to the objection.

Going For “Yes”:

• ‘If you agree, shall we go ahead right away?’

Its very directness appeals to the Driver or Expressive personalities.

If the answer is “no”, ask : ‘What’s preventing you from going ahead?’

The Alternative Choice Question:

This is less direct because you enable people to make a choice between two possible options.
• ‘When would you like to start – Friday, or shall we wait until Monday?’
• ‘Which of these two do you prefer?’
• ‘Which support contract is most appropriate for you – this one, or that one?’

The Minor Decision:

Here, you ask people to make a decision about a relatively unimportant aspect of the proposal. If they give the go-ahead, the assumption is that they agree to the whole idea.
• ‘Where do you want your logo to appear – at the top of the form or do you think it would look better in the bottom right hand corner?’
• ‘By the way, how do you intend to resource the project?’
• ‘How should we deal with the Southern branches?’

The Assumptive Question/Statement:

This question/statement works well with Amiables and Expressives, both of whom need a continuous nudge towards decisions. (Be careful with Analyticals who dislikes presumption.)
• ‘After we start, I assume you’ll want a monthly update?’
• ‘You’ll notice significant improvements immediately after we start.’

And Finally: The Benefit Summary:

Some people like to hear a review of the benefits they will receive if they agree to your ideas. A quick list followed by a decision question often does the trick.
• ‘Ok – let’s summarise. After we’ve made the alterations you will notice that you have extra time available for other things, you’ll start to save on budget and you’ll have a happier work force. So, shall we go ahead?’

Drivers, Analyticals, Expressives and Amiables? – Learn more – “How To Relate To And Influence The Four Personality Types”

 Today’s News: The final Top Sales Expert’s Masterclass of the month is being presented by Danita Bye….

Cover All Your Executive Management Bases and Win the Sales Series in 2010
Thursday January 28th 2010 1:00 PM EASTERN

“Like baseball, sales is a team sport where every position is critical to winning the game. Without strong executive leadership, even the best salespeople and managers will lose to the competition. To play baseball, you need to have nine players on the field, each of them specializing in a different skill set. To play the sales game, you need nine distinct, yet complementary, leadership types suited up and ready to go – especially if you plan on playing to win in 2010.” Continue reading

Customers like to feel reassured that the purchase they are about to make will do everything that the sales person has told them it will do. Why? Because there is a principle based around social proof that effectively confirms, “If other customers like this, it must be good”.

The power of using testimonials during different stages of the sales process increases sales when ‘real’ customers are seen or heard testifying as to how beneficial a product/service has been for them. They increase your credibility because they are third-party endorsements rather than words out of your own mouth. The goal of a customer is to predict the future about a product/service, and by offering real stories from other real customers can turn a picture of your proposition into a tangible experience.

When using testimonials there are a number of elements that can maximise their effectiveness:

The more specific a testimonial is the more power it has for the customer. For example; “Great company, great service” lacks meaning because it is vague and doesn’t tell the customer anything. Consider the impact when a testimonial becomes more specific: “I was really impressed with this company’s speed of service. They pulled out all the stops so that I had product sitting in my warehouse within 24 hours.”

Every testimonial should include the customer’s name, title and organisation (if relevant), and ideally a photograph of that person. This helps to convey the authenticity of the testimonial and builds credibility.

Dividing testimonials into different aspects of the sales process can be really useful. When used in context they create more impact. For example; if a sales person is struggling to get an appointment with a prospect, a relevant testimonial could help persuade that prospect to agree to a meeting: “It took me 2 years before I agreed to meet this company. Having worked with them almost a year, I wish I’d seen them earlier.”

Within the context of the sales cycle, testimonials can be used at many stages, particularly:

Initial letters/emails to request a meeting
Sales presentations to reinforce key points
Objection handling and negotiations
Post – meeting follow up to provide reassurance
Managing ongoing relationships with regular contact

Validating the benefits of your product or service can be achieved brilliantly by using a video format for your testimonials at the end of your presentation. This provides a powerful ‘benefits-driven’ summary that confirms and proves your claims. Just remember, the only thing better than saying the right thing at the right time is when your customers do it for you–and better.

You and your team are already acutely aware of your most frequently encountered objections. That’s why testimonials should acknowledge and mention these objections, before explaining why they still decided to buy from your organisation. For example: “I was initially surprised with their prices until I saw the quality of their product and experienced their vast range of promotional services.”

Testimonials are really powerful when they acknowledge an objection that paces the probable experiences of your prospects, and then wipes out the objection with an overarching benefit.

When requesting testimonials you are looking to obtain a genuine viewpoint that praises your organisation/product/service. Therefore, the best time to ask for this is when your customer has experienced the benefits of your product/service. To help busy customers respond to your request, provide them with other examples of testimonials so they can see how easy they are to write. It also helps if you can provide them with a simple structure to follow, for example:

Why did you agree to meet us?
What persuaded you to buy our product?
What benefits have you gained from using this product?
How would you describe our level of service?

Today’s News:

My good chum, and fellow Top Sales Expert, Lori Richardson’s “Fabulous 50-50-50-50″ Project sounds as if it is going really well.

What’s that all about JF? I hear you ask, almost in unison.

It is an inspiration project to help business owners grow revenues and salespeople grow sales, and non-profits raise funds which together = a better local community.

The overview is posted at Score More Sales. Details will be posted here daily, with weekly accountability posts.

Here is a taster:

Progress Update: End of Week 3 / Start of Week 4

“It has been three weeks since the Fabulous 50-50-50-50 Project (known as the Fab 50) begun – with a dip in the cold salt water at Birch Bay for their Polar Bear Plunge, and no turning back since.

I’m working on four different goals so will update my progress for each:

50 City or town visits: these are being set-up around the U.S. – where I feel compelled to go, and where the lower airfares work out or other reasonable transportation. We have accomplished THREE so far, with a FOURTH town: Manchester, New Hampshire up next. Lots cookin behind the scenes on this.

50 New Client Projects: I want to show other entrepreneurs how big your pipeline needs to be to bring sales opportunities to closure – so this one is going well. A “client project” represents a unit of $2000 in my chart, and so far we’ve been able to black out 20 of these units. This one is in good shape.

Auctioneer for 50 Fundraising Auctions: Am madly in the works on this – still looking for opportunities in the Summer, Fall and Winter since Spring is wrapped up. I have booked 15 solid events, 35 to go.

Finally the health goals: 50 minutes outside every day and get rid of 50 pounds. I am a bit behind on this, as I had started losing weight before Jan 1 to get me on the right foot – and lately have not gained nor lost. Total of 7 pounds gone; 43 to go. I am not getting outside every day, so I need to kick that in. I was thrilled though, to hire Patty Guarino of A Personal View as my fitness trainer, and Lisa Schmidt of Seattle is Well as my health coach. C’mon, team!

Whew! Lots going on – gotta stay organized, focused, and everything needs to be systematized to stay on top of it all.”

I’ll try and keep you all updated – JF

If you are involved in prospecting then you will already know the challenges of persuading a prospect to give you the business.

Ultimately there is a four-step process involved in buying, that all of us must follow:

1. We have to feel MOTIVATED to make a purchase, irrespective of its type or size.

2. At some point after we’ve become motivated to want to buy, we make a DECISION to buy.

3. Then, after we have made a decision, we want to feel CONVINCED that our decision is the right one and at this stage we may seek approval and input from other people. Then we’ll make our purchase.

4. Finally, after making our purchase we seek REASSURRANCE. Interestingly, if sales people haven’t nurtured newly acquired customers, this can result in ‘Buyers Remorse’ and the customer will get ‘cold feet’ and cancel their order.

Every step of this process requires careful handling, yet if we lack the ability to motivate our prospect to talk to us, let alone buy from us, the other steps become redundant.

People are fundamentally motivated in two main ways:

1. What problem or pain they can avoid and move away from.

2. What pleasure or benefit they can move towards.

If a prospect feels content with their current supplier or their current situation, then it will be a huge challenge to motivate them to want to buy your product or service. That’s why every pain your prospect feels is an opportunity for you.

Your task, during the initial fact-finding stage is to uncover their ‘pain’ and help them to dwell on their problems. The stronger the pain or the bigger their problem, the greater their motivation will be to move away from it. If you can convince prospects that your organisation can reduce one or more of their ‘pains’, then you will have suddenly discovered a powerful way to unleash their motivation to buy from you.

Today’s News:

There is a great TSE Masterclass coming up tomorrow…

How Account Managers Can Grow and Keep Their Strategic Assets: Loyal Customers 
 
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM EST

Loyal customers are strategic assets for any firm — the benefits from these assets are significant.  Revenue streams from loyal customers are more predictable. Selling to loyal customers is also less costly than the acquisition of new or defected customers.

In this masterclass you will learn how account managers:

   1. Can identify loyal customers without having to depend on customer surveys
   2. Must contribute to keeping them loyal  instead of just relying on the customer service organization

Christian Maurer, The Ultimate Sales Executive Resource, is an independent sales effectiveness consultant.  To deliver this master class he draws on his  coaching experience with global account teams generating up to  hundreds of millions of $ in annual sales in the high tech industry. .

You can register for FREE here

JF Uncut

I don’t know anyone who has not been touched by the daily images that have been relayed back to us over the past two weeks, as the full horror of this terrible tragedy has unfolded.

Only now is the true scale of the disaster emerging. Reports now suggest more than 200,000 people may have died, with hundreds of thousands made homeless.

The work ahead to recover from this tragedy is immense. So here’s our goal: $1 billion for Haiti. That’s how much Haiti owes to the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, and a handful of others.

Sign the petition below to ask Haiti’s creditors to act quickly and cancel Haiti’s debts:

http://one.org/international/actnow/haiti/index.html?rc=haiti

As Haiti begins to rebuild we can help by lifting this debt.

Together as ONE we can make a difference!

Thank you.

JF

The JF Guest Author Spot

Craig Klein

Use These Changes to Increase Profits Without Spending More on Marketing

In the pre-Internet days, a publication called “Consumer Reports” was very popular. Those of us that pre-date Gen X, Y, etc. remember how often Consumer Reports was cited in advertising. If your company was reviewed positively by Consumer Reports, you were darned sure going to let me know that. Their specialty was doing in-depth tests of all the important components of each product and then comparing all the major competitors side by side. What made them unique is that they did not accept advertising. This enabled Consumer Reports to conduct their analysis objectively and just as importantly, it gave their readers the impression they were uninfluenced by advertising dollars. Relatively high subscription payments from readers were the only source of funding to pay for all that exhaustive research.

Why did so many readers pay such a high price for Consumer Reports? Because it helped them make smart purchase decisions. People wanted to feel like they “got a good deal” or made the “wise choice”.

In addition to reading serious publications like Consumer Reports, other options were going out on your own by visiting stores and the library, checking with the Better Business Bureau, and talking with friends and colleagues.

Lots of time was invested in all of this investigation. Then, once you selected your short list of products and vendors, you had to start calling or visiting vendors and negotiating the price and terms.

As recently as 10 years ago, making a truly wise decision and getting a good deal involved a LOT of time and diligence.

So it’s no wonder that the Internet has become a crucial step in most people’s buying process. What most people don’t realize is how much the Internet has changed things.

As an example, just think of your last car purchase. Your buying process probably included all the above steps with the addition of some Internet searches. In the past, you might get out and visit some dealerships early in the process and “kick some tires”. And what’s the one thing we all detest about visiting a car lot? When it gets down to negotiating, there’s the inevitable process where the sales rep keeps going to check with his manager on the pricing, financing, etc. Why is it so frustrating? Because they leave you sitting there waiting not just once but several times in a visit. Sometimes for 30 minutes or more at a stretch!

When you were buying that car, when you did your searches on the Internet, you probably found some vehicles online that you requested more information about. That probably meant waiting for a sales rep to receive your request and call you. I bet you ended up spending a lot more time with the sales people that called you back quickly! We hate to wait. Especially when we’re ready to buy!

So the Internet has become the place to go for quick research and a quick response. In fact, virtually all buying processes involve two separate activities on the Internet. First, you do your research. Second, you reach out to vendors you’ve selected to actually begin the negotiation process.

Continue Reading….

This is the 2nd chapter in our newest eBook, “Build Your Own Automatic Selling Machine”. Register to receive each new chapter FREE as its released and the entire eBook when complete, by simply clicking on the banner below.

Craig Klein is a seasoned sales executive. He founded SalesNexus in 2002 built on the premise that businesses win when their sales staffs implement best practices through efficient contact management. Klein saw a real need in the marketplace for a contact management solution that was easy for sales reps to use, yet didn’t require expensive hardware, software, or IT support staff, The SalesNexus hosted CRM service offers a reliable, secure, and user-friendly product that businesses around the globe have come to rely on for their CRM needs.

Today’s News: This is a first chance to book your FREE place early on my upcoming Masterclass….full details HERE

Or simply click on this banner to claim your place now.

Successful selling today is definitely not about the “hit and run” sale. Was it ever?

Sales achievers regard their relationships with key customers as a partnership and cultivate it as such. When customers face tough business challenges and complex technological choice, they rely on sales people who can assist them in making the right decisions.

The primary objective of a sales partnership has to be, to create and sustain a mutually productive relationship, which serves the needs of both parties, now and in the future.

The key word here is symbiotic. Partnership does not mean eliminating the tension between buyer and seller; it means that top-performing salespeople know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and developing the relationship fully.

Most organisations have developed without objective analysis of their purpose and structure.

The buying power in many industries is no longer evenly distributed – in a large number of markets a few big firms control the majority of purchases.

The development of new marketing techniques has meant that some tasks traditionally performed by the sales team can be more effectively handled by other methods. The prime objective of all sales staff is to gain business.

From an organisational point of view, however, how they all achieve their goals must be defined in order to identify what kind and the quality of skills that are required.

Today’s News: Tomorrow, I have the JF Guest Author Post as usual, and then of course on Sunday we have JF Uncut, so I do hope you can join me.

Oh, and I must tell you that the second instalment from the excellent new  SalesNexus Ebook is available for downloading, so simply click on the incredibly wizzy banner here….