Smart Management: The Inside Approach to Sales Productivity
In light of our unrelenting economic turmoil, companies are under enormous pressure to lower their cost of sales. Those with a direct face-to-face sales...
Smart Management: Tips for Managing Transitions
With every day, more corporate mergers, restructuring, and downsizings are occurring. I remember when executives used to strive for stability, but that doesn't often...
When Money is the Object, How Loyal are Your Customers?
In a down economy, price sensitivity can trump loyalty as customers are forced to reduce their spending. Nationwide surveys have reported a decline in...
Smart Management: Effective Business Networking
In all phases of my career, but particularly now as a business owner, networking has played a critical role in my ability to be...
Smart Management: Is Your Sales Strategy in Need of a Change?
Companies that successfully weather turbulent times typically don't allow their sales strategies to remain constant. They tweak, modify, or even do a major overhaul...
Reconfiguring Marketing’s Flat Funnel
The concept of "the funnel" is a sacred cow in marketing. The idea of leads progressing through a series of steps of escalating interaction...
Smart Management: Pre-Call Planning for Success
Every salesperson would like to have more appointments with more decision-makers. The reality is, these are relatively rare events—particularly with regard to the C-suite....
How Variable Pay Pays for Itself
Winning companies today are recognizing the power behind shifting sales performance goals away from purely volume-based targets. The new focus is on a blend...
The Golden Rules of Negotiation
What's the most effective way in today's economy to increase your margins, close more deals and improve your team's success rates without spending a...
Failure to Communicate: Learning to Talk to Customers
Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a failure to communicate. Traditionally, brands have spoken in a "monologue" form to consumers....
