Marketers clearly influence consumers by delivering relevant messages and content and making the shopping experiences more personal to them. This personalization enhances the buying experience for a prospective customer, and as a result can also accelerate sales, improve conversion rates and increase revenues. Personalization offers the buyers a great shopping experience along with surging the sales figures of the sellers. Amazon, the e-commerce retail giant, was a pioneer in these efforts, creating very effective, personalized product recommendations beginning in early 2000. Research studies also support…Continue Reading “The Power of Personalized Product Recommendations” →

Hiring top sales talent is a crucial factor for building a successful sales team, and as a manager or VP, it can be tempting to rely solely on the sales chops each individual brings to the table to drive success. Unfortunately, though, as your team grows, this becomes less feasible. It might work to have a handful of sales reps doing their own thing. A team of 50 or even 100 sales reps, though, quickly becomes unruly and unmanageable without a solid structure in place….Continue Reading “How to Structure Your Sales Team for Maximum Return” →

Why do many successful sales reps fail at managing and motivating their sales team? Is the skill set required to be a sales manager significantly different? What are the common challenges faced by sales managers? Is it understanding the product, people, market, or do they fail in motivating and coaching their team to success? Companies frequently promote successful sales reps to management and often the resulting performance is lackluster. What does it take to be a sales manager and what are the secrets of a…Continue Reading “The Secret of a Successful Sales Manager” →

Although “prospects” and “leads” may be regarded as interchangeable terms, it is vital to note the new meaning when “qualified” is added beforehand. A qualified prospect offers a salesperson the greatest potential to land a potentially lucrative and sizeable deal, so the last thing a salesperson wants to do is waste time and energy with unqualified prospects. Looking at the stages of sales prospecting can help distinguish qualified prospects from leads. As you move through the sales prospecting process, you will notice that prospects are…Continue Reading “Call Them Leads, Call Them Prospects – But Are They Qualified?” →

How many articles have you read lately, that talk of closing more sales and if you have, you would admit they say almost the same. There’s certainly value in reading up on the latest cold calling, email, and networking techniques, but if you haven’t taken a look at your website lately, you’re missing out on a prime opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your industry and close more sales. Being an expert in your field makes the sales process easier. You have case…Continue Reading “How to Become an Expert in Your Industry (and close more sales)” →