By Mark LaRosa on April 21st, 2010 in Entrepreneurship, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
One of the nicest things about being in sales is getting to travel to interesting places that you probably wouldn’t go to normally. In my career, I’ve seen nearly the entire US and several countries. Last week, I got the opportunity to travel to Istanbul and it was an amazing experience. I am very intriqued by historic sites, and in particular the events that shaped the world we live in today, but actually planning a trip to Turkey wasn’t high on my list. My family would much rather travel to more relaxed and vacation sites that require less thinking. And… as a salesperson that travels, we are often at the mercy of where our families want to go when we do get fun travel. Read more...
By Mark LaRosa on April 7th, 2010 in Compensation, Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Start-ups
Sales is hard.
Anyone who has done sales in a start-up can attest to that fact. Great salespeople make it look easy – or at least hide the struggle well from non-salespeople. Once a great salesperson builds their pipeline, gets down their pitch and starts rolling with it, they can easily bring companies on the pipeline, and move them through, and can often do it with, what looks like, ease and finesse – and often with amazing predictability. Read more...
By Mark LaRosa on March 30th, 2010 in Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
The essential but horrible sounding named murder board. Every time I bring it up with a new person, I get confused stares – yet I think its an essential tool for both salespeople and entrepreneurs. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on December 10th, 2009 in Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
Up-selling, despite what some people believe, is not a sneaky or dishonest sales strategy. In fact is is an essential strategy for start-ups. I do, however, understand, how many people can see it this way.
At the bagel store near my house, a bagel costs $0.49. Yet, order that bagel with $0.03 worth of butter, and the bagel is suddenly $1.69. Why does the store do this? Because its great to advertise bagels that cost only $0.49, but who comes into the store and only orders 1 bagel with nothing on it? The upsell is the critical method of driving profit into the store. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on December 4th, 2009 in Compensation, Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Start-ups
Its worth repeating my post from last December about the December Sales Problem.
December is a hard sales month for companies for several reasons: The month is really only 2.5 weeks long before your prospects shut down. Budgets are often used up. Vacations make it hard to get deals done. Prospects are more focused on their Holiday party then they are on your solution, etc. The list is long, and very intuitive why its hard to get sales done. However, as I’ve posted before, December can actually be an amazing month for sales. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on October 9th, 2009 in Compensation, Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
You can draw sales lessons from everywhere in life. The reason for this is that most of sales is about the interaction of human beings with each other – about the acts of persuasion and communication. I write constantly about how everyday life teaches me valuable lessons about how to become a better salesperson and sales manager. First, I wrote about Sales Lessons in a chick flick. Then I wrote about Sales Lessons from my 7 year old. Then, sales lessons from my 2 year old. I also wrote recently about sales lessons from my colorblind brother. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on August 12th, 2009 in Compensation, Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
I gave my “Sales 101 for entrepreneurs” lecture to the entrepreneurs at DreamIT Ventures in Philadelphia last week. If you aren’t familiar with them, its a TechStars / Y-Combinator style incubator that helps launch great companies on a shoe-string. It does so by providing a great environment and access to top notch mentors and experienced VC’s and entrepreneurs. I was honored to be one of their speakers this year.
During my presentation, one of the entreprenuers asked me a great question: What should I look for when I’m hiring a sales candidate? Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on January 5th, 2009 in Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
This morning I went to buy a cup of coffee. This coffee shop charged $1.95 for a cup of coffee – after tax it was $2.11 per cup. I watched as the line built up and built up while the cashiers made change for each person that tried to buy a simple cup of coffee. I even saw people walking away because the line was getting too long. I wondered why this shop didn’t change the price just to make the act of buying a cup of coffee that much easier. There is a LOT of margin in a $2 cup of coffee – and by simply lowing the price (even a penny) they could have made buying the coffee that much easier and I would argue, made more money in the long run. Read more...
One of the nicest things about being in sales is getting to travel to interesting places that you probably wouldn’t go to normally. In my career, I’ve seen nearly the entire US and several countries. Last week, I got the opportunity to travel to Istanbul and it was an amazing experience. I am very intriqued by historic sites, and in particular the events that shaped the world we live in today, but actually planning a trip to Turkey wasn’t high on my list. My family would much rather travel to more relaxed and vacation sites that require less thinking. And… as a salesperson that travels, we are often at the mercy of where our families want to go when we do get fun travel. 