SalesForceXP: November-December 2011

The Pitch

Looking Back and Forward

We've made a habit of addressing the topic of "what's next" with our last issue of each year to help readers frame what they should focus on in order to remain competitive in the coming year. It's more than a little ironic, however, that the concept of what lies ahead is the cover feature of this particular issue of SalesForceXP-the 54th and last issue under the SFXP brand.   [466-word article]

Cover Story

3 Social Media Reminders for 2012

Tips for Social Media in 2012  [395-word article]

Create More 1-on-1 Opportunities

Most managers embrace team meetings as an opportunity to share a plan with the group, dispense knowledge and maybe generate new ideas. That's fine to a point, but it's easy to drift beyond the usefulness of meeting time without realizing it.  [391-word article]

What's Next

Insights into the words "What's next".  [220-word article]

What's Next: Sales and Marketing Integration

Over the past three years, much attention has been paid to sales and marketing "alignment." That is, these two functions have worked toward mutually defining the ideal prospect profile, how leads are scored, when marketing should hand-off to sales, when sales should hand back to marketing, etc.   [520-word article]

What's Next: We're All Marketers Now

Engaging customers today requires commitment from the entire company-and a redefined marketing organization, say Tom French, Laura LaBerge and Paul Magill of business consultant McKinsey & Co. Customers no longer separate marketing from the product-it is the product.   [211-word article]

Closers

Smart Stuff Redux

Pertinent insights from past interviews.  [444-word article]

Incentive Products - Incentives & Recognition

Last-Minute Business Gifts

Incentive gifts for top performers and customers.  [489-word article]

Off Sites

Reward Travel is Back

Travel industry experts say managers are once again rewarding employees with incentive travel as corporate profits have started to rebound and the avalanche of bad publicity about employee-incentive travel has dissipated.  [311-word article]

The More the Merrier

If you help plan your company's incentive travel program, or even if you use an outside vendor to put one together, it's good to stay abreast of the trends in this area.  [510-word article]

The Leap: Moving Into Management

Following A Charismatic Leader

The death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs in October was met almost immediately by questions as to how newly anointed CEO Tim Cook could follow in the footsteps of such an insightful and charismatic leader.  [419-word article]

Turn Time-Wasters Into Moneymakers

I'm willing to bet that somewhere in the neighborhood of 95 percent of all weekly sales meetings are absolutely, positively, without doubt wastes of time, says Paul McCord, a sales trainer and leading consultant on prospecting and referral generation (mccordandassociates.com).  [500-word article]

The Sales Funnel - Quick-read insights for sales managers

6 tips for breaking out of a sales slump

Salespeople who have a poor start at the beginning of a year often find themselves struggling for the rest of the year to catch up. The good news is, whatever you're experiencing, we've all been there at least once. The bad news is, most of us don't know exactly how to snap out of a slump, and start making sales.  [793-word article]

Don't Get Snagged by the Miracle Worker Syndrome

Many sales managers "let their big dogs run" and focus their coaching and motivational efforts on poor performers. That's fine to a point, says Kevin Davis, President of TopLine Leadership (toplineleadership.com), but if you spend the bulk of your time with the bottom 20 percent of producers on your sales team, you are making a big mistake-and one that's not uncommon.   [589-word article]

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Sales Managers Make

Mistakes for Sales Managers to avoid  [284-word article]

The Power of 'You'

Succeeding in today's loud and crowded marketplace requires getting people's attention and instantly conveying that you understand their world. Using the word "you" and "your" helps you accomplish this.  [207-word article]

Top Performers

Top Performers

New incentive ideas from our advertisers  [917-word article]