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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
FEATURESTORY
Discussions at the start of a new year often turn to risk and reward. You reassess investments, consider career moves and, too often, decide to do nothing. We want you to shake things up with your sales team in 2008, and have found five unconventional strategies to get you started...
Looking for the Best Ideas? Ask for Their Worst! - Staff
You've brought the sales team together to brainstorm ways to develop new business, upsell to current customers, or tackle decreased productivity. How do you get started?...
If Customers Push, Push Them Back - Warren Greshes
Some salespeople become so desperate to close a deal they will do anything the prospect asks, reducing themselves to pitiful beggars rather than confident professionals. Three easy-to-implement rules can help to establish your salespeople as busy, no-nonsense professionals who command the respect of clients and prospects...
Turn A Competitor Into A Colleague - Kim Duke
If your salespeople hear the word "competitor" and think the sharks are circling for a kill, they have fallen into a common sales trap. Help them escape...
If Your Reps Can Stand the Heat, You Need A Hotter Kitchen - Todd Youngblood
Complacency is a dangerous thing. Not only that, it's sneaky, and comes at sales managers from almost everybody on the team. What's a sales manager to do? Turn up the heat and turn it up now. Do it in a simple, logical, straightforward way, but do it! Do it with measurement, reporting of relative rankings and knowledge sharing...
Finding The Inner Child - Tony Rubleski
Grownups complicate everything. Children keep things simple. In this age of advertising overload, where prospects have heard every sales pitch conceivable, your salespeople can
make their points — and make more sales — by reverting to their childlike ways...
PUBLISHER'SNOTE
The Biggest Risk Is Not Taking One **
Wit and wisdom from our Publisher, Mike Murrell...
SCRATCHPAD
You Are Where You Sit **
Which chair they select at meetings says a lot about your salespeople...
Determining Dwarf Type Is No Small Matter **
Why should managers care which of their team members posses Grumpy’s personality traits and which ones more resemble Sneezy? By assessing someone’s “Dwarf Type,” you can learn how to predict their behavior, especially in a group setting, says Sharon Livingston...
Tough Questions Should Be Cushioned **
Salespeople often need answers to sensitive questions to win business, but how they go about asking for it plays a big part in the ultimate outcome. Prefacing sensitive questions with “cushion phrases” is an effective means of creating a conversational tone and eliminating the risk of making the prospect feel pressured, says Anne Miller, a sales consultant who specializes in creating effective presentations...
Facts Won’t Do What You Want Them To **
Too many companies still train their salespeople to bombard their prospects with facts, figures, charts and graphs, says sales consultant Alvin Day. Instead of having your
salespeople run through bland statistics, teach them to focus on something that each individual prospect can relate to...
Simple Ideas, Straightforward Solutions **
Sales consultant Anne Miller has a way with words. Her book 365 Sales Tips for Winning Business is as insightful as it is succinct. Here are some examples...
Does Your Team Have A Flight Plan?
Many people think that having a clear goal and being positive and optimistic about accomplishing it is all they need to do to be happy and successful. Choosing your destination,
although vitally important, is just the starting point, says best-selling business author Brian Tracy in his new book, Flight Plan: The Real Secret of Success (Berrett-Koehler Publishers).
IMRADIRECTORY
Service and Selection…At a Discount! (459KB PDF document. Requires free Adobe Reader)
IMRA reps know which products are popular, understand budgets and objectives and can always quote the lowest “factory-direct” price available. This special IMRA directory is a
readymade source for your incentive efforts in the year ahead. Simply contact the manufacturers whose products you are interested in, and they will put you in touch with an IMRA service rep who can
provide full-service solutions for less than it would cost at retail...
XPILLUSTRATED
A Woman’s Touch (interactive web feature)
Women succeed using their own selling styles. Why not manage and reward them just as uniquely? Your incentives may be manlier that you realize as well. This feature provides a few ideas that are more in tune with the women on your team...
SALESU
Brilliant & Brief: 12 quotes, quips and clichés to stimulate the development of others **
12 quotes, quips and clichés designed to add value to your personal leadership development. Many are borrowed from some of my favorite authors, speakers and mentors. Some of these
might be fun to discuss at your next management meeting...
MEETINGS&INCENTIVETRAVEL
Green Keepers: How you host business golf events says a lot about your company **
A bad round of golf can be forgotten before you leave the course; blunders made while hosting a golf event are much more difficult to shake. A day on the golf course or a weekend
at a golf resort is a wonderful way to reward top performers or entertain key clients. Golf events, however, are rife with potential for the sort of embarrassing mistakes for which there are no
mulligans. These tips for every stage of hosting a golf event will help keep you in safe territory...
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INCENTIVEPRODUCTS
Product Review: Huff, Puff and… Vroom! (360KB PDF document. Requires free Adobe Reader)
Your best performers need to leave work behind and find time for fun. You can encourage them by offering these new sports and recreation items as rewards and incentives...
Incentive Alley (560KB PDF document. Requires free Adobe Reader)
Take advantage of these exclusive offers to SalesForceXP readers on merchandise, gift card and travel incentives from our advertisers...
COACHES'CORNER
7 Reasons Why Your Salespeople Get Lousy Referrals **
Referrals are touted as being the best prospecting tool in any salesperson’s toolbox, and studies have shown that salespeople who learn how to generate a large number of
high-quality referrals earn four to five times their industry average. Yet, the truth of the matter is few salespeople generate quality referrals...
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