When working for IBM, a long time IBMer served as my unofficial mentor. I could count on this person for sound advice and will always remember an important message; "Manage your reputation." Good stuff for sales management and for sales people. 

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Did you know there is a way to distribute your sales leads AND to track all sales efforts by your sales people, automatically? A way to track every sales lead and every sales person that is supposed to be selling your products? Not just for your direct sales, butyfor your sales channels, including your manufacturer's representatives, and distributors.

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I just won a 300k deal last week. I was last in and killed off the competitors. I did this cause I must win, and because I knew the low life competitors well. Last to the table may get scraps, this time around I cleaned up and had desert. First in is best, sometimes.

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Years ago, while playing professional football, I sold swimming pools in the offseason. I worked for Seahawk Pools, owned by a super guy, Bob Winnie. I learned the sales facts of life from Bob and the first lesson: 

I listened hard to Bob and this lesson registered. I went on to sell for Bob for many off seasons and I loved the job. I always salted all the prospects told me, knowing, buyers are liars. And why is this? 

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My technology sales career kicked off at IBM. Prior to IBM, I cut my teeth as a stock broker, gaining heavy duty sales habits, still valuable today. IBM thrilled me. All these wonderful solutions were available to struggling companies and to companies seeking to stay on top of their technology and the market. Yet, as I moved from prospect to prospect, and uncovered needs, sales resistance surprised me. 

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Number one, get a good list. Finding a list is not hard in the Internet age. Often, trade groups, associations, list members complete with numbers and contacts. If you list does not have contacts, just politely ask for the person needed. This works most of the time if you ask with a smile on your face and with professional courtesy. My goal is to intro my purpose and ask a question for feedback. Like this: 

Hi, I am Bill, I am with OSS, and we increase sales and profits with smart sales tools. Can you hear me OK? 

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I sell for a living. My first sales job paid commission only. Pay checks, if one earned one, came once per month. I ran scared each day banging the phones, prospecting my butt off. The daily goal 10 leads. 10 leads per day harvested from 300 plus calls per day. 50 leads per week put money in the bank. Casual Sales guys in the office, confident of sure success, dialled less, if at all. These stalwarts counted cash dripping in from current clients, or counted on a deck of leads, index cards back then, positioned next to the phone.

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Lose sales deals? Well I am an expert in this topic. My list of failures can feed a hungry horse because I have been in plenty of sales cycles over a lucrative, sometimes bumpy 20 year plus sales career.  I always ask 3 questions, win or lose and, sugget you do to:

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And a shudder shakes the computer; is this Sales Guy nuts. Yes this goes against all the sales smucks say. However, if you let your customers push around your sales cycles you will win less than 20% of the time. This win rate, like garlic repels vampires will repel big bucks all your sales career.

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And a shudder shakes the computer; is this Sales Guy nuts. Yes this goes against all the sales smucks say. However, if you let your customers push around your sales cycles you will win less than 20% of the time. This win rate, like garlic repels vampires will repel big bucks all your sales career.

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The late great football coach, Bill Walsh, scripted the first 20 plays of each game. The plays, diagrammed and planned, worked more often than not. This level of detail, unusual even in the NFL level, won several Super Bowls for the San Francisco Forty Niners.

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The freshness of the New Year fades as Q1 marches on. Top sales pros bang it hard to get 4x quota in qualified pipeline deals by end of Q1. Doing this, getting 4 times the quota bogy in opportunity, maximizes the odds of killing quota and making money. And for those that sell commodity items, 4x quota means this:

My quota is 2.5 million, 4x = 10 million in qualifed opty, in pipe, end of Q1.

Today, do what you need to do. Do what is most valuable to you every moment today to build pipeline. Go, Go, Go.

Top Sales Pro

Sales managers gripe about long sales cycles and sales guys point to
long sales cycles causing sales attainment misses. I had a sales
manager that told the sales team to find projects. And this is good
advice.

Prospects, like ice cream, come in 186 different
flavors. One type, fire hot, sizzles when called, just ready and raring
to go. And another prospect, icey voice answering his phone, needs to
defrost. It is important, for the selling organization, to read the thermometer and sell to the reading.

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Back in December, I worked a deal with a terrific motivation. The board dictated to the CEO and downward, to invest capital in growth initiatives. Sitting on cash, the company gained weak returns on capital based on low interest rate. The goal was fund strategic projects to lift top line growth and to beat the return on investment  paid by the low interest rates. This company, eye on the ball, is thriving and seeking faster growth. Read more about sales motivation>>

Sales Proposals -  The Sales Pro Method

Sales pros never submit a proposal willy nilly. And here is why. The sales proposal, considered a Sales Stage in the sales process, is a collaborative exercise with both prospect and sales pro inputs. Standard sales loser behavior is to spit out boiler plate proposals and warming the couch with satisfied butts waiting for signed copy to darken the mail box. Keep on waiting sales loser, but the pink slip will arrive sooner. 

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I listen in on sales calls w/ our client companies. The sales executive asks, "What is the next step?" for deals in the pipeline.

"Bob asked for a proposal." Often is the reply. And excitement vibrates through the sales con call. The prospect must be ready to buy because the sales stage is PROPOSAL. 

Hold on a minute. I am a professional salesman, scar covered, that has heard it before. Proposal stage is not bad, but is not money in the bank. What can happen here: 

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OnlineSalesSoftware helps small, medium, business tap into sales
lead gold with a new, unique, marketing report. This How to Guide, "How
to Get Sales Leads on a Shoestring," offers an approach to crafting a
marketing system for your business that works. The pay-off is a steady
stream of qualified leads that contact your business. This guide tells
you how to use magical informational marketing strategies to pull a
steady flow of Opt-in leads. This Free guide gives best lead generation
tips and tactics that can be used right away.

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Yes, sales is a series of repeatable, measurable steps. The sales
pro winds his way down the path from Prospecting to Winning the deal.
And many steps, like the cold call process, are repeated over and over.
But sometimes sales pros, standing deep in the woods, can not see the trees and
the lack of prey to be hunted. When the forest darkens and the sun is cloaked by ominous clouds, step back and make a change.

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