Are you tired of sob stories? I can bore you to tears by dragging you through my downer life experiences but to what aim? Is it not better to speak of what we can do, of and of what can be done to better our lives?

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.

Who is Lying in Sales Cycles?

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:

Buyers are Liars

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?

Sales teams come in all sizes; from a 5 person rep firm to an
enterprise team surpassing 100s of sales people. Ok for sales managers
with over 10 sales guys, how do you do it? Do you use sales management
tools? Is excel the tool? Do you have ability to roll up your sales
pipeline, your forecast? How accurate is your sales data?

Please add your comments.

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.

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, suggest
you do too:

Sales Pro Mindset Seeks No's not Yes's

Qualify all Sales Stages and all Prospect Touches

Sales pros find the buyer's motivation. Why are we here in this sales cycle? Is prospect seeking top line growth or to wash out fires? The sales process should be applied to the motivation.

Sales

Get deep into each sales opportunity. SWOT turns a bright lite onto your deals, touching, feeling, analyzing truth. The start of the year is prime time to kick this off. Each sales person applies the SWOT principles to each opportunity, one by one. Data is recorded in CRM or the sales management tool for all to see. The opportunity data, BANT for qualification, SWOT, and product information is visible for all. What is SWOT?

I am a professional sales person. I study the art of selling each day. I work to improve and to get better. And each day I speak to people whose actions are driven by a low opinion of salespeople and the sales process. I know this and have know this for a while. Yet I work hard to bring value to my prospects by listening and understanding their business and their needs. 

At trade shows I watch the booth people interact with visitors:

Pain is Good

Is this guy a masochist? 

Pain is good. Not mind numbing head ache pain or the glassy joints caused by arthritis. That is bad, but the punishing pain slowing down prospects performance. This is what I mean. Many years and many deals ago, I used to open meetings with a question: "Our company provides (elevator message,) and your company provides (products or services,) how can we help you?

Sales pains all over the market

Bet the prospect's buying process beats the salesman's selling process bloody.

Top sales pros beware before making the sales charge. Sales cycles can be pre wired for your competitor to win.

Sales cycles careen along a path, road signs blurred, results nefarious. Most do. What can be done?

When a new sales cycle bubbles up, the time is the perfect time to apply structure. Consider rules and boundaries which define how the sales cycle will roll out. The structure is built block by block by measurable steps. And each step, a two way decision is made, to go or to not.

Go or no go, hard for some salesmen, easy for pros. The win-ability is assessed with a glance, and the decision is made. Reasons to go or not go are massaged by answers to below:

Product Management in CRM

DataForceCRM Order Management is a powerful feature for those seeking a smoot opportunity to quotation process. The following is offered to clients that wish to use this:

CRM customers are adverse to investing in services. Software as a service suggests low user fees, and this is true. and we have found that most customers get higher CRM paybackwhen CRM roll-out includes consulting. The cost of consulting is paid back in better CRM set up and CRM training. User get up and running faster and companies receive higher payback. The payback is far higher than the cost of consulting.

A sales man that can bring in big deals from big enterprises will
never lack for work. The downs are good and the ups are better. Nothing
stops the top pro from killing deals. Losers whisper bad economy talk
and point fingers at all but themselves, while the sales pro works to
kill deals,  like the dark eyed, sniper crawls to frame the kill shot.

Manufacturers Representatives Manufacturer Tracking

Which Customers Own Which Lines? 

This is a basic yet important question to know. Manufacturers representatives sell many lines. Take a new customer of ours which sells lighting equipment, this firm carries over 50 lines. So the complexity of reporting and analysing data is an issue if the manufacturer representative does not have the right tools.