By Mark I LaRosa on March 27th, 2009
With a company named QuotaCrush, you would think that my opinion is that salespeople and sales managers should be singularly focused on quota. In fact, that is completely counter to by entire belief system in terms of the best way to accelerate sales.
The strategies that QuotaCrush presents to its clients do in fact lead to more sales, but as you should notice in what is presented in this blog, the bottom line is about finding the right solution(s) for your prospects and your clients, and ultimately doing the right thing for them. Its when you do this, that reaching, and ultimately crushing your quota is possible. In fact, its by continuing to do the right thing that consistently crushing quota becomes possible because trust goes a long way. A goal of a salesperson should be that people buy from you because of who you are: that the fact that you are talking about this product and pitching it to me means that you believe in it – and I know you wouldn’t present junk to me. When you have that type of reputation preceeding you, then you have eliminated some of the largest obstacles in the sales process. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on March 10th, 2009
I shouldn’t be writing, and you shouldn’t be reading, this post.
Why? Its the end of the quarter, and if you are in sales, and if you are awake, you should be working on how to use the end of the quarter to get as many deals closed as possible.
This week is a key week to call all of your stalled deals and wake them up with an offer. This is the time to grab your April and May deals, and see about moving them into Q1. This is the week to make sure the deals that you are counting on for Q1 – actually happen.
Remember your “If I… will you”, and call each and every deal that needs movement and use the end of Q1 as an excuse to reach out to them. Not to pester them, but to reach out to each and every deal in your pipeline no matter how far out and touch them.
Some resistance from salespeople I have managed on this: Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on March 2nd, 2009
I’ve been asked by a few clients recently about the value (or lack thereof) of weekly pipeline calls. I think that this depends entirely on the way in which the meeting is conducted, and the intended purpose of the meeting.
When I started my first company, I had no formal sales training, so my sales were haphazard, my tracking was minimal, and my team was tiny. While we had ad-hoc meetings about different clients, there was no structured weekly meeting. Sales certainly got done, and the entire team was often involved, but we didn’t have anything formal – and in many ways this was how we wanted to work. It was a free form, make it happen approach.
As the team grew, and the team became more disperse, we instituted weekly pipeline calls to make sure that we all got on the phone at least once a week to discuss the challenges and the opportunities of the week prior, the week to come, and also to make sure we were all on target for quota. The calls were very productive, and became a team-building exercise. As each salesperson went through their deals, other salespeople would chime in and offer advice on how they handled a particular objection, or obstacle. The team would also share new points that would resonate as well as success stories that others could use in their prospecting and closing. Read more...
