Powering Your Sales Process with Internet Marketing

In the last five to seven years Internet Marketing has been a gold rush for some entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, technologies have rapidly evolved, making it hard for B2B sellers and marketers to follow them. Those B2B marketers who have tried Internet Marketing techniques (such as Read more

Need to Fix Low Sales Productivity?

Here are Three Root Causes Every Senior Executive Needs to Know

by Michael J. Webb

Improvement in sales productivity doesn’t grow on trees. Once you understand what is really involved, the causes of statements like these jumps out at you:

• Company President: “I really like the new sales process you helped us design. Now, I expect my Sales VP to implement it. After all, I pay him enough.”
• Director of Marketing: “I understand how the Voice of the Read more

Whose Problem is Sales Quality?

How do we make the people in the sales function realize that Quality is an important factor for them? Hello. It has been a couple of weeks since I posted anything. Fall is the busy season, and boy, are we busy! The question above Read more

One Small Step Can Change Your Life

The Kaizen Way

People generally get a lot more chances in life than they realize. Everyone struggles with challenges and problems. The trick is to see beyond the surface appearance to the huge opportunities that may be hidden underneath. Dr. Robert Maurer has written a Read more

Are You Ready to Lead Your Salespeople on a Lean Kaizen Journey?

The tough economy seems to be causing more companies to poke around their sales departments with 5S or other lean-style experiments. We’ve received more inquiries on the topic, and some threads have popped up in lean and process-oriented bulletin boards. Many of these inquiries come from in-house Read more

Don’t Wait Until Its Too Late To Fix Your Sales Process

During the historic rains in Georgia last week I was putting out buckets to catch water leaking from the ceiling around my family room fireplace. At the same time leaking water was ruining the carpet and drywall in two rooms of my basement. I was reminded of Read more

Why Is Sales Productivity So Hard to Improve?

Should sales productivity be improving in your company?

If it should be, then year over year you should be able to measure the increase in whatever Output / Input terms you chose:

Revenue Cost of sales (and marketing)

Quantity of orders Quantity of opportunities

Revenue Full-time Read more

How Should We Transition to a Proper Sales Process?

Often, people write me to ask for assistance launching sales process initiatives:

“I am trying to learn and introduce a Six Sigma Selling system into my company – My boss has asked me to speak to companies similar to ours who have made a successful transition …”

The first concern I have on hearing a request like this is “What, exactly, do they mean when they say ‘Six Sigma Selling System’?” Not many people use such terms. Many sales Read more

Help Sales Managers Put Out the Fires to Improve Results THIS Year

Chances are your sales managers are fighting more than one success-killing fire these days:

Undesirable Results Sales Managers Face

• Not enough highly qualified prospects
• Prospects gun-shy even when they need to buy
• Prospects who don’t perceive your value
• Inconsistent performance among salespeople
• Customers with unsatisfactory experience with your sales organization
• Not enough time in the field
• Difficult customers you wish you hadn’t won

What can you do to help them put Read more

Is a sales process the same as a sales methodology?

Susan Niemchak, Director of the Sales Training Community at TrainingIndustry.com asked me a question that seemed innocuous at first:

Is a “process” the same as a “methodology?”

“Loosely speaking, ‘process’ and ‘methodology’ are synonymous,” I answered. “Unfortunately, ‘loose lips sink ships,’ and may cause an occasional bar fight as well. Not to Read more