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Sales Management

The best salespeople have expensive hobbies

By on August 12th, 2009 in Compensation, Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
25 comments

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?

The best salespeople have expensive hobbies full post

(772 words, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)

Act now! Q1 is ending.

By on March 10th, 2009 in Sales Management, Sales Strategy
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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.

Act now! Q1 is ending. full post

(548 words, 1 image, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Weekly Pipeline Calls

By on March 2nd, 2009 in Sales Management
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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.

Weekly Pipeline Calls full post

(584 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

WSJ: Entrepreneurs Can Lead Us Out Of Crisis

By on February 24th, 2009 in Entrepreneurship, Sales Management, Sales Strategy
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There is a great article in the Wall Street Journal today on something that I’ve been arguing lately.  That the only way out of the financial crisis is through entrepreneurs.

Missing from this legislation [the stimulus bill] is anything more than token support for the long-proven source of most new jobs and new growth in America: entrepreneurs. These are the people who gave us everything — from Wal-Mart to iPhones, from microprocessors to Twitter — that is still strong in our economy. Without entrepreneurs, we will never get out of our current predicament.

WSJ: Entrepreneurs Can Lead Us Out Of Crisis full post

(366 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

The value of a rolodex

By on February 3rd, 2009 in Sales Management, Sales Strategy
12 comments

I find it amusing that the word “rolodex” is still in the lexicon.  I don’t know of any professional salesperson that I work with that still uses one of these devices.  Yet, they still sell these things!  Who is buying them?  Are there salespeople who store their most valuable information source on handwritten cards on their desk?

With Outlook, salesforce.com, pipelinedeals, highrise, or any of the other fantastic digital products that exist in managing and keeping on top of contacts, would anybody really still use a physical rolodex?  Rolodex has never released, to my knowledge, a successful digital product.

The value of a rolodex full post

(795 words, 1 image, estimated 3:11 mins reading time)

Easy to Buy = Easier to Sell

By on January 5th, 2009 in Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
5 comments

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.

Easy to Buy = Easier to Sell full post

(611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Pay on profit or revenue

By on January 2nd, 2009 in Compensation, Sales Management
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Its been too long since I’ve blogged.  Lots of good things going on with QuotaCrush, plus the holidays have kept me away, but I have several topics on which I want to write about and I am goign to be more diligent with sitting down to write. 

In the mean-time, an interesting question has come up recently with two different clients about what should be the basis for commission on which I thought I would write a mini-post.  Should you pay based on the amount of profit that the sales produces – or should you pay based on the amount of revenue that the project produces.

Pay on profit or revenue full post

(686 words, estimated 2:45 mins reading time)

Who to hire for my start-up? Gray hair or jeans

By on December 18th, 2008 in Compensation, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Start-ups
7 comments

In speaking to so many start-up entrepreneurs, I get the same question over and over again:  what type of sales person should I be hiring?

This is a very interesting dilemma for start-up companies as they begin to build their sales plan, and as they try their best to get to profitability.  You have a serious choice.  Do you hire someone who is experienced in sales or do you hire a junior, super-energetic salesperson.

Who to hire for my start-up? Gray hair or jeans full post

(860 words, estimated 3:26 mins reading time)

Start with the right sales relationship

By on December 17th, 2008 in Random Thought, Sales Management, Sales Strategy
7 comments

In the past two days, I’ve gotten a call from two of the banks that I do business with.  The first one, Chase, holds my home equity line, and I got a call from a woman who wanted to talk to me about my line.  The second bank is TD Bank and they hold my personal checking account and also my QuotaCrush business account.

What was interesting is that both banks were calling me with essentially the same exact pitch.  Both women that called me wanted to call to establish a “relationship” with me.  They wanted to let me know that they would be my “personal banker” and that I could call them with any questions and concerns and they would help me out.

Start with the right sales relationship full post

(947 words, estimated 3:47 mins reading time)

My Christmas Tie Mistake

By on December 10th, 2008 in Sales Management, Sales Strategy
5 comments

Mickey Christmas TieThis morning I had a sales meeting, and before I went I sent out a tweet that said “business casual sales meetings means I get to wear my really cool Christmas ties almost never… I think I’m going to wear them anyway…”

So… I go to my meeting, and the very first thing the man says to me is, “Interesting tie choice. I’m curious as to why you would wear that.  I think perhaps you didn’t think about whether wearing a Christmas tie would bother me.”  I was caught quite off-guard and for a moment thought perhaps he was following me on twitter and was making a joke about my morning comment – but alas he wasn’t.  He was truly upset at my tie choice.

My Christmas Tie Mistake full post

(466 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

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