In my opinion, hundreds of millions of pounds world-wide are wasted every year on irrelevant, unnecessary or inappropriate sales skills development and there are four obvious reasons.

To begin with, the one off programme may supply a short term motivational buzz and provide the delegate with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they are back at the “front-line” the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc take over again and the reactive mindset returns. It is rather like the Chinese meal effect; when you leave the restaurant you feel full, but by the time you arrive home you want to eat again.

Secondly most, not all, but a very high percentage of courses on offer today, deliver what I term “generalised” skills development.

For example, a guy operating within the aerospace sector negotiating multi-million pound contracts can find himself sitting next to a young saleswoman who markets insurance policies and is based in a call centre. On her right is another guy who is developing a successful career in manufacturing, selling hydraulic components and next to him…..I think you will appreciate my point. To achieve sustained success in all of these disparate industries requires specific skills sets and the “generalised” workshops simply cannot deliver them.

Thirdly most, and again I would estimate it is at least 80% of training organisations today, make the assumption that all delegates are at the same level in terms of experience, expertise and have the same “commercial bandwidth”. This is of course, totally unrealistic.

Whilst it is not possible to equate age and experience with success, the reality is that although some professional salespeople do have ten years experience, most have one year’s experience ten times!

The very best salespeople – the ones that consistently exceed expectation, have usually received ongoing skills development from the “emerging” stage all the way through “advanced” right up to “consultative” level, if appropriate but the keyword is “ongoing”

Finally, and this is the most significant and blatant error of judgment most Sales Directors make, is that every member of the team receives the same training, i.e. they are all dispatched off to the same course regardless of whether or not they already have those skills, or if indeed they need to have them in their current role.

The point here is that there is far too little planning, assessing, and objective setting; it is much easier to abdicate responsibility to the training company. The downside to this approach is of course, so much money is wasted. So what is the answer?

This week’s FREE ebook includes a number of articles that I have published on the subject – all based on my experience as both a “delegate” and a “coach” Simply click on the banner below – as usual.

Today’s News: Over the past few weeks, I have pointed you towards Craig Klein’s excellent “Double Your Sales In 2009″ series and now you have the opportunity to download the superb final ebook for FREE – again, just simply click on the banner below – you will not be disappointed.

Finally, I promised to give you an early heads up on THE online sales event of the year:

TES Roundtables kick-off.

On Tuesday April 14th at 1pm Eastern, you can join in a live debate “The Future Of Professional Selling”

The panel will be: Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein and me. Chaired by Nigel Edelshain and hosted by Paul Simon.

You will be able to book your place in the next seven days – places will be limited – more details soon.

Tomorrow: Nigel Edelshain of Sales 2.0, will be my guest, and will share his personal reflections on last week’s Sales 2.0 conference – very interesting stuff!!

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

During the seventies, eighties and nineties, it was common for large corporations such as Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Compaq etc to put their new sales recruits through a twelve to eighteen-month training program.

Today, salespeople consider themselves extremely fortunate if they receive an initial two weeks of induction training or product familiarisation workshops.

So what has changed? Have companies discovered that training is not necessary?

On the contrary, training appears to be even more important today than it was thirty years ago and it is becoming more critical all the time.

Lower Training Budgets But Higher Expectations:

The dichotomy facing Sales Directors is how they reconcile the fact that most corporations today provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development?

This should not come as a surprise, because current stock market thinking provides a powerful disincentive for firms to invest in their people on an ongoing basis. An organisation’s investment in their human capital, in the form of training and other forms of education, is not separable from general expenditure. It therefore appears as a cost on the corporate balance sheet.

Tough Choices:

Unfortunately, as a consequence, many Sales Directors have concluded that their only realistic option is to cut back on training and instead look to recruit sales professionals who, in theory anyway, already possess the necessary skills needed to do the job. They then send them out to win business armed with what they know. However, most of those same Sales Directors are discovering just how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople who have all of the essential skills and personal traits. And anyway it is not possible to equate experience or seniority with success. As I often say: “Some sales professionals have ten year’s experience, most have one year’s experience ten times”

In skills development, there are many similarities to sport i.e. does an athletic champion stop training as soon as they win their first medal? In music, does a concert pianist stop rehearsing as soon as they have given their first recital? In art, does the artist stop improving after they have enjoyed the first exhibition of their work? The answer in all cases is obvious and we should apply the same common sense principals to the ongoing development of our sales teams.

The reality is that selling in today’s climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before, skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

In Summary – Ongoing Reinforcement and Development Is Essential:

The operative word here is “ongoing”. Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there’s no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with i.e. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans. Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment which arrived with the new millennium must, in my view, respond to those realities.

Today’s News: I am delighted to confirm that Top Sales Experts have formed an alliance with a dynamic  new company called Meeting To Win, who have a very innovative solution:

“Sales Managers, have your Monday morning sales team meetings gotten boring and routine?

It’s a challenge to come up with new ideas every week to keep meetings interesting, motivating and productive. Wise managers are outsourcing this challenge to Meeting to Win.

You can take meeting preparation off of your to-do list for good! All you have to do is add Meeting to Win to your team. Each and every week a new, fresh, creative team meeting agenda will be sent to your inbox. You simply follow the agenda for weekly sales team meetings that your team will love and actually look forward to.

Our goal is that each week your sales team leaves your weekly sales team meeting better equipped to compete and win.

Subscribe today and your first 3 agendas are complimentary. Once Sales Managers are using this resource, they don’t know how they ever lived without it and, even so, you can cancel at anytime.”

Just click on the banner below to find out more about them

Tomorrow: We still have a lot of cosmetic work to complete on TSE 2.0, so I will be very busy, but wherever you are, have a great w/e, and be sure to join me on Monday – JF

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin

If ever there was a need to re-examine the way in which we are all approaching business, it is now: It’s time to challenge paradigms; look outside the square; understand that just because that has always been the way we have sold, that it will work for us in the current climate. If we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we have been getting.

Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

Dependence on salespeople is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our salespeople are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have and that is precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them. This is particularly true now that in most market sectors competitive advantage is continually being eroded – i.e. International barriers are coming down, selling time is becoming limited, competitors are getting smarter, fewer and fewer names are appearing on companies’ databases, and product uniqueness is rare. Conversely, undeveloped personnel can bring down a company through inadequate performance, leaving the competition to harvest the marketplace.

If your organisation wants to permanently increase it’s sales results then it needs to approach sales differently to create “the difference that makes the difference” in order to positively impact bottom line performance.

In Summary:
Organisations and salespeople who have 100% commitment to doing whatever it takes to elevate their sales to a whole new level are the ones most likely to succeed. Trying to operate a sales organisation without total commitment is like trying to drive a car without fuel. But every organisation has the potential to harness the power of their salespeople just as surely as oxygen pumps life into the human.

Today’s News: January’s “Article Of The Month” has just been announced over at Top 10 Sales Articles and it is a belter, written by….. well why not check it out for yourself?

Other than that, news is scarce today, I guess everyone is eagerly anticipating…

Tomorrow: It all kicks off, and I for one cannot wait – here is the countdown

“We are coming…Are you ready”

I first began to recognise the need to be able to benchmark sales performance more objectively and more rigorously over twenty five years ago. The motivation to do this was strong, because I knew I was wasting thousands,if not hundreds of thousands of pounds on sales skills training programmes which were not providing me with a proper return on my considerable investment. But I needed to prove my theory, because without an accurate analysis of my requirements, I would continue to abdicate that responsibility to the training providers, most of whom had only their own interests at heart.

So, with this quote from Drucker, “The most effective way to manage change is to create it” firmly in my mind, I set about my task – a task that became a journey, which began in 1981 and is still ongoing…

By taking an analytical approach, I arrived at the following equation:

Attitude + Skills + Process + Knowledge = Success

My initial reasoning was this: Attitude is fundamental to any achievement, because individuals with the right attitude are far more likely to embrace the essential Skills, recognise the control that Process brings and have the desire to continually expand their Knowledge.

Skills are the ‘tools of the trade’ and have to be developed on an ongoing basis. They also need to be specific, because too much time can be wasted over-burdening employees with inappropriate and irrelevant skills without any identifiable plan for their future requirements.

Process brings organisation, efficiency and control – both for the individual and for management. Effective process provides objective analysis and indicators, which can be benchmarked and accurately measured.

Then, there is of course a need to build in Knowledge – and that must include knowledge of products, industry, market sectors, competitors, business, own company and last but not least, self!

Attitude:
Let’s then begin by looking at Attitude. I was fortunate enough to have discovered the “Hertzberg Theory “- Professor Frederick Hertzberg has promoted a theory of motivation, which goes a long way forward from the original theory of “Carrot and Stick”, or indeed its extension ‘The Reward Theory’  still used by many managers and companies to try and exhort greater efforts from their staff.

It stems from two statements:

What makes people happy and motivated at work, is what they do.
What makes people unhappy and de-motivated at work, is the situation in which they do it.

Hertzberg suggested that managers needed to become familiar with three new letters that would become increasingly important in the management of people in the future. The three letters are……………..

You can download the FREE ebook here and continue reading.

Today’s News:A message from fellow Top Sales Expert, Kendra Lee:

Free Email PowerProspecting Teleseminar!

Get the latest email prospecting tips

Email is the #1 tool for prospecting – surpassing the phone according to a KLA Group survey of sellers. Yet it’s even easier to delete than a voicemail because you don’t have to skim it to make a decision.

So what’re you going to do to entice contacts into opening your prospecting emails?

Top IT seller, sales advisor and business owner Kendra Lee’s book Selling Against the Goal won a silver medal award from Sales Book Awards – a joint venture between The Sales Corporation & Sales Gravy - and she wants to celebrate with a FREE teleseminar to answer this question – just for you.

Come to this 1-hour teleseminar for fresh techniques that work without gimmicks and tricks:
 What never to say
 Enticing subject lines
 Lead-generating salutations and signatures
 Add your personal style and build instant rapport
 Sample emails
 Follow-up strategies that grab attention without hounding
 Ask your toughest questions on email prospecting

Join Kendra January 29 at 12:00pm Eastern.

Normally $79, this session is FREE to our first 75 readers who sign up. Just enter the coupon code “WIN”.

As an added bonus you’ll receive:

A session recording, handout, and copy of the Email Prospecting chapter from Selling Against the Goal, all included with your registration.

Remember: enter coupon code “WIN” to attend for FREE!

Tomorrow: Lee Salz is in the JF Guest Author hot-seat – “The Unprecedented Sales Management Challenge for 2009″

Why Review?

Obtaining continual feedback against a set of established criteria is vital if an organisation is to retain its existing top clients and seek to improve its standing and the quality of its service levels to them.

There are at least seven benefits of regular feedback.

• Feedback reveals your customer’s current and future plans.

• Seeing your business from your customer’s point of view allows you to answer the question “would you do business with you?” – if not why not?

• Feedback allows you to tailor your service levels so that you enjoy maximum customer satisfaction at a minimum cost.

• If you don’t ask you’ll never know how you are doing until it’s too late! Feedback is magnified by the ‘ice berg factor’ making it more critical than it originally appears.

• Feedback can reveal what your competition are doing helping you to be a consistently strong contender.

• Gaining a reputation for wanting to hear feedback can actually make money for you.

How Often?

This Will depend entirely On the importance of the account and revenue levels being achieved – or anticipated.

Assessing The Feedback You Receive:

If the feedback you have been receiving to-date has not been useful, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I ask enough questions?

• Do I ask the right questions?

• Do I communicate effectively about why I am asking the questions?

• Do I ask the right people?

• Do I know how to use the data I collect?

• Am organised to respond to the information?

• Do I value and trust the information I receive?

What Do You Do With The Results?

Collate & assess

Communicate findings upwards & sideways

Act on vital issues

Feed back remedial actions

Confirm satisfactory resolve

Remember,The Account Review Process:

• Is a non-threatening meeting.

• It is a fact finding session not a sales event in the short term. But

• It is highly likely, that during this meeting you will uncover additional short, medium and long term opportunities.

Today’s News: We have just announced the Top Sales Article for November over at Top 10 Sales Articles, which means we now have eleven of this year’s twelve finalists in place and what a heavyweight crew: Paul Cherry, Josiane Feifon, Ivan Misner, Mike Brooks, Mark Satterfield, Zig Ziglar, Kevin Eikenberry, Jill Konrath, Paul McCord, Bill Cox and of course November’s winner, who is revealed here

So, just three more weekly winners before we reveal the final line-up and open up the voting – the winner will be announced at 12 noon Eastern on New Years Eve.

Tomorrow: The doors open for FREE registration to “The Online Sales Event Of 2008″ – just 1000 places available.

Our style of negotiation will be influenced by the style of the other party. If both sides are adversarial; there will be little trust between the two parties, however, if one side decides to be co-operative, there is a danger the other side will use this apparent sign of weakness to their advantage.

Co-operative bargaining has the advantage of being a more efficient style of negotiation, however certain rules have to be followed by both parties for it to work.

Let us look at the two styles of bargaining and their features:

Features Of Adversarial Bargaining:

• Each side takes up a position and defends it.

• Opening bids are set at unrealistic levels; too high or too low, in order to give room for manoeuvre.

• Movement is small or non-existent until later on in the negotiation.

• Tactics are used to gain short term advantage.

• Too much emphasis is placed on trust. .This really is my best price!

• Information is withheld, or misrepresented.

• The outcome is often “win-lose”, or “lose-lose”.

• The more aggressive negotiator usually does best.

• This style does not encourage long term, mutually beneficial relationships.

• Neither side asks enough questions, or explores alternatives in sufficient depth.

Features Of Co-Operative Bargaining:

• Each side recognizes that the other has needs and feelings and accepts implicit rules.

• Objective measures are taken of what is fair and reasonable.

• Trust is not an issue as either side is willing to share information.

• This style is friendly, but not soft. There is a willingness to trade concessions.

• There is a clear, communicable strategy.

• Bad behavior is punished.

• This style involves creative problem solving.

• It encourages long term, mutually profitable relationships.

• Each side asks more questions and explores alternatives, rather than taking up fixed positions.

 The usual outcome is “win-win”.

Today’s News: “Selling Through The Slump” is clearly the hot topic right now, for all the reasons we understand – and you will know that I have very strong opinions about the causes: But this is not a time for additional recrimination; it is a time to collaborate, co-operate, and work through it together.

Last week I co-presented with Jill Konrath and Kendra Lee for Landslide Technologies – if you missed it, you can still download it here - and last night, I listened in to The Customer Collective’s gig.

On December 9th, the Top Sales Experts  launch our inaugral “TSE Roundtable.”  

Presenters include: Leslie Buterin, Colleen Francis, Jill Konrath, Paul McCord, Keith Rosen and me – hosted by Maureen Blandford.

I think it is quite probably going to be THE definitive event on the subject so far.

It’s FREE to register, and everyone will receive a very special ebook: “Selling Successfully In A Downturn Economy” with contributions from all of us.

Registration will be limited to the first 1000 applicants, and we will open the doors for booking on December 2nd at 6pm GMT (12 noon Eastern)

More details, very soon.

Tomorrow: It’s that time of the week again – JF Uncut – for me it’s cathartic; for some, it’s time to be amused; for others, it’s time to be enlightened – whatever, just join me.

Find out how you can bring a kilo or two of heroin, some semtex, a few hand-grenades, some chemical weapons, in fact anything you like into the UK or Northern Europe, completely undetected.

No clandestine locations – simply sail pass Customs Officers, without challenge.

I’ll give you the complete lowdown – prepare to be amazed.

Ever since 9/11, and for a long time before this, the UK has been hopelessly exposed.

Negligence just does not describe it, and I am going to be very interested to see how the British government are going to explain this one away. 

Yep, it’s an exclusive! “The Gaping Hole In Britain’s Defences”

Most professionals have to make a presentation at some point during their carrer and some of us have to deliver them almost every week. However, the single most common reason why people present badly has nothing to do with the quality of their material or their knowledge of the subject, but rather, anxiety – fear of failure.

The first thing to remember is that anxiety or nerves means you are alive and without them your resulting presentation would be like you – dead!

What you need to do is learn to control your anxiety and use it to fuel your enthusiasm.

Identifying Fears:

To control your anxiety you must identify what it is that you are afraid of -

Is it forgetting your lines?

Is it the audience size?

Once you have established what exactly you are afraid of then establish whether or not you can control it.

Imagine you are the captain of an airliner; do you fear flying? Of course not, because you are in complete control of not only the aircraft but also, the crew and the passengers.

You have a flight plan and before you take off, you know the payload, weather conditions for the flight, arrival time, departure time etc. However, what is most significant, you are familiar with flying, you are comfortable with all of that responsibility, because you have flown so many times before and you know virtually everything there is to know about that aircraft.

Therein lies the secret; the more presentations we deliver, the more accomplished we become but equally, we must know what we are talking about, we must know our subject matter inside out, otherwise our audience will find us out

Let’s consider the areas that you can control:

Your audience – After all you invited them.

Your material – You designed it.

Your resources – You chose to utilise them.

Yourself – You’re no puppet.

If there are any areas you’ve identified that you can’t control, forget them – it’ll probably never happen.

Controlling nerves and reducing anxiety:

Organise – Give yourself plenty of time to prepare, know what is going to happen and when. Take the time to rehearse your presentation, preferably with someone you know well. Get them to pride you with objective and constructive criticism.

Visualise – Get into the habit of visualising how the presentation will go, that way the environment will feel familiar even if it’s your first time. Imagine the end of your presentation and your audience smiling with appreciation

Drying Up – Make bullet point notes on individual postcards to prompt you (not lengthy scripts) – you may not need them but they will give you that “comfort zone”. Do remember to number them though, just in case you accidentally shuffle them

Relaxation – Before your presentation take some time for yourself to relax, breathe deeply, go out into the fresh air and clear your head. Do not allow your mind to mentally rehearse the entire presentation, because you need simply to concentrate on your opening lines. Once you have successfully navigated your way through the first couple of minutes, you will begin to relax – a strong opening is crucial

Warming Up – Clear your throat, practise your smile, drink some water to ensure you are hydrated etc.

Dress appropriately and check your posture -If you look the part everyone will assume you know what you are talking about anyway!

Become mobile – It will keep your audience awake.

Use eye contact and smile – They can’t fail to pay attention.

And finally – practice, practice, practice!

Today’s News: It’s last chance saloon – you really do not want to miss this event! Just click on the banner below to register – It’s FREE

Tomorrow: Some really important announcements that you will not want to miss!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin

Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

Dependence on salespeople is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our salespeople are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have and that is precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them. This is particularly true now that in most market sectors competitive advantage is continually being eroded – i.e. International barriers are coming down, selling time is becoming limited, competitors are getting smarter, fewer and fewer names are appearing on companies’ databases, and product uniqueness is rare. Conversely, undeveloped personnel can bring down a company through inadequate performance, leaving the competition to harvest the marketplace.

If your organisation wants to permanently increase it’s sales results then it needs to approach sales differently to create “the difference that makes the difference” in order to positively impact bottom line performance.

In Summary:
Organisations and salespeople who have 100% commitment to doing whatever it takes to elevate their sales to a whole new level are the ones most likely to succeed. Trying to operate a sales organisation without total commitment is like trying to drive a car without fuel. But every organisation has the potential to harness the power of their salespeople just as surely as oxygen pumps life into the human body.

Today’s News: Is scant, due to the fact that I am with clients, but there will be lots on Monday.

Tomorrow: However, JF Uncut will be here tomorrow – ever heard of George Thorogood? “One Man’s Dream And Another Man’s Dream”

The JF Guest Author Spot

Leslie Buterin

Being mentally prepared for successful cold calling is like being prepared for a verbal game of table tennis.

The truth about whether or not you are ready to win the game becomes evident immediately with the first whack of the paddle. Either you keep that little white ball in play for a nice volley or the ball repeatedly slams toward you, by passes your paddle, and leaves you chasing the bouncing ball as the other player takes a snooze.

Same goes for cold calling.

Your state of mental readiness (or lack there of) becomes evident with the first word you speak. Either you are prepared for the verbal exchange with your prospect, keep the conversation progressing during your 90-seconds of phone time and “score” with an appointment or you hear “thanks but no thanks” and a click on the other end of the phone more often than you care to admit.

The most successful cold callers focus on cultivating thoughts that get them game-ready. These sales professionals fine-tune their abilities to keep prospecting conversations on track.

By way of brief example, one game-ready thought is the sales pro’s mental habit of following each of their prospect’s questions with a question of his own; another is in the sales pro’s ability to relentlessly redirect each of prospecting call toward scheduling an appointment.

For successful cold calls be sure to:

1. Mentally position yourself as equal to the decision makers you are calling.

2. Deliver the precise words that compel each prospect (and each executive assistant) to schedule a meeting with you.

3. Keep your 90-seconds of phone time with gatekeepers focused upon scheduling an appointment.

Like the game of Table Tennis, the cold call conversation has many, many volleys for which you, the successful sales pro, must be mentally prepared.

For your FREE mini-course “Jealously Guarded Secrets to Cold Calling Company Presidents” visit www.ColdCallingExecutives.com  Or call the office of Your Sales Coach for Extreme Profitability, author, speaker, Leslie Buterin (like butterin’ bread) at  (816)554-3674 9-3 CST (that’s Kansas City/Chicago Time).

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia, two good friends are in conversation:

Keith Rosen addresses when it makes sense to provide marketing collateral to a prospect and when (and why) it can kill your sales opportunity.  He suggests timing is everything and provides three situations where the use of marketing material can hurt the sale. He also tells you when it is ok, in fact desirable to pass along a brochure or additional material. Keith includes a segment on using email to prospect.

Just click on the banner as usual.

Tomorrow: To finish an incredibly hectic week, a timely tip to prompt you to stay focused in these difficult times – “Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop……….”

PS: have you downloaded your copy of the “JF’s Blogging Good Year – Volume 2″ yet? Just click on this banner: