Your Sharpenz 30 Second Sales Manager Tip: Encourage Solving Problems Last week there was an interesting read in The Marcus Buckingham Company Inside Strength newsletter about a problem solving technique.  It went in my, ‘this would be good to use one day’ mental file and low and behold, the next day it a committee meeting [...]

In 2003 Frederick Reichheld’s article, The One Number You Need to Grow, was published by the Harvard Business Review. Based on his research, the results of just one question are correlated to the future outcome of a company’s results.

How many benefit statements are in your sellers conversations? Listen to your sellers and I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard more Feature to Feature Statements than Feature To Benefit Statements.

Hang around Nancy Bleeke for any length of time and you’ll hear her say “I’m thinking like a winner!” and sure enough she’ll win something. She is always the high winner at her Bunko game or even at a ring toss and the football toss at the Fun Zone at the Orange Bowl when the rest of us were losers!

What if you went beyond the standard and elevate good customer contact experiences to a wow experience? Would you stand out from the competition? Would that show the customer you are interested in them? Would it make them feel they were important and they weren’t ‘just another customer’? What potential does that have to retain loyal customers, gain referrals and increase sales?

We’re all thinking about the upcoming year and getting off to a great start.  I have Goal Setting on my mind and can’t seem to stop writing about it!  I’ve learned, the more I say it aloud, and the more people I tell my goals to helps me with my commitment to the goals.  That’s [...]

I hope you are enjoying your second work day of 2011 with one goal…Success! Sales managers and sellers alike are already feeling the pressure to meet this year’s sales goals. I know how overwhelming setting goals can be since most of us have set goals and not always achieved all of them.  Even though we [...]

The holiday season isn’t the only thing on today’s sales managers and sellers minds. They are already thinking about 2011. How is it going to be different? And please, don’t let it be the same. Even if they made their sales quota, sellers often thrive on the adventure and excitement of the sales challenge.

Striving to be perfect is a wonderful thing, yet some sales professionals’ need for perfection ends up being a barrier to higher success for themselves and their company. Don’t let over-preparer syndrome cost you more than you gain.

Lately, we’ve seen salespeople become a bit paralyzed as they look at all the activities they could be doing to make more sales. Don’t let that ‘I’m overwhelmed’ feeling stop you. Instead of thinking you need to do 20 different things today, focus on the power of one.